Category: SERVICE

Cancer awareness : Wrapping up

ganes39839@gapps.uwcsea.edu.sgCancer Awareness HS

My wonderful teacher facilitator hosted  a warm celebration to thank us four chairs and the whole group for our successful Movember. I feel an immense amount of gratitude to have joined this service in grade 9, and to have worked with a group of amazing change-makers.

Cancer awareness has been instrumental in teaching me about how cancer awareness is a global issue that ties everyone together. Cancer is a disease that has the potential to affect anyone, even those who cannot bear the costs. As a result, it creates a social divide, between those who have resources for treatment, and those who must deal with it until it takes over. Therefore, I feel honoured to play a role in conducting this event, as it reminds me of how this is important to people that I may not meet, but I know exist.  (LO6)

The ethical aspect of conducting this event and supporting this cause has also become clearer as I approach my last year in cancer awareness. We talk in class about the stigma surrounding cancer, and the idea of blaming individuals who have gotten cancer by zooming into their lifestyle habits. It’s taught me a lot about how to approach and interact with people who have been either directly or indirectly affected by cancer. Through Movember, I hope to play my part in eradicating the stigma of cancer and revealing the emotional impact cancer can have on an individual (lo7)

Raw Beauty : Grade 12 reflection

ganes39839@gapps.uwcsea.edu.sgCAS

Introduction presentation I made for the first session

: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/19djZSgBkjVOAaV_pZVKBBhEAipTEd6T9/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=118120026354714215299&rtpof=true&sd=true

 

As I begin the process of handing over this service to the new grade 11 chair, I’ve begun to reflect on how Raw Beauty has changed me. It was my first experience becoming a leader of a service that didn’t have history, therefore, I had to co-plan and initiate many aspects to get it off the ground. It was a very fulfilling experience, as I garnered skills ranging from soap-making to leading (LO2) which are skills that remain with me even after Raw beauty.

But more than this, I realise that I’ve come out of Raw beauty with a different mindset than I had when I entered. I had never researched or explored the topic of child labour, specifically mica-mining, until I learned about it on my first Raw Beauty session. It changed the way I consumed not just beauty products, but everything in general. I’ve learned about what indicators to look for when seeking environmentally and ethically-friendly products (LO6) as a means to engage with an issue bigger than myself, one that is globally significant.

In relation to this, my awareness on what is ethically right and wrong has amplified thanks to my learnings in Raw Beauty. As a member, I realised that the new habits I incorporate into my life as a result of my learnings can be applied to the rest of my household. In realising that ethical consumption is not a act of service, but rather, a moral obligation, has helped me to frame my consumption patterns better and align them with my values. I’m thankful that a service like Raw Beauty has not only given me practical skills, but also, values like global and ethical awareness to tackle other issues I might face after my time at UWCSEA (LO7).

Our first soaps we made, using sustainable materials :

 

 

Teaching our grade 9’s how to make soaps from scratch using lye water. We had to inform them of the safety precautions we must take when handling pure NaOH.

Cancer Awareness : Movember 2021

ganes39839@gapps.uwcsea.edu.sgCancer Awareness HS

My last Movember was an incredible success! Having raised more than 8000 dollars, I’m reminded of how lucky I am to be part of such an important event that supports an amazing cause and organisation.

This year, aside from co-leading the event, I also focused on handing over the service to the grade 11 chairs, who were so organised and responsive in conducting their first Movember. Regardless, I come away from my last Movember with a better awareness of my strengths and weaknesses, as well as the importance of the cause I’m fighting for.

