NYAA GOLD Final reflection

Since starting NYAA silver and then going on to do NYAA gold, I’ve always found that the NYAA experience is one that encourages growth and character development through challenge. Although this method of development isn’t unique to NYAA, the NYAA encourages this growth through many facets. Service, Healthy Living, Outdoor appreciation and the Community project – all of these categories serve their own purpose in helping me become a better person.

In service, my goal was to achieve a position of high responsibility and maintain it. And in keeping that goal for me I found myself more driven in other aspects of my high school career, as I found that it was vital to maintain a strong drive to improve yourself and maintain a strong work ethic for any part of your life that you care about.

Before I used to mainly play sports that were much more individually orientated, such as golf and tennis; although those sports have their own merits to building character traits such as independency and passion – I found that committing myself to my goal of team sports developed my character in a profound way too. Not only was it extremely fun to get closer to people I know and even make new friends in sport that is really fun, it was even more rewarding when progress towards my goal translated into a play that was executed flawlessly or my friends trusting me more. This is because my goal was to develop my physicality and technique in a way that would make me a more dependable team player. I did this by not only committing to routinely attending sessions of softball and volleyball in which I would hone my technique, but also months of doing fitness at home and weight and cardio training at the gym. After doing these activities I’m proud to say that I am much closer with my friends and that I was able to help teach and build the passion of younger students in team sports.

After completing my outdoor education project, feel confident in saying that it is extremely unique. This is because I used what I had learned from my old physics teacher and mother about spirituality and meditation, and applied it to myself in order to increase my calmness and overall happiness. I found that by taking hikes at MacRitchie reservoir with a friend and then meditating it was not only educational as I learnt about the ecosystem by I had also learnt to be more at peace with myself by embedding myself into that positive ecosystem through meditation.

In conclusion I have found the NYAA GOLD experience to be an incredibly enriching and educational way to apply myself meticulously in all aspects of my life, and develop my character in an unforeseeably positive way. I am very glad to have been able to take part in this.

 

NYAA GOLD Final service reflection

I’ve always been very passionate about service, especially when considering that I have such a privileged life, I often feel obliged to help. Besides feeling like it is my duty to take care of the communities that I care about. When doing service, I also have always felt a great sense of pride in my actions that I never feel doing anything else. I’ve realised that it isn’t because of how I act, but more so the knowledge that my actions have had a positive impact. In wanting to continue both doing something good for the communities that I care about and that aforementioned feeling of pride, I set my NYAA GOLD service goal to be: Maintain a position of high responsibility and action in my service work.

My first step was to achieve a position of responsibility. In the past I had done many services, and in each experience I always leant towards the role of communications officer. I believed that communication was the heart of any functioning system, and a GC essentially relies on the communications officer as the spine of the operation, relaying information internally and externally and always being on alert. It was for this reason that I believed aspiring to be a communications officer was an optimal choice in having a position that retains responsibility. Fortunately I was able to become the communications officer for one of my services: Jakarta Street Kids. Yet on the other hand I was only able to acquire the role of video editor in my other service: Music & Movement with Lighthouse school.  Nevertheless, it was a position of responsibility, and I intended to commit to it.

Firstly, I enjoyed my time at Lighthouse school. I learnt so much about a community I rarely had the opportunity to interact with and it was eyeopening to  not only learn about the stigma they face often on a daily basis, but to see that they were always so chipper. Every online session that we held with them was always a buzz of laughter and energy, it was really inspiring to see how the children were so strong in persevering. Especially when considering that some of their learning disabilities mad some aspects of education impossible for them, yet whenever some of the children were unable to partake in one of the sections they always were still smiling in anticipation of what came next.

In terms of what I achieved towards my goal, I always tried brainstorming with the other volunteers to make each session we have with the kids better than the last. Ideas such Brought props and other materials to conduct an online session. It was great fun doing the read a loud and just dance. It taught me much about how to be more catering to specific learning disabilities and how to be more inclusive. More specifically, my work as the video editor was surprisingly challenging on account of all our operations having to be held online due to the pandemic. It felt really good knowing that I was still able to accomplish my goal and feel that sense of pride even with having a position that seemingly doesn’t have high responsibility.

At JSK, that feeling was much greater though. As communications officer I was responsible for handling and facilitating many of our meetings and operations. I felt great knowing that other people relied on me and I was able to meet their expectations. What I’m most proud of though was taking the opportunity to exceed those expectations when I used what I had learnt about web development in my summer internship to work on developing the GC website and in doing so I also honed my leadership skills. This was because I wanted to take leadership initiative in order to achieve my goal. So I decided that I’d do that relating to one of my responsibilities: the blog. I asked to be able to lead a small group of members in helping get down more information and help me revamp the blog. I feel like this will help consolidate me as a respected authority in the GC and grant me more respect and responsibilities when aiding the GC.

 

In conclusion the NYAA GOLD gave me the motivation to pursue my goals in a way that felt independent and earned. It felt great seeing the progress I made in sessions amount to progress in my goal, I could feel my supervisors and service chairs gaining more and more respect for me as a volunteer, and it felt great being able to communicate with the people I was helping. I also was able to work on my leader ship skills as the small group I led made great progress and we had held a role in bringing in new students to the cause. Reflecting on what I’ve done has shown me how much I’ve accomplished and it was great seeing how my supervisors were also able to appreciate that.

