Jon Roberts

I’ve been volunteering for the Thackray Museum of Medicine for a few months now, going in for odd days here and there and doing any jobs that turn up! I’ve shown visitors a trayful of mystery objects, a robot cat and jar of leeches, and chatted to the public about each of those things. 

I’ve also researched the history of eyes, shown families how to use microscopes, written about my favourite objects in the museum, and spent a fair amount of time cutting up, gluing and laminating various bits of paper for children’s activities. As you can tell, it’s a fantastically varied role, and every time I come by I end up doing something different!

Reasons to volunteer

I work in health sciences and the history of medicine, so I deal with health and medicine every day, but in a very detached, academic way. The museum lets me ground myself in the real world a bit more, witness health education in real time, and it allows me to explore ideas around medicine and its history in a much more relaxed, informal way.

And it’s fun! Every time I go, I get something different to do, which is such a nice change from PhD life, where you’re devoting nearly all your time to one single thing. I also really enjoy chatting to people and hearing what they make of the exhibits.

Beyond personal development

I feel very strongly that it’s important for us to do things which aren’t for our own benefit or personal development. I want to spend time doing things that just aren’t developing marketable skills.

I think volunteering at the museum has helped me get better at talking about medicine with the general public, and given me a better sense of how people outside the field think about health and medicine.

Broadening horizons

The volunteering experience has been good, but I do especially like the variety, and the change of scene and chance to get outside the University and talk to different people! 

It’s always exciting being in a museum as well, surrounded by the physicality of the things you spend so much time reading about. I mainly study disease eradication, so I was very excited to see smallpox vaccines with my own eyes!

Advice for future volunteers

We’re all short of time at the minute, so I would really recommend finding somewhere where you can volunteer as and when you have time rather than signing up to do a full part-time job for free.

I would also really recommend finding something that’s a bit different from your day-to-day, it’s really refreshing to leave uni work behind for half a day and focus on something else!

More information about volunteering

Read more student profiles about volunteering
Find out more about how to volunteer as a student at Leeds