I got the opportunity to delegate roles again, but this time, based on the new restrictions COVID posed for our event. I learned more about how to delegate roles effectively, such that people are assigned jobs that they enjoy but can also improve by bringing in new ideas. This was important when I was delegating where students would bring donation bags and sandwich boards (as you can see in the photo below) to areas within the school. I had to choose it based on how many people would be there, and whether students could effectively promote our cause to that audience. In the end, I thought that students could present it to people in their own grade, so that the level of familiarity could help in a deeper engagement and awareness of this event (LO3 (LO1)

Additionally, I come away with an understanding of how cancer awareness is not just a service event, but it’s a global issue that ties everyone together. Cancer is a disease that has the potential to affect anyone, even those who cannot bear the costs. As a result, it creates a social divide, between those who have resources for treatment, and those who must deal with it until it takes over. Therefore, I feel honoured to play a role in conducting this event, as it reminds me of how this is important to people that I may not meet, but I know exist.  (LO6)

The ethical aspect of conducting this event and supporting this cause has also become clearer as I approach my last year in cancer awareness. We talk in class about the stigma surrounding cancer, and the idea of blaming individuals who have gotten cancer by zooming into their lifestyle habits. It’s taught me a lot about how to approach and interact with people who have been either directly or indirectly affected by cancer. Through Movember, I hope to play my part in eradicating the stigma of cancer and revealing the emotional impact cancer can have on an individual (lo7)

Second reflection

ganes39839@gapps.uwcsea.edu.sgCAS

I’ve been able to be a part of this service for a few weeks now, and I’m slowly seeing my role and skills within the service develop. I’ve begun participating more in activities rather than just contributing during brainstorming conversations. In one of the sessions, I acted as the main character in ‘The Gruffalo”, which was really fun and I enjoyed entertaining the kids online very much.

One of the learning objectives that I’ve seen relate to my experience in this service is planning and initiating (LO3). Every session we end with a plan of what to do next week, and I’ve been contributing to these planning sessions more with each week. After about 3 weeks of trial and error with different activities and feedback from the teachers at Lighthouse school, we’ve come up with several things that the students enjoy the most :

  • dancing
  • singing 1-2 songs with sign language
  • reading books out loud and then again but with acting out (for both the hearing impaired and visually impaired students)

I’ve been able to use my planning skills that I learned in my other services, such as creating an outline/framework for a period of time, or beginning the planning with a set of objectives to help direct suggestions, to contribute to ideas in the group when we decide what songs/stories we should do. It’s been really helpful building on the planning skills I’ve had before with the new aspects from this service.

Collaboration is always a big part of this local service, especially since we’re a group that has goals to meet on a weekly basis. Compared to my other services, we don’t have specific roles to play as members. This can be quite helpful since we can choose our responsibilities based on the situation, and what we are better at. This service has helped me appreciate the value of collaboration, especially when it is between a group of people who have no particular roles but a common interest (LO5)

Initial reflection

ganes39839@gapps.uwcsea.edu.sgCAS

I recently joined the local service Music and Movement with Lighthouse school. This service aims to create fun, interactive, engaging sessions with students aged 7-18 who are visually and hearing impaired. Lighthouse is a special needs school that provides students with the education, and our service collaborates with them on a weekly basis to read/act out stories, dance and sing. After the first 2 sessions, I can already see how my understanding of the Persons With Disability (PWDs) community in Singapore face tremendous challenges pertaining to access to vocational training, which then hinders their opportunity to develop their collaborative and communicative skills.

I initially chose to join this service because I wanted to experience a direct service, where we could interact with the vulnerable community either in person or virtually, but still make a contribution in some direct manner. So far, this service has not only given me that, but also, the taught me the ability to plan and initiate sessions for the following weeks. At the end of every call, we all sit together as a group to decide what went well/bad and what to do for the next session. I’ve also noticed that at the end of every call, we ask for the teachers in Lighthouse school to give any feedback/suggestions, to which they respond with really useful advice (what the kids liked/didn’t like). This is something that I would consider applying to not just my other services, but other areas of reflection, where I can ask myself what went well/wrong and how I can improve it (LO1).

Another recurring theme I’m seeing is the collaboration between us members. Sometimes, things don’t always go to plan, for example a video may not be working or the teachers prefer a different song/story, in which case we all adapt and collaborate accordingly. I had the chance to do this when we were reading a story book, and in the last minute we decided to act out the parts to make it interesting and engaging for the hearing-impaired students.  (LO5) Although I was still new to this service, I decided to partake and play a role, depending on my peers for guidance while relying on my own observations from other people’s enthusiasm. I ended up enjoying it very much, and I was very grateful to have a supportive group of peers to work with.

