Food Drive

This has been a fairly recent development, and one that has only just begun to get into the works. As such, I can only really detail a small portion of what will undoubtably turn out to be a fairly sizable project. It was only about a week ago that I was approached by my boss to oversee a food drive for the Winnipeg Food Harvest (in conjunction with the royal wedding at the end of the month). While I was initially surprised, I gladly accepted the task, although I know that time is running short. One of the ideas which I think will work well is to do a competition with other schools in the area (as this campaign is city-wide) and provide some motivation for people in bring in their canned goods. I have not yet approached anyone to help me with this project, although that will have to be done in the next few days as I cannot do this on my own. as events develop, I will keep them posted, for that is the extent of my involvement thus far in this project.

Halloween Fundraiser

This past October, our CAS group organized a fundraiser for Growing Opportunities International, to raise money for the construction of an orphanage in Tanzania. Overall, my role was to help in the organization process and publicity campaign. Further, I provided a large degree of the decorations used to furnish our school for the event, as we were going for a "haunted school" concept. Despite our attempts of publicize this event at the elementary schools, the actual event was somewhat of a failure (if it hadn't been for the teachers children, there would have been one or two people there). Nevertheless, one of the things that I recall vividly was the faces of the children as they went through the various events that we had on. That in itself, at least compensated for the financial failure of the event. One lesson, though, was valuable out of all of this and that was the importance of advertising. It doesn't matter how good an event you have, if no one knows about it, then its as though you didn't have one at all. For future events, more emphasis will have to be placed on this particular aspect more than anything else.

Student Council

For the past four years I have served as a representative on my schools student council, and task I have eagerly enjoyed due primarily to my love of politics. It was because of my passion for it that I decided to enter it, and more specifically, to run for the executive as President last year during the annual elections for those positions. It had always been my goal to become President as I yearned to be in a position of authority from which I could have a positive influence on the world around me. To be perfectly honest, while as I representative I served on many committees and helped out at various dances and fundraisers, I was never had the power to effect policy decisions. That was my primary motivation for running. Further, it has always been my fundamental belief that the only way to bring about the change you want to see in the world is to actively bring about it yourself. Therefore, I was determined to at least try to carry out my vision by participating in the democratic process.

However, one of the requirements for the executive is that you must run with a team (either 3 or 4), and this was perhaps my greatest challenge. There was not a lot of people who were interested in running unfortunately, but I was finally able to get some sort of team together. Working with them was another story all together, as we were a group of some fairly strong personalities (to put it lightly). In the end, compromise was often necessary, although some of the decisions weren't always to my liking. Nevertheless, I grew to accept them as something that is necessary in politics (or rather a fact that could not be avoided).

Now, while I didn't win, I came away from the campaign having learned some essential lessons. The first was how to organize a group effort and to keep them inspired through a long period of time. I achieved this not just by talk but by action, for if a leader is at the front line and working to his full potential, then it sends a message to those around him/her. Time management was also essential, as our platform and publicity had to be completed in a relatively short span of time. Delegating, although not always to my taste as I prefer to micromanage everything, became a necessity. And finally, as I have discussed above, collaberation was another key that had be fitted into the puzzle. Overall, I'm glad that I attempted this task, and I look forward to the next time when I'll have the oppurtunity to run for office. Let's just hope that it will be more successful!

Choral Major

One of the programmes that I have particularly enjoyed at my school is Choral Major which is an intensive coarse aimed at developing a singers vocal and technical skills to the fullest. The aspect that I especially enjoyed was the solo nights, in which I had the opportunity to expand my skills in solo singing. While I have enjoyed singing as a fun past time activity for years, it has only been recently (and particularly through this program) that I seriously began to study the art form. I soon realized that the effort that was required to train the voice, especially to expand ones octave range, was far larger than I initially anticipated. For example, I am a bass singer, yet to sing the majority of repertoire it was necessary to extend my range to at least a baritone (just slightly higher than a bass). To accomplish this, I performed various scale and vocal exercise to constantly stretch my range as much as possible. At times, this could be quite painful in the sense that I was pushing my vocal cords to the limit (hurting my throat). And indeed, it took a lot longer than expected, well over two years of consistent work in order to extend it to the point where I can now sing much of the music that I wish to. Also, solo performing has always been a bit nerve racking for, but by forcing myself to do it over and over again I have reached a point where I am comfortable doing. That's not to say I don't still get pre-performance nerves, it's just that now I know how to control them and channel that nervous energy into my performance in a manner that it enhances it.

