CAS Reflection: Year 7 Camp - Youth Leaders

christytwng
Nov 24, 2015
5 min read

[Reflection]

Initially, I was very close to being a successful applicant for Year 7 Youth Leader, however I fell short of the selected. I remembered what an alumni once said on her visit to West Island School; she was turned down upon her first job application - though she did not give up straight away. She told us that she emailed the company and asked for feedback on why she was not accepted, and then worked on improving her application from their valuable advice given to her. I took the same initiative here; I felt that even of I did not become a Year 7 Youth Leader, I would still be able to ask for feedback on my application and only work to improve from there - hence that was what I did I was told that I did not have "as much confidence in leadership as some of the other candidates", and was reassured that I was on the top of the waiting list provided if there were more places available at Treasure Island. The opportunity of an extra place presented itself, and with my original goal of improving my leadership skills, being a good role model and an approachable person for guidance, I gladly accepted the position.

As a youth leader, I planned to improve my leadership skills, be a good role model to the kids, and to be approachable for guidance in any situation. I would also like to be supportive to my tutor group in any way possible.

In the beginning, it was quite hard to organise an energetic group of kids who were on their first Horizons Week as members of WIS. Many kept straying from the group to talk with their friends in other tutor groups, and we also had an autistic Year 7 with us that some tutor group members would provoke unintentionally. It was definitely rather hectic at first, but with the collaboration between us, our TIG leader and teacher (Ms Williams), we were able to successfully organise the kids and prevent them from getting distracted by the other tutor groups whilst walking by.

The first day was undoubtedly a challenge for us youth leaders. As the day was mostly orientation-based, the kids soon found out that hands-on activities only started from the second day onwards. They began to lose interest in our team discussion activities, thus Rubin and I (youth leaders for 7T2) decided to play some small games with them such as "Name Bounce" and a variation of "Red Light/Green Light". We discovered that the kids enjoyed these youth-leader-led 'energisers', especially when we youth leaders were participating and encouraging them.

In terms of time management, we often had to remind the kids of meeting times and gather them at the designated site, as many of them did not bring a watch. This meant that sometimes we would need to constantly remind the kids about the next activity/break, and be around the campsite to find any kids missing from their lines assembled in the patio. Hence, to confront this situation, we gave the kids a 10 minute time advance on the meeting time, which would allow some time to gather kids that may be in their tens, and additionally for those who needed to go to the bathroom quickly. On a personal level sometimes I found it hard to remember all the meetings times and had to refer to my schedule for reminders. Though over the course of the week, improvements in time management were definitely noticeable as we found that each time we had to get the kids to line up, we only had 1-2 late kids compared to 3-6 at the start of the week.

As I worried that one or two kids may forget to bring something they were meant to pack for an activity, I always packed an extra just in case (such as 2 apples and 2 muffins for the long hike). In addition, I was concerned about their safety because as youth leaders, we have taken part of the responsibility to assess risk and minimise harm done to the kids.

Personally I feel the hike was the best and most meaningful thing of my experiences at Year 7 Camp. It provided all of us an opportunity to connect and share about our hobbies, favourite foods, sports and movies through word games and chatting with the kids. We had to constantly encourage each other, and we also found that singing songs as a group made everyone forget about their tired feet and blisters. Mutual support transformed the 8 kilometre long hike into a positive bonding experience that even brought smiles to the Year 7s' tired faces.

All the team building games were effective in fortifying relationships within the tutor group, as well as fostering confidence and support. At first, there was the conventional girl-boy separation, however through the beach olympics and adventure race, gender differences were overcome with everyone's competitive nature and their aim to complete the task at hand. Seeing this collaboration within the 7T2 tutor group has really inspired and encouraged me to expand my support and communications with everyone on camp - they say it's never too late to learn something new! I learnt, once again, about the effectiveness of collaboration, and what a team could achieve that working individually may not attain.

Despite a shaky start, everyone emerged with a positive attitude in trying new things and overcoming their fears during the camp week. I have achieved my goal of improving my leadership skills through organising an earlier meeting time, encouraging everyone to look out for each other, open to new knowledge taught by anyone (even the Year 7s), and physically leading them by following the hiking map. I have strived to pose as a good role model by washing my dishes after eating without the need of prompting, maintained a positive outlook even in the face of adversities, being supportive and looking out for the little ones, and respective of everyone's differences. By being a supportive youth leader and building bonds of trust with the kids in 7T2, I feel that has made them confident enough to approach and ask me for guidance/advice on their problems (particularly the girls) - all the while I had to keep in mind that I had to remain neutral and unbiased when giving advice in order to be fair and not worsen the situation by seeming to 'take sides'.

If I would do anything differently, I would try to be more forward and firm while speaking/trying to command the kids' attention, as I had to sometimes rely on the other leaders to do so. I also would like to interact with the male kids of 7T2 by making myself seem more open and friendly, despite the knowledge that they would feel more comfortable with a male youth leader.