Regional Round Square Conference 2014 - Camp Wanakita, Ontario
A reflection by Eva Cai, '17
On January 27th, 2014, Ms. Geale, Ms. Johnson, Lillian Xu and I went to Haliburton, Ontario for a weeklong Round Square Regional Conference. This year’s theme is “Northern Challenge: what will you discover?” It was such an exciting week as we had opportunities to participate in a wide variety of winter activities, mainly through engaging in group discussions and workshops in the YMCA Camp Wanakita. The four of us were divided into different activity groups and Baraza groups (aka discussion groups). By participating in activities with students from different places around the world, I stepped out of my comfort zone and got to meet peers from Argentina, Columbia, Bermuda, Singapore, Australia and many more. The rotation of activities include snowshoeing, cross-country skiing, dogsledding, broomball, teeter totter (a high ropes course), iron chef, drumming circle, quinzhee building, arts and crafts, and tobogganing. For many participants from Bermuda and Australia, this was their first interaction with knee-depth snow. We also listened to the presentations from two key note speakers: Colin Harris, the CEO of Take Me Outside, and Mark Reilley, a professional volleyball player. Both speakers shared their personal experiences. An important aspect that I took away from their speeches was to always persevere in what you are doing and maintain a positive attitude.
One of our daily activities was participating in the discussion in the Barazaa groups, where we shared ideas and discussed about several different topics relating to service such as “What is service?” “What does service mean to you?” Questions like these made me start thinking about how we can bring our personal perspectives to the community service. A highlight was the personal strengths workshop. From 24 different personalities, we were asked to pick our most significant strength and an area that we most want to improve on. By recognizing our personal strengths and the area of improvements, we can implement our strengths to service initiatives, and better ourselves. It was great to learn how people think differently about their strengths. During my group’s discussion, many of us noted that we have become more open and comfortable around an open-hearted community constructed by this conference; most of us would never have spoken out with our opinions, even to our close friends at school, yet this conference made everything possible. Almost like starting as a blank slate, we trust everyone here and know that we can be our true selves, as we know that everybody is open-minded and will not judge by who we are.
On our last day, two important questions were addressed: what did you take away from this conference? How will you implement your learning when you return to your community? What I personally loved about this conference is everyone’s enthusiasm; although we come from different backgrounds, we are passionate about one mutual thing: service. Through this conference, I learned to be more openhearted and felt more comfortable to express my opinions, as well as learning about other service initiatives in different schools. I made trusting friends here through winter adventures, and I know that I will continue to keep the passion, the spirit alive. To me, this is an everlasting experience in my life.
By Eva Cai
On January 27th, 2014, Ms. Geale, Ms. Johnson, Lillian Xu and I went to Haliburton, Ontario for a weeklong Round Square Regional Conference. This year’s theme is “Northern Challenge: what will you discover?” It was such an exciting week as we had opportunities to participate in a wide variety of winter activities, mainly through engaging in group discussions and workshops in the YMCA Camp Wanakita. The four of us were divided into different activity groups and Baraza groups (aka discussion groups). By participating in activities with students from different places around the world, I stepped out of my comfort zone and got to meet peers from Argentina, Columbia, Bermuda, Singapore, Australia and many more. The rotation of activities include snowshoeing, cross-country skiing, dogsledding, broomball, teeter totter (a high ropes course), iron chef, drumming circle, quinzhee building, arts and crafts, and tobogganing. For many participants from Bermuda and Australia, this was their first interaction with knee-depth snow. We also listened to the presentations from two key note speakers: Colin Harris, the CEO of Take Me Outside, and Mark Reilley, a professional volleyball player. Both speakers shared their personal experiences. An important aspect that I took away from their speeches was to always persevere in what you are doing and maintain a positive attitude.
One of our daily activities was participating in the discussion in the Barazaa groups, where we shared ideas and discussed about several different topics relating to service such as “What is service?” “What does service mean to you?” Questions like these made me start thinking about how we can bring our personal perspectives to the community service. A highlight was the personal strengths workshop. From 24 different personalities, we were asked to pick our most significant strength and an area that we most want to improve on. By recognizing our personal strengths and the area of improvements, we can implement our strengths to service initiatives, and better ourselves. It was great to learn how people think differently about their strengths. During my group’s discussion, many of us noted that we have become more open and comfortable around an open-hearted community constructed by this conference; most of us would never have spoken out with our opinions, even to our close friends at school, yet this conference made everything possible. Almost like starting as a blank slate, we trust everyone here and know that we can be our true selves, as we know that everybody is open-minded and will not judge by who we are.
On our last day, two important questions were addressed: what did you take away from this conference? How will you implement your learning when you return to your community? What I personally loved about this conference is everyone’s enthusiasm; although we come from different backgrounds, we are passionate about one mutual thing: service. Through this conference, I learned to be more openhearted and felt more comfortable to express my opinions, as well as learning about other service initiatives in different schools. I made trusting friends here through winter adventures, and I know that I will continue to keep the passion, the spirit alive. To me, this is an everlasting experience in my life.
By Eva Cai