Project week final refletion

An amazing music video made for our project week experience: Link

 

After a week in Taiwan, we had a handful of accomplishments.

Five of us, getting ready on the top of the mountain, fully equipped, safety checked, and let gravity do all the work!

Video Link: (Essence: 2min-6min30s)

http://drive.google.com/open?id=1Z0g491Mu9nzCIl8mM4S7_yUSE5N53559

Halfway there.

Down the mountain, found myself right next to the Pacific Ocean.

The next day, whole day of service, tired but satisfying.

 

Going to Taipei

Visiting historical sites

A walking tour down Taipei’s CBD

Taipei 101

(Largest mass damper in the world)

The next day, taking a tram to Maokong(a mountain village right outside Taipei city)

National Palace Museum (full of treasures)

Overall it was a wonderful experience. This is my first time planning a whole trip by myself, and also the first trip traveling with my best friends, to a country that I have never been to. I have learned a lot from this project week, I greatly improved my communication, leadership, collaboration, persistence, planning, and independence skills. I’m sure this is an experience that I will never forget in the future.

 

Project Week Intermediate Reflection

(LO 3 Demonstrate how to initiate and plan a CAS experience)

A community that I consider important is one I built myself. I lead a group to help the New Dawn Educare Center, a care center for mentally disabled people in Taiwan. I decided to start planning five months ahead of the trip to minimize cost. As a result, most of the problems appeared during the planning process rather than during the trip.

The first inharmonious issue came not long after we met a few times. Because two of the teammates were my close friends while the other two just joined us and we barely knew each other, the two new members felt left out. Gradually, they became less and less involved. I noticed this problem and decided to organize several local group trips in Singapore so our members could form better connections with each other. It worked! The atmosphere in our group meetings became much livelier and members started to discuss their real opinions.

I was also anxious about the structure of our team. When teammates participate more in decision making, they feel more engaged. However, it would be extremely inefficient if our team members argued on every possible decision. Furthermore, it seemed fairer if everyone worked the same amount, but we would then waste a lot of effort if we tried to divide everything evenly. I realized the best way to achieve balance was by illustrating to my members that the more work and roles they took, the more weight their opinions would carry in influencing our decisions. This successfully created incentives for members and established a healthier relationship between the leader and the members.

Looking back, I am so proud of the community I created and amazed by how my teammates from Belgium, Bhutan, Ghana, and the Philippines were able to bond tightly together.