Charlotte Musgrove is a Stipend Ambassador in her first year of study.
I had the opportunity to be able to attend my first Ambassador Café event on 16 January on the Canterbury campus. I had unfortunately been unable to attend any last term due to my timetable so I was very much looking forward to being able to go!
I found it to be a very enjoyable afternoon and it was great to meet other ambassadors, many of whom I had never had the opportunity to talk to previously. We chatted about general university life and our courses, and then of course we got on to the subject of what we had done as an ambassador. It was great to be able to hear from other people what opportunities they had completed and it helped me to understand some of the different activities available and what was involved in each one. I spoke about the Lego League Day I worked in December, which the other ambassadors who I was talking to had not attended, and they were quite interested to find out more.
I shared my experiences and I hope this was helpful to people who had only recently joined or who had not been able to complete any work yet, because I remember how nervous I felt before my first opportunity. I found out some useful tips from other more experienced ambassadors (I am only in my first year) and it was good to hear from others about how they have completed their hours and to not stress too much (I am a Stipend Ambassador so have to complete a certain number of hours each year).
During this café event, we were also shown a presentation about the additional roles available within the ambassador scheme. This was informative and I personally will be looking into these roles. I encourage other ambassadors to take a look as well, to see if anything interests them.
I found it very helpful to see different staff members and be able to talk in person about these additional roles. Therefore, if you are interested in additional roles, I would encourage you to go and speak to a member of staff – I found out some useful information!
Overall, I enjoyed my first ambassador café and I would recommend that ambassadors come along because it was a great afternoon. I found talking to other ambassadors extremely helpful and enjoyable. In my opinion, the ambassador cafés are a great way to talk to other ambassadors and meet them before you go to various work opportunities. Often, there is only a short amount of time to talk to talk to other ambassadors when working, so being able to spend longer in a more informal environment means that its much easier to spark up a conversation!