Released: 24.03.09

There’s more to being a student than watching daytime TV as UCP Marjon student Karen Turvey has recently shown.  Karen won a national award in recognition of her volunteering achievements at the National Student Volunteering Conference, held in Staffordshire. 

The award was created in memory of a passionate student volunteer, Matt Spencer, who sadly passed away in 2001.

The award, in partnership with Student Volunteering England and Matt Spencer’s parents aims to recognise and acknowledge the work Matt did as a student and the work students such as Karen still do today.  

Matt’s family have set up a fund in his memory to recognise the work of outstanding student volunteers. The fund intends to award one outstanding student each academic year with an award in the form of an inscribed tankard (Matt always enjoyed a drink or two), a cheque for £100 and a bottle of champagne.

There are over 42,000 student volunteers in Britain[1] and last year student volunteers gave 3,459,653 hours to their communities, contributing £42 million to the economy.  However it is not only local communities that are helped, students can benefit from volunteering too.

Volunteering experience can give graduates the edge in today’s competitive employment market. According to a survey by Timebank[2] 73% of employers said they would rather employ someone with voluntary experience than without.  A survey by YouGov for Edge also found 71% of employers would consider employees under 25 with poor exam results but lots of work related experience.[3]

Karen is known in the Plymouth community for staging many city-wide events, including community sports days, tea dances for elderly residents and her most recent campaign, “Sac it in” where city residents were encouraged to sack in their plastic carrier bags for a more sturdy bag.

Debbie McAllister, Student Volunteering and Employability Co-ordinator from UCP Marjon said “Our institution has benefited tremendously from the work Karen is doing.  Her constant enthusiasm and passion for the local community is infectious and we fully support all she does.”

[1] National Student Volunteering Survey,  2003
[2] Timebank Survey, 2007
[3] Edge, YouGov conducted research on their behalf across the UK into attitudes towards science learning in the classroom, 2005