Youths Leadership Training Part 1: SK Chairwoman's Last Project

Welcome Hivers! Good day to each and every one of you. I'm delighted that your here, I hope you've been good. Have you ever questioned yourself about how to be a good leader? Or perhaps you question yourself: Are you a good leader? We all watch leaders guide their people on what they will do, but is that really something you need to do in order to be a successful leader? Effective leadership is difficult. You have a lot of responsibility in this role to build a team that works together. I would like to share with you about an experience I had last year.

Our former SK chairwoman wants someone capable of replacing her. This leadership program is her final effort, and she wants us young people to participate. Despite her retirement, she continues to work on this project. She wants future leaders to be good leaders like her. One of the national heroes of the Philippines, Dr. Jose Rizal, once said, "Ang kabataan ang pag-asa ng bayan." In English, the youth is the hope of the country.

She then shown us to her coach, whom she studied from, as part of this project. You might think that we're just sitting and listening to her coach like a teacher, but you're wrong. We did completely the opposite. We learned from our actions in various types of activities. The first thing they did with her crew was apologize because they would be taking our phones. She gave us time to notify our parents that our phones would be confiscated all day. I was really shocked, but it is true that our phones will be a distraction.

The next task was somewhat unexpected. She let us to identify oneself using our first name as usual, but then, after identifying the final individual, she ordered us to arrange ourselves alphabetically coming from right to left while starting a timer. We're in chaos because we didn't pay attention, and some of us were shy and simply awaited for someone to ask our names so that we could be sorted. We've done this several times with our last name and birth date with a timer. As we got the hang of it, individuals who were initially shy spoke up without being asked, allowing us to organize ourselves more quickly. But guess what? This is just a warm-up. Even though it's a warm-up, this teaches us how important communication really is. Speaking up can make the job faster. After that, we were then grouped by 4, and there are also four stations that we would be switching from the other groups.

Station 1

I was group 1 and we started on station 1. The first activity we did was to pick a candy minimum of 3 without touching the water and stone but the player has to be blindfolded. The goal is to let all members to come across the field. We were given one minute to think and 10 minutes to execute. Sadly, we weren't able to finnish all members at the given time. Notice that there's more water and stone than the candy? The candy represent the success, while the water and stone are the failures keeping you down. In life we can't succeed if we don't listen or consider the things around us. The lesson here is to listen to your members. To be a good leader you must also learn to be a good listener.

Station 2

The rules of this activity is to get 3 balls to the cup only using the paper as a pipe. You can't touch the ball and is it falls you go back from the start. The only resources that we have is the paper but the obstacle is the wind. If we don't folde the paper we won't be able to have a strong foundation and keeps on failing. The lesson here is to have a good foundation, be calm, and awareness of your surroundings. At first we rushed to get the ball in the cup but we failed 2 times. And with that two times of failure, we were already determined to get the next one, because of that we became calm and serious without noticing it. We were also listening to our members so that we will be guided if we need to move forward or backward to where the cup is while watching on the ball.

Station 3

This station is hard to describe. This is sometimes referred to as a traffic jam. The goal here is to get to the other side. Players are unable to move backwards or turn around. In an open space, players may move around with another player, but they cannot go around two people at the same time. If the players are unable to move, they will have to restart. This was quite difficult, but we eventually worked it out. Just by taking turns, we learned the value of teamwork through this activity. You can't accomplish it by yourself if you're the only one who keeps on moving. It also taught us to think ahead of the possible outcomes because if you don't, you will end up doing the same thing as when you started.

STATION 4

This station is the toughest one of them all. We have to pretend that the floor is lava, but two of our members are blindfolded, and we only have five paper plates to step on. The worst part is that the destination itself is no joke. It's very far, not gonna lie. And we already failed two times, which makes the one who carries the person already tired. The one who is facilitating that station was really smug. He said, "Is that all? If you want to give up, you can. It's your choice," while smiling. With just these words, it makes us boil over with determination. Just hearing the word "giving up" is not in our league. With that, we changed our plan. The blindfolded persons who were carried are responsible for taking the paper plate back in front. While the front and back persons are responsible for keeping the tracks even and supporting the one who's carrying if they are out of balance. Then we tried again, slowly, step by step. And finally, we were able to finish it. I was so happy that tears fell. We all then ran back to where we started, some even jumping in joy and feeling the success. Then the facilitator congratulates us because there were only two groups that succeeded. In order to overcome this game, you need to be persistent, even though someone has already told you to give up.

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And that's all for part 1, everyone. Thank you for reading this far. I hope you've learned something through this blog. Stay tuned for part 2.