The Society of Jesus often aptly celebrates Ignatius Loyola’s feast day with Eucharist, dinners or cultural shows. The annual event is aimed primarily at building community and friendship among Jesuit formands from various countries in the Asia Pacific and African Conferences.
This year’s organisers, Joseph Aik Maung SJ, Tonton Coloma SJ and Mark Lopez SJ, were inspired to try something different, based on their own experience from previous years as well as feedback from other participants. They wanted more interaction, more team-building dynamics, and more fun all in all to enhance the shared experiences of this multi-cultural community of Scholastics and Brothers.
Taking a cue from the popular reality TV show “The Amazing Race”, they conceived the “SBC Ignatius Race” which was held on August 1, 2011.
Mark, who chairs the JCAP Scholastics and Brothers-in-formation Circle, said the race consisted of five major challenges. Four of these required sporting abilities in basketball, futsal, long distance running and swimming. The fifth challenge required the cooperation of the entire team. As in the Amazing Race, each team had to complete specific requirements for a challenge to obtain instructions for the next task.
After the race, there was time for free games, lunch and then the awarding of prizes.
There were also some simple innovations over how the sportsfests were previously conducted.
“Less was more,” said Mark of pre-determined assignments. In the past, each participant merely signed up for their preferred sport beforehand and came to play it on the day of the sportsfest. This year’s event required consensus building and consultation with other team members before a group decision could be made on who would represent the team for each challenge. As much as possible, all the nationalities represented at the race were spread evenly across 10 teams. This allowed for invaluable experiences of cross-cultural communication, decision-making and working under pressure towards a shared objective.
In the end it was Teams Malaysia (led by Mark Aloysius SJ), Korea (led by Andrew Lee SJ) and Cambodia (led by candidate Damo Chour) that ranked first, second and third place respectively. The event was characterised by fair play, banter, laughter, camaraderie and friendship.
Feedback from the participants has been positive. The creativity and novelty of the format, the fun and intensity of the race, and the way in which it fostered greater interaction among the participants were appreciated. The organisers’ favourite comment was that “the event brought out the best in people.”
Moreover, the Jesuit students from Korea thought that this event was something they would like to take and do back home.
To enable participants to better recall shared experiences, short clips and highlights of the SBC Ignatius Race 2011 will be uploaded on YouTube.
“This way, the community building is no longer time bound to the day of the sportsfest because the participants can keep going back to the funniest, most memorable and enjoyable parts of the Ignatius race,” said Mark.
Being an athlete himself, Ignatius Loyola who enjoyed warlike sport, would certainly be pleased that his Company is not only building friendship in the Lord but is also keeping a healthy tradition.
Scholastics Nico Lariosa SJ and Mark Lopez SJ share their account of the first SBC Ignatius Race.(top photo)