Reflection Prior to Report

29^th June 2010, Tuesday

This may not be any major reflection, but still, I think it is of my best interests and intentions in contributing to the portfolio and sophistication of the whole group that I state henceforth. I also hope to cultivate this good habit among you guys, my peers, of always updating your status in this blog, so as to keep track of your RE journey and maybe put some commentary in your life! It’s a good habit to record whatever information you can contribute on this blog as a reminder of the past and a reference for the future.

Today I had decided to take into hands an important issue that plagues my sleepless nights. Actually, I managed to discuss with our dear mentor regarding our RE report. I had my concerns:

Ø Firstly, I did not know where we were heading… We had not filled any requirement of an RES-L project, no service so far, no news of Vietnam yet, no idea of the arrangement. Just clueless

Ø Next, I was amiss with regards to the priorities on work allocations to my deer peers. I was worried that by focusing on everything else, we would eventually miss out the report. Guys, know that you’re in safe hands J

Ø Since there is no service in S-L, what’s going to fill up our grades?

Ø Lastly, aww I just have this *firasat* (intuition) that our project can make it for congress. (You know… high aspirations is a positive ideal) so I thought our group will not make it for congress :(

Haha I was pleased when I finally managed to consult my fears and doubts to our Sir, and it is due to his insightful feedback that I felt the necessity to take it down here.

Due to the abnormality of our project, our mentors do know that we had not been able to make any trips to Vietnam to carry out our service to the locals there due to several examples, namely time constraints. As such, our examiners will be assessing in our report 1) what we have done so far and also 2) what we are going to do.

There are 3 areas of research we MUST fulfill:

1) Fundraising

This is the aspect of the project which will take up around 60% of our ‘what we have done so far’ in the report. In many ways, fundraising has been the objective of our research, especially in term 3 where we had our ORA as well as sending out the letters.

There are many details we can link to fundraising. As an example I would like to highlight the visit to the candy shop at ion. By visiting the shop we were actually are having a first-hand experience of a market survey as we were intending to take into consignment several boxes of candy for the upcoming ORA fundraising activity. Another example may be our group’s effort on the 2 posters which were used for the ORA as well. These posters indicate an area of raising awareness, which is common during fundraising as many major nonprofit organizations would like the public to know about what they do as well.

2) Water

This is an area we should turn the spotlights to. I feel that we had not conducted any significant amount of research in this area so far, even though we had initiatives by members to research some purifying techniques such as the tablet which costs US$0.10 each.

These are the areas of interest: water in undeveloped countries, purifying techniques of water, causes of water pollution, ways to prevent pollution, types of diseases spread via water contamination, water conservation, the role the government may play in avoiding contaminated water, so on. The list is not exhaustive, but this is what we should include in the report.

With regards to water, we should also include our plan about how we are coping with the water situation in Quang Nam. There are two parts. Firstly is the part on purifying water, which we should funnel some of our funds into if possible, and secondly it is about the education of the villagers regarding avoiding contaminated water supplies and those stuff.

3) Vietnam

Firstly, we have to include very brief information about the Vietnamese language, the culture of Vietnam, the dos and don’ts of culture shock, since we are visiting our host country. We should also include some information about the government’s plans or policies on water supplies to rural areas, as well as factories near ground zero in Quang Nam which may be polluting the river sources if possible.

Perhaps to conclude our research journey, we can state how the role of the government implicates the life of those in the rural areas. Especially in a developing country like Vietnam, we can observe how the need for industrialization affects the life of villagers there.

Finally I would also like to point out on 2 learning methods that we have to embrace in our report as well as the rest of our RE journey, that is decorative content and procedural content. Decorative content refers to information like facts and statistics and analysis, which is what every report should include. Procedural content is about our methodology, our techniques of carrying our activities, and this also include our learning development process, such as filling up list of companies for letters, raising awareness etc all in the act of fundraising. I am confident that if all works well, we’ll surely score for both guys.

