COMUN

COMUN wrapped up last week. It has been a really hard seven months since our journey started and I learned a lot about what it means to be a leader and what it means to balance idealism and realism in that time. I am a paradox of a person and am both intensely practical and intensely idealistic.

Organizing COMUN required that I work collaboratively with others for a long period of time in order to plan and pull off such a large conference. I went into the program with noble ideas about inspiring the chairs under my direction to do amazing things and in really distributing work evenly between people. However, I had not taken in to account the stress and challenges of organizing a project this big. There were definitely moments when I could have communicated with people better about work load and about what i needed them to do. I stepped up to the pate I the last few weeks and started fielding more questions from faculty advisors and communicating with people that needed it. But though I demonstrated an ability to communicate articulately I feel like I have an improved awareness for my areas for growth in my communication ability at least on an interpersonal level.

In a public speaking I excelled, this is a strength that I am more aware of now than i was before the conference. I wrote and gave my speech at the opening ceremony about my hopes for a future world and about how I hoped the COMUN Delegates would be prepared to face such a world. It was a hard task balancing the small scale, that weekend, and the long term issues of global importance that I wanted to address. I think I managed it well be framing the diplomacy work the conference was simulating inside the larger idea of calling for international and cultural compromise. I got excellent feedback from those who were watching my speech. Mr. DeSilva in particular made a point to say the he thought my choice of words was good for the occasion. The text of this speech is attached to the end of this post.

We did manage to pull of a really wonderful conference. It called for a lot of demonstrated dedication to pull it off.  For this first time this year we had two day long topic during conference which took a lot more preparation that the year before when I also served as a chair, but the feedback we got on this decision was good and it definitely reduced the stress on the deligates if not on the chairs. We also had for the first time this year a simulation of both the United Nations High Commission for Refugees and the Economic and Social Council.

Interfacing with people as a mediator and as a decision maker was a new challenge for me. Though I was in a similar role in the organization last year I wasn't at the one actually making the calls. This year if there was an interpersonal problem I was the one who mediated. I was the one who made decisions about how we were going to handle things. I of course had help, as a secritariate we made decisions together, but it was a role that was knew to me. It really made me consider the implications of what I was doing, ethical or otherwise. I had to consider how the decisions I made were going to impact deligates and how a decision that benefitted one kid might disadvantage another. I hope I made the right decisions but I also do not have the benefit of a removed perspective to evaluate these decisions.

All in All, I a so happy I undertook the challenge of running a conference. I had so much fun over the course of the seven moths we worked towards last weekend. I made a lot of knew friends and I hope I impacted the lives of some of my peers and younger students. I tried very hard to speak words to them whenever I was asked that were both honest, "sometimes other people win" or  "sometimes you have to compromise", and idealistic and hopeful.

The text of my Opening Ceremony Speech: 

          There is a phrase with which I am intimately familiar, one with which I think that many of you, adults and students alike, are also well acquainted, that is “Someday soon.” The wording may vary, perhaps your phrasing of choice is “eventually”, or “In a few years”, or “when I grow up”, but the sentiment is the same: it is not yet my time.

I disagree, but I do not blame you for saying this. I thought it as I wrote this speech and I am sure I will think it again before the day is out. It is a comfort to remind ourselves that we are still young, that there is still time to make decisions, that our lives are not set in stone, that things can and will get better for all of us. I disagree, but I would not advise you to forget the future. I disagree that it is not yet your time, not yet our time, because I believe that there is no firm line between now and then.

Isaac Asimov once said that Today’s Science fiction is tomorrow’s Science fact. However, I prefer to think of it in this way: today’s idealism is tomorrow’s reality. The things that we dream up today, perhaps in this very conference can be our reality, for we construct our own times. The words we speak and the hopes that we carry do not exist only in the here and now. Instead, they spill over the rim of today and pour into tomorrow as bright as we can make them.

This year’s Colombo Model United Nations Conference is all about the interplay between the present and the future. Our committees will strive not only to produce solutions to the issues our world faces today, but also to ensure that these solutions are not just guttering candles in the dark but are instead bright and enduring. My fellow executive committee members and I hope that the questions we ask and the discussions we facilitate over the course of the next few days can produce meaningful answers to the question of what our tomorrow might look like.

Our theme this year, Sustainable governance, is not just about going green, though that is a not insignificant part of it. Sustainable governance is about ensuring the security of regions and giving stability to the displaced. It is about creating global economic partnerships and about curtailing the infringement of human rights. It is about preventing war, healing from conflicts, and learning to decolonize ourselves successfully.

