Shuyu Geng
7:00 a.m. AST
I wake up, have breakfast, go out for a walk and do a few other things before getting ready to attend Shad. I have volunteering and classes that I have to attend weekly, so ShadAnywhere provided me with the opportunity to be able to maintain those activities while attending engaging Shad sessions from the comfort of my home.
12:00 p.m. AST
I log onto my ShadAnywhere account and am always welcomed with music after joining the Zoom session. We would usually have a theme to follow every day, and today’s theme was ‘Go Green Gala’, where we all had to wear something green for the day.
After everyone has joined, we start the day with a fun opening question. Today’s question was “If you could choose, would you rather be able to read minds or fly? Why?”
12:15 p.m. AST
I attend a facilitator workshop which happens once a week and they teach us about a topic they’ve picked. These workshops are usually a combination of engaging lectures and hands-on activities that our facilitators have prepared for us. The session I attended today is a crash course about business sales, which is a topic that I’m very interested in so I am very grateful to be able to attend this workshop.
ShadAnywhere student engaging with an interactive activity from the Shad Kit
1:15 p.m. AST
We have speakers join us from time to time and educate us on various interesting topics. Today’s lecture was called Indigeneity in Education, where we were taught about Indigenous values and teachings.
Special guest speakers share lessons on Indigeneity in Education with Shads
2:00 p.m. AST
We always have an hour-long nutrition break after two hours of lectures and activities. I sign off Zoom and have lunch.
3:00 p.m. AST
Now it’s design time! We are split off into groups of sevens with a facilitator to guide us and work on a project together. The topic of this year’s project is green energy and what we can do to make youth more engaged in adopting green energy technologies into their lives. My design team is very collaborative and demonstrates amazing teamwork, so I always enjoy the sessions I spend with them.
4:45 p.m. AST
Now we have our create session where we get to build different things using our mystery kits. Today we were building and decorating a ukulele that we could play after it’s finished building! We chatted together when working on it, making the experience a lot more engaging and memorable! I always love those sessions because they’re so calming and entertaining at the same time.
Design workshop where Shads built their own ukelele
5:15 p.m. AST
We get together with our committee and we organize an activity together. My committee was Shad Shines, and we organized a photo-taking contest for our cohort to participate in.
Ten minutes before six we all get back together for the closing of the day, where we listen to a closing reflection written by a fellow Shad, announcements, and plans for the next day, which concludes a fun and exciting day at ShadAnywhere.
