VOLUNTEERS' WEEK - JOHN HILLMAN

John Hillman

John is Risk MI Analyst at Legal & General. John first became involved with SATRO in 2005 as a mentor at Oakwood School in Horley. Then in 2008 John co-ordinated a team of Legal & General employees to become mentors at the Beacon School as part of a corporate community involvement programme. In 2011, when all Government funding into mentoring was cut and the majority of programmes had to be abandoned, SATRO could no longer afford to provide the scheme, however John was instrumental in persuading Legal & General to continue this programme by funding it themselves and this is still on-going.  John himself has continued to mentor there despite having an extremely busy role himself and co-ordinating this programme as well. In addition, as a Governor of Meath Green Junior School, he introduced the school to the opportunity of the SATRO Mega-Structures Challenge, which was held in May 2012.

John himself has told us why he works with us. "I originally became involved in mentoring as a challenge to develop myself but also to help young people. Since then, having experienced how rewarding the scheme can be to all parties involved from mentee to mentor to the school and employer, I have been more than happy to champion mentoring at L&G and promote it. The scheme is a great help to pupils and I have received excellent feedback from mentors over the years about how rewarding it is. It fits very well with L&G social responsibly programme and their desire to help the community. It has been very well supported at all levels, not only financially, but also in recognition of the benefits it brings. In 2012 I was given a Special Recognition Award by the company in a large part for my involvement with the mentoring scheme. 

I have a passion for education and have been involved for many years now as a school governor at various schools. I understand very well that some pupils' experience difficulties and that schools are not always best placed to deal with that. Mentoring is a way of helping those pupils at the very important stage of their lives and can, and does, make a real difference to their futures.”