AFS Iceland Volunteer Camp Fall 2019 Padlet Answers

Hi everyone!

Recently, I participated in a volunteer camp with AFS Iceland, which was a fantastic experience (more coming up on that soon). Since I had significant prior experience volunteering, organizing, and being involved in the organization, I participated in the more advanced track of the two that we had, and had to complete a few extra steps and assignments beforehand. Most notably in the form of answering questions about teamwork and vulnerability, which we later used as material for discussion and reflection within our own specific track's activities.

Here are my answers.

• Share and example from fiction (can be a novel, tv show, movie) of good or bad teamwork and explain shortly why. 
  The Chronicles of Narnia (The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe):
  The Pevensie siblings in the first Narnia film are an example of bad teamwork turned good later on. Initially, there is quite a lot of tension and disagreement between them as they navigate the difficulties of being far from home, separated from their mother, and of Edmund and Peter specifically butting heads over Edmund's bad attitude and acting out, and Peter's desire to live up to their mother's wish for him to "look after the others." Up until about halfway through, Edmund is constantly making fun of, snapping out at, and actively trying to prove himself better than his siblings, ultimately culminating with his departure to the White Witch's castle, which leaves his siblings and many Narnians in great danger. After he sees how calculating and evil the White Witch truly is, and realizes the role which his negative attitude and actions contributed to her advancement, his perspective changes greatly. When he returns to his siblings, he is apologetic, but doesn't seek praise for his change of heart. He joins his siblings as a united front, contributing insider knowledge that he has been able to gain about the White Witch's plans, intentions, and army, which is of great help. The Pevensie siblings ultimately are able to defeat the White Witch and fulfill the prophecy they fit, through a combination of Peter and Edmund working to hold off the White Witch's troops, which greatly outnumber their own, and Susan and Lucy rushing to gain reinforcements with Aslan's help (and magical breath).

• Write a few sentences about the term "Teaming" and if you think that describes your experience within AFS.
  Although I do understand the thought process behind it, I'm not sure I agree either with Edmondson's assessment that teams have to be static in order to function properly. Although closeness and mutual understanding can certainly increase greatly over time, in other situations they can stagnate greatly, and new perspectives and beliefs introduced into a space, even just in temporary circumstances, can go a long way to introducing and precipitating substantial change.
  In my AFS experiences, as well as other similar exchanges, I've found that even groups of people I've been a part of for a very short time, such as a week-long Returnee Leadership Summit, or a semester-long exchange, can create very strong bonds and plentiful exchanges of ideas. In many cases, people continue to bring the ideas or information exchanged into places and contexts which they are a part of for a long time afterwards, rendering them highly valuable.

• Put down a few points on when you think teaming can go well vs when it doesn't (can be the same points as in the video or something from you).
  Teaming can go well in situations where people are interested in similar things, open to learning and change, willing to make compromises and sacrifices, and wish to accomplish a common goal. It is much harder without willingness to learn things from other people, as well as to make compromises and sacrifices. In such situations, even when people are interested in similar things, tension can grow and worsen group dynamics, and cause people to remain fixated in their own ways and own knowledge.

• How would you define vulnerability?
  I would define vulnerability as willingness to let down one's guard and openly express one's emotions and thoughts, and being willing to engage with others' emotions and thoughts when they are expressed, even if they may be different from what one is used to (assuming that they are posited in a respectful and non-threatening manner).

• What’s your current comfort level with vulnerability?
  I consider myself quite comfortable with vulnerability, and believe that being able and willing to feel vulnerable is one of my greatest strengths. My willingness to be emotionally open with people has enabled me to connect with many that I hold dear at deep levels that I would likely otherwise not have been able to, and allowed me to open myself to entirely new ways of thinking, approaching problems, and visualizing the world that have been greatly enriching and empowering for me.

• What’s been your best experience with receiving feedback? What about the experience was effective or meaningful? What role did vulnerability and/or openness play in the process?
  Three years ago, I was applying for a scholarship to study Turkish for a summer. As she was applying for the same scholarship (but a different language), I worked very closely with a very close friend of mine, who I had studied in Turkey with the first time we'd been there together. When editing my essays, she pointed out a number of flaws in the writing style I had used in my essays when applying for the scholarship the previous year (being subsequently rejected). Although I was confident in my writing skills from a young age, her blunt, but constructive and supportive feedback enabled me to understand ways in which I was applying writing techniques in these essays that would work in other contexts, but not there. My willingness to understand, process, and integrate her critiques into my essays enabled me to greatly improve my writing skills and taylor specific skills to certain contexts, which enabled me to get into the program and study Turkish the following summer, as well as to get into numerous other programs I have applied to using the same skills.

• If you’ve had a negative feedback experience (either giving or receiving), what didn’t work?
  I have dyscalculia, which is defined as "a mathematical learning disability that impairs an individual's ability represent and process numerical magnitude in some way" (I often refer to it as "dyslexia's math cousin"). Throughout my elementary, middle, and high school education, I often received extra help from tutors, academic support counselors, and an individualized education plan that were theoretically supposed to help me. But rather than investing time and energy into understanding my learning disability in full and making true concessions and compromises in helping me to succeed, I was essentially made to believe that it was an issue of mind over matter: that if I worked hard enough and got enough help, eventually something would click and I'd understand. In high school, I realized that this was not true, and that my learning disability is not something I would ever be able to overcome and change. I felt deeply resentful and angry that I had been fed a false narrative for so long, and that I had spent so many years struggling with insecurity over my disability and feeling stupid for something that is innately part of me and that I cannot change as a result.

• If you compare your answers from these first two questions, what’s the lesson?
  The two occasions described in my answers are quite different in their duration, scope, and implications. But there are important conclusions to be gained from comparing them: unlike many of my educators who largely overlooked my needs and fed me a false narrative from a flawed system they ultimately refused to deviate from, my friend Gianna, when reading my essays, processed everything she was reading calmly, comprehensively, and in context. She reflected upon it, and in a way that was respectful and thoughtful, mentioned what was strong, what needed improvement, and what aspects of my writing were strong in and of themselves, but would be better to use in different contexts of writing.So my conclusion from comparing the two would be that it is necessary to look into things thoughtfully and carefully based on their context and where they come from, in order to make a fair and determined assessment that will be constructive and not destructive.

• Have you experienced receiving a giving feedback with people from another cultures? How have those experienced been to you?
  I have been able to learn from and interact with people from many different cultures and countries from my exchange experiences and language classes. These experiences have varied greatly, as there is a great variety of technique and approach in giving feedback at individual. contextual, and generational levels, in addition to at cultural and national ones. But many of them have been greatly enriching and interesting, as they have revealed different tendencies and cultural conceptualizations of various things. For instance, in my experiences as an exchange student in Iceland and Finland, I have found Nordic people to be generally quite direct and straightforward when communicating about most things, in ways that are, to an even slightly experienced eye, very well-intentioned, but that to many from other cultures could be perceived as abrasive or even rude. In contrast, when taking Japanese in my final year of college in the United States, I noticed that the way my professor and her teaching assistants communicated, particularly with each other within the expectations of their own culture, was often more indirect, and relied on numerous implications through intonation, changes in language or vocabulary, or unspoken cultural norms of interaction.

Hope you enjoyed!


Nico