Last October 4-5, the Alliance of Filipino-Chinese Students (AFiCS) launched AFiCS Absolute, its first ever interschool leadership camp held in CCT Tagaytay Retreat and Training Center.
AFiCS Absolute is an overnight leadership camp that specializes in honing and employing the skills of young student leaders to inspire and create positive impact in the society. Ateneo Celadon hosted this year’s event. The participating schools include DLSU Englicom, UA&P Fu, UP Chinese Student Association, and UST Scarlet.
Early in the afternoon, after the two-hour bus ride, Excelsior Training & Development Company headed by Richmond Lawrence Yu, Jas Casper Ong, and Reyner Villasenor initiated the different programs.
The first activity was about sharing the expectations and/or fears of each participants in one word. Participants gathered together with their respective groups and discussed the topic among themselves. Most common expectations given by the participants were to learn new experiences and meeting new friends. While the most common fear they gave would be failure.
The next talk was about the importance of communication in being a leader. The speaker gave many personal experiences and insights on how they can utilize communication in being a good leader.
The next topic involved analysis of issues in different environment and how the leaders can prevent and overcome these situations. Participants were taught to make projects on certain issues in the Filipino-Chinese community.
The last activity ended at around 10:30 p.m. where the participants were challenged against each other to make the strongest structure using only sticks and chewing gum.
On the second day, an amazing race was held to test our teamwork in different skills such as intelligence, creativity, strength, cooperation, and trust. There were 10 stations to go through for each team.
Other lesson learned by the participants was how to help each other even if they are their competitors. Leaders do not make rivals rather they make partners. Trust is one of the most important quality of a leader because he/she must be able to trust his/her teammate and vice versa.
The very tiring and fulfilling day ended with the awarding of winners as well as photos with the whole Absolute core and participants.
The two days of fun-filled activities taught the participants leadership, challenging them to step up as leaders. It built new friendships and strong bonds among the students of the different universities.
Written by Daniel Yu
