Summer Volunteer Work at NEYDC

NEYEDC is always keen to provide opportunities for people wishing to pursue a career in ecology, whether that’s in the form of volunteer support for those changing career, formal university internships or work experience and this summer was no exception.  Grace has been our youngest volunteer to date, having just completed her GCSE’s she contacted us offering to volunteer throughout her longer than usual summer break.

Grace has been an asset to NEYEDC, from helping with those tasks that we never seem to get round to doing to learning how to validate and check species datasets we have been sent in – a core aspect of LERC work!  It was lovely to be able to give Grace the opportunity to come out on a nearby field visit and collect some of her own biological records and finish her time with us by supporting the recording effort at our recent Wildlife Recording Day in Hayton, East Yorkshire.

We wish Grace every success in her A-levels and beyond and hope that she has fond memories of her summer volunteering with NEYEDC.  Below Grace has written in her own words her experience of volunteering with us.

My Summer Volunteer Work at NEYDC

Over the past few weeks of my summer holiday, I have been conducting volunteer work with NEYEDC. I had an interest in ecology as a potential work opportunity and wanted to experience a work-like environment, which NEYEDC helped me achieve. Mark Wills and Clare Langrick kindly helped to sort a placement for me by planning a whole schedule for every week of my work, making sure I learned every valuable skill I needed and making the process of integrating myself into the workload as swift as possible.

During my time there, every day varied in what jobs I would be doing, and new things were learnt every day. Primarily, I learnt how to organise and construct data in a spreadsheet, categorising shelves of ecology books around the office, learning how to use GIS software to make maps using existing data and create maps from my own dataset (which has also helped to prepare me for my future A level Geography course) and conducting fieldwork. They generously let me involve myself in a field visit to Nunburnholme Meadow to take pictures of local plant and animal species to collect species data, allowing me to feel a part of the work and place myself into the experience of what a real day’s work looks like. Instead of feeling like an observer on the sidelines, I felt like I was developing further physical ecological field skills and giving a nice break to the dominantly desk-based role I played. I also learnt many new species names and facts alongside my work throughout the field day, helping me feel even more knowledgeable and confident.

Overall, this volunteer work has helped teach me long term skills of working alongside a team, how to manage a workload and preparing me for the reality of an office based and physical outdoors job simultaneously. It has helped me narrow down my goals to more clearly see what kind of work I would be interested in in the future and specific sections of the job that I could specialise in, helping me feel less stressed of the uncertainty of my future. Despite still feeling curious of what kind of work the world has to offer, I now feel more secure knowing that I have abilities expected in work life and that I have many more options ahead of me.