I was also very lucky to be introduced to singaporean sign language, a method of communication I was encouraged to learn just like the other members so that I could introduce myself for every call. It was a challenge at first, especially since the group had already been practicing and became somewhat familiar. But I overcame this lack of confidence once I saw how sweet and welcoming the students were, and how engaging they were with the activities we planned. Now I can introduce my name, and speak a few words such as sister, brother, family, thank you. (LO2)

 

 

 

Service : Raw Beauty – Preparing for the annual Foundation event

ganes39839@gapps.uwcsea.edu.sgCAS

Before Chinese New year break, during one of our Friday meetings with service, Ms.Psillides and Ms.Ware suggested if Raw Beauty would help produce gifts during this year’s Foundation event. This event is about showing UWCSEA’s gratitude to members of the community who have helped fund many of the environmental initiatives and sustainable processes here on campus.

This year, they suggested that we could produce a soap that had a connection to our sustainability as a campus. My chair and I were thrilled at the idea of Raw beauty being a part of its first event. The only issue was that they needed these soaps by the end of February. With CNY break, we only had 2 sessions to make it, and we had a few grade 9’s joining that first week who didn’t know how to make soaps, and our grade 10’s had left for their mock exams.

But regardless, we agreed and decided to do as best as we could to meet the requirement of 200 soaps, with the assumption that we would have to come in during lunchtime to meet that goal. In terms of having our product connect to our campus, during one of our meetings, we had an idea of using recycled coffee grounds from campus, and incorporating them into the soap mixture, where they had exfoliation benefits and a relaxing scent. Because this was a last-minute ordeal, we went along with this. Santai (our school cafe) gave me a bag full of coffee grounds, which I took upstairs and we added the grounds to our melt-and-pour mixture before pouring it into the molds. This was an example of how we were actively engaged with our cause as an environmental initiative by recycling materials. We were aware that we wanted to avoid participating in the cycle of waste generation and pollution, so incorporating these coffee grounds were a great way of doing so. (LO7) 

(Referring to the photo above) As we were making these type of soaps for the first time, we experimented by putting the coffee grounds at the top and then pouring the soap. We realised that we didn’t like the appearance of these soaps, but the benefit of soap-making is that nothing goes to waste.  If the products don’t come out as expected, they can simply be melted and re-molded again. This way, it is a zero-waste process. 

As mentioned previously, our expectation was to meet 100, at best. But with efficient collaboration and smart communication across the group, we ended up making 202 soaps in just 1.5 hours. (LO5) I think that this situation was entirely dependent on how we as a team worked together for that one session. We started off by giving the grade 9’s a brief introduction as to our agenda, and then got started right away. We divided into 4 groups, kept the soap molds ready, and Ms.Giddins was kind enough to arrange the ice baths and melting stations ahead of the session, and her contribution really helped us get started on a productive note. Some people took the role of melting, while the chair and I were in charge of adding the right amount of coffee to the mixture to avoid it becoming too dark/grainy. We would immediately de-mold the soaps once it solidified so that other groups could pour their melted mixture. In the end, we not only met our end goal, but learnt how to work better as a team and exposed ourselves to a new recipe that we can use again in the future. 

The grade 9’s, who were new to our service, were extremely efficient and collaborative, despite knowing very little about the soap-making process, but they caught up very quickly with the guidance of the grade 11’s. In general, I’m very proud of the achievement we all did and the fact that we took up this responsibility despite the challenges it came with. (LO2)
This makes me optimistic towards Raw beauty’s future as a service, and although we aren’t making a profit on these coffee soaps, I still feel like it enhanced our cause as an environmental initiative and brought our service closer together. 

Below are some photos of how it went:

Above are all the soaps we made

 

Service – Raw Beauty Reflection #3

ganes39839@gapps.uwcsea.edu.sgCAS

This session was about initiating the plans and goals we have for Raw Beauty through discussion and finalising details such as costs, etc. The Chair and I worked on formulating a timeline to frame our agenda for the next few weeks. This timeline is extremely helpful for 2 reasons. First, it gives us a guide to indicate whether we are progressing and on track with our goals. Secondly, it ensures that we have an agenda after we come back from the winter break so that we don’t spend too much time simply discussing and brainstorming ideas.

