{"id":5847,"date":"2016-11-08T02:22:42","date_gmt":"2016-11-07T18:22:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/volunteering-path-success-2\/"},"modified":"2022-12-07T13:07:48","modified_gmt":"2022-12-07T05:07:48","slug":"volunteering-path-success-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/volunteering-path-success-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Volunteering on path to success"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bubbly second-year Speech Pathology student and Vice President of Curtin Volunteers! (CV!), Marcella Low, probably seems like an angel to some of the busy mothers around Perth. For the past 18 months, Marcella has organised a group of volunteers from CV! to head down to the local Mothers of Preschoolers (MOPS) program in South Perth, to run an activity program for young children, so their mothers can take a break from parenting and enjoy socialising together.<\/p>\n

The MOPS program is one of many volunteering projects Marcella is involved with through CV!, which recently coordinated the longstanding John Curtin Weekend (JCW), which involved 400 volunteers visiting 40 regional and metropolitan sites in Western Australia to work on local community projects. 2016 also marked the first year of JCW in Singapore, with 60 Curtin Singapore volunteers assisting with a coastal clean-up at East Coast Park. Another 260 volunteers from Curtin Sarawak \u00a0worked on projects at six rural communities in Malaysia.<\/p>\n

Marcella volunteered throughout her childhood so, when she started her Speech Pathology course at Curtin in 2016, taking up a role at CV! seemed a logical way to build on her volunteering experience, meet likeminded people and have some fun along the way.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving grown up doing a lot\u00a0of volunteering\u2026 I was keen to be involved in volunteering at Curtin as well. I love being able to give back to the community and to help different groups of people in ways that are relevant to them,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\"marcella-curtin-volunteers-cv-bunbury-solariscare\"
All hands on deck for painting duty.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

While volunteering is often viewed as someone contributing their time and skills to assist individuals or groups in need of a helping hand, Marcella believes volunteers also gain from the experience in ways they often don\u2019t anticipate.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe unexpected benefits I have observed are\u00a0the opportunities I have been given. When I first walked into the CV! office at the start of last year, I had no idea that I would be where I am today, or would have the experiences I\u2019ve been lucky enough to have had,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople often think that volunteering is all about giving \u2013 time, energy, resources \u2013 but there\u2019s so much that you get back in return as well. I\u2019ve learnt so much about different cultures, about how to communicate with people, how to cook the perfect sausage sizzle, how to manage a team, and these are all skills that will be useful, not just academically but beyond that in the working world, and in life.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"marcella-curtin-volunteers-cv-laverton\"
Marcella blowing bubbles at an event for children.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The development of professional skills, which Marcella will use in her career as a qualified speech pathologist, have been a particularly valuable benefit of her volunteering work, which has included working with educationally \u2018at risk\u2019 children and children from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. Liaising with other team members, who have different experiences and skills, but the same passions and goals, is similar to the experience of working within\u00a0a multi-disciplinary team of allied health professionals, something Marcella will do in her career\u00a0as a professional Speech Pathologist.<\/p>\n

\u201cI chose this course because I knew I wanted a career where I could be helping others and, since I love language and working with children, speech pathology was a fitting combination of these passions of mine,\u201d Marcella said.<\/p>\n

\"marcella-curtin-volunteers-cv-toodyay-show\"
Marcella and a fellow volunteer simulating a motorcycle accident at a community event in Toodyay.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cOn a professional scale, I have found that volunteering has helped me to hone skills that I would not have had the opportunity to learn otherwise\u2026 It was very interesting to be learning about\u00a0the way language develops in children while volunteering in MOPS, and to see the kids use the techniques and strategies we have been learning about in class.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLearning about different behaviour strategies, and ways of teaching in a supportive manner, also helped me in Homework Help, a program where we help school children from refugee backgrounds with their homework. Going on Remote and Indigenous trips has also made me more open and interested in applying for a rural placement in the future, with the potential to want to work rural after graduation as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"marcella-curtin-volunteers-cv-leadership-social\"
Marcella has met a likeminded group of friends through CV!.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On a personal level, Marcella has found that volunteering with CV! has helped her develop greater self-knowledge, and offered her the opportunity to join a vibrant and collaborative community while studying her undergraduate degree.<\/p>\n

\u201cI find that you learn things about yourself as you volunteer and interact with others, and that leads to a deeper sense of self-awareness, and a stronger sense of belonging and knowing what you stand for,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mums, joeys, Second-year Speech Pathology student and Vice President of Curtin Volunteers! (CV!) Marcella Low has devoted her time and skills to a<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4275,"featured_media":5848,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_oasis_is_in_workflow":0,"_oasis_original":0,"_oasis_task_priority":"","_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_research-areas":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"research-areas":[],"class_list":["post-5847","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus-and-global-community"],"acf":{"post_options":{"":null,"additional_content":{"title":"","content":"","image":false},"related_courses":[{"title":"Speech Pathology","qualification":"Bachelor of Science (Speech Pathology)","link":"http:\/\/courses.curtin.edu.au\/course_overview\/undergraduate\/speech-pathology","description":"","faculty":"Health Sciences"}],"credits":{"author":{"title":"Arianne Chavez","url":"#","target":""},"photographer":"","media":false},"display_author":true,"banner":{"image":false}}},"featured_image":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/marcella-curtin-volunteers-cv-1.jpg","author_meta":{"first_name":"Curtin","last_name":"University","display_name":"Curtin University"},"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-17 15:11:00","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5847","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4275"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5847"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5847\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5848"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5847"},{"taxonomy":"research-areas","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/research-areas?post=5847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}