NYAA GOLD Final healthy living reflection

Since I’ve started NYAA GOLD, initially I found it very challenging to balance my school work, my service work and healthy living. Yet as I started sticking to a routine and maintaining consistency in effort and reflections, every session I attended of volleyball and softball slowly changed from time away from academics into a fun time with friends where I can improve on aspects of my character outside of academic proficiency. Furthermore, as I started committing to my goal – “I want to become a more supportive teammate in whatever sport I play, less focused on being singularly outstanding.” –  this time with friends now had even greater value, as their was a perceivable and measurable goal. I realised that each session provides a great opportunity to hone my techniques and build respect among the team, and in doing so I became much more collaborative and communicative as I always looked for a chance to improve. By learning to appreciate how setting goals can add value and importance into seemingly less important moments, I started finding pride every time a teammate would have the confidence to set the ball to me or place me as 4th batter.

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With this in mind, I’m grateful that NYAA GOLD had motivated me to the point where I wanted to continue pursuing my goal of becoming more supportive and reliable even when the nation went into lockdown and the seasons of sport were over, as I wanted to continue playing and improving with my team next year. The respect I gained for and from people had instilled me with a great sense of drive, and I had found myself trying to achieve my goal through indoor fitness. Yet once again I was challenged as I never really did the exercises and training in pilates and fartlek regiments. But having felt the reward of pride that comes with pushing through earlier challenges, I wanted to persevere. So I started committing to a daily routine which was focused on increasing stamina. This was another revelation for me, as I learnt that when having large goals set over a long period of time, there are many ways to work towards achieving those goals. Whether it was through improving technique in sessions or training my stamina at home.

Finally as the new seasons for sports approaches, the lockdown was lifted and in light of me wanting to constantly keep increasing the difficulty, I started doing weightlifting in the gym to further improve a physique for team sports. More specifically, my goal orientated mindset led me to first research the most important muscle groups to train for volleyball and softball specifically. This eventually led me to have a consistent routine working out my chest, triceps, back and legs in order to return to my team having furthered my goal outside of the time we play together.

In conclusion, NYAA GOLD’s healthy living section has taught me much about the value and pride that comes with devoting time to aspects of your character besides just academic ones. I’m even more grateful for learning to appreciate goal setting, and its ability to add value and sentiment to anything you do, as I can apply this lesson to any pursuit of mine – even if it’s non-physical. I am so glad I was encouraged to take part in more physical activity, as I found it to be extremely rewarding to continuously improving my self through learning to build team chemistry and a rapport with coaches. I feel that it is also important to mention that I simply really enjoyed spending time making friends in sports and building my friendship with my gym buddy.

NYAA GOLD service reflection #5

As an extension of my community project, I’ve started to consistently volunteer at the local TOUCH Ubi hostel. The Ubi hostel aims to empower and educate elderly people that suffer from mental disabilities. Instead of simply hosting the clients, the hostel wants to encourage independence and try to alleviate stress on close friends and family. It has been extremely fun trying to do what I was doing in service at school outside of school. It is interesting how much more independent I have to be when committing to my goals of gaining responsibility in a service outside of school. I’ve also found that each session at Ubi is a very new and exciting experience considering how for the past 2 years service has always been online due to COVID. But at Ubi, I am so happy to be able to talk to and see the people that I am helping in person. But I have been informed that under strict rules that I cannot use any photos of me with the clients or me on the Ubi site, even for personal use, as it breaches TOUCH’s contract with the client’s families. Nevertheless, It has been extremely rewarding progressing my service work and community development independently outside of school with my fantastic supervisor Nasril.

NYAA GOLD healthy living reflection #5

It has been going great in the gym. I’ve learnt a lot about how smart research into sports can allow for the most efficient planning and routining of exercises to best achieve my goals. It has been somewhat tricky trying to balance these goals with the current curriculum for IB grade 12 being so demanding. So sometimes I wasn’t able to always go to the gym, but on days that I couldn’t go, I tried spending just 20 to 30 minutes doing the home exercises I learnt when in the lockdown. I’ve now found it extremely rewarding and somewhat necessary to get through my days spending even just that amount of time doing more meagre exercises. Furthermore it has become extremely fun spending time with a close friend of mine, learning from each other and achieving our goals together.

Personal healthy living reflection #9

I think I’ve been seeing progress especially after starting to squeeze in time for cardio. My back and chest have become far more developed and I feel confident going into this year’s season for softball and volleyball with improved capabilities. It has been very rewarding seeing my growth in anticipation for the upcoming seasons, I can’t wait to show my teammates and friends how I’ve grown. Hopefully my teammate’s trust in me as a teammate will also improve, and I’ll be tossed the ball more frequently in volleyball, and granted first base more consistently in softball.

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Personal healthy living reflection #8

I’ve recently been able to start committing to the gym. I currently go with my friend who accompanied me in my outdoor appreciation investigation. I feel that by going to the gym and properly incorporating heavy weightlifting into my exercises I can start focusing on the muscle groups that are pivotal to the specific sports I play. After a bit of research into volleyball and softball players I’ve learnt that the chest, triceps, back and legs are the most important muscles to hone. So I’ve decided to create a routine that focuses those muscle groups and tries enhancing my physique to best fit the role of a reliable and supportive team player. It is especially fun considering that I have a friend who is there to motivate me.

