In the second term of 2019, we – the students of Year 8, were asked to choose from one of several real groups, and to help with an associated problem. I, along with Caitlin Brown, Lucy Wilkinson, Samantha Shenton, Kate Cotham, Jessica Eames and Ashlea Gurr chose Amana Living: Books. Amana Living Aged Care is an Anglican residential care organisation dedicated to the elderly. Amana teamed up with our school, A.S.C, in order to deal with a problem – many of the older residents, whose sight and hearing is deteriorating, can no longer read books as they one wished, and often slink away and stay away from companionship. To resolve this, my group and I built a presentation that showed our plan to deal with the problem. In the end, after much trial, error and experimentation, we ended up deciding to create book clubs using a variety of audiobooks and e-books, and to have ‘little free libraries’ in which people could borrow and trade books based on the honour system.
From this I learnt the following things: Firstly, I should always take the bull by the horns, actively try to take lead of the group; and properly delegate duties and jobs to people. Secondly, I should always, when confronting a problem try and see everything from those dealing with it personally, and finally, to always think of the materials at hand.