Ending 2020 With an Editing Collab!

Posted on December 26, 2020 by cascoordinator under Video Edits

Video Collaboration of the Year

This might be a little bit delayed but there has been so much going on for the past month or two that I have been waiting impatiently to get the right time to write about it all…

One of the most exciting endeavors I took up over the last few weeks though, most definitely, has to be a 8 part collaboration that I took part in sometime in October. It was finally published in December after a long anticipated wait (I know that may seem like an awfully long time… but!! the host painstakingly took time out of her day to stitch 8 separate edits together very smoothly and I am in awe in hindsight of how well she pieced it together…)

The collab was initially proposed as a Halloween edit which is still evident in the audio we ended up using ‘Hit the Quan’ ; however, after piecing together edits from different places, time zones, apps and styles it only finally met its completion a few weeks ago mid December.

Making the edit was undoubtedly the most fun part (aside from the reveal); but long before the actual making of the project, came the process of making it into the collab as one of the selected editors. This year’s collab was hosted by one of my editor friends called Maia dubbed nutmegtoby who released the collab with the guidelines. You would pick the player you want to edit and share the selection process around and eventually she would pick the editors to be in her collab (this time it was chosen from a pool of around 34 players for only 8 parts!). (LO 2)

In my case, I chose Becky Saurbrunn as my player since she’s someone who is wildly underappreciated for her playing and tenacity as a teammate. Not only that but it would have theoretically increased my chances of getting chosen for the collab since she wasn’t one of the players that everyone flocked to try and edit but she was someone who has a quiet but appreciated presence amongst the fans.

I felt absolutely honored to be chosen as one of the editors amidst the many other talented ones who tried out… Needless to say, immediately got to work on my half of the edit. To be honest, I was really proud of my part because the transitions came out pretty smoothly (which for the record rarely happens with the software I use). This goes without saying that I also had a fair share of regret because I used an effect called glow which looks really cool on the editing software but it ruins the quality when rendered and was further ruined by sharing my part via google drive.

Naturally this has always been one of my biggest struggles as an editor in general because, I often feel really happy with the way my edits look on the software itself but after being transferred through 3-4 apps the quality is often ruined which kind of messes up the aesthetic of it. I have learned a lot since, however, and now avoid using the glow effect in my edits, or I just change the intensity of it which is improving the quality of my edits by generous amounts- which I am ecstatic about. (LO1 & 2)

Regardless, after sending my part back to Maia it was just a waiting game. And then… finally came December and the edit was released!! I’m a little bit embarrassed to admit that by this point I had nearly entirely forgotten that I took part in the first place but, the turnout was very much worth the wait!! It looked incredible! Especially considering how many different apps everyone used (with varying transitions and effects) I genuinely thought that it would be much more mismatched originally but my expectations were by far succeeded.

The best part of doing a collab in my opinion is not being able to see other people’s work till the very end (which is a good thing because you don’t set yourself unrealistic expectations considering that some of these editors have years of experience and have much more high performing editing applications like Adobe’s After Effects. ) It was easy to see that the editors selected were extremely talented and it was nice to get to know new editors through this as well! Honestly, one of the biggest upsides to running an edit account is getting to know a lot of talented people from around the world, especially those who have the same interests as me. (LO 5)

https://www.instagram.com/p/CIjaj2EDeP_/

The edit!! ^

Thorns Tribute

Posted on December 4, 2020 by cascoordinator under Uncategorized, Video Edits

Ptfc – In Tribute

The 13th of November this year marked a rather pivotal plot twist in the in women’s football world; the general consensus reached was shock and devastation as fans woke up to news that the Thorns’ star midfielder Tobin Heath had gotten her rights traded to the new expansion club Racing Louisville in Kentucky. You might think, ‘That’s great! This expansion team is going to go places…’ But in reality, majority of Thorns supporters including myself were upset and in the process of lamenting at the prospect of Heath having to leave her home team in Portland after a memorable 7 years. Tobin was one of the original members of the club from when the Thorns were first deployed in 2013 and her influence was impactful to the extent that the many members of the public often connotated her to being the face of the Portland Thorns Football Club.

