MC's for 'Welcome to Thailand Ceremony' and 'We Express Together Evening' Oct. 2010

The Welcome to Thailand Ceremony Thailand Ceremony is an important event since it is the first presentation everyone will see and it'll probably determine the mood of everyone before the hard work everyone gets in therefore I think it was a very important job to be an MC for. The "We Express Together Evening" was considered one of the peaks of the conference and to be an MC was an absolute joy. I managed to be a part of some of biggest evening of the whole conference.

I believe I challenged myself by going for the fairly difficult task because being MC in a not so formal scene made more difficult because I had to convey a sense of comfort and liveliness people would want to see and wake up for, as well as get excited, as oppose to a more formal scene were it would be perfectly scripted. In a less formal event I think as an MC you need to show your personality because the audience react well to that (at least seemingly to me), and this kind of put me in more uncomfortable position because it shows some vulnerability. The aim was of taking up this mammoth of a task was to gain experience speaking to a large audience of people I've not met before. In the long run, I think it good for me to continue gaining experience because one day I hope to be successful enough to be able to be a motivational speaker, and inspire people, young or old to go out and challenge themselves.

The problems I ran into was that at time the nerves got to me and I made a few mistakes, having a co-host MC who was confident on stage (which I might add has acting training and sings in band) really made me look like an amateur at it. However, I did not let my flaws get me down, prepared my courage and did the best I can. I really like the support people gave me afterwards even though I mad few mistakes.

The outcomes are that I have experienced the feeling of public speaking in front of large amount of people and even though there were few mistakes on my part, I believe that overcoming the fear is much harder than getting what you're going to say right because you can always improve your communication skills but unless you get over the fear you would always have a limitation.

For the record, I did assist with the organizing of We Express Together Evening because it was crucial that I knew the order which people performed and the little time we had to prepare it was absolutely necessary to collaborate with other organizing members. And I had to give up one of my service days to create an ' 'assistance script', just in case that me or the other MC (who did go to their service project). I believe, I deserved a bit more credit than awarded, however, I think of myself as not a selfish person and as long as I know I did an excellent job, no credit is necessary.

JUMP! Leardership training Program July 2010

The JUMP! Leadership training program itself is a self empowerment program which is designed to make us better leaders. the main aim for myself was to improve my skills as a leader in particular my communication skills. As a team, we designed our own self improvement course, however, The Jump facilitators taught us the required skills we needed for improvement. They did this, through series of activities which was designed to test us and help improve our cooperative and communication skills.

Click on image to go to JUMP! Foundation official website

Partners with JUMP! Foundation
Click image to view photos and article

The outcomes we wished to happen was improve on leadership skills that we lacked in or had difficulty in performing in. My personal outcomes was to improve in keeping discussions flowing and using everything under control. I believe we were extremely successful in completing our objectives because we put our facilitating abilities to the test when it was our turn to teach our valuable knowledge to the barazza leaders, I found it quite a unique experience because I've not really put new knowledge into practical use in such little space of time. It definitely showed myself how much I really learnt.

The difficulty I came across was deciding with group what our strengths and weaknesses were, as I feel my public speech skill are moderately good I felt I should've focused on something else, however as team we had to compromise and I thought that the team would benefit from improving on public speech. The activities the JUMP! foundation made for us were also quite challenging we in the end managed to complete majority of the task.

I thought this course was a must do experience because these powerful lessons and activities made me better leader and at mean't a lot to myself because I could apply the lessons learn't to different aspects of my life like school work or self study or keeping healthy or self improvement. I feel as long as I keep to what I learn't on the course I could always improve. After the program, I am a stronger person spiritually, intellectually and emotionally.

Try living connected to 6 other people!!

Throughout the whole program, I challenged myself the whole time and I was constantly focused on the tasks in hand. The program was designed to make us global citizen and better leaders and this can be applied to many aspects of my life; too much for me to mention but I'll never forget this experience.

Go Team Regents!!

