Ambassador Reflections: Molly Cooper

Student Ambassador, Molly Cooper, shares some insights on what she has learnt as an Ambassador

The Ambassador Scheme has helped my communication skills in innumerable ways. In classrooms, I have been able to interact with all ages from year 7s to year 13s, engaging in unique conversations. This has not only allowed me to find out about different viewpoints of university but has also helped me when communicating with different ages. Finding out what different age groups are interested or disinterested in, has allowed me to tailor my responses within the classroom to suit this. This skill of changing content to suit different people can possibly help me in my future career, being able to communicate in different styles will allow me to tailor my responses to possible interviewers, or clients (depending on which sector of work I go into).

Along with this, ambassador opportunities have allowed me to improve my public speaking skills. Not having to necessarily engaged in public speaking much before in my life, I did not think much about how often I would need to do this in my future. Being an ambassador has meant that I have gained skills and confidence in public speaking, by standing in front of classrooms assisting lead ambassadors and sharing my experiences of university. Now I am able to stand in front of a classroom of strangers of various ages and backgrounds and confidently communicate my experiences to them; this will be helpful throughout my life.  Even within some one-to-one reading opportunities I have taken part in, I have been challenged in my ability to be able to read from an unknown text and this has allowed me to build this skill as well!

Even during the pandemic, the ambassador scheme has helped build my skills of communication. Zoom and MS Teams meetings where you are faced with only a screen of initials can be quite daunting so doing ambassador opportunities via this has helped my confidence in speaking over video call. This is beneficial because during the times of the pandemic everything is uncertain and I may use these skills for potential employers; and knowing how to use MS Teams and Zoom well, thanks to the ambassador scheme, is also extremely helpful! Not only that, but without being able to physically be in classrooms, it is difficult to detect the atmosphere of a class over video, therefore it makes it more challenging in knowing how well the information is being absorbed. Being faced with this, has allowed me to learn to adapt to different environments without physical cues in order to support lead ambassadors.

Being a student ambassador has allowed me to work on my inter-personal levels of communication, along with public communication. During the pandemic it has similarly helped my technological communication skills, helping me build more skills I will need in my future.