During my freshman year, I recall having the urge to just sign up for every single club in the university. It was so difficult to choose given the variety of clubs available— one club perked up my passion for public speaking and another club could have been an avenue to improve my journalism skills. At one point, I came across the Rotaract Club of Cebu Fuente – University of San Carlos or RACCF-USC with that bright cranberry logo somehow calling my name. In all fairness, I already knew that RACCF-USC was a club dedicated to “service above self”, so I thought the only thing the club had to offer were community service activities that any other organization would initiate as well. Even so, I attended their club’s orientation and discovered that I truly should not judge a book by its cover. RACCF-USC promoted so much— from the fundamental community service programs all covered with Rotary’s 7 Areas of Focus and all the way down to personal skills and experiences. To my surprise, the club has a lot to offer and it felt like a one-stop shop where individuals could improve their personal abilities while being of service to others. Without a doubt, I knew at that moment that RACCF-USC was just exactly the type of club I was looking for.
RACCF-USC being a club was one thing, and the people working in it were another. I was initially shy to interact with the other members. Usually, I would have a hard time getting used to a club especially when the members are intimidating, but the members were engaging and uplifting. After a while, I got to know more about the other members while we worked together, and I knew that the people in RACCF-USC are the type of people you want to be with during your self-growth journey. Among all the organizations I have joined, RACCF-USC was the club that displayed what a team should feel like. The officers made RACCF-USC feel like home by constantly telling the other members not to feel shy, to volunteer if they want to, and to be involved in club projects. Through this, I mustered up the courage to put myself out there and serve communities that need an extra hand— and this is all possible thanks to RACCF-USC’s teamwork and sustaining environment where people come as one in the name of service.
This is a screenshot of the team behind our club’s project, Inter-RAC Wave 2: Friendships Beyond Borders, in celebration of World Friendship Day last July 30, 2022. It was the first club project I headed with two of my fellow committee directors. Through this project, I was able to experience first-hand the RACCF-USC teamwork.
Our Twin Club Agreement Signing program of our club with the Rotaract Club of Iloilo South. This is easily my most memorable club accomplishment since it is the first twin club agreement I conducted as our club’s current International Service Director. Here, I felt more at ease in conducting projects thanks to the experience from Inter-RAC Wave 2 and the guidance I received from my fellow club officers. Moreover, on behalf of our club, I am able to share what the RACCF-USC teamwork is like as our club collaborates with the Rotaract Club of Iloilo South.
This is a post-event screenshot of one of our club’s banner projects, baLIK-HAndog. baLIK-HAndog aims to artistically advocate for social change through the children’s storybooks RACCF-USC members have created in the past two years. For Year 3 in this project, our club has decided to conduct a virtual storytelling session and handover physical copies to Kythe Foundation Inc., our project beneficiary. Our club was also able to partner with Rotaract Club of Cebu Fuente – University of the Visayas, Rotaract Club of Iloilo South, and Rotaract Club of National University of Singapore to help translate the storybooks into different languages. Through baLIK-HAndog, I was able to experience fellowship through service with our partner clubs as we gradually accomplished our tasks. Moreover, I was able to experience the RACCF-USC teamwork and the fulfilling feeling of serving the community once again as a co-project head.
