Reflections from Award participants at Amman Baccalaureate School

[Boyd Roberts]

Abdel Razzaq Al-Najjar from Amman Baccalaureate School, Jordan has sent through the following short reflections from some of the Award participants from ABS at the end of their participation.

 

Bassem Khoury

In conclusion, my involvement in the International Global Citizens Award program was beautiful as it helped me realize and learn a lot of things. Things such as helping the needy should be considered a must and not an option and that helping people is a great feeling for both the person being helped and the person helping. Also I realized that when there is a goal to reach, the process even though tiring is worthwhile since the end result is amazing.

Yahya Wahbeh

This experience also taught me the importance of living with limited technology unlike the lifestyle we lead in Amman. Every second wasted on computers and mobiles is a second that we can benefit from watching the nature and enjoying what god created. Staying at an unfamiliar areas, taught us about foreign hospitality (pinpointing cultural difference).

 

Sima Bdeir

     Our first experience was the habitat hard labor we did in one of the poverty-stricken schools in Tanzania. We were to build and paint a school in order to improve its overall appearance to hence enhance the learning environment for the rising children of Africa. Nevertheless, looking back at that experience, it was more than just building and painting a few walls. It was a form of contribution, a way of bonding with the surrounding society and offering the bare minimum for these deprived children. We additionally got the chance to bond with the children themselves, which was the highlight of this whole experience. Each of us got to connect with these children and offer them a temporary form of entertainment, a reason to draw a smile on their faces. What I loved about my connection with the children is the fact that it demanded no verbal communication. Being from two different worlds and having two opposite backgrounds did not stand in the way of our connection. This is something the world needs to learn. That we may look different and think differently, we may not even speak with the same tongue. Nonetheless, with shared ideologies and outlooks on what is important in life, we can easy agree and formulate a defined goal for our future.

     In conclusion, this is one experience I will never forget and will cherish throughout my life. I have not only spent time with both my friends and the natural world, I have additionally learnt valuable lessons and have gotten the chance to use this trip is as a primary source for both my art work and my extended essay which will both be connected to my sightings and experience. It is not every day that one gets the chance to visit such an exotic and lively country as Tanzania.

Yasmeen Gedeon

I’m so glad to have been able to go and visit such extravagant cultures throughout my involvement in the International Global Citizens Award. It was surely an experience I will never forget. During my trips, I realized that different countries must also notice poorer countries and their beauty and help them overcome their dilemmas and transform them into more educated countries because they are worth helping.

 

Tariq Haddadin

The outcome of the program can never be summed into a couple of paragraphs. It could never do it justice. What I have to say could never be put into words. By far, this is the best experience I have ever been through in my life. It is for sure engraved on to my heart and mind. The things that happened in the International Global Citizens Award will for sure be passed to my children. The program is an experience that has taught me many things and it put me through many challenges that made me a better person. As David Emerald said "All of life’s experiences are teachers in some sense, challenging us to grow and evolve. Although the Persecutor certainly provokes a reaction, the Challenger elicits a response by encouraging the Creator to acquire new knowledge, skill, or insight. Both roles provoke change, but in different ways."

 

 

Bara Badwan

Overall the journey throughout the program has been quite an experience as it has evoked sentiments that I did not know had existed. It has created a new set of priorities in my life that I had not considered. Finally it has made me a better social and environmental activist. It is not something that I will easily forget.

 

Sama Saket

We learned more about the Tanzanian culture by observing some of the cultural dances and interacting with the people that lived there. The Tanzania trip was a really successful trip, personally I have benefitted a lot from it, the motivation and perseverance of the Tanzanian people has inspired me and it was really rewarding to feel that I can make a difference and that I managed to achieve a goal. I feel that my perspective has widened and my outlook on life has changed.

 

Elias Tsikhlakis

I found the most rewarding part of the International Global Citizens Award program in which we did some community service in the form of aiding a local underprivileged school. The project consisted of my classmates and I repainting most of the schools buildings and classrooms walls. This resulted in a better learning environment for the children who attended that school, therefore improving the condition of their education. However, the part that I found most fulfilling and that I personally believe the most helpful, was the time that we spent with the children and students of that school. Just seeing the joy on their faces when we would play with them was a more than adequate reward for our hard work. I could see from the way they ran around and clung to us joyfully that we had offered them a welcome and joyful respite from the poor conditions that they were used to. Furthermore my interaction with the children and exchange of information between them about our cultures helped to further broaden my horizons and open my mind, aiding me in being able to understand and be ready for the real world. I am glad to know that during those days I have not helped make a lasting change in the lives of those children and know that I will never forget them and what they taught me, nor will they in turn forget me.

 

Haya Yaish

As cliché as it sounds, this program changed who we are and how we look at life, it really did. It was very enriching and promoted self-discipline and responsibility. We represented our country well and accomplished and learned a lot. We made new friends within and outside our group. We were exposed to a new way of life, culture, and environment. I do not want this summer to be the first and last spent this way. For the first time, I feel that I have made a difference and was actually productive during my summer holiday. I don’t want to go back to spending my summer holidays like I have for the past 16 years of my life because I now see that there’s more to it, I can do so much more, I can be a global citizen, literally.

 

Ibrahim Abu Khadra

Never will I ever view life in the same way as I used to, I realized that we have it easy. I really have no reason not to excel in any path I choose to go. I am grateful for everything I have and as long as I have the power to, I will make it my aim to help and serve the less fortunate communities of the world we live in especially those of my own country.