Jesters Fair 2010 Sept. 2010

Me manning the booth...
I'm the one with the white shirt and red towel

My main aim of the activity was to be in the booth selling the tickets because I haven't done this job in the previous years and wanted more responsibility so I would be in charge of the money and the social work. I was at the ticket booth for most of the day and gained some valuable experience with this. The Regents booth aimed to raise as much money as they could and in order to give us a higher chance of raising more we separated into different activities; penalty shoot out (most popular activity), The Regents Community partners merchandise was sold, building goal post challenge. This was done so we can target more people into the stall to raise more money.

In the end, we raised quite a lot of money for Jesters. The exact number, I'm not sure of however it didn't matter because I think what we had done had helped someone in need. I also managed to gain some experience in the ticket booth, but my biggest difficulty came when unhappy man came to ask for his money back, surprisingly I managed to convince this man to just give it to charity and would go to a good cause, as this man was quite intimidating I was actually quite proud of myself and found this a test of my courage. I did, however, learn a lot from the experience.

Some other booth employees!!!

I believe that the activity is aimed to help other people other than myself, and it doesn't necessarily have to be direct or in direct as long as action is taken. It does mean a lot to me that I could change somebodies life by doing such a simple job. I learn't to work collaboratively with each activity coordinator so that I could direct the people to they're desired designated activity.

The experience of this activity could be helpful in the future by giving me confidence in dealing with unhappy customers and be more organised to direct people effectively and efficiently.

Round Square Conference 2010 - Design Display Activity April 2010 - Oct. 2010

I wanted to create art pieces which were aesthetically pleasing and relevant to the conference. My personal objective was to create and design something I would be proud of. I intended in trying new medium that I've have little or no experience using. Initially, I wanted to make a more digital graphic art piece, however, the size that was required was far too large for a printed digital version therefore I first made a digital design which was better because rather than starting over again I could just make any amendments  then and there. This was good because it gave me the ease of taking it slow and patiently so that I could make a better art piece.

Final Digital Design

After I was satisfied with a design, it would be replicated to scale on the bigger canvas. As a team in this activity, I think everyone did a tremendous job and anywhere people could help out they did so the whole piece in itself wasn't just an individual piece but a collaborative effort. I believe when it was time for the artworks to be displayed, many people viewing each piece really enjoyed it.



Personally, I was more proud of my digital design because my skills a graphic designer are fairly amateur but I have the desire to improve on this tough skill. I think this skill will also help me in my future career and aspirations. Looking at the amount of time I had and the fairly complex idea I had, I'm glad everything came together at the end. I think it was a successful project and it definitely challenged myself is more ways that one, for example, I am more of a designer who likes to work by himself and what everything done right  for me to allow another individual to help me tested me on my trust towards other people.

Another digital piece I designed

I find this task very meaningful because of the future prospects of my career I wish to peruse and the many various skill I improved on the be large steps to becoming a better artist in the future. I liked the fact that there are unorthodox ways to fixing a problem like scaling up my tiny design we used a projector and traced the outline, in art the projector typically isn't used to do these kind of things.

I believe that this concept of integration into other situation is great because I think that unconventional ways of solving problems may sometimes be some of the best solutions, and a world so fixated on sticking to the norms sometimes something out of the ordinary can be just the right 'cup of tea'.

The real design up on the wall (it is slightly
different to the digital design)

Cross Bay Swim 2009 Nov. 2009

Rotary Club of Jomtien - Pattaya Thailand
 (CLICK image to go to official website)

My objectives was to complete the swim and place in the top half, raise at least 1,500 Baht in sponsorships. The cross-bay swim is a popular event in Pattaya organised by Pattaya's Rotary Club which the money raised would go to charity. Swimmers have the choice of swimming across the whole bay (3.5km) or half the bay (1.5 km). I decided to do the shorter 1.5 km because in previous years I did the 3.5 km and I was completely exhausted and this year I felt my fitness level weren't up to par therefore I made the logical choice of going for the shorter swim as I would still be part of the swim and I could help charity as well. however, I did set myself the goal of placing top half of the swimmers so I could push myself to the limits.