NYAA GOLD service reflection #4

My time spent on service in the IB was incredible, I met new people and perspectives and I was able to learn so much about how to approach issues in communities and effectively solve them even when facing a pandemic. Although my time in Movement and Music with Lighthouse school didn’t see me fully accomplish the intended leadership aspect of my NYAA GOLD service goal, I did gain respect as a video editor and researcher on those with intellectual disabilities.  So to some degree I did accomplish my goal as I did maintain a respected and authoritative role in the group.

Although that was enjoyable, I feel that it was my time in JSK where I really was able to work on and achieve my goal. There I decided that I’d do that relating to one of my responsibilities: the blog. I asked to be able to lead a small group of members in helping get down more information and help me revamp the blog. I felt like this will help consolidate me as a respected authority in the GC and grant me more respect and responsibilities when aiding the GC. I was extremely focused on honing my capabilities as a communications officer so I was fully aware of all the information coming into the service email, and maintaining personal relationships with the members so I could get information to them more efficiently. From managing the team working on the blog to relaying ideas and information on next year’s fundraising event to and fro between the chairs and the service department, I feel that the amount of responsibilities I had been granted and relied upon to complete was indicative of me accomplishing my goal in becoming a trusted leader in the GC I was a part of.

NYAA GOLD service reflection #1

My goal for NYAA GOLD in service, similarly to my goal in healthy living, I want to be relied on for my place in the team. More specifically I want to be able to achieve a high level of authority, respect and responsibility within the services I join, and then I want to maintain the position with leadership behaviour and initiatives.

Currently I am going to be joining Jakarta Street Kids and Movement and Music with Lighthouse school. Both aim to support less fortunate minority children groups, one in Jakarta the other is locally operating in Singapore. Although I was unable to get the communications officer role in Movement and Music with Lighthouse school, not only do I feel that I can still take a leading position with in the service but I also did get appointed a high responsibility role in JSK.

So far in the first few sessions we have been getting to know each other, the requirements of the GC and the goals of the GC. Subsequently we have also already appointed the majority of the specialised roles in the GC to willing members, I particularly have taken the role of communications officer. For those who know me, this choice is quite the obvious one, due to it being my role in many of my previous service and GC engagements. I intend to take one specific responsibility very seriously, that is the BLOG. I think that this responsibility will be very demanding as I control I large part of how we are represented not only to other GCs but also many people that would show interest in this GC. I hope that it is this initiative of managing a blog will allow me to take on a leadership role in which I will satisfy My goal.

NYAA GOLD Outdoor appreciation investigation

When thinking about what I wanted to investigate in outdoor education and how I make sure it incorporates an aspect of the sustainability concepts I went bare bones with my conceptions of nature. One of the first things to land for me was the concept that being one with nature encourages peace of mind and oneness with the world around you. My mother and physics teacher are people who devoutly believe in the practice of yoga and meditation in order to bring balance to your mental health, furthermore they also believe that when you do so you resonate with the peace of the world and achieve a grander appreciation of life. My physics teacher believes this so much so that he even organised all of the physics units around aspects of nature in Hinduism and meditation. This made me realise that their claims of nature and peace tie very well with NYAA’s outdoor appreciation initiative and the “personal health and happiness” section of the sustainability compass.

After this realisation and often being encouraged to “be one with nature” I decided that I should investigate whether practicing meditation and mindfulness while trying to be appreciative of nature would improve my personal mental health and happiness.

When deciding on how exactly I should carry out this investigation I thought I might as well take the chance to explore a part of Singapore I surprisingly never explored even in my 14 years of living here: MacRitchie Reservoir. With the location decided all I needed to do was go to MacRitchie, hike for a period of time and then meditate. I feel that although meditation has been mentioned as the main means of resonating with nature, I feel that the hike and immersing myself in the park more so than sitting with my eyes closed will also be a great help in learning to build appreciation for nature.

As surprising as it is to say being an Indian who follows hinduism, I never really liked yoga or meditation, I was neither flexible or patient. So I was somewhat uncomfortable with finding a random location and meditating for even just a small period of time. So I decided I needed to bring a friend along with me.

He was a great help in making me feel more comfortable meditating in public and I also started to enjoy the hikes a lot more. I feel small implicit enjoyment was the start of me enjoying nature and meditating in it as I had started to associate nature with fun.

Then I believe I started to really get into spending my time at MacRitchie. It started with help from the same physics teacher I mentioned before, he had made a playlist of on the connection between physics, nature and mindfulness. Playing it while I meditated made me enjoy going to MacRitchie so much more because his voice was such a calming and familiar presence, sometimes I would be bursting with anticipation for the next time I went to MacRitchie to be able to listen to the next video in the playlist. Furthermore, on my hikes I started noticing more and more of these information panels on nature below. From here on my investigation really started to take place as my immersion in nature greatly increased when I started taking in this information not only at MacRitchie but also through research at home. This new information about the beauties of nature and the MacRitchie ecosystem in particular not only made me love nature more but also my adventures through the various hiking trails of MacRitchie.

After my love for nature and meditation started to actualise I no longer needed a guided tutorial on going into my mind and finding peace, instead I would only need simple and relaxing music. As a testament to how much meditation made me comfortable with nature, I soon no longer needed the accompaniment of a friend, instead I would love going on my solo journeys and the try to resonate with nature through meditation. Besides becoming comfortable with hiking and meditation, my newfound initiative to research and better understand nature made the environment of MacRitchie like a new friend that I was becoming acquainted with with each new visit I made. This progress I made in appreciating nature and the outdoors would mean that moments like seeing monkeys on one day would make my week and be a memory that would incite joy when I  recalled on it.

