Kahaani 2020

Following my truly incredible experience with Culturama 2019, Kahaani seemed like the perfect opportunity for me to expand my newly found passion in this area and learn even more about the performing arts. Kahaani is a student-led annual performance involving Indian dance and storytelling, and ultimately works to raise funds for Kolkatta GC through ticket sales. It proved to be a completely different dynamic to my traditional German dance in Culturama, in that there were more performers and new choreographies using very different sequences. At first, the large number of dancers in each group made the organization of practices and communication very difficult, there were misunderstandings and inconsistencies within our group and group leaders, and it felt like we weren’t going to be able to pull through in time for the performance night. However, as we closed in on final rehearsals and light plots, we realized that it would need the commitment of each and every one of us if the dance was going to be even close to bearable. Looking back, it was this pressure and time constraint that finally motivated us to practice more, communicate clearly, which ultimately led to a pretty successful performance that night. This experience led me to the Learning Objective:

LO5: Demonstrate the skills and recognise the benefits of working collaboratively

As a group performance, we all needed to learn what it meant to work collaboratively even if we had never met or talked to one another before. We needed to realize that all of us played an equally important role, and that we all needed to contribute in equal amounts. I feel that there needed to be more guidance from the dance leaders, but they also experienced a learning curve when it came to the sheer amount of students we had engaged in that one performance. Once we started to come together nearing our performance date, I found that working collaboratively is difficult when you have 30 voices in one room, but that it is also essential to making any group performance a success.

Culturama 2019

One of the first CAS activities I set my mind on this year was Culturama. Having been too nervous to participate last year, which had also been my first year at the school, I bought myself a ticket to watch the performances of my friends and peers instead. It had such a big impression on me, with everyone in their traditional costumes and enjoying the choreographies, that I decided I wanted to be a part of it this year. Along with a couple of friends, I auditioned for the German dance, and was fortunate enough to be given the opportunity to be a part of the team. Looking back, it was one of the many highlights of the year of 2019, and I learned so many things about this school and myself. It was a learning experience that led me to focus on several Learning Objectives, but most predominantly:

LO4: Show commitment to and perseverance in CAS experiences

In terms of time commitment, Culturama is only one season long, and for the most part requires a single meeting each week with the group to learn and practice. However, I knew that our 6 week’s worth of work and progress needed to be fully represented on the night of Culturama, and so there was also a need for me to practice on my own time and show that I was committed to the project outside of our weekly meet ups. This, above all, was a team effort and I wanted to make sure that I played my part perfectly, and on my journey to achieve this, I learned that commitment isn’t doing what is required, but going beyond that to ensure your role is fulfilled.

 

Taekwondo

Following my first taekwondo experience at the end of junior year, I decided to continue this activity for Seasons 1 and 2 of my last year here. I find that it not only gives me an opportunity to retain my stamina and flexibility at a point where sitting at a desk constitutes most of my day, but that it also allows me to engage with students across the grades. I have met students as young as 1st graders, and shared my experience with some of the older high school students. Every week, this activity also lets me keep in touch with my own culture, as Taekwondo is a Korean traditional martial arts. I have really appreciated being able to talk with other Korean students and even get to know our teachers a little better through sharing a common tongue.

While I do not currently have plans to continue this activity into Seasons 3 and 4 given the exam periods closing in, I still feel that I have achieved many of the CAS Learning Objectives throughout my experience here:

LO2: Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process

Trying to figure out a new form of sports/martial arts has always been a challenging area, being a naturally not so physically active person, and I knew going in that it wasn’t going to be any different with Taekwondo. I learned that it’s not enough to be flexible and strong, but that it was also about accuracy, speed, and agility. At first, it was hard to keep up with all these different skills that were required from me, especially on top of trying to learn the patterns quickly. But going every week for almost a year definitely brought up changes in my mindset and body. Trying to accumulate all the skills when trying to perform a single move is probably unrealistic for most people starting out, but keeping these in mind while practicing both at school and at home will most likely lead your body to pick up these skills unconsciously, which is especially important in high-stress situations like testings.

EE RC3 Viva Voce

I struggled most with incorporating a balanced amount of knowledge from the two subject areas: Design Technology and Business Management. I felt that the Design Technology aspect of my essay was stronger than the Business aspect, so at first, I tried to overcomplicate the business section of the essay by adding in unnecessary formulas such as the 3 point moving average, which only made it less concise and more confusing. In the end, I realized that answering the research question using the most appropriate format and information mattered most and was able to apply only the formulas which were truly necessary for conveying the financial success of H&M. I also found the data collection portion challenging, but looking back, it is also the section I learned the most from. Primary data collection will almost certainly be relevant in any academic area involving research, and this essay helped me understand how to best gather primary data and how difficult it can be especially at the start. For students who wish to do this in their essay, I would advise them to visit the local offices if possible in conjunction with email exchanges for more in-depth answers.

