Saints for Christ is one of the 3 leadership CCAs in SAJC, organising school events such as Principal Meets Christians, Interschool Prayer, Holy Week, Dedication Night, Service Learning, etc. We also organised a Student Leadership Programme for our juniors, where the JC2 Exco members conducted modules for the JC1s to equip them with the skill sets (eg. planning events, publicity, worship, prayer) that they would need to run the CCA when we stepped down.

Leading a student leadership CCA greatly honed my leadership capabilities and developed my soft skills. I grew in confidence in standing in front of all the members and leading sessions, learnt how to be firm about what needs to be done, yet at the same time also remain down-to-earth and sincere when leading the team. 

I learnt how to harness the strengths of my team members to work efficiently and to the best of our ability, set the direction of the team for everyone to work towards a common goal, and conducted reflection sessions regularly to allow my team to learn from our experiences, as well as regain their purpose in planning and executing these school events, due to the taxing and tiring nature of our work in planning events and serving the school/community.

This was indeed a rich and fulfilling learning journey for me, as although I had been the head of events before, the ChrySAlis EXCO team was a large group of 19 members, and so my role was different. 

I coordinated much more with the teachers in charge, learning from them interpersonal and effective communication skills in leading team meetings and how to bring everyone together. My role was to oversee the various subcommittees in the EXCO, assign tasks and be the constant "deadline tracker", while at the same time pulling all the subcommittee's work together and close the gap to make sure everything could flow smoothly. 

It was also challenging to figure out how to get the EXCO to bond, as we only had one term to plan for the entire event which comprised 250 participants, the training of the 89 facilitators as well as external speakers. Some of the EXCOs also were coping with their additional H3 subjects. So it was of essence that I learnt how to keep everyone on track and get the work we needed to do done in that short period of time, yet at the same time promote bonding within the EXCO, without which we would not have been able to work so smoothly together. One of the tricks I learnt from one of the teachers was bonding over food after every meeting, and from another teacher -- genuinely complimenting someone on something they had done well that day.

As I fell sick with flu and influenza respectively on both week of the facilitators training that we had to carry out before the real event itself, it required me to learn to trust my EXCO team, after dividing out the roles and briefing each one of them on what they had to do, then supporting them from the "stands" at home as they managed to run the training sessions. The sense of initiative and togetherness that I was able to glean from their descriptions afterwards were really heartwarming moments where I felt that the hard work I had put in had paid off. I continued to be sincere and vulnerable with my EXCO, as well as the facils as I led them, being honest with them about the challenges we faced, how I felt about it, constantly encouraging all of them to continue to move forward even though it was tiring at times. 

It was a great honour to be chosen again to emcee, this time for the school's Beginning-Of-Year Ceremony. This time, I learnt to not read off from the script like how I could previously do for the awards ceremony, but to remember the flow of events and make sure I could say what was in the script authentically and genuinely, nodding at the VIPs to address them when announcing their names. 

Even though I played the same role (of an emcee), I still learnt so much! 

Chrysalis is an annual leadership training event hosted by SAJC for secondary schools. In 2022, there were 5 participating secondary schools. 

Even though I could not participate in the actual event due to Pre U Seminar, there were several facilitator training sessions before which taught me much about how to facilitate a session, teaching participants about leadership. We learnt about the different leadership styles, and how to engage the participants effectively (eg. using thumbs up to see that they understood)

I was privileged to be chosen as one of the student emcees for College Day. This experience was good in training me to emcee properly, and work on my areas of improvement (eg. lowering my pitch). It was also a fun experience to learn how to pronounce names from different ethnic cultures! 

Having been the President of Cross Train (Christian Fellowship CCA), I learnt how to throw my voice and firmly give instructions, motivate members who might be less inclined to take part in activities, and facilitate discussions and activities. As it was mostly student-led with minimal teacher guidance, I learnt how to take charge of the CCA together with my Exco to plan weekly CCA sessions.

Being a member of the Student Council taught me the responsibility of being a leader. I would have to come to school earlier than my other friends and classmates to do my council duties, or stay back after school for council meetings. We also had to carry out duties like marking down the latecoming students, or do commanding for morning assembly (standing at the front to lead the school in the pledge and national anthem) which helped me grow in my confidence (eg. when I started, it was scary to deal with the more 'gangsterish' students and instruct them to do this and do that, or being afraid that my voice would start quivering when I stood in front to lead the school in morning proceedings). 

I was also exposed to the work that goes into running a school event, as we would have to come earlier to set up, be missing from our class rows during the event itself as we are helping out with the behind-the-scenes work.

Looking back, being in the Student Council in Secondary (and primary) school was a very good starting point for me to learn what it meant to be a leader.