Very First FSA Leaders Camp

The Mozilla Philippines Community always believe in empowering the youth, particularly students. Everyone here were ecstatic when the Firefox Student Ambassadors (FSA) Program [https://wiki.mozilla.org/StudentAmbassadors] was launched middle of this year.

The leadership of the Community, through the Mozilla Reps [https://reps.mozilla.org] based in the Philippines, thought of gathering all FSA Leaders from Luzon, Visayas, & Mindanao (the three major island regions of the country) for a weekend of training and teambuilding activities — but time was not on our side (more preration and resources will be needed to realize this).

To kickoff the idea, we had gathered the FSA Leaders from Metro Manila, Bulacan, and Laguna to be part of the very first FSA Leadership Camp Philippines (and the first of its kind in the entire planet). A total of xx student leaders form part of the overnight event held at the Riverview Resort in Calamba, Laguna.

Invites to qualified FSA Leaders were sent via email as early as xx days before the Leadership Camp weekend. Those who signified their intent in joining the camp were asked to submit duly signed parent’s consent forms.

1. Kristina Verbo (University of Sto. Tomas)

2. ****** ****** (University of Sto. Tomas)

3. Kristian Lugtu (University of the East)

4. Bryan Cheng (University of the East)

5. Christian Kenneth Mariano (Quezon City Polytechnic University)

6. Roan Nepomuceno (Quezon City Polytechnic University)

7. Gerard Tuguigui (Far Eastern University – Makati)

8. Joseph Sallao (Far Eastern University – Makati)

9. Roger Duran Jr. (Bulacan State University)

10. Eric Fajardo (Bulacan State University)

11. Joshua Rubin (Technological Institute of the Philippines – Manila)

12. Mike Rivera (De La Salle-College of St. Benilde)

13. Hena Chan (De La Salle-College of St. Benilde)

14. Giovanni Legasto (AMA Computer University – Biñan, Laguna)

15. Jomar Palmes (AMA Computer University – Biñan, Laguna)

16. Rose Shane Lopez (Colegio de San Juan de Letran – Calamba)

17. Lorenzo Buitizon (Colegio de San Juan de Letran – Calamba)

18. John Olideles (Laguna University)

19. Robert Oboza (Laguna University)

More than half of the participants are coming from outside of the Laguna province (where the Camp venue is). FSA Leaders coming from Metro Manila and Bulacan province were pooled by Mozilla Reps Mentor Bob Reyes at the Provincial Bus Station in Pasay City for a 50-kilometer travel to the province of Laguna.

First order of the day: lunch. After the 90 minutes journey for most of the participants, they were famished (just kidding) as I am. We were treated to a sumptuous lunch prepared by Riverview Resort & Conference Center.

After lunch, the room assignments were given to the FSA Leaders and everyone was asked to settle down and prepare for the start of the 2-day camp.

On Day 01 of the camp, the FSA Leaders were briefed on the history and technicals of Mozilla and its products. Sessions on this day were conducted by the Mozilla Reps (ReMo).

After a day of overloading the FSA’s with information (and good fun, of course) we are set to develop their leadership and team skills on the second day.

After breakfast, FSA’s focus got challenged with a little game of Simon Says. Afterwards, each team faced the classic Helium Stick challenge. Each team has to slowly drop a stick made of drinking straws using one index finger with each hand. Facilitators have to ensure that for every stage, all fingers of the team members are touching the stick while they are doing it. Some accomplished it easily while others were actually debating with one another! We had a processing of the activity afterwards including what it takes to be a good leader.

After the processing, we had them think of what they want to improve on the FSA program and events they would like to organize/ see organized.

Next area we tackled was their public speaking skills. We first had a Spectrogram game where we raised some issues that the global community is facing and they are to express their opinion whether they agree, disagree or somehow in between or somewhere else. After which we let them rate their public speaking skills by telling them a skill and they have to rate themselves if they are fair, good or excellent in it. We discussed some tips that could help them face their stage fright and how to be more engaging in talks.

As an exercise, each team has to randomly pick a Mozilla product/program and they have to figure out how to introduce it to different types of non-Mozillian audience.

They got really creative with their presentations as we didn’t provide them with slides to work on etc.

In the afternoon, we did some more activities that will help them understand what it takes to be someone holding a team.

We had a caterpillar game where the team will form a caterpillar to get the hidden items and all members are blindfolded except the leader who will be in front of them.

After the game, we had a relay of unusual activities which include stations where they will accomplish tasks not usually done using the way instructed.

After all the activities, we have a concluded by summing up what we have learned overall and established what they really are as Firefox Student Ambassadors, especially being a leader of their respective clubs. We commended their passion and dedication in being an FSA lead and we emphasized that all that we learned here are meant to be applied and shared to their club members.

Photos of the 2-day affair can be viewed here and here.

Our sincerest thanks to Globe Labs for supporting this endeavor!

[With reports from Faye Tandog]