She was the reason I started following the NWSL and a big part of why I became a Thorns supporter in the first place. She called Portland her home, gave the team its fearsome reputation and expressed her love for her team countless times in interviews saying that she does not plan on leaving…ever. She expressed that being a Thorn was an honor, expressed her gratitude for her fanbase and made multiple crucial friendships during her time there and despite all that; the Thorns without hesitation left her unprotected during the draft pick; most likely without warning because of her lack of response to the announcements.

I felt that her legacy with the Thorns needed to be remembered in time to come and felt the need to give other Riveters something to remember this era by; so, I decided to make an edit in tribute. I spent a long time scouring the internet for interviews, highlights and audios etc. to use to compile my edit. The next few hours were emotionally exhausting as I slowed, trimmed, cropped, colored and re-colored my clips to fit the audio Lost in the Moment by NF which had a rather major lyrical meaning behind it. This was a rather long process as I had to create new colorings as well as custom aspect ratios – both of which were new skills that I had learned in the weeks prior. Regardless, I was grateful for a good opportunity for me to grow in my preset making and velocity editing skills which has been one of my weaker abilities as an editor and one that I only explored during my last practice edit. (LO1 & LO2) Once I was done I wearily uploaded my edit to the internet late that night. I was proud of my end product since I nearly cried making it.

The next day, I woke up to over 1,000 new notifications! I was a little taken aback to say the least, this was mostly a kind gesture to the Rose City Riveters more than anything else but I opened my socials to an outpouring of actions taken on my post. I had also hit 1.1k followers overnight and gotten 113 comments, 139 saves and made 3,107 impressions. I was honored by the numbers but mostly felt a wave of affection for the Thorns fans who flooded my comment section with their gratitude towards Tobin’s time with the Thorns and vented over how sad they were. I just felt happy that I could help them grieve their loss in whichever way I could. (LO7)

Since the file is too big here’s a link to it, make sure to watch on 1080p for better quality!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Ylxdfwc29X26SCZN4RhRto-69mZnJ7VQ/view?usp=sharing

Hope For Kids – Looking Forward During the Pandemic

Posted on November 21, 2020 by cascoordinator under Hope for Kids

Hope for Kids – A Virtual Christmas

The 12th of November rang in the first ever group meeting for the Hope for Kids service group for the 2020-21 academic year. While it was carried out under rather unusual circumstances considering that we were met on Zoom, it covered a very detailed itinerary of what we had to plan and carry out for the remainder of the semester.

This year, marks my second consecutive year as a member of this service and I am beyond excited to see what this year has in store for us. Moreover, I plan on it being a long time project of mine since I got rather invested in it since my debut in Hope for Kids last year!! (LO4)

In terms of what we do as the Hope For Kids service group, we spend most Thursday afternoons, (under non-pandemic circumstances) at the CCC Cancer House in Maharagama, engaging with the younger cancer patients and their parents at the home with hopes of brightening up their week in whichever way we see fit. Our time there is well spent and we find ourselves engaging in activities ranging from creating sock puppets, to buying the kids new toys and resources and taking part in things as simple as playing catch – all of which is rewarded by eager smiling faces which makes everything all the more, worth it. (LO6)

Unfortunately for us, this session, we learned that we would not be allowed to visit the home in person for the remainder of the year, which is understandable seeing as the children have weaker immune systems than we do and it would be too much of a risk to come into direct contact with them at this stage after being exposed to a pandemic environment. (LO7)

Luckily, we were able to come to a happy conclusion, that this wouldn’t be stopping us from continuing to do what we intend to do for our friends at the CCC home.

To help us out in terms of organization, we first created a planner with a list of actions we CAN take despite the restrictions of the pandemic. The ideas ranged from creating a social media page to raise awareness, to conducting food drives and fundraisers and our foremost endeavor which was to take on a small craft session in groups in order to help bring about the festive spirit at the home.

Traditionally, we would have met with the kids in person, taken our art supplies and helped them create Christmas related ornaments and crafts of their choice, but this year, we have decided to bring them our rendition of a virtual Christmas celebration! We came up with the idea of creating ornaments and other Christmas decorations, recording tutorial videos in the process which we could then upload to a Google Drive for them to access and follow from the safety of the home. I also supplied the idea that we could try and use Zoom calls to engage with them on a more personal level in case they needed more assistance which the the videos themselves can’t provide. (LO3)

This led to another excited discussion about what we could to to make this pandemic Christmas as spirited as we could despite our circumstances and we decided we could go virtual caroling as well! As a final course of action, we planned on buying them gifts; same as every year, and having it sanitized and delivered to the home along with some other rations and our art supplies which they can use on our Thursday sessions.

