ACTION - ISL Football

I was part of the inter school football team and i had a great season. I was recovering from injuries, but was able to do what i could and play to the best of my ability. Of course there are several things i need to improve on, but i look forward to next season and improving in any way i can. This season, we had a great team and were able to represent ISK with pride. We got to the semi-final against the Swedish school, which we hadn't played before, and we beat them! We got through to the finals against our arch rivals: RVA. We were in the finals with RVA last year as well, so for those of us who were on the same team, it was a similar memory. We unfortunately lost in the finals, but we played with heart and did the best we could do. We have done very well because before last year, ISK girls football hadn't been in the finals of the inter school season for several years. We are all very proud of the work we have done and work together and achieve the best we can achieve. I love football and i'm so happy to have been part of such a great team with such great players and such a great coach.

ACTION - ISSEA Basketball/ Paris

I was part of the ISSEA Basketball team. The season comes after the Inter school season, so when the ISSEA season started, we had already been playing together for an entire season. We all developed our skills and worked really hard in morning and after school practices to become the best we could be and win the ISSEA championships. I have been part of the team for 2 years and was on the team last year when we went to Ethiopia and won the ISSEA championships!! It was an insane experience that i am never going to forget! My team was the four time defending champions of the ISSEA championships and this season, we defended our title with heart, sweat, blood, and tears and achieved what we needed to achieve. We won the ISSEA championship for the 5th year in a row and did so in our own home. I love being part of such an amazing team and i love having such an amazing coach. Although i had several injuries and was recovering from an ankle injury, i was able to push through and do the best i could do. I definitely need to improve and become better in my basketball skills and improve my speed and agility, but i am a growing player and love doing what i need to do. My team also went to Paris and played the schools in Europe and won an invitational tournament in Brussels representing Kenya with pride! I love this team and i love sports.

SERVICE/ACTION/CREATIVITY - Mida Creek Intercultural Trip

I went to Mida Creek for my Intercultural Trip and it was an absolutely wonderful week. I am part of the Presidents Award, so was required to do the more challenging part of the trip. This included planning, organizing, and buying all the food for the entire week on the trip. It included organizing and packing all the cooking supplies for the week, and it entailed that i somehow reflect on my experience. I reflected by doing a trip journal. In my journal, i had photos, pictures, souvenirs, daily entries, and reflections. This was the creativity part of my experience and i feel i did well in representing the trip in an interesting, fact-filled, and artistic way. Before we went on the trip, everyone going to Mida had to participate in a swimming and kayaking test. This entailed coming to school on a saturday so the trip supervisors could observed everyone's swimming skills to see who was stronger than others and who was incapable of such a task. We were also tested on our kayaking skills and each of us learned how to flip out of our kayak and empty it of water in the case of flipping out in the middle of the creek. This was a skill i didn't know previously, so was good to learn. The challenging part of the trip was the Kayaking. We kayaked everyday and sometimes had to carry our Kayak over the sand banks as the tides went out and we were stranded out in the creek. I unfortunately had to miss the challenge day of the trip because i got very sick. The challenge was the day the Presidents Award people went out for a 6 hour kayak trip. I did kayak every other day, and it was a challenge because i was unwell. Overall, however, it was a very physically strenuous trip and i do feel i achieved. I love kayaking and it was great to practice kayaking again. I learned a lot about the tides and how careful we need to be when going out on the water. I learned how to work in a 'pod' out on the water with my peers and to stay together at all times. I learned how to signal for help, how to help someone. I also practiced my cooking skills throughout the trip because we each had to cook our own meals. It was a very interesting experience learning to use the material provided and the limited amount of food and water we had. We had to save our materials and not waste any food. We visited lots of tourist sites, including Gede Ruins, the Arabuko-Sokoke forest and the Boardwalk along the creek. It was interesting and fun and a great experience. I loved the Arabuko-Sokoke forest. We had a great walk and an amazing guide and i learned a lot about the wildlife in the park and the local coastal ecosystem. It was fun and interesting. The service part of our trip was very interesting. We went to the Turtle Watch one day and learned a significant amount about the turtle life and the biology of the region. We got to see some injured turtles that were being held int he rehab in the hopes of recovering and being returned to the open ocean. While we were there, we did a beach clean up on the creek and cleaned up a significant amount of trash and tried to do our part in protecting the organisms in the region of trash in the water. We donated some funds and i learned a lot and gained a new appreciation to the turtles in the region. We also went and worked with a Biology group called A Rocha. We went snorkeling with one of their biologists and he taught us so much about the fish life on the coral reef and in the KWS protected Marine Park. We got to observe all the different fish and we learned about their lives, predators, prey, relationships with local fishermen, and relationship/ impact of local tourists. I learned so much and was really inspired by everything. For A Rocha, we also participated in a Bird Banding expedition. The biologists were banding birds in the creek and this entailed setting up nets during the day and leaving them out for birds to get caught in the night time. I was up until around 1 in the morning traipsing all the way out into the middle of the creek during low tide and getting birds out of the nets and putting them in bags and taking them back to the table for the biologists and volunteers to brand the birds and take their information. Those birds had come from several different places around the world and it was truly an amazing experience. I learned so much and was absolutely intrigued by everything i learned and being able to hold the birds. I have been inspired by A Rocha to go back and volunteer for the organization because i love the work they are doing and love working with the wildlife and learning about the ecosystem and the biodiversity. I learned so much on this trip and gained several life skills that could be used in every aspect of my life. I learned how to work with others, create solutions to problems, be resourceful, plan, cook, organize, kayak, band birds, and help the community.

