Photo credit: Teri Tay
A new school year means new friends, new teachers, new subjects. BUT what’s missing? The activity that we get to pour our hearts and souls into – CCAs!
Interviews conducted by Claire Hsieh and Soh Wen Sheun feature questions and answers one will rarely have time to find out on a normal day.
CCA: Service learning
Interviewee: Kay
Interviewer: Claire Hsieh and Soh Wen Sheun
What is an average CCA session like?
Our CCA is split into 4 groups (of about 10 people each) and each group is partnered with a different organisation. During Wednesday CCA sessions, we will usually be in our groups, either planning our next outreach activity for our chosen organisation or out of school doing volunteer work. On Friday CCA sessions, we will be planning and executing our club VIA.
What do you enjoy most about your CCA?
For me, I enjoy interacting with the less fortunate as well as the community around us during our volunteering activities, because it is really heartwarming to see that you’ve made someone’s day even through a simple visit with games and food.
What are some troubles you encountered in your CCA and how did you overcome them?
The biggest challenge for me is the sheer size of our club (46 people and more to come!), which makes it difficult to coordinate activities and ensure that everyone is involved and not feel left out during discussions. To overcome this issue, we split our CCA into our four groups, each with 1-2 Exco members to guide the group members. This made admin matters such as attendance taking and travelling to our VIA locations much easier.
As seniors, you will be holding auditions for your juniors, so what is your CCA looking out for in prospective members?
We want our members to make a difference in people’s lives and give back to the community, so we will be looking out for juniors who are passionate about serving others. Prior volunteer experience will also be useful, but it is not the most crucial thing that we are looking out for.
What do you think was a highlight for your CCA last year?
One of our highlights last year was DDD 4, when some of our members, along with other Ej students, visited senior citizens at Ulu Pandan CC and Lions Befrienders. They had lots of fun with the seniors through teaching them Zumba and playing Bingo with them. They also got to learn a lot about them through interacting with them.
Stay tuned for the next CCA’s interview!
The Origin* 