Part of this session was to create a cost-breakdown sheet that contained the prices of each raw material involved in our soap making process. This document is crucial for when we begin producing and selling products to ensure we are making a profit and selling at effective prices. Both the timeline and cost-breakdown sheet are components of the initiating and planning process that play a major role in deciding the success of the future endeavours of Raw Beauty. I had to think from a long-term perspective when organising the timeline and then work backwards, which helped me gain a better understanding as to the pace at which we need to work and the scope of work that needs to be done. So this initial stage of conceiving an idea and formulating all the necessary details will hopefully lead to these ideas being executed in a manner as discussed. (LO3)

Another new element to our planning stages has been weekly meetings with the service office to discuss our progress and formulate any new ideas.

Some ideas we had were:

1.Creating a Pinterest board that showcases examples of what we might want our products to look like in terms of sustainable packaging :

2. Assigning a group to design a logo for Raw Beauty to use on our packaging, which will help to better develop the ‘business’ aspect of our initiative. This idea required a lot of collaboration from our group, since some members actually took graphic design as a subject and had a thorough understanding as to the process behind logo creation. (LO5)

3. An auction where will we auction our products to members (most probably teachers and other staff)

4. Soap Subscription service – teachers and other staff members can subscribe to a monthly service where we gift them our products for a given period of time. This idea would be especially applicable for the soap made from scratch, since it is only usable after an incubation period of 6 weeks.

We also continued our discussion on a possible tie-up between Raw Beauty and another GC, Daraja. They need some products to sell, so we are in the midst of thinking about how this collaboration would, if we can possibly incorporate ingredients that come from Kenya, where Daraja’s partner resides (without creating a large carbon-footprint by transporting it to Singapore). Some other items on the agenda for the rest of the month is looking out for grade 10 leaders to take over next year, and altering the description of this service on CIMS to make it more centered on our cause.

In conclusion, I’m beginning to see the initial planning stage evolve into an action-taking stage. I’ve already learnt a lot about what goes into planning for an event, and because Raw Beauty is a new environmental initiative, originality is something we’re aiming for in our future events. The launching of new ideas is really beginning to create a strong basis for us to work from once we come back from the December break.

 

SERVICE : Cancer awareness – End of MOVEMBER 2020 reflection

ganes39839@gapps.uwcsea.edu.sgCancer Awareness HS

Leading up to MOVEMBER 2020, the lack of clarity and certainty led majority of our GC team, including the service team members, to be apprehensive of our GC event’s success. Especially with the cancellation of our bake sale, due to COVID-19, we were unsure as to how we can create and maximise the impact we make on our campus and the contributions we send to our parter in Mumbai, India–the CPAA.  The idea of going virtual was discussed and implemented, as we designed an online donation system where UWC members could scan a QR code and choose a MOVEMBER participant to donate to/vote for. This idea was incredibly useful, as it not only solved the problem of social distancing/hygenic concerns during COVID, but it allowed for another, more accessible medium of donation for students who may not have brought cash to school. As vice chair, I learnt how to adapt and adjust to my circumstances and persevere despite the challenges that may have surfaced (LO4). This was significantly helpful, as it led up to raise nearly $6000, compared to the US$2557.22 which was raised in 2018. The fact that our situation contained more restriction but didn’t limit our ability to contribute to our cause shows the dedication and endurance displayed during times of uncertainty. 

