Alicia Zhang was a counselor for the summer 2019 and is currently the director for the camp in summer 2020. She has given her time to write out her thoughts on the 6-month experience from developing workshops during the Spring semester to running them in August. She is currently a second year undergraduate at UC Berkeley where she studies Economics.
What was it about TOKIHA that appealed to you?
I’ve always been into opportunities that can offer me growth at the same time I help others grow and improve. I took a break this past summer to travel after working at a summer camp for two summers in a row. But at the end of summer, I felt myself missing the summer camp life and wanting to go back once more. However, this time, the global aspect of TOKIHA, was what really caught my attention.
Upon starting middle school in China after 6 years of schooling in the US, I was surprised at how different the educational system was. When I came back for high school, I began analyzing the differences in culture between the East and West. Because of this, I developed an interest in learning about the cultures of the world as well as the differences in education across the globe.
During the two summers I was a camp counselor in high school, I often worked with international campers, making sure that they could get the most out of their experiences. Despite the fact that the international campers could not speak much English, they easily became friends with the local campers through working together in all sorts of team building activities. Through this experience, I realized that at the end of the day, despite our differences, we are all human. We all have our strengths and weaknesses, but since it’s summer break, we’re all at camp to have fun and learn from each other! This kind of cultural exchange and understanding from working entirely with campers from a different country was something I had hoped to gain from working with TOKIHA.
When you were working with the team of counselors, what worked out well?
I loved how much support there was from everyone and that definitely built the foundation of us working so well as a team! This was a very humbling experience, as all team members brought their own unique self to our TOKI-fam and I felt that I learned something new from every person around me. I was also surprised at how much I was able to connect closely with my team despite all our differences. Even though we’re all so different (in good ways!) and come from diverse backgrounds, I think our shared passion for education ultimately brought us and our conversations together because in the past, I wouldn’t have imagined being able to connect on so many levels with people so different from myself! In addition, I am so appreciative of all the positivity among counselors--every day I was surrounded by people with smiles on their faces, willing to help each other through thick and thin. For example, many counselors (myself included) were very nervous before running our workshops for the first time, but the other counselors would always patiently reassure us and remind us to stay flexible, no matter what happened. With everyone’s encouragement, I was able to gain confidence to lead my workshops to success!
Directors did an amazing job of checking in with us and supporting us throughout the workshop development process and camp. They were extremely patient with all of us from giving advice to addressing any concerns. The check-ins really kept me motivated and also kept me from getting too stressed out about anything. I feel that the leadership style of the directors was ultimately able to bring the team even closer, with how much trust and freedom they gave to the team.
Matt was the director you would go to for awesome advice and genuine feedback! His office hours were so helpful and I got so many good ideas from his feedback. His advice helped me get out of a lot of dead ends I ran into with my workshops. I can’t imagine what the entrepreneurship workshop would be like if I didn’t have Matt’s initial advice on the topic. Thanks so much to Matt for all the help!!
Our other director Momo is great at keeping the camp’s energy up even at the end of the day during camp when everyone is exhausted. She is incredibly fun to talk to and has such creative and crazy ideas! I feel that Momo’s passion for Tokiha is pretty evident to everyone and I really admire how dedicated she is to the program. Her love for Tokiha is definitely contagious and kept everyone motivated throughout.
Taku is an extremely dedicated yet very chill president, since at first he came off as a bit scary. Just like our directors, I enjoyed how he gave the counselors a lot of freedom to develop everything on our own and how he did a few check-ins with us throughout the semester despite his busy schedule and time differences! Having Taku participate and facilitate with me was a highlight of the Identity workshop at the Mito Camp. I’m sure the campers enjoyed hearing his perspectives on the workshop’s questions as much as I did.
Overall, I’m so grateful for our team this year and I have so much respect for everyone. I really look forward to opportunities to work with everyone again in the future! :)
How was it developing and running workshops?
When I was first accepted into TOKIHA, I was amazed at how past counselors were able to develop original workshops from scratch. I started out quite daunted by the task ahead but also looking forward to an exciting adventure. Because the work was spread out over the course of a semester, the development process was not as stressful as I had imagined it to be. However, I discovered that while workshops may initially sound great on paper and run smoothly in our minds, once we simulate and run them in person, we begin discovering elements on which we can improve. Facilitation proved to be one of the hardest aspects of camp, but I learned so much from being able to run workshops. I gained confidence and worked to adapt to the ever-changing situations in camp. This is also why I would like to say that Simulation Days, though quite different from actual camp, gave us important reality checks on our workshops as a whole.
How was the experience overall?
This was such a life changing experience. I also loved seeing all our hard work put into the workshops during the semester come to fruition during camp. Above all, I felt so connected to all the counselors, Japan staff, and campers. Japanese high schoolers and middle schoolers are so different compared to American students and I am still amazed at how much we could talk about together. I really hope that more cross-cultural communication like this can happen with students all across the globe. One of the most rewarding aspects of this experience was seeing how much campers had grown after just a few days at camp. Most campers arrived, appearing quite shy, not knowing what to expect from an outgoing group of American counselors. At the end of camp, we had all become one big TOKI-family. In addition to growth among campers, I felt that there was so much growth within ourselves. The mutual learning between counselors and campers, and anyone involved in TOKIHA in general, is such an amazing thing. Everything that happened was so rewarding and it really strengthened my passion for education and I really hope that this is something that I can continue to pursue in the future. Honestly, I don't know where I could find another experience like this! I really wished that the summer wouldn’t end!
