Thalia Pelegrin

Student Led Volunteering Project Leader - 2019 - present

"My experience volunteering started in my first year when I decided this would be a good way to make friends and meet the type of people I want to hang out with. It was also a free opportunity to get out of the city for some fresh air and time in nature! It was a really fun experience and I’ve never regretted spending my weekends helping our community become better. I would encourage anyone to try volunteering with the SLV team because it’s simply a team of students who want you to have fun when giving back to our community! There is always the opportunity to go out for a pint after the day with people you’ve just met but immediately clicked with!

At the end of the year, I wanted to engage myself even more and when the opportunity to become one of the project leaders for SLV arose, I knew I had to apply. Now this year I am the project leader for the Dartmoor Zoo expedition and I love it! I get to bring students to the Zoo and get to see their faces light up when we walk around and see all the animals. Everyone is always motivated to help ameliorate the animal enclosures, and do anything the zookeepers put us up to, and it always ends up being an awesome day! What is also great about it, is that it is not time consuming so I can do this whilst working in my second year with no worries about missed deadlines or having to cancel plans, all I do is engage myself one day a month to basically have fun! I would definitely encourage anyone who wants to apply to just do it, there is nothing to lose, and you will get an unforgettable experience, whether you are a volunteer, or a project leader."