Connecting onto my previous point about online donation systems, this year, we expanded our method of collecting donations. We collected funds not only with blue donation bags, but also through individual participant pledge cards and the online CIMS learning platform. This platforms were accessible to the whole UWC community. To avoid congregating in one area due to social distancing, we designed large boards with the participants’ picture and walked around with the corresponding blue donation bags to ask people for any contributions during lunch. We would divide the boards up amongst our group, and then split up and walk around the canteen (staying within grade level bubbles). Compared to last year’s MOVEMBER event, I was required to do much more individual interaction with students in the canteen, often explaining the donation process, the CPAA’s purpose, and our aim as a GC, aside from requesting donations every Friday of November. This was initially a challenge to me, as the idea of asking strangers for donations was intimidating. But eventually, I began developing my conversation and persuasion skills. I became better at explaining the cause and aim of our GC event in a context that entailed the global significance of our issue, and the idea of conversing with strangers became one that interested and motivated me (LO2) This was an example of how what was initially a challenge, became a chance for me to develop a new skill, which will help me in the future in similar scenarios.  

 

On the last friday of November, the last day of our event, we were told that another GC, Tiger Watch GC, was to conduct their event on that same Friday lunch. From a moral lense, however important our event may be, we had to ensure that other GCs and service groups in the school had an equal opportunity to represent themselves and their cause, even though Movember is our main event of the year (LO7). After consulting with our GC members and some service team officers, we decided to conduct our donation-collection rounds in the morning of that Friday, during mentor time. There were some factors that changed the way we would have been able to collect money compared to the past 3 Fridays.  However, our last donation collection was exceptionally successful. By visiting individual mentor classes, people were more inclined to listen instead of continue chatting with their friends, and more people ended up donating per class than we expected.

This event allowed me to actively acknowledge and execute a form of impact to fight against a global issue, which is the lack of access to cancer treatment for cancer patients in India. (LO6) I was able to organise and participate in an event that raised money that will be directed to the cause of this global concern. This action that I, along with the rest of my GC team and service office members, has helped to not only spread awareness about this global issue and its significance, but fight against it. To conclude, this MOVEMBER event was definitely one to remember, and I’m grateful to be able to work with a group that adjusted to the last-minute changes and supported each other throughout!

Service – Middle of MOVEMBER 2020- Cancer Awareness

ganes39839@gapps.uwcsea.edu.sgCancer Awareness HS
A screenshot of our message on CIMS, which encouraged viewers to participate and donate

We are in the midst of our annual event, Movember. There is constant contribution from various teams in our GC, communications working on the posters, finance calculating how much we make each week. As we approach our 2nd week of Movember, we are adding other mechanisms to help amplify our event. For example, an online donation system that will be disseminated through CIMS (online school community platform).

 

 

Adding on to our means of communication for this event, we are also active on the E-brief, as we are posting weekly messages containing the necessary information about donating, voting, and the aim of our GC/background on CPAA.

example of a message posted on the E-brief on behalf of Cancer Awareness GC

In terms of advertising, we have taken a slightly different approach this year. We wanted to include the community a bit more, so we took our idea on community stories (mentioned in the last reflection) and brought it to life by creating a google form where people can submit their own personal connection/stories surrounding cancer, so that we could bring the community closer together and enhance the awareness surround our cause.

We also have posters around school with QR codes that make it easier for people to sign up and vote/donate. We have decided to take advantage of the increased dependence on technology by having an online donation system set up.  Collaboration played a significant role in this aspect, since we had the help of the service office to set up the online donation system, as well as the collaboration with various Head of Grade’s to post information about MOVEMBER on grade level OLP pages (LO5).

 

 

 

 

 

 

These are the posters we have stuck up around school to increase awareness about our event and provide a background about our GC and the CPAA

 

 

 

 

We are also working on customising masks that have moustaches/cancer-awareness-themed objects on them. We are communicating with the school’s food catering company, Sodexo, to help create food items (eg:cookies)with a similar theme. We have also decided to post a leaderboard in the plaza, where everyone can see, of the leading participants to not just increase the presence of our event, but also spark competition amongst the community so people are incentivised to donate more to support their peers. This influx of new ideas and systems will hopefully have an impact on our fundraising amounts in the following week. All these new ideas that are being incorporated into our event are enhancing our progress towards our end goal in terms of money raised and awareness brought up within the school community. While I am are continuing to engage with the global issue of inequality and health (specifically for cancer patients in Mumbai) (LO6) I, along with my team, am launching new ideas that are developed and adjusted from previous ones to maximise our results, which is an example of how this event is helping me to initiate and plan this experience better after every week (LO3)

our current finance spreadsheet

 

