Volunteering: Get Involved

Speak or help at an event

We run programming throughout the year, both for Alumni and Scholars in Residence and are often on the lookout for event speakers, hosts and facilitators. We run events both virtually and in-person.

If you are interested and able to help, please do let us know by telling us a little about yourself and your experience and we will be in touch if and when an opportunity arises.

Express Interest

Become a Class Leader

4 Scholars smiling and looking at the camera

Class Leaders are vital for helping us to reach out to their classmates to facilitate engagement opportunities, run reunion events and support fundraising efforts and we aim to have at least one Class Leader for every class year.

Our wonderful Class Leaders can be found on Rhodes Connect.

Find out More

Alumni Associations

A collage of Alumni Association logos with a blue background

Alumni Associations aim to provide a Scholar-led community for Scholars in their resident country.

Volunteer to be on the committee of your local Alumni Association, or set one up if there isn't one in your locality! Alumni Associations run events and connect the local community and we are very grateful for their support and collaboration.

Find out More

Selector

Volunteers are vital in our selection process, allowing us to shortlist and interview the thousands of applications we receive every year.

If you are a Rhodes Alum and would like to indicate your interest in becoming a selector, please mention for which constituency you are interested in volunteering.

Selection posts are limited, and we may not always be able to match you to your desired opportunity, but we welcome expressions of interest.

Express Interest

Be a Rhodes Connect Mentor

Speed mentoring with two people talking across a table

On Rhodes Connect, Alumni can offer fellow Scholars informal mentoring and advice through meetings and email exchange. These exchanges give Scholars the opportunity to gain insights into career sectors, develop networks and gain employability skills.

To mentor, log into Rhodes Connect. If you have not already registered or need help logging in, please contact us. Once on Rhodes Connect, visit your profile and select 'Mentoring information'. Fill this in, and we will be in touch.

Express Interest

Contribute

A screenshot of the Unlikeminded blog page

We are always looking for Scholars to contribute to our Unlikeminded blog, the Q&A interview series or Rhodes Connect's Scholar Spotlight video series.

We also like to feature extracts of new books published by Scholars, and highlight new works in the Rhodes Connect Book of the Week.

If you would like to be interviewed or submit an opinion article, or book extract please do contact us to find out more.

Express Interest

Why Step Forward? Hear from some of our volunteers to find out

Chloe Walker (Commonwealth Caribbean & St Cross 2014)

"I really just wanted to continue my involvement with the Rhodes Trust after I left Oxford. I had a wonderful time while at Oxford and the Rhodes community was a vital part of that experience."

Bhaskar Bhushan (India & Exeter 2010)

"Part of my motivation in volunteering for the Scholars’ retreats was to give back. I wanted to help guide the younger Scholars’ experience at Oxford in any way I could, sharing perspectives, stories, and resources."

What did you volunteer for and what was your role?

From 2018 to 2022, I have served as a moderator of the first- and second-year Character, Service and Leadership Programme (CSLP) retreats, as well as serving as a Selector for the Global Rhodes Scholarship.

Why did you choose to volunteer?

My DPhil years at Oxford were difficult ones. In addition to living away from my home country for the first time, I also struggled to deal with workplace bullying, occasional racism, an unsupportive supervisor, and impostor syndrome. The greatest pastoral resource I found was within the Rhodes community, including not only my peers, but also upper-year Scholars, the Rhodes House staff, the Wardens, and especially Mary Eaton! Part of my motivation in volunteering for the Scholars’ retreats was to give back. I wanted to help guide the younger Scholars’ experience at Oxford in any way I could, sharing perspectives (not only my own, but of my peers and upper-year Scholars), stories, and resources. I wanted to communicate to them that the Rhodes Trust is a great source of pastoral support, and generally to share information learned through my own journey at the University that I wish I had known when I was starting out.

What did you most enjoy about volunteering?

I have consistently been amazed by the Scholars in Residence that I meet at the CSLP retreats. It has been a privilege to learn about their work, their ideals, and their goals, and assist them in reflecting and starting to synthesise their own ‘way to lead’, and what a ‘good life’ may look like for them. I always leave the CSLP events full of energy and brimming with ideas, with the Scholars’ enthusiasm having rubbed off on me.

What would you say to other Scholars who may be thinking of volunteering?

I believe that volunteering for programmes such as the CSLP is an excellent way for you to share your experiences and strategies in navigating not only your studies, but your careers and found was within the Rhodes community, including not only my peers, but also upper-year Scholars, the Rhodes House staff, the Wardens, and especially Mary Eaton! Part of my motivation in volunteering for the Scholars’ retreats was to give back. I wanted to help guide the younger Scholars’ experience at Oxford in any way I could, sharing perspectives (not only my own, but of my peers and upper-year Scholars), stories, and resources. I wanted to communicate to them that the Rhodes Trust is a great source of pastoral support, and generally to share information learned through my own journey at the University that I wish I had known when I was starting out. 32 personal lives, with Scholars who may themselves either be struggling in these areas or may simply be too busy with academic work to find the time to think about life outside of the University. These Scholars are brimming with potential, ideas, and excitement about their work, issues close to them, and ways that they want to fight the world’s fight, and you’ll be doing yourself a disservice by turning down the opportunity to spend a weekend with them. I promise that you will find yourself learning from them as much as they learn from you and the CSLP readings.

Patrick Bateman (Australia-at-Large & Pembroke 2013)

"We have the world’s third largest community of Rhodes Scholars – Alumni and in Residence – here in the UK. I wanted to run our Alumni Association, Rhodes Scholars in Britain, so I could help bring together this impressive, diverse and deeply talented group of people."

Thank you!

The integrity and pre-eminence of the Rhodes Scholarship depends on the efforts of our hundreds of dedicated volunteers around the world who serve as National Secretaries, Deputy Secretaries, Class Leaders, Selectors, Alumni Association members, contributors, speakers, facilitators and more. We are deeply grateful to everybody who has dedicated their time and experience to support the Rhodes Scholarships. It is impossible to list them all, but please find a section of our volunteering community below