Project Week Final Reflection

CAS

LO7-Recognise and consider the ethics implications of choices and actions.

The trip was a success. In the end, we managed to pull together all of our planning and implement it. Something we had to consider during the trip was how we would conduct activities with the girls at the shelter. We wanted to avoid voluntourism – it was important that our actions had a sustainable and lasting impact.

This was why we chose to do recreational activities such as playing sports, dancing, or reading with them rather than something like teaching english. We felt that these activities would allow us to best connect with the girls despite a language barrier while also developing the relationship between this NGO and UWC for future project week groups.

In the end, we also gave the organisation a donation from out of our budget which would be able to fund all the girls’ meals for two months.

During the trip, we also had to acknowledge other ethical considerations such as supporting local businesses. We made sure to eat in local restaurants with mostly traditional Vietnamese food rather than international food chains.

Ultimately, I felt that this experience really made us far more independent, resilient, and aware of the consequences our actions can have on others.

SEAMC: Action + Demonstration

CAS

LO5: Working together to achieve an outcome

Planning and running SEAMC was one of the hardest yet most rewarding things I have ever done. This year, our organisational committee was faced with the challenge of preparing students for the competition while also partaking in the logistical aspect of hosting. I can confidently say that the outcome of our efficient and targeted planning was a success, especially in regards to how our school’s team performed. We were able to take home many medals and placed 2nd overall, which was an unprecedented feat in UWC’s history.

A major challenge that my fellow planners and I faced was during the week of the competition however. We were given the task of opening the competition with an hour long presentation as well as providing help with running the different rounds. We were only given a week’s notice for this and without our effective communication and organisation, we wouldn’t have been able to pull it off. This was also a personal challenge for me, because I absolutely dread public speaking. I grew into a more confident and self-assured person after presenting to over 300 people and helping them throughout the weekend. It was a great experience of personal growth.

It was thanks to the fellow organisers, teachers, and staff that we were also able to execute this event successfully. We obviously faced challenges with logistics, timings, delivering questions, and the results, but it was ultimately through the support of everyone that we were able to overcome them. For instance, Joanna (another organiser) and I faced the problem of having a lot of volunteers drop out on the last day, so we had to divide the work between ourselves to get everything done instead. It was challenging, but worth it.

Something interesting that we also had to address was an important ethical dilemma. As the organisers of the competition, we had access to everyone’s tests, results, and the questions in the rounds. But we had to be incredibly responsible about maintaining their secrecy. It was an interesting for me to experience such an unfamiliar responsibility, because normally this sort of stuff is taken care of by teachers or other adults. I think it was an important lesson for us to learn for the future; we now knew the etiquette and the trust that comes with leadership.

SEAMC Highlight Reel

Kahaani: Initial Rehearsals (Action)

CAS, Uncategorized

LO2- Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process.

This year, we performed dances which symbolised the progression of a blind man’s life in order to raise awareness for Voice of the World (Kolkata GC). I was placed in the dance which represented the part of his life where he fell in love.

The initial rehearsals were probably the most challenging for me. There were probably two major hurdles that I worked to overcome.

Learning the dance: I hadn’t danced in probably a year, and getting back into intense Bollywood choreography was quite a challenge for me. It took a lot of practicing outside of our group sessions as well as attending extra practice for me to become comfortable with the dance.

Coordinating with the other members: The fact that I had my friends in my dance really helped motivate me and build resilience. They were an important support system for me. However, coordinating with them in the dance was a completely different story. Since this was a new environment in which we were collaborating, we had to develop different strategies to effectively communicate.

Naturally, our initial rehearsals were not perfect. Our group’s most significant weakness was that we kept forgetting choreography. We definitely had to make the most out of our allotted rehearsal times during this phase of the preparation of the show.

 

 

 

Kahaani: Investigation and Preparation

CAS

LO1-Identify their own strengths and develop areas for growth

Kahaani is something that I look forward to every year. I see it as a celebration of my incredibly diverse culture and it is something that is very close to my heart. I signed up for it last year and I knew I would sign up again this year. The cause it supports (to empower the blind and raise funds of Voice of World) is also something very important and impactful.

This event is a dance showcase, which meant that I would be doing something a bit unfamiliar to me. I was a little apprehensive at first especially because I would have to perform in front of so many people but I wanted to challenge myself through this experience. I wanted to gain more confidence and also develop a new skill. This was why I was quite happy that I was assigned to a dance with all of my friends; they helped me overcome a lot of my nervousness about performing on stage.

The initial stages of rehearsing were quite tedious. I was put into the back line of the dance and I found it hard to keep up with steps as I was quite short and not noticeable. I was also finding it hard to keep up with all the new moves being added every session.

Here is one of our very first practice sessions as a group: