Regent’s International School, Bangkok participate in service competition

Posted: 31 August 2021

Overview

Our mission as a school is to guide students into becoming well-rounded, informed, responsible, principled and confident global citizens and we believe it is crucial for the students’ development to be exposed to activities that offer academic enrichment, build skills for the future and hone their entrepreneurial spirit.

When COVID struck in 2020, much of our regular service activities were shelved and we searched for ways to keep students engaged in the Spirit of Service whilst distance learning and as a result opted to take part in the FOBISIA Race4Good, a online service based competition for schools.

Planning

I received a promotional email about the competition and then inspired to take part gathered a team together. We had eight students aged 16-17 in total. I arranged regular meetings for the students to enable them to plan and share ideas, this also allowed me to give them ideas or things to consider and ensure they are on the right track.

Detail

The competition was broken up into three rounds with schools pitted against each other. Students were given challenges over the course of a month to help a village in Nepal, with additional challenges being given if the school progressed to the next round.

Initially, students were given a main task and two weeks to come up with a solution. During this time students were also given quick, additional challenges that allowed them to earn points over the other teams.

The winners of the first challenge then moved forward to another challenge, with the winners of that challenge making the finals.

Our students had to review the challenge and then use their research skills to investigate further, taking into account cultural and religious beliefs and ways to overcome them. They also had limited contact with village leaders, business mentors and specialists in the field who would give them advice and guidance on how best to complete the task.

Among their challenges, they had to come up with ideas to help with a shortage of medicine within the village, design a lesson for primary students to help them to better understand how they can have an impact in the village and to create sustainable, practical work solutions for the villagers.

Our students designed a concept for the village to plant a medicinal garden to grow and use herbal remedies. The money raised from selling herbal teas and other remedies would help generate income to reinvest in the project. The village implemented the idea and now grow a range of ginger, coriander, mustard, mint and thyme.

As the winning team we received a video from the team on the ground of our project being created and installed, along with feedback from the people that would benefit from it.

Impact:

The students gained immeasurable experience of helping others along with improving their own research and practical skills in the process of finding inventive solutions to the problems. Our students developed a sense of comradery as they worked towards a common goal and developed important teamwork skills.

The experience has given the participating students great things that they can write about when applying for university.

Long term:

The solutions that the students implemented are being used by the people of the village and the successful ones will be rolled out to neighbouring villages around Nepal. The real world nature of this event will continue to have an impact on the village for years to come.

Advice:

Author: Andy Wilson, Round Square, ECA & CAS Coordinator

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