Music Festival

In March, I entered the Winnipeg Music Festival for the second year, this time in five separate classes. I did so primarily out of my love for singing, and this was a great opportunity to practice solo performances more. The five categories I entered in were Folk Song, Italian Art Song, German Lieder, Broadway, and Gilbert and Sullivan. Of these, three were in a foreign language, which for was me the most difficult aspect of this task. First, I didn't know any of the languages i was singing in (German, Italian, and Russian for the folk song), so I didn't have any prior knowledge to assist me. Second, I wasn't acquainted with many experts in these languages, so it was up to me to learn them as best I could. Thirdly, there was the aspect of memorization. While I also had to memorize my English songs, it is a lot easier to remember something in a language one understands rather than something foreign. For me, it's a matter of how I connect to a piece that helps me commit it to memory. If I'm able to connect certain phrases and ideas with something I'm already familiar with, then the task is simplified. For foreign languages, that connection is non-existent, and one must therefore rely solely on the sounds and pacing of the words. Yet, I persevered and overcame this challenge by forcing myself everyday to at least go over one of the songs. That way, I wasn't rushing last minute and had enough time to get comfortable with the pieces and fine tune them for the performance. Nevertheless, I was able to overcome this challenge and successfully perform them to the best of my ability, although there might have been some lapses in pronunciation during the actual performances themselves (although that was due mainly to nerves, more than anything else!).

Westwood 50th Anniversary Student Video

This year, my high school turned 50 years old. As part of the preparations for the celebrations, I was approached to produce a student video detailing what life is like for the students in 2011, compared to 1961. I must say, I was quite surprised that I was picked (as I'm not the best with technology), but I eagerly accepted the task. The first thing I realized was that I couldn't do this by myself, so I recruited a number of my friends that I considered reasonably hardworking and dependable. For this task, group collaboration was the key to success. Normally, I prefer to do everything myself (as I don't trust other peoples work), but with the time constraint this wasn't feasible. The first thing I adjusted to was the need for compromise, which became clear as we sat down to plan the video out. I initially wanted to focus more on the teacher-student relationship, but some of the others brought forward ideas dealing with technology (i.e. cellphones). Together, and through some concessions on both sides, we were able to come up with a fairly detailed plan of action within a short period of time. The other major concern was time management. Each of us had different schedules, and it became clear that at certain points, I would not be able to oversee all the levels of production. As such, certain members shot when they had free time, while I oversaw production during my spares. Finally, there was coordination with the teachers, getting their involvement and ensuring what we had proposed was acceptable and feasible. This was probably the easiest aspect of the task for me since I have a good relationship with most of my teachers. I was willing to take their advice and suggestions for improving some of the scenes, which in the end was extremely beneficial to the final result of the project. Overall, the main aspects I focused on was group collaboration and organization of a project, both of which I feel I was able to accomplish fairly well.

Violin Lessons

Currently, I've been taking violin lessons for the past two years and have every intention to continue with them for the foreseeable future. Before that, I had learned to play the cello, although for logistical reasons it was necessary to switch over to a smaller instrument. My goal overall with this activity is become proficient enough to play the music that I like to listen to (mainly classical music). This is no small feet, as the majority of the classical pieces involve various degrees of complex techniques (such as bow crossing, 2nd and 3rd position, and vibrato just to name a few). Currently, I'm practicing 3rd position and attempting to learn vibrato, although that technique requires one to build up the muscles in the fingers over time. At times, it can be quite exhausting, doing repetitive exercises and scales. Indeed, I was once tempted to stop altogether while I was practicing a song for an upcoming festival (as I kept getting stuck at one particularly nasty spot). Yet, one of the more satisfying experiences was when I actually performed this piece (it was a Bouree by Bach) on two seperate occassions, one at a local christmas concert and the other at the annual Tauber Music Festival. The first time I used the music and the second was entirely memorized, the first time for me! I can't express the feeling of accomplishment that overcame when I finished playing the piece at Tauber, although it was far from perfect, it was nevertheless a great feeling of accomplishement. Indeed, I'm looking forward to expanding my profiency on the violin for years to come, so as to hopefully tackle the devilish Hungarian Dance #5 (by Brahms)!