In this conclusion I learnt to love nature and meditation through often experiencing a new location with a friend and acclimating with help from my physics teacher. Yet the question of the investigation still remains: How effective was meditation and new experiences in outdoor education in improving my mental well being and happiness? To put it simply, the impact on my happiness was incredibly positive. I noticed this because at the time I was conducting this investigation I was doing a summer internship, and as I built my appreciation for nature and meditation I noticed that my productivity at work and general happiness had greatly improved. Furthermore, this investigation carried on into grade 12, at moments when the curriculum started becoming really stressful, I found that going to MacRitchie was a great way to alleviate some of the stress and remain calm for the rest of the week. I was more peaceful and got less annoyed at minor inconveniences, ultimately this summer experience was something that taught me much on the value of “being one with nature” and built my appreciation for a location new to me in Singapore.

 

NYAA GOLD healthy reflection #4

I loved my summer, not only was I able to experience an internship, but when I originally felt disappointed being forced to continue my physical activity only through indoor fitness due to new COVID regulations – I loved being surprised when I found myself actually enjoying practicing new schools of fitness like pilates and cross-fit. This fitness is much different to the usual heavy lifting and basic cardio I was doing before. Although I greatly appreciate regular strength training in the gym and do prefer it, I’ve learnt that each practice has its place, as I noticed that indoor fitness was much more extensive in building my cardio and core.

I think that all this indoor fitness was a vital step in anticipation of the sports I’ll play in grade 12, as indoor fitness has clearly made an impact on my stamina and agility, I think that these are two greatly important characteristics when defining a consistent and reliable teammate. In grade 12, I haven’t been able to take part in any physical activities as I’ve found that my current time table is extremely full, so instead I’ll be waiting to play softball after the December break when most of the stresses of school are  done.

NYAA GOLD healthy living reflection #2

Up till now in grade 11 I have thoroughly enjoyed my time in volleyball, although I’m somewhat new to it and make my coveted asset of height look wasted, I have loved learning more about the sport and have found it extremely fun to spend time with friends after school. I think the fact that I am greatly enjoying myself and building stronger connections has been the foundation of achieving my goal of become a more relied on teammate. By practicing discipline and showing up to take the sport and activity seriously, I feel that it has been communicated to my teammates that I am reliable. Further I’ve taken to showing interest to my seniors, as seen below, one of them is helping me record me practice a spike. Although somewhat arguably a disappointing performance, I’ve noticed that the sentiment has boosted respect on both sides. When playing, that same senior encouraged me to try the spike he’s been helping me hone, something that I found to be extremely kind. This mutual appreciation has clearly translated into not only improved chemistry, but also a genuine improvement in my skills.

Personal healthy living reflection #7

I’ve gotten used to indoor fitness and am actually quite fond of it now. I’ve found that it is much less of a hassle when comparing that the gym is outside the comforts of one’s home, here I can take my time and focus on technique when I often replay someone explaining a certain exercise. As seen in last month, I’ve also tried implementing more cycling into my routine. Although I end up getting enthralled in the speed of cycling and always keep forgetting to actually take photos of me out in the ECP.

Personal healthy living reflection #6

Recently there has been a large influx in the amount of new COVID cases, this has led to far more restrictions – some of which have made going to the gym impossible. Instead I’ve resorted to doing indoor fitness, this is somewhat new to me as I’ve always been more comfortable with regular strength training and basic cardio, whereas now I’m looking into pilates and cross-fit.

Yet it has been fun learning a lot more about this new school of training and I’ve found myself gaining a better understanding of my physical anatomy and what works different muscles. A lot of my time is spent researching youtubers and videos that provide an authentic fitness routine, but that doesn’t mean I don’t build up a sweat.

NYAA GOLD TOUCH SG community project

I knew that for my community project I wanted it to be an extension of the service I have done in the past. Looking back, I realised that I spent a lot of my time for local causes and initiatives that aim to aid and support less fortunate minority groups in Singapore. Besides spending time on those causes, I also feel that I have tended to gravitate to causes that are similar. Most recently, for example, I spent all of my grade 11 in a service called Movement and Music with Lighthouse school, a service that addresses SDG 4 Quality Education, specifically target 4.5, by 2030, eliminate gender disparities in education and ensure equal access to all levels of education and vocational training for the vulnerable, including persons with disabilities, indigenous peoples and children in vulnerable situations. In this service, I helped organise and lead weekly interactive sessions for 7-12 years olds that are fun, interactive, engaging and educational through pre-recorded session and occasional via live live google meet sessions. These include, tactile craft and games, music and movement. These activities support the school’s curriculum, enhance cognitive and physical development, improve coordination, develop spatial awareness and build self-confidence in students. From this service I knew that my passion was in aiding those with intellectual disabilities and wanted to integrate it into my community project.

