Updates with COMUN and Yoga

COMUN has been quite stressful as sometimes working collaboratively with others in different age groups who have extremely strong views can certainly be a challenge however through this I've learnt the importance of compromise and communication. We are in the process of collecting funds while trying to prepare the team for workshops/practice debates which will be held at the start of 2013.

Yoga: yoga in it's own way has managed to kept my sanity during the past couple of months as I have been extremely stressed out by SAT's, university applications, IB and COMUN.

BATTLE OF THE BANDS!

Battle of The Bands was a huge success! in addition to an amazing concert, both tickets and raffle tickets were sold in order to raise funds. Through this process, I learnt the importance of producing a "quality" event as people ultimately pay to be entertained. On the day of the concert, I was working the front door and in charge of body checking. Thereafter, our CAS group went inside the concert and made sure things were running smoothly. Through this event not only did we help raise money for a good cause but we engaged with issues of a global importance and worked collaboratively with others in order to achieve this goal.


Below are some pictures taken by Amila Withanage and the link to the album.

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.495542797152474.118733.100000902741391&type=1

COMUN UPDATES!

There has been a lot going on in COMUN within the past month! We have been getting in a lot of sponsorship deals and a lot in terms of advertising (including an interview I will have to do on TV regarding COMUN) furthermore, things have been extremely stressful as registration forms have been coming in and we have had to keep track whilst creating letters of terms and conditions, the country matrix and contacting all the foreign schools. This has all taken a lot of collaborative effort in which we all worked together to get the tasks completed.

 (harshini's photpgraphy!)

Two weekends ago, we have the Student Coordinator/Faculty Advisor meeting which was very successful from our end as everyone was well rehearsed and organized. However we encountered a speed bump thereafter due to an incident, which took place with the OSC faculty advisor. I won’t get into detail about it, however it really brought out our diplomatic side as we had to handle the situation in the most professional and mature way. This certainly wasn’t easy however it really did show our “MUN” colours and it helped develop my leadership skills as I had to guide the entire group through this process. COMUN has certainly gotten interesting however we are proceeding forward!

Pictures&sites

COMUN is coming along quite well. We're still in the middle of raising sponosors. This is a picture taken at a usual Wednesday afternoon meeting.
This is the URL to the site www.comun2013.com
The concert for Cleft Lip and Pallate is coming along as we however we've also decided to make monthly trips to the hospital.

COMUN progress.

These past two weeks have been interesting as I have been working with both my executive committee and the OSC delegates. For both activities, I have been undertaking new challenges. During the EXCO meetings, I have had to work collaboratively with others in organizing the conference which is going to take a lot of perseverance however I have 2 years of experience in the EXCO hence it is relatively easy. Training the OSC COMUN members to be good delegates however has been a task as it is a completely new challenge to me however whilst dealing with issues of global importance and working collaboratively with other members such as Raya and Nikhil, we have been doing a pretty good job so far.

Summer 2012

During the summer, I took my part in a summer program in Columbia, New York. The experience was amazing but the highlight was the venture we created for my course, Entrepreneurship and Innovation. My group consisted of me, Anisha from Dubai and Joe from California. We were inspired by a service project Joe had undertook in California in which he interviewed the elderly in order to get an insight into their values, morals and life lessons eventually composing a documentary with the footage collected.

While brainstorming ideas we realized that people hold on so closely to photographs, jewelry, clothes, etc. of lost loved ones as that is the last relic left of them. Hence we developed the idea of creating a company in which families would hire us and we create documentaries (for any during per requested by families) documenting their life lessons, morals, values, advice for their children/grandchildren, stories and answers to questions asked by us. The questions would revolve around topics of regret, love, loss, etc. The aim of the documentaries would be to capture the essence of the elderly and hopefully bring back good memories for the family while watching them. It could hopefully give future generations an insight to a lost loved one. We were told to form the business proposal from start to finish focusing on costing, income flow, marketing strategy, etc. Throughout this process I improved my skills of working collaborately with others as I had to week for three weeks with two people I had never met before who had different viewpoints from me. I increase my awareness of my own strengths in which I realized I'm quite creative (for example, I came up with the vision statement for our venture "keep the lost found") and also showed perseverance for three weeks, even when things got hard. Lastly, it was rewarding to come up with such an original venture which we got great feedback for!

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Senior year goals (2012-2013)

As senior year finally came along, so did my final year of CAS. I achieved the main goal I set for last year which was becoming Secretary General for COMUN for the coming year. Furthermore, I was an active member of the Cleft Lip and Palette group and also kept active throughout the year by doing yoga and going to the gym with a friend. For this coming year, my goals are merely to develop upon these activities.

Creativity: My passion truly does lie with COMUN. After becoming Secretary General, I met with the other two head positions as well as Miss Jasmine (COMUN faculty advisor) and organized interviews towards the end of June. All in all we interviewed over 42 people over two weekends. The process was definitely exhausting but rewarding as we found an excellent executive committee. While performing the interviews, it raised my awareness of my own strengths and weaknesses as I realized I have good people skills and organizational skills however I could possibly improve on my overall knowledge of current events. We had our first meeting with the 30 selected members at my house which was also successful. Meetings would be every Wednesday after school for 2 hours in addition to random weekends which would take place throughout the course of the week. My goal as Secretary General would be to improve the quality and smoothness of the entire conference by working collaboratively with others and encouraging my team to persevere through the rough times. My personal goal however is to develop my confidence with public speaking and improve my knowledge with world issues as I will be engaging with issues of global importance. 

Service: This year for service, we are planning on organizing a repeat performance of last year’s event as it was very successful. We still have to plan out and work out the finer details however my overall goal for this activity is mainly to help in planning and initiating it. During this process and during the actual event, I am hoping to undertake new challenges.

Action: Last year I opted to go to the gym and learn yoga instead of taking part in a sport as I was extremely busy with my other commitments and gyming and yoga were two activities I really enjoyed. I'm hoping to continue the same routine this year as the flexible hours of these activities allowed me to perform them constantly for the past 8 months. My main goals would be to go to the gym twice a week and do one lesson of yoga. I hope to show both perseverance and commitment to this activity as they enable me to feel a sense of personal accomplishment