Final Reflection - Sturgis Tennis

This year I played for the Sturgis Boy's Tennis team as a half of the first doubles team with Aidan Arnault. This year was an excellent and successful season for me and my team because for the first time we made it to the State Tournament. My biggest win was against Cape Cod Tech, to whom we've lost for the last two years really badly.

This activity helped meet LO4. In tennis this was an unique experience because in other activities in which I've met this outcome I had to work with a group of people (meaning more than one). In tennis, I was able to work with only one person: Aidan Arnault. This experience took this learning outcome to whole new level because not only did we work well together but we were able to develop a bond. The chemistry between Aidan and I allowed me to see the significance of a partnership and how I can achieve things when working with one individual rather than with a group. In the end I found that I enjoyed working with one person and allowing us to become closer instead of working with multiple people. Although with the latter I can accomplish more things, the personal gain when working with one person, personally, is better for me.

I was also able to meet LO1. I knew my good qualities in tennis which was playing consistently and most importantly keeping my head cool and stressing out when I make a mistake. However I also learned how to improve my forehand and backhand and my serving improved a lot. I also learned more strategies in doubles playing that helped improve my playing skills and helped me win more games.

Final Reflection - Sturgis Strings

This year I participated in the Sturgis String Ensemble as the cello player. As part of a group I had to work or in this case play collaboratively with the other players because at times our melodies or hamonies were the same and we had to make sure that we were playing at the same time. This helped me achieve LO4. This activity also helped achieve LO5. Most people who join Strings Ensemble end up leaving and I am one of the few who has remained until the end of the year, and I am one of the only who has lasted three years.

At the end of this activity I can say that I reached my personal goal which was to be 100% ready and play the music perfectly for the concert. Although this seems like a really high goal, I knew that it was attainable for me and this is why I set it for myself. This year I worked harder to make sure that I achieved this goal and I am proud and satisfied to say that as a result of my extra effort that I made for this year I was able to play all the notes perfectly at the concert.

Final Reflection - Student Council

This year I served as the Junior Representative for the school's student council. My job included voicing the questions and concerns of my class and organizing the school functions. But in the end I did more than just that. I ended up planning, coordinating, and organizing almost entirely by myself every Student Council function, a responsibility that was not originally awarded to me but rather I had to step up and take charge.

I learned many things from Student Council. I learned that no matter how good one person may be at leading, there's always room for help. I realized this when everytime I planned an event I ended up doing it by myself and if I had a little help then maybe the functions would have turned out better. I also learned the powers of poor leadership. In situations like student council, strong and able leaders make all the difference. This year it did not turn out as such. Following their example, I learned what I could improve on and what I am doing well so that in the future I can be better.

This activity helped me meet LO2 because I had to undertake new challenges by representing my class and my organizing functions that I have never done before. It also helped me meet LO3 because I had to initiate activities and plan them (mostly by myself).

Final Reflection: Prom Committee

This year I participated in the Sturgis Prom Committee. I planned this year to raise money for Prom and help decide decorations and other details and actually be there to set up for the event. This year I helped at the chili sale by selling chili and washing the dishes. I also promoted the Sturgis Prom at the student-faculty basketball game by dressing up in a tuxedo and selling raffle tickets for a free prom ticket and a free tuxedo. In addition I helped make the candle votives and I sold prom and raffle tickets. On the day prior to the event, I went to the venue to set up the decorations. On Prom Night, I announced the winners for Prom King and Queen. The outcome of my work and others resulted in a wonderful night of eating, dancing, and fun.

This activity helped me meet LO5 because I particpated all year long and even though the event was in May I entered in September because I needed to stay all year long in order to plan for Prom. This activity also helped me LO3 because I ended up planning this event. Although most of the planning and the initiating was done by my advisor and in collaboration with others, I did come up with the idea to raffle a free prom ticket as a means to earn some money and I took charge in selling those raffles. In the end it became a successful raffle.

I truly enjoyed my experience at Prom Commitee, not necessarily because I was doing it, but because of the feeling of satisfaction I came out with. The fact that others enjoyed an event that I helped plan for also gave me a feeling of satisfaction and acccomplishment that made me realize that what I had done contributed to something important for those in my school.

Games vs. Cape Cod Tech and Abington

The last two games that I played against Abington and Cape Cod Tech were two of the most nerve wrecking because if as a team we had lost any of these then we wouldn't be in the running for States Championship. Aidan and I contributed to winning because if we hadn't the entire team would have lost since we only won these matches with a 3-2 score.

The most important one of these was the game against Cape Tech since we have never beat them before and they were the hardest one to win from. Aidan and I had to work really hard together and we truly played as a team. The Abington game was hard too but I didn't have to try and focus as hard as I had for the other game.

After playiing these two very stressful games I realized something about myself. I noticed that I can keep my cool, meaning if I make a mistake I can shake it off and go to the next point or next game or even the next set with my head in the game and not be affected by the mistakes I made. This doesn't like a very important quality for a tennis player but in fact it is absolutely essential because tennis is a mental game as much as it's a physical sport. In the game against Cape Tech, one of the reasons why we won was because one of the players let his mistakes get to him and he kept making more mistakes and he slowly began to give up. I never realized this about myself until I had to play such stressful and important which brought it out of me.

Even though this is a good quality to have in tennis it can also be equally important in real life situations. I will be able to move on should I make any mistakes and keep on going and not let what I did wrong affect me in any way but rather I will learn from these mistakes so I can do it better next time.

Preparations for Prom

In the last few weeks, I have been helping make preparations for prom. This week, I helped build the wanderfuls and in the last few weeks I helped make the candle votives by cutting out the skyline and the styrofoam support and by gluing the skyline to the support.

Human Rights Academy

Recently I went to the Human Rights Academy, which was a one day event held at Camp Burgess in Sandwich, in which schools from across the Cape gathered to discuss their projects and events relating to human rights. Human rights issues addressed included anti-bullying, domestic violence/abuse, Haiti relief, and clean water for Africa. Projects included an anti-bullying bill, a coffeehouse, variety show, awareness campaigns, donation drives and carrying water. The projects that Sturgis presented were a Haiti relief fund, Pennies for Peace, Dating Violence/Abuse Week, and the Blood:Water Mission.

This experience was certainly unforgettable. I really enjoyed hearing what other schools presented and what they felt was an issue that had to be addressed. Although every project was significant, some were rather cliche but there were a few that were very original and drew my attention. One in particular was the project presented by the Riverview School. Their human rights issue was the lack of fresh, clean water in Africa, which was similar to my project. Their event consisted of walking from their school to the beach, filling up a large container of water and walking back to the school. This was done in order to understand how it feels to walk in the shoes of an African woman who has to walk miles to get water. I thought that the project was really powerful and forced you to really feel what it's like to suffer. This got me wondering about how it would feel to be on the other end of any human rights issue. Instead of being the one campaigning, I would be the one for which there would be campaigning. This made me realize the value of each individual human being and how we here in Cape Cod can't understand true degradation and poverty when it's so far away and seems so unreal.

The human rights issues that were addressed in the projects and events showed me what Cape Cod students deem to be the issues that need to be addressed. In turn, this got me thinking about the issues that were not addressed and that I feel are not brought to light or are not emphasized as much. As a result I ended up reaching my personal goal of being inspired to do a project here at Sturgis. The human rights issue that I thought was important was human trafficking. The trafficking of humans can extend from labor trafficking, modern day slavery to sex trafficking which encompasses prostitution, sexual slavery to child trafficking which includes child sexual exploitation and child labor. Using this issue I would like to bring forth to the school the horrors of human trafficking which is not known by many.

