Ryan's Well

Early in March, Margery told me about a bake sale idea that our fellow classmate, Jayna Sames, has originally concocted. The funds would go to a foundation called Ryan’s Well, which provides for wells in communities in Africa that lack these crucial water sources. Along with classmate Tracey Fu, Jayna, Margery and I, we brought in an assortment of baked goods. From Jayna’s oatmeal cookies, to Margery’s brownies, to my homemade Costco muffins, we delighted the school with our culinary talents and brought in about $380 dollars that will go to Ryan’s Well foundation.

I learned quite about teamwork and planning with the Ryan’s Well bake sale (it was actually my first one.) For one, it took good communication to organize and distribute the copious amounts of food that each of us brought in. With the overload of hungry students during the sale, we needed to make available all of our baked goods during the most hectic 15 minutes. We coordinated our effort to serve the most customers possible as we each took a certain side of the table. Without such organization, we would have made significantly less money.

I also considered the ethical implications of my actions and the global importance of “thinking globally, acting locally”. In the US and in our local community, water and food resources are accessible parts of our lives, we seldom appreciate that they are always available to us. However, to those who need Ryan’s Well’s help, water is part of their everyday struggle. By bringing this problem to the DCDS community’s attention, we are doing the best we can to address this international problem in our local community.

Helping Japan

In the last week, news coverage everywhere has been covering the Japanese earthquake and the devastation left by the following tsunami. As I witnessed the devastation occurring on the other side of the planet, I thought of the International Baccalaureate concept of “think globally, act locally”. With this notion in mind, I began to think of different ways to raise money to alleviate the pain many Japanese people feel at this moment. Already at DCDS, a group of students have planned a bake sale (I don’t think the administration would allow a second baking event). However, after considering this option, my mind wandered back to charity tennis tournament which I have at different points in the year been planning. The conflict in Japan has inspired me once again to redouble my efforts on the tournament in hopes of raising a substantial amount of money to send to Japan.

At the current moment, I am trying to overcome the obstacle that has held me back in the past: finding sponsors to facilitate an affordable t-shirt give away and supply food at the event. My mom has already volunteered her OBGYN firm as a potential sponsor, but I seek to get other organizations in the company involved. I know that that my hometown, West Bloomfield, has a substantial Japanese population that would appreciate the gesture and would be interested in participating in the event.

Of all the IB learning outcomes, the one which best applies to my reinspiriation is #7: the consideration of the ethical implications of my actions. Though clichéd, the motto “treat others as you want to be treated” has inspired this latest effort to run the charity tennis tournament. Though the multi-cultural understanding fostered in the IB curriculum, I feel a connection to those people suffering in other countries despite the cultural disconnect between us. The pain of the Japanese people is my pain, and I seek to do my part in the recovery by raising money though local activities.

Culture Day 2011: A Learning Experience (Written 2/27/11)

As I have mentioned in my previous post, the planning of culture day was a daunting task to say the least. If I had to cook one more latke, I think my kitchen would have self-destructed. However, despite the stress leading up to the event, I am happy to say that the Jewish table had a strong showing. Between Margaux Hyman, Joe Juszak, my brother Alex, and me, we were able to wine and dine the many students as they sampled our matzoth ball and potato knishes (among many other dishes). Along the way we were hoisting people up in chairs (a tradition and Bar/Bat Mitzvahs) and singing in Hebrew the few songs we knew.

I think our group achieved learning outcome #6 to its full extent. The crowd seemed to be never ending; though we had a never ending supply of food, it took great effort to properly plate each sample for the full hour lunch period. Overall, I learned that within me is the ability to lead people and organize them into a successful operation. My leadership as captain of the tennis team called upon these skills in dealing with day to day conflicts, but I have had to make such a flurry of decisions that determined the success or failure of an event.

Overall, the most important part of Culture Day was that we had fun with it. I only wish that I knew how great this event was when I was a freshman; four years of participation would have been lovely. I learned a lot of things from the Culture Day experience, but more importantly, I discovered a pride in my Jewish culture that I thought I had lost long ago.

Representing My Culture (Written Feb. 20, 2011)

Since freshman year, I have always enjoyed Culture Day at DCDS. During one special lunch period every February, the many cultures represented within the DCDS community set up food tables during lunch to sample the edible parts of their cultural heritage. Although a relative minority at DCDS, the Jewish faith has always maintained a strong food table during culture day. Those who have participated in the past always had a smorgasbord of latkes, matzo ball soup, humantashins, and many other stables of the Jewish diet.

