Post Y.LEAD: Behind the Scenes (OC diary)

Behind the fairy lights that illuminated the hall on Y.LEAD 2017 Commencement Night and the programmes that transitioned smoothly from one segment to the next was a team of highly dedicated and devoted organising committee. I took the liberty of interviewing a representative from each organising committee to find out more about what went on behind the scenes of Y.LEAD 2017 that culminated into the peak of success.

First, we interviewed Patricia representing the 15-Hour Challenge (15HC) Committee. 15HC comprises a team of extremely creative members who worked tirelessly for months leading up to the event. From the wacky games to the crowd-favourite mass game “Y.LEAD-Oh-Y.LEAD”, this committee is all about creative thinking! As such, I posed an unusual question for Patricia to think about, which caught her off guard.

Q: “If you were stranded on an island, which 5 objects would you hope to have with you and what would you do with them?”

A: “1. Knife - to cut open fruits and coconuts from trees on the island, make spears for fishing, gather wood for shelter, etc. It can also serve as a means for self defence too.

2. First-aid kit - medical equipment that would come in handy in case of any injury.

3. A friend from a Uniformed Group (UG) CCA - to keep me company and sane because the absence of human interaction is too much. I have no experience with outdoor survival so this friend can definitely help me out with that. I also don’t want to die alone.

4. Hammock - my sleeping place at night which doubles up as a bag to carry my supplies around in the day.

5. A flashlight with batteries - to get around at night and to act as an SOS signal as well.”

15 HC committee with teachers-in-charge

15 HC committee group shot

Next up, we have the backbone of Y.LEAD, the Adji (Admin-Logi) committee, whose members have tirelessly deployed and retrieved logistics around the school campus throughout the week and shouldering the responsibility of everyone’s welfare, to say the least. Without this highly efficacious team, all the planning and execution would have come to naught. I asked Adji representative Xin Yi about her Y.LEAD experience, and here’s what I gathered.

Q: “What was your most anxiety-inducing moment during Y.LEAD?”

A: “Registration on Day One. Firstly, there was the apprehension that stemmed from the fear that the first day would be a bad one, so I expected mess/chaos to crop up any point in time. Once, different schools appeared together and there were so many people crowding around the registration booth that it was really chaotic. Some schools came late and in scattered groups, making the process of attendance-taking really messy and I was in a frenzy, trying to ensure that everyone was accounted for and would be directed properly to where they were supposed to be.”

Q: “What was your most gratifying moment during Y.LEAD?”

A: “I think it was during Commencement Night when the video rounding up the entire event was played. Being in Adji meant that, most of the time, my committee members and I were unsynchronised, on a different schedule from the rest of the camp. Hence, we couldn’t see how most segments of the camp played out. I remember seeing the mass display time lapse and feeling immense pride as our hard work had paid off. I saw glimpses of mass games, station games, where participants were captured really enjoying themselves and I remember thinking to myself: thank God everything turned out well.”

Adji committee on commencement night

Moving on, we have the Programmes Committee that spent countless evenings in schools running over numerous proposals, perfecting every detail to ensure only the best was delivered to our participants. With so much going on, I asked Haoli the following question to better understand the planning process.

Q: "Which segment of all the Y.LEAD programmes was the hardest to plan, and why? What considerations/compromises did you have to make, if any?"

A: “I would have to say that all of the segments were not easy to plan, but one of the hardest ones among them would be the mass games. It is really hard to plan a game for more than 700 participants while still allowing it to be fun and messy, in a relatively organized manner - as Mr D calls it, “controlled chaos”. Not only is it hard to plan a 2-hour game, it is also challenging to keep the game simple and understandable for the participants, and yet interesting to hold their attention for 2 hours. Furthermore, there were only around a hundred people to dry run the game with, and this was vastly different from the 700 participants we would have to execute it with. In addition to that, our participants’ mood was important as our game would only work best if they were hyped up. There were many considerations and adjustments to be made.”

Progs comm wildin’ on commencement night

Next up, we have the Learning Journey (LJ) Committee, whose work fell largely outside the school campus as they had to liaise with external institutions and plan programmes to complement the content they wanted to deliver to the participants. I asked Yu Qian a quirky question to find out more about some of the considerations taken when planning a LJ.

Q: "If you could plan a learning journey to any place in the world, which would it be, and why?”

