Guest blog by Jonni Price, RSPB Conwy Volunteer Learning Assistant Earlier this year I began my journey as the Volunteer Learning Assistant Intern at RSPB Conwy. My name is Jonni and originally from Manchester, I recently moved to north Wales having graduated from university with a bachelor’s degree in Wildlife Conservation & Ecology. I’ve always had a passion for wildlife and regularly go out walking and bird watching, therefore I immediately sought out a place near to my new home where I could be closer to nature. At Conwy, I found just that. Having graduated it was then time to take that challenging next step after leaving university, and I felt like I was getting nowhere fast. Working in a hotel, although necessary for income, isn’t where I wanted to be. I needed to be outside enjoying the outdoors. I applied for numerous jobs, but was repetitively unsuccessful and wondered how I would gather the experience each job needed. I then stumbled across the advertisement for the internship here at RSPB Conwy as a Learning Assistant, and figured that it could be the perfect stepping stone to advance from my studies towards a career that I wanted to develop - and even if it wasn’t, it would be 3 days a week where I could be doing something I enjoy.
Thankfully I received an interview and was successful and my spirits were high. Everyone has been very welcoming and helpful from the outset, and even after a few weeks I feel like I’m quickly becoming part of this huge family.
Images: Eleanor Bentall (rspb-images.com) Teaching and working with children was relatively new to me, and not a path I had necessarily considered I would follow until now. At first I was nervous and began by simply assisting the Learning Officer at RSPB Conwy. However I quickly gained confidence and realised I was a bit of a natural, teaching the children all about our amazing bugs and birds (probably because I’m a big kid at heart!) but most importantly I was enjoying it. That was the main thing for me. My role is providing me with brilliant experiences, especially now that I am teaching groups of up to 30 children at a time - allowing me to strengthen my C.V and personal knowledge. But it also means I get to spend 3 days a week outside at a wonderful place like RSPB Conwy, talking about, and showing, all the fabulous wildlife to the children - children whom I feel are growing up during a time when it is very easy to be disconnected from nature.
Other than teaching the children and becoming a professional pond-dipper, I have also been able to get involved with lots of other interesting projects including surveys, membership development, guided walks, camp-outs, trench-digging, event planning, a shop refurbishment, hide locking, kayaking and of course, lots of cake-eating. Considering I have only been here 3 months, I feel like I have done so much in a short space of time and I have thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it. So if you want to connect – or reconnect – with nature, help an amazing charity, gain invaluable knowledge, make friends and eat lots of cake, then volunteering with the RSPB is for you - you’ll love it!