Service and Creativity: Project Unify, Assembly

Another oppurtunity that i was able to lead and be a part of was creating and putting on an assembly for my school that educated my classmates on how important it is to use respectful language, specifically refraining from the use of the deragatory term "retarded".  When my counselor told me that she wanted me to help plan the assembly I was extremely excited but also really nervous that my class mates wouldnt respond well to the message.  We immediatley began planning the assembly and brainstorming ideas for making it the best it could be.  I contacted ambasadors from the special olympics program to speak and asked kids and adults at our school who had family members with special needs to speak also.  As the assembly approached I became more and more nervous that my class mates would mock the message or not be affected by it at all.  On the day of the assembly all of the members of project unify came to school in their "spread the word to end the word" t shirts ready to help make the assembly perfect and to teach their friends and teachers why it was so important to them.  The entire secondary school gathered in the gym and we heard from special olympics athletes, special olympics ambassadors and even students at our school who felt passionatley about the campaign.  By the end of the assembly everyone was silent and some people were even moved to tears.  The principal congratulated my counselor, me and the other students who contributed to leading the assembly on hosting the best assembly he said he had ever seen at our school.  On twitter, facebook and other social networds my class mates raved about the powerful message that Project Unify had spread and how they would be thinking twice before they used the word "retard" again or made fun of someone with intellectual disabilities.  Overall I can say that this assembly was the more proud moment of my life.  All of the hard work we had put into creating it had paid off and we had made a difference at our school.

 all of project unify

 my counselor and me with ambassadors from the special olympics and two athletes

a special olympics athlete speaking at the assembly

Service: Project Unify, Special Olympics Basketball

In the 10th grade for my MYP personal project I designed bracelets with the logo "stop the r word" on them and donated the money i made from selling them to the special olympics organization of Texas.  Because of my best friend's brother, Dan, I have always been very passionate about spreading the word about kids with special needs and fighting for their equality and working towards creating a more respectful community.  Because my school counselor knew that I was passionate abou this she asked me to help her start a club at our school called, Project Unify.  the purpose of the club was to get more people at our school involved in the special needs community and to educate people about different mental handicaps and why not to use the deragatory term "retard

The winning team at the tournament

Through this program I became aware of multiple community service oppurtunities involving kids and adults with special needs.  One of the main oppurtunities was the area Special Olympics.  The first time I worked at a Special Olympics event was keeping score at a basketball game.  The whole experience heightened my passion for the cause and made me even more aware of how important it was that I helped to make my school a more respectful community.  Throughout the day I kept score at several games and interacted with several of the athletes.  I loved getting to talk to them and spend time with them and learn about what they liked to do and what they had to say.  It was a very meaningful experience for me and made me want to volunteer at the special olympics every weekend.

Service and Creativity: Gallery Night Art Auction

Art has always been one of my favority past times, whether it's painting, drawing, or playing music.  Because of this for my IB higher level course I decided to take art.  At our school every year the arts program holds a gallery auction night to raise money for the schools arts program.  This year the theme was Alice in Wonderland.  My art teacher asked me if I wouldnt mind painting a peice to donate to the auction and i was more than glad to contribute.  For the peice I chose to do a mixed media acrylic with the guidance from my art teacher.  Together we created a design that we thought would fit the theme well.  With all of the school work i had going on at the time the painting was more of a challenge then I thought it would be.  I kept trying to figure out the design and the coloring but it never quite looked how I wanted it to and I kept dissapointing myself.  Eventually I got the painting to the perfect place for my taste and I was ready to varnish it and donate it to the auction.

my painting at the auction

The process helped me to develop my shading skills in acrylics and also to paint on irregular surfaces becuase the background of the painting was not flat.  It also helped me to work on my time management skills because I had to balance my school work and normal art work with extra art and sports.  I was proud of my work on this painting and I was glad to people to donate something back to the school. My painting sold at max bid and overall I considered the experience a success in all categories.

Action: Varsity Volleyball 2012

I had been playing volleyball since the 5th grade and I was extremely excited to start Junior year as a varsity volleyball player for my school.  Spending time with my team mates, learning from my coaches and further developing my skills as a player were just a few of the things that i was looking forward to when the season started.  At the end of the summer before my junior year we began practicies and it became very clear that this year was not going to be easy.  Volleyball was going to take time and dedication.  Even though i knew that playing volleyball meant that I would have to work twice as hard keeping up with school work i knew that all of the things I would gain from the experien ce would make it worth it.

At the end of tryouts I found out that i would be the teams libero.  The libero was an all time back row player and i was anxious to start playing!  The season started and our team was doing amazing.  We won almost every game and our team grew closer and closer as the season progressed.  I also noticed that as the season went on i was becoming a stronger player and I felt more comfortable playing with the team.  As the end of the season approached so did the state championship tournament.  The year before the varsity team had been knocked out early and this year we were all determined to make it to the very end and take state.  The tournament started and we pulled together and won every game.  Then it was time for the championship game.  We all waited nervously for the game to start.  We were playing our school rivals and we were all determined to win.  The set began and after 4 sets we were tied 2 to 2.  The 5th set was a nail biter but sadly the other team came out on top.  We were all sad that we didnt win but overall we were all proud of our season and glad that we had been able to become a team.  

After volleyball ended the friendships I made were still strong and we all cant wait until next season so that we will have another chance to take state.  Overall the season taught me that hard work and dedication pay off and sometimes being competitive and wanting to win can be fun and bond people together, but it's also ok to lose sometimes, ecspecially if you gave it everything you had!

The Varsity team after our season tournament