This is why I had got each of you guys to read up on the above subjects for literature review. With the above-mentioned information, you should realize the significance of conducting reviews, so as to gain information and insight, as well to serve as a catalyst for the quest of knowledge.

Guys our first draft is in week 4. Like Mrs. Lim said, the board of scholarships isn’t looking for straight A’s. You know the rest. J

Literature Review: What is Art?

Name of Book: What is Art?

Author: Rosemary Davidson

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary: This book, in a nutshell, gives us an introduction into the world of art and introduces the basics and foundations of art and the understanding of it to the reader. It infuses the art experience into its pages and also gives us different stages of understanding, appreciating and creating art. There are many parts to the book, ranging from the observation and our perspective of the things that are around us to creating art to learning the language of art. The first chapter covers the observation and perspective that we hold towards the world around us, and tells us how our observation added with our interests and background could shape our perspective of an art work. The next chapter covers the purpose of art in our world, be it recording a scene or decoration. The third chapter dwells into the magic and mysticism of art and how it came about in the supernatural scene. The next chapter tells us how an artwork can depict a deep and insightful story or message. The next two chapters cover the most common subject matters and aspects of paintings that depicts humans, which are the faces depicted in the painting and the expression it holds and the body language that is applied onto the subject matter of the painting and the things that it could tell us. The next chapter delves deeper into the application of art on everyday items, while the next two chapters tells us about the technicalities of being an artist; how to go about making art itself and how to earn a successful living from those pieces of art that you have made, and also covers things like copyright. The next one elaborates on different perspectives of different people and tells us how it affects the originality and novelty of the artwork made. The last chapter tells us about the language and symbolism that are commonly used here and there in artworks. Thus, this book touches on almost all the aspects of art and being an artist and provides a developmental depiction of art and how it affects society and community.

Review: First of all, we had chosen this book and included it as one of our literature reviews as we feel that art is very essential to our cause in educating the villagers in Vietnam more about water and its significance to human life and development. This is due to the fact that we are planning to use art therapy, or at least extensively use visual aids, in our presentations and the lesson packages that we are going to prepare for them. Hence, we need to do some research and study into the foundations of art and its various advantages and applications so that we could apply them for our lessons in the near future.

However, I think that this book is too simple and only covers the different aspects of art and its foundations in a very shallow and haphazard manner. It does not include the deep implications and impacts that art has on the human mind and thus proves that it does not really cater to our age group that much. However, I think that it is sufficient as only basic, prior knowledge is required to create a good enough lesson plan that makes use of art therapy.

Literature Review on Photoshop® Type Effects Gone Wild

Name of Book: Photoshop® Type Effects Gone Wild

Author: Al Ward

Publisher: Wiley Publishing, Inc

Date of Publication: 2007

Summary: This book tells the reader the various Photoshop techniques that could be used to gain a potential customer’s interest in the product or simply to make an image or idea much more appealing and interesting visually. It focuses especially on textual imagery and typography that are used in various contexts, and offers useful tutorials on how to create them and to put them to good use. The book consists of six different parts, and each part address a varying purpose for Photoshop imaging. The parts are alphabet soup, which addresses commercial advertising, home sweet home, which addresses imagery in books, or book cover-type treatments, planet media, which addresses the media genre from newspaper to the news channel, beyond these four walls, which addresses the Photoshop imagery that you see outside your home and around the neighbourhood, leisure time, which focuses on leisure time and delves into the typography that we find in that area, and lastly movies gone wild, which addresses the techniques used to create posters and media for movies and the such.

All these parts also have different sub-parts which are mainly examples of the typography found under that section and also give an in-depth and very detailed tutorial on how to go about making it. The tutorials are given in a step-by-step format and even gives technical information that are to be taken note of in the execution of the text ion Photoshop, such as the font, font size, and even the vertical and horizontal scale of the text. They also show pictures of each step that is done in Photoshop and also show and example of the end product after the completion of all the steps.

