I have finished my all-year activity, HS Yearbook. The yearbook itself is already in the makings, ready to be distributed in maybe a few weeks. This is my final reflection discussing some of my major challenges in the activity, how I overcame them and how I learnt the importance of commitment.
- What was it about this activity that I found challenging/difficult?
- In yearbook, one of the biggest challenges was to keep the members of my team committed. There were around four members who consistently showed up to the group meetings, and even less of those who actually brought in the work they were assigned to do. This was quite frustrating, as it was abundantly clear that the entire group was counting on them and their contributions, especially knowing that there were so many people who really wanted to be a part of the Yearbook group who weren’t allowed to as they were cut from the team due to the excessive demand of members.
- Something else that I found challenging was my particular role as a group member: The journalism team’s job was basically t0 be the middleman; I was in charge of sending emails/getting in contact with different people for certain quotes/descriptions about their involvement in something significant this academic year. However, many times it felt like I was chasing people down to get this quote, even after they agreed to give me one.
- What actions did I take to overcome these challenges?
- For the first challenge, the Journalism team initially told the editors of Yearbook, and also the two student leads. Once the student leads were informed, there were emails sent out in attempts to make sure the group’s attendance and contributions were attended to. When this, too, didn’t work, the head of Journalism took matters into her own hands and tried to tell them to attend in person. When this, too, didn’t work, as a group, we decided to simply ask them if they were interested in continuing to be a part of the team. When they replied with a no, we asked them to find another replacement; someone who was willing to put in the work, to essentially replace the ones who left, so that the team was not unfairly losing a member. This was what worked for our team. We received new members who were ready to put in the work and those without the same dedication as the rest of the team didn’t have to commit to something they didn’t want to anymore.
- Were there challenges that I could not overcome? How will I approach a challenge like this in the future?
- A challenge that I could not overcome was my challenge of chasing people down for their statements. This was something that I had to do quite often, simply because people didn’t know what to say, or they had forgotten, as I had usually given them a week or so to write a 400-character statement. In retrospect, perhaps I should have either sent them reminder emails a day or two before I needed to hand in the quote, or I could have made the deadline earlier than one week so that there would be fewer chances of them forgetting.
- What new skills have I developed in this activity?
- I have definitely become more patient and realised the importance of commitment. Therefore, through this activity, I definitely have become more committed to my responsibilities, as recognised through the challenges I have faced. This was an incredibly important aspect to develop on in order to achieve success for the activity. There were a lot of responsibilities in this activity, and if one of us didn’t do the job properly, the entire school would be let down due to the low-quality yearbook that would be released at the end of the year. All high school, especially those leaving UWC, deserved a high-quality yearbook in order to remember the academic year through the most significant events the school had to offer, including a lot of those in which students participated in.
- How can I use the skills I developed in this activity in other areas of my life?
- Having a large number of people count on one person’s commitment is a very applicable scenario in the real world. No matter what job you get, making sure you put a good amount of your time and effort in making sure you deliver whatever it is you have committed is very important, as someone/something is always relying on your contributions no matter what job you take up. In this way, this activity taught me the importance of sticking to your commitments, how slacking ruins the group dynamic, the most efficient way to back out of a commitment (that should only be used if necessary) and how easily a team could make or break a project.
CAS Yearbook Final Reflection (Creativity)