SHAVE THE DAY

Lydia Lee | 11 | Secretary

For the month of October, one of our possible service projects included the mobile app, Shave the Day! At its core, Shave The Day resembles the most familiar apps of our childhood such as Subway Surfers, Temple Run, and other action based apps. In the app, you can jump over people in order to shave their hair and earn coins. You can also earn coins by running through them. You need to jump over obstacles such as razors or you’ll lose one of your three lives. The game ends once all 3 lives are lost, and the coins are totaled. The coins add up to real money that the player can track over time. Eventually, a maximum of $100 will be reached and the coins you earn will no longer be donated to charity. Although the game is lacking in terms of mechanics, it’s still a fun game to pass the time with. Being able to earn money for charity is an added benefit. Mobile apps such as Shave the Day, Rice Race, and Charity Miles show how easy it is to make a positive difference. Just by spending a couple of hours on an app, you can earn tens of dollars towards charities of choice. Quarantine has affected everyone in many ways, more negative than positive. However, we must acknowledge the fact that it’s allowed us to venture into new opportunities for service projects. These projects seem trivial but can create a massive impact with the number of volunteers that participate. Overall, it's amazing how we can still serve other people and the community despite having to stay and home and socially distant from other people.

Ryan Dang | 11 | Historian

Since English has always been a subject that I haven’t seen in a very bright light, I’ve always despised learning it. This is especially true when it comes to anything with grammar diction. As a result of this, my essays in the past have been very subpar. I would always place my punctuation in very peculiar places and my diction would be very ineffective in helping get my point across. However, over recent years, I’ve been trying to get better at improving my grammar and word choice, and the service event: Free Rice, greatly helped with my range of vocabulary. I wouldn’t say my knowledge of the words in the English language is the greatest so I admit that if my score was totaled up, there would be a lot of words missed. The first few levels were simple enough. The words were pretty basic and quite knowledgeable to most people; however, as rounds increased, I stumbled across words that I had never heard of before and had to guess their definitions. Since I had to guess on a lot of words, I would decrease in level, I would go back to the simple words, and I would eventually climb up to the place I had previously been. This loop happened on repeat until I was able to remember and choose the correct choice for the vocabulary words. Looking back on my hours spent on the app, I can gladly say that it was worth the time. Not only did it improve my vocabulary, but I was also able to raise money for charity by filling bowls of rice. Although it was an arduous task to remember and add to my vocabulary, I didn’t mind it too much because I knew that I was not only helping myself, but I was also helping others in my community.