Ella Redfern

What is your favourite memory/OW story from the telephone campaign?

Speaking to a Colonel! I was nervous at first calling due to his salutation, but he was extremely friendly, stating that I caught him at the perfect time to talk as he had just finished marching in the Duke of Edinburgh’s funeral. He then proceeded to tell me about the service and his experience in addition to his past services in the military and army. I found it most fascinating. He also mentioned that he knew the Queen and of course I was also incredibly interested to hear about that. Anyway, we had the most lovely conversation (which I also had with many other OWs) but I think that that Colonel’s life experience and career stood out to me as it was the most unique/something I had never heard before. I gained a lot of respect for a man I literally only spoke to for about half an hour on the phone. A very enjoyable conversation.

What did you enjoy most about being a caller in the campaign?

It was having the opportunity to phone up OWs and speak to them about their experiences after Wellington. I was able to get a range of different career experiences and advice from OW’s in all sorts of industries. I certainly found this very valuable and have ended up learning a lot. It certainly has widened my views on certain career paths in addition to reassuring me about the fact that I have no idea what I want to do (and apparently that is okay! Quite a good thing it seems at this stage in my life).

What did you personally learn whilst taking part in the campaign?

The obvious would be gaining insight and learning about different career paths – a very valuable education! However, the campaign has also provided me a lot of transferable skills. It has made me more confident in speaking to adults that I have never met before, having the confidence to ask them questions about their lives and then of course the harder bit of asking them to donate to this amazing programme which not everyone is interested in. It certainly put me out of my comfort zone at the start however, I feel my communication skills and confidence developed well as the campaign went on. I definitely learnt valuable skills that will be necessary and useful for my future.

Did being in the campaign reiterate/reflect why you wanted to be involved?

I was always interested in the programme before starting the campaign. My mum is a regular giver to it and so I knew a bit about it and thought it was great thus I did want to be part of the campaign. However, since the campaign it has become a programme I am now not interested in but passionate about. It is a fantastic programme that I certainly will be donating to when I am older. Before the campaign I didn’t know about the programme in depth, just the basics of it. However, when I got the job I started to read into it more and watched videos about it. The messages from some pupils who described their experience of being on The Prince Albert Scholarship programme really resonated with me. I would encourage anyone who, like me before the campaign, knows the programme just at surface level to read up about it and gain that deeper understanding that I do now because it really is wonderful.