Interact Club: Rotary Written Report

Interact Club: Rotary Written Report

• 1.
  Interact Club: Rotary Your name: Vidisha Singh Your homeroom: 10R Your supervisor’s name: Ms. Krengel Your school: Beijing BISS International School Year: 2012 Word count: 2,418 words 1 1
• 2.
  Table of Contents 1.My Goal page 3 2. Selection of Sources page 4 3. Application of Information page 5 4. Achieving my Goal page 6 5. Reflection on Learning page 7 6. Bibliography page 8 7. Appendix pages 2 2
• 3.
  My Goal Rotary is a service club that has been involved with helping people around the world, since its earliest days. Rotary has been committed to help children and the communities in need. In 1960, the organisation had a new approach to youth services, the Rotary President Harold T. Thomas encouraged Rotary clubs around the world to find ways to encourage service among youth and foster their active interest in community, especially to offer them such opportunities to develop leadership qualities. Interact is Rotary International’s service club aimed at young people ranging from 12 years to 18 years old. Interact is a short term for International + Action. The Interact clubs are indeed sponsored by individual Rotary clubs stationed in each country. These Rotary clubs stationing in each country only provide support and guidance, while the rest is placed on the student’s behalf to work out. Each year, the Interact clubs accomplish two Community& Service (C&S) projects, one which involves traveling away from their community, this enhances international understanding and goodwill. Through this, the Interactors develop a network of friends with both, local and overseas clubs and understand the significance of: • Developing leadership skills and personal integrity • Demonstrating helpfulness and respect for others • Understanding the value of individual responsibility and hard work • Advancing international understand and goodwill Gathering all this information, I had decided that I would partially introduce the idea of Rotary and start a club, by partially starting an Interact club I meant I would work in the Marketing area. By that means, I would make a recruiting video and poster to encourage people to join Interact Club. This way it would help me certify if students are actually interested and if idea should run by the Rotary stationed in Beijing and all the paperwork should be done or not. This topic falls in the category of Community and Service, because this whole topic is about serving to people in need and all I am doing is kind-of promoting it through a video and a brochure but it is still a project of helping the communities in need, hence the Area of Interaction is Community & Service. For more information, my guiding question partially introduces the point of Rotary, and the question is, How can we interact with new faces while being helping hands for a community in need? So basically it says that Rotary helps you interact with people from all over as well as help the people in need. My goal for this area is create a recruiting video that contains the plus points of joining this club as well as benefits of traveling to Kazakhstan every school year. Hopefully from this video, students would be motivated and would prefer 3 3
• 4.
  joining the club.Besides the video, I have also created a flyer that emphasizes the plus points and extra information if any students are interested. And to find out if the my product was successful or not I thought that during the exhibition I would ask some people to take a survey whether they would join the Interact Club, if BISS ever decides to start one. So that way, my supervisor and I would know the exact measure of people interested as well as find out if my product did have an impact on them or not. 4 4
• 5.
  Selection of Sources To answer my guiding question, I had to investigate the Rotary and understand it. To begin the process, the first step was to find enough and useful sources that would give me an idea about the Rotary and if this service club meets my guiding question. So I had to do some research and I realized that the best website to look for information about the Rotary would be the Rotary official website. So I navigated through the whole Rotary website, until I came across the Interact section, which explained all about the Interact part of the Rotary, the requirements and about the official paperwork. So I decided to explore more of the Rotary, so I wandered around and I found a Rotary Handbook, which has the documents and brief information about starting and operating a Rotary club in a school. So those were some really helpful websites, as well as I found some with extra information with examples of service work done by other schools. One interesting fact I found out was that Dulwich has a Rotary too (first school in Beijing) and there’s a meeting every Tuesday in the Kempinski Hotel with contacts. With that information, we were able to visit their meeting for reference, from there I had a lot of support from the Rotarians, especially from the president and the vice-president soon to be president of Rotary in Beijing. These sources were really helpful as my research and visit to the meeting helped me understand a lot them. Later on, the Dulwich Rotary supervisor came to our school for a talk (see the appendix for the notes). They helped me with going through the process of starting a Rotary and provided a little background of Rotary and how the Interact club started in Dulwich. They were enthusiastic and supportive about starting one in BISS, they even listed the benefits. These sources really helped me with my video as I knew about the background of the Rotary as well as the benefits, kindly given by the Dulwich Rotary supervisor. To make sure my video would be useful, I had to think of the 5 5
• 6.
  marketing strategy tosell my idea, so in the video I placed points like, appreciation from the universities, job placements and well as CAS requirements, hopefully this charm would work on students and encourage them sign into the Rotary. These sources helped me fulfill my goal, as my video is successfully created and appreciated by my supervisor as well as some of my peers like the idea, so I really think that information retrieved from the sources were really helpful for my poster and the video. As well as next year, if any teachers are interested in pursuing my idea of starting an Interact Club in BISS, then I could help them go through the process because now I understand the whole process. 6 6
• 7.
