Learning Outcomes:
Shows planning and execution of an initiative, project or campaign Demonstrates engagement with issues of global significance
Demonstrates meaningful engagement with and contribution to communities outside of UWC-USA.
My official leadership for this year. It has been a whole of a ride with this exed. I am co-leading it with Lxchel and the journey of this leadership started from the exed workshop during orientation. both of us and Pat, our sponsor, have a mini table with a pamphlet and a slide show full of pictures of our activities last year. The purpose of this is to gather a team and asked people to join our exed. In short, we got a team of 12 people which is great and enough to run an event for the youth in Las Vegas. Our first meeting was held to plan our activities for the rest of the semester. Many ideas come to the surface; maintaining Friday Night Fun, organizing an international dinner as a fundraising event, getting to know Las Vegas history by having a one day trip, creating a mini-map of local shops in las vegas, and have more interaction with the youth in town. Out of the five objectives we had in the beginning, three of them were successfully executed this semester. What did not work was the mini-map and interacting with the youth weekly. But here I will be reflecting on the activities we did during this semester.
At the beginning of the semester, we have a tour of Las Vegas with a history of the town narrated by Pat. The purpose of this event is to get to know our community outside the campus and creating a deeper understanding of the daily issues they are facing in real life. We learned about the poverty issue in Las Vegas, their history of how the town was two different areas before it united like now, we also have a little glimpse of the history of New Mexico. These all became possible because Pat as the leader of the Peace and Justice Center in this town since she was in her early days knows a lot about this place. Also, we drove by the rich area and the poor area of the town. Stopped by the plaza and walk around the shop to say hi to the owner is also in our schedule.
For the next week, we were working on planning an event for Friday Night Fun (FNF) and the international dinner as a fundraising event to support our activities in The SPOT. This semester we have three FNF and one International Dinner that need a lot of planning. Starting from the International Dinner, me and lxchel divide the group to work on different unit to prepare the fundraising event. Some of the groups need to stay in contact with the school, some of them need to find entertainers, some of them designing the brochure, and others. It was a pretty hectic and unsure moment as we have to collaborate with other people outside our team. But all the preparation worth the efforts. When the d-day take place, it went well and a lot of people show up to support the fundraiser even though they have to pay $30 to eat the food we prepare with the help of Sodexo, the cafeteria team in the campus. We have a band to perform and solo dance performances to entertain the guest. I dare to say that this event went super successful. The profit of this event will all be donated to the Peace and Justice Center to support their program which including The SPOT.
The last project we had was to organize three FNF this semester. It gets easy for the second and third time as we kinda know what we need to do. However, what I want to write here is more about the event instead of the preparations. All three event has things in common as a result of the event. One for sure is we helped them to get away with their life by providing a free event with free entertainment, food, and music. We create a bridge for students in UWC with teenagers in town. Maybe we can not reach everyone but we have had only positive feedback from people in town about this event. The people who attend this event felt happier than before and wanted to come back again the next time we had it. This makes me realize how our small little effort that we may do not even care that much, but it could be a life-changing experience for teens in town. We never knew what our actions could bring to someone's life especially for teens in Las Vegas. Generally, all of them are trapped in this town and we helped them to experience a diversity from UWC students. I am happy that my team and other UWC students could bring joy for them even for a moment. No matter how sometimes the event could be unproductive, but this event has always been my favorite project in The SPOT.
That is it for this semester. I hope next semester I could spread The SPOT's wings, even more, to be able to reach out to a wider audience. We will see what last semester will be for this exed. This will be it for now, I will see you next time! Adios~
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