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NYAA GOLD AWARD REPORT 1

This report covers the report, journal and self-reflection of my process fulfilling

the different sections in the NYAA Gold Challenge.

Yeo Su-Zann


Content Page: Content Page No.

Introduction 3

Adventurous Journey (Vietnam - SAPA)

- Introduction - Short Background - Vietnam SAPA Leadership Expedition (With Pictures)

4 - 11

Physical Recreation (Trekking)

- Introduction - Short Background - Reflection (With Pictures) - Training Log Book

12 - 17

Skills (Ukulele)

- Introduction - Reflection (With Pictures) - Skills Log Book

18 - 26

Residential Project (Project Positive)

- Introduction - Reflection (With Pictures)

Log Book

27 - 32

Service (TPNYAA Maincommittee)

- Introduction - Reflection - Meeting Schedules

33 - 40

Final Reflection

41


Introduction I joined NYAA Gold in Temasek Polytechnic in 2012 during my first year in

Polytechnic. I came to know about NYAA through my senior who was already in NYAA

herself and got to know more about the award through the CCA fair conducted by Temasek

Polytechnic.

NYAA intrigued me as I felt it was a platform for me to improve myself and train

myself to reach my fullest potential. The process of this award is to develop personal qualities

of self-reliance, independence, leadership and a sense of responsibility to not only myself but

to others. The five components though looks tough, did look interesting and exciting.

Therefore, I made the decision to commit and join try my best to attain the NYAA

Gold Award. As I embark on this journey, it has brought many unforgettable experiences,

provided opportunities for me to interact and help people along the way and lastly, also

self-reflect and groom myself to be a better leader and a better person.

In this report, I will pen down my reflections and my NYAA journey, including

pictures of the experiences and memories. With this report, I also hope I can inspire people to

join this wonderful journey and enrich themselves.


Adventurous Journey “Its only in adventure that some people succeed in knowing and finding themselves”

Choice of Adventurous Journey: Overseas Adventure Leadership Expedition SAPA, Vietnam

Short Background:

For this component, I have decided to join this leadership expedition, as it is a mountain

climbing expedition. As my fitness has not always been the best, I wanted to challenge

myself to climb a mountain and prove to myself that if I put my mind to it, I can be more than

what I am.

The Vietnam SAPA expedition was a 4D3N in the mountains and another 3 days in the city

of Hanoi. During the 4 days and 3 nights, we climbed a mountain in Vietnam, Hanoi, called

Mount Fansipan. It was a tough but incredible experience, one that I would never forget.


Reflection: Mount Fansipan Leadership Expedition 2012

Day 1 to 5:

We first took an overnight train to our destination which was a small village in SAPA where

the mountain is located just a bus ride away. The overnight train was a first experience for me

as I have never slept in a train. It was a new and fun experience and surprisingly, we slept

soundly. Below is a picture of my bunk mates.


After we have reached our destination, SAPA, we embarked on our journey into the woods

and climbing up the mountain. We were all so afraid that we had to use the washroom in the

middle of climbing, thus all of us decided to use the washroom before entering the mountain.

While the rest were queuing for the washroom, the rest were waiting in anticipation of the

exciting journey ahead of us and also preparing their jackets and gloves because it is going to

be cold in the mountains. Below is a photo of my friend (on the left) and I, gleaming with

excitement before the start of our journey.


So, our journey into the mountain started and it was alright at first. We were still taking

plenty of photos, spirits high and everyone was singing songs and excited.

The schedule was to reach base camp 1 before nightfall, as it was dangerous to climb in the

dark and also have our dinner early. We were fortunate to have porters with us who climbed

with us and carried our tents and also food for the next 4 days. Along the way, I slowed

down, and my energy became depleted. It was only the first day and I wanted to give up

already. However, the rest of the team kept cheering us on and I found whatever energy I had

for the day and continued climbing. By the time we reached base camp 1, we were all

exhausted.


As the first day was ending, the sun went down and we all prepared our sleeping bags to get

ready for the next day. As water facilities there were limited, we did not get to bathe.

