I often get asked what kind of things I do as a student ambassador and what the application process was like so that’s today’s topic!
For the application process I remember filling out a form on the website and emailing it, I think it described what the different teams did and asked you to tell them which teams you were interested in and why. After sending my completed form (I selected Widening Participation and Outreach and the International team) I had an interview. It was more of a get to know you kind of interview with a few scenario questions and afterwards I had to write a mock blog post and email it. After doing that I heard back that I was accepted into the scheme and would be joining the international team (I’m planning on applying again this year to see if I can join Widening Participation and Outreach as well). The first task we had as ambassadors was training (which we got paid for!). There was a training session everyone had to attend, campus tour training and international training. Right after training and registering on unitemps we were able to start working immediately.
My only regular task is blogging here and helping respond to enquiries sent to the northamerica mailbox. Usually that takes me 1-2h a week, if I’m at the university I blog where everyone else in the international team works and if I’m not I blog wherever I am and email my hours. We have to log the hours for everything we do in sign up sheets and then submit a timesheet on unitemps in order to get paid (that’s submitted every week and payroll goes out to my bank account at the end of the month provided I submitted the timesheet before the 10th of the month or the end of the following month otherwise).
Most of the work I’ve done as a student ambassador hasn’t been on a regular weekly schedule. The first job I remember doing that wasn’t blogging was helping the admissions team call a list of students to get more people to attend applicant days. Overall that wasn’t as hard a job as I expected as I got a list with the students names and phone numbers and I just had to mark them as called with a summary of the call and I was given a script to follow. After that I worked on a vaccination program that took place a few days ago, my job was answering students’ questions, directing them to the right queue and nurse and then giving them water and biscuits after they got the vaccine (not all at once, there were several student ambassadors helping and we took turns to do each task). The next event I helped at was the open days which I blogged about recently, my task for those was just answering people’s questions and giving directions. The most recent tasks I’ve done have been helping answer the phone during clearing which I also blogged about recently and helping pack prospectuses for the international team.
The kind of work you do as a student ambassador varies a lot depending on what team you’re a part of (other than the two teams I already mentioned there’s also a UK/EU recruitment team and a marketing team) as well as what’s going on at the university. Another task international ambassadors often help with is campus tours for prospective international students and their families but this is not something I’ve personally helped with so far. Overall I think I’d rather have something to do regularly for more hours a week but the student ambassador role is great because I get to share my love for the university with others as well as my experiences so far, and I get to learn a lot more about what goes on at the university “behind the scenes” to create the student experience we receive and it’s also a job that doesn’t get in the way of my studies since I can fit it around my (very messy) timetable.
I hope this post helped you understand the student ambassador position more, if you have any questions feel free to ask!
