Please suggest where and how I can improve

Hi,

I want to apply for a volunteering role as befriender to people with disabilities. This is the letter I'm sending to tell them about myself.

Can you please review it and tell me where and how I should improve?

Thank you very much =]

Dear Ms/Mr X

I am writing to apply for a volunteer role as X. I am currently an AS student in X and next year I will be applying to medicine. As a hopeful medic, I am interested to spend time with different patients, such as patients with disabilities.

Working around disabled patients and helping to provide care for them, is an opportunity that will prove priceless for me. Caring and tending to patients’ health provides a unique satisfaction in knowing that I have played a part in improving someone’s life.

I realise that a volunteer role requires both interpersonal and intra-personal skills. Communicating effectively is one of my strengths, and in an area with a large Asian population, it is an extra credit that I am fluent in both the English and Bengali languages. Working with patients and the staff at the hospital, will no doubt improve my communication skills further. This will be beneficial for me as I will be acquiring skills vital for work, while I am still studying.

As a volunteer it will require me to be committed, co-operative, as well as show initiative and be independent. I have honed these skills last year, when I was the elected as form representative for the School Council, last year, from September 2010 to July 2011. My role was to raise any issues my form had at the regular School Council meetings and then feedback to the class the decisions that were made. Discussing and feeding back to the class required patience and articulate communication, so that everyone’s views were heard and a compromise was reached on each issue.

Spending time in a hospital setting also requires me to have excellent interpersonal skills, so that I can interact with staff and patients effectively. My interpersonal skills have greatly improved after I did two weeks work experience as a teaching assistant in a Year 1 class, at a primary school during March 2010.

I was responsible for helping small groups of lower ability students to complete their work. During this period of time I gained invaluable experience in learning to communicate with young children, who are more sensitive than an average teenager or adult. This role helped improve my ability to adapt myself to meet the needs of different students, so they could easily understand any difficult work. Patience was also a key skill that I improved, as it often took time to explain how to answer a question, to each student individually.

Thank you for your time, and I would be extremely grateful if I am considered for a volunteer role.

I look forward to hearing from you.

I can be contacted via email at X or telephone, X.

Yours sincerely,

X