However, during the night, as I was sleeping in wet clothes and wet jacket as it rained during

the day, I was shivering the whole night and luckily, my friend who had a warm jacket lent

her jacket to me for a while to warm up my body. I was really grateful for that because if it

was not for her, I would not been able to sleep at all that night. Day 2 came around and we

woke up early in the morning to do our morning routine and set out at about 6.45am. Thus,

we continued climbing and the schedule for that day was to pass by base 2 by 10am and reach

the peak by noon and then back down to base 2 to stay for the night. Thus, we tried our best

and continued climbing as we wanted to reach the peak by the scheduled timing.


We were all struggling as our energy from the previous day was already drained. However,

we still continued climbing and trying our best. This was really one of the biggest challenges

in my life so far where I had to psycho myself that it is always mind over body. If you tell

yourself you can, your body will push through. It was a tough experience. There were many

times I wanted to give up but because of the encouragement and also because of wanting to

prove myself that I could climb a mountain, I pushed myself even further than my limit.


0

However, it was no help that when we ask the guide how long more it would take to reach the

peak, he mentioned about an hour more, but even after two hours, we have not even seen the

peak, but I guess he was just telling a white lie so as to not discourage us. Finally, after

walking and climbing on wet rocks without harness and wanting to give up multiple times,

we reached the peak. When we saw the peak, all of us started running to it! The peak was not

that big though, it was only a small area of rock with a sign singing the peak of mount

Fancipan. At the peak, we could not see the scenery down below as it was too foggy.

However it was so enriching and so worth it to be able to tell myself, I did it. I climbed a

mountain. It may not be Mount Everest but it was the first mountain I ever ‘conquered’.


1

Above is a picture of me at the summit of Mount Fansipan, however it was too foggy to see

any scenery.


2 Above is when my friend and I posed with the plaque to show that we have reached the

summit!

After, we went back down to base camp 2 and had a campfire that night where we bonded

and sang campfire songs. It was during this journey I saw how my friends encouraged me and

we strengthened our bonds during the climb. They were always helpful and encouraging and

even now in 2014, I still miss them and our climbing days together. It was all in all an

enriching experience. I love the people and how it was such a warm group, all of them were

so sincere in helping and did not blame those people who were slow but thought of methods

to help them, encourage them and push them on.

After this trip, I really agree that ‘Mind over Body’ works and from this expedition, I

knew that I could push my limits and I am stronger than how I think I am. They say sky’s the

limit, well I totally agree as we can always push our way, climbing the highest mountains to

reach the sky. “It is not the destination that counts but the journey.”


3

Physical Recreation

Physical fitness is not only the most important key to a healthy body; it is also the basis

of dynamic and creative intellectual activity.

Choice of Physical Recreation: Trekking

Short Background:

I personally feel that the physical fitness is very important to the body. As I am

overweight and wishes to lose weight, I started becoming more aware of what was considered

healthy and unhealthy and what are the healthy and efficient exercises. Thus, when this

program came about, I decided to join it.

This trekking program consists of trainings and 3 big hikes. The 3 big hikes are to (1)

Kent Ridge Park, (2) Mount Faber and (3) Bukit Timah Hill. Part of why I wanted to join this

trekking is also because I do miss training for climbing mount Fansipan and wish to get back

that momentum. This program was spread over 12 weeks and has training sessions every

week, lasting for three hours per training session.

At the end of these trainings, I got to meet new people and made new friends and also

strengthen bonds with the existing friends. Most importantly, I got to know more about what

kind of exercises are effective and not just a ‘run’ or a ‘jog’. I got to do circuit trainings,

which consists of sit-ups, planking to train your core, Burpees, and push-ups to train my arm

muscles and squats to train the leg muscles. All these trainings were to prepare us for the

hikes and I felt healthy. My mind was clearer and I could concentrate much better. I also felt

better about myself. With exercise, this also made me determined to change my diet, which

means no more fast food and cutting down on salt, sugar or fried food.


4

Below table is the schedule for my trainings.

Training session Details

1st Training School Training

2nd Training School Training

3rd Training Sports (Volley Ball and Dodge Ball)

4th Training (Saturday) Hike @ Kent Ridge Park

5th Training School Training

6th Training Obstacle Course


8th Training (Saturday) Hike @ Mount Faber


10th Training Amazing Race around school


12th Training (Saturday)

Hike @ Bukit Timah Hill


5

Below are some pictures of the hike and the training sessions.

