9. Self-Evaluation

In Beyond Self, my role was the Administrative Representative (Admin IC) for Team B. We were separated into two teams - Team A and Team B for the weekly sessions with the children.

As an Admin IC for Team B, I put in a lot of effort. Firstly, during the earlier months of joining Beyond Self, all of the Admin ICs, including myself, had many discussions so as to form the attendance system. Furthermore, I wrote some of the After Action Reviews after Team B’s sessions so as to better reflect on the session we attended. I also marked, recorded both the children’s attendance as well as the mentors’ attendance for Team B’s sessions which I attended and emailed them to the Community Partner on a monthly basis. This is in addition to the duties of mentoring and tutoring the children when they need help in homework or assessment books.

I believe that I have positive attitude and good behavior during the whole period of engagement. I have a good attendance record over the whole engagement period such that I attended most of Team B’s sessions for Beyond Self. Despite a tiring day at school or upcoming tests or exams, I bring forward a good and positive attitude in Beyond Self to the children no matter what when tutoring them in different subjects. Especially in the face of some naughty children who don’t want to study sometimes, I kept my patience and did not yell at them but instead explained the importance of studying or sometimes using other peaceful measures to persuade them to study instead.

As an Admin IC, there were many things I had to do in Beyond Self behind-the-scenes. It was not just about marking and recording attendance for both mentors and children. This is because when we entered into Beyond Self, there was no proper attendance system, both offline as well as online. We had to come up with the rules and guidelines for the mentors and children, such as the consequences when they are late or have bad behavior. However, ultimately what we do in Beyond Self is for the benefit of the children. I really enjoyed interacting with the children on a one-to-one basis and getting to know them better personally.

In conclusion, leading Beyond Self as an Admin IC has been a great experience for me as I gained better leadership skills. I believe that being a great leader is to have confidence, courage to make difficult decisions and still be attentive to the needs of others. In Beyond Self, the primary goal is to make a difference to these under-privileged children by providing educational support as well as fun activities that they enjoy.