#actionproject

By Begum Akkas

I have always been passionate about the power of education to change the status quo with regard to factors such as socioeconomic background, race, and gender. I knew that my action project had to address education, but with such a broad topic, where do I begin?

Initially, I had wanted to create a tutoring program for kids who needed help in school. Albeit, most elementary and middle schools had such after school programs that were free and already integrated into the schools. As a result, I started to think about leadership as a branch of education. With the recent 2016 presidential election on the way standing as proof of the importance of strong leadership, I wanted to plan a leadership program that would take elements from the Young Leaders in Action (YLA) workshops.

After months of planning and brainstorming, the program was structured so that each week a new speaker would come and lead a workshop about a leadership skill, and each class consisted of about 18 students. The program in its entirety spanned six weeks, and it consisted of an array of skills such as public speaking, event planning, and speech writing. Many of the students said they joined the program mainly because they were so insecure when it came to public speaking, and this became the most popular workshop. The workshops were only an hour and a half, and they took place at my high school (International School of Beaverton) after school on Tuesdays. Since the workshops could not last very long because of the limitations provided by the school, some workshops had to be a bit rushed. This is something that I will definitely work around the next time I create a program, and I am also planning on putting together a half-day public speaking workshop on the weekend next year for my alumni as well as for any other students who may be interested.  

The students (all 9th graders) and I learned a lot from this experience, both in tangible and abstract forms. The tangible information consisted of the leadership skills that the students learned. The more abstract learning came from experience. The students learned the importance of working with others while still maintaining a leadership role; they came across their own strengths and weaknesses. For instance, some kids were much more successful when it came to the planning process of implementing an event or idea, yet they were less successful with setting attainable goals. For these freshmen, it was crucial for them to have the necessary skills to gauge their own strengths and weaknesses. Many of them admitted that they had a long ways to go before becoming the ideal leaders that they had envisioned for themselves, but they also stated that they were now closer than ever before.

What I got out of the entire process was not that far off from the experience of my students. I also realized the long road I had ahead of me. Although, much more important than improving my own leadership skills, I was empowered and inspired by these students. They had so much passion and enthusiasm for learning, and I felt lucky to have the opportunity to teach them. I discovered a new found love for working with teenagers and I realized that brainstorming and implementing such public programs was a passion of mine. Public programs combined my creative side with my love of working with other people.

I created pre and post surveys for the students to have a tangible method of assessing their improvements. Even though this method worked, I came to the understanding that it was not enough. I needed a way to show people the intangible changes that had taken place within these students over the course of a month and a half. I finally came to the conclusion that I would film a short interview video. Expectedly, most students did not want to participate, however I got a few students who said yes and were even enthusiastic to do it. This video is attached below, and I have no doubt that the students were able to convey the emotions and passion that I had the opportunity of witnessing in the classroom.

By Begum

“My idea began with a passion to change the lives of those around me...”

As a part of the Young Leaders in Action (YLA) program, all of us are required to complete an action project over the course of about a year. This long and time-consuming project is meant to teach students how to take meaningful action in their communities and see tangible results.

My action project can be considered a mini YLA program. I have created a 7-week course at my high school that focuses on leadership skills such as public speaking, event planning, and speech writing. These workshops are once a week for an hour after school and I am targeting freshmen as candidates because at an International Baccalaureate required school, 9th graders have the most time on their hands out of any of the other high school grades. Also, freshmen as a whole are usually very enthusiastic and interested in becoming involved in after-school programs, which is another reason I chose the freshmen class for this program. Along the process of implementing my project, I changed a lot of aspects of my program and also did not realize the number of elements that went into creating a project such as this one. I had to get permission from administrative staff, but most importantly, I was able to receive the help of so many great people that makes my project possible in the first place.

First off, Andrew Neal, one of the directors of the YLA program, has kept in contact with me for many months and has aided me in booking my speakers for the workshops. I am also working with a teacher at my school who has agreed to give up her time to supervise the workshops and offer us her classroom. Finally, the 9th grade global studies teacher at my school as well is working with me so that my workshops can be tailored to what the students are learning in class. This way, I am able to put the skills that they will learn in context and this provides a medium where such skills can be implemented.

