Selin Sun is currently undertaking a volunteer placement with us as part of her Arts Marketing Module at London Metropolitan University. We asked her to share her experience of volunteering in an arts organisation as part of Student Volunteering Week.
Volunteering as a student really allows you to understand what the world of work is like from how to communicate with your colleagues, to giving you an insight into what you want to do when you leave education. I am at a stage in my degree where I am fortunate to be given many opportunities that are helping me to discover where I want to focus my career.
During my second semester we were offered a choice between two modules, Marketing in the Arts and Directing. I chose marketing as it was something that appealed to me because I wanted to learn how to use social media to present a company to a large scale audience. When choosing marketing we were given the opportunity to apply to volunteer at Clean Break. I decided to go for it, because after reading about what Clean Break do as a company I felt it really fed into my ideas that everyone in society should be treated equally regardless of your gender, sexuality or past circumstances. The experience they provide to the members here becomes a life changing one and the outcomes Clean Break achieves are really empowering. I have felt that this is especially important now, during a year which has seen national movements such as #MeToo and the 100 year anniversary of suffrage, we are seeing women come closer together and standing as one, raising their voices to achieve equality in all shapes and forms.
Volunteering with the Clean Break marketing team has really opened my eyes to the efforts and strategies that are involved when working with technology. I am thankful that I have had the chance to work here as a volunteer because it has taught me skills I never thought I would learn such as scheduling social media posts and finding relevant content that not only supports the messages I want to put out but inspires the thoughts and opinions of others. During my time here I’ve learned things that I can take away with me to assist me for the rest of my module and in my career if I want to continue into marketing in the arts.
From an outside perspective I assumed social media was easy to manage but seeing how hard these women work and the amount of effort they put into every detail of this company has really opened my eyes. Because of everything I have done and everyone I have spoken to during my placement it has positively impacted me in a sense that I am more understanding of how theatre companies run and how dedicated everyone is to making the wheels of this machine turn.
“Volunteering is a great way to gain experience and skills for your future career, so we always welcome students who want to gain experience within an arts organisation. As well as the brilliant career benefits volunteering also has many other advantages like; making new friends, feeling valued and being part of a community.” - Samantha McNeil Clean Break Volunteer Coordinator
For more information on volunteering opportunities at Clean Break check our About Us page or email Samantha.mcneil@cleanbreak.org.uk.