Our first training session, with full attendance.


6

Our training session consist of circuit trainings. This was one of the exercise called ‘Bridge’.


7

Our first hike at Kent Ridge park, where we walked and climbed and walked and climbed.

There was a lot of beautiful scenery too!

Our second hike had a lesser turn up rate due to it nearing exam periods. However, it was still

fun and a good exercise!


8

Our last hike at Bukit Timah Hill. It was the toughest of all as it was a lot of uphill and plenty

of stairs to climb. Nevertheless, we managed to reach the summit!

Physical Recreation Log Book

Date Venue Number of Hours

30th October 2013 Temasek Polytechnic Campus 3

6th November 2013 Temasek Polytechnic Campus 3


23rd November 2013 Kent Ridge Park 4



9

8th January 2014 Temasek Polytechnic Campus 3


18th January 2014 Mount Faber 4

22nd January 2014 Temasek Polytechnic Campus 3


5th February 2014 Temasek Polytechnic Campus 3

8th February 2014 Bukit Timah Hill 4

Total: 40 hours


0

Skills

“Tell me and I forget, teach me and I will remember, involve me and I will learn.”

Choice of Skill: Learning the Ukulele

Short Background:

I have always wanted to pick up an musical instrument and play like the bands I

adored and admired. I did learn piano when I was younger but I did not really enjoyed it. I

tried to learn guitar from my father but that did not last either. Finally now, I put my

determination and determined to learn a new skill about a musical instrument.

I thought of going back to piano or to the guitar, but I decided I wanted to learn

something new, something fresh. Thus, I picked the ukulele. Even though everyone say a

ukulele is a ‘mini guitar’, I believe it to be different in its own attributes. The sound that it

produces is always happy and enjoyable and I think that suits my bubbly personality. I would

want to play a song to make someone happy and not someone sad, thus I chose the ukulele.

The first few months was difficult as I struggled to learn the chords and the transition

from one chord to another. Also, the strumming was one more thing to learn. All in all, at the

end of this 18 months, I can play almost up to 20 songs fluently and I found that an

achievement. Some songs includes “I’m Yours” by Jason Mraz, “Love Story” by Taylor

Swift, “Counting Stars” by One Republic, “Little Talks” by Monster and Men, “Beautiful

Life” by Union J and even a Korean song “I Wish” by FT Island.


1

I was really proud of myself when I could play a song fluently and now, I could pick

up any song easily as long as I have the chords. With a little practice, my friends and I could

sing to it.

Below are some pictures of me playing the ukulele and also for my friends as we have a

‘Jamming’ Session.

Above is a picture of me when I was first learning the ukulele and could only play a few chords.


2

This is when my friend and I were filming us playing a song for my friend’s birthday!

Above is a solo picture of me when I was playing the ukulele for my friends.


3

Above is a picture when I was teaching my friend how to play the chords on the Ukulele.

Above is a picture when I was playing the ukulele for my friends during our breaks.


4 Log Book

Month Progress

August 2012 I began searching for skills to learn. Some skills I have

considered included dancing hip hop, playing the guitar,

playing the piano, learning French, etc. Eventually, I decided

on Ukulele and borrowed my friend’s Ukulele to learn, as she

was not using it anymore.

September 2012 I started learning chords online. The major chords were ‘G’,

‘Am’, ‘C’ and ‘F’. These four chords were used commonly in

songs. Thus, after I learnt this four chords, I started learning

‘I’m Yours’ by Jason Mraz and ‘Fall for you’ by secondhand

serenade. It took me awhile to master these songs and

especially to transit to a ‘G’ chord.

October 2012 By this month, I was considered ‘not bad’ at transiting from

one chord to another and it was pretty fluent. I could play I’m

Your without much difficulty, however, at this point of time I

was not doing any strumming pattern but only strumming

once. Thus, I decided to learn some strumming patterns.

Some that I have learnt included ‘Down Down Up, Up Down

Up” and “Down Down Down Up, Up Down Down Down

Up”. The whole month of October I was trying to master

these strumming patterns


5

November 2012 During this period, I could play a handful of songs and I

played it to my friends to hear. They gave me positive

feedback and encouragement and this made me more

determined to continue on and learn more songs to play for

them!

