Community Builder Week

From 29 April to 3 May 2013, the 3rd and 4rd Saints Advocate organised Community Builder Week to raise awareness among the students of the privilege they currently enjoy and encourage them to help those less fortunate in the community. During the week, there were many activities conducted, including collection of can tabs, photo taking and exhibition. Besides that, the Advocates also gave out various freebies to students, ranging from foam roses, encouraging messages on sticky notes to balloons to bring smiles to their faces. The week was ended off with a Service Learning Convention, where SL Representatives from each class gathered and had a hands-on experience of giving out small gifts to people around Potong Pasir to simply brighten up their day. Community Builder Week was after all a good reminder to all of us to be more aware of the needs of the community.

Community Builder Week is the first activity that I was in charge of. Through this priceless experience, I have learnt how to work in team with people I did not really know before and maintain effective communication with them. In this event, I was in charge of the exhibition. Initially, even though the seniors had already come up with all the plans, they were still open for suggestions from us. This, hence, allowed us to voice out our ideas to improve the exhibition. I was quite excited for the Community Builder Week in the beginning as it was my first time organising a school-wide project in SAJC.

During the preparation, I had the opportunity to go out and buy materials used for exhibition with my other task force members. As we wanted to display the models of two children from Singapore and third world country in the exhibition, we decided to buy 2 mannequins to make the models look realistic. Unfortunately, the seniors came to tell us later that we should not have spent so much money on the mannequins only although it looked nice. It made us feel quite guilty and sad about that.

Moreover, Community Builder Week project has actually taken a lot of my time. For the whole two weeks after school, we prepared the materials, set up the boards and exhibition. During the week itself, most of our breaks were occupied. It had also affected my studies a little bit because I had a very little time to complete my homework and it drained a lot of my energy. In the future, should there be another project that requires all advocates to be on duties during breaks, I would suggest that we have shifts only for half of our breaks so that we can use the other half to have lunch and/or studies. However, this has also taught me to manage my time well and effectively.

Freebies given out to students during the week

After all, despite all the problems faced, I am glad to say that Community Builder Week has been successful, judging from the fact that many SAJC students have responded quite well to our project. They were excited to take photos with our photo frame to show support to Simei Care Centre. They liked our gifts such as paper roses, ribbons, balloons and hair clips. Some of them were interested in our projects, asking us the objectives of our project and asking how they can support Autism. It was indeed a good experience with Saints Advocate.

SL Representatives listening attentively to the speaker during the Service Learning Convention

-Natasha Ratanapan, 4th Saints Advocate

The 4th Saints Advocate Inauguration

The 26^th April 2013 marked the official birthday of the 4^th Saints Advocate. Proud and excited, yet nervous and worried, every one of us experienced an amalgamation of feelings when we were up on stage, receiving our responsibilities. It was indeed our honor to be the first batch to be recognized in school as a leadership CCA. We did nothing much for our CCA, and yet, we were bestowed upon with many privileges. Therefore, the 4^th Advocates would like to send zillion thanks to our seniors and all teachers, who have fought so hard for our positions today. The ceremony was not only for the 4^th batch but also for all who call ourselves Advocates. To all seniors, please rest assured that you are always in our hearts and minds as we proudly pledged to “inherit your will as our own” and we will continue your legacy. 

From now onwards, let us wake up every morning and say to ourselves: “I am a Saints Advocate”. 

4th Saints Advocate reciting the pledge with pride and gusto

With the badge hanging proudly on our uniforms, it is a symbol of servitude and responsibility. As student leaders of the school, there will be certain expectations on us and we are expected to live up to the name of a Saints Advocate. However, rather than just meeting the expectations set upon us, we should be aiming for more; we should be doing our very best each day to exceed the expectations. But, we do not do so because we are expected to be role models. We do so because we are role models. We are role models with a common desire to serve the community, to help those in need.

Receiving the badges of the school from our seniors

People don’t know how much you care, until you show them how much you care. My goal is that we will really go all out to help the community throughout our advocate journey, for example making the best of our time when we are doing our Big Sweep; to get to know the people whose house we would be cleaning, to forge friendships with them to show them that we care about them. In doing so, I hope that the entire 4^th advocates would share their experiences with their friends and let the school know what we stand for and hopefully, be supportive of us. 

Small steps can be taken to reach this goal, like maybe a simple SMS every time before the Big Sweep; to remind us why we are doing this project. We’re not there to just clean houses, but we’re there to be with the people. We are there because we are passionate to serve them regardless of how busy we are. 

The EXCO could work together in reminding everyone of our vision and identity over the course of our journey, because that is what we stand for. With this in mind, let our purpose and vision be known to the school, hoping that students will be likeminded with the same purpose and goal: to serve the community to the best we can.

“A life not lived for others is not a life” – Mother Teresa 

-Evan Mok, 4th Saints Advocate