EE Interim Reflection

I initially faced some difficulty collecting primary data from both H&M and other representatives of associated businesses. However, with consistent and straightforward communication, I was able to gather responses from 3 key businesses and finish my secondary research. Once I began writing the body of my essay, I quickly learned that synthesis of my primary and secondary data is not enough to comprehensively answer my research question and that analysis and evaluation are also vital. From this, I realize that I need to explicitly draw out the implications of the data, and be able to apply key findings to the broader community, providing possible solutions or recommendations based on the verdict. Moving forward, I need to revisit my work with my supervisor’s feedback and make sure my interpretation of the data is sufficiently supported and reasonable.

Summer Internship at CERiA

In the summer of my junior year, I completed an internship with CERiA, a research institute based in Malaysia. As my first internship experience, I found aspects of the job that aligned with my expectations, and others that took some adjusting. For example, I knew that there would be an extensive research process due to the nature of the institute, and it ended up taking more than a week from the three-week internship. In order for us to complete our main task, which was to plan out a digital homepage, we needed a comprehensive understanding of CERiA first, which was achieved by reading and extrapolating information from the documents our employer gave us via email. However, what I expected to be a work-intensive, productive three week period proved to be a lot more relaxed and calm than I had imagined.

One mistake, or regret that I would change if I could go back, is to be openly communicative with my employer, especially regarding work-load. After the first week and a half of researching the business, I felt confident I could translate my newfound knowledge into the website plan, and I was ready to move on to the next step. However the remaining weeks weren’t as rigorous as I had thought it would be, and the workload took less than two hours each day to complete. And though I had frequently messaged my employer inquiring what my next task is, I feel that I should have been more straightforward and clarify my position. Our group was motivated and ready to be productive, but we just didn’t have enough material to last us through, and we should have let our employer know about this situation.

I feel that this lesson is so crucially important in all areas of employment for our future, and even in an academic setting. If you feel overwhelmed or underwhelmed, or anywhere in between that doesn’t feel right, it’s your job to let someone responsible know what you need. So my advice for next year’s interns would be to be unafraid of voicing your opinion and making a better work environment for yourself. It shows that you’re motivated and hardworking, and it’ll help you gain more from the experience if you do the most you can.

Project Week in Cambodia

After our group’s extensive planning with the assistance of our supervisors and Ms. Toth, we got on the plane to Cambodia on the 25th of May. I find that our preparations before we left really began to pay off when we finally landed, as we felt safer and more comfortable knowing measures had been taken to ensure we got back to Singapore in one piece. On the first day after coming back from Phnom Penh International Airport, we made ourselves comfortable in our hotel and then took a walk around our area to see meal options and various supermarkets in case we needed anything. I feel that this first day simply getting to know our surrounding area was a good opportunity for our group to get to know each other and our travel habits in more depth, as we had never spent so much time together. After this, we went to bed pretty early on so that we would be ready for our first day at Free the Bears the following morning.

The first day at Free the Bears sanctuary gave us an opportunity to do a bit of ‘tourism’, in that we not only got to see the moon and sun bears we would be working with but all the other animals the sanctuary lent home to. We also met Pesei, the organization representative we had been in contact with prior to arriving at Cambodia. She was extremely welcoming and helpful, giving us detailed information about each of the animals and the sanctuary itself. We also got a glimpse of what we would be doing in terms of service during the course of the next 3 days when we prepared the enrichment foods and then distributed them where the bears would later find and hopefully enjoy. After experiencing this first day, we felt pretty comfortable with the sanctuary and the bears but didn’t really expect the degree of physical work that we would later endure. Over the course of the next days, we cleaned up the sanctuary and prepared enrichments in the morning, followed by a short lunch break, then more food weighing and distribution. Though these seem like relatively simple tasks, all of these combined with the heat and our inexperience with many of the activities we were expected to perform, we returned home each day feeling totally drained and exhausted. We began to feel like going to the service didn’t really hold a lot of meaning to us anymore, as the tasks seemed repetitive, as we couldn’t really interact with any of the animals as much as we’d hoped to. When we realized that this feeling of demotivation was mutual, we began to reevaluate our purpose in going to Free the Bears for our project week, and what we wanted to be able to do further. It gave us an opportunity to come back together as a group and think of ways we could overcome our problems.

