A couple of months ago I joined Kantaya club, they are widely known in the community for standing up for education and having great fundraising events. I had already prepared cookies for them last time, and this time I volunteered to make cupcakes for the Tri-M bake sale. 

I personally enjoy baking as a hobbie, so I was glad to offer a hand in helping with this event. And while, red-velvet cupcakes are not quite my specialty, I enjoyed learning more along the way. I have baked these treats before, but only once about a year ago, so I needed a recap. I quickly looked a recipe up and began to bake. 

I worked alongside my maid, who was my helping hand in this activity. She mostly followed my directions but sometimes offered her opinions. For instance, she happens to know her way with the oven so when she recommended 350 degrees fahrenheit, I listened.

After about an hour of kitchen time, the cupcakes were ready and frosted. I am pretty happy with the end result and can't wait to turn them in to my colleague Cami who will later be selling them. I must say I learned a lot through this experience and am proud of how they looked (see image).

As my friend Mariana and I were discussing the idea of initiating a CAS project together, our minds naturally chose service as the area to begin with. We researched several NGO's and non-profits until finally finding one that caught our attention: Hogar Fundades. 

We brainstormed ideas as to what to accomplish with this NGO, we thought of bringing it as a club to school and fundraising, but we settled with going on constant visits. Mariana contacted the woman who ran the shelter and I helped her communicating our aim; once we spoke to La Señora Chayo, we were ready to plan a visit.

 We decided to go on Saturday and propose to Chayo the idea of common visits. I coordinated with my driver and we both agreed that 9 am was a good time to go.

When we arrived, we entered the shelter and saw numerous children playing and having fun. It was truly heart-warming being able to share and interact with children that had endured through such troubles. I was then able to recognize our country's social reality. We spoke to Chayo and agreed on visiting at least one Saturday per month, which wasn't much of a sacrifice considering the relativity to the situation. 

This Tuesday afternoon, I spent about 2 hours preparing cookies with my peer Mariana Delgado. Why? Because we support and value education as a right and not a privilege. We chose to volunteer in the Kantaya bake sale, which consisted on baking varied cookies to sell in a box that granted education to 3 humble children. By doing this, we were not only helping a cause, but raising awareness to Peru's so-economical situation.

I am very fond of baking, but I had never experimented with the recipe we would be using. Due to this, our first batch of cookies was not the best, but we quickly modified the mixture to ensure better second results. Surely so, by the end our cookies looked great, and the iterations were all worth it. 
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As we were removing the cookies from the pan, Mariana noticed that they were cracking; I quickly told her we had to let them reach room temperature because if too hot, the dough would still be malleable. we waited a while, and then Mariana suggested to add some butter under the knife in order to make sure the cookies would be taken out smoothly. Her idea was smart, and by combining our two insights, we were able to achieve great outcomes. 

Yesterday I did a strange kind of service: I volunteered to share my opinion as a student for an FDR branding workshop. The purpose of this was to make a decision on whether or not modifying the Roosevelt brand was a smart decision; so I gladly gave up seven hours of my Tuesday to help. As I entered the room, I was surprised to see it was full of teachers, ex-alumni and parents. I was accompanied by two sophomores, but we were the youngest of the group. At first, it was intimidating to voice my thoughts with a room full of strangers, but after a few hours of breaking the ice I overcame the obstacle. Once I was familiar with the adults, collaborating with them came to me as an easy task. Throughout the day we debated, discussed and in general, worked together towards a common goal: The better branding for FDR. 

I remember this one instance where we were told by the group facilitator to review the FDR logo. After conversing with an alumni and the Peruvian director, we came to the conclusion that it seemed too edgy and did not represent the school values. A colleague proposed we change the logo, but after hearing her idea, I shared my opinion. I personally gave the suggestion that instead of changing the logo and going through the long process of re-branding, we could simply modify it to make it more inviting in appearance. I gave examples from BCP and Interbank's new logos, and the rest of the group agreed with me.

After the day was over, I thanked the facilitator and leader for inviting me to participate in the branding workshop. Not only did I learn from the concepts explained, but I gained experiential knowledge that I wouldn't trade for anything.