Emily Kilmister

I am doing three volunteering roles across the University of Leeds. Firstly, for Leeds Sport I am a netball umpire. I have been doing this for the last two years and I umpire the social league. I do this around two to four hours every week and it has been a great experience to appreciate a sport I love from a different perspective. We all got training where we covered the rules and got a chance to practice as a group before taking the skills we learned to the social league games.

Secondly, I am a committee member for Leeds Marrow, one of the many amazing volunteering societies in Leeds University Union (LUU). Our main aim is to sign up as many people to the Anthony Nolan stem cell register as possible.

On top of this, in my role as Fundraising Co-ordinator I get to put on fundraising events such as pub quizzes, glitter stalls and bag packs (to name a few!) to raise vital funds to help save the lives of people with blood cancer. This is very flexible – some weeks I will just do an hour or so but in hero week (our biggest week of the year) I think I did around 22 hours! 

Finally, I am part of the Activities Executive within LUU as a volunteering rep. I am the voice of volunteering societies within meetings to help them share events, and generally try to be a friendly face that they can come to, so they can do their amazing work. 

I attend biweekly meetings where we mostly decide the distribution of the Activities Grant – a source of funding societies can apply for to facilitate their running. We also discuss key events and issues that affect societies in LUU such as planning the Riley Awards.

Volunteering for insight and impact

All the roles I do I absolutely love doing. A big part of the reason I do them is for enjoyment, but each role had its own reason I applied to it.

I initially applied to be a netball umpire as I love the sport and was excited by the idea of facilitating the running of a hugely popular social league for students. I wanted the opportunity to develop a greater understanding of the sport from a different perspective, while improving my decision making and confidence.

Every single person in a volunteering society is supporting incredible causes and doing amazing things.

I came across the Leeds Marrow stall at the Freshers’ Festival last year and decided to go along and give it a go. I loved the work of Leeds Marrow and Anthony Nolan straight away – knowing something so simple could save a person’s life, and I could help spread awareness and encourage people to sign up was a no brainer.

I had never actually heard of the Activities Executive before I got an email saying someone had nominated me for the role! Seeing I could help all the volunteering societies and have a big impact on clubs and societies in LUU was really exciting to me.

New skills and greater confidence

Volunteering has been a huge part of my time at Leeds, and I have genuinely loved every part of it. I am a much more confident and organised person since coming to uni and a lot of that is a result of the skills and experiences I have gained through volunteering at Leeds.

More specifically, by being a Netball umpire I have, most notably, improved my decision making and communication skills. Having to make fast on-your-feet decisions during a game, and clearly explaining the reasoning to players, was initially challenging but is something I have greatly improved over the two years. 

Public speaking is something I am now really confident doing.

Through Leeds Marrow my confidence has skyrocketed! I always used to consider myself quite a shy person, but I would now say the opposite. I have had experience speaking in front of large groups. I have done talks at society events as well as doing a presentation at a Leeds Marrow regional conference about successful fundraising events I have put on. Some of these would involve speaking to 15 anywhere up to 100 people.

Making connections

I have met the loveliest group of friends through Leeds Marrow – we have regular socials, and we all get on really well. 

The Activities Executive has given me the chance to meet a variety of amazingly passionate people I would have never met otherwise! There is a representative for every category of society in LUU, so we all have such widely different interests.

Hearing others speak about their passions and experiences is so inspiring and I have learned so much from all of them. I have organised fundraisers for Leeds Marrow and formed collaborations with societies I would never have thought to reach out to.

Challenges and rewards

I recently umpired a charity match for Leeds J-Soc. This was very different and a lot more intense than the social league that I normally umpire. There was a massive crowd, photographers and even someone filming the entire match. All the extra pressure as well as the noise made it very challenging. However, I put all my new skills and experience to use, and managed to help run a really successful event for an amazing charity.

For Leeds Marrow, we went to other universities within Leeds every day and signed as many new potential lifesavers up to the stem cell register as possible. We got over 100 sign ups in one week and although we were very tired, it was so rewarding, and we celebrated with a superhero-themed Otley (bar and pub) run!

Not only that, but we also held a couple of fundraisers, collaborating with Comic Soc to put on a film viewing as well as having our own cocktail in the Terrace Bar. Overall, a very successful and rewarding week! 

As part of the Activities Exec, we get a hand in organising and presenting the Riley Awards. I think the whole of celebrate week is going to be really fun and I am so excited to get to celebrate all the amazing clubs and societies as well as the amazing volunteers at the brand new volunteers thank you event.

Advice for future volunteers

Take every opportunity you can because you do not know where it will lead you! I nearly didn’t apply to be a netball umpire because I was worried I would not be good enough, but I got all the training I needed.

You can meet amazing people while doing amazing things. 

I won a Volunteer of the Month award as well as been nominated for the Gryphon Leadership Award last year for my efforts as an umpire, so I definitely did not need to be worried. Putting myself out of my comfort zone has been so important in my growth throughout uni!

More information about volunteering

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