This week, many NCS graduates such as myself will have been celebrating reunions all across the country.
For those who haven’t heard about NCS, or the National Citizens Trust, ‘The Challenge’ is a four-week enrichment opportunity where you complete a residential trip, student accommodation experience and charity project. I write this article mainly to implore current 16 year olds to enrol in next year’s programme. NCS is a fantastic opportunity to decorate CV’S and personal statements - but more importantly to make a whole bunch of new friends. The prospect of staying away from home with 50 strangers for four days with no wifi and limited mobile service, of course, is extremely daunting. I believe many applicants spend the first evening wondering why they ever thought the challenge was for anyone that isn’t a raging extrovert lacking a mobile addiction - I certainly did. However, once you get past the initial awkwardness all sorts of activities offer personal development and even facing your fears; Sarah, 16 from Merton says “I never thought I was the kind of person to sit by a campfire or climb rocks, but last summer really proved my capacity to do new things was much bigger than I thought”.
Perhaps the most exciting element of the challenge was living in student accommodation in St George’s halls. Learning to cook with a group of friends in a tiny kitchen where the only other option is going hungry can be a little frustrating, but the bonds I made through burning chicken and setting the smoke alarm off every three minutes means I would not have wanted to spend those four days anywhere else. Of course, the charity project deserves a mention, not because it was particularly well organised or that we even raised much money but rather that spending time in an elderly day centre did provide a little purpose to my summer where we all felt that we were making a difference, however slight, to someone’s day.
Overall, to any 16 year old blissfully awaiting the longest summer of your near future after the train of GCSE’s, please consider signing up to NCS and doing bit not only for your community, but for yourself also.
