Interview with Margo, 12th March 2026

Transcript

00:00:00 Belle

Hello, I'm Belle from Discovery and it's March 12th, 2026 and I'm here with Margo at the Discovery SVS 60th anniversary event. So, we're going to be talking about her experiences with Discovery.

So, could you please start with telling me about your connection to Discovery?

00:00:16 Margo

Yes, hello, my name is Margo and I have first heard about Discovery as an opportunity that was advertised to us as undergraduates in my psychology degree as an opportunity to just gain some experience relevant to this field.

I didn't start with Discovery, I didn't join Discovery until I think it was end of my second or beginning of third year. I'm not entirely sure, it feels like so long ago now. And I started volunteering on the Supported Volunteering scheme with Kirsty at first.

And did that for a few months until an opportunity to do an internship with the same project came up. And then I applied for that, was successful in the interview, and continued doing the same project but in an intern position. So that was how I started with Discovery.

00:01:16 Belle

Amazing.

So, what type of responsibilities did you have with that internship?

00:01:21 Margo

So, it was essentially very similar to what I did as a volunteer. I helped to run the sessions one-to-one with adults with disabilities, but also as an intern I was responsible for organising the social action group. So that's where a few of us come together and do all sorts of projects and crafts and activities as a group.

So, like I said, I was responsible for brainstorming and making that happen, getting all the resources together, running the sessions, making sure that everyone was happy and safe doing it, and collecting feedback, monitoring how, well, monitoring and evaluating the progress of the project in a sense, well, helping the manager of the project with it, I suppose.

And just being a friendly face for all the other volunteers that were volunteering on the project and essentially being the person to ask questions.

00:02:27 Belle

Amazing. Do you think COVID affected volunteering at all?

00:02:32 Margo

Yeah, I think, I think I would have joined earlier because my university experience started with, well, my first year was full-blown COVID and then second year was less restrictions but still COVID. So it put everything on hold.

So, I didn't really join much of anything really in my first two years because, as much as you'd probably think that having less of an opportunity to interact would probably encourage someone to try harder to get that. For me, it was the opposite. I just was in that slump. It was so hard to even try. So it definitely impacted when I joined Discovery because it felt, I felt just so disattached from all the social opportunities.

And then once the world came back to normal a bit, I think, it's interesting thinking about it this way, because I don't think I reflected on why and when I joined Discovery, but now thinking about it, yes.

00:03:31 Belle

Do you think Discovery, or like working with Discovery, reconnected you with people after that time?

00:03:38 Margo

Oh yes, definitely. And it was quite a, it felt really big, even at the very beginning of it, because like I said, it was just that social slump of not seeing anyone sitting in the house, not really doing anything. And it was a big change for me in terms of what I used to do and who I used to be before COVID hit. So, Discovery was my essentially first opportunity to, in a way, go back to what I would be like under normal circumstances, and I do enjoy getting involved in all sorts of crazy things and Discovery provided me plenty of opportunities.

00:04:20 Belle

I'm glad Discovery helped you do that.

So, what is the thing you loved most about or love most about working with Discovery?

00:04:28 Margo

I think it might sound very simple but I think it's just how welcoming Discovery and everyone in Discovery is and you do feel like you belong and that you're wanted and no matter where you come from, no matter your personality, as long as you're a decent human being obviously, and no matter your mood on the day, there is a place for you and you're always appreciated for what you can contribute.

And even sometimes, I have sometimes come to Discovery just on a bad day when I was on campus and I just needed a space to be and Discovery was that space for me to be. So, I think it paints the picture very well for how safe of a space and how welcoming everyone is. It's those experiences where I would just come to Discovery just to be there.

00:05:25 Belle

So, can you tell me about how your time with Discovery has affected or impacted your life afterwards? So, has it had any impact on career paths or career choices at all?

00:05:37 Margo

Yeah. So, like I said, I have first heard about Discovery during like a talk that someone did during one of my lectures and I studied psychology and it's quite difficult with psychology. If you're interested in going into the more clinical side of the field, I guess, it's quite difficult to find experience and get into the job market.

This is where volunteering comes in really, really handy and it was exactly that for me. Like I said, I did the Supported Volunteering, I volunteered on the Supported Volunteering scheme and then did an internship, which gave me a lot of experience working with adults with additional needs and disabilities, which is exactly what I was talking about when I was applying for my next big girl job as an assistant psychologist. And I got that job and it was quite, I was mind blown that I was able to make such a big step and even just applying felt big. But I did feel, I mean, I did feel underprepared, but as it turns out, I was prepared because I was, you know, successful in the interview and I can fully say that it was because of what I did at Discovery because I didn't really have any, much relevant experience other than that.

And I think it's not just things that you put on the CV and things you put in words and then deliver during the interview. It's just how I've grown as a person as well. So, what we call the soft skills or whatever the word is, because I do look back and reflect and I think just a couple of years ago I was just so very shy and closed off in a sense. And you would never have me here talking for an interview like that. But I think Discovery and all sorts of things that I did with Discovery definitely pushed me out of my comfort zone. And that's allowed me to grow as a person as well, which now I bring to my other roles and responsibilities like work and yeah.

00:07:53 Belle

That's amazing. I'm so glad Discovery's been able to have that impact on you. I think it's really powerful.

Just to close off the interview, if you could describe Discovery in one word, what would that word be?

It's a big question.

00:08:07 Margo

It is a very big question because you're like, there's so many things you want to say and then to put it into just one word, it feels so restrictive.

Oh, let's go with inclusive, the opposite of restrictive.

I think Discovery is like the best example of an inclusive, a truly inclusive space that I have been a part of and I know we speak about it a lot and try to bring it to life more and more in workplaces and just in general in the community but I don't think I have seen anywhere do it as well as Discovery does. Discovery is truly an inclusive space.

00:08:53 Belle

Amazing.

Well, thank you so much for chatting with me, and yeah, thank you.

00:08:57 Margo

Yeah, thank you.