Legacy Project

Walking into the classroom at the beginning of the semester, I didn’t know I’d leave being such a different person. Throughout this course, every activity was a learning opportunity and my leadership skills developed immensely. I believe that this course taught me to take risks, developed my leadership skills, and made me think about what my issue is. 

I believe that from many volunteering opportunities and public speaking, I’ve become less shy and more open with my mind. For example, if something is going wrong, I’ll actually stop and say that you shouldn’t be doing that. I think this happened because of the many charity projects we did including the Food Bank and Christmas Bureau. During them, I would always just take a risk. When we were going to call our adopted family, everyone in my group was really nervous and the first phone call didn’t go so well. Outta nowhere I started thinking, “Why don’t I just call, it won’t be that bad”. At the beginning of the call I was really nervous and even though there wasn’t even someone watching, my face turned bright red. The call to our family ended with success and an inner feeling of being proud for taking that risk. Another time I took a risk was when Resleen came to me and asked me “Let’s ask to be MCs for the Remembrance Day Assembly. You up for it”. For a moment I thought “In front of the whole school….will I be able to do it”, but then I stopped that thinking and agreed to her idea. I prepared well for the speech for the Assembly and believe that together we both did a good job. This particular experience really gave me that push and made me realize that it’s not even that scary when you are speaking in front of a big crowd. 

I feel that during this course my leadership skills of making sure everyone’s voice is heard and positive attitude have been further developed. I always try to make sure everyone’s opinion and thoughts are shared. Every day in the course was different and we would always be doing different activities. Bringing a positive attitude was necessary to take the most out of the activities. For example tree planting- looking at the weather that day was rainy, mucky, and wet but I was all up for trying something I’ve never done before. In the class community, I would always try to contribute how I could. In small groups, I was always able to let out my opinion easier than when we would come as a class, but I believe towards the end of the course. 

My major goal after this course would be to continue giving back to the community as we did throughout this course. I am currently a YMCA volunteer which is connected to our local community, but I would also like to help out in larger aspect. For example, The Surrey Food Bank or at Surrey Memorial Hospital. Volunteering at the Food Bank just once was so much fun and a great learning experience that I would love to do it again. I am planning on applying to volunteer at the food bank soon and later on applying to volunteer at the hospital once I am 16. 

This course was not only related to the community but it also was a great learning experience and place of leadership growth. I believe that in coming years the experiences in this class will act as a motivation to stay connected with my the community and always further develop my leadership skills.