After splitting up into groups, I decided to work with Anya and Ashvini on paper decorations. Initially, we planned on physically making them and cutting them out i.e. making literal decorations but we realized that it would be difficult for the kids to re-create without any assistance. Plus, the creation process was rather complex and it required a lot of materials we didn’t have, so taking that and their age groups into consideration, I offered an idea which was to source different designs from the internet i.e. printable cutouts of stars, circle ornaments, candy canes, angels etc. for them to print directly and color. This way, there would be reduced chances of contamination, we had a larger variety of designs and the parents could get involved and help cutout the designs and the children could draw and color on them. (LO5)

This activity is rather simple but also very considerate understanding that many of the children are often very fatigued by chemotherapy and are unable to complete high energy requiring activities. (LO7)

Ideally, by next week we should have roughly 6 designs sourced (each) and our next steps will be to make the video tutorial which Anya will record and Ashvini and I will add voiceovers to in order to reduce the language barrier since most kids can only speak Sinhala.

GROUP MEETING! :))

Keeping Active in Hatton

Posted on November 7, 2020 by cascoordinator under Biking, Football, Hiking

Keeping Active in Hatton

During the past few months, finding ways of keeping fit at home and just, during the pandemic in general, proved to be a challenging task. Especially since all of the sports that I usually take part in during the year (football, volleyball and badminton etc.) had to be cancelled; practices, training and travel plans included. Overall, I found this rather taxing to deal with, because, I tend to dedicate a lot of my time to sports and it felt strange not having a game or practice to look foreword to each week. Naturally, I realized that I couldn’t let this hinder my performance for when these sports do re-start, so, I decided to take the matter into my own hands and to complete guided workouts / individual drill sessions at home using the help of the internet, gym and sports equipment I have available at home. (LO4)

Luckily for me, aside from doing personal workouts I take part in at home, I got a unique opportunity to visit Hatton (a hill country town in central Sri Lanka) just days prior to the lockdown. In Hatton, there was plenty to do since we were safely isolated along with a few other families from school that travelled with us. We essentially had an entire bungalow and hillside to ourselves because of that lack of regular tourist groups which left us with a lot of empty space and sports equipment to use.

In the 5 days in which we stayed there I spent most of my time during the daytime either swimming, playing badminton in the field, playing soccer or even canoeing.

Activities that included ones that I didn’t usually partake in included mountain biking along the hillside trail down to Castlereagh Lake and even a 20 kilometer hike across the Tea Trails Estate. The hike was probably my favorite; the views were breathtaking and we came across a small stream in which we stopped by after we passed countless, countless tea gardens, wildlife and streams. Looking over the Castlereagh Lake from the summit of the hill was another worldly experience, the sun staining the water an iridescent shade of blue. That in combination with the coniferous trees and cool temperatures made it feel like I was stepping back into Europe as opposed to still being at home.

I decided to try and keep my pace up so I stayed at the front of the pack and eventually became the first one to reach our bungalow which made me feel a little accomplished since it had been literal months since I went hiking or even went on a sprint. The next day left my legs a little sore from both the uphill biking and the hike but I felt a sense of refreshment. My favorite part of the day otherwise, was playing soccer in the large garden with the other children who came along; it had been so long since I actually played a match so it felt amazing shooting at an actual goal with real teammates as opposed to the wall in my backyard with my dogs as my only opponents. I also spent some time alone on the field where I took multiple shots at the goal to improve my accuracy and tried a few dribbling drills around obstacles that I created using our shoes. I even took time to teach some of the younger kids between the ages of 5 and 12 how to play with better technique, drawing from the skills I learned at my internship with Decathlon as a coach. (LO2) At the end of the day and even the week, it was safe to say that my time there was well spent and it felt rejuvenating to have been able to play actual sports like the old days…

Needless to say I was a little sad to leave Hatton behind, but I came home with a renewed energy to use my time outside wisely.

