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stuff@school, Friday 23 January 2015

AST December, I attended

Leaderonomics DIODE
Youth Leadership Camp
at StarFresh Agro Park in
Seremban, together with
Starstruckers Emily Lee and
Kirtanac Genason. It was a
reward for our consistent submission of work to stuff@school
last year.
The six-day event turned
out to be a short stint for me,
as I hurt myself and required
an operation. Though my
participation at the camp was
brief, the overall experience
I had gained from there is an
invaluable one, as detailed in
my following account.
The long awaited day came.
When all the participants
reached the destination, we
were ushered into a hall for an
ice-breaking session. We were
first welcomed by the camp
commander, Marcus Lim, who
delivered a short speech.
Soon, we were playing The
Penguin Game, which was a
lesson in communication. We
were required to communicate
in order to prevent the person
acting as the penguin from
sitting down within the time
allocated.
It was tough in the beginning
as most of us were not communicating. However, as the game
went on, we shared our strate-

An experience like no other

Starstrucker JANICE CHAI XIN HUI came away from a leadership camp a stronger person.

Andrew, the
Janice posing with
untaineer.
mo
ss
inspiring limble
gies and achieved our goal.
Subsequently, we were divided into nine groups in which
we were required to appoint
a group leader and come up
with a group name, group flag
and group cheer. My group was
named The Avengers, after the
movie.
Leveraging on our different
abilities, we divided out our
work those who are good at
drawing designed the flag while

the outgoing ones planned our

cheer.
Later in the evening, we
played two other games which
taught us about teamwork and
trust. At night, we took part
in station games. We were
warned that 10 marks would
be deducted from our team
if anyone was caught by the
Royal Guards.
After our first station, which
saw us engaging in activity
in total darkness, we proceeded to the second station.
That was when we saw a
Royal Guard walking by. We
walked on tiptoes, hoping that
he wouldnt see us, and started
running when he faced the
other way.
I was so excited that I was
running too fast on the tar road.
The next thing I knew, I fell
on the ground. My teammates
stopped in their tracks as I got
up and limped to the hall. The
right side of my face, ear, elbow
and shoulder was grazed with
cuts and blood was seeping out

of my skin.
The camp commander
cleaned my wound and gave
me a bandage to apply pressure
to my left knee as the cut was
very deep.
I was then taken to a nearby hospital where I was told I
needed an operation to remove
the infection already building up in the wound site. My
parents later decided to take
me home. The next day, I was
admitted into another hospital,
where I had my first operation.
In the days after the operation, my movements were
restricted but I wanted to visit
my friends at the camp. After
much persuasion, my parents
agreed to drive me down to
the campsite for the farewell
session.
When I walked into the hall,
I saw a limbless man giving a
speech. He was Jamie Andrew.
In January 1999, mountaineers
Andrew and his friend, Jamie
Fisher, were trapped for five
nights in a snow storm on the

icy summit of a French mountain. Andrew, then 29, survived

but not his friend. Days later,
his hands and feet were amputated.
At the camp, Andrew showed
us how to take off and reattach
his prosthetic legs. He also
showed us the tool he uses
when he eats. When he was
done, I immediately went up
to him, introduced myself and
took a picture with him.
As the event drew to a close,
the camp committee members
attached an A4 paper to everyones back so that we could
write our parting words on it.
We sang The Scripts Hall of
Fame and that was it the end
of the camp.
I am so happy to be given the
chance to attend the camp even
though I did not get to participate in most of the activities. I
have made some new friends
with whom we still keep in
touch. I look forward to attending the reunion organised by
the campers in May.

Activities
galore
By KIRTANAC GENASON
and EMILY LEE
THERE was not a moment
of inactivity at the six-day
Leaderonomics DIODE Youth
Leadership Camp as games and
activities were carried out to
keep the participants engaged
and energised. To start off, the
facilitators got our attention
when they emerged wearing
superhero masks.
The activities that ensued
from then on got us into the
thick of the action. These activities, as we were told, were
designed to allow us to practise the Awareness, Vision and
Plan (or AVP) principle.
You need to be aware of
your surrounding and have
a vision of what you want
to do. A brilliant plan is then
needed to achieve your goal,
said camp facilitator Kenneth
Devan, 19.
Heres our pick of some of
the activities that got our adenaline pumping.
Skills Workshop
During this intriguing session, we learnt a few new skills
from the camp facilitators.
From sewing a purse out of old
jeans and learning basic karate
to finding our inner cowboy
through a dance workshop, we
got the hang of it all.
Speak Out and Speak Well
Mohd Yassir, one of
Leaderonomics presenters,
gave us a talk on how to prepare our Pitch Out presentation a project that required
us to present before a panel
of judges from the corporate
world. We also learnt public
speaking skills based on a

Group photo of participants who attended Leaderonomics DIODE Youth Leadership Camp.
hilarious video presented by
Keat Lim, another presenter
from Leaderonomics.
The Game of Life
This was a challenging yet
exhilarating game. Using the
money given, we had to go
through 11 rounds and find
ways to increase our income.
Some of us made a costly mistake when they invested in
gambling and lost a lot of their
money in the early rounds.
Breaking Boundaries
We read out our weakness
before running through
newspaper barriers
and giving a shout
to show how
determined we
were to overcome the
weakness.

DIODE Night
Our last night at the camp
was a time for celebrations
and full-out partying.
It was full of dancing,
singing and most of all,
laughter. It was past midnight when the celebrations ended.
The bus ride home was
significantly different compared to the one we took
on the first day. It was filled
with friendly laughter and
chatter. It was truly a memorable camp and we would
jump at the opportunity to be
back again.

Emily and Kirtanac flanking

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