6 students who followed a dream to help others
Six budding medical students gathered around a table and each thought to themselves “what shall I do for my CAS project?” Unbeknownst to them, a common trait would lead to becoming the uniting factor for the great venture.
“YouthRun” was a CAS project created by six IB students, including Jade Guglielmi, Samuel Niemi, Nicholas Paruker, Vivian Graf, Abhilasha (Abby) Yadav and Phoebe Li, who banded together to produce a project that would incorporate their passion for the medical sciences and a way to contribute significantly to those in need.
Essentially, “Youth Run” was a charity fundraiser that simultaneously raised awareness for the organization of the Huaxin Rehabilitation Center.
The center provides a pathway for young Chinese with neurological disabilities to access the necessary life-saving surgeries that they need.
Over four months, they intensively planned every detail, from the food right down to the choice of song for the day. They opened a line of communication between the center and the team.
To make the event more exciting, people from the BISS community, alongside the families associated with the Huaxin Rehabilitation Center, were invited to join the team to come and run laps in order to raise money.
Every person running had one or more sponsors who donated money for each lap run.
This not only benefitted the people they were helping, but also united the community in a common cause and gave a sense of achievement to everyone.
Some even ran upwards of 100 laps. In addition, they set up a garage sale facilitated by the generous donations of the BISS community. All the money raised at the sales contributed to donations sent to the center.
They raised a total sum of 11,000 yuan (US$1,730) as a result of the contributions.
We asked the organizers if you could relive one moment from your project, what would it be?
Vivian: “Run around all day talking to all the participants and how positively they received the event.”
Jade: “I really enjoyed greeting the participants and getting to know all their names.”
Sam: “I’d want to relive visiting the rehabilitation center and seeing how grateful they were for our help.”
Nick: “The moment when we gave the donations that we raised.”
Phoebe: “There was a moment when the event was finished and all the equipment was put away, the whole team sat exhausted on the couches and we were just celebrating our success. That was great.”
Abby: “Talking to … both the runners and the sponsors because it was really fun seeing everyone enjoy the event … and having all the Hua Xin kids come over as well.”
Overall, it is accurate to say that this project was an important experience for every student who was involved.
It seemed as though it was an immensely successful experience and project.
And therefore it is one to remember for the rest of their school journey.