Resiliency Schmasiliency… When Is this Over?

SERVICE LEARNING Ensuring Meaningful Service in Times of Uncertainty

Article written by NIST International School Students: Avan Fata (Class of 2021) & Rei Tangkijngamwong (Class of 2023) Supported by: Cindy Chen, Secondary Service Plus Coordinator & Robin Wilensky, CAS Coordinator

COVID-19 may have brought the word to a stand still, but passionate student service leaders in the EARCOS region were motivated to act on behalf of the vulnerable.

2020 has been a year of calamity, unpredictability, and above all else, constant uncertainty. As the Covid-19 pandemic brought the world to a stand still, service groups and the communities they work with across the EARCOS region and beyond faced an unprecedented challenge. As governments issued lockdown protocols and schools went online, the collaborative operations run by student youth leaders encountered what may have been the beginnings of a crisis. However, in Bangkok, Thailand, the pandemic only served to galvanise our passionate student service leaders to act on behalf of the vulnerable and to continue their efforts to improve livelihoods, ecosystems, and lives of individuals, even during Covid-19.

ServiceCo Emerges A student-service group mentor team, led by students, for students, ensuring sustainable service.

At NIST International School, located in Bangkok, Thailand, student service leaders came together in February to form the backbone of their school’s service infrastructure and sustainable change management.

Just a few weeks before national lockdown commenced, the merger of the Events Approval Team (EAT) and NIST Development Bank (NDB) resulted in the formation of the NIST ServiceCore Team, otherwise known as ServiceCo.

This team of experienced, principled, and skilled student leaders embodied the core values of service-action at NIST: meaningful, sustainable, and impactful. These three values are perfectly encapsulated in their mission statement, entrusting them with the responsibility “to support service projects in the NIST community with their management, communication, and finance to ensure meaningful impact.”

In “ideal” weekly meetings the student members and teacher supervisors of ServiceCo would review the event proposals and/or funding requests of student service groups at NIST, advising them on how best to achieve their own goals in a sustainable and meaningful way.

Pictured here are Year 13 students proposing an event to ServiceCo. for feedback and approval. Unfortunately, our “ideal” meetings were swept aside once lockdown measures were mandated, and ServiceCo spent the first months of its existence meeting through zoom and communicating online. The service groups it was designed to assist were also having to adapt to the “new normal” of digital platforms, with many putting their planned initiatives on hold due to social distancing measures. But as Albert Einstein once said, “In the middle of every difficulty lies opportunity.”

Undaunted by the challenges Covid-19 imposed, ServiceCo set about reconfiguring its own procedures and actions to overcome this unexpected situation.

Service group proposals which would’ve once taken place in-person were now held seamlessly via video conferencing, whilst approvals for funding were communicated via email.

Service-related promotional material which would’ve once been plastered on school walls were now easily accessible via social media as well as weekly NIST News articles.

Eschewing the true spirit of service learning in the wake of adversity, ServiceCo rose as a mentor group; guiding established service groups to resume their planning and implementation of service initiatives, even if in a different direction or through an online medium.

Two months after its establishment, Covid-19 started to directly impact our community partners. As many were financed by donations and contributions, they were more vulnerable than ever. So ServiceCo set out to support our community partners through an emergency access fund, where service groups could acquire up to 30,000 Thai Baht (~1,000 USD) to support their partners.

By creating the fund, ServiceCo’s goals were for it to be effective, immediate, and celebrated. With this in mind, Service Co embraced every proposal, and ensured that the funds were effective not only in the short run, but also long term, maximizing the benefit.

Through the Emergency Covid-19 Access Fund, 15 projects were supported, totalling to more than 500,000 Thai Baht (~16,500 USD). But as the funds were put to use, ServiceCo was also responsible for celebrating the relief efforts, and sharing the stories with the school community.

Utilizing the weekly NIST News newsletter, ServiceCo established the Service Spotlight campaign, which was a series of videos, highlighting service projects running in accordance with the Emergency Covid-19 Access Fund. This campaign also allowed for transparency in the Emergency Fund, as the photos and lists of purchased items were shared.

Service Spotlight Campaign

These promotional celebrations and added transparency resulted in a cycle of further service action, as service groups which were disrupted during Covid-19 began to reach out to ServiceCo for their own planning and funding.

The culmination of this new support-and-promote behaviour came in the form of amazing community events, where dozens of service groups came together to plan and carry out school-wide initiatives based on advocacy for the SDGs as well as fundraising to support larger efforts beyond NIST.

The first of these events took place in April, when ServiceCo assisted in the organisation of daily videos and campaigns for Earth Week (running from the 16th to 22nd of April). In August, the pandemic situation in Thailand had stabilised to a point where in-person schooling could resume under social distancing parameters. This meant that ServiceCo could finally move into the physical role that it had been formed with the intention of serving. Meetings now took place in person, adding a new dimension of responsiveness and opening up avenues for the student leaders to take the initiative. Now service groups which once had to put themselves forward could be invited to meetings if a member of ServiceCo knew of their intention to host an upcoming fundraiser or plan a needs-analysis trip. Back In School

In October, ServiceCo once again led the way in laying the groundwork for another collaborative inter-service group event: Pinktober week.

An annual event in the NIST community, the week is centered around raising awareness of women’s health topics as well as fundraising for the various student-led service groups whose goals also focus on women’s health.

This time around however, ServiceCo played a more secondary role, advising the parent association NIPTA on how best to manage the daily activities for all students, gate-side sales, and school events, including musical performances and a capture-the-flag game.

At the close of the campaign, NIST raised approximately 5,000 USD for

women’s health screenings. Looking ahead, ServiceCo aims to continue fulfilling its mission by helping new service startups with their initial planning and funding; as well as ensuring that service groups with graduating leaders smoothly transition to a new generation of Student Youth Leaders (SYLs), who can responsibly and effectively expand the operations of their groups in sustainable directions.

Beyond Thailand, ServiceCo’s teacher mentors along with some of its student members have launched a new campaign, GIN ASIA Connect, a new online forum taking place monthly, facilitating discussions and jointplanning between service leaders as well as community partners across the EARCOS region.