Review: I think that this book is very relevant and useful for our research and the execution of our project as it provides really useful and meaningful information that could help us when we are thinking of designing a poster for our project. Poster design is really relevant to our project as we could use it as a means to gain awareness for the public as well as our schoolmates regarding our project initiative as well as the plight that our beneficiaries are facing. We could also use it to advertise our cause so that we could get sponsors and partners that are willing to help us in our project and give us both material and moral support that we really need. Using posters to fulfill all these objectives will be very beneficial as visual imagery really helps to capture attention and also helps to convey the message much more effectively. This might sound clichéd, but a photo does tell us much more than words do.

However, all the information in the book is relevant to our case and only very little parts here and there could really be put to good use for our cause. Also, not all the techniques have the desired results that we want and are not even that visually appealing. However, the ones that are good enough for us are really the effective ones that we are looking for and furthermore, the tutorials that are provided are really clear and detailed and hence are very easy to execute. Thus, this book is a good read for our group.

Literature Review on Effective Telephone Fundraising: The Ultimate Guide to Raising More Money by Stephen Schatz

Summary

Despite the advent of sophisticated fundraising methods via the Internet, social media, and other online platforms, good old-fashioned telephone fundraising still works, bringing in over one billion dollars annually from generous Americans. This book shows us how to secure more donors, raise more money, and build donor loyalty by making good fundraising calls. The author, Stephen Schatz, is an experienced cofounder of a direct mail/telephone fundraising service bureau that raised tens of millions of dollars in over twenty years. Thus, this is a book which reveals an insider’s evaluation of fundraising methods and strategies to making good fundraising calls.

Review

This book is very comprehensive as it starts off with the evaluation of different methods and follows through with a step-by-step guide to effective telephone fundraising.
Firstly, the author established various criteria for the most effective fundraising methods. These include the degree of personalization, type of channel, degree of interruption, message timing, dimensionality, time of attention, reliability, ability to reach large numbers of constituents, cost and flexibility. After all, the telephone medium is rated as the most effective method as it is very personal and able to reach large numbers of constituents.

Next, the author introduced different scripting strategies and weighed the effectiveness of prescriptive and non-prescriptive scripts. After analyzing both scripts, the best way is to generate a call outline, which has the advantages of both the prescriptive and non-prescriptive scripts.

After that, there is a detailed guide to the call process:
1. Identify the prospect
2. Introduce and identify yourself
3. Build rapport
4. Explain the purpose of your call
5. Negotiation
6. Facing the results

Every step is explained clearly with humorous examples. In my opinion, this is very engaging and professional.

In conclusion, the key factor for making effective telephone fundraising calls is to be flexible in every process. This book is definitely helpful to our current fundraising project as we have learnt some basic skills from it. Hence, we hope to become more effective in our fundraising project this year.

Designing to Improve Lives - The Idea Factory

8^th - 9th June 2010, Tuesday – Wednesday

On the 2nd Tuesday of the June holidays, right after our return to Singapore from a long 9-day Silk Road trip, Yue Heng and myself had attended a DMP Module workshop entitled ‘Innovation & Design @ Raffles Academy - Designing To Improve Lives’ jointly organized by The Idea Factory and the Raffles Academy.

Even though this matter seems to be related to our RES-L project, there seem to be a relevance and similarity of concepts applied in RESL as in Design Thinking, and I believe that acquiring some knowledge of the concepts that are taught in this module may be useful and beneficial in our RE, as well as any other projects in the future.

As a start, the main focus of the module is on social innovation and the application of innovation tools to deliver solutions which can make a difference in society. While innovation is defined as a creative strategy which is applied to accomplish a set of goals, social innovation refers to new strategies, ideas, concepts that will meet social needs and benefit the society.

Design Thinking suggests that in social innovation, one should understand the target group deeply and sufficiently in order to better meet their needs and make relevant and substantial improvements to the current design of a product.

