HS Dance showcase, team member/co-leader             Early September 21 – Late March 22

Experience: Coaching Junior Schoolers Track and field  (21′)                        LO3, LO4, LO6

Experience: Coaching Middle Schoolers Cross Country (22′)

This activity/service emboldened my ability to lead and my leadership skills by allowing me to support, and coach younger children in two of my main sports.

From September to November 21′, I worked with Coach Deeth to help coach, and design drills and activities for the Junior School Track and Field activity.

From February to March 22′, I worked with Coach Hooper to help support and coach the Middle School Cross Country team/activity.

LO3 [Demonstrate how to initiate and plan a CAS experience] &                                                     LO4 [Show commitment and perseverance in CAS experiences]

Key skills: Planning and leading a session, building confidence by leading warm-ups, drills, and cooldowns. Moreover, making the activity sessions fun & safe

Key skill: Being organised, emailing the coach if you are unable to attend a training session, as well as organising training sessions and drills beforehand

During both of these opportunities, I was able to plan, and execute sessions for younger members of the school. I made sure to work on key skills such as leadership, and form activities that develop the student as an athlete – while simultaneously being fun and safe. This is important as this is not a competitive training session, but an activity for all – and the main aim is to introduce the sport to these students and let them experiment by having fun doing some of the basic drills to teach correct running form.

An example of this, In one of the junior school sessions, I organised an activity where we would run a few different types of relays. These relays were designed to encompass the different muscle groups that are used within running. In this activity, running is the main focus, however, we added an exercise that students had to complete once reaching the far side before coming back and exchanging their batons. We used 5 burpees (chest-to ground), 10 star jumps, and 5 push ups before the final relay. I decided to make the last relay the toughest, and would challenge the kids, I demonstrated the suicide relay – where a runner runs to each of the lines on the field and go back, increasing in distance as fast as possible. 

In order to make this activity fun, as a relay usually is, there must be a sense of competitiveness. For this reason, we attempted to make fair teams, of equal numbers and genders. This made the relays much closer and more fun as the kids were more engaged with the relay itself.

The use of batons here is targeted in familiarizing these junior school students with track and field equipment that they may use in the future, practicing a baton handoff is great practice.

 

LO6 [Demonstrate engagement with issues of global significance] –

Key point: Treating everyone fairly and include participants of all abilities and disabilities, ages, genders, and ethnic backgrounds.

Even in a developed international school such as ours here in Singapore, racism and discrimination still occurs from time to time. Whether infrequently or not, this is simply unacceptable. In order to counter this issue, I made sure that when I was coaching I included everyone equally, and did not exclude or give any bias to certain people. For example, in the past I’ve observed various coaches who have focused on and given tips to only the best athletes in the group. This is detrimental to the rest of the group as they will not be able to develop their skills as well as the others and thus will not be able to become competitive! Furthermore, discrimination I have faced in the past is not pleasant, and it takes a toll on your mentality – disincentivising you from continue to try and continue to train.

Thus, in these sessions – I made sure that I was approachable, I accounted for everyone and any difficulties they may have been having during the session – and I made sure that everyone was both challenged, and had fun during the session. Being a friendly role model is a key to inspiring future generations to join the sport in question, whether that be running, track and field, or any other sport. Moreover, it was imperative for me to encourage and praise the students during the session so that they feel happy, and are motivated to continue working. Instead of providing negative feedback, a feedback or criticism should always be preceded by a compliment such as: “You’re doing awesome, keep it up Jack! One thing I want you to focus on is to try increase your stride length by stretching your legs out further during the next sprint – this will limit the amount of ground strikes and help you move faster”

 

I have chosen to not include any media/pictures from these sessions as I do not want to post any pictures of the younger kids without consent for their privacy.