Starting off with this information I started researching for initiatives outside of my school, as I also realised that it is arguable that causes not supported by our large school population are the ones that require more help. This led me to TOUCH SG, a service and charity organization that aims to improve our community and achieve some of the SDGs through a collection of multiple service initiatives. Looking through these initiatives I landed on TOUCH’s Centre for independent living. This is a hostel service that houses and supports adults with various intellectual disabilities, there the volunteers teach the individuals multiple self sufficient skills such as: cooking, cleaning, financial management and general miscellaneous independent actions like grocery shopping. I think that what they do their is incredible as instead of most initiates that seem to entertain and educate those with intellectual disabilities, often the education doesn’t function in the long run; at TOUCH’s Centre for independent living, this information helps make the individuals more independent and makes it easier for the family members and caregivers they have.

Satisfied with the cause I found I tried joining, yet there were some technical difficulties.

 

After sorting out those issues I was eventually put in contact with one of the heads of the hostel. After getting on a phone call with him he briefed me on the service in detail and also checked on my ability to participate and volunteer. When we cleared that up he suggested he’d call me soon and we’d meet up and he’d show me around the hostel and the many aspects of managing and operating the hostel, after which I’d be able to chose an aspect I feel most comfortable with.

Although I am unable to share many of the photos I took there due to the confidentiality the individual clients families have asked for. Instead I only have this photo that has been heavily cropped of me doing a read aloud.

Yet almost as soon as it had started, my volunteering became almost impossible. This is because the new influx of COVID cases had cause the nation to take safety precautions. This meant that me as a newbie was not essential and acted as more of a safety hazard than a benefit.

Although this was a disappointing moment, I wanted to continue to provide support as I knew that the friends I made there, both the volunteers and clients would be struggling with the difficulties of the pandemic. This lead me to the conclusion that I needed to initiate a fundraiser to help support the hostel even though I’m not there. I found this to be a great substitute to being able to contribute to the initiative for the time being and knew that when I return they’d be happy to hear about the fundraising project I endeavoured to lead all by myself.

I then got in contact with the person I initially had met, and stated my idea of fundraising. My experience in UWCSEA familiarised me with fundraising on a much smaller scale and I initially proposed the idea of house to house fundraising as in my research for this fundraising initiative I found that I didn’t really understand the other legal government-recognised approaches to fundraising. So I even attempted to get a house to house fundraising license.

Right after this email I was then put in contact with TOUCH’s department for fundraising and charity.

When on call with Matilda from the fundraising department, she explained to me that a house to house fundraising plan isn’t actually that feasible. Especially when considering what made me resort to fundraising in the first place: COVID. This is because house to house fundraising is not only hazardous by putting me in close proximity to many people whose conditions I don’t know, but also because I’m just an individual student, the amount I can get done by myself is extremely limited. So instead she smartly suggested an online fundraising campaign, this option is not only much more efficient in raising funds but safer for me as an individual.

This is the email Matilda sent me in order to initiate my fundraising initiative. So I replied with what she needed from me.

After all this work I’ve learnt a lot about what it takes to be passionate about a cause and the challenges when facing obstacles when working on that cause. I learnt that even though I may be alone it is important I take the initiative to become a leader and overcome these obstacles. These leadership skills came into action when I introduced TOUCH’s Centre for independent living to a class mate of mine (Kai en Khoo) who was also passionate about this cause, with her I honed my communication skills when leading this online campaign. I also learnt how important it is to set a plan with mini goals when working towards a large scale goal like starting a fundraising campaign independent of the school. I learnt that this process of visualising a path and even fail-safes for yourself and members of your team helps ground everyone and prevent people overthinking and becoming anxious. I’m also proud to say that very soon the online campaign will have been published on TOUCH’s website. I look forward to returning to TOUCH’s centre for independent living with the great news.

Personal Healthy living reflection #5

This is my fifth reflection for my unsupervised healthy living activities. My gym journey in grade 11 has led me to be a much more relied on player in the team sports I play. In both volleyball and softball my position as a supporting and leading player has become far more relied on. In softball besides becoming a great setter that has trained my muscles to best set for each spiker in my team, I have also been able to become a relied on spiker due to my cardio work. This has made me a much more versatile player in teams that can switch between more aggressive and defensive play styles. In softball I have become a reliable heavy hitter and first base. My improved fitness due to the gym has greatly improved the trust other players have in me. Overall the gym has lead to a great improvement in my fitness which has allowed for my teammates to trust in me more as a player.

Personal Healthy living reflection #4

I have started to increase the portion of strength training I do in the gym, because I’ve realised that in these team sports those who are strong are often relied on. Increasing my forearm strength has led me to become a much more trusted setter and this has lead to the people who spike to playing more aggressively as they trust my sets. My general improvement of my upper body strength has also led to me being placed in much more vital roles in the batting order, like position 3 and 4. This means that the strength of my bats has caused me to become more trusted in getting my teammates on base to home.

Personal Healthy living reflection #3

This is the third reflection for my unsupervised healthy living activities. I have loved keeping my external activities simple by just spending time in the gym, because I’ve found the gym to be extremely versatile in trying to achieve the physique I require at that moment. For example, I have recently tried improving my forearm strength and this has been extremely easy by just adding a small strength training regiment into my gym sessions.

 

Personal Healthy living reflection #2

This is the second reflection for my unsupervised healthy living activities. Currently I still am doing only gym workouts to improve my cardio. But it has been incredible feeling the benefits of exercise. I generally feel more optimistic and I have found my self being a lot more mobile in my team sports. Like in soft ball I have started playing a bit more aggressively when on base, this has allowed me to steal more bases in game and place pressure on the defensive team to allow more leniency on the rest of my teammates.

