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.
