CameronAn exemplary service activity that I often share with my students is about this Chinese international student studying at Kent School, one of the top US boarding high schools known for its strong STEM programs. This student had learned Spanish for years; at Kent, he noticed a lot of staff working there are Hispanic and their children didn’t have the privilege to access to top education resources like he did. So this student initiated a volunteer service to tutor these children in Spanish; he began with Math and other natural science classes. Eventually, as his Spanish fluency progressed and he had taken more classes at Kent, he also taught these kids computer science and business. This student was accepted to Stanford because of his Spanish language and what he did with it.
Is speaking Spanish unique? Is tutoring unique? But when this student put the two together he thus created a service-oriented activity so innovative, meaningful and impactful that it gets him to stand out among Stanford candidates. In light of his inspiration, you should reflect on your skills, talents, interests and commitments, been keen and observant to the potential needs around you, and come up with a service/solution/initiative to address what you care about and concern about.
On the other hand, service doesn’t necessarily have to be obligatory or goal-driven, it can be fun and interactive. The community is also not limited to just the neighborhood you live; it can extend to a group of like-minded individuals, both on-site and on-line. Referring to my own experience, more than three years ago, by coincidence I joined a WeChat group that was organizing local Frozen fans to watch the movie Frozen II one last time before it became unavailable at theater. Little did I know, the simple action of entering the group chat of around 50 members eventually led to the building, expanding, and maintaining of an on-line community of nearly 500 fans of Frozen fever. Such community had been the safe haven that excluded the fear, anxiety, and powerlessness against the prevailing coronavirus, members all over China banded together, while proactively appreciating, discussing, and analyzing Frozen II, we had provided care and support to each other along the way to battle against the pandemic.
If anyone recall the timing, no more than three days after the last Frozen II movie was shown, there came COVID and along with it, the three-month long nationwide lockdown. It was also around that time that I got the e-version of “Frozen 2: Forest of Shadows”, the pre-movie novel that bridges what happened after Frozen and before Frozen II. Ardently addicted to Elsa, I delved into incredible depths of that book, relentlessly digging every clue and every connection it had with the Frozen II movie, perusing every word that described Elsa, and analyzing even the least important depiction of her appearance, action, motivation and character. Fully immersed, I wanted to visit Norway, the prototype of Arendelle, more than anything in the world; since Elsa is fictional and so is Arendelle, I simply wanted to gaze in awe at the majestic fjords in Norway that truly exist. Meanwhile, I also searched the Frozen II tag everywhere to collect information from threads, posts, tweets, and articles.
There was one day out of boredom I randomly threw my silly idea of going to Norway in the movie-watching group chat. To my surprise, I instantly got couple replies claiming that I wasn’t alone. One thing led to the other, when I began sharing my reading experience of Forest of Shadows, the group was raging with requests, eagerly asking me to translate that book and talk about every connection I had found that linked to the movie. I then started a WeChat voice call thinking orally presenting the contents; however, since WeChat call only allowed the capacity of 9 participants, other members who were unable to join were grumbling. I then proposed to switch to Zoom but only to learn I was the only one knew this app. Normally at this stage my patience would have been long gone but miraculously, I was able to suppress the restive me and summon the mentor me that directed the members to search the Zoom app and download it, then guided them to join my Zoom meeting with the meeting number I provided. Then there was the first ever remote learning, lecture-like sharing session which I introduced Forest of Shadows, an elimination game developed by Disney called Frozen Free Fall, and tons of internet memes and graphics I had previously saved. Through share screen, I was able to illustrate all my Frozen II “savings” all at once, commentating fan-art creations, expressing how eager I am to see Elsa again, and how Frozen II could have ended better so Elsa can be back to Arendelle sooner.
Generating explosive feedback, the meeting lasted hours before we realized how time had flown. Never had I expected this much of fun and excitement from interacting with formerly total strangers, I had agreed to host another meeting the next day to thoroughly go over Forest of Shadows starting from the very beginning.
Hence there was the official establishment of our self-declared “Arendelle Civil Affairs Bureau” group chat; every day I would share a Zoom meeting number allowing interested members to join, then I interpreted several chapters of Forest of Shadows first, leaving the rest of time for discussion and random chats. Full of vigor and exuberance, the Zoom meetings had reprieved us from the harsh reality that the world was struck by COVID and we had no clue how long would the lockdown continue or how much of our life would have been impacted and shaped because of it. Nevertheless, with collaborative effort, we had brought Arendelle to reality and made it our safe harbor.
To this day, I still am grateful for being involved in this cause. Members thanked me again and again, but they didn’t know the gratitude is mutual; if it weren’t because of their passion and strong requests, I would never make the first step nor would I be courageous enough to let them hear my voice. But in the end, I made it, we made it, we created our own Arendelle. Without visiting Norway, now Arendelle is in existence!
Is getting to know people of common interest unique? Is sharing reading experience unique?
But when I put the two together I thus contributed to building and maintaining a community of approximately 1500 members and together we pulled through the darkest days of COVID.