Personal Healthy living reflection #1

This year my goal for healthy living was to become a more reliable and supporting player in the team sports I have signed up for. This reflection is for the time I’ve spent unsupervised working towards that goal. More specifically my time in the gym working on cardio. Starting this gym journey has already been great for building fitness and I feel great from the endorphin releases. This is a lively welcome to the already somewhat stressful IB curriculum.

I started by focusing more so on cardio in order to build more stamina. I feel like this is the best place to start at when trying to improve my position in a team sport as both volleyball and softball require a lot of agility and sprinting.

 

NYAA GOLD service reflection #3

This year I stuck with two services for essentially the entirety of the time so far in the year. Usually, even thinking of doing that seems tiresome and tedious. Yet surprisingly enough, this year was extremely rewarding in terms of service.

Firstly was the work in GC, because the situation the project we were partnered with was under a lot more pressure than usual and needed help from us. Firstly this placed a lot more urgency and value to the work we do in GC, at least a lot more than usual. So when we were able to successfully help them in a funding competition, it felt like the work I had done was so much more valuable. This competition had encouraged me to try and use my information management skills as communications officer to organise a on on one virtual conversation with the head of our partnering initiative: Retno Haspari from XS project. Not only did I feel like taking on this initiative individually helped ground me as reliable in the eyes of the GC teachers and the chairs, but also knowing that it was in these dire times helped me in achieving my NYAA service goal.

For my local service: Lighthouse school, I felt like the pace was a lot slower than usual. It felt bad going to service and only being able to plan for hypotheticals. So recently when we started to actually have video calls with the children, it felt really great finally seeing the joy that we are able to give. It made the wait throughout the early part of the year feel really worth it. I also have started to take on the role of video editor for the group whenever we can’t have online meetings and instead pre record a video for the children. Furthermore I feel that I’ve translated much of what I’ve practiced and honed in JSK in terms of planning into the virtual sessions that we do have, making them a lot more refined.

NYAA GOLD healthy living reflection 3

So far I’ve spent a lot of my grade 11 in sports, more so than any other year. Because of this I feel like my healthy living section for the NYAA is so much more fulfilling, because after each step of growth I take, there was always a clear next step, whether it’s in a different sport or simply from preseason to actual season; I always had a clear goal of improving my physical standing to be as supportive as possible in a sport.

For this reason, I have thoroughly enjoyed this year of activity, even with some of the disappointment in being unable to fully actualise my potential in softball. Another thing, I feel a lot more generally healthy and happy. I’ve been more chipper throughout the day and physical activities get easier and easier as time passes. There was a lull of happiness in exams, but I intend to take s4 volleyball, I think it would be a great way to end of the year with my friends.

This experience has allowed me to have a newfound appreciation for the supporting roles in sports, and the general enjoyment that team sports has to offer. Having played tennis for the majority of my life, I was usually just by myself. But after seeing the pay offs good teamwork, I’ve found it to be so much more rewarding than an individual success.

Personal Statement

Throughout all of my academic career, I have always felt I had an affinity for science. I feel like this is due to the long gruelling hours my parents had encouraged me to do as a child. Although this past experience may push some people to hold a certain subject in bad taste. I highly enjoyed it, I felt as if the vast expansive knowledge there is about science peaked my interest. Yet I do show remorse in the perforation of subjects, making myself seldom devoted the sciences. I think that I should continue to follow this policy, in order to maintain a healthy balance between grades. But realising that I have a strong liking towards sciences I want to discover how strong my likes are. Possibly opening up promising future career options.

I don’t know how all of these statements translate directly on to my aspirations. But I believe that the most logical and straight forward approach, is to extend my time spent on the subject. This might mean taking into the higher level sciences, as these classes would provide me with the catharsis that comes from learning the sciences. Yet only placing myself in a nurturing habitat won’t help me. I have to take great strides in education off my own volition, otherwise the attempt at bettering myself would be in vain. This would mean I have to average 7’s in the HL science courses I take.

Overall, I believe that furthering my appreciation for science would provide me with a prolific array of skills that I require to acquire accomplishments I desire in my future. This means that I will be taking up HL Chemistry and HL Biology. It would also require me pushing myself to accomplish high grades in science. This may mean I devote more time to studies, as I would have to compensate for the increased work load I intend to take. Yet it would be a sacrifice that I am willing to take, in the name of bettering myself.

 

Service: ReCycle

My high school life has just recently struck upon an abundant source of joy and pride. ReCycle, a service that specialises in the refurbishing of unwanted bicycles has made feel extremely accomplished. In the service I am forced to use my hands in order to break down the bikes and then subsequently put them back together. The experience given by the service is not only extremely fulfilling, but directly helps maintain the schools goal of being sustainable.

So far in the service we have split up into small groups branching off into separate bicycles, I myself have assisted in the rebuilding of two bikes. Along the path of this accomplishment I have founded new friendships and strengthened old ones. These relationships have been extremely fruitful in supplying me with further improving myself

So far this service has been extremely successful, and I strive to be a further part in it. In it’s future I hope that I can help everyone in the service, maintain a sustainable behaviour, and gain a stronger knowledge of building bikes.