In the context of our module, we were required to meet the needs of the elderly in perhaps 1-2 decades time where it is estimated that 1/5 of the population will be above 65. As such we were split into our respective groupings and attend a sharing session with an elderly person. During this sharing session we were encouraged to interact with the elderly and ask questions which enable us to understand and seek out the elderly’s needs, as well as making observations regarding his or her environment, and possibly make more questions to ask in having a deeper understanding of the elderly’s life.

By having a deep understanding about our elderly, we are able to infer their needs and make solutions that cater for them. However, by essence of innovation, we were also coached to design ideas that were original and creative, often using unlikely connections to imagine new possibilities, and hence create new products. We were also mentored on the ways to convey our ideas to the group and also an audience, using for example a Customer Mandala (montage) or a comic strip which illustrates our ideas and plans regarding the prototype. Not to forget we also created the prototype for our design.

In summary, there are 4 innovation tools which were emphasized by our instructors, namely The Core Group Process (with referral to group dynamics), Metaphors (creative thinking), Visualization of Thought – (Communication of ideas) and The Prototyping Process.

There is much relevance between the Design Thinking module to our RES-L project. For one, the module does re-emphasize several skills we need in carrying out our project, such as creative thinking, but more importantly about group dynamics. The module strongly emphasizes several rules in enhancing group engagements which I find significant enough to include here in my reflection:

Ø All participate- No One Dominates

Ø Make Specific Comments

Ø Defer Judgment

Ø Think WILD Ideas

Ø One Conversation at a Time.

Ø Keep All Your Ideas Visual

These rules help us work together in a team, where we are able to define our thoughts, respect each other’s views and abilities, question and strengthen each other’s point of view while at the same time, keeping humility and negotiating your ideas with the rest. I think these are some skills that usually enable projects to prosper and succeed where everyone is involved and takes up ownership in the project.

Another thing to note would be that this concept of design thinking is not merely applicable to this 2 day module, or this elderly-friendly innovation, or RE for that matter. But more importantly it helps us shape our understanding of the structure and ways of mobilizing projects be it group dynamics or the creativity or communication within and outside the group. The concept of the module is easy to understand, but may be less easy to harness practically as this require skill, but it is still best to start off now.

This module enables us to broaden our concept on projects via design thinking, and surely it will be useful in our lives and future endeavors as students, employees, businessmen, contractors or even organizers. This may be especially relevant in a modern world where widespread communications through globalization has caused ideas to be easily available for use by anyone, possibly resulting in a homogenized set of common ideas. As a result, in order to maintain a higher end or advantage against competitors, one has to come out with original ideas, linking the unlikely, crafting an imagined solution and thus making yours totally unique.

Last but not least, these concepts of design thinking employ our imagination and creativity, also empowering us with the set of skills in order to improve the world around us, our society. By understanding the target group and stepping in his or her shoes, one is able to see the world through his eyes and infer ‘what I need’, thus being able to respond better to his requirements and personality and create a more relevant and successful product. Let's employ these skills in benefitting the society, designing to improve the lives around us...

iGlocal Presentation... And some sponsors

26^th May 2010, Wednesday

I would like to add on to Ahmad’s post that we had also the opportunity to disover some potential sponsers and supporters which had been involved in the projects carried out by the studentrs.

Ø Tiong Bahru Community Day by ISS international School

· Sponsers: 100 Plus and Milo

· Volunteers: students

Ø Global Indian Internationa School

· Sponsers: 100 Plus ,Milo, Subway (eat fresh J)

Err, while there seems to be only one group that had achieved some kind of sponsorship, I had also seen a board of sponsors for the Lian Foundation Centre. Since our group plays an important role in seeking sponsorships, we may rely on this list of groups or individuals, as we can see the relevance of their contribution with our cause.

