Volunteer Extraordinaire: Yedda-Mae Abarra
Yedda is currently in her second year of French and Business with a Human Resources Minor. Yedda is well known for her leadership roles as an enthusiastic media exec for the UW Filipino Student Association (FSA) and a dynamic front-line orientation leader. Aside from that, Yedda enjoys volunteering for everything and anything in the UW community such as welcome week, wrap up week and Hack the North. Because of the amount of volunteer work and leadership roles she takes on, we decided to interview her!
Why do you like volunteering?
Volunteering gives me a purpose in a large school. When I volunteer, I make a lot of connections with people and I automatically become friends with them. I also love giving back to the community, building a sense of community as well as making others happy. In addition, it helps me find out what I’m interested in and what I want to do in the future.
What made you want to get involved in the UW Community?
In high school, I was really involved in extra-curricular activities. When I got to university I wanted to continue being really involved in extra curriculars. But I felt for me it was really important that I got involved with extra-curriculars because this is the first time I’m living far away from home so I wanted to look for community to help me get through my first year. I also find myself to be a very spontaneous person, so if I see an opportunity I think is interesting, I’ll take on that opportunity even if it makes me uncomfortable.
How do you balance doing well in school and extra-curriculars?
My key trait to balancing both school and extra-curriculars is self-motivation. If I’m motivated to get work done, I will get work done and it helps me power through the work I do. I also use study groups a lot because for me they help me stay focused and motivated as well I’m also a social person so I feel I best work when others are around.
Out of all of your volunteer experiences, which one was your favourite and why?
I feel like I can’t just pick one. But my top volunteer experiences are my leadership roles, which are my roles as a media exec for FSA and an Arts Orientation Leader. I joined FSA in first year and it was one of the best decisions I made because it fosters community through encouraging first years to connect with upper years, organizing socials, dances and collaboration projects with other clubs on campus such as UW Hip Hop and the UW Vietnamese Student Association. Also, people from a variety of backgrounds and cultures join to learn more about Filipino culture, which makes FSA that much more fun. On top of that I really loved being an orientation leader because it creates a sense of community within the Faculty of Arts, which I don’t see too much on campus, and it makes me proud to be an arts student on campus. And these two roles were specifically my favourite because it helped me to build teamwork skills and conflict management skills, which are very important skills to have when searching for co-op.
What are your biggest accomplishments out of your leadership role?
One of my biggest accomplishment was definitely my Orientation Week 2015 team Metro Blue because we were the team who won the arts scavenger hunt (which basically means we won oweek). On top of winning the scavenger hunt, another big accomplishment is my first years from my orientation week team because to this day, I’m still in close contact with a number of my first years from orientation. They’ve told me that they want to be oweek leaders next year and that just makes me a really proud oweek leader.
Do you have any advice for people who want to be more involved at UW?
If you see something that you think you might be interested in doing, sign up. Don’t be scared to sign up and if you have any hesitations, just the upper-years, they are more than willing to share their experience. Take advantage of everything the school has to offer, I promise you won’t regret it!
Looking to volunteer on campus?
Check out leads.uwaterloo.ca for volunteering opportunities
Want to get involved with FSA? Check them out on:
Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/University-of-Waterloo-Filipino-Students-Association-330952597087936/?fref=ts),
Twitter(https://twitter.com/UwaterlooFSA), Instagram(https://www.instagram.com/uwfilipino/)
or shoot them an email (, uwaterloo.fsa@gmail.com)
*They’re also hosting an end of term semi-formal you can check out here: https://www.facebook.com/events/1660540800890837/