  Application of Information As I mentioned in the previous section that not only did I get my information from websites, but I also got them from Rotary members/experts or Rotarians as they say it. The mentioned to me a lot about the benefits of Rotary Interact, so that’s the main source of my information, while the information from the websites were used as an background information, so I could get the main idea of Rotary and Rotary Interact. For my exhibition, I will definitely use all the information I have extracted from the sources, as I’m sure not many people are aware of the Rotary, so during the exhibition I will introduce the idea of Rotary Interact and the proceed on. Hence, all the information is/ would be applied in significant situations, either in the product or the exhibition. Throughout the process, I had few complications as my previous goal was to create a booklet of starting a Rotary Interact in one’s school. But due to some legal documents and applications, it was too complicated as those were copyright and it would be illegal to use them on my product. So then my supervisor recommended a recruiting video, so that solved my problem. Another issue was that during my video was the background music, at first I used a song called I’m Waiting by All American Rejects, as it fit the timing, tempo and the lyrics kind-of matched the theme but then my supervisor remarked about the music and legal issues, so I was in a dilemma and skimmed through the legal soundtracks from Apple provided in iMovie and found a suitable song, hence problem solved. From then on, I marked in my notes about using soundtracks from Apple for any movie I create (in the future), lesson learned. 7 7
• 8.
  Achieving my Goal Revisiting my final product, I really think that my video and the poster are quite successful due to the fact that I am pleased with its quality, the background music and especially the (convincing) message. I reviewed my video at least thrice before I had it checked with my supervisor and some of my peers. The comments from my supervisor gave me a relief as she liked the presentation as a whole and slides placements. She thought it was a good work overall. She also gave me the idea of creating a BISS logo for Rotary (if there ever is one) to put into my video and the poster. So including that I really think that my product was an achievement. Still having some suspicions on my mind, I asked some of my classmates for review, most of them liked the idea of recruiting video and had great comments for the video and the poster, they also liked the idea of the logo, as it was a creative task. While others commented on the idea overall, saying that it is a creative, new and an original idea. Overall, I must be proud of my work as I got many cheerful feedbacks, so I think I achieved my goal but I can test it out during the exhibition with the survey I hand out to my visitors. Originally for my specification I said, “My product would vary differently as I will provide many evidence for my answer and present it all in the exhibition. By contacting the Rotary Club: • Get pictures • Get videos (if possible) • Record one of their meetings • Go to the meetings and take pictures (for evidence) [FINAL]” Besides that I also said that, “... I do believe that when I go to the Rotary Interact Club, I will take my supervisor as well as some other witnesses with me, to prove that-yes I have been there and done my part of the investigation...” From my specification I stated that one part would be done during the exhibition, while the other one would be done as a investigation. For the exhibition, I have the pictures and some videos ready to be presented, while for the visiting to Rotary meetings in Beijing, Ms. Krengel (my supervisor) and I went to their meeting and got ourselves familiar with the Rotarians and the events occurring in the Rotary meetings, so I can say I have basically achieved my specifications. So I have successfully accomplished my specifications. As well as I can say that I have succeeded in carrying out my goal: To manage and handle this project, I must ensure that: 1. I have enough information about the Rotary Interact Club 2. Locate the Rotary Club and find the nearest or the biggest meeting setting 3. Contact them via email or a phone call 4. Make an appointment with them 5. Head out on their day for one of their meetings (with Ms. Krengel) 6. Have discussions and record their meeting 7. If that not possible, then just email them and ask them kindly for any evidence they have such as pictures or even videos. 8. And have discussion with DCB about their Rotary  8 8
• 9.
  9. With thehelp of notes, make the video 10. In the exhibition, present all the proofs and evidence.  9 9
• 10.
  Reflection on Learning Throughout the whole process of Personal Project, from Phase I till Phase IV, I have indeed improved and learnt a lot. Starting from the beginning of the process, during Phase II I learned the importance of planning, because before I truly believed in the process of ‘winging-it’ as we say it now, but being forced to go through these process, I think I finally learnt the point of planning because in the end I always came back to my plan and had a checklist from which I ticked off the events I handled and what was left. So in that way, it was easier to manage time and most importantly I got through the investigation section without any problem, especially with the meeting at the Kempinski as my lovely supervisor helped me and kept on reminding me through the process. Most of all, I think I had this one problem of procrastination, but since the Personal Project was to be done by us only and there wasn’t really anyone (except for my supervisor) to remind me of the due dates and the submission of each Phase, I had to gradually keep myself on the track with the dates, so throughout the process I tried to finish my work beforehand, so I could have suggestions and from that I can proudly say that I am getting better at focusing on the work that’s pending. I think the Personal Project mainly teaches us about the world outside as everything had to be done alone and the same happens outside in the real world, so I suppose it was mainly getting us prepared for the work ahead in Diploma Program and in the ‘real world’ as the teachers say. “...To balance a child academic development with a development of social responsibility.” (BISS, 2012) My chosen Area of Interaction is Community and Service as it’s a service or activity that is performed by one or a group of people for the benefit of the public or its institution. Relating this to my topic, Interact club, which is aimed to helping the communities in need, whether it is local or international. I learnt that my AOI helps build references and contacts for future employment or for university applications by gaining experience, which definitely looks great on a résumé as well as this AOI helps an organisation/s to achieve its goal. The best part about Community and Service is the satisfaction of knowing that I am doing something helpful for people in need. Lastly, new opportunities comes from volunteering, so there’s always a benefit for oneself and others, so its a two-sided benefit. As a learner I think I am socially more open with new people as I have learnt through this project that connections are really important in the world ahead, as well as volunteering, because universities not only look for achievers but active participants and volunteers, who do something in the community, whether its their own or others. So basically, this project has taught me to be more adjustable with new people and try connecting with new people and especially to do volunteer work, as it benefits the world and yourself. 10 10
• 11.