The Human Rights Academy also made me think about the significance of our work and the ethical implications arising from doing such work. My first thought was "is what we are doing actually working?" Raising awareness and raising money is great and important but I wonder if it actually does something that lasts beyond that day. Those who heard about the issues of human rights, will they remember that information and act on it? Or will they just go home and not think about it ever again? My second thought was the ethical implications in the field of human rights work. What are the true intentions of those who do human rights work? Do they feel like it's their responsibility as fellow human beings to help others out? Do they do it out of pity? Is it compassion? Or love? Or do they do it for the self-glory they will receive in the end and the admiration of others of how wonderful they are to be helping the less fortunate? As a result I decided to find out why I do this. My answer was that I do this to be fair, because I did not ask to be born in the circumstances in which I was born nor did I choose it. And neither did those who do not have the advantages that I do. It's not fair that they were born to whichever conditions they are in and it's not fair that I was born in the conditions I am in. So out of fairness, I help others, because it could just as easily have been me being trafficked for sex, dying of hunger and thirst, not knowing whether I will see another day or even if I want to see another day.

Despite the brevity of this activity, thus far it has been the most fulfilling and the one in which I felt truly accomplished and successful, not because I did anything particularly great but because in the process I learned so much about myself and my intentions. This knowledge I can carry with me regardless of what I do and where I am. And it made me want to try harder and work harder and do better, not necessarily for my own sake, but for those who can't and wished they could.

Cape and Islands Leadership Conference - Student Council

This week I attended the Cape and Islands Leadership Conference for Student Council with Adriana, Kate, and Connor Read. The conference itself was rather disappointing because we expected, including Mrs. Yalden, that it would focus more on leadership skills and how to better lead one's school through Student Council. However, the main message that I got from the conference was enthusiasm, school spirit, lots of energy, and lots of fun, which I think are extremely important for Student Council and for the school itself. Seeing the other schools and seeing the DY, the hosts, have so much energy and so much school spirit made me realize that Sturgis, relativately, has practically none, except during Spirit Week. Other than that week, we don't that school spirit that remains throughout the year in other schools through events like sport games. Then I thought, to what extent does Sturgis need or want school spirit? Our school is very close as it is and trying to implement that stereotypical school spirit into our school would be extremely hard. As a likely candidate for presidency next year, I think about how I could leave Sturgis a bit better than when I found it (something very hard to do, by the way) and if I could try to bring more spirit into our school, which I found very challenging during Spirit Week for the class of 2011.

Games vs. CCA, Chatham, CCT & Harwich

For the last week we've had four games, three of them in a row. These games helped me a lot as a tennis player to realize what I need to practice and how I could get better. The games against Harwich and Cape Cod Academy were certainly unwinnable since they are very good teams and we didn't expect to win from them. However Cape Cod Tech and Chatham were very winnable games that we lost 2-3 in both. In the Chatham game, I could have easily won but my partner in first doubles, Aidan, wasn't there and since we know how each other works and we have good communication, I wasn't able to carry that over with my partner for that game. In the Cape Cod Tech game, for first doubles, I thought was very difficult to win because they were the same pair we've been playing for the last two years and they are very good. But for the entire team as whole, we could have won since the lineup didn't change for either team and since we lost 2-3, it showed us that as a team we have improved because in previous years we always lost 0-5.

These games made me realize that what I need to work on is returning serves and hitting gorund strokes. During practice I tried to improve and when I played Harwich, even though we lost, I thought I improved so much because their serves were fast and difficult and I was able to hit most of them. The next day in practice, I played some singles with third singles and that helped me improve my ground strokes. I then played a challenge match against Aidan in which we tied 3-3. This was a great achievement for me since Aidan has always been better than me and the score showed that I have improved greatly and that I deserve my spot as first doubles.

Tennis Game vs. Mashpee

Today I played my first official match against Mashpee High School. Team AMERAZIL (Aidan and I) ended up winning 6-4, 7-5 in a match that was surprisingly challenging. We had been without practice for a couple of days and so we weren't as ready to play and I believe we should have done much better even though we won.

