Let's Talk about You, DORMERS !
May 17th, the very first three on three basketball tournament took place in the outside court. This strange series of pick up games might sound familiar to the dorm students of KIS. But this time it was specially arranged with specific purpose. It was a fundraiser to donate to an organization called The Child Labor Coalition. Each participants had to pay certain amount of cash that would make the proceeds to go to the organization. Students not only had great time playing good basketball, but also got to eat pizza after such a meaningful activity.
Fundraising in KIS has been usually related to activities like selling sweets, selling t shirts, or selling water bottles. These commodities were good enough incentives to encourage students to donate. But the event today was special because it required physical activity that included more than twenty people, an official referee, and many enthusiastic observers. Because so many more people wanted to join just by watching the games, there is possibility in making this event bigger. Then we would not only donate more, but also be more active within the dorm community.
Dorm life in KIS can become really mundane. Students have a lot of time to really not do anything if homework load allows. Due to lack of mandatory or even attractable activities, dorm life promotes nothing much new every weekend. High school dorm students have freedom to go out of the dorms in the weekends. They also can access school bikes to go around the GEC area. But what we really need is some activities that involve both the students and the dorm staffs.
In the very first two years of dorm life, dorm staffs took students to mandatory trips around Jeju island in the weekends. Some claim that it was valuable experience, but most learned that the wasted time and energy in the weekends were detrimental to catching up with work and relaxation required for Monday. Therefore, students generally if not almost all, have bad idea, a kind of a traumatizing memory to the activities that dorm staffs try to carry out. Students in KIS are not only becoming lethargic but also apathetic to some degrees, toward potentially enthralling events in the school.
Dorm life, as part of high school life as a whole, serves as a vital factor of learning and growth of students. Although increasing work time or labor force of the staffs may be impossible, there must be more to dormitory than this: More interaction between the dorm staffs and students. From the discourse in the members of the Dorm Leadership Council, many students revealed concerns about the boredom in the dorm. It is clearly not that the staffs are being lazy without attempt to get these students out of their rooms. When staffs hope to get somethings done such as cooking, rock climbing, or hiking, students freak out and evaluate the activities for themselves to be worthless. As I mentioned above, the students already have bad judgements toward dorm activities in the weekends therefore cling to be left along in their rooms.
The conflict of this conundrum rises from the students' schedule. Although our team of dorm staffs get activities together, students' have academies and other things they have to have done in the weekends. So when boarding assistants and specialists are stuck in certain location for some kind of activity and actually have nobody there, it is useless waste of staff: Almost an abuse of their working time.
Students have SAT, SAT Subjects, and other demanding courses of studies that require some other time than after school in the weekdays. The inevitability of the parents' urge and students' need to take additional classes may appear absurd. However, I believe it is necessary to let the students make well use out of their time; Compulsory activities and events will traumatize the dorm as a whole even further.
On the other hand, as we consider moving into 12 grade, the very first graduates of KIS will have to adapt to some changes next year in the dorms. Dorm Leadership Council is looking forward to establishing long-run and influential weekend activities. These include basketball tournaments like the one that took place this weekend, an inteupreneur club, a social club, and so many more that is yet to be discussed. Although not fully guaranteed, the dorm staffs will be spending more time with students and possibly create something meaningful out of it. Seniors will have more freedom free time, but also more valuable times spent in the dorms, especially in the weekends. It is only a matter of time and prejudice because students will have to accept and be active participants of new activities.