So here is a list:

Ø Lee Foundation

Ø Dr Li Ka-Shing & Hutchison Whampoa Group

Ø Temasek Holdings (Private) Limited

Ø Lawrence Moh

Ø United Overseas Bank Group/ Overseas Union Bank Ltd

Ø Prima limited

Ø Tommie Goh

Ø Tanoto Foundation

Ø Lienfung Li Ho

Ø Maritime & Port Authority of Singapore

Ø Goh Foundation

Ø Lien Foundation

Ø Mr & Mrs Wong Kwek Leong

Ø Yong Shook Lin Trust

Ø Victor and William Feng Foundation

Ø Singapore Totalisator Board

Ø Ngee Ann Kongsi

Ø Ho Bee Investment Ltd

Ø Fullerton Financial Holdings (International) Pte Ltd

Ø Keppel Corporation Ltd

Ø Wilmar International Limited

Ø Patrick Lee Kwek Kie and family

Ø The Shaw Foundation Pte

Ø Credit Suisse

Ø The Ian Ferguson Foundation

Ø Johnson & Johnson Pte Ltd

Ø BNP Paribas

Ø HSBC

Ø SAS

Ø Target Asset Management Pte Ltd

Ø MobileOne Ltd

Ø Temasek Foundation

Ø Singapore Press Holdings Ltd

Ø Singapore Shipping Corporation Limited

Ø The American Chambe of Commerce in Singapore

Ø Ernst & Young LLP

Ø Citi

Ø Cerebos Pacific Limited

Ø Isetan Foundation

Ø Chua Ek Kay

Ø UBS AG

Ø Doris and Mick Aw

Ø DFS Venture Singapore Pte Ltd

Ø Luxasia Pte Ltd

Ø Sum Yee Leong

Ø Visa International

Ø PT Bank Danamon Indonesia Tbk

Ø Public Utilities Board

Ø State Street Singapore

Ø Kuok (Singapore) Limited

Ø Neptune Orient Lines Ltd

Sponsorships aside, I would also like to share and give a small review on the presentation by the schools in the iglocal event.

Firstly, the aim of the project by the students of ISS International School was to build lasting relationships between Tiong Bahru Community and their school. Aparently their beneficiaries are the aged and unwed mothers, from a community where most live in 1 room apartments. As such they had successfully materialized a big Bang I would say. On Tiong Bahru Community Day (organized by these students) they had made a sort of funfair of games and also performances, and used funds to purchase for these objects or equipment. They had also invited PM Lee Hsien Loong as their Guest Of Honor. The project was also managed by volunteers made up of interested students.

The students from St Hilda’s Secondary School decided to embark on a project based on the theme: Colours of Life where they aim to boost the self-esteem and confidence of need children. At first they tried to collaborate with Conossaville Children’s Home but were rejected, and instead made up for St Hilda’s Primary School’s Financial Assisted Students. A note to take is that one of the aims they wish to accomplish is to encourage their beneficiaries to ‘take on’ their project in the future, inspiring and motivating the younger generations to instill and spread on the spirit of volunteerism among their peers. Despite denial by the first organization, the group still managed to move on with determination, and this is a trait we should take on in our project as well.

We can see from these two projects that what is needed to come out with a successful ending is not merely about administrative work and good management etc. Sure these are important and essential for a project to come to fruition, but what they really have behind them is truly abstract and intangible. What you need for a enthralling RESL experience is your passion to serve the members of the community be it within your school, your nation, the globe or even your neighbors. Like what the GOH said sustainable CiP volunteerism is when you have people who are interested to volunteer and give back to the community. As reflected above these students do have some exemplary attitudes and skills that we should have on board our RESL journey.

Realism in Art Exhibition

11th June 2010, Friday

Art is the desire of a man to express himself, to record the reactions of his personality to the world he lives in. – Amy Lowell

I had recently visited the Singapore Arts Museum in order to view an exhibition entitled ‘Realism in Art: Voices behind the Strokes’. Using the advantage of the June holidays, I had decided to spare some time in order to immerse myself into an aspect of Vietnamese culture, which is to say art.

However, this is not any art exhibition. Unique as it is, the exhibition showcases works of art from several countries all over Asia, namely Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, China, Korea, Japan and of course Vietnam. The focus of my visit is of course to observe and appreciate the Vietnamese paintings presented there.

