Transcriber: Camila do Nascimento Campos
Reviewer: Jiwoo Park I pledge on my honor to uphold the objects of Key Club International
to build my homes. To serve my nation and the world, and to combat all forces which tend
to undermine these institutions. The Kiko patch has become a big and
amazing part of my life recently. As a leader of Key Club, the largest
student led volunteering organization globally. I have the. Great privilege of pushing out
volunteering events to my members, preaching comm
unity service. And also wearing this red
light all the time. Raise your hand if you're familiar
with volunteering. Extent. I mean, I guess you can. I'm
pretty much an expert on community. Service, right? Wrong. I'm still trying to grasp
the true purpose of it. The first thing that pops
into my head when I think about community service is
when my health teacher told me the purposeful impact of it. You know. How it benefits one's. Community mental health, physical health.
You get the gist. But how
many of us actually do community
service for said reasons? Now, I need you guys to be
real honest with me. Raise your hand if you perform
community service for the sake of building your resume.
Now raise your other hand. If you've performed community service for the sake of fulfilling your requirement
and not actually your community. I wish I had six hands right now So I could put them all up Because I resonate
with this so much. All of my freshman year with Keykey Club, I cheated service as if
it was some
kind of chore or obligation. I mean, just imagine me.
My first. My first. Service event at a campus trash cleanup. An eager little freshman so excited to
serve her, to lock her service hours, it became an obsession. I was constantly
checking my our tracking form to see how many hours I've collected. Here is where I introduced
the our tracking goblin. Do you guys want to hear about him?
All right, brace yourselves. It's a little scary so that
our tracking goblin is an absolutely inva
sive parasite that only
cares about recognition and not actually the community aspect of volunteering. So clearly, the hour tracking goblin had a
firm grip on 14 year old Shauna. Yikes. Community service was
just that light that I needed to build upon my sense of self. But I manipulated that light and I didn't listen to what my hardworking
peers in Key Club were telling me. And I was just so focused on the goal that
the hour tracking Goblin had for me. Four syllables recognition. It wasn't until
my sophomore
year in good Cricket club, when I started to actually explore events
that had significant meaning to me. It benefited me immensely and
I mean it. Hear me out. I nod your head. If you're familiar with clothespin dolls.
All right, some of you. So my first event where
I got to experience the true mayor of service after attending
more events than anyone can count on their fingers, was making
clothespin dolls. I sat in my room and crafted a handful of
dolls made of clothespins, felt but
tons, and glue, you name it. I enjoyed this event so much because
I remember when I was little, my mother telling me the stories
of herself as a child and the war torn country. She told me I vividly remember her telling me about
this singular baby doll she had, and she described it as bronze
with golden hair. And so I soon realized that my toys
to her had significant meaning. It was a symbol that she
made it to freedom, a symbol that she no longer had to go
to bed, to the sound of airstrikes. So
that being said, I began to focus
on events that resonated with me, and I stuck to searching for events that
I've connected to on a personal level and were near and dear to my heart. That being said. I feel like I was free from
the handcuffs that the hour tracking goblin was holding onto
me. It was such a liberating feeling. I was able to meet so many people through
these service events, like fall festivals, where I got to return a core memory
that I was once given years ago to the to my commun
ity. And that was
a really remarkable feeling. This was a true accomplishment that a
simple piece of paper couldn't give me. I felt like I was free from the
suffocating social shell. That's a tongue twister that the hour
tracking government had on me. I met some of my best friends and biggest supporters who are
still here with me today. And I'm forever, forever grateful,
grateful for that. From being the quietest girl as a
freshman you could ever meet, to being here now on this stage, to teachin
g my division chants
at the top of our lungs. I've grown a lot in my social life, and I truly believe that I wouldn't get
to this point without discovering my true passion for service. So
take me as an example. Don't focus on recognition and focus
on what actually matters to you, and project that into service projects. Hence, I want all of you guys to discover
the true merit of service and whatever that means to you. Discover that because you don't know how
immensely helpful it could be to you a
s a person. Now, everybody, let's
do the Key Club pledge together, raising your right hand. And repeat
after me. I pledge on my honor to uphold the objects of international. To build my home school community
(to build my home school community) To serve my nation and the world,
(to serve my nation and the the world) and to combat all forces,
(and to combat all forces) to undermine these institutions.
(to undermine these institutions) Thank you. (Applauses)
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