Sustainable governance is about having it be easy to open your mouth and say “we will deal with this someday soon” or “We can address this in a few years” and instead making the choice to say “Now is the time to address these difficult issues, now is the time compromise, now is the time to learn”

With that in mind I implore you not to let your personal ideals nor the ideals of the country, cooperation, or organization that you represent be waylaid by fear or by ambition. I hope to see in your committees the foundation of a tomorrow that we can all dream of, that we can all no matter our differences be secure in. Let us be reassured this weekend that our time, be it now or tomorrow, will be a good one.

Evidence and photos available here: http://content.educationtimes.lk/print-edition-1/7236-22-years-of-comun-by-osc and http://www.osc.lk/comun/

Service Update

This years service has been very challenging for me as historically i have been very reluctant to involve my self with things that have to do with actively interacting with people in particular students. This meant that attempting to teach children chess was and still is undertaking a new challenge. At first me teaching partner, Sadira, and I were unsure of how to proceed with the teaching when we we could not communicate cross language barriers and were unsure of our opponent's level of knowledge. In the end we decided to play out a test game, two against two, and realized that they knew the pieces movements quite well but lacked strategy. Since then we have been playing quite high level games but instead of letting them make mistakes pointing out flaw in their strategy either with Sadira's limited sinhala or piece movement demonstrations. Their strategy even in the few weeks since we started has shown a marked improvement. Additionally interacting with them has given me a pace to practice my even more minimal sinhala. 

Sense the seem to be improving so markedly we hope that eventually they will be able to take their skills out into their communities and teach others. As our communication is getting better we hope to soon undertake the new challenge of teaching them how to teach chess.

Action Update

In the last few weeks our basket ball team has made some mazing improvements. We started out loosing every single one of the sudden death matches but by the end of last weeks session we had won three in a row (the longest streak of every team) and played the longest sudden death game yet (10 minutes). I think what really pushed us forward was that we insisted on playing and using all five of our team members rather than relying on heavy hitters. this meant that at first we played weakly because as a whole our sense of where people were going to be was weak but as we learned how our teammates played and started passing better our results improved immensely. We as a team dominated because we worked collaboratively with each other.

Individually, I have been steadily increasing my awareness of my strengths and areas for growth. I know that I am good at passing and quite good at seeing gaps in the lay that I can fill. However, I didn't make any meaningful shots during game play. My warm up shots are getting better but I still find my self scared to make them when my team is relying on them even when I am in optimum position to do so.  This weak my goal is to continue to practice my shorts during the warm up and making shots during game is my next challenge.

Activity: After School Fun Basketball

On fridays this ASA quater I am playing basketball withhte fun basket ball after school activity. It has been four or five years since I last shot a hoop so this very mcuh feels like I am learning new skills all over again. Last friday we spent about 20 minutes shooting hoops without focusing on other skills. I shot about twenty times and made 6 shots, for a ratio of 3:7 (made to missed). I hope to improve this to somewhere closer to 1:1 before the quater is over, however ot make this goal easier i am saying that i am only counting when shooting hoops not in game where other facotrs are at aplay. When we played short first to score games I was defense, playing the position that our team captain called "the big man". It was a postition that I played much better than offence, because I am good at getting in people's way but also good at always mainitaning the distance needed to keep from fowling. Additionally, I also foudn that from a defensive postion I could see the whole quart properly and give advice to my team about the other team's tactics and work colaborativly with them to develope plays and strategies.

UN Day 2015

UN day was last week and I was responsible for planning and initiating both assemblies. The beginning one required that I greeted fag bearers and handed out flags on the morning of UN day. This meant that I really got to greet and interact with every delegation. It was fascinating as it always was to see all the culture brought to show in the parade of nations.

I was also responsible for reading and preparing a speech to be read at the opening. Though it was only two minutes long it was still a new challenge for me as I have never been responsible for writing my own speech before. I have in the past been asked to speak add lib and to read speech prepared with other people, but never before had I been allowed to be solely responsible for my content. Writing for speech is very different for writing for the page, and it was an interesting foray into a new skill. The text of the speech is included at the end of this post. I think I did well in addressing the global importance the activities undertaken during UN day. Educating students about how to discuss and interact with international issues is deadly important in a interconnected world.

I was only partially responsible for planning of the classroom sessions. My role was mostly to be a sounding board and resource for the student leaders, as they were responsible for the content of their lessons. However, I do wish I had taken a firmer hand in insisting they used by suggested structures and recourses that I provided. A lot of the feedback on the classroom sessions suggested that they were largely improvisational in nature. I am going to make a suggestion to next years secretary general that they require lesson plans or some other sort of written plan from their student leaders rather than the verbal wall through we required this year.

    (me lighting hte Oil Lam in my position as Secretary General) [OSC school photographer]

Text of My Un day Speech 

In this age of constant interconnectedness, where news from around the world may reach us in minutes, it may seem like global citizenship is a given. Perhaps these days we all posses passports stamped with the seal of the united nations, declaring us international by merit of existence. Or perhaps sometimes it seems like there are no longer any borders at all.