Throughout the match, I realized I was already achieving my personal goals. One of them was serving better, and I have always been a consistent server, but my serves haven't been as challenging for the opponent and today my serves were low, fast, and at an angle as opposed to a parabola. I also get close to achieving my other goal of being better at volleying (being at the net). I took some chances and although I didn't get every ball in, almost all of my balls were well placed on the opponent's court and we usually won the point. This showed me that I need to be more aggressive at the net and that it could pay off. I also achieved Learning Outcome 1 because I realized what I need to work on to improve which is just rallying. Sometimes by ball goes out or takes a parabolic shape and makes it easy for the opponent and so during future practices I will try to get more practice hitting the ball back and forth.

First Week of Tennis

Last week was my first week of tennis at for the Sturgis Tennis Team. I had missed the first two practices so I was kind of at a disadvantage since our coach was going to start ranking the players to figure out who were the top 7. In previous I had ranked 6th and 5th respectively, but this year I had some new competition. I was scared that I would lose my place as first doubles and that I might have to drop to second doubles or exhibition matches (non-official). So I realized I had to work really hard and play harder and better. When it came time for the challenge matches, I was really worried but I played my best and in the end I found out that my best was enough and I was ranked 5th and maintained my spot in first doubles.

7th Annual Children, Youth and Families Summit

On March 20, I went to the 7th Annual Children, Youth and Families Summit, in Harwich with some students from Student Council. This was a conference to raise awareness of issues relating to children, youth and families. There were several seminars which we could attend but we could only choose two. I chose the dating violence and abuse seminar and the social networking security seminar. In the former we talked about signs of relationship abuse and how to recognize and how to identify what is dating abuse and what is not. In the latter we talked about security and privacy issues on the Internet, more specifically on social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace.

When I chose those seminars I had originally thought I would learn more from the dating violence seminar than the social networking seminar. At the end of the dating abuse seminar, I realized I knew everything and more than they talked about and so, to me, it was a waste of time. But I did feel rather proud and satisfied with myself that I was knowledgeable in such a widespread issue that affects more people than anyone could realize. However I thought I knew everything when walking into the social networking seminar, but not five minutes had gone by when I realized I knew almost nothing. I had so different feelings going through me as I learned new information about the privacy and security on the internet. At first I was shocked because I learned that there were 90,000 registered sex offenders on MySpace who were dumb enough to use their real name (this does not include those who did not use their real name and those who haven't been caught and registered). And then I felt fear and a little bit of horror when one chaperone shared that she did a background check on herself on an website for $5 and she found that for a small fee anyone could find her address, her telephone number, directions to her house, how much her house cost, how many bedrooms and bathrooms, and other personal and private informations. What I learned that day changed my perspective on my life and what I say about myself on the internet. I learned to be more conscious of what I do.

As I reflected over what I had learned I realize the value of the information I gained and how just by being aware of such things, it can actually save yor life. And although this does not relate to my personal goal for student council, I feel that what I learned is more important than what I could do for the school because it goes beyond the walls of the school and it will still be relevant to my life after high school.

Sturgis Strings (1/11-3/16)

The last few weeks of string rehearsal have been a little difficult for me since two of the songs we are doing are rather difficult but I believe that by the time the concert comes I will be prepared. I know that I have to practice more in order for me to be 100%. This second half of Sturgis Strings has come with an interesting surprise. For the next concert I will be playing a very difficult piece (not one of the two mentioned above) that I played when I was seventh grade at the Strings Jamboree (Advanced Level). At that time I had really challenged myself to play very difficult pieces at the advanced level. Now I have been given the opportunity to play that same piece, "Dance of the Tumblers", again. As a result I made a personal goal specificallt for this piece, and it's to play it better, more accurately and more importantly more confidently. Thus far, I believe that I am doing very well and out of all the pieces that we have played this piece has been my strongest and I feel really good about that achievement.