December 2012 As it was nearing Christmas, I decided to learn some simple

Christmas song and I learnt “Last Christmas”. At this time, I

also learnt new chords such as Em and A. Everytime there

was a chord that I did not know how to play, I would google

and it and self-teach. At this period of time, my parents knew

my keen interest in learning the ukulele and decided to buy

me one, which they did not want to tell me the price. I was

over the moon when I saw it and it was really beautiful. The

wood was exquisite, I named it ‘Keira’.

January 2013 It was a new year and I decided that my ukulele skills could

go one step further and learn more songs and more chords so

that I could play a variety of songs.

February 2013 It was my friend’s birthday this month and she was a Korean

pop fan, thus, I wanted to learn one of the Korean songs she

likes for her. I started to learn ‘I Wish’ by FT Island. On her

21st Birthday, I played the song for her and she appreciated it.

It was not as fluent as I did not get enough practice but she

appreciated that I learnt it for her.


6

March 2013 My confidence started to grow with this new found skill and I

realized I was quite good at picking up new songs and

recognizing the chords. However, my friends always teased

me that I always used only one type of strumming which was

the “Down Down Up, Up Down Up”. Well, it was a

strumming that gives out a happy tune, thus I did like that

strumming.

April 2013 April was my holiday period and I started to practice a lot

more as I had more time. I grew more confident and learnt

more new songs like “counting stars” by one republic,

“Sparks Fly” by Taylor Swift, “Beethoven” by Union J.

“Beethoven” was a difficult song to learn as it had a unique

strumming pattern and the chords were played in half-chords.

May 2013 May was the starting of school and I brought my ukulele to

school almost every alternate day or when we have breaks as

usually in breaks, we would have nothing to do. Thus, I

would take my ukulele out and we would sit at a quiet corner

in school where I played songs and my friends sang. It was

somewhat like a campfire in the day and it felt good as it was

a bonding session for my friends and I.

June 2013 At this time, I would consider myself pretty fluent in playing

the ukulele and I was constantly challenging myself to learn

new songs. At this time, my friend (the one who I played a


7

the Korean song for her) grew an interest in ukulele and she

asked me to teach her. I was excited to help her!

July 2013 We had a one-week holiday here and my friend and I went to

Sentosa to enjoy the beach, scenery and played my ukulele

because it felt ‘cooler’.

August 2013 My friend that wanted to learn the ukulele finally had the

time to come to my house and I taught her the different

chords first. I started off with teaching her the easier chords

than moving onto the more difficult chords.

September 2013 At this time, I was finding more songs to learn and practicing

it to play it fluently and also teaching my friend the first few

beginner songs that I have learnt and also the strumming

patterns.

October 2013 My friend could finally play the few songs that I have taught

her quite fluently, she could play “Hey Soul Sister” by Train

and “Ho Hey” by Lumineers.

November 2013 It was a very stressful period as assignments and exams were

piling up. My friend stopped her lessons for a while to

concentrate on her assignments. I too was also guilty of not

practicing that often. However, whenever I was stressed, I

would take my ukulele out to play to relief stress as it was

always nice to hear the happy sound of the ukulele.


8

December 2013 It was my birthday month, and my friend surprised me with

playing my favourite song “How to Save a Life” by the Fray

and it was a difficult song to play. Even I myself was not

fluent in it. She played it quite well and I appreciate that she

has learnt for me. It was quite funny that just early this year I

was playing her a song for her birthday and now she is

playing for my birthday!

January 2014 My friend and I went to the East Coast Park to play the

ukulele and sang together. It was a great bonding time with

her.

February 2014 My 18 month of skill has come to an end but I will continue

playing my ukulele and may even go on to learning more

string instruments like the guitar.


9

Residential Project

“The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself by helping others and giving back to

society.”

Service of Choice: Project Positive

Short Background:

Project Positive came about when I attended a Youth Mental Health Ambassador

workshop conducted by trainers from Health Promotion Board. We were taught about how

mental health is important and vital to people’s well being and how we should promote

mental health. We ended off the workshop discussing about ideas about what kind of event

we could do to promote mental health. Therefore we came up with this idea “Project

Positive”.