A: “I would plan a learning journey to Copenhagen, Denmark's capital. Visiting Copenhagen has always been #1 on my Bucket List, not only because of its unique architecture which gives it the name of "The City of Spires", it is also home to Hans Christian Andersen, the godfather of fairy tales. As the saying goes, “no one is too old for fairy tales”. He taught us valuable life lessons - one of it being to live life to the maximum. Fairy tales are filled with ambitious characters with huge dreams that face impossible odds. While their desires may seem foolish to many naysayers, they teach us how to take leaps of faith to go after our dreams. We may fly or fall, but it's the only way to know what we are really capable of. Fairy tales don’t always have happy-ever-after endings, but they're always about living life to the fullest. Learn to appreciate many things outside your own experience and you will start to see the world from a different point of view. And who knows? It could change your life."

Y.LEAD organising committee

Next up, we have the Panel Discussion (PD) Committee. This committee carefully sourced for the panelists, who are seasoned experts in their respective fields, to be guest speakers. The panelists spoke about important issues of the 21st century, with both the aims of educating the participants and equipping them with VUCA skills. I asked Ting Fang, a moderator, about her journey with this committee and she gave me a really insightful response.

Q: "Of all the panel discussions you have sat through, which concept was discussed that was the most thought-provoking for you?"

A: “Of all the panel discussions that I sat through, the concept of humanizing the problems that we hear on the news was most thought-provoking to me. This concept was brought up during the forum discussion at the opening ceremony, by Mr Desmond Lee, our Guest-of-Honour. For instance, in a part of Mr Lee’s response to a question posed by a student about falling birth rates in Singapore, Mr Lee mentioned how governmental measures will not be able to succeed without the willingness and cooperation of the people.

He also added that wanting to have children is an extremely personal choice, and no amount of moral suasion by the government would suffice should the people be unwilling to reconsider their choices. Hence, the problem of falling birth rates is not as straightforward as most of us picture it to be. Hearing that really made me realize the importance of making sure that we should not, consciously or unconsciously, look at situations in a one-dimensional manner, and it also reminded me of how many of us tend to gradually feel distant or even become desensitized to important news that we hear.

I realized that assessing situations in a detached manner runs the risk of forgetting how to consider the perspectives of various stakeholders in the issue and the urgency involved. This was probably the most thought-provoking concept brought up during the panel discussion, especially because it is getting rather rare to hear someone discuss the importance of subjectivity.”

Panel Discussion committee with teachers-in-charge

Moving along, I also interviewed Shun Yong who was one of the four recipients for the “Most Outstanding Facilitator” Award. Although not part of the organising committee, the facilitators play an integral role in every participant’s journey by being with them for the most part of the 5-day event.

Q: "Share with me one quote that best encapsulates your experience as a facilitator."

A: “If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.' Although the quote selected may seem like just another cliched leadership quote, in my opinion, it is really representative of my experience. My main objectives were to help my participants be nurtured into leaders and at the same time, forge strong bonds with each other. Hence, it was important for me to be able to inspire my participants by imparting values which I deem important and leave them with memorable takeaways. Thus, it was paramount for them to learn something after completing the many activities through the debriefs. I also had to subtly push my participants to step out of their comfort zones and lead each other, so that they can gain leadership skills through experiential learning.”

Shun Yong with his Y.LEAD group, D34

I also had the fortune of interviewing Media representative, Kai Ming, the producer of this year’s sensational Y.LEAD videos. He was able to capture the quintessence of each day of the camp through his artful videos. Do drop him a like and subscribe to his Youtube channel (www.youtube.com/kaiming) for more quality content!

Q: “Of all the video clips/pictures you have taken throughout Y.LEAD, share your favourite one in words.”

A: “For the whole of Y.LEAD, from the preparation stages, our media team had been editing many videos such as the official music video, the montages and the interviews you see on Y.LEAD's Instagram. Y.LEAD was really enjoyable because of our fun team and our very supportive comm heads, Alvin and Jean, who would stay up at night till around 3am while I edited the montage. Even though running around the school and staying up to edit can be very tiring and boring, the conversations in our team always kept things going. We also had support from the best teachers, Ms Goh and Ms Kai, who would frequently buy us food. Y.LEAD would not have been this fun without them.

Looking through all the Y.LEAD videos either on the Y.LEAD Seminar's Youtube channel or my own Youtube channel, it is hard to choose a favourite clip. To choose one from thousands of clips throughout the whole planning period to the actual Y.LEAD is very difficult. Before I reveal my favourite clip, some notable mentions are the Y.LEAD mass display time-lapse that everyone enjoyed, the clip with Mrs Teo dabbing with several facilitators, and the famous Y.LEAD pushup created by Sean. Those clips are all amusing to watch but my personal favourite would be the first clip in the final montage where I am featured penny-boarding in between the two lines of facilitators and OCs that are welcoming participants to Y.LEAD. I told them to pretend I was a participant and to welcome me. The part that makes this clip great is the enthusiasm that the facilitators displayed. Through this clip, you can see the hyped aura they exuded. This is why that welcoming clip is my favourite clip of Y.LEAD 2017.”

