Operation Smile
Learning Outcomes: ​
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6. Exploration
7. Ethics
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KM Del Sol 2017
Operation Smile has been a part of my life since 2014. It is a worldwide organization that provides free surgical care for kids from 0 to18 years old who were born with cleft lip or cleft palate. In Peru, this organization is of great help. At my school, FDR, there is a representative club of this organization of which I am the secretary.
FDR is always very active in collaboration with Operation Smile in Peru. International and national missions mainly make up the events in which member of the club in FDR are able to attend. However, KM del Sol, which is an annual collection of money in Lima's most popular mall, is also included in those. This year was my second year attending this event. Being completely honest, it isn't the most fun activity since we just stand around asking for donations from everyone that passes by. However, at least from my point of view, the sacrifice is totally worth it.
The poor medical care to the Peruvian population that can't afford such "luxury" is a true issue. It leads to deaths and suffering of many people and that's why Operation Smile plays such a big role in fighting this problem. KM del Sol raises a huge amount of money every year which goes completely to the surgeries and post-op kits of every kid. Being able to recognize this problem and be a part of helping solve it, makes me really proud and I feel great about it; even though it is a sacrifice. ​
Click here to know more about the organization
Learning Outcomes: ​
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1. Areas of Growth
4. Commitment and Perseverance
5. Collaboration​
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Operation Smile
Sending Smiles Fundraiser
For Operation Smile this past year, the national organization changed their requirements for each school club. They're much more strict and started to ask for more fundraisers. Because of this, we were asked to do a big fundraiser but only had a month to plan. At our school, the fundraisers where we allow people to send things to each other are always big, so in the spirit of Operation Smile, we decided to do a "Sending Smiles" fundraiser where we allowed students to send cookies to each other.
Like I said, we only had one month to plan so it made things really hard. The first learning outcome to take out of this fundraiser is: identifying my own strengths and developing new areas of growth. This fundraiser wasn't the most organized. We designated groups of people to do each thing. About 5 girls would make the cookies, 3 girls would buy the bags and stickers to decorate them, and the cabinet, us 4, would package them. However, we didn't the logistics through. We only had one day to do all of that because there was only one day that everyone was free. The result of that was that more than 5 people had to bake the cookies because we needed much more than we thought. This also made us have to package the cookies after school but again, not everyone was free. Because of this lack of organization, I ended up having to stay until 10 pm at school packaging cookies which brings me to my next learning outcome: commitment and perseverance.
Operation Smile is super important to me. I've been in the club since I was in 8th grade so it has become very special to me. I had to stay at school until 10 pm with a friend because we had had the PGC Selection Night which ended at 8:30, so that was the only time we had. That, for itself, already shows perseverance and commitment because even though I was tired, I still stayed to finish packaging so we could deliver the cookies in the next day. But that wasn't only it. When I got home, I still had to bake more cookies because the ones we had weren't enough because some people had brought in burned and broken cookies. So, then, I had to stay until 2am baking and packaging 60 more cookies.
Finally, the third learning outcome of this: demonstrating skills and recognizing the benefits of working collaboratively. All of this, happened with the support of my friends who are in the cabinet too. They're also committed to the club and the fact that we tried out best to work together shows the importance of collaboration. Also, the collaboration from the members of the club was huge because everyone met the deadline for the cookies and did what they were supposed to do.
In conclusion, to better improve further fundraisers, we'll have a meeting to discuss what went well and what didn't on this fundraiser.
Click here to know more about the organization
PGC: Peer Group Connection
One Semester With the Freshmen
Learning Outcomes: ​
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1. Areas of Growth
4. Commitment and Perseverance
7. Ethics
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I feel like ever since I was in PGC as a freshmen, I have wanted to be a leader. The program, to me, was always a great idea and I definitely thought that, if done right, it could be really helpful. When I decided to apply, I didn’t realize the amount of commitment it would require as well as how much time it would take from me. I could probably say that PGC focuses on all 7 learning outcomes of the CAS experience; however, I’ll focus on the 3 most present.