Project Positive aims to share positive spirits with the students in Temasek

Polytechnic and hopefully make them less stress. We decided to hold it one week before the

exam period starts and hopefully, with our project, they would be motivated and study with a

positive mindset. Even if the people are not stressed with exams, we also wanted to let those

in personal turmoil know that they are not alone and sometimes it is good to see the bright

side.

From this project, I felt really good that as a team, we could spread positive messages

to people and you never know who might be feeling down that day and our positive messages

may just lift their spirits up and make them feel optimistic about themselves.


0

Project Positive (10th-11th Feb 2014)

The project banner hung in Temasek Polytechnic to let people know about our project.

Some of the encouraging messages that people wrote to hang on our positive tree.


1

Our man-made Positive Tree! It is made of dowel poles and twine.

Me promoting the Health Promotion Board items that we are to give out to students.


2

Our Positive Balloons that we give out to students to send our positive messages like “Don’t

Give In, Don’t Give Up”


3

Promoting this event to my classmates too!

And even asking our lecturers to write some positive messages to be put in the positive tree!


4

One of the project organizers and I promoting ‘Project Positive’ at the school’s entrance!

Some items that were given out to the students were:

Positive Ice Cream Sticks!


5

Positive Bracelets!


6

Motivational Packages which consists of the above plus a few more items.

Service

“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more,

you are a leader.”

Choice of Service: TPNYAA Challenge Maincommittee Member

Short Background:

I joined TPNYAA Main Committee because I saw that I could contribute to

TPNYAA and help plan activities for the participants. I also saw it as an opportunity as I

wanted to inspire fellow participants and help them achieve their gold award. Furthermore, I


7 saw the TPNYAA Main Committee as a platform to improve my leadership skills and took

on roles I have never done.

After I was accepted into the main committee, I was given the role ‘Head Of

Subcommittee’ where my role was to liaise with the participants whenever there were events

to inform the participants about. Also, when new log books come in, I contact the new

participants to collect their log books and explain to them how to start their NYAA journey. I

am also the person where they can contact anytime if they have any queries about NYAA.

As a main committee member, besides my role of a Head of Subcommittee, I also

planned several events during the AY 13/14. I really learned a lot from my seniors in the

committee and especially from my president as she guided me on doing memos, proposals for

events, all the standard procedures and channels to go through for conducting an event. I have

also learnt to work with people of different working styles and it can sometimes be quite

challenging, but I have came to learn to dealing with those difficult people. All in all, this

main committee provided me an enriching experience.

TPNYAA Subcommittee Camp 2013

In my opinion, this event was one of my most challenging and tiring event I had to

organize. It was a 2D1N bonding camp for newly joined participants to come together to

bond so as to make new friends and embark on the NYAA Gold Award journey together and

hopefully. We took this opportunity to also let the new participants know more about NYAA

and what our interest group does and what are the upcoming events for the year.


8

It was challenging as we had a lack in manpower, as some of our main committee

were not free to come for camp, resulting in lacking of manpower for logistics and group

leaders. However, we managed to pull through the camp with the limited number of people

we had and delegate our jobs well. Another challenge was the budget plan where we

underestimated our camp budget. It was the first time that we were organizing a NYAA camp

and we did not have previous proposals to refer to. Thus, our budget was one of our biggest

issue as we did not gave much thought to what were some of the underlying issues that could

only be seen when the actual event was run.

Here is a picture with my group where I was their facilitator.


9

Here is where my group was making their group flag!


0

The outcome of the group flag! Our camp theme was Avengers and our team name was

Captain America!

Some of our camp activities included team-bonding games. Here one where we all have to

work together and balance on this board.


1

As we wanted an adventure theme camp, we decided to sleep in tents for the night!

And here are some sub-commitee keeping the tent the morning after.


2

Log Book and Meeting Schedules

Date Venue Purpose Time No. Of Hours

12th April 2013

Student Activity Room 11

Preparation for CCA Fair AY 13/14

4.00- 6.00pm 2

8th May 2013 Temasek Polytechnic Project Room 7

Introducing of Main committee members and talking about the level of commitment

6.30-8.30pm 3

20th May 2013 Temasek Polytechnic NYAA Club Room

Discussion about the upcoming roadshow to recruit more participants

6.30-9.30pm 3

27th-28th May 2013

TPNYAA Roadshow

To recruit more participants to embark on the NYAA journey.

