Our school’s mission is to nurture leaders with character, therefore a holistic approach toward learning is significant. We often take the vast range of opportunities and learning we get for granted and fail to appreciate or even recognize our privilege. Community service is an experience where we get to serve those who might not get the same opportunities and learning experiences as us, the goal is to teach different activities to children who Don’t have access to various resources. Especially after the pandemic, many schools had to shut down completely and couldn’t continue teaching in an online format due to a lack of devices at most of the student’s disposal, therefore teaching them different creative skills became all the more essential. I was one of the in-charges for art and craft where my team and I planned different art-related activities for the children as well managed over 50 volunteers, we also taught the activities to the students.  

1. LO4

Community service lasts 3 weekends, basically 3 Saturdays and 3 Sundays. The weekend is usually our downtime as students so giving that up for a while was definitely challenging. I showed up every single day which shows commitment. Often times we didn’t have the right resources or enough resources so we had to make changes last minute which could be overwhelming at times but we persevered. Communication is an essential component of community service because it helped us build connections with the students, this is where commitment became even more important because by showing up every day and being consistent I could build genuine connections with all the children I taught. I do struggle when it comes to committing to activities, I tend to stop doing something or learning something because I might not be immediately good at it, it has always been difficult for me to accept the learning process but this experience helped me realize we all have to start from somewhere, I learned this not through my own actions but through observation – I feel like I learned way more from the children than I taught them because I observed that even when they were consistently failing at doing something they still wouldn’t give up; when they weren’t satisfied with their final product, they wouldn’t beat themselves up about it instead they would try again. Time and time again I saw them fearlessly start over.   

1. LO5

Working in a team is something that comes easy to me, however, I think that is because I often lack the confidence to voice my opinions since I try to avoid conflict at all costs. While this approach makes things more smooth sailing overall, it isn’t completely healthy. As a part of the leading team, I learned to collaborate as well as be assertive, I shared my ideas and opinions with others while respecting their opinions without compromising my own. I was aware of my strengths and weaknesses as a team member beforehand so I had the opportunity to work on my weaknesses by turning them into learning opportunities. 

My team was extremely collaborative however it was difficult to manage all the volunteers. On the first day, we didn’t successfully manage the resources because all the volunteers would take extra resources which not only caused a lot of wastage but also there was a shortage. We learned from the first day and jumped back stronger by distributing the resources early and increasing the amount we ordered and also utilizing waste materials from the previous day. 

Social skills are an essential part of major life skills because throughout our life we will come across different types of people and sometimes we have to work with people we find difficult, at such times it is important to be patient and work collaboratively even when conflict arises. In the future, when I participate in projects as a leader or even a team member I should know how to understand different perspectives, share my own ideas and respect every single individual.

1. LO6

The global issue that community service focuses on is disparities in education. Not every student has equal access to resources, opportunities, and experiences therefore as responsible privileged citizens it is vital that we give back to the community; to serve those who need help. 

Education is a right in theory but in the real world, we’re all aware of the inequity in education. Education should be a primal part of any individual’s life, though government schools provide basic and foremost education they often lack a holistic approach that I’ve grown up with being a student at Fountainhead school. I know that many children don’t receive proper education because I have seen it and talked about it with people who’ve been through it; everyone who didn’t receive a formal education or didn’t learn a variety of skills in their schooling years mostly regrets it because it causes difficulty when looking for a job in the future. 

Without knowing about global issues we can not become global citizens. A global citizen is someone who is mindful and aware of society its problems; they consider the probable consequences of their actions, value and respect everyone’s opinion, and most importantly have the ability to have global perspectives. This experience was extremely grounding, only 6 days of service made me so much more grateful for everything I have and I now understand I shouldn’t take anything for granted and I should help others. 

This CAS activity in particular makes me feel much more connected to the issue and it has given me the drive to teach and learn and help others grow. I believe everyone deserves education but for that to be a reality will take decades, that doesn’t mean we can not do our part in the same, we can still teach important skills to students that will last a lifetime. 

Overall, like any service, this was an extremely rewarding experience. I feel like I genuinely contributed to society and watching those children shine and grow was heartwarming and made all the hard work absolutely worth it. Activities like sports and arts and computers are overlooked in government schools, so teaching those students completely new skills would help them in the future as well.