Realism however redefines and narrows down the scope of art. ‘Realism in art’ refers to a representation where the artist strives to create the appearance of physical ‘reality’, by making observations of his surroundings and conveying them on his paintings. Yet this ‘reality’ is subjective, as perceptions and experiences influence how we see and understand the world, and as such we may observe features in realist paintings where the painter depicts his art, influenced by social, cultural and political conditions.

As such, by observing the portraits and landscapes of Vietnam, we are able to appreciate and know more about the Vietnamese by how they are portrayed in the pictures as well as how the Vietnamese artist depicts his observation and why he did so.

For example, Blood Law 10/591 by Le Huy Tiep was a painting that was painted in 1972 during the period of the Vietnam War which ended in 1975. The painting depicts a group of people being executed in an apartment by a firing squad. There are 5 human figures in the painting, a mother and child, 2 half naked man and another man wearing a bandage. Since they are all unarmed and in civilian clothing, we can assume that they are all civilians. The picture is painted in red, showing the mood of chaos, anger and anguish in the situation.

More importantly, this picture shows the atrocities of the military forces in Vietnam during the Vietnam War. According to the context of the painting, the artist is speaking out against the law enforced by Southern Government to curb support of the people for North Vietnam and the reunification of the 2 countries. Those suspected of supporting the North were executed accordingly, and this implicates the loss of the lives of many civilians who were victims of the war. The focus of the portrait can be said to be that the suffering of the civilians is much more as compared to the loss of both military sides in a war. This is also not to forget the pain and suffering endured by civilians. The artist uses to this painting to dignify the civilians who had been condemned and executed so brutally by the Southern Government in Vietnam and also to remember and remind future generations of the horrid past.

Politically, though, this painting just reminds me of the many other propaganda paintings that portray the opposing forces negatively, this one shines the enemy of communist Northern Vietnam in a negative light. Or it may be possible that the artist uses this painting to glorify or maybe please the winning Northern forces, which inevitably became the rulers of Vietnam. Still, this is something to take note of, as we explore the culture and people of Vietnam.

Realism itself is not an Asian, indigenous concept of art, but a form which was expanded and spread in Asia by the West, through interaction with locals and other forms of communication. We are able to see in these paintings how the technique had been exploited by the locals in differing political, social and economical conditions. And these ‘realistic’ paintings offer insights about the conditions of modernity through Asian art.

The Pre-ORA days...

17th April 2010, Saturday

The game of life is the game of boomerangs. Our thoughts, deeds and words return to us sooner or later, with astounding accuracy – Florence Shin

While it may be too late to reflect on an event dated 3 months earlier, still I believe it is academic competence and integrity to contribute what I am deemed to produce and share the skills and life-long lessons acquired among my dearest comrades and friends.

Wednesday the 14^th of April was the last RE 3-group meeting we had before the ORA. When we were asked about the design of an A1 poster which we were told to materialize perhaps 1-2 weeks ago, I was frantic. All we had then were several sketches and rough designs of the poster which I had my group to brainstorm throughout the week.

Not that I hadn’t told them to make a draft on Microsoft or whatever. I did schedule them to send me several soft copies of their drafts to me. But I know that this was all due to my poor management at that point of time. I don’t remember now but then may be a period of datelines for perhaps a couple of projects and as such I was unable to take in the workflow, especially in RE. As such I must have forgotten some of the stuff that was due to emerge in the following meeting and I know it is my responsibility for the group’s inability to surface a contribution that time. We sat in silence.

However, it is not to be forgotten that the group did take immediate action when we were asked for the posters. Aiya I apologize to critics but no one can ever appreciate the angular turn of the group’s direction in realizing the goals that were needed to accomplish within 3 days. From scratch and several pieces of scrawled paper we had produced the A1 printed poster, and yet another informational cum advertisement poster which on my part I believe it was a phenomenal work carried out by the members of the group. While there were those that believed we were wasting our time and should have been focusing on this A1 poster, I had to negotiate and motivate my members in building this informational cum advertisement poster and I know it is hope that got us that far, and I really valued the sacrifices my group member, my peers and friends, had made in realizing the results. Instead I think that we had successfully made some significant contribution to the bigger group on the ORA fest.

