“All that stress was worth it.“

– Me, and basically every other SGA member, at the end of OSCars

OSCars is The Overseas School of Colombo’s annual prom night. It is hosted by the school’s SGA in March for students at OSC from ages 13 to 18. Although similar in nature to a high school prom event, OSCars has a distinct international flavor in order to engage the diverse student community we have at OSC. In the recent past, OSCars has been hosted with great success at The Taj Samudra Colombo, The Kingsbury, The Mövenpick Hotel and The Shangri-La respectively. This year as well, the OSCars, held on the 23^rd of March 2019, hosted at Shangri-La, was extremely successful. As a member of the SGA, I was actively involved in making this event possible. Not only did I take on shifts for the various fund raisers we organized but I also found us a sponsor, LMC, who willingly contributed 10k to make this event possible.

Learning Outcomes

1. Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken

At first glance, it may seem as if everything was smooth sailing for organizing this event but, trust me, it was anything but that. When I joined the SGA I didn’t realize how much of a commitment it was going to be. We met up every Wednesday lunch to discuss and organize all these fundraisers, I had to actively volunteer and go sponsor-hunting for weeks before I was landed a decent one and I had to write emails back and forth to make sure the money would be received/collected in due time. In the midst of all my other responsibilities and activities, at one point, this became a burden that I just wanted to be rid of. So, making time out of m schedule and actively volunteering to help out in all the fundraisers really was a challenge but I undertook it and came out successful, though it is hard to say if I learnt anything new from the experience other than the fact that I handle stress quite well.

1. Show commitment to and perseverance in CAS experiences

The fundraisers we organized included a drinks booth at the Food and Fun Fair, which is the main carnival in our school, where I had a one-hour shift, selling drinks, attracting customers, managing the money alongside another SGA member. Another fundraiser I was involved in was the Gecko Factor, which is our school’s main talent show, where I helped out backstage as a runner. My main job was to call on the acts and get them prepared when it was their turn to get on stage. Even in OSCars I was working: I had to collect everyone’s tickets before they entered and give them a coupon for a free picture at the photobooth. I did this until the doors closed for the opening ceremony, if you would call it that, which was at 7pm (or 7.30. I can’t remember ha ha…). So, yes, I was both committed and perseverant in helping out for the success of this event.

1. Demonstrate the skills and recognize the benefits of working collaboratively

I can’t stress how important it was to work collaboratively when organizing this event. Many people had to come together, from outside and inside the OSC community, for this event to be successful. Given how this was a student-led event, we had to organize most of it by ourselves. Of course, none of it would have been possible without the guidance of our supervisor, Ms. Leddy, who helped us every step of the way.

To be honest, organizing the OSCars wasn’t something I fully enjoyed and I believe it gave me unnecessary stress and laid on me a commitment that I wasn’t full prepared for. But in the end, it was worth it because OSCars this year was by far the best OSCars I’ve attended over the past three years. Eventually, all of it was a rewarding experience (I hope to not relive it…)!