Would you like to get more involved in your Western Community? Would you like to contribute to the London area? Volunteering can be the best way to learn more about your area of study, your community, and your campus. This website with provide you with a number of opportunities both on and around campus to help you gain volunteer experience that fits your schedule AND your area of study!
1.WPA Volunteer Committee
The responsibilities of the Volunteer Committee include staffing the Psychology Resource Centre with volunteers and assisting with the planning of the WPA events/fundraisers. The volunteer committee requires only as much time and effort as you are willing to commit. If you are interested in being a member of the volunteer committee, please email me at dviscon3@uwo.ca
2. Psychology Resource Centre Volunteers
The faculty of Psychology has a Psychology Resource Centre (PRC) located in room 3115 in the Social Science building. The PRC is accessible to all Psychology students and contains previous textbooks and grad school and volunteer resources. If you are looking to help your fellow peers by making yourself available for office hours in the PRC, please contact me (Deanna Visconti, see email above) and join our team in keeping the PRC running. This position requires a commitment of 1 hour a week consisting of organizing study groups with fellow peers, assisting peers with any questions they come to the PRC with, and keeping all textbooks and study area tidy in the PRC.
3. Volunteer Opportunities with Psychology Faculty Members
If you are considering continuing your psychology education beyond the undergraduate level, then research experience is extremely valuable. In the honors specialization module, students are required to do an honors thesis. Master’s programs also require a thesis. Gaining research experience prior to these can help you generate hypotheses for your own research, and ideas for methodology.
Unfortunately, most research assistant jobs are reserved for graduate students or for work-study students. Volunteering is the best way to get involved in research, and while you won’t receive monetary compensation for your time, you will gain valuable skills, and hopefully a letter of reference. To get an idea of what kind of research is being conducted, take a look at the faculty list at http://psychology.uwo.ca/faculty.htm.
Volunteering with a professor could lead to doing your own research under that professor for your own undergraduate thesis (all psych honors students complete a thesis in 4th year), or even to a job as a research assistant in the future.
4.Volunteer Opportunities in the Community
Volunteering in the community not only gives you a warm feeling inside knowing that you’re helping others, but it also gives you a competitive edge when applying to graduate programs. In fact, many counseling and clinical psychology programs demand this type of experience. The following is a list of organizations in the community that accept volunteers.
London & District Distress Centre:
http://www.londondistresscentre.com;
LDDC volunteers answer phones for the distress line and take calls from members of the community. Volunteers must complete several hours of training. They are asked to commit 16 hours a month for at least a year. Eight hours a month must be an overnight shift. This is a great opportunity for people considering clinical or counseling psychology.
Children’s Aid Society of London and Middlesex:
http://www.caslondon.on.ca
The CAS has a fairly rigorous application and interview process. This opportunity is particularly appealing to students considering social work as a career.
Alzheimer Society of London and Middlesex:
http://www.alzheimerlondon.ca/volunteer/index.html
Regional Mental Health Care:
http://www.sjhc.london.on.ca/mhl/programs/openingpagelondon1.htm
RMHC is the mental illness division of St. Joseph’s hospital.
