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The National Youth Achievement Award
My Perceptions and Goals
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Timestamp: 28th September 2018
Why did I join?
I first heard about the National Youth Achievement Award (NYAA) at an assembly. The first thing I thought of was, ‘Would this look good on university applications?’. Unfortunately, this perspective is common when thinking about participating in awards like this one, but despite the fact that completing the NYAA has benefits such as looking good on your CV, there are a lot of other reasons why I decided to take part.
Firstly, I know that High School is a time for exploring your ideas and passions, and finding new strengths and causes that you want to support. When I ask my relatives what their top tip is for having a great high school experience, they tell me to try lots of new things and participate in a lot of different activities to get in touch with a lot of different social groups. NYAA helps you to achieve that. The requirements that you must fill for the NYAA are not harsh guidelines like the ones for exams. These requirements shape experiences, and experiences are valuable. Therefore, I am doing NYAA to focus myself on doing lots of different activities to broaden my perspective.
NYAA also helps me think about myself and what more I can do to improve not only my wellbeing, but also my schoolwork and attitude. It motivates me and it helps me become more reflective than I already am. The healthy living guideline especially helps me have a more productive and less stressful lifestyle. These things will improve my standard of living, and hopefully make my year a stable and productive one.
I wanted to join the NYAA for another reason – I’m not from Singapore, and I barely know anything about it, however I’ve lived here for three years. It’s rather pitiful that I barely know Singapore’s history and culture, and this country has housed me and kept me safe for three years now, three, stable and amazing years, and so I want to build more of a connection to the country I’m living in. Participating in something Singaporean, like the NYAA, which is unique to Singapore, makes me feel like at least I’ve done something Singaporean while I’ve lived here. It may also be a worthwhile endeavor to do some research on Singapore’s history, but I feel more tied to the youth here in Singapore through doing this award, and boosting that feeling of connectivity to your society I know is beneficial for your mental health.
So, it is for all of these reasons that I think I would benefit from doing this award, and the actual prize isn’t all that hard to achieve too. It’s a win-win, in my opinion.
What are some of my goals?
I want to go more in depth into this in further posts, but for the moment I am looking to start working towards the healthy living required quota of hours, through music to help me reduce my stress throughout the year. Music is one of my passions, and playing and practicing music helps me to express myself. However, Music can also provide good strategies on how to deal with stress, because as I am sure you know, musicians have a dual nature: they practice, and they perform. Performances are nerve wracking, and musicians have lots of different strategies to overcome this pressure, which are what I’m looking to develop and learn.
I will also be attending the Bhutan Outdoor Education trip in April, so during that time I am looking towards researching more on Bhutan’s culture, and exploring that through experience on this 11-day trip. I know that during the excursion, we will be visiting a lot of temples, and I wish to know more about the religion and worshipping practices that proceed within those holy places. I feel that this will be very relaxing and a good opportunity for me to learn about mindfulness as well as the culture within these remote parts of Asia.
For service, I already am participating in a Focus Group (Voices for Refugees) and a GC (Ladakh), as well as being a Portfolio Head in the High School Service Executive Committee. However, I would like to explore the Local service option more this year and next, because I feel that I should expand my horizons to encompass more areas of service. I participated in a Local service in Grade 6, but I was very new to service learning at that time, and so I don’t think I got as much out of it as I should have. For this reason, I would like to attend a new Local service and gain more understanding about Singapore and it’s residents, as well as learn more about Local service and what really makes an impact there.
I do not have a definite goal for Service yet, since Local services start in January, but I promise an update of a goal onto this portfolio when they do start.
What will be my plan for logging my development?
I have been considering different alternatives for logging my work to all these areas, and so far I have been thinking about monthly updates and summaries, perhaps with important dates and learning opportunities specified in the end-of-month reflection posted here on the portfolio and logged in my spreadsheet, which is linked here.
I look forward to tracking my progress and seeing my spreadsheet at the end of the award, and seeing all that I will have accomplished.
Thanks for reading!