Being a student ambassador is one of many brilliant opportunities to represent Bournemouth University. Wearing that bright pink hoodie around campus could also give you a #BUproud feeling :)
Every September, student ambassador roles will be open for applications and some information evenings will be held to further explain about the roles and benefits. Students who are shortlisted will be invited to attend a required interview or training sessions depending on the roles. Last year, only 250 students from the whopping 750+ applicants were shortlisted.
The main responsibilities for student ambassador includes attending open days, leading campus tours, representing student's faculty/course/subject area, creating workshops and activities which reflects Higher Education (HE) learning based on subject area, showcasing the best of BU and also to share personal experiences of benefiting HE. There are also additional responsibilities according to each specialist role that students can apply for. BU also appreciate the importance of student-generated-contents from current fellow students, so those who are passionate in blogging and vlogging can also work for the Marketing & Communications team to be a student blogger/vlogger/The Student Room representative. International students could also contribute an important role to create beneficial engagement with prospective students from their country of origin via social media (including in-country channels such as Weibo in China, VK in Russia or Path in Indonesia) or to participate in other form of projects and campaigns to reach international audiences.
The job distribution is on first-come first-serve basis, so those who reply to the offer fastest will get the job until the required amount of student ambassadors is filled. BU uses student temp to distribute the job offers and to filter students based on their availability. This is great because students can manage the balance of their academic priority and the additional work they would like to do on their spare time. Students can choose the specific dates and times they are available to work, thus the university won't send any job offer to those who mark unavailable on their calendar.
I didn't have chance to participate in too many occasions apart from Open Days and some other recruitment events during my first year at uni because of my busy schedule attending lectures & workshops, plus a big amount of time I had to spend in the library working on my assignments. So I decided to continue my contract as a student ambassador for the new academic year. On my second year, I was involved in many new ambassador opportunities such as being a DLHE (Destination of Leavers from Higher Education) call centre agent, international students online-consultant, Virtual Open Day officer, and many other interesting roles. I personally love assisting in Open Days as I could share my positive experience studying MSc Tourism Management & Marketing and all the perks I got from choosing BU as a place to study. Apart from explaining about the campus facilities, units I'm currently studying, the placement opportunity or the career path I could choose in the future, I found myself excited in promoting Bournemouth as a great place to live. In this case, they may hear the words 'beach' and 'warmer' being mentioned pretty often :) All of these experiences helped me in developing my communication & organisational skills, as well as teamwork and leadership skills. I feel very positive knowing that I have been utilising my spare time not only by doing something I really love but also earning money doing so!
Let me know if you have any question about being a student ambassador and hopefully I can help you with some useful information and tips!
