Giving up your time to volunteer can be incredibly rewarding, especially when it's helping someone out. Volunteering can also bring great rewards for your career, as it allows you to gain new skills for the workplace. You may also make a few friends along the way.
There's thousands of voluntary options out there and most of them can be slotted into your study schedule. You get to choose how many hours you work and what sort of work you do.
Volunteering England and TimeBank UK are just two of the organisations offering voluntary work for students. You can search through local, regional and national volunteering opportunities in several categories from environment and sports to health and mentoring.
Clubs and societies
If you want to volunteer closer to campus, you can join a club or society. Joining a club or society is a great way to make new friends and get out and about and make a real difference to your local community.
If you're a sporty type then uni is a great place. Whether you're competitive or just wanting to lose a few pounds, then sports clubs are definitely for you.
Societies are a great way to get together with students will similar interests. One of the biggest societies you will come across is RAG - Raising And Giving. It's a charity scheme and is well worth getting involved with. You'll feel all warm inside for doing so.
Your students' union
You can also get involved with activities run by your students' union, whether it be charity events of campaigns.
You could become a student journalist or stand for election.