The Events, Recruitment and Marketing Coordinator is responsible for hosting the information events, visiting schools to deliver presentations on gap years and helping anyone who is thinking of applying to go on a Raleigh International Expedition.
What is your favorite travel memory?
My favourite travel memory has to be from my Raleigh Expedition to Tanzania. My favorite phase was by far the trek. It was something at the beginning that I was so nervous about. I am not a trekker, but I loved the opportunity to see so much of Iringa, while meeting new communities everywhere we went. I did get quite bad blisters on trek but my team really helped me. We really worked together and I remember at one point they took everything out of my bag so that I didn't have to carry any weight. I was so thankful to them for that.
In order to get to our trek route, we had to travel through a national park. As soon as we entered the park, we saw elephants, giraffes and zebras! It was amazing to see the animals in the natural habitat and something I will remember forever. We had guides with us on our trek who were amazing. They were pointing out weird and wonderful things that we otherwise wouldn't have even looked twice at.
Overall, trek really helped me develop as a person and it is something that has changed my life.
How have you changed/grown since working for your current company?
I have definitely grown since working for Raleigh International. Before my job here, I had some experience of public speaking, but I had probably never delivered a presentation to more than 50 people.
At Raleigh, this is something I do on a weekly basis to groups as big as 200. It has helped my confidence grow massively and each time I can feel myself growing even better.
What is the best story you've heard from a return student?
The best story I have heard from a returning student was from one of our Dutch volunteers. She went to Tanzania and had an incredible time and had an amazing bond with her home stay family. They welcomed her in with open arms. The following year after Expedition, she independently travelled back to Tanzania to visit her home stay family again.
She told me that Raleigh has changed her life, and going forward she wants a career focused in sustainable development. What an amazing thing to come out of a 10 week Expedition.
If you could go on any program that your company offers, which one would you choose and why?
I have already been on a Raleigh International Expedition to Tanzania before I worked for them. I had such an incredible time that it lead me to apply for this job so I can share my experiences with as many people as possible.
If I was to go on another Expedition, I would chose Costa Rica. The opportunity to work right in the heart of the national parks would be a once in a lifetime opportunity. I'd also really love the opportunity to speak with the communities members about organic composting, including how they can make their own organic composting patch at home.
What makes your company unique? When were you especially proud of your team?
Being a part of Raleigh International is being a part of a family.
Because we have been running our Expeditions for 35 years, we know what we're doing and safety is still to this day at the heart of everything we do.
When our volunteers go on an Raleigh Expedition, they're living right in the hearts of the communities. They also get the opportunity to visit incredible parts of the countries that we work in that aren't accessible to tourists.
We offer a number of different projects to our volunteers, including community, environment and adventure. The community and environment focus very much on the sustainability of the countries that we work in, and then there's our adventure project. This is all about the volunteers personal development. They will work in a team navigating their way across stunning landscapes. They will also get the opportunity to be the leader of the group for a day. They will decide things such as how far they plan to walk, where it is they want to set up camp and once they have arrived, who's doing which jobs. Who will be cooking that evening, collecting the water, putting the tents up etc. There is a lot more to trek than just trekking.
Another thing that makes a Raleigh Expedition unique is that it is available for people all over the world. As an international organisation, we have volunteers come from the UK and we have volunteers come from each country that we work in. We also have volunteers from the US, The Netherlands, Germany and Australia, to name a few. It is an incredibly international programme.
What do you believe to be the biggest factor in being a successful company?
Safety. As I previously mentioned, safety is at the heart of everything we do. Volunteers go on our Expeditions knowing that they will be safe and will have an amazing experience.
I also think that offering a variety of lengths for our Expeditions is a great factor. Sometime volunteers want just a couple of weeks away during the summer months and we can provide them with that. I personally would always recommend going for 10 weeks if they can. Then they have the opportunity to get involved in everything.
What's great about Expedition as well is that the volunteer have the opportunity to travel before and after our programs too. Most often, they will do it after; they will make such incredibly friendships on Expedition that they will spend their time after Expedition visiting neighboring countries with each other, creating even more memories.
