Akela Award Assessment, 26th August 2017

Written by: Joanne Koong, Sixer & Scribe leader

Today, eight of us attended the Akela Award assessment conducted by the Scouts HQ - 4 P5s and 4 P6s, accompanied by Mr Ng. We were surprisingly calm while in the bus. The boys were discussing possible interview questions and one of them was “How has scouting helped you in your daily life?” Hmm… I started to ponder. I have had 3.5 years of scouting and have so much experience to share!

When we arrived at Yangzhen Primary School, we were each given a piece of duck tape with a number on it, to be placed on our uniforms above our squirrel and bumble bee badges. We were then assigned to our groups. There were at least 200 candidates, divided into 9 groups. All of us took the Scout Promise, after which we were led to our respective activities.

I was in C2 and my group, together with A2 and B2, did the written test first. I noticed that there were more questions on First Aid in the paper. After the written test, we then proceeded to the classrooms. Next up was the interview. The questions that I was asked were, “What have you learnt through scouting?” and “How has scouting helped you in your daily life?” My eyes shone brightly as I had thought about the second question and was ready with my answer. It was quite funny as the interviewer had to stop me from talking.

After the interview, we went to the hall to play some games. The first game was Animal Sounds. The whole group was divided into two teams and each team had to discuss and work out some animal sounds to represent directions. Two members of each team were blindfolded and the rest of us had to direct them to the bean bags scattered over an area using animal sounds. My team showed such great team work and cooperation that we completed the game well within the time limit. The second game was the Human Knot. Again, we were split into two groups. Unfortunately, my group did not succeed in untangling ourselves within the given 5 minutes. Our knot was just too complex. Same goes for the last game which was called Turn Over a New Leaf. We were split into two groups again. All team mates had stand on a piece of groundsheet and try to flip it over without stepping on the ground.

After we had finished all three games, I realized that all the games were based on the basic values of good communication and cooperation. My group lacked communication but was strong in cooperation and teamwork.  Instructions that we gave to one another were not clear enough.

Finally, at 12.30pm, we were dismissed and asked to line up according to schools. During the whole Akela Award assessment, I learnt the importance of clear communication and teamwork with people whom I do not know in order to get tasks done.