Here are some things I am taking part in to develop myself as a person. These focus on developing skills I lack, and utilizing the skills I do have to build new and interesting things.

Creativity

Colombo Model United Nations

Since seventh grade I have been a dedicated model united nations delegate, last year was my first experience as a chair and this year will be my first experience as a leader within it as an undersecretary general. Within this I have many goals for a successful twenty fifth Colombo MUN conference, while my goals will grow and change the closer we get to the conference in March, below is a basic list of goals.

Excellent exco

I want an exco made up of people who are enthusiastic and qualified for their specific role, as many members as possible should be people with previous experience in that role or people with special skills that qualify them for that role.

Strong study guides

In previous years there have been many sub-par study guides for the various committees, issues ranged from grammatical errors to being partly inscrutable. I aim to personally ensure that all study guides this year, especially for the conference but also for the practice sessions, are concise, easy to understand and are overall helpful.

Early Sponsor Push

Finding sponsors is always a major cause of difficulty in the months leading up to conference. I have already created a small database of sponsors to help members along and I will work with each member to ensure that each member brings at least 50,000lkr in sponsorships though ideally 100,000lkr+. I do not expect to succeed in this perfectly, but I do hope to ensure that the majority to do. I will support them in getting sponsorships by helping them prepare for interviews, going with them if they need support and any other help they need.

Senior Production

I have recently joined the school senior production in a performance of Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare. I have been assigned the role of Oberon fairy king.

• I am to come to every session on time, part of this is checking the schedule before hand to make sure I dont come for sessions where Oberon is not used
• I intend to learn my lines perfectly down to pauses and emotive gestures before the performance
• I need to memorize at least 5 weeks prior to the performance so that I have time to focus on the character (expression, tone, movement) without a script limiting mobility and speed

Activity

Tennis

After some heavy decision making, I have chosen to attempt tennis. The exact reasons for this will be discussed extensively in the next post but are not relevant for this one. As a part of attempting this sport I have decided to find objective measures by which to evaluate my improvement, as a basis for this I am using the United States Tennis Association

National Tennis Rating Program. This list provides levels and criteria for levels of tennis players beginning at 1.5 for basic players who still have to focus just on keeping the ball in play to 6.0-7.0 which containers national to world class players, I would consider myself to be currently a 0.1. I aim to improve over the next two years to reach at least 4.0 or 4.5, as the rankings aren’t very specific I have added my own more exact critia to the levels though the official standard can be seen here https://www.active.com/tennis/articles/ntrp-guidelines-what-level-of-player-are-you?page=1.

For me

1.5= I can with effort keep the ball in play.

2.0= I can quickly assume basic positions for singles and doubles matches.

2.5= I can rally slowly against someone of my level or a coach. I can sometimes successfully direct the ball to a specific spot on the opposite side

3.0= I can rally for a sustained period of time. I can roughly direct balls to planned locations.

3.5= I can perform and direct basic shots with consistency. I have some use of tactics in my attacks.

4.0= I can perform a range of diverse strokes with consistency.

4.5= A significant number of tactical plays are used, I can use  a few more complex techniques.

Service

Checkmates

Within my service Checkmates which I have been a leader of now for 2 years now we use Chess as a tool to interact with children from underprivileged communities. While we try and teach them chess to instill in them the basic benefits of the game such as skills in forethought, focus and spatial awareness, our main goal with it is to try and build confidence within the children of their own decision-making skills.

Within the next two years with this service I intend on instituting some new policies that are focused on improving the experience of the class as a whole

1. I will make an official rankings system based not on the children relative to each other but on specific skills and tactics they will need to develop or adapt
2. An official formula booklet of useful terms, one for the children and one for the teachers so as to improve communication
3. I intend to institute a policy of official certificates for the children to recognize their achievements the class