 

My NYAA experience so far

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1g5xXEnKtFQE4d2zzIYQ_UjFzNge9sdhe/view?usp=sharing

 

I have thoroughly enjoyed my entire NYAA experience up-till now, I have found it to be an enriching journey that has taught me a plethora of new features about myself. I specifically have enjoyed the blog posts, because I have now gained a strong sense of self reflection and drive for improvement from it. I also found going outside of school to attain my service goals to be an amusing activity, what originally thought was going to be annoying, became an extremely prideful chain of actions.

Although the experience has left me brimming with glee, I have found it to be occasionally difficult to keep up with the portfolio post quota, as I have been just newly adjusted to the busy lifestyle of an ex middle-schooler. But in the transition, many flaws have found egress from within. Although these flaws have become exposed, I feel like writing drafts and posting about it has made myself more aware and given me the ability to oppose my flaws.

Overall I think that although at the beginning I found the NYAA to be a daunting challenge. I have come to appreciate it for being able to improve myself.

Rehaan Writers Fortnight Article

The fallacies of the US prison system By Rehaan Kukean

It is said that no one truly knows a nation until one has been inside its jails. A nation should not be judged by how it treats its highest citizens, but its lowest ones.”

Nelson Mandela


 

The early expansion

America’s prison system has been failing to fulfil its main purpose: reduce the rate of crime. From 1970 to 2010 there was a protuberant growth in the prison population from “196,000 to 1,570,000”. This not only shows society hasn’t leashed themselves from crime in fear of incarceration but also that the prison system is failing to complete its purpose of redefining the convicts of the society. These inadequacies started from when President Ronald Reagan decided to administrate the war on drugs act, the incarceration rates skyrocketed in the 1980s. The overflow of inmates encouraged the government to seek help from the CCA, whose role was to make maintenance cost cheaper for the government and take a percentage for themselves. What ensued was what could only be expected from a corporate enterprise running government business.

 

The hostile invasion

Prisons were mass produced all across the nation, starting in Tennessee, over a six-year gap another sixty-six were included. Even though these prisons had been introduced; a study from the NYU school of law state that “since 2000, the effect on the crime rate of increasing incarceration has been essentially zero”. The astounding proof surrounding the conclusion that prisons have no effect on the crime rate is due to the CCA using disturbing practices to profit as much as possible. For example, phone calls from inside the prison can cost up to fifteen dollars, this is due to firms exploiting the monopoly imparted in these systems. The CCA would then treat prisons as simple goods instead of the important institution it is. The co-founder of the CCA stated that “You just sell prisons like you were selling cars or real estate or hamburgers.” This mentality has caused the CCA to disregard the needs of keeping prisoners imprisoned. Instead, they operate using cheaper solutions, like hiring fewer workers and cheaper facilities. Justice policy state that “Private prison employees earn an average of over $5,000 less than their government-employed counterparts and receive 58 fewer hours of training.” This behaviour is downright unethical, as it treats prisoners with no respect. As you can see inadequacy is a bountiful commodity in private correctional facilities. As it is not limited to only the staff and facilities, but also the corrections programs in which they say they specialise. Interview data gained from actual prisoners show that most prisoners that went into private prison GED programs only enrolled in one three hour class a day, whereas prisoners in government DOCs enrolled in full-day education programs. This shows that the CCA has been unable to properly do their job. And the very name that they’ve built is a complete lie.

 

Distorted candour

These numbers and evidence should point to the conclusion, that the CCA is staying true to their promise of lowering the cost of incarceration for the government. But that would be false, a NY Times article states that sustaining a person in prison “cost about the same as they do in state-run prisons.” Along with that, a study was done by the Arizona Department of Corrections state that in order to mask their cheap behaviour, private prisons use healthy inmates only. The state representative calling it “cherry picking.” A cheaper method of functioning and at the same cost means that the CCA must make a hefty profit, and that would be true. In 2015 the CCA made 1.8 billion dollars. This profuse amount of money is gained from the fact that one-fifth of America’s inmates are in for-profit facilities. Secondly, on August 18, 2016. An undercover investigation was conducted in Huntsville, Texas by their office of inspector general showed that private prisons were “less safe, less effective, and more expensive than government-run facilities”. And an expose covered by Mother Jones stated that the CCA is the second largest for-profit system in the US!

The CCA has also figured out a way to keep the routine continuous, a study done states that private prisons give out twice as many infractions. The reasoning behind this is that the CCA is paid on how full their facilities are, a situation in Arizona occurred when the private facility didn’t make it’s 97% fulfilment quota; and contracts emplaced forced the state to pay a 3 million dollar fine. This contract encourages indigent states to keep prisoners from leaving on loosely grounded reasons. Not only is this extremely unethical, but it also debases inmates that have tried hard to improve and left them with no desire for betterment.

 

Conclusion

Overall it’s safe to say that the US government made a huge mistake employing the “efforts” of the CCA. They have proven to have intent in only maximising marginal profits. There has been example after example of them cutting corners, and deceiving the government at the expense of the prisoners. But after knowing this what could you do to this huge problem, right? Wrong, your input is invaluable. Your input doesn’t have to be intense protests, strikes or fasting. Whether it’s simply blogging about the problem or advocating it to friends and family; getting the information out about this tragedy is a great step in the right direction.

 

Sources Cited

FutureLearn. “Why Did the U.S. Prison Population Increase so Much?” FutureLearn, The University of Sheffield, www.futurelearn.com/courses/economics-of-crime/0/steps/20279.

Joy, Tara. “The Problem with Private Prisons – Justice Policy Institute.” – Justice Policy Institute, www.justicepolicy.org/news/12006.

