Integrating Service & Learning
The Volunteers’ Fair has always been an essential part of the ACJC experience. Since 2006, the ACJC Values in Action (VIA) Committee has been providing this annual signature platform to connect our students to community partners with the objective of raising social awareness and engaging students with the larger community. This year, the fair evolved into ACJC’s inaugural Service-Learning Fair. The inclusion of concurrent learning sessions facilitated 14 organisations and individuals to give detailed presentations of their causes and beneficiaries’ needs.
During their Co-Curricular Programme (CCP) period on 11 April, more than 850 JC1 students had the opportunity to also visit the 36 service booths set by our college’s community partners. These community organisations’ causes ranged from caring for children with special needs to environmental conservation. As the College encourages our students to put their values in action through planning and managing meaningful projects to meet the genuine needs of the community that they empathise with, the Service-Learning Fair serves to facilitate and integrate their service and learning.
Many of the booths were highly interactive, featuring videos, thought-provoking games and even artefacts like confiscated snake skin that engaged students visiting the fair. The Singapore Kindness Movement’s booth, for example, challenged students to think deeply about the implications of society’s values on marginalised communities. Besides seeing our regular community partners, it was a pleasant sight to watch our JC2 students and alumni passionately sharing their experiences and values as current active volunteers with the JC1 students.
“The ACJC Service-Learning Fair has been instrumental in helping Ulu Pandan CSC reach out to potential student volunteers over the past few years,” said Mr Dominic Theseira, Vice Chairman of the Ulu Pandan Community Sports Club. “The fair has become a key part of our annual volunteer recruitment strategy.”
As a presenter of a learning session, Timothy Tan (2MD1, 2018) had the privilege of sharing his passion for environmental conservation. He related, “It was really heartwarming to see how much my peers’ attitude towards saving the environment changed, just by sharing a little bit of what I know.”
Joshua Kok (1SA5, 2018) shared his positive feedback after attending the Service-Learning Fair. “It was a very enlightening experience, and I am very thankful to the school for giving us many opportunities to serve the greater community outside of ACJC.”
In achieving our vision of a community of leaders and learners in service, the VIA Committee is grateful for our community partners’ continued support in enriching our students’ lives and inspiring them to be at the centre of social change.
Bryan Lee, VIA Committee Member