I am very excited to launch my program on the first day of March and am currently in the process of adding final touches to my plan.

Along the way, I have discovered the true role that my project is going to play in my school. Due to the fact that my school is an option school, our population is small and our staff is limited. This year, many of the clubs at our school have begun to shut down because the teachers do not have time to supervise the clubs, yet they are also receiving pressure from the administration above them on various tasks that makes it impossible for the teachers to spend time on high school clubs. This year I am a junior in high school and have much more independence and am more proactive with my life; however this was not true to the same extent when I was a freshman. The various clubs that I took part in at my school as a freshman gave me a level of courage and determination that I might not have gained if it was not for the opportunities that were presented before me. Now that I see so many of these opportunities crumble, I cannot help but think of the talent that is going to waste because of the lack of diversity that is growing at my school. Such eradication will not affect me since I am almost done with high school, nevertheless I see so many bright and capable adolescents who will not have the same chances that I had. Unintentionally, the consequence has now become that my action project is able to provide a source for these passionate and open-minded students. This was my initial goal all along however I never realized the crucial role that my efforts would play in my community because of such turn of events.

Everyone knows that the environment is being disrespected and ruined by many of us. All one has to do is look and observe the situation around him to prove this to be true. This distressing situation may be telling people to go and do something to solve the problem. One must be aware of this growing problem in our society. One of the problems may be everyone’s apathy and lack of information about the situation. The group hopes to remedy this problem by spreading Environmental Awareness to the youth. After all, they do say that the youth is the hope of our nation. It makes sense to say that they could be the hope for our environment, as well.

The group has decided to conduct its action project of spreading environmental awareness among the youth in a high school in Pasay City, Pasay City East High School. The group conducted a lecture about Environmental Awareness among a class of Grade 7 students and even facilitated some activities that hope to increase environmental awareness among the students. 

The lecture included showing several videos to the students that would make them consider about the different problems in the environment. These videos included “MAN” by Steve Cutts and “Going Green” by Thiago S. Aranha. The students were also asked to give their views and opinions about the said videos at the end of the film showing. 

The recitation brought many interesting views about the environment and proposed solutions to save it from the student. It truly   shows that there may still be hope yet if people are only able to know more about the problems of the environment. After that, one of the group members, Hannah Pabalan, gave her own explanation of the videos.

The short lecture was followed shortly by some activities that the students were asked to do. Some were assigned to write essays about the environment and some solutions that they think can solve the problems about it, others made posters and slogan and while others yet again were asked to make some presentations such as a rap and a rendition of the song “Anak ng Pasig”.

The students all showed their talent in their different activities and everyone had fun while doing all of it as well. Three winners each were chosen for the essay writing, slogan, and poster making and they were all awarded with prizes. Several students were also asked to present their work in class and everyone was able to evaluate it. 

The event ended in a high note with everyone being able to gain something from it whether it is new knowledge about the environment or new friends. Everyone must remember that small changes can become part of a larger change. Improvement starts with the youth so we should start by educating them to appreciate the environment, one of God’s greatest gifts to humanity.

Here are the outputs of the students:

This action project was conducted by LIA-COM 28 students of De La Salle University-Manila namely:

Maria Sofia Onte

Hannah Pabalan

Andre Ethan Chua

Christine Joy Pascual

Marcelyn Arvie Relucio

Eliz Ang

Angela Delmoro

Jenny Mendizabal

Did someone say holiday?

Well, that concept ceases to exist when you study at the world's most international business school--you get no days off. 

It's Action Project time and teams are on fire. The Action project is the capstone project that allows us to bring together all the learning done over the last 9 months, apply to and solve a client's growth or innovation challenge and have fun while at it.

Our clients this year include Coca Cola, Disney, Unilever, Harrods, Starbucks and Twitter. 

It's 6 weeks of pressure cooker work and the clock is ticking!

Good luck everyone and remember to have fun!

Ok so today went GREAT!

a lot of people showed up and they thought what i said was good 

i gave a lot of information about trees and then we got to cleaning

the best thing was that a company called tropical creations was able to come on friday (20)