Jr., RICHARD A. OPPEL. “Private Prisons’ Cost Benefits Debated.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 18 May 2011, www.nytimes.com/2011/05/19/us/19prisons.html.

Kirkham, Chris. “Controversial ‘Lockup Quotas’ Fuel Private Prison Profits.” The Huffington Post, TheHuffingtonPost.com, 20 Sept. 2013, www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/19/private-prison-quotas_n_3953483.html.

Markowitz, Eric, and Eric Markowitz. “Making Profits on the Captive Prison Market.” The New Yorker, The New Yorker, 19 June 2017, www.newyorker.com/business/currency/making-profits-on-the-captive-prison-market.

Rose, Jenn. “How Much Money Do Private Prisons Make? They’re Earning Thousands Per Inmate.” Romper, Romper, 17 Dec. 2018, www.romper.com/p/how-much-money-do-private-prisons-make-theyre-earning-thousands-per-inmate-16680.

 

Images Cited

“1989-Today: The War on Drugs.” Libcom.org, libcom.org/history/articles/war-on-drugs.

“Private Prisons in the United States.” The Sentencing Project, www.sentencingproject.org/publications/private-prisons-united-states/.

Post-expedition post

Firstly I would like to say that I really enjoyed my outdoor expedition, it was challenging yet redeeming and fun in so many ways. I loved crashing through the towering rapids. I truly was a great experience that I enjoyed. But easy it was not, it was filled with so many challenges that tested my limits, such as living in an environment different to the comforts of home. Navigating the rapids was a great task, that taught me about hydrology. Yet I enjoyed these challenges.

If you weren’t aware, my investigation was focused on the impact the environment of Nepal has on it’s economic opportunity. My question specifically being: How has Nepal’s huge attraction for tourism created jobs and work?

As for my investigation. I talked to someone who knows the way of the nepalese people very well. This person was an employee who frequented the cities of Nepal and has firsthand experience in the occupations and experiences of Nepal’s lifestyle. He informed of their lifestyles and how the tourism brought from the beauties of Nepal has highly benefited them. I believe that in my investigation I discovered that Nepal has specialised in the industry of tourism. He told me that many nepalese people live lives of agriculture that is due to the towering mountains that provide lots of land for mountain side villages to thrive. But he also said that the rivers and mountains bring many nepalese people to become guides.

Tourism has made a very large impact on the people of Nepal, the new found business has allowed many new occupations such sherpas, paragliding instructors and river guides. My source told me that the large market has made many children want to become outdoor experts. Besides me getting primary info, I can see this first hand. I saw many businesses that profited from tourism and the company we went with; “Paddle Nepal” had many employees. This is further consolidated as the kayaking guides that were on our expedition said that they had known they were going to become kayak guides from a young age. They stated they knew each other from a young age, and their other friends who didn’t go into kayaking, went into other recreational activities such as paragliding. When asked to elaborate they stated that many villages and houses are built close if not directly next to these abundant rivers, as they provide water for agriculture and consumption. This close proximity acclimated them to the rapids at a young age, and in not too long they knew the entire river system like the back of their hand.

On our expedition we even got a chance to visit one of our guides village of origin. In it I not only noticed how they reside next to a stream. But the village has made empty huts, and they had a bar and other more western forms of entertainment. Although it was confusing at first this brings up the second industry of tourism; housing. The village and the city of Pokhara accommodated foreigners and tourists perfectly. The Nepalese people marketed their authenticity, as we got to see how they process lentils and how they feed the fish and the goats. The rustic mannerisms of their tasks  had all of us infatuated and eager to attempt our hand.

The people there have truly capitalised on the large input of tourists. I witnessed areas packed with hotels, just where we were staying was surrounded by hotels, and not too far from there were many stores. It was difficult to see any building beside housing or hotels. But some streets were filled with the final industry of tourism; souvenirs and comforting. They ran along a lengthy street, specialising in everything from clothing to hand crafted wooden ornaments. All of the signs were in english, meaning they understood who their demographic was. But if not item shops, there were local restaurants  claiming to serve western food and other food pandering to foreigners.

Overall I believe that the tourism brought about by the beauties of Nepal has been a great source of income for the nepalese people. Yet it is worrying, as the over saturation of the market has them competing at such low prices. This would make it hard as many people are obliged to enter on industry, even if they find it boring. Also, having such a large portion of the people invested in one industry leaves many people vulnerable to losing their jobs. EG: If there was to be an earthquake and many tourists would be afraid to travel to Nepal, many people will suffer. This means that although the massive tourism industry that Nepal boasts, it maybe extremely vulnerable.

 

Pre expedition post

For my NYAA, I have to create an investigation on my upcoming expedition. Instead of viewing this as a burden, I tried to look upon as an enriching and educative challenge that I gladly would take up. From this investigation I have to choose a category from the sustainable compass and investigate the relationship between country of my expedition and said category.

I have chosen “Environmental Impacts & Jobs” I chose this topic because I believe that Nepal (my expedition country) has a vast and lush ecosystem and I would like to learn how it’s ecosystem impacts religion and its economy. Understanding that Nepal attracts tourists form all over the world for it’s marvellous mountain range and cascading rivers. I would like to know about how the country has acclimated it’s culture to it’s tourism. So my specific question for investigation shall be:                 How has Nepal’s huge attraction for tourism created jobs and work?

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