Becoming a 'Young Trustee': expanding your leadership & developing your career
By Paul Rutten, 4th year DPhil student, Oxford Interdisciplinary BioSciences Doctoral Training Partnership - with editorial and ‘next steps’ input from Rachel Bray, Oxford University Careers Service; Sara Fernandez, Oxford Hub; and Frances Meegan, Cambridge University Careers Service In the third year of my DPhil, I took on a role that has boosted me personally and professionally far more than I could have expected. It all began with a question: could I find a project where I would simultaneously help others and build my leadership skills? The answer led me to the Oxford Hub’s Young Trustees Programme (YTP), which trains young professionals in Oxford to be trustees and places them on local charity boards. In January 2019, I joined a team of five trustees at the Rose Hill Junior Youth Club (RHJYC), which serves a neighbourhood with some of the highest rates of child poverty in the UK. Their activities include weekly supervised play sessions for young children at the local community cen