As a high school student seeking a community service activity, I felt fortunate when I received an email from a teacher in charge of community service activities. It was a heaven-sent opportunity. The content of the email was that she is looking for someone to take the job of finance administrator for a school cookbook project, organized for a charity donation. I thought there was no reason not to take this job as I wanted to do volunteer work, and finance was definitely my interest. So, I replied to the email quickly as I didn't want to miss the job. After a short interview with my teacher, I fortunately passed and took the role. Then, I became a member of the cookbook project and attended their weekly meetings.

Three teachers and four students were in the meeting, and each member’s roles were apparent. While one teacher was dealing with the school’s business office, students took a role to find a recipe for the cookbook. The team did not need my finance job initially, so I started by helping other people’s work. First, I made a poster and a video to get a recipe from students and parents from the whole school. Also, my enthusiasm infiltrated in the design of the book, and my opinions were richly expressed. I suggested using our school color, and the idea was accepted.

[Photo of a poster to collect cookbook recipe. Photo credit: International school of Prague cookbook team]

I've got lots of tasks after the design and price of the cookbook were all set. First, I made a form for ordering. I worked with great caution because it was a matter of many people's money. After talking with a teacher, we decided to receive the funds through a bank account. We made the form to be submitted only if the people sent the money to the account. We used Excel to carefully check how much each person has to pay and how much they paid for secondary verification. If someone didn't pay the funds correctly, I asked to recheck it via email. Thanks to this meticulousness, we were able to complete this project with zero financial problems.

[Photo of a screenshot of cookbook promotional video. Photo credit: Jessica Cho]

Not only this, but I put lots of effort as our goal was to donate as much as possible. I created a promotional poster, sent it to every elementary, middle, and high school student through email, and uploaded it to all the members’ SNS. Also, I created a promotional video and sent it to the student council to send it out to the entire high school. I was sad that due to Covid all these were done virtually, and I think if we were in person, we could’ve promoted more people.

The achievement of this project was a great success. We initially expected 50 copies and targeted 100 copies, but we succeeded in selling 186 copies. As a result, our total revenue was 92600 CZK (4896115 KRW). We decided to continue this project next school year (2021-2022) with this unexpected success. This service project was the most meaningful donation I have ever done. I felt that I am a useful person who can be helpful to others around me, and this increased my self-confidence and esteem. Helping neighbors through the project makes me proud of myself. No wonder I will definitely join the task next time if the chance is given. Helping someone made me feel good that much.










Jessica Cho
Grade 11
International School of Prague

Copyright © The Herald Tomorrow, All rights reseverd.