As a senior, I want to leave my stamp on the culture day activities. For this reason, I have decided to sign up as the head organizer for this year’s Jewish table. Though I am surely in over my head, I know this experience will help me learn organization skills which I have previously not developed. The success planning and implementation of this project will help me better my communication skills, especially with other Jewish students whom I haven’t previously met.

As I will need to have enough food for over 500- 600 students and faculty, the successful undertaking of this job will require that I would collaboratively with others. Already, I have discussed with other Jewish students the possibility of bringing in food. To make sure we do not forget any essential Jewish dishes, I have made a comprehensive list with each of the foods and the expected amount we will need. Even in the early stages of this project, I have surprised myself with the organizational skill I possess. As culture day approaches, I hope that this diligent planning will lead to a successful representation of the best parts of Jewish culture.

From Player to Coach

When tennis season ended, I needed to find a new place to take my tennis skills. Besides staying in shape, I figured that it was finally time to all my tennis wisdom to younger, less experienced players. For this reason I decided to embark on a new challenge: working as a tennis coach. I went into the experience expecting to take from it one thing: my first pay check. However, once I started feeding balls and noticed some of the faults in the kids’ swings, I naturally began to offer advice on the things they could do to improve. Every Saturday and Sunday for the past two months, I have become more and more engrossed in the two hour clinics. What started for me as a way to earn some quick cash has become skill which I try to improve each time I am on the court. I have also had to develop a new kind of relationship: the coworker relationship. In this vein, I have achieved learning outcome #4. My coworkers and I have collaborated together in order to figure out the best way to reach these young kids.

Besides teaching, I intend to reach out to the tennis community in order to start a charity tennis tournament. Along with fellow IBer and tennis teammate Visakan, I wanted to spread the news to other tennis teams around the area in hopes of drawing some interest for a mixed doubles tournament. For a small fee, players would be able compete against other high school kids they know from the high school season and test their skills. I think it could be a great way to have some fun, meet new kids, and contribute to a great cause!

Logan 2010

A few weeks ago, I went to Logan for the last time with my fellow IBers. As usual, it was a rewarding experience. I remembered once again how lucky I am to go to a school like DCDS, where academics rather than subsistence are the students only objective. I was reminded of my summer experience in Costa Rica, where students also came from poorer families. However, the most prominent parallel I drew from the two schools was the students’ ability to look past their struggles at home and enjoy their classmates and the learning experience. Knowing how much the kids enjoyed their time in school, I came prepared to Logan ready to make that school day even more special. I think this is my realization of learning outcome #7: recognizing the ethical implications of my actions. Volunteer time in Costa Rica and Logan has helped me understand that spending time with these kids is far more valuable than just buying them a gift or helping their financial situation. The experience is the most valuable thing I can offer them and that can only be done through volunteering.

We did some very cool activities with the kids this year. The IB group had to work together to assign ourselves to the large group of kids and efficiently (cleanly) get the projects done. The first two groups we worked with had young kids who needed a lot of direction to complete the project. However, the biggest challenge was the last group of kids, which consisted of second graders who spoke very little English. Before I knew it, I was busting out the Spanish I had practiced for four long weeks in Costa Rica!! I really achieved an understanding of learning outcome #8: developing new skills. I have just recently tried to improve my proficiency in speaking Spanish and I took advantage of this opportunity to do so.

I really enjoyed this Logan experience and am sad that this was my last time at the school. I hope that the younger grades understand the importance of volunteering their time with less fortunate kids and take full advantage of this rewarding experience.

Hard Work Pays Off:Editorial on Declining School Spirit

(11/14/10) This issue of newspaper I am working collaboratively with fellow Senior Editor Nirali Shah to write an editorial about the declining school spirit at Country Day. I am looking forward to the planning and follow through of our writing plan because I feel like this is a highly relevant topic in the country day community and should be an interesting read for the Day Times audience. I think that this follows learning outcomes #3, 4, and 8 because I am working with others to come up with a project (in this case the editorial) that should continue to develop my journalistic perspective and writing abilities.

UPDATE (11/30/10) Nirali and I just finished writing the rough draft and it looks great. I think we used good teamwork to accomplish the task. During the interview portion of the writing process we split up the interviews evenly amongst ourselves (we had to get many different opinions) and made the process a rather quick one. We then combined our notes and had a second round of interviews (either important new people or follow up interviews) which we conducted together in order to form a similar perspective on the story. To make the writing process a speedy one, Nirali wrote the first part of the editorial then I added on and made edits to her work. She then followed up by doing the same things to my writing. I think that we chose an effective plan that allowed us to work collaboratively yet quickly at the same time. I am very excited to finish up the editorial as I think it represents some of my best newspaper work in my four years on the Day Times. Hopefully the school community will take the message of our writing to heart and start showing up to more non-academic school events!