The Bake Sale (Awareness Committee)

Since the beginning of the year I have been part of the Awareness Committee. In this group we discuss about many of the events happening throughout the entire year that do need to be advertised to spread the knowledge and the awareness about them. The main one that our group has treated this year were:

1. Breast Cancer - October 
2. Prostate Cancer (Movember) - November
3. The Philippines typhoon - December
4. Red Day, Aids
5. Blue Day - Anti bulling

These events are all of global importance as our research has lead us. While organizing them we get to know more about the problem and this really help me to understand the world I am leaving in and what is happening around me. My view is now no more narrow-minded to the things happening around me but I am more acknowledge about what is going on in the world.

Since October Pearly (G12 Student) and I are in charge of the communication within the team members. Our job is to update everyone in the group about whatever was said during each meeting, so that if anyone was not present or accidentally forgot their memories were all refreshed. 

This is being a very complicated job and it requires a bit of time if we want to do things precisely, in time, and effectively.

All these events required a whole lot of organization and this is where I definitely learnt how to communicate well with others, how to maintain contacts so that every single update wouldn't go missing. This activity helped me improve this skill of mine, which I definitely did not have before. I realized that even the smallest thing has to be referred to whoever is in charge of the event, otherwise chaos would rule. 

More precisely during the month of December I was engaged in organizing a bake sale to sustain the Philippines as a group of workers at ICS had family or ties with that place. Therefore we decided to help them and their country by fundraising. The set up of the bake sale helped us to raise 220 CHF that we were proud of donating. To do so the organization behind is was crucial. I had to maintain good communication with the entire team so to know who was baking and what. Also communications with teachers was essential because I had to obtain authorizations for allowing the bake sale to take place. Another important thing was to have the change for the bake sale counter and to have our bake sale properly advertised so that customers knew our intentions. When organizing this event I really came to know myself better because fast decision making was essential, I might have made some mistakes while organizing this but I have to say that I have learnt from them. I now know my limits, how to overcome them, and how to watch out for problems I did not know about before.

The bake sale was and idea of Pearly and I so we were really involved in its organization and all the preparatives for it. I believe it was a good input as most of the team helped and was involved in it. It was a great satisfaction to see the event taking place. Especially because it came directly from my friend and I, so we kind of saw our idea to come up to life.

I am keen on seeing where this activity will lead me further in the year. With the advent of exams my friend and I will have to give up the "communicators" role to G11s but we will stick to the group no matter what so to keep on helping out and share our ideas. 

Piano Lessons and Concert

Taking piano lessons is a great challenge as a grade 12 student. I have to balance my studying schedule with my piano practicing as both of them take away a lot of time.

In the past month I practiced a lot as I on the 9^th of November I had my first piano concert. I am really happy about it because it gave me an input to improve and do better but it also challenged me as for the first time I had to play in front of an audience of people I did not know. I am really happy of the final result even if I made some mistakes due to the high pressure I felt.

Also the fact of taking lessons in German is turning to be really useful as I am in direct contact with the new language that I really want to learn. I really do feel like I have improved since the start of this year, not only music wise but also regarding to the language.

Now I am looking forward my next concert, which will probably be in February, but for the moment I am planning on practicing a lot to improve my skills even more and to learn new pieces.

Volleyball Season 2013

This short video is meant to quickly summarize my last experience in my volleyball team. The last tournament took place in Leysin, CH and this was the last important tournament of the season.

After this experience I noticed how much our team grew up as a whole during these 3 or 4 months together. I saw these changes during this time as I noticed how the team played better during all matches, how we were more a really united team instead of a random group of people “forced” to play together. We had fun dancing, talking, eating, and especially playing together. I am really proud of what the team became at the end of this season. I consider this the best team I have ever had in the past 3 years.

Being the captain this year made me experience volleyball under a different perspective, I was the leader and the team was always turning to me in the moments of happiness, difficulties, and struggles. Definitely it was nice to hear the team being happy, it was very easy to deal with such a situation. It was instead harder to deal with disputes and bad moments as I had to show team leading, moral support, and enthusiasm.

Personally I did not find this job too hard after I gained a bit of experience, in this case my energetic personality really came out and I felt really like carrying the team. This definitely gave me a lot of satisfactions, along with the great improvement seen in the end tournament as we conquered 10^th place whereas the previous year we only got last. 

RED CROSS

On the 4^th of Novemeber I started my new service activity where I will be involved with the “red cross” association to help kids that just joined the country and that do not have a house but leave in a family house. Here many families are living together and the kids are sharing all the spaces together.

I was surprised to see how different families became a big single one, but especially I was astonished by the kindness and the desire of making new friends that the kids showed me.

The actual plan is to frequent this place for 6 months going there twice a month every Monday. For now I have only been there once but I have already noticed how my personal skills are stimulated and how I am already starting to improve them.

For the example I had to show initiative as I contacted the association my self, I had an interview with the organizer and then I also had to keep contacting whoever was in charge to get information. Then I also had to show leadership, as I had to lead games with the kids and keep the calm if there was some problem. The hardest thing for the moment is the language, as the kids do not speak English, they only speak German. I never learnt German neither in school nor outside. I only have a chance to practice it during my piano lessons and now also at the “red cross”. This is a challenge for me but at the same time a great opportunity. 