It may seem like this, however, as the cultural social political and economic landscape that we all navigate grows in scope and complication, it is even more necessary that we work to foster global citizenship rather than assuming it’s existence. How we understand and interact with those spaces that exist between cultures and nations, where it is not clear which one holds power or if there is any governing rule at all, speaks to our merits as individuals and our preparedness to face a global future.

Today, as we celebrate Un day, we take steps toward that elusive goal of internationalism, whether these are our first steps or only additional ones on a journey already undertaken does not matter. What matters is today we work to find a balance between the celebration of our own cultures, our own viewpoints, and an understanding of other’s.

Senior Year Goal Setting

Colombo Operated Model United Nations (creativity + service)

This year I will be taking on the role of Secretary General of COMUN. It is a huge responsiblity to run entire confrence. My primary goal is, of course, to plan and an iniate an confrence that can go off with as few hitches a possible, but above and beyond that I want to improve my skill at leadership particualry in how I work colaborativly with others. My goal is to learn more about how to properly deligate, when to take things on my self and when it is best to let otherrs help me, as this has been an area for growth I have been aware of in the past. I also wish to practice, improve, and stay dedicated towards my ongoing efforts to become more orgonized. In the past COMUN has run a minimal service project collecting donated school supplies alongside the confrence and this year I hope to expand it.

Theater: The Bugsy Malone Musical (creativity)

I not be acting in the Musical this year, instead I will be taking an auxilary position as Head Designer for the musical. In this role I will be designing the set and drafting that design, as well as designing, mangaging, and running the lights. My goal is to show persevereance in the lighting design field that I entered during Arabian Nights last year. I wish to pimporive my skills at running light boards and to take on new challanges such as drafting designs and creating gobos (inserts that create shadows and colors when placed infront of white lights). I also want to improve my comunication skills when it comes to working collaborativly with the panel of teahcers running the show, the actors and other student designers.

Theater: Colaborative Devising Project (creativity) 

Alongside my work with the musical this year I will also be working on a devised theater project for my own benefit with Nathan, a tenth grader. We will be meeting during lunch and on the weekends to devise a 15-25 minute theater peice from a stimulous. This project is not for a grade and is simply an attempt by both of us to expand our skills when it comes to devising and to create a piece that can be present in both our portfolios as we apply to colleges in the coming years. My goal for this is to undertake the new challange of writing for the stage and for planning and iniating a collaborative project with no help from a supervisor. I also just really want to create something beautiful that both Nathan and I can be proud presenting to the school at some time in the future.

Scuba Diving (action) 

This year I will be continuing to refine my skills as a scuba diver. This is an activty that I have enjoyed for the past 4 years and I am excited to continue it. This year I want to improve my bouancy control and to continue to work on my oxygen use efficency. These have always been areas in which I need to improve, so this year I hope to really dedicate my slef to improving them. I also want to continue to engage with the continued threats to the reefs here on Sri Lanka. In the past my work with the Hannack family has involved making recordings of damage we see done to the reef. I also plan to continue that.

Dance Class (action)

Over the summer I spent a lot of time working on improving my flexibility and getting more comfortable with my body.  This is year I will be taking a dance class at a local studio twice a month. My goal is to demonstrate comitment and persevereance to the task of improving my physicality. I am looking forward to developing new skills as it comes to dancing, which is an actiivty I neer thought i would have much interest in, but I want to becomes aware of my areas of improvement when it comes to my body. I also aim to use this activithy as an ability to engage with a wider comunity and to improve my ability to be open and anxeity free.

Outreach Writing for The Institite of Educational Leadership (service)

One of my cas activities this year is going to be doing out reach and article writing pro bono for IEL, a non profit focused on providing leadership and educaition trainging to those with disabilities and those who deal with disabilities. I will be writing about what it's like to grow up with multiple learning learning disabilities under the Intelectua Disabilites Act and writing articles for them discussing how to teach self advocacy from the students perspective. I will also be working to develope materials for them that they can provide to students and teachers around the globe. In my capacity as a volunteer for their orgonization I plan to engage with issues of golbal importance such as the awareness of learning disabilities and the deficite of teachers who know how to properly engage with children with learning disabilites. I will also be undertaking the new challange of non ficition and educational wiritng. My goal is to improve my comunication skills when it comes to personal writing and to get feedback on my writing for IEL. (read more about IEL at iel.org)

In School Service (Service) (to be updated)

I do not yet know what service I will be working with this year but where ever I may end up my goal is to engage in my service to the best of my abilities and to engage with both an issue of global importance and the ehtical implications of my serivce work.