February 2015- April 2015
Telus Science World – Student Volunteer
From February- April 2015, I was a student volunteer at Telus Science World and was assigned to do different tasks every hour.
I usually work with children inside classrooms, and to be able to volunteer in a place like Science World allowed me to engage with children in different ways. They are always curious about everything and they ask a lot of questions. My goal is to not always directly answer their question but instead offer engaging activities or experiments that will help them find out the answer themselves or create more questions.
Although I only volunteered for 2 months, I was able to enjoy every moment spent there and learned a lot of things such as patience, especially when guiding children.
May 2015 – May 2016
RockGen Toastmasters – Vice President
I just turned 18 when I was voted to become the Vice President of the club. Before Toastmasters, I participated in their Gavel Club which was meant for those under 18. I would always come in as a guest to the RockGen Toastmasters Club, and through time I learned different techniques and skills through other people. When I turned 18 and was finally allowed to join the club, I gave my first public speech entitled “Princess” within the first month. My first speech was about how I saw myself as a princess not because of vanity and confidence but because I wanted to show that I have a heart of service. A princess always looks out for other people and is always willing to lend a hand. My fellow club members were impressed and coincidentally that summer, they were looking for new leaders. I was voted as Vice President even though I am the youngest.
Through my time in Toastmasters, I was able to participate in the 2015 Tall Tales competition and was able to compete against different clubs. Unfortunately, I was not able to make it into the Regionals, but as an 18 year old competing against older and more experienced individuals, I felt proud of myself and I still consider it as one of my biggest achievements. And it all started with being attentive to what others are doing and being inspired by those who have succeeded.
Being Vice President of Toastmasters also helped me gain a lot of experience not just in meeting new people and in terms of communication skills, but also in media.
As Vice President, I was assigned to handle our club website. I learned how to operate a website by updating it every time we had events. That was one of my first experiences with media. Through that experience, I was able to learn a lot about how I can be updated with every single event, how to coordinate with different heads or leaders, and also website design.