Behind the scenes of Kai Ming’s videos

Next up, I interviewed Yao Hui, representative of the Hospitality Committee. This committee comprises devoted and warm individuals who hosted our foreign participants, as well as packed and prepared all our meals throughout the 5 days.

Q: “Share with me an interesting encounter you had with an overseas participant.”

A: “16 July 2017. After so many rounds of preparation and discussion, the overseas participants finally arrived. I was nervous yet nonetheless excited. Being a rather shy person, initiating conversation with overseas participants and teachers was truly an intimidating task to me.

When the participants arrived, I was truly excited to meet them. Even though they were generally fluent in English, the language barrier was still a minor issue for some. This posed complications when I gave the participants instructions with regard to checking in at the hostel. At times, I had to repeat myself several times but I persevered and continued to address them by speaking more slowly, and to my relief, communication was not a big issue. To make our friends from Japan feel welcome, my partner, Lixian, and I took them to Jurong Point for dinner and shopping. It was Day 0 of Y.LEAD and everyone was rather new to this experience of hosting overseas participants. Hence, there were a lot of moments when I chose to keep quiet. However, as time passed, I began to open up and interacted more with them. I was truly glad that I decided to let go of my inhibitions and open up, allowing myself to enjoy what would become the best week ever. Throughout Y.LEAD, the teacher chaperone from Japan, Yamaoka Sensei, was really friendly and he taught me some simple Japanese phrases. In the process of learning Japanese, I fumbled and made several mistakes which all of us had a good laugh over. All these formed a beautiful memory and was what made Y.LEAD a precious opportunity for cross-cultural interactions for me. Nearing the end of Y.LEAD, Lixian and I bought them a cute seal soft toy each and a penguin soft toy for Yamaoka Sensei. To our delight, they liked it a lot. Being a youth leader, I did face obstacles along the way in hosting our overseas friends. Even though I had to wake up early and catch the first train to go to school every day during Y.LEAD, my exhaustion dissipated when I got to see how the overseas participants enjoyed themselves. At the end of Y.LEAD, before the Japanese team boarded their flight, Yamaoka Sensei showed us a video montage that he had made. The montage documented the Japanese team’s one week in Singapore, as well as our interactions with them. Listening to the Japanese students’ reflections on what leadership meant to them really reminded me of the purpose of Y.LEAD. To me, leadership is about taking the initiative and going the extra mile to achieve the purpose. Things may not always work out, but a good leader will anticipate potential problems and resolve them calmly. Perseverance, pro-activeness, people-centricity and pursuit of excellence are important qualities that all leaders need to equip themselves with in order to lead in this increasingly VUCA environment, and I wish to do the same. I am very thankful to be part of this experience, interacting with the overseas participants and getting to know more about their culture as well as proudly showing them around Singapore and our culture. If given a second chance, I will not hesitate to take up this experience again.”

Hospi Comm on lunch duty!

Hospi comm at Changi Airport with Japanese participants

And last but not least, I managed to interview the chairperson of Y.LEAD 2017, Si Qi. Without her, none of this would have been possible. Kudos to Si Qi for coordinating the various committees, for delivering her highly impactful speeches and for being so focused and efficient throughout. I asked her a rather thought-provoking question, and here’s what she gave me.

Q: “What are your top 3 priorities when overseeing the Y.LEAD camp? Why?”

A: “Firstly, welfare of my team.

As our journey together started from the end of January and only recently ended, it was a 7-month marathon for all 234 of us. Having to balance academics, commitments in CCAs, PW and planning was definitely not a bed of roses. Hence, one major concern for me was whether my team was coping well. Thus, together with the various committee heads, we tried to steer clear of major examinations when scheduling meetings and discussions, ensuring that our team could still take a breather in between.

Secondly, communication.

The various sub committees were led by teachers from various departments, and every different committee had their own different deadlines to follow. However, despite having different job scopes, we were all working towards the same goal. Hence, it is only expected that we achieve effective communication among the team, ensuring that our execution of the event will be coherent, holistic and united as one Y.LEAD team.

Lastly, FUN!

As this might probably be the first and only event that involves almost two-thirds of our batchmates, it is definitely a great opportunity to get to know our friends better and forge new bonds. Hence, despite all the serious details that we had to plan in view of the seminar, it is definitely important to infuse fun in this journey too. We hope that even though Y.LEAD is already over, these memories forged through fun and laughter will never be forgotten, and we will always remember that we were all once part of Y.LEAD 2017.”

Y.LEAD 2017 Chairperson, Si Qi