10am-3pm (for both days)

10

24th June 2013 Temasek Polytechnic Meeting Room 3

Review about the roadshow that we had and discuss about upcoming events of the year.

1. Subcommittee Camp

2. Physical Recreation – Cycling

3. Residential Project – Adopt A Pen

4. Induction day for new participants

7pm-9.30pm 3.5

1st July 2013 Temasek Polytechnic Meeting Room 3

Discuss about the updated information about induction day for the newly joined participants.

7.00-8.30pm 1.5


3

Discuss about adopt-a-pen and dates to be launched and recruitment of interested participants

8th July 2013 Temasek Polytechnic SW26B 01-10

Update the newly joined participants about the upcoming events of the academic year and also introduce the new main committees

7.00-8.30pm 1.5

22nd July 2013 Temasek Polytechnic Meeting Room 3

Review on induction day and on the newly launched physical recreation, cycling.

7.00-8.30pm 1.5

5th August 2013

Temasek Polytechnic Meeting Room 3

Updates on adopt a pen (residential project), trekking (newly launched physical recreation) and subcommittee camp.

7.30-9.00pm 1.5

11th, 12th, 13th September 2013

Temasek Polytechnic NYAA Club Room

Preparations for subcommittee camp.

1. Logistics 2. Games 3. Food

1pm-6pm (Each day)

15

16th -17th September 2013

Temasek Polytechnic

TPNYAA Subcommittee camp.

9am (16th) – 5pm (17th)

20

1st October 2013

Temasek Polytechnic NYAA Club Room

Review on 1. Adopt a pen 2. Subcommittee Camp

Updates on: 1. Trekking

Suggestions of new events. - Mental Health Ambassador Workshop (New Residential Project)

6.00-9.00pm 3


4

23rd October 2013


Updates of: 1. Mental Health Ambassador Workshop 2. Trekking 3. Publicity of NYAA

7.00-8.30pm 1.5

18th November 2013

Temasek Polytechnic Meeting Room 5 and 6

Updates of: 1. Trekking 2. Mental Health Ambassador Workshop

7.00-9.00pm 2

16th January 2014

Temasek Polytechnic SW26B 02-48

Teaching the participants how to write a NYAA report for report submission

6pm-8.30pm 2.5

6th February 2014


Review on: 1. Report Writing Workshop 2. Trekking 3. Updates on mental health ambassador project (project positive)

7.00-8.30pm 1.5

10th February 2014

Temasek Polytechnic

Project Positive 2.00- 6.oopm 4

11th February 2014

Temasek Polytechnic

Project Positive 2.00-5.00pm 3

11th March 2014


Preparation and Discussion for CCA Fair AY14/15

7.00-9.00pm 2

Total Number of Hours 82 hours


5

Final Reflection

All in all, I feel that this NYAA journey has taught me many life lessons. I gained

plenty during this journey and I would encourage others to embark on it too. From being

adventurous to learning a new skill and keeping myself health and also servicing the society,

I feel that I have gained a lot more insight to the world and also to myself. I discovered that I

could rise above my self-imposed limits to be even better.

Honestly, the best experience or best component that I have went through would be

the adventurous journey as it really made a huge impact on my life and also on myself. I

gained more confidence and I really believed in the term ‘You can do anything you put your

mind to.’ If someone had just came up to me and told me that sentence, I probably would not

have believed them. However, it was not until I actually went through it and experience that

quote then I started to believe it and believe in myself. I never thought I could have endured

until the peak but I showed myself what I could do and this brought me a confidence that I

never had. I started to take on more responsibility, as I know that I can complete the task as

long as I put my heart and soul in it.

I would never forget this NYAA journey in my polytechnic years and all the friends I

have made along the way. I would also never forget the memorable experiences of my trips,

events and I believe all these skills that I have learnt would be used in the future and these

skills would bring me a long way in the future.

I would like to end this reflection with two short quotes that I personally relate to it.

“Don’t give in, Don’t give up” and “Determination goes a long way.”

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