ACTION/SERVICE- Africa's Promise (NGO)

The Africa's Promise is a NGO that my basketball team supports. We raise money for them every year. They are a group dedicated to supporting sports for young teams in Africa, and we support a women's basketball team. To raise money, we did a fundraiser and got sponsored to shoot 1000 free throws in basketball. This not only worked on our basketball skills and improved our free throws dramatically, but it also made us work hard to support a wonderful organization. We achieved our goal of earning  significant amount of money and were all successful in our free throw shooting. I personally improved on my shot, but hope to improve even more for next year. I made more than 60% of my shots, but i hope to make more than at least 70% next year. I learned some basketball skills and i learned how to approach other people when seeking sponsorship. It is an interesting social skill that requires certain qualities and i practiced those skills in order to be successful. Not only did we shoot 1000 free throws as a fundraiser, when we went to Paris for a basketball trip, we brought hundreds of shoes back with us that the American School in Paris had donated to the organization. We each checked in a bag of shoes and delivered the shoes to the organization. It felt great to be doing something good for those less fortunate than myself and was a great personal growth experience.

SERVICE/ACTION - Mater Heart Run

I am the ISK High School representative of the annual 10 km Mater Heart Run. This means that i  raise awareness around campus, put an announcement in the bulletin, put up posters, and get people interested in participating or sponsoring the cause. The Mater Heart Run is an annual run that raises money for the Mater Heart Hospital, which is a hospital that does heart surgeries for children in Africa living with life-threatening heart conditions. The hospital thrives off of donations and sponsorship, so highly relies on this annual fundraiser. I sell t-shirts and hats for anyone interested in buying, and people participating have to buy a t-shirt as their entry fee. So far this year, I have sold a significant number of shirts and received several donations. I am very involved in this organization and have participated in the run for three years now. This is something very close to my heart and it means a lot to me that i am able to help young children who need help for a better life. I am proud of the work i do and am pleased to be helping such a good cause. I learn a lot about fundraising and raising awareness through this activity and i appreciate the effort it takes to make things successful. The things i learn by working toward this organization can be used in several different aspects of my life and i am doing something that is a great life skill and an experience worth having in one's lifetime.

Check out this link for information on the Mater Heart Foundation: http://www.materkenya.com/index.php/gallery/video-gallery/viewcategory/1/mater-heart-run.html

SERVICE - Fairseat Old Folks Home

I went to Fairseat Old Folks Home about 5 or 6 times and helped out with anything i could. My goal was to do what i could to help those less enabled than myself. I went around to the old folks living there and had conversations with them and visited with them and helped them with anything they needed help with. They love it when people come to visit and it was nice to meet all the different people. All of them have such an interesting history and it was great to hear some of their stories. It was a great experience and i loved doing it. My uncle used to work for the home during the times i visited, and the experience was made better for myself because i could see it was something very near and dear to his heart, so therefore it meant a lot to me. I was so glad to be helping and doing something worth doing. I love working with other people as i am a very social person. I did, however, develop more social skills in terms of developing the way i interact with different people. I learned to be patient and listen and be very aware of space. I loved seeing all the old people getting on with their lives and just being happy and enjoying all the little things in life. I learned to appreciate the people in my life because they might not be there forever. I loved the work i did there and i hope to continue my work there in the future.

CREATIVITY/ACTION/SERVICE- Athletic Council

This year, i was a member of the Athletic Council, which is a group dedicated to school spirit and the athletic program at ISK. As a member of the group, i attended meetings, including off-campus planning meetings during out-of-school hours. During the planning meetings, we made an agenda of things we needed to do and games we needed to organize and events we needed to plan. We set our goals and anointed  different people to complete the different tasks. I attended several weekend sporting events to either sell food and drinks to raise money for the group (money which goes toward the end of year Athletic Banquet), or to score keep for the games that were taking place. Score keeping required me running from field to field during the tournament getting scores and writing them on all the score boards dispersed on the fields. As a member of the group, i also put up posters around the school on several occasions advertising games or other events we were planning. I helped paint the ISSEA banner that we painted on the wall around the construction site, taking several hours after school to work on it. We organized and ran Spirit Week. This entailed a lot of running around, advertising, planning, and cooperation. I personally organized an Athletic Council sponsored eating contest, which required i buy several pies and make whipping cream and advertise, and get everyone to come out and have a good time and earn spirit points for their grade. We were somewhat successful in our planning. We reached most of our goals, but not to the extent we had hoped merely for lack of advertising and organization, but we hope to improve that for next year. We definitely earned enough money for the end of year Athletic Banquet, and we got a grade that won the spirit cup. I think Athletic Council is really important to the spirit at this school and the athletics that go on. Without the Athletic Council, spirit week wouldn't have happened, and attendance to games would have been reduced. I learned a lot from being in this group, including working with others, planning, organizing, advertising, and communicating with the general public. It was a great experience and i learned a lot. I really enjoyed being a part of Athletic Council and helping make our school more aware of sporting events, and raise school spirit.