Since Yue Heng had included all the administrative details and procedures that had occurred on ORA, I would not like to duplicate information, as such please refer to his entry regarding the details.

Ok let’s get in straight on the learning part here. On my part, there’s much more room in being a leader or manager for this project. I personally do enjoy this RE experience so far and it does mean so much to me I can sacrifice plenty of time that is reserved for other commitments such as CCA ad school etc. But not to be mistaken that I do know they are very important to me as well, I have my own reasons. I do look up to this specific RE for many reasons, maybe because I had invited members to this group from scratch, maybe because I know and like working with all the peers in this group, because perhaps I got an RE teacher I thought was professional and kind as I knew his from last year and saw how he mentored his groups, maybe I believed, and hope, to get a really high grade for this particular, last RE project in RI. I bet my bottom dollar on this group, and with a tint of ownership that’s why I’m very in it I do hope everyone feels it this way.

Yet as a project manager and a group leader, I think I have to consider my role in playing a part in this group. According to the Complete Idiot’s guide (which I feel I’m going to do a review on), there are three roles of a project manager. Firstly, there is the interpersonal role where one has to deal effectively with people from various professional backgrounds, create team unity, focus and motivate members to achieve milestones on the way to achieving the project goal and listen carefully to other’s opinions when making decisions. For the informational role, one has to keep people on tract by arranging meetings, creating work schedules and providing feedback regarding results, quality and project deliverables. Lastly is the decisional role where one has to make decisions without alienating the people who would be affected by his choices.

As such, I believe that for the group to be prosperous and the project to be a successful one, I should consider my role as a leader prior to ORA and how I should change according to the situation of my group. It is not just a matter of leadership but also discipline to lead the members of the group, as you can see from above that a project manager should arrange meetings, create schedules etc. As a reflection on the ORA tumbling block, I really should have some disciplined when it’s coming to be a member of this project because someone needs to delegate workloads and resources among the members to secure the results. From here I realize that actually being a leader is not enough for my group mates, but it is undeniable that leadership and management of the project go hand-in-hand.

iGlocal Community Project Forum- 26th May 2010

Hey guys,

On the last Wednesday of school, 26th May 2010, our teachers in charge and my group members attended a community service sharing session hosted by and at the Singapore Management University. This initiative is called iGlocal, and is attended by groups from various schools who have initiated community service projects in the past. These schools were there to share with the other schools and other relevant parties about their projects. Although Raffles Institution was not one of the schools who presented during the sharing session, we were there to learn from the other schools and gain knowledge from their past experiences.

Groups from six different schools, ranging from United World College of Southeast Asia to Northlight School were there to share their projects. These projects ranged from helping disadvantaged children to raising awareness about the plight of endangered animal speci. They provided in-depth accounts of their community immersion projects and also shared the variys lessons they had learnt form those experiences as well as their reflections regarding their projects.

We had gained a lot from this sharing session. Fistly, we learnt that anyone, from different backgrounds and regardless of age, could take that first step and reach out to those who requir help and aid from the community. Anyone could take the initiative to initiate community projects, whether it is of small or large scale. All we need is a little help and support from our teachers and our friends and that little extra effort and we could already make a difference in someone else's life. Secondly, we are now more knowledgeabe of what to expct througfhout the course of our own community project, and roughly foresee the challenges and the rewards that are to be faced while doing this project. We have to remember that our main aim is not to gain CIP points, but to make the lives of our beneficiaries better. It is not about us or about me, but about them. In order to gain the most from this project, we haveto have the right mindset first.

Hence, from the iGlocal sharing session, many valuable lessons were reaped, and from then could we really improve on our project.