In the end, I manage to surprise myself and had placed quite high which mean't it was a very successful race. I placed in top 15 which compared to the amount of swimmers; I was top 5 %. At the same time I managed to also exceed my goal of raising 1,500 Baht; I raised an extra 1,000 more Baht (making a total of 2,500).

The body of the next Micheal Phelps
(before he took the drugs though)

Raising the amount of sponsorships I made was not an easy task for myself, and found it quite challenging as it tested my social skills, in term of asking for donation. I feel quite uncomfortable in doing so especially from strangers, and quite often I was very hesitant in to ask for donation, but I managed to overcome this obstacle and raised a significant amount of sponsorships.

I believe the the skills I used and improved upon would be beneficial in the future as I believe that in the future I would get involved in charity work and would require similar or the same skills used in this activity. through improvement of these skills I can now get more comfortable and less hesitant in asking for donations. In terms of swimming, I learn't if motivated enough and have the will power to succeed, it sometimes possible to surprise yourself. And not to mention the activity helped me keep a balanced life style as I did some previous training prior to the event which kept me quite healthy.

Round Square Conference 2010 - Glove Dance group Oct. 2010

Regents Round Square Conference 2010 - WE WALK TOGETHER
(Click on the image to go to official website)

Our aim was to create a performance which told a story and conveyed a message of our theme of the conference. I personally aim not to muddle up the dance moves and to work cooperately with others. Our dance would be shown at the informal opening ceremony in front of about 700 people. The activity tested my ability to perform in front of large amount of people especially when I’m not a trained dancer and not particularly good with coordination, the task was not an easy task to accomplish. However, in the end through hard and dedication, me and the rest of out that we did such a good job that we performed the glove dance again another 4 times at different dates. As a team, we did a fantastic job and we cooperated as a unit which why I believe why we were successful and everyone did their part in the contribution of the dance. I think this activity was a bonding experience, as a team we would normally bond through conversation but I think the dance is what really brought us together as one. Without this experience, I believe I wouldn’t be as close to some people I know now than if I hadn’t be close to some people I know now than if I hadn’t done this performance. I learnt that in order to work well as a team there must be good chemistry without the bond the functionality of the team would highly be inefficient. I could apply this into other situation which requires cooperation between team members.

The glove dance performance we did!!!

Senior Games (2010) Feb. 2010

The Senior is a fairly new Annual sports competition. As FOBISSEA games are not running for senior student this is the only alternative. I accepted the invitation by Mr. Larkins to join his team for the senior games football because throughout the year I've had to decline many of the matches and I basically gave up football because it conflicted with  steering committee commitments of the Round Square Conference 2010.

Me playing football and full of skillz!!!

My main aims of the senior Games was to make new friends, get into podium position, have fun and play my hardest. During the games I found myself very Unfit and it was extremely exhausted to the play game after game, luckily there were substitutes with consideration I took someone else's position by playing in this tournament, I kindly let the substitute take my place while I recovered. I tried to give a fair amount of play time to the other players who didn't get to play as much as me. It was really my first time in many months that I got a good chance to play football so I really wanted to challenge myself and see if I still have my talent and I can still play along some of the best in our school. It meant a lot to me because I love this sport and when I had to give it up for long time kind of broke my heart.  And it would be my only chance until after the conference is over. Knowing this in every match I would put 110% into every match I played, no matter how tired I was, no matter how much pain I was in I wouldn't let my passion for the game die down. 

Video of the results and some pictures

In the end, my team placed 2nd and knowing I played exceptional really made my day and motivated myself to continue with my prior duties of steering committee member as I knew I would be welcomed back into the football team with open arms. The Tournament really made me think that if you have a passion for something would it suddenly be innate within you and just takes a bit of work to light a burned out flame you used to have. I learned that determination can be a huge factor in overcoming obstacles. I acknowledged that we must not get in someone else way by your own action as for the better of the team we must communicate as a team a share the load equally are else 'we are not a team at all'.