 

Global concern: Surfaid, Role: Chair/Leader 2020-2021  August 17th – November 2nd 21

Official events that occurred during this time:                                                            LO3, LO2, LO6

1. Advertisement of the Surfaid global concern through 3 pitches and question and answer sessions with the different grades in high school. This was done at the beginning of the school year, in August 2021.
2. Approval for sales was obtained and booked for the 16th – 19th November, where we will sell our face masks in the canteen to the wider school community.
3. Welcome session and presentation to the new members, with several interactive activities in order to demonstrate the purpose of Surfaid and the work we do here at our school

The start of the school has been tough for all activities, with only service groups such as ours being allowed to run due to the 2 people group restriction set in place. Though we had to face challenges and obstacles such as these, I worked hard with our teacher supervisor in order to find and create interactive activities that would engage new members. Alongside this, I created a welcome presentation to present to the new member of our group, this included a summary of the previous years at school, information about Surfaid and the projects we are funding, the goals and objectives for this year, and more. During this time, our GC obtained approval for sales, and we received our face masks that were ordered in the previous school year. These face masks will be sold to the wider school community, and the profits will go directly to the new Surfaid project, Nusatani (which focuses on agricultural nutrition of a target estimate 20,000 rural Indonesian villagers).

LO3 [Demonstrate how to initiate and plan a CAS experience]                                                          LO2 [Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process] – Planning sessions along with my teacher supervisor has been a challenge that I have benefited greatly from. Not only did I have to plan outlines, and resources beforehand – but I also had to implement them within sessions. This has greatly improved my ability to speak in front of a larger group, as well as to direct a group. Being a leader in this service has allowed me to improve effectiveness within our service group, as well as learn how to delegate specific members certain tasks in order to maximize the quality and minimize the time taken. Not only this, but this activity has also opened my eyes to the amount of effort that has to be put in before a session, it is most certainly much more effort than it appears, and I am more grateful to my teachers for their efforts. For LO3, I joined an environmental pitch and question and answer session, and presented Surfaid and our Surfaid group at school to grades 9, 10, and 11 (high school). These events required me to plan and execute a speech, as well as firm up my knowledge of Surfaid beforehand in order to answer difficult questions that could and were presented by audience members.

Furthermore, our face masks have arrived in school and are of fantastic quality. During this period of time, I set up a meeting with our supervisor, the head of the service department, and the finance department in order to obtain approval to make sales. This was successful, and during a separate session with the head of service, we booked in the dates 16th, 17th, 18th, and 19th November to sell our face masks in the canteen to school students. Along with this, I have plans to print and laminate several posters which will have information on Surfaid, where the profits are going towards, and the sustainability of the mask itself.

LO6 {Demonstrate engagement with issues of global significance} – Surfaid GC at UWC has raised over $100,000 over the past 11 years, which funded the mother and child program in the Nias islands. In March of this year (2021), the mother and child program came to an end, with multitudes of success. During a video meeting in the latter part of the last school year, the founder of Surfaid, and a program coordinator agreed to meet with our group over a video conference. The program coordinator went through some of the success with the mother and child program and showed us visual evidence of what our money went towards. Something truly extraordinary, we could see itself all the work that the deployed Surfaid volunteers have done to implement better facilities and teach villager on birth, hygiene, medicine, and pregnancy. During this meeting, the program coordinator also introduced a new Surfaid project, called NusaTani.

For this year, and upcoming years, our service group at UWC will be funding a new project. This project is called NusaTani, and will have a predominant focus on agricultural nutrition, where Surfaid volunteers will educate villagers on nutrition, a balanced diet and teach them several methods of farming/farming new and healthier crops. This project is estimated to have a profound impact on 20,000 rural villagers in Indonesia. Our service group’s money raised will go towards the resources, volunteers, and the teaching of villagers. Thus, it is imperative that our service group attempts to ideate and raise as many funds as we can ethically raise.

Nutrition is something that people take quite lightly in the modern world, a balanced diet is extremely important in maximizing the betterment of our body, as well as ourselves in our daily life. For example, a rural villager may be deficient in iron due to not consuming enough proteins or iron-filled substances. This could leave them feeling tired or out of breath (reference- Mayo Clinic). Simple knowledge of basic nutrition will go a long way towards these villagers, and improving their life. Their happiness and work rate may simultaneously go up, as they are able to feel better during the day and thus, support themselves and their family/village better.

Above is a picture from the NusaTani project that will be effective in the Sumba and Sumbawa regions of Indonesia.

 

References:

https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/iron-deficiency-anemia/symptoms-causes/syc-20355034#:~:text=As%20the%20name%20implies%2C%20iron,tired%20and%20short%20of%20breath.

