It has been a year and a half since I joined OSC, at the start of the Diploma Programme. Sri Lanka to me was a brand new place, and I wasn’t eager to come here. Now when I look back at the time that I spent here, it has been the best two years of my school life and I could not have asked for anything more. Everyone was so welcoming and made me feel so comfortable, that I didn’t even realize that high school is almost over. I will never forget our experiences that we have had over these last few years, and the friendships that I have created will last a lifetime.

CAS wasn’t my favorite part of the IB DP program but I realized that it has helped me so much because I have learned so many new things, and was able to get out of my comfort zone, which I would have never done if I didn’t have to do CAS.

Learning outcome 1: Identify your own strengths and develop areas for personal growth

Through my CAS experiences in these two years, I have been able to identify my own strengths and develop areas for personal growth. For example, I have participated in multiple public speaking events to try to control my stage fright. Last year, during the International Mother Language Day 2019, I decided to recite a poem and realized that I enjoyed doing that. For this reason, I also took part in the Hindi Diwas, an annual celebration at the Indian Cultural Centre for which I memorized and recited a 100 line poem, and I, along with my classmate Shivani hosted the International Mother Language Day 2020. After participating in these events, I realized that with a little bit of practice, and some confidence that I could speak well.

Learning outcome 2: Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process

Over the course of this program, I have regularly challenged myself to get out of my comfort zone and learn something new. One of these activities was learning how to cook.  Last year, I decided that I had to learn how to cook because it is an essential life skill, and I needed to know how to cook in college, which is why I decided to join an after school activity called Small Bites for a semester. It was a bit challenging in the beginning because I had never cooked or baked anything before, but I felt more confident as we made more things. Now I am able to help my mom in the kitchen whenever she is free and I am glad that I learned this before. 

Besides this, I also tried dancing for the first time in my life when our grade performed at the Gecko Factor. I have never liked dancing, but I thought that there is always a first time for everything and I didn’t want to miss out on any opportunity to make some memories with my friends which is why I wanted to give it a try. After spending many hours practicing, I felt more confident and was able to control my stage fright.

Learning outcome 3: Demonstrate how to plan and initiate a CAS experience

Planning is an essential part of a CAS experience, and one experience that reflects this learning outcome the most is my CAS project.

For my CAS project, I decided to make a website for my service, Housing & Habitat in hopes of getting more members for the next year. This is a project that I had worked on for several months and since there are so many things that you have to consider when making a website, I had to plan thoroughly before I had started. Before even making the website, I asked many people how I should approach the project. Anuda helped me tremendously and guided me throughout, because of which I had a much easier time building the website. Before I started, I had to consider which programming language to use, how to make the website interactive, what pages to add and whether I should add any videos,  and how to organize the layout. These are just some of the things that I had to take a look at, but when I was almost done with the website, I had some issues.  I had stored all the files related to the website on the hard drive of my MacBook but one day it suddenly stopped working and I was unable to recover my files. Due to this reason, I had to change some of the initial plans and make another website, which I think turned out much better than the first one.

Learning outcome 4: Show commitment to and perseverance in CAS experiences

I feel like commitment and perseverance are a part of all CAS experiences, but one specific experience that relates to this learning outcome is going for cricket coaching.

Over the past two years, I have been consistently going to learn and practice cricket at the Sanath Jayasuriya cricket foundation. When I initially started, I realized that I perform better as a bowler than a batsman. However, this did not stop me from doing my best at every practice session and even practicing at home to improve my batting skills. It was quite difficult initially because I had only played cricket for fun and never tried to learn the proper methods for batting, bowling or fielding, but thanks to the coaches, who have guided me throughout my time there, I know that I have become a much better batsman than I was two years ago, and I find it much easier to play shots on both the leg-side and the off-side. I have also improved tremendously in fielding, and the coaches have taught me a proper method of catching the bowl in various different scenarios.

Learning outcome 5: Demonstrate the skills and recognize the benefits of working collaboratively

In most of the activities that I took part in, collaboration has played a huge role and has always made the task easier. One major example of this is when I was playing football with the team in preparation for SAISA 2019.

Football is a team sport, and while there are many ways you can practice it individually, but for beginners like me, collaboration is key. Over the course of the three months that I spent playing football, my reflexes, diving, and covering angles has improved significantly. This is because Mr. Turner made sure that each and every session, I did some goalkeeping drills with the other members of the team. For example, I and Philippe had to do a drill where the team members (from outside the box) took some shots and switched with another member.

Learning outcome 6: Demonstrate engagement with issues of global significance

There are many schools in Sri Lanka that are not as privileged as our school and don’t have the resources that are available to us. For example, schools such as Vidya Wardeyna don’t have the necessary furniture and books that are usually present in a school. While we are lucky to have an amazing library that has a wide variety of books available for us to read, Vidya Wardeyna doesn’t have a library for their students. Because in DP1 I was in the service OSC’s Room to Read, we tried to see what we could do to help the local schools around us.We decided to hold a fundraiser at the food & fun fair last year, in order to raise money to buy the necessary furniture for Vidya Wardeyna, and we even asked students from our schools to donate the books that they didn’t necessarily read anymore to contribute to their library. We were able to raise more than 30,000 LKR but unfortunately due to the Easter bombing last year, we were unable to visit the school to set up their library. 

In DP2, I joined Housing & Habitat, a service which “aims to pursue the sustainable development of rural Sri Lanka by engaging with the local community and directly building and constructing rooms and facilities for use by different underprivileged elements of Sri Lankan society or to indirectly spur social development by providing access to crucial resources like electricity, water or educational implements to empower the lives of Sri Lankans spread across this beautiful island”. This year, we were working on our project uplift, in which we were building chairs and table sets using up-cycled wooden pallets and transforming them into new furniture. After building the furniture, we were planning to give this to the Janoda Foundation, who will provide this furniture to the local schools in Sri Lanka who are in need of new furniture. 

Learning outcome 7: Recognize and consider the ethics of choices and action

While not all CAS experiences reflect all of the learning outcomes, this outcome is applicable for each CAS experience. This is because ethics is a part of everything we do, but we do not put thought into it. For example, if I am playing cricket, and someone drops a catch, instead of going to them and being angry about it, it is better to motivate them, so they can do better next time. Besides this, ethics is also involved in decision making. For example, showing up to SAISA training on time and helping other members of the service group. This learning outcome is also connected with the previous outcome because ethics is a huge part when you want to address issues of global significance. This can be seen in our service groups and there are so many small things to consider when making decisions, and you also have to look at what impact your decision can make on others. 

While the last two years were quite challenging for me, as I just moved from another place and studied in a different curriculum, I think that the experiences that I had, the memories I made are unforgettable. Getting selected to play for the school was an honour, and while we were unable to make it to the semi-finals, I can’t tell you how proud I am of my team. I will always remember our game against ACS, where we scored three goals in the last five minutes of the game, those three crucial goals because of which we made it out of the group stage. I was standing at the back, at the goal, and I can’t tell you how I felt when that last goal went in, with just a minute left in the game. 

Before the start of DP, I set up some goals for myself for the next two years, and I am proud to say that I accomplished all of the goals that I had set for myself in DP1, but there was one goal that I couldn’t accomplish. After my SAISA football experience last year, I decided that I wanted to improve in football (even though I wouldn’t travel for SAISA) and go to the training in season 3, but unfortunately due to the school closing that is not possible now.