Scholars benefit from Lasallian Leadership Training Camp

Sep 15, 2017

MANILA: St Joseph’s Institution International School Malaysia (Tropicana PJ Campus) also known as SJIIM, is different from other internatonal schools, due to its Lasallian education ethos and roots. It recently showed its point of difference again when 18 of its new SJIIM IBDP Scholarship Programme scholars participated in the 2nd SJIIM Scholars’ Lasallian Leadership Training Camp in Manila, Philippines.

The programme prepares the school’s scholars as Senior Lasallian Student Leaders to serve the school’s community and the needy public on their return from the camp. This time, the scholars, consisting of two Vietnamese, 1 Filipino and 15 Malaysians, embarked on the 12-day camp which focuses on Lasallian Formation, Leadership Training and Service Work. There, scholars learned about the Founder, St. John Baptist de La Salle and the founding history of the Institute of the Christian Brothers. They also offered services and support to the less fortunate in the Philippines.

The camp involved visiting numerous Lasallian schools where, by meeting students and faculty members from each school, the scholars had a better understanding of their Lasallian culture, values and practices. It was through these visits that they learnt more about what it means to be a Lasallian, and the three core values which are Faith, Service and Community.

The scholars also had an opportunity to join in the school’s community service programmes. An example was in De La Salle Santiago Zobel where the scholars were tasked to create a community service project to carry out in the Taguig Rehabilitation Centre for drug addicts and Goodbye ‘Gutom’ (Goodbye Hunger) for children in poverty. Our scholars interacted with children who were homeless and abused, and even recovering drug addicts who are presently based in rehabilitation centres. Here, they planned activities with them, fed them and bonded with them like Kuyas and Ates (older brothers and sisters) which in turn, help hone the scholars’ leadership skills and exposed them to the larger meaning of life. This was reflected in the feedback of one of the SJIIM Scholars, Andrea Tan who said, “This camp has “validated” the purpose behind the Lasallian mission for me. I’m in awe and admiration of the strong Lasallian identity that is palpable in the Philippines, and how much opportunity and hope this can give to the last, the lost and the least. We are one, we are many, we are catalysts for change, and we will be vessels of hope for the Lasallian mission, our home and beyond. It is a calling for hope. A calling for love. A calling for community. A calling for faith. A calling for the Lasallian mission to be spread wide and beyond back in our home, Malaysia.”

One of the Lasallian schools visited was De La Salle Araneta University which was in a farm called Salikneta. The scholars spent two memorable nights there which involved exposure to insects and toads in their bathrooms. More uniquely, they had a chance to interact with nature where they had chances to milk a cow, collect chicken eggs, bake bread, prepare and bottle calamansi juice and plant paddy, among many other activities.

A special experience for the scholars was that they were fortunate to witness the ‘First Vows’ of two Filipino Lasallian Brothers in the La Salle Green Hills. Upon the scholars’ return to Kuala Lumpur, it was found that they had become more aware of what it means to be a Lasallian and understood better the obstacles and challenges that come from the cause of serving the last, the lost and the least.