 

 

Service : Raw Beauty Reflection #2

ganes39839@gapps.uwcsea.edu.sgCAS

This session, we were given the opportunity to experiment and actually make our own melt-and-pour soaps. We worked in groups of 2, so my partner and I often had to multitask to ensure the temperature of the soap was exact while adding extra ingredients for color or smell. For the melt-and-pour soap, this soap tends to solidify very quickly, hence one person had to keep stirring the various oil bases together while the other would help by getting the add-ons ready and providing the mould for setting. We got the chance to make soaps twice, one with the melt-and-pour, and the other one where we made it from scratch. The one made from scratch was a slightly more dangerous process, since the lye water (NaOH and water mixture) was extremely hot and the temperature of everything had to be exactly 45º. This meant that any change in temperature resulted in re-heating or re-cooling a component to establish the ideal consistency of the final soap product. Both sessions required immense collaboration from each group. I had to constantly communicate with my parter, for example, as I was making the lye water with specific ratios of NaOH to water, while she took care of making sure the temperature of the oil bases were at the desired point. Then we had to work quickly to mix the two together while they were at the desired temperature. The mixing process is also quite agile, since the mixture solidifies very quickly and forms lumps that affect the final texture of the soap. I took care of mixing while my partner helped to pour and lay the soap in a smooth layer. The collaboration required was not only necessary, but it made the whole experience less stressful since we could each rely on each other to complete tasks and would in turn avoid any safety hazards by working together. (LO5)

This session gave me the practical skills required to make soap. It is important to work relatively quickly to avoid the soap solidifying before you’ve added any colour, essential oil, etc. Additionally, it was a challenge for me to come up with creative ideas at first. We had to plan our recipe using a liquid and solid oils of our choice, while using various combinations of colours (liquid or powder), essential oils, and exfoliators such as Himalayan rock salt or dried rose petals. I had a hard time being creative and choosing combinations that would work well together. But eventually, I experimented with different oil combinations depending on how solid or liquid they were, and was able to come to a basic recipe for rose-scented soap. In this session, I was able to develop my creativity skills (LO2) which was initially a challenge but became an area of interest and exploration during the practical/soap-making sessions. Additionally, these sessions provided a direct experience of engagement with the global issue of the growing unsustainable beauty product industry. By creating soaps with sustainable, ethically-sourced ingredients, we were directly pursuing a goal related to sustainable beauty. But there were also some indirect elements of engaging in our global issue.

The model above is what we used to analyse and understand the global issue of unethical beauty products and the ever-growing industry that produces these products today. We were able grasp a thorough insight into the global implications it has on the primary sector in many underdeveloped countries, and their use of child labour. One specific example we looked at was the Mika industry, and how children in India are illegally forced to mine this raw material despite the health and safety hazards it involves.

The video we watched, another article I read afterwards explaining more on the mica industry

This was incredibly useful to me as a consumer of beauty products. Not only was I able to directly engage with the global issue of unethical beauty product consumption through soap-making, but I indirectly engaged with it as well. This was by educating myself about the global implications this issue has. (LO6). After we watched the video, we made presentations in groups that focused on specific implications, which I’ve attached below:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1Ui5_JxvS0oQNVFAKD900MsEx_0lT3VgNTaqlz5RQTEY/edit?ts=5f9fbfa8#slide=id.p

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1qB44gEdmq8iskAJ32kM8B9vSroGxnXHcVKkVdZXdR7Q/edit?ts=5f9fbfbd#slide=id.p

As we formed a better understanding on the central challenge of unethical beauty production, I reconsidered my consumption patterns and have researched some brands that contain unethical components of their production that I, morally, stand against. Although my individual consumption may not be impactful in the grand scheme of the global industry, it still shows that my recent education on this issue has expanded my view and has encouraged me to make better choices by understanding the ethical and environmental implications consuming unsustainable products can have. (LO7)