Over the last 2 months, I have been participating in the GC as a transitionary chair there to assist the future leadership of the GC. At the beginning of the year, I helped new members of the GC familiarise themselves with the mission and vision of our GC and CLS. In the following sessions, I took feedback from them on how to improve as a group both within and outside our GC time. Then on, I began the leadership application process whereby I selected the new leadership team of the GC for this year with the help of both the teacher facilitators. This involved asking them to submit a short written application in the first stage. We then selected the candidates we wanted to interview.

During the interview we asked them to talk about everything, ranging from their past experiences to their strengths and weaknesses. After that, I met up with the teacher facilitators and we decided on the candidates we wished to go ahead with. On the other hand, the GC sessions went on as usual and we came up with a set of questions we wanted to ask our NGO partner during our first call. We also came up with a set of personal goals for this year. All in all, it has been a very productive half term.

A list of goals that we came up with during one of our sessions:

In the audio clip below, I have answered the following questions:

• What previous experience have I had with an activity like this?
• What am I good at? What are my strengths?
• What would I like to improve?
• Why have I struggled in some areas?Audio Player
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In the audio clip below, I have discussed the following questions:

• Who did I collaborate with?
• What made it easy or difficult to work together?
• How important was collaboration to achieving the outcome or my goal ?
• What could I do in the future to be a more effective team player?Audio Player
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In the audio, these are the questions that I have responded to:

• What previous experience have I had with an activity like this?
• What am I good at? What are my strengths?
• What would I like to improve?
• How has my involvement in this activity made me aware of my strengths and areas for growth?

Audio Player

Here is the proposal we have been working on:

• In the discussion below, I have spoken about the following questions:
• How have my actions had a positive/negative impact on this issue?
• How has my thinking about this issue changed as a result of my participation in this activity? Am I more open-minded, caring, principled as a result?

Audio Player

 

Here are a few posters we made for the Talent Quest:

Here is the discussion of the 1st learning outcome:

Questions answered:

1. What are my strengths?
2. What would I like to improve?
3. How has my involvement in this activity made me aware of my strengths and areas for growth?
4. Have I improved and in what areas?

Audio Player

 

Here are my notes pertaining to the conversation:

The sessions before the break passed quite well for the GC. We have started to prepare for the launch of our Talent show: The Kampot Talent Quest. A few weeks back, we started to communicate with the service department regarding the quest. Through this collaboration we were able to devise our action plan for the talent show, and ensure that everything was in keeping with the rules and regulations of Singapore. This will ensure that CLS will be able to benefit from this fundraiser. Collaboration with the service department and the other members of the GC in the last few days, will ensure that my actions as a part of the GC have a positive impact on the community in CLS.

As a result of my participation in this process (and the activity overall), I have begun to understand the complexity of the issue that the community at CLS currently faces: the issue of receiving funds. All this while, I had been under the impression that the funds we sent to CLS were not under a lot of rules and regulations. Being a part of the team that ensures all rules and regulations are met has made me realise that sometimes it is very difficult to transfer funds. This realisation has led me to the understand that sometimes CLS is unable to receive funds due to the sender being unable to upkeep all rules. In a way, I have become more understanding of the issues than I was before.

Here is one of the posters we created for the Talent quest:

 

Questions asked:

1. Who did you collaborate with?
2. How important was collaboration to achieving the outcome?
3. What could you do in the future to be a more effective team player?Audio Player
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After the beginning few sessions, I started planning for the Focus Group workshop regarding the Human rights day events with the focus group officer. During the planning of the workshop we had to send quite a few emails and calendar invites to various people involved in the focus groups. We also had to reach out to a few groups regarding the completion of their goal setting document. Here I was able to utilise my strength of being organised and committed as I was able to successfully plan for the workshop and ensure that all relevant documentation had been completed.

During the workshop, I presented the protocols surrounding the event to the representatives from each focus group. I think that I was able to improve upon the aspect of leading sessions and presenting ideas to people. Alongside I think that I was also able to improve in my interactions with them because I had to frequently go around and speak to them regarding their ideas for the final event. Regardless, I still need to work on leading sessions as I did struggle with answering all of their questions regarding the event even though there were improvements in the manner that I presented all the relevant information to them.

The first few sessions of the GC went quite well as we began to investigate what support our partners wanted from us. We also split the team into different teams and began to brainstorm what we could do this year while keeping the current situation in mind. I have been participating in this Global Concern since the last two years so I did know about the issues at hand to some extent. However, this year, I learnt how the students at CLS (the school that we support by providing scholarships to about 30 students and 2 teachers’ salaries) had been impacted by the coronavirus. This issue is quite important because it directly impacts these students’ future circumstances. If these students drop out of school due to COVID, they will not be able to escape the poverty cycle.

Hence, it is especially important to support them in these times. I think my actions (participating in the GC and brainstorming what the year could look like) have had a positive impact on this issue since the aim has been to plan the year in such a way that we are able to maximise our fundraising so that we can support CLS to our maximum capacity. I think that my thinking regarding this issue has changed as a result of participating in this activity. Earlier I was concerned with the issue of  providing quality education to underprivileged children, but now I have become more caring in the sense that I actually think about how education impacts these childrens’ lives. I hope that we are able to fundraise sufficient amounts this year so that no child has to drop out of school.

 

The first few sessions of Service Exec went quite well as I got an opportunity to look at what the Exec does to support various groups within the service department. It was also quite exciting to understand what I would be doing to support Focus groups this year as my role entails supporting them with standard procedures and protocols in relation to the events that they hold. In terms of the previous experience that I have had, I was the Vice Chair of my GC ( Kampot Khmer) last year wherein I supported the chair with all GC related work. From that experience I have realised that my strengths are meeting deadlines and remaining committed to the activity. However, I have also realised that my weaknesses lie in interacting with people and leading sessions. I hope to work on and improve those areas.

Being involved in this activity has made me realise that the strengths and weaknesses that I have spoken about still remain as they were. However, I think that I have improved in my interactions with other people. I know this because I have had to collaborate with various people in the Exec and I have felt quite confident doing so. Nevertheless, I have struggled with leading discussions, so I still feel quite nervous before presenting my views in front of the team. I think that I have struggled in this area because I am quite introverted and have a hard time presenting my ideas in general. Regardless, I hope to improve upon this area.