Interested in a career that makes a difference to society? These professionals and Royal Holloway graduates are developing careers in these areas.

Jinal Parekh Assistant Director at VITAL for Children

 

Jinal is primarily responsible for fundraising, including sourcing potential corporate partners, event organising, supervising all interns and volunteers, managing projects and working with on the ground charity partners in Kolkata.

She describes her job as, “Impactful, rewarding and eye-opening!”. The work that Jinal does, directly impacts lives and she works daily to achieve gender equality, to embed child rights within her target communities and universalise access to the most basic amenities, such as water, sanitation and food.
Jinal holds a bachelor’s degree from Royal Holloway University of London in History and International Relations.

Pat Simpson Head of Student Counselling Service, Royal Holloway, University of London

 

Pat and her team offer a prompt response to students requesting support. The service provides the expertise to assess risk and vulnerability and meets with approximately 1000 students each academic year. She describes her job as, “varied, stimulating and rewarding”.
Her previous roles include: Practice Counsellor in GP Surgeries; Trainer for students on foundation degree in Humanistic Counselling; Coordinator (overseeing Buddies) for HIV/AIDs support charity (RAFT) which is now part of Terrance Higgins Trust;15 years Samaritans volunteer including three years as Branch Director.
Her advice to students wishing to enter counselling would be to gain life experience and expect to study to masters or doctorate level in clinical counselling/psychotherapy.

Emma Whelan Managing Director, Utopy

Emma’s role as MD and Culture Consultant of an ambitious social enterprise enables her to change the world for the better.
After 10 years in the commercial sector, Emma transitioned to the non-profit sector. She believes that to effect real change, it is essential to get to the core of  organisations and in doing so, identifies what needs to change to help them thrive in a complex, multi-connected world. Emma supports organisations to nurture authentic cultures, build brands from the inside out and innovate and grow.
Emma holds a bachelor’s degree from Manchester University in Economics and Social Studies.