ACTIVITY SHORT DESCRIPTION:
This year I will be continue to be an officer of our school’s DECA club. This year I will be the club’s Vice President of Career Development, which “Practices the "Careers" element of the DECA mission. Responsible for chapter participation, preparation, and performance in Competitive Events” (deca.org). This means I will be preparing our members for DECA ICDC (International Career Development Conference), which takes place in Anaheim, California this year. I have chosen not to go on the trip this year, and instead make use of my experience and knowledge (I participated in DECA ICDC 2016 in Nashville, Tennessee) to advise and guide this year's’ members.
PREDICTED LENGTH OF ACTIVITY
I will be VP of Career Development from September 2016 to May 2017, but I will be working most from the end of October 2016 to around April 2017, which is when DECA ICDC conference takes place.
CAS ELEMENTS INVOLVED
PERSONAL GOALS FOR THE ACTIVITY:
ANTICIPATED LEARNING OUTCOMES:
This year I will be continue to be an officer of our school’s DECA club. This year I will be the club’s Vice President of Career Development, which “Practices the "Careers" element of the DECA mission. Responsible for chapter participation, preparation, and performance in Competitive Events” (deca.org). This means I will be preparing our members for DECA ICDC (International Career Development Conference), which takes place in Anaheim, California this year. I have chosen not to go on the trip this year, and instead make use of my experience and knowledge (I participated in DECA ICDC 2016 in Nashville, Tennessee) to advise and guide this year's’ members.
PREDICTED LENGTH OF ACTIVITY
I will be VP of Career Development from September 2016 to May 2017, but I will be working most from the end of October 2016 to around April 2017, which is when DECA ICDC conference takes place.
CAS ELEMENTS INVOLVED
- SERVICE
PERSONAL GOALS FOR THE ACTIVITY:
- What do I hope to accomplish?
- How does what I'm doing help to accomplish the stated objectives?
- How will I know if I've achieved my objectives or not?
ANTICIPATED LEARNING OUTCOMES:
- (Learning outcome #2): Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process.
- It is my first time being the VP of Career Development, and it will be a challenge to have the responsibility of helping the members prepare, develop and improve their project. I will need to develop my own skills of communication, identifying whether guidelines have been met, giving constructive criticism, being patient and considerate, giving helpful advice and guiding them but not doing things for them and working collaboratively.
- (Learning outcome #5): Demonstrate the skills and recognize the benefits of working collaboratively.
- DECA is a club comprised of our Advisor, officers and members. Throughout the year, I will be having weekly meetings for both officers only and for all members, in which I will need to show communication and collaboration skills. For the officer meetings in particular, each of us needs to come to the meeting with a report of our corresponding area of club happenings, and them be able to discuss and if necessary take action. We also continuously communicate out of school by email and whatsapp to address any issues. Each officer has certain jobs, but they are all important in the club, and we need to put together our skills and complete our tasks to ensure that the club runs smoothly. Additionally, I will be demonstrating collaboration skills when working with each member on their project. I will be reading and watching their development throughout the year, and giving them feedback.
- (Learning outcome #7): Recognize and consider the ethics of choices and actions.
- My responsibility as VP of Career Development is the “participation, preparation, and performance in Competitive Events” of our members, but that does not mean I will be creating any of the work that they will submit or present, as that would not be academically honest, and can be considered plagiarism. I will be reading all material they write or create, and then giving them feedback, including comments on what has been done well and suggestions for improvement. By not writing or creating anything for them, I will be acting with integrity and honesty, and doing everything I can to ensure that they do their best work. Furthermore, I will have to take into consideration the emotions of the students, and give constructive criticism and suggestions that will not discourage them in any way. Lastly, I will need to work fairly and justly with all members, showing no favoritism.
REFLECTIONS:
SEPTEMBER
The month of September has been a month of planning and preparing for us DECA officers. Although we were all overwhelmed with our IB subjects, we could not forget about DECA, and several meetings with our advisor, Stephanie Trinidad. Some of the tasks we acomplished this first month were:
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OCTOBER
The month of October involved various activities, including:
The month of October involved various activities, including:
- Helping members meet the next scheduled due date: completing an outline of the project. Every member excluding us officers who are not going to DECA ICDC are required to participate in an event. This year everyone has chosen events that include a written entry (of varying lengths) and a presentation, and some also take an exam. An outline of the written entry was due October 30. The outline is relatively simple to complete, as DECA provides guidelines for each event that are basically an outline already done. The difficult part is to choose what you are doing for your event. For example, for the Innovation Plan (EIP), an innovation must be thought of, for the Fashion Merchandising Promotion Plan (FMP), a retail store must be chosen, etc. I had several members come to me for guidance, which I was happy to give.
- Continuing our weekly general meetings, which are every Wednesday during our lunch break, and officer meetings, on Fridays also during our lunch break.
- Continuing with fundraising.
- Selection of two vacant officer positions: Vice-president of Leadership and Vice-President of Hospitality. At this point we have a feeling of who is dedicated to the club and who is hardworking based on their attitude in meetings and the work they put in to their projects, so we were prepared to interview members who wished to run for the vacant officer positions. We announced this during one of our general meetings, and were happy to see that the three members who ran were all active, diligent members of the club. I found this a bit troubling, as there were only two positions for three people, and I felt sorry for the person who would not get a position. After the interviews, the decision was no easier, as all three seemed to be potentially good candidates. Nevertheless, we had to come to a decision, so we discussed with our advisor and came to an agreement as a team. I feel bad for the person who did not get the position, but hope that she will in the future. I am satisfied with our new officers and sure that they will be a great addition to the team.
NOVEMBER
This month things really got started! The due date for the outlines, October 30, demonstrated who was committed and who was not. Most members submitted an outline of their project (some more developed than others), but there were people who put absolutely NOTHING in the folders. As mentioned in September, the due dates we set are not absolute deadlines, and we didn't want to immediately get rid of people without giving them another chance. Therefore, we gave the people who hadn't completed their outlines (6 people in total) an extension. Out of these people, only one sent an outline late. The others eventually admitted they did not want to stay in the club and do all the extra work. Although it is a bit of a shame to lose members, it is good to know who is committed and who was previously in the club just for the sake of it. It is this month that I really started working on the career development aspect of being the VP of Career Development! Previously I had already been working with the other officers, fundraising and advising members when they came to me, but now, with the submission of their outlines, my job of helping members had properly begun. I created a folder on Google Drive, in which I created folders for each event:
I also created a document called General Resources, in which I put many useful links for members to use for guidance and as sources. Another important DECA activity that took place this month was the DECA Idea Challenge, which was a CAS creativity experience (click on this link or find it in the tab under "CAS Experiences"). |
DECEMBER
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JANUARY
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FEBRUARY
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MARCH
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APRIL
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MAY
- After the Easter break, I and my fellow members who were also leaving DECA attended one final meeting as a sort of goodbye. Our adviser and new officers gave a few words of thanks and farewell, which was really sweet. I feel a bit sad to leave the club, but I have the memories and the knowledge that the process has given me over these two years. Last year I jumped out of my comfort zone, and there were late nights, tears and nerves, but I have grown in the process. This year I got to share that knowledge, give advice and watch as younger members experinece it too. It has been truly rewarding.