Each year, the University’s Faculty of Social Sciences and Law runs a series of mentoring programmes which support both undergraduate and postgraduate students.
The programmes, which are run by the faculty’s Professional Liaison Network, benefit from the guidance of University of Bristol alumni, who volunteer as mentors. Last year was no exception and we’d like to say a huge thank you to the alumni who volunteered during the Autumn and Spring months to inspire and assist our students.
A huge number of students from schools throughout the faculty were supported through these mentoring schemes, including those studying Economics, Management, Education, Law and many more. Mentors on the programme brought expertise from a wide variety of organisations including the NHS, civil service and influential consulting firms and the students involved greatly appreciated the insight they provided.
Due to pandemic, this year the faculty’s mentoring schemes moved online, which meant that international mentors were able to get involved in the programme. Importantly this also meant that the scheme could continue to support students who may have been residing outside of Bristol due to travel restrictions and lockdowns. This year our mentors connected with students all over the world, including mentees in Nigeria, China, Pakistan and the USA.
Alex Barlow (Professional Liaison Administrator) from the Professional Services Liaison Network said: “It was brilliant to see our alumni and current students connecting in these events. The feedback from our mentees has been really positive and they especially enjoyed getting an invaluable insight into the world of work from our mentors. We’d like to say a huge thank you to everyone who got involved to support the programme.”
The Professional Liaison Network will be coordinating another series of mentoring events for students in the Faculty of Social Sciences and Law in the next academic year. In the meantime, we have plenty of other volunteering opportunities available – find out more at www.bristol.ac.uk/alumni/get-involved/volunteering-opportunities/.