Emily’s story

Emily first began meeting with her mentee Hannah in April 2024. Emily is a really proactive and compassionate mentor; they have fostered a lovely mentoring relationship and even have a secret handshake.

“I chose IntoUniversity because I liked the mix of support that they provide. You get plenty of organisations that do external academic support, and a lot of the time it’s for profit, and you get plenty of peer mentoring schemes in school or at university. I liked that IntoUniversity combines the two and the fact that it is for charity as well.

I most enjoy seeing the improvement in confidence in the young people that come here. During [mine and Hannah’s first few sessions], she would sometimes give up if she didn’t get a question right. But, I have now seen her work through things herself and have second, third, and fourth go at things which is really nice.

I would definitely recommend volunteering with IntoUniversity. If there is anyone thinking about working with children in the future and wanting to get a feel for what it’s like and how to communicate with students, I would say that [IntoUniversity] is the place to do it. Especially because the Mentoring programme is a mix of personal and academic support.

I volunteer because, it’s one thing to learn about all of the problems in the world in a classroom and it’s another thing to go out and actually do something about it, even if it is in a small corner of one city it can make a big difference.”