Final Reflection on Sturgis Curling Club

In the Sturgis Curling Club, I was one of several people who went to the Cape Cod Curling Club to learn how to play the sport of curling. We were all at the same beginner's level and so we entered this activity as equals, with no captains and no one person better than the rest.

This activty certainly fulfilled Learning Outcome 8: develop new skills. I had no idea how to play curling and I barely knew what the sport was. It was very exciting to know and understand something that is not known to many. I was able to teach my family and friends about a new sport that they never heard about. It was especially interesting for me because although I play other sports I never would imagine myself playing a sport on the ice. I don't know how to ice skate and I am not near any winter sports venues that I could go to on a regular basis. As a result I was able to expand my abilities to something I thought I could and would never do.

Orginally my goal for this activity was to learn the new skills and the sport and understand it well. I feel like at the end of my activity I did, in fact, achieve my goal. What I did to measure my how well I achieved it was when recently I was watching the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver. I followed the curling tournaments and I found myself understanding the rules, the strategies and engaging myself in the sport that most people have deemed boring. I was doing this not noticing the effect of my recent activity on me. Afterwards I realized that I learned alot and in truth I achieved my goal the way I wanted to achieve it, by understanding something new, even though I realised I achived it in an unexpected manner.

I also believe that I met Learning Outcome 4: working collaboratively with others. One aspect of curling and teamwork that I found interesting is since there are less players the importance of each player increases. In volleyball if anybody made a mistake I could somehow save the ball or I could take charge and prevent the ball from falling but in curling I could not do anything to correct a mistake. Hence each player not only had an important role but everything they did became more significant and impacted the sport greater than in volleyball. I had to learn how to rely on my teammates and trust them more than I did in volleyball. It was certainly hard for me since I'm used to taking over and fixing any mistake. This challenged me unwillingly and I learned that trust is very important in a team.

As a result of this activity, I learned how to play a new sport and I more importantly I learned to have a little faith and put more trust in teammates. I will be able to use this in the future when volleyball comes around again and hopefully I will be a better teammate and player because I will trust them to play well and make less mistakes.

Holiday Concert 01/11/10

On Monday January 11, 2010, I participated in the Holiday Concert with the Sturgis Strings.

This concert was significant because I was able to achieve my personal of being 100% ready for the concert and playing every piece perfectly, with no mistakes. It may seem like a high, unreacheble goal but in past years I have always been almost there but never got quite there because of a few mistakes. This year however, I practiced harder and when I was playing my pieces at the concert I did not make any mistakes. I hope that I can recreate my perfect performance once again in the spring concert. And as a result of this experience I learned that hard work certainly pays off and I know the secret to do just as well next time.

Raffle at the Student-Faculty Basketball Game

On Friday January 29, 2010, I dressed up in a tuxedo in order to sell raffle tickets to raise money for Prom Committee at the Student-Faculty Basketball game.

The fact that I was willing to dress up to an basketball game and look out of place shows perseverance and commitment in this activity which is learning outcome number 5. Few people would have done what I did and I even surprised myself by agreeing myself to do this. But I really want the prom to be as nice as possible and if I have to look "too good" in order to raise more money then I would be willing to do it.

In addition, on the spur of the moment I created a new raffle contest in order to raise more money. This shows how I am able to initiate activities (learning outcome number 3). I saw an opportunity to raise a lot of money and I took it. In the end it payed off because the money raised in this new raffle was 4 times more than the money raised in the tux raffle.

I think what I did that night of the game demonstrates how I am committed to Prom Committee and how I want to go above and beyond to help out as much as possible. As a result I also showed myself how committed I can be since I had to do new and unusual things, which are not part of my nature. Most surprisingly I learned that I can think on my feet and that I can act quickly, when I made up a new raffle on the spot. I am usually not one to think on my feet and work quickly, I like to take my time and think things thoroughly and organize everything. It was a new feeling when I created that raffle because it's not something that's part of my nature. In the end, I learned something new about myself and showed that I am capable of pushing my boundaries and do unusual things in unusual circumstances.