Volleyball

The end of this year volleyball season is approaching and the team is getting ready for the final and most important tournament in Leysin (Lausanne, CH).
This year has been very important and significant for me as I became captain of the team and this is a great responsibility I have to undertake. Being a role model, being on time, and showing leader skills have one of the basics skills that I had to improve and show during this season.
This was my first year as captain of the team, and I have to admit that, even if I have always been a close friend of the previous captains of the team in the past years, I never imagined this to be so hard.
You always have to have a positive attitude, show that you care about every single member of the team because it is at you that everyone refers in the hardest moments. This is very hard because I believe it very hard to hide frustration when a game is not going in the way you expected it to. Anyways I believe this to be a very good experience for my self and for my future because this taught me a lot about relationship with people. It has been a nice experience also because I shared the role with a friend of mine, I liked the fact that we were both captains as we helped eachoter in the hardest moment. Also we learnt how to share the "power". I am very proud when I say that this has worked amazingly as no problem arose when deciding who wanted to do what and when. I am glad I had the chance to live this opportunity. For the first time I was in charge and I obtained one of the most important roles, I am really happy about this year's achievement as this makes me very proud and I find it very remunerating.
Let's hope the best for the last tournament now.

Breast Cancer Awareness Month

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month and, being in the health committee means that our group needs to plan and advertise this event. My job for this year is to present the topic to the 10th graders in order to inform them about the topic. The presentation will happen tomorrow Wednesday 9 October and my group (Astrid and Diederik) and I have prepared everything that we need, we made some research on the topic and also we worked together to create something interesting to watch and to follow. All of this in order to catch the attention of all the students as we all believe that the topic is of high importance and awareness for it is essential.
Below I have attached one of the videos that we are planning to show. I believe it is very interesting as it explains a lot without making the process boring.

Plan 2013/14

A brief outline of some of the activities planned for this CAS year are:

Creativity: piano lessons for the entire school year (August to June), photography book.
Action: volleyball (autumn), swimming (winter), dance classes or cross country training/ gym (spring).
Service: working at the "red cross" (six months starting in September) , health committee (e.g. breast cancer awareness), help for school events (e.g. Halloween, school shows).

Week In An Unfamiliar Environment

My experience in the library has been truly educative and life changing.

This is mainly because I discovered a new place where things are completely different from what I'm used to in my everyday life. From now on the library will no more be "that one silence place where to borrow books" but it will turn to be “that place that offers many opportunities to different people without making preferences”. I understood that the library is not only a place where to get books, read, or study in a quite place. It also is a place where to meet new people, make new friends and learn many new abilities. The range of people coming to this place is very large, it spaces from little kids coming for small little books, to adults asking for books or news papers, and to students coming for lessons (e.g. languages, maths, physics etc…). It's very nice how you can quickly build new relationships that can be very strong.

Again, as many of the other activities I have been doing this year, there was a lot of teamwork involved during this experience. I definitely felt this week as a first experience in the working environment where I had to cooperate with my colleagues to complete each task or duty due by the end of the day in the most efficient way. This experience helped me improve my punctuality in meeting dead lines.

Communication, cooperation, organization surely were the three main words I would choose to describe this week. One of the tasks I had to complete was to organize the requests for different books coming from different cities and then make sure that the actual book would reach the right library. This involved a good communication from me to other libraries. Then the opposite was to be fulfilled; so the other library had to clearly communicate to me who the book they were sending was supposed to go to. I had to organize these books and make sure they were delivered to the right person in the shortest period of time. To do so I had to send emails, texts and call people on their home phones to inform them that their book was "waiting" for them in the library hall and they were free to come and take it.

Talking on the phone is not one of my strongest areas as I hate calling people I do not know and especially I fell uncomfortable if someone is around and can here anything that I say. I feel judged for such simple things, but still I do not like to talk on the phone in public. Here it was one of the tasks that I had to complete therefore I had to overcome this weakness of mine and now I am really glad I had to do it. 

Furthermore I had to repair books that were falling apart and I had to try putting the pages back together so that people would be able to read them again. It was a tiring job but in the end it was very nice to know that a large group of books was not to be thrown away but could have been reused. It really was a creative but challenging task that involved my "arts skills" and my patience skills. I had to do this as the library does not have much money left to spend on new books so it is very important to save what it already has now.

Some other times I had to reorganize shelves of book that where no more in alphabetical order, but when I think of my entire experience; when I look at the whole picture I really have to say this was not only related to “books management”. Here the library is not only a place where you can find a quiet place to study, it also is a place where people that have health problems (e.g. disabilities to move or some light mental disorders) have the chance to find a decent job that they can pursue almost like any other employment. I believe it really is a nice way for them to prove themselves.

This means that I also had to spend some time with them when working together. It was a challenge to understand how to talk to them, what to say in which way and at which moment. I thought it would have been impossible at the beginning but after a while things changed. I really feel like this experience has been mind blowing and very important for my education and growth both as a student and as a person. I definitely got to know new things about people, relationships and behaviors.

Some of the activities I have listed above were very tiring and boring, but with perseverance and willingness to do work I did accomplish my work ration for the day. I have been going there for the entire week respecting the times and being punctual at the working place everyday. It did take me quite a bit of an effort but I am glad I did it in the end. 

Another very important thing is the relationship I had with my colleagues, I have to say that I got to taste a bit of the working environment where there are people you really like spending your time with and other that you do not. Obviously you need to learn how to cope with these little issues and make yours and others’ working life as southing as possible. Basically: do not create problems.

The best moment of the day I believe being the morning coffee break with the staff and the worst were those “dead moments” when no one was there and there was not much to do.

The library will definitely look different from how I was used to seeing it before, and especially as I have come to know many of its different aspects from much closer.

I was very proud of this experience as I have planned and chose it all by myself from finding the place where to carry the activity in, to sending application letters to the people in charge of it. I also had to take an interview so that the boss could have decided if I was a suitable candidate for the job.