Former 25th Young Leader and Network member Alice Mintoff tell us about her University Adventure and that Scouting is still possible plus the skills she uses to tackle everyday life as a University Student!
Moving to uni is terrifying. It’s one of the scariest things I’ve ever done and that includes capsizing a kayak in the river Itchen. You really don’t know what your parents do for you until you’ve moved away and then get sick. It’s not something I regret doing though and it’s an adventure worth embarking on. Scouting has taught me various skills that have been quite useful and my multi tool was quite useful when fixing saucepans! I knew right off that I was going to get involved in Scouting whilst I was away and before I’d even got to Cardiff I’d found a pack that I could help out at and I knew about the SSAGO unit within the student union. To those who don’t know, SSAGO stands for student scouts and guide organisation, there are various groups at various universities up and down the county and we all meet up for 3 camps a year and one formal dance. I was fairly nervous about making new friends but after 1 meeting with Ssags – the Cardiff SSAGO group, I knew I’d found my people and from there making friends wasn’t so scary anymore. There are times when I seem to do more scouting things than Chemistry which is always worrying when I realise that my degree is in Chemistry and that I’ve actually got to pass but it’s always nice that there’s something else in my life to keep me busy. The great thing about scouting at university is that you can do as much or as little as you want because everyone understands that’s there’s a lot going on. Ssags provides a nice change to the volunteering side and we do all sorts, a recent favourite was our puddings and board games evening which we had during exam time. I can definitely recommend playing twister before you eat your body weight in trifle! Uni isn’t just about studying your chosen course, it’s about broadening your horizons and becoming you which scouting really does help with. In the interest of stopping with the clichés, I shall now stop talking! Hope the weather is good where you guys are! YiS Alice (: