I participated again in recycling for Bio Club this year. This year in Bio Club, we mostly focused on recycling and I thought it was important that we provided this service for our school. As vice president of the club, I made sure to help out on Fridays to collect recyclables because we needed a lot of help this year. We had less members than last year, so it made it much more difficult to finish collecting recyclables with a fewer amount of people. If I could change one thing about this year in Bio Club, I would have made it a higher priority to help with recycling because I feel that I did not contribute enough hours for this club.
Action: 3 Hours
I participated again in recycling for Bio Club this year. This year in Bio Club, we mostly focused on recycling and I thought it was important that we provided this service for our school. As vice president of the club, I made sure to help out on Fridays to collect recyclables because we needed a lot of help this year. We had less members than last year, so it made it much more difficult to finish collecting recyclables with a fewer amount of people. If I could change one thing about this year in Bio Club, I would have made it a higher priority to help with recycling because I feel that I did not contribute enough hours for this club.
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Action: 40 Hours
This post is to cover the two whole years that I volunteered as a youth leader for the confirmation program at St. Louise de Marillac. The summer before I became a leader, I spent many Sundays at planning meetings and workshops to learn how to become a better confirmation teacher for the students. Individually and with my team, I made lesson plans and organized our class days many times. I was required to find icebreakers, lead Sunday class, and spend my outside time preparing to serve the teens. This experience has been essential to my spiritual and emotional growth these past two years. By teaching the teens and leading them through their spiritual journey, I have furthered my own faith and grown closer to God. There were many positive moments as well as negative, but overall, spending my time at my church became normal on a weekly basis. These hours also account for the hours that I spent alter serving for the Catholic Youth Days in Anaheim. Both junior year and this year I was able to alter-serve all the youth masses for the Archbishop of Los Angeles. It was a great honor and a huge highlight of my Catholic journey. Action: 10 Hours
I had the privilege of being the treasurer for Sharing Our Humanity, which is a school club that focuses on raising money for a world issue. This year, we choose to fundraise and donate to Fund-a-field, which is an organization that brings sporting equipment to third world countries or areas that are hit by natural disasters. To fundraise, we held our annual dinner; however, this year was different from all previous years because we held an outdoor event at our football stadium. We served burgers, salad, and deserts. It was a great success overall because we raised $1000 to send to Fund-a-field. Although it was extremely fun to organize and host the event, this was one of the most stressful parts of senior year. As treasurer, I organized our T-shirt and ticket sales, I filled out an enormous amount of paperwork, and I was responsible for collecting and protecting the money that we fundraised. I never thought that it would be possible to accomplish, but I found that I learned much about myself in the process. This was one of the most rewarding experiences of my senior year. Action 4 hours: This year, our Bio Club started a school wide recycling program. We received new recycling boxes and placed them in each classroom. Every Friday, Bio Club went to each classroom to empty the bins and put the in the back to get collected by our recycler. I loved participating in collecting recyclables a few of the Fridays because I got to hang out with mostly seniors and get advice from them. Not only was this socially beneficial for me, all of the money we earned from the recyclables is given to help our school science department! Action: 20 hours
This season I had the wonderful honor of being one of the captains for the JV soccer team at my high school. This season was the best soccer season I had because instead of being younger player on the team, I was one of the players who had the most experience with high school soccer. Not only did this sport require time on the playing field, it cost a lot of time and energy for outside team bonding activities as well. To learn to trust eachother, we hung out outside of practice and held team dinners and sleepovers to get to know eachother better. This, I believe, was essential to helping us with teamwork because we learned about the importance of respect, communication and working together, One of my favorite memories from this season was when we finished our soccer game and our coach was helping us with ideas to ask people to the Sadies dance. We all enjoyed becoming a close family, and there was no other team that I have been a part of where I felt comfortable and welcome. Action 30 hours: Every year, I particiapate in a 30 fast with my chruch youth group to raise awareness for world hunger. This event is one of the activities I look forward to time after time because even though fasting for 30 hours seems impossible to accomplish, it is definately possible and well worth the hunger pains. It gives us the opportunity to know what hunger feels. Not only do we fast, we spend our time collecting donations after each mass and packaging over 15,000 meals to send overseas through Catholic Relief Services. We also went out in the community and collected hundreds of cans for the St. Vincent de Paul food pantry. Overall, I had an life changing experience where I spread awareness, and found a deeper love for Christ and my neighbors. Creative: 2 Hours
I was asked by my neighborhood Girl Scout service unit to participate in the Covina Christmas Parade. This was a wonderful event because I got to dress up in holiday clothes and ride in a uhal with younger Girl Scouts. We had a lot of fun as we sang Christmas songs and enjoyed hot chocolate at the end of the parade. The Christmas parade is always an annual event that I enjoy, but this time it was even more fun to ride and meet new Girl Scouts. Service: 10 Hours
As a confirmation youth leader at my local church, I was asked to be a leader at our Year 1 retreat. This took a few weekends of planning and a whole day for the retreat itself. I lead a team of 10 teens through prayer, icebreakers, spiritual activities and reflections. I felt it was a great use of my Saturday as I learned more about my relationship with God and my love for my faith. I also made new friends and connected to the Year One teens. Service 4 hours: I participated in this volunteering opportunity through Key Club. I went to Pomona First Baptist expecting that the day would be tiring and dull, but I was completely wrong. After only a brief introduction for the day, we were put straight to work to organize and sort clothes to prepare for the needy to come and pick out items that they wanted to keep. Once the doors were open and the public was welcomed inside, I saw an instant result of our hard work. There were many families and individuals who were so excited to receive nice and warm clothes for the holidays. The smiles on the faces of those we served made me realize how important it is to serve the community and to use my time to help those in need. After the clothing drive, we led everyone to the cafeteria where we served them a nice thanksgiving dinner. It was heartwarming to see how my time and energy made others feel full, warm and welcome in the community. This was an experience that I will not forget.
Service 12 hours: During this weekend (November 8-10) the Charter Oak Girl Scout Community participated in our annual Camporee. This year the theme was Disney and my troop was Pocahontas and as the oldest troop in the council, we ran the weekend. Our troop ran the cooking station for the rotations and we taught the younger troops how to cook using a dutch oven. It was really exciting to see the younger girls interested in cooking around the campfire. Over the course of the weekend, my leadership skills were put to the test as I and my fellow older girls were the camp's face for activities. We were in charge of setting up booths, preparing games and events for the girls, and best of all, hosting Saturday night's campfire. Campfire is always my favorite parts of Girl Scout Camping because we get to sing really fun songs and be crazy. It really gets the younger girls excited about becoming an older girl scout because they love to lead the silly songs. For me, this year's campfire was especially moving for me because I, Natalie, Alyssa, and Hailey preformed a traditional camporee skit that was passed down to us by our old girl scout role models. Working with the younger girls really inspires me every time I have a new adventure with them. I felt so inspired to be a better role model when I saw the many huge smiles the girls had on their faces whenever I talked to them at camp. I know that I have become a much better leader and citizen because of my experiences, such as Camporee, with Girl Scouts. Every time a girl says they want to be just like me then she grows up, my heart fills up with love and energy and then I know I have been doing something right. Action 27 Hours: This has been my third year on the cross country team. We started practices over the summer and we kept up the hard work until the first week of November. Like always, it was really tough at first to get back into shape to compete. This year was really different for me on the team because I was one of few girl returners. We had a really big addition to our team this year and I loved getting to know each and every one of my fellow teammates. My leadership skills have definitely changed over the course of the Cross Country season because being one of the most experienced runners on the team, I was a mentor for some of the new girls on the team. Being on the team has greatly influenced my community building skills and my strength. Giving it my all on the highest hill on a course or sprinting the last 200 meters of my race has shown me that anything is possible if I just push myself to the limit. I am so proud to admit that my favorite memory of all of high school was the night that I ran my personal record at the Woodbridge Invitational. During the race, all that was going through my mind was that i needed to constantly push myself to go faster even when my body wanted to give up. The last leg of the race took place at the track and as i rounded the corner to sprint my last 100 meters I felt my heart pounding and my lungs gasping for breath. When I crossed the finished line and received my metal for being 17th place out of over 180 girls I went straight to my coach to find out that I made my goal by ONE SECOND! The rush I got fro the exciting news made me the happiest person on earth and I spent the rest of the night celebrating with my fellow teammates for all of our accomplishments. This past season, I have not just made the memories of a lifetime, I have become a member of a wonderful group of people that I am proud to call my second family. Action 30 hours: The Gold Award is the highest honor a girl can receive as a Girl Scout. For my project, I centered my focus on establishing a safe, ADA accessible trail around a bee hive at the Witter Narrows Nature Center in South El Monte. I spent a lot of time preparing to build the trail by making trips to the center and measuring out the length of the trail and the size of the posts that i needed. I got the posts donated but I had to buy everything else at the store. In short, for three entire days (October 12, 19, and 26), myself and a small group composed of my friends and family worked ourselves to the max as we cleared measured out the entire area, dug holes, mixed concrete, and planted the poles around the hive. It took a lot of sweat and energy but in the end the hard work payed off. I was under a lot of stress for those 3 days because I had to lead everyone and make sure everything was going according to plan. This summer, my project seemed that it would never be taken into action and completed. I am so proud of my dedication and determination because the finished product looks great. Looking back, I would ave been much more organized. I did most of the planning last minute, so I was unable to ask for donations in time to start the project. I could have save a lot more money if I had asked for donations from local hardware stores since I had to spend my own money for the project. That is one of the major lessons that I learned over the course of those three days. Overall, my entire Gold Award is not complete because I still need to make brochures and You Tube videos to educate the public about my trail and the importance of bees to nature, but at least I finished the hardest part of the project- building the trail! Service 2 hours: Every year, the Charter Oak Girl Scouts hold a "Round-up" to try to encourage more girls to join troops. Last year was a complete failure so we tried to make it a success this year. After passing out thousands of flyers to the elementary schools in the district, we arrived Sunday afternoon to find that only 3 girls had shown up to participate. We still sang songs with them and showed them a few exciting things about camping. I was happy when I spent some one-on-one time with a little kindergartner. She was extremely shy but after some time on the swings with her, I made her comfortable enough to tell me about her school and friends. For the most part, I was completely annoyed and frustrated for nearly the entire time. It was completely unsuccessful this year and it was a waste of my Sunday. If we cannot get more participants to come,
Action 2 hours: As a member of the Earth Club at my school, I went to Bolsa Chica Conservatory in Orange County to help maintain the area. At first, I thought we were going to be picking up trash, similar to what we did in previous years, but the employee sent us to help out the reserve in another way; they had us get dirty by pulling an invasive plant out of the soil! It was frustrating for the most part; our club thought that we were picking the right plant at first, but the leader volunteer said that it was not the kind we were looking for. Later, we came to realize that this plant was the invasive species after all! After a long day of hard work, our group crossed the street to have a picnic for lunch on the beach and play in the water. Service and NHS 3 hours: On August 25, a few of the girls from my Girl Scout troop participated in a bridging ceremony where a Brownie troop was moving up to become Juniors, the next level of Girl Scouts. The ceremony took place at Pioneer Park in Azuza. I had a really good time preforming the bridging for the girls. They were so proud that they got to become a level higher. Their faces were full of smiles as they proudly walked across the bridge to receive their rainbow bridge badge and put on their new, green vests. After the ceremony, we had a huge feast and we stuffed ourselves with tons of pizza and cake to celebrate the girls' achievement. Later, I taught the girls one of my favorite games that I had learned in Girl Scouts called "Octopus". It involved a lot of running and the girls were so excited that I passed down one of my favorite scout traditions from when I was a younger girl scout. And at the same time all of the parents were glad that the girls used up all their energy from the goodies by running around. What really impacted my day was that both the parents and the girls were so amazed at my vest which is decorated with all of the badges and awards I have earned over the past five years. The girls were so excited to see me wear it that they counted how many participation patches I had on the back. I think on this day I was a great source of information for the parents. They had so many questions about my trips and accomplishments and after they thanked me for being there to support their young girls. I love to help out with younger girl scouts because I want to show them that it is still beneficial to be a Girl Scout at an older age. They look up to me and every time I volunteer with younger troops, I am inspired to continue to share my experiences with others. The best thing that comes from volunteering with Girl Scouts is that I am constantly building my leadership skills and I am improving my communication skills with both adults and younger girls. Creative 96 hours (four whole days!): From August 1st to the 4th I was a Unit Leader (which is a Girl Scout Councilor) at an overnight Girl Scout Camp in Idyllwild, California. This was my second time as a councilor at this camp and both years I have made the best memories and met amazing friends. This camp is very special because the campers(ranging form 8 to 16) are separated into units by age and are under the care of unit leaders for the entire time at camp. At camp everyone has a camp name, mine is Grizzly, and we (councilors) refuse to tell our real names to the campers until the last day. Best of all, each unit has a theme that they keep all weekend and the unit leaders go all out with t-shirts, decorations, and accessories for the campers. During the entire camping weekend myself and my partner, Olivia aka "Olive Oyl", were the leaders of a group of seven fifth-grade girls. It was very stressful because Olivia and I were responsible for these girls the entire time; we had to get them to and from activities, get them ready for bed, and teach them survival skills to earn a badge. However, my job as a councilor was extremely fun. Our Unit 2 was one of the youngest groups of campers, so Olivia thought that the the Disney Pixar movie, Up, would be a great theme. We decorated the cabin with colorful streamers and balloons and when the girls arrived, we let them decorate their beds with more decorations. On the first day we dressed up and acted like the characters from the movie; I was the adventure scout Russel and Olivia was the old, senior citizen Carl Fredricksen. And we made the costumes ourselves! My favorite part of the camp is at campfire when the councilors lead the girls in many crazy and exciting songs that have dance moves and funny words. The girls always have a blast and it is great to see them having the time of their lives. The weekend at this camp is my favorite time of the year and I look forward to seeing my girls again. It has transformed me as a person because I had to quickly learn how to care for so many girls and become a great role model for them. In my experience from Girl Scouts, the younger girls look up to us experienced girls so much and they always tell us how they want to be councilors when they are older. My love for being a leader has grown so much due to my experience at Nature at Night. I have made memories that I will keep my entire lifetime and I will make sure to keep returning to this camp until i graduate college. The weekend was so amazing, and this description of the basic memories of Nature at Night do not even come close to expressing my love and enjoyment of this camp; it is truly impossible to describe it all in words. |
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May 2015
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