Students who volunteer their time to help the local community, in addition to studying for their degree, are doing something really special.
All volunteers are appreciated by those who benefit from their efforts, but the Volunteer of the Month award gives an extra opportunity to celebrate their achievements.
Nominate an individual or group for Volunteer of the Month by the 20th of each month. Winners receive a certificate as well as a University of Bath Keep Cup.
Consider nominating a volunteer in any of the following roles:
- A student volunteer who has gone above and beyond in their volunteering
- An individual Volunteer Group committee member from the 6 Volunteering Groups, or even the groups as a whole
- A student who does volunteering as part of their Scholarship
Nominations can come from any university staff or students who wish to recognise excellent achievement and/or commitment in the Volunteering. Volunteers can also nominate themselves.
To make a nomination please fill in the form including the full name of the volunteer as well as a brief description explaining why they have been nominated.
Our Volunteers of the Month for 2023-24
March 2024 - Robin Chan
Robin is the Project Leader for V Nature and has done an incredible amount of gardening work both on campus and in many parks and wildlife spots around the city of Bath. Robin brings a huge amount of enthusiasm to V Nature and the regular events that are run. V Nature often collaborates with charities and local groups such as Your Park to deliver amazing benefits to green spaces. If you'd like to get outside and get invovled in a gardening project V Nature's events are regularly featured on the SU's Volunteering Opportunities page.
February 2024 - Sonya Madan
Sonya led V Kind activity during Student Volunteering Week, setting up a giant Kindness Chalkboard in the SU for students to add messages of kindness, support and positivity throughout the week. It had a heartwarming effect on the student community and acted as a reminder that giving to others is great for your wellbeing.
January 2024 - Charlie Wilson
Charlie is a Project Leader for V Repair, who work with local charity Share & Repair to deliver Repair Cafes on campus for the benefit of all students and staff. Skilled volunteers mend clothing, electrical items and more, promoting a sustainable lifestyle and supporting students with the cost of living.
Charlie has been instrumental in the setting up and running of Repair Cafes this academic year and was nominated for the first successful Repair Cafe in November 2023. For upcoming dates, see Repair Cafe (thesubath.com)
December 2023 - Rohit Kommanahally and Dhiraj Sahijwani
Rohit Kommanahally and Dhiraj Sahijwani organised Santa Dash 2023, an annual 5k winter run which raises money for the RAG (Raise & Give) Big 4 charities. In the lead up to the event Rohit and Dhiraj set up the logistics of the day, recruited volunteer marshals, and communicated the event for runners to sign up. They were nominated by a fellow student for their hard work including some last minute adjustments for the beautiful but very cold weather. All the runners really enjoyed the event which raised over £300 for RAG, which goes to benefit the Big 4 charities voted for by students for this academic year.
November 2023 - Poetica Wang
Poetica has been a member of STAR (Student Action for Refugees) since her second year at the University of Bath. As November's Volunteer of the Month she is being recognised for her overall contribution to STAR over this time, as well as for her organisation of the Bath STAR and BUGS fundraising walk-a-thon. A collaboration which raised £185 for the charity Young Roots. STAR aims to support all refugees and asylum seekers in the local community through volunteering, fundraising, and campaigning on surrounding issues. They are part of the STAR network, a national charity made up of over 50 university groups.
October 2023 - Sofia Onate Fernandez
Sofia leads the volunteer campaign group V Aware which works with FearFree, a charity supporting victims of domestic abuse. During Be Well Week she shared information on the V Team Instagram account about signs of physical and emotional abuse, standing up to negative behaviours, healthy relationships and how to get support.
September 2023 - The RAG (Raise & Give) Committee
Anupriya Anshul Nagar Nagar, Aanvi Seksaria, Khushi Sikand and Sanika Saraf were the early committee members of RAG (Raise & Give) and began planning activity for the 2023-24 academic year since summer 2023, kickstarting with Cereal Dating and the Halloween night Zombie Apocalypse, followed by Fireworks on the Rec for Bonfire Night. They have since been joined by three more committee members - Yash Singh, Prisha Jain and Trisha Kulkarni - and will all be planning and running events throughout the year.
Volunteers of the Month 2022-23
May 2023 - Jessica Oliveira Miranda
Jess has been actively involved in student volunteering throughout her time at University and had contributed a huge amount through her role of chair of the biggest group - V Team. She has gone above and beyond to help get projects off the ground, support the incoming committee, and ensure a wide variety of student volunteering projects throughout the year. We're delighted Jess has received the final Volunteer of the Month award for the 2022-23 academic year.
April 2023 - Jagriti Jalan and Dhruv Mondkar
Both Dhruv and Jagriti have been active members of V Clean, a student volunteering project which regularly runs litter picks and this year also ran a trip to Weston Super Mare to do a Beach Clean. Both have been dedicated and proactive in keeping communities clean and safe for local people and wildlife.
In addition, Dhruv has given a lot of support to STAR, a student-led volunteering group supporting refugees. In April STAR ran a Lift the Ban campain in Bath city, raising awareness amongst local businesses of the right to work for people seeking asylum in the UK.
March 2023 - Victoria Hancock
Victoria has been an active member of V Collect, part of V Team, and regularly teams up with Campus Services to collect donations for those in need. Nominee Emma Cockle, Sustainability Coordinator, said "Victoria is really committed to supporting Bath food bank collections and has created some wonderful sustainable decorations to decorate the trollies across campus."
February 2023 - Aimee Daniel
V Team Chair Jess Olivera Miranda nomininated Aimee, saying “Aimee has put in lots of work for V Nature, constantly committing to all of the events that happen, making sure volunteers are comfortable and well supported. She is constantly in contact with BANES council to try and get more events happening so that our volunteers have more events to do too. I truly believe she goes above and beyond for V Nature as a project leader and deserves this recognition!”
January 2023 - Aanya Muranjan and Eleanor Carpenter
Aanya and Eleanor supported the University's Cosy Wednesdays activity at Dartmouth, where older local residents were invited to join students for a free lunch, hot drinks, and optional activities this winter. Nominee Josh Hale described them as “outstanding with their support for Cosy Wednesdays”, saying they were both really proactive and incredibly helpful adding “although all volunteers have been great the dedication and work that Aanya and Eleanor have put in has been above and beyond.”
December 2022 - Gina Nkwah
Gina has been working to raise awareness of domestic abuse and was nominated by staff member Liz Simmons who said “Gina has done an amazing job implementing a 16 day long campaign to raise awareness of domestic abuse with students. She worked professionally with the SU volunteering team and charity Fearless to produce an impactful campaign.”
November 2022 - Rosie Barrett and Ciara Sherlock
Rosie and Ciara are joint Project Leaders of V Code, a student-led volunteering group which works in collaboration with Mighty Girls to support girls to consider a career in tech and STEM subjects. Rosie and Ciara were nominated by V Team Chair Jess Miranda who said they have done a lot of work to get the project up and running for a launch in February 2023.
October 2022 - Hannah King
Hannah volunteered as the Events Lead for the Bath Half Marathon for RAG (Raise & Give), coordinating runners for each of RAG's Big 4 Charities and ensuring the smooth running of both the preparations of the day, and the race day itself. Hannah was nominated by RAG Chair Beth Burnett.