Meet the Coops

21/06/2022

Hi, Emma here! I am a second year student currently completing my Coop placement with the Community Liaison Office (CLO) in UL. The CLO is part of the Student Affairs Division and is responsible for establishing connections between the University and the community as well as presenting the President's Volunteer Award.

Having done my co-op in the PVA office I have learned an abundant number of new things. The PVA office uses Instagram, Twitter and Facebook to advertise various volunteering opportunities and promote different faculties within UL. What I enjoyed most was creating content such as posts/videos/infographics for our social media platforms.

Going into the office I learned so much more about volunteering and the incredible effects it has had on people’s lives. Not only have I seen students totally immerse themselves into something new and go completely out of their comfort zone, but they have come back to us to say how their confidence has grown and how awarding their work is. I was so unaware of how many amazing volunteer opportunities we have available for students and how easy it is for them to sign up. It’s great to see and hear about their experiences and has inspired me to want to volunteer in the future.

It was strange going from being a student who would normally have many questions myself to now be completing administration work in which students had queries for me. But I loved it, I really enjoyed emailing students and helping them with queries. Working in the office has provided me with invaluable experience in a variety of fields, including social media management, administration, and communication skills. It's been fantastic to gain skills that I can put on my CV and use to boost my LinkedIn profile. I believe that my placement has helped me gain skills that will be very useful to me in the future.

Emma