By acknowledging each of our troubles and our mutual demotivation, we came up with an action plan; a list of things we wanted the service partners to know about us so that we could be more effective when helping with the keepers’ work, and how we would overcome situations where we genuinely felt uncomfortable performing a certain task. By doing this, we worked on LO 2: Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process. I am really proud of how our group really put our full effort and energy into each task to avoid disappointment from our service partners. We really wanted to demonstrate that we were capable of performing our given tasks, and did not want to let them down in any aspect. Consequently, we may have pushed ourselves too far, to the point of being too exhausted to even walk out of our hotel room to have dinner.  Once we realized this was not what we wanted our project week to be remembered as, we began to come up with ways to problem solve, developing new skills in the process of doing so. Although we always knew about the importance of communication between two parties, I think our position as helpers to the bear keepers made it hard for us to speak up or let them know we weren’t comfortable, in an attempt to portray ourselves in the best light. But in the end, we learned that staying quiet and ultimately burning ourselves out wouldn’t be beneficial for both us and our service partners, as we would not be able to complete tasks in the most effective way. I think this ‘problem’ actually made our project week more meaningful than perhaps one where we felt completely comfortable and relaxed. It helped us think on our feet, and problem solve in a realistic situation. We learned so much from this trip whether intentional or not, and we all agree that we would love to do it again given the chance.

Tabitha Final Reflection

As we near the end of the 2019 academic year, Tabitha has also closed in on its final evaluation of our performance this year. Throughout the year, we have engaged with numerous school-related activities and art performances and tried our very best to raise funds for Project Week. Though ultimately we were unable to go to Tabitha in Cambodia for our Project Week, we have been able to create a head-start for the upcoming group next year, who will hopefully be able to raise the remaining funds and leave for their trip. I have learned a lot about Tabitha as an organization, as well as the Cambodian community in general; what hardships they face and what support they need. This year, our group engaged in a lot of bake sales over the course of the year to fund our project and support Tabitha. At times, we baked together at school, which allowed us to become more familiar with each other and have fun fundraising.

One thing that I feel we did well this year was attempting our best to fundraise and continue supporting Tabitha despite the fact that we ourselves would not be able to visit Cambodia this year. All of us engaged in baking and selling for many events including school plays and fairs, and maintained a relatively organised group throughout. At the end of this year, we managed to raise a total of $2853, which will contribute to the funds next year. Though we will not be able to experience Tabitha first-hand, we hope that our efforts this year will be founded through a very meaningful and significant trip for the upcoming group next year.

One Learning Objective that I focused on this year was LO 5: Demonstrating the skills and recognizing the benefits of working collaboratively. Primarily due to the cancellation of the Tabitha project week, I think a lot of our group members lost motivation to continue to put in their full effort into Tabitha and its fundraising. However, this also gave me an opportunity to see why engaging in a GC together as a group is so important because we began to motivate each other and brought ourselves to help and support at our full potential. When we saw each other helping out at events and baking goods to sell, we saw it as more of a group effort and contributed our individual responsibilities and commitments so as to be of help to our group. I see our teamwork and collaboration skills as a key part of why Tabitha was able to work this year despite some major setbacks, and hope that the skills we learned this year will reflect on the performance and attitude of the next year’s group.

 

Swimming with Hougang Care Center Final Reflection

In what ways have you been successful in this service?

I feel that I have been successful in my service this year in regards to being punctual and meeting all the necessary requirements. With the exception of one or two sessions that I missed throughout this year due to personal commitments, I have shown up to and performed my best in each of the sessions. As logistics rep, I was always able to bring our needed equipment down to the pool each week and promptly prepare everything before the members came in. I always tried to change as quickly as possible to supervise and engage with the members, and feel proud knowing that the members left our last session feeling more comfortable with us and our activities.

How has this service changed your perspective?

This service has changed my perspective drastically on the term ‘mentally disabled’. Before starting this service, I didn’t know just how capable the members would be, and how willing they were to engage in our planned activities. I quickly realized that there could be a spectrum in the mentally disabled and that my preconception about the ability of our members may have been a barrier for us to create a more genuine and personal relationship. Once I got to know each of the members in more depth and realized the extent to which they felt comfortable performing our planned activities, that is when I started re-evaluating my perception on the mentally disabled and was able to reach out to the members more frequently.

How did your actions shape the outcome?

Again, as logistics rep, I think the majority of our planned activities depended on us to contact the service department well in advance and communicate our needs effectively. Though at first this was a struggle, as we often did not know what we would need a week in advance, as our schedules became more routine and organized, we were able to bring in what we needed for each session well prepared. I feel proud of how we were able to establish a trusting relationship with our service department, who was also extremely willing to help us out given that we finished all our required forms and bookings. Consequently, I feel that our organization and preparation for each session was key in making the day meaningful and engaging for our members, and hope that they were able to have a good time each week with us.