KEEN FOR KEEN!
As a new term starts, Secretary Sara dwells on her time with KEEN so far.
Before coming to university I volunteered with Barnardos where I helped run after school sessions for primary aged children. I love working with kids so the 2 years I spent there was incredibly fulfilling and allowed me to learn a lot about learning difficulties and a range of disabilities that our children had. It was evident that these sessions were important to both the children and parents, so being a part of something that made even the slightest difference was a real privilege.
Whilst at university you have an amazing opportunity to further your interests, skill sets and to really grow as a person. Which is why I knew I wanted to further my volunteer work here at York. As soon as I found out about KEEN and met with the old committee I could already tell this was something I had to be a part of and with the experience I had I was excited to be able to apply my skills and further my experience.
My very first time volunteering at KEEN got me hooked! So much so I became Secretary and I get to work alongside an amazing set of people who share committee roles as well.
As Secretary, I am responsible for administration and the managing of all our volunteers, meaning I make sure that everyone has completed their safeguarding course and has a valid DBS certificate. I also organise other training sessions to further our volunteers' skill- sets. If you ever have a question KEEN related I’ll make sure it's answered!
We have a lot coming up this year to make KEEN even better and I can’t wait to work with the rest of the committee to be a part of it and see it grow. I hope our new volunteers, parents and of course children are as excited as we are!
Seeing the children enjoy themselves every week is a constant reminder of why I love working with children and especially at KEEN, we put in a lot of work to make each session even more exciting as the last and in return the love we get from the children makes it all worthwhile.
Out of the many things I have been a part of at York I can definitely say that being apart of KEEN is something I am very proud of.