Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and DLP, service was unavailable for the first semester. Fortunately, service has resumed for my final semester of high school and I decided to rejoin and co-lead Gecko Net.
Gecko Net is a service group which is supervised by Ms. Jackson and it aims to aid the rest of the school and its service groups technologically. Because the service is free to join and has a range of skill and age amongst the students, the importance of the service leaders is heavily emphasized. This has been my first quarter being a service leader for Gecko Net and I am in charge of the Gecko News group. This group consists of me, three 8th graders, and a 7th grader and the focus is to create a monthly entertaining video which encapsulates the secondary school’s main events.
The video above was created by my group and represents the very first gecko news episode in 2 years. My team and I worked on this project for 4 weeks (4 service sessions) and I, as the service leader, was responsible of delegating roles and supervising their progress. Because I was supervising the group and helping every member (the anchors, the interviewer, the editor, and the script writer), I couldn’t focus on what I have been focusing on in Gecko Net for the past year – video editing. The role of service leader subsequently forcing me out of the video editor role has been slightly foreign but I have adapted well. This may be due to my experience coaching basketball and also being the captain of numerous basketball teams. This particular aspect relates to the 2nd learning objective which is ‘demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process’. I have only ever been in a leadership position when it comes sports, but more specifically, basketball. By embracing this role, a challenge was undertaken and in the process, I learned new skills such as the ability to coordinate amongst numerous different groups to accomplish something and techniques to keep my team members engaged. The photo below depicts three members of our group working on the script for the gecko news video from the beginning of this blog post.
Gecko Net also has other groups outside of just the gecko news group. Depicted below is me getting some tips from the photography and videography group which is lead by my classmate, Lenny. They not only teach other members of the group the fundamentals to photography and videography, but they also retrieve most of the videos from events that are then used in event coverage video and/or in the gecko news videos.
All in all, this quarter has been tremendously successful. I have learned to embrace the role of a service leader as well as take a backseat in the role of the video editor for the group. I have also learned numerous skills that will aid me in potential future leadership roles and I am looking forward for my final quarter with the group!
Supervisor: Ms. Rachel Jackson