First, even though PGC is a program dedicated to help the Freshmen transition better into high school, it is extremely helpful for the leaders too and this brings me to the first learning outcome: identify own strengths and develop areas of growth. Because you are being a role model to someone when you’re a PGC leader, it comes with a lot of responsibility therefore I had to be extremely aware of my actions. Of course, all of us have strengths and weaknesses but because I wanted to be the best version of me not only for myself but also for the PGCs, I had to improve on certain areas such as my communication skills, leadership skills and organization skills. PGC requires A LOT of planning. We had to come completely prepared for the outreaches so the activity went smoothly. Along with that, communication was required so that the PGCs understood exactly what conclusion we were trying to reach. Finally, it is needless to say that leadership is one of the most important skills for PGC since we are leading the Freshmen in a way for their transition to be better. All of those areas, even though I considered myself to be good at them, required growth because in contrary to what I expected, I was constantly challenged to improve them.
The second learning outcome, is Commitment and Perseverance. PGC takes up a lot of time. Taking on this challenge, on the first semester of the IB, was a huge disadvantage for me in terms of logistics. While my peers had advisory time to work, I had to stay with the Freshmen and while they left school early on Wednesdays, I had to stay for the planning sessions. All of that for a whole semester with the exception of a few times. That required a lot of commitment and perseverance because I knew it was something I couldn’t just quit or miss so even though sometimes I was super stressed and didn’t want to go, I had to because I had signed up for it. It was hard but it makes me proud that I was able to accomplish it.
Finally, the third most important learning outcome from PGC is recognizing and considering the ethics of choices and actions. As I mentioned before, in PGC, we have to be role models for the Freshmen. And of course, we don’t only see the freshmen at school. We are forced to make smart choices out of school too, especially if they’re in the same place as we are. So, considering the ethics of the program in and out of school was huge for me to be coherent with what I portrayed to them in the Monday outreached and what I portrayed to them at parties. To be honest, it wasn’t hard because I honestly try to consider my choices well every time. But I have to say that I definitely was more aware of them when the Freshmen were present.
PGC was truly amazing. Not only did I feel accomplished for helping the Freshmen, but I also grew incredibly as a leader and person.
Learning Outcomes: ​
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5. Collaboration
7. Ethics
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Wish Factory Visit
Wish factory has always been a club that I found amazing. Visiting cancer patients and giving you their time and attention is such a simple act but truly makes a change. I had always been super committed to Operation Smile so as though I found the club incredible, I never went because I never made the time. One day I decided to go to a visit just to see how it was and I'm glad I did.
My first learning outcome out of this experience is collaboration. Constanza, who is the leader of the club, really builds this environment of collaborating with each other to get the best out of the experience. Previous to the visit, she gathers the members who will be going on Saturday and asks people to each bring something as well as asking what activities we can do in the visit. This allows for a much better visit and a better experience not only for us but also to the kids. Along with that, I saw how important collaboration was even in the visit itself. Sometimes you run out of things to talk about with the kids or don't have materials to play with them and I noticed that when members of the club noticed that, they came right in to help you.
My second learning outcome out of this experience was recognizing and considering the ethics of choices and actions. The patients aren't always in the best mood because of how delicate their situation is. Sometimes they don't want to play or for us to be there and it's extremely important for us to understand that. Patience is required because we need to consider the ethics of our choices and actions because the last thing we want to do is add more stress to their lives.
Orientation Day
Learning Outcomes: ​
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3. Planning
5. Collaboration
Ever since I wasn't being orientated in orientation day, I was part of the organization and execution of it. Because I have been new so many times, I've always liked to go to orientation day to help other new kids get settled.
Although it might not seem like it, orientation requires planning. We need to think of icebreakers, where to move from and to and at what time, whose each other's peer buddies, and etc. This brings me to my first learning outcome. Through participating for 5 years in orientation day, I was able to develop my skills on initiating and planning a CAS experience. I've planned the presentation given to the new students, with the help of another guy, which is very important for them to understand how Lima and FDR work. This presentation requires planning because not only do we need to show them how things work but also be ready to answer any questions. That implies asking Ms. Hibon and Ms. Lucre for any additional information we don't know.
My next learning outcome is collaboration. In orientation day, collaboration is crucial. In the presentation, for instance, the guy who helped me was a freshman while I was a senior. This allowed us to answer different questions from different age groups. How we collaborated to organize the way we presented, was vital for the students to feel comfortable and welcome. Along with that, collaboration is also extremely important for the icebreakers. People talk a lot, especially when they're trying to get to know each other. Although that's great, we also need to get things done in orientation. So, collaboration not only comes from the people leading the activities but also from the peer buddies participating in them. For instance, they know not to talk when we're talking and also help us ask them to be quiet.