Global concern: Surfaid, Role: Chair/Leader 2020-2021  November 21st 20 – June 17th 21

Official events that occurred during this time:                                                    LO7, LO2, LO3, LO6

1. Purchasing of face masks, which will be sold in the next school year, presumably in October of 2021.
2. Planned and ran a successful virtual event, which raised a large sum of money for participating service groups.
3. Further sessions with 2020-2021 Surfaid members, with new activities in order for everyone to learn more about Surfaid, and spark new ideas for further awareness and fundraising.

LO2 [Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process] + LO3 [Demonstrate how to initiate and plan a CAS experience] – Due to the pandemic, we were forced to abort from our regular Swimdonesia/Swim4Life event that we run at here at East, instead we had to come up with an event to fundraise and raise awareness for Surfaid pertaining to the strict government regulations and event number caps. Thus, after several meetings with the other service leaders and the heads of the service department, we decided to cancel this years Swimdonesia and instead conceive and execute another event which could better accomadate the numbers restrictions, and still simultaneously raise a decent sum of money for our counterparts at Surfaid. After some brainstorming with our members, we began to plan a ‘virtual’ event – in which the format would be similar to previous endurance cups featured in the Swimdonesia/Swim4Life events we do. This would be a swimming focused virtual challenge encouraging students and teachers to get out during these restrictions and lockdowns and swim. While doing this, the participants can request others around them to donate a fixed amount, or an amount per lap of swimming. This will allow participants to improve their fitness and wellbeing by Swimming, and help us fundraise through donors. However, a major challenge we encountered was encouraging participation in these challenges. In order to counter this obstacle, we contacted the sport-oriented teachers in our school by email, specific students who we thought may be interested – and encouraged students around the school via advertisements on the homework page, Ebrief, and by word of mouth. This greatly increased participation rates, and we managed to raise just over $2000 for our Surfaid counterparts. This was a big step for us and for them; as during this pandemic, a lot of their work and communication has been cut off and donor-funds have become even more important in order to fund project volunteers and government officials in Indonesia who are helping out. This overall was a completely new experience for me, and I have gained several skills in planning, logistics, and adaptability that will allow me to lead and plan more effectively in the future.

LO7 [Recognize and consider the ethical implications of choices and actions] – During this period of time, I managed to push through the final bureaucratic and administrative obstacles in the way of approving the Surfaid face masks as a merchandise product. In early May I was able to finally order the Surfaid Face masks, 50 grey masks and 50 black masks. During this process, I had to convince the service department panel on why this product was necessary, why this product was better than others, and why this company was environmentally friendly and sustainable. Thus, for the first , I conducted an online survey which I distributed around classmates. As below, it questioned the demand for the product, as well as the preferred prices. This gave me a sense of how successful the product would be in the school’s market, and the price level we would have to set it at in order to make sales. After this, I did a deep analysis into the company, the materials, and the dyes used in the creation of these face masks. This gave me insight into the environmental considerations of the company and the sustainability of the product.

LO6 [Demonstrate engagement with issues of global significance] – Face masks and sustainability, health – Choosing face masks initially was a decision I made as the market for face masks had suddenly spiked to record highs due to the pandemic and Singapore mask-on everywhere regulations. As every person in Singapore had to wear a mask, choosing the face masks market was an easy choice – something both original and innovative. Furthermore, this product reflects Surfaid’s ideology of improving health and sanitation – as the product itself is a protective barrier, as well as a tool used to mitigate the spread of covid-19.

Virtual event and well being, health, quality of life – The virtual event we had to run was much different than anything I have ever done before. We had to design and run a virtual event that raised awareness, raised funds, and also improved quality of life while encouraging participation. These 4 parameters made it very difficult to design an event that accomplish all of the goals. However, after much deliberation and planning, we were able to design a virtual event around the theme of swimming – which encouraged participants to swim some laps. Swimming is a sport that uses almost every muscle in the  body while still being a fun activity. Participants would find sponsors, and swim laps to collect money for the event. This worked successfully and we managed to convince a lot of students and teachers to go for a swim during the heightened pandemic restrictions.