Sample reflections from MDID students

#ethicsofchoicesandactions

Organizing a group and holding an activity is my very first time. During FLEX, I have learned a lot about teamwork. I would say I pretty enjoyed organizing the activities such as designing the poster, encouraging performers to join us, contacting the lights, and decorating the photo booth. I was not a good leader for the first time because I did not think that holding an activity is quite sophisticated at first time. I have to distribute everything to my co-founder and contacting other students. Some students may not have high compatibility. Thus, being a leader, you have to take responsibility for everything. In the beginning, if someone did not do what they should do, I would feel angry about not doing their assignment. However, changing the perspective could have different comprehension in a thing. You could say that they might have some university-applications that need to work. Therefore, taking some works from them is a suitable way to help them rather than just asking them to do. As a result, I have learned a lot about being a leader and holding the activity.

#challengeandskills

The final results of WHO's Reboot Health and Wellbeing Proposal Competition are announced recently, we received both good news and bad news. For the good news, for the weeks where we did our utmost to promote our proposals and maximize our votes, our hard work has finally paid off. We are extremely fortunate that we successfully got into the second stage of the competition… Although, for the bad news, we didn't get into the final stage and have the chance to be the ultimate champions. The final stage involves 2 participants selected from the top 20 participants in the second stage, whose proposals have been evaluated to be the best by the official panel of the WHO… Nevertheless, I have to admit that examining these outstanding ideas and comprehensive plans of other participants designed for the future society is also a rare experience. Especially how the competitions' participants and voters are from all around the world, truly transforming this event into a globalized competition, learning different perspectives and broadening my horizons.

#commitmentandperseverance

I wanted to have a quick interview with the owner to really understand the needs of the dog shelter. This time, we did some basic jobs first, and the four of us collaborated quite well, so we finished our tasks quickly. We washed the dogs' bowl, filled in new dog food, swept the floor and washed the floor. Then, Sabrina showed us how to wash the dog later, and after learning this, I will be able to teach new volunteers. I think that I've grown a lot mentally by helping the dogs. I am actually picky sometimes and I hate mud, however, when I was volunteering at the dog shelter, I did not care about getting dirty at all; I was even very happy doing those jobs. I think it is because I personally love dogs a lot, and seeing them just made me sad; they deserve better but they don't have the ability to do anything. They are not responsible of becoming stray dogs, humans are responsible for it. Despite the fact that they've been treated badly by some human beings, every time we enter the dogs' place, they still jumped on us and gave us warm smiles.

#strengthandgrowth

I may not be the best at socializing but sports may just be a very good opportunity for that. Given the competitive nature of basketball, we players have a sort of "prison yard" mentality when we play the sport. So I walked over to a senior student that was considered to be the best and went for a 1 on 1 game with him. When the game started, I finally learned why he was considered the best, his strength and shooting skills could easily handle larger or faster players. However, this style of playing was very similar if not identical to mine, it gave me an edge on analyzing his moves. I quickly changed my playing style from physicality to fast paced distant shooting, this was proof that all basketball players should be better shooters. In the end, I did win, but I can't say I will for the next game. He is a tough opponent that I can learn from and playing similar styles makes learning from him even more valuable. I hope that I can consistently grow to be a better player so I may lead the team to new heights and even play official games to be winners.

#globalengagement

Our plan for the community has always been highly supported by our friends and classmates, because Mahjong is not only a game for us. It is a symbol for our own culture, and a strong bond between our friendships....Through the game, new connections can be built, friendships can be made, old relationships can be pulled even closer together, and most importantly, our precious traditional culture can be inherited and spread further.

A big part of our community is also translating the game. Our vision is that, in the future, not only students, but also the large numbers of foreign teachers can have the ability to play Mahjong. By teaching the foreign teachers Mahjong, they can be able to also teach their friends, their friends to their friends’ friends, and so on. Our students in the international department are also potential international students, which means that they are able to bring the game to even further and wider communities. This way, we have accomplished our goal which is to spread our own culture.

#initiativeandplanning

Today was the first official club meeting, and more people showed up on time than I imagined… The first club meeting was pretty successful, as we managed to cover all the contents within the planned time, and we got to hear from every single one of the club members…The one thing that we did not do well was that we finished a little bit too early, leaving around ten minutes before the bell rings. It turned out to be quite nice though because that gives the new members some time to freely walk around the lab, explore, and ask questions about the club. However, it gives us the hint that we may need to prepare a little more contents for each lesson or have backup plans in case we finish the lesson earlier than planned.

As for my personal growth today, my planning skills have enhanced since I learn to become more careful with time allocations and preparing plan B just in case something goes wrong. I also learn to collaborate with other staff of the club, especially during discussions on how to plan our future lessons according to the survey, and on division of jobs and responsibilities.

#collaborativeskills

Finally, the last game that we played is against National Taitung Senior Commercial Vocational School. After this game, the referees will finalize the ranking of tournament. The coach wants the starters to play to whole game, guarantee that we use the best quality of player to win the game. I am the starter forward, the strategy that coach instructed us for the match is that she wants the forward to score as more as possible. I tried my best to get the ball and shoot. I got hit to the ground many times. But finally, at the last minute of the first quarter of the match, I scored one point! It all thanks to my teammates, they gave me a really good chance to shoot, we collaborated to make a really good moves that approach the goal. But in the last quarter of the match, we lost two points, so the result of the game is that we got 8th place in this tournament. but even though we didn't get a really good grade this time, the last match still taught me a lot. This match made me impressed with our improvement and good collaboration, and also made me deeply experience that soccer is a sport that really need players to collaborate.