Meet the Tutorfair Foundations 1,000th volunteer!

Meet the Tutorfair Foundation’s 1,000th volunteer! Last week the Tutorfair Foundation placed its 1,000th volunteer. What a remarkable thing! These 1,000 people have been a vastly talented and experienced group, coming from all walks of life and from all over the globe. They’ve all taken time out of their schedules, shared whatever they could with less advantaged students across the country and asked for nothing in return. Not all heroes wear capes! With such a huge number, it’s so easy to forget that each one of them has had a unique experience â€" all coming to us from different places and hoping for different things. To remedy this, we want to take a moment to introduce the world to our most recent fantastic volunteer â€" our 1,000th recruit, Janet. Tell us a little bit about you… “Hi, I'm originally from Liverpool but have lived in London area since I was a student. I have a BSc in maths and astrophysics and a Ph.D in astronomy. My thesis was on the evolution of supermassive black holes in galactic centres.” When you’re not thinking about supermassive black holes, what do you get up to? “I worked in IT for 25 years, final role was as project director for a successful outsourcing bid to run the IT and telecoms for a UK bank. I then took early retirement and have been spending my time since then volunteering in science education for a number of charities, coaching and playing badminton and monitoring butterflies and moths for nature organisations.” What do you do when you’re volunteering with the Foundation? “I’m tutoring in Oaklands School in Bethnal Green. I go in on a Wednesday afternoon to work with two small groups of Year 13 Physics students.” What made you decide to get involved? “I came across the Foundation after a Google search for volunteering opportunities. This particular opportunity fitted in well with other tutoring I am doing in central London. I spend a lot of time down in Devon now but come up to London each week during the winter months so finding several tutoring roles within the same timeframe is very time efficient for me and rewarding as well.” So you’ve done lots of tutoring in the past? “I have tutored both secondary and primary school students in central London in maths and physics for the past five years. I’ve also been tutoring online for the past couple of years.” What are you hoping to get out of your experience with the Foundation? “I want to feel that I have helped them in achieving their academic goals and see some hard evidence for this.” Finally, what do people need to know about volunteering with young people? “It’s very rewarding but it can be daunting initially. You need to be patient, particularly with younger students, and be prepared to do some preparation in advance of the tutoring sessions. This is particularly important if you’re working with older students, in order for them to get the most out of the sessions.” Want to get involved? Sign up today with the  Tutorfair foundation.