  Works Cited "12 to18 Year Olds - Interact - RIBI." Home - RIBI. Web. 01 Dec. 2011. <http:// www.ribi.org/youth/interact>. "About Interact." Rotary.org: Interact. Rotary International. Web. 01 Dec. 2011. <http://www.rotary.org/en/StudentsAndYouth/YouthPrograms/Interact/Pages/ ridefault.aspx>. "AOI- Community and Service." MYP- AOI- Community and Service. BISS. Web. 25 Feb. 2012. <http://myp.biss.wikispaces.net/AOI+-+Community+%26+Service>. "Interact Handbook." Http://www.rotary.org/ridocuments/en_pdf/654en.pdf. Rotary International. Web. 30 Jan. 2012. <http://www.rotary.org/ridocuments/en_pdf/ 654en.pdf>. Tennant, Terri Jenson and Doerwald, Carl. "Interview with the Dulwich Rotary Representatives." Personal interview. 16 Feb. 2012. "Rotary Interact Information Center." Rotary District 7150, NYS, USA, Award-winning Rotary Website! Web. 01 Dec. 2011. <http://www.rotarydistrict7150.org/Interact.htm>. "Students & Youth « Rotary Club of Beijing." Rotary Club of Beijing. Web. 8 Dec. 2011. <http://rotaryclub-beijing.org/?page_id=491>. "Weekly Meetings: Details « Rotary Club of Beijing." Rotary Club of Beijing. Web. 8 Dec. 2011. <http://rotaryclub-beijing.org/?page_id=7>. 11 11
• 12.
  Appendix [1] Interview withthe Dulwich Rotary representatives: Two types of club can be established: Community based club And school based club Not recognized by the government And only foreigners joining the group So they only set up the Community based club History of the Rotary: No religious affiliations and no political Strictly community 101 years old Designed for: Networking club for professions who make difference Build a site Dulwich College of Beijing: 7 years ago Clubs were bigger Expand to young people Start because of daughter and access to the headmaster The first school to agree The headmaster was interested Made sure that interact is part of the curriculum One teacher looking after, like C&S -Has some time to look after the club Paper club Cannot exist by sponsorship Rotary club/Interact club has to sponsor Paperwork Application Name list of the foundering club Age is limited RI interested in students Took some time And voila interact club Cost to school: 70 members - 100 in Dulwich Dulwich Shanghai- a dozen School has to commit Professional only -senior only lead 12 12
• 13.
  -someone to coach -Mentor and manage needed Need strong staff member And need good support Budget: Need copying, access to school material Meeting places Transportation Club t-shirts (optional) or a club badge Get cash for budget Sponsorship -financial contribution -mentorship -adult- faculty Size of the club doesn’t matter Set up interact -make sure its successful 13
• 14.
  For the sakeof the name makes no sense Make sure its successful Need interact coordinator Needs commitment Coordinator is the guide Constitution like laws Say- heres what needs to have Paperwork Go through Make executive board Shape it -Two service projects INTERNATIONAL AND ACTION= Interact Kids to learn it. Manage their own= kids Two requirement: -One international service -Build homes in Cambodia- 1st project (could do own) Opportunity for leadership Could fundraising Raise money And do work in Cambodia KIDS DO RESEARCH! -One local service Going to home Clean up Help the old Serve needy Local orphanages -interact -clothing drive Beacons of hope: -work with migrant schools Who never had checkups (hospital) -help with Takes corporate Transportation Government organization MONEY: -rotary helps -interact students has to raise at-least half -A lot of fundraising -Let them know where its going- the money 14
• 15.
  Do projects together(with the whole community in BJ) -Ball -Christmas dinner with all students -bring together Rotary: Who rotary is? Need to know -Required to know Connection with Rotary -Better college application - Get all the staff together -everyone’s together -Competing for activities -Teachers have to work together for this -Interdisciplinary Unit There are interact manual -on the rotary site Put a proposal to the head -get approval -get support from the Dulwich -provide students (interested ones) Present to the board Board level Have one or two interact coordinator CONTACTS -need contacts -come together on Tuesday (the RIC in Beijing) Need rotarians to come CONVINCE! Service has to be sustainable and worthwhile -needs A LOT OF RESEARCH, dig deep MARKETING strategy: Parents love it Has to be successful Benefits for the children Universities applications Could start own RIC Magazine 15
• 16.
  Start early sothen it digs with the school Young generation like Grade 3-5 can get involved and help out. 16
• 17.
  [2] Mail fromthe Dulwich Rotary Interact Coordinator: 17