Through this experience, I learned how to better my public speaking skills and my overall confidence. I never thought I had the courage to speak in front of my entire school, but I found out I always did. This experience has also taught me the importance of punctuality and communication, since I had to communicate often with my assembly co-leaders. I also developed a stronger sense of Filipino pride, as I had to lead the Panatang Makabayan every other week, which only made me more proud to be Filipino.

*photos to follow*

I've always wanted to participate or even start a beach clean-up activity, since I am very interested in events that promote environmental awareness. When I heard that CISV Cebu was hosting this event, I was quick to join and to tell my friends to join me.

The clean-up happened on June 28, 2019 in Barangay Anapog, San Remigio. Other volunteers and I spent the whole afternoon on a public beach picking up trash and waste that ended up on the beach. All of us were assigned specific types of trash and it was our responsibility to segregate them accordingly.

Aside from the clean-up, CISV JB also organized a team-building type of event so that all the volunteers could get to know each other. At the end of the day, I felt accomplished in myself for participating in an event that helped our environment, putting myself out there and making new friends.

Over the course of weeks before the show's opening, I worked with my fellow crewmates in order to have a successful show. We were mainly tasked to move props around and off stage, remind actors about their cues, and help them with costume changes. 

Although I was a bit anxious to sign up for backstage crew, I don't regret joining at all. Through this experience, I was able to meet new people and to make new friends. It was satisfying to know that I helped play a part in the success of that year's school production. Even though sometimes I was tested on my endurance and it was tiring, it was such an enjoyable experience that I would definitely sign up for again.

Starting this club was one of the most enjoyable things I did during my two years as an IB student. It not only challenged my ability to lead a club, but it also stimulated my creativity through writing about things that I wanted to write about. It was also very fun to interact with my fellow club-mates and to get to know them better. I was also able to expose and better educate myself about what was happening within my own school community and the members of that community. 

First Rummage Sale

This project was started by one of my friends, who invited me to join her, since she knew I wanted to pursue a medicine-related career in the future. I joined to support her, but I also thought that it would be a good way to start off my long-term CAS projects. 

Before we held the rummage sale, we needed to gather clothes to sell. We set up a clothing drive in school and encouraged students, parents, staff, and teachers to donate any old pieces of clothing that they didn't use anymore. These pieces would be the ones that we would sell in the rummage sale. We advertised the clothing drive to everyone who was a part of our school community. When the donations closed, we received enough items to sell in our rummage sale

We advertised the clothing drive to everyone who was part of our school community. We put up boxes in the school lobby, which were open for everyone to drop their donations into. When the donations closed, we had received enough items to sell in the rummage sale.

The next step towards starting our sale was to sort out the clothes. A couple of my friends and I took on this responsibility and sorted all of the donations into their respective categories, such as shirts, shorts, dresses, etc. After organizing, one of our teachers also gave us bags to donate to the day care children in the center. 

The rummage sale took place in the CIM-MSS center on December 15, 2018. There was a huge turn out that morning, and by the end of it, almost all of the items were sold.

Throughout the sale, I was able to interact with all the customers, as well as with my fellow team members. At the end of the sale, we earned more than enough money to buy medicines and supplies for the CIM-MSS center. We all felt very accomplished since this was our first ever rummage sale and it was very successful. We were happy that we were able to put our earnings into the CIM-MSS center and that we were able to help them in whatever they were lacking. Although the experience was tiring, it felt worthwhile!

Week Without Walls

Week Without Walls is an annual event in my school. It is a whole week dedicated to joining activities that aim to serve our community outside of school. There were many activities to choose from during the week, but for my first and last Week Without Walls, I decided to rejoin the CIM-MSS Paknaan activity.

During the week, we did many activities. One was the rummage sale, much like the one we did in December. For this rummage sale, we opened another clothing drive in school. It worked the same as the first one, where we put out boxes in the school lobby for students, parents, and staff to drop their old clothes and belongings into. These donations would then be used in the rummage sale. Another was our visit to the CIM-MSS day care center.

On our first day in the center, we held our rummage sale, which was also a success. The rest of the day was spent planning for the remaining activities in the week, and also helping sort out hospital files and patient records in the record room. The second day and third day of the week were spent in the CIM-MSS day care center. We played with the children in both the morning and afternoon shifts of the daycare center. We kept the kids entertained by coming up with many activities for them to do and games to play. On our last day in the center, we bought them snacks to eat before leaving.

When I first saw this activity as an option for my Week Without Walls experience, I didn't hesitate to sign up for it. My first experience in the CIM-MSS Paknaan center was very enjoyable and worthwhile, so I had no doubt that I wanted to join another one. This experience was a little bit different however, since our group was not only bigger, but had students from other grades as well. This challenged me to be more communicative with them in order for us to work together. There were also a lot more activities for us to do this time, which was fun, but also more tiring. However, overall, I feel like my second experience at CIM-MSS was just as good as the first one. I was able to contribute a lot to the preparation and execution of this project, which was satisfying. I was able to interact more with not only the people in the Paknaan community, but also the members of my own school community, ones that I've never talked to before. It was interesting getting to know and to work with each of them, and it only added to my enjoyment of the activity.