View from the top of Tea Trails Hill (Dunkeld Estate)

First Online Guitar Ensemble Session

Posted on November 6, 2020 by cascoordinator under Guitar Ensemble, Music

Guitar Ensemble on Zoom – The Pink Panther Theme Song

Guitar Ensemble is one of my continued extracurriculars from last year; an activity which I take part in because of my love for music and the guitar which I have sometime since the second grade. (LO4)

Only last year, I took up learning 3 pieces, the Minuet in G by John Sebastian Bach, Fly Me to the Moon by Frank Sinatra and the Hawaii 5-0 theme song by Morton Stevens in fingerstyle to play with the ensemble. This was a challenge to me, personally, since I was used to only playing riffs, basslines and chords but the after school activity required me to step outside of my comfort zone to learn fingerstyle progressions and convert my knowledge of music notation (which I learned from piano lessons when I was younger) onto the frets of a nylon string guitar. (LO1 & 2)

After months of practice we finally made progress as a group; each of of learning our parts individually and then playing them in combination to create a complete medley. Unfortunately for us, just as the performance was coming together for us to perform at the Spring Gala, the school came to a close and the ensemble came to halt.

Thankfully, this year we were more prepared and decided to continue the guitar ensemble sessions on zoom. I had my first meeting this week on Wednesday where a few of our members met to discuss the next piece we will be learning with our teacher, Mr. Marlon. We found out that we would be learning to play the Pink Panther theme song! This was something I was excited for because to me, the song is probably one of the most easily recognizable themes in the world from a show that I loved watching growing up.

It was my turn first to find out what I would be playing; for my first piece I would be assigned to play the chord progression for the song which is both a relief (it is undoubtedly difficult to learn fingerstyle pieces without in person guidance so chords had some sense of familiarity to it) and a challenge since 3 out of the 4 chords I have to learn are new to me. These chords are the b flat 7th, f7th and Am(major 9th).

I took a few minutes during the call to mirror Mr. Marlon’s finger positioning on his guitar and took pictures for me to remember the chord formations for the future. We made it up to the 20th bar and I soon got the hang of things like the strumming pattern, the counting and which strings should be strummed for each respective chord etc.

Naturally, the piece hasn’t come together yet and combined all the individual elements yet, so it doesn’t sound the same but there is familiarity to it. I am beyond excited for what we will be hearing in a couple of lessons when the bass, the chords, the 2 melody guitars and fingerpicking comes together! In the meantime though, I will continue to practice for at least 10 minutes a day.

Taking a look at the notation >

Velocity + Coloring Practice

Posted on November 6, 2020 by cascoordinator under Video Edits

Velocity and Coloring Practice + New edit plan

As a part of my endeavors for creativity in my CAS journey, I made a promise to myself to re-start my edit account. I created it a few summers ago hoping to create video edits that empowered females in the sporting industry, but it eventually succumbed to inactivity because of my other commitments during school. (LO6)

However, during quarantine I made an active effort to create and post more frequently, and it has since snowballed into a much larger project that has earned me a lot of positive and rewarding attention on social media, often times from the athletes themselves ! This discovery was hugely motivating to me and I was ecstatic to be able to finally use a proper app that I don’t have to screen record on. I even became a part of a collaboration group where multiple editors choose different days of the week to post every other week.

Naturally, persevering with this goal hasn’t always been easy; edits somedays take hours to finish even days! On top of that I have to deal with complications like editors block (where I can’t find creativity to edit), overwhelming workloads from school and sometimes even experience technical difficulties with certain features such as shakes and transitions are unbearably time consuming and difficult to learn. Needless to say, it does take up a fair share of my free time; but I love it nonetheless! Reading the positive reactions my followers have to my edits always provide a good serotonin boost on a rough day. (LO2 & 4)

Taking this into consideration, I realized that I wanted to balance myself out more; while making sure that I wasn’t overly inactive, I wanted to pace myself so I wouldn’t post 3 edits in a week and be silent for a month. I decided to take a step by step approach; I would make it a point to create at least 1 edit a week (2 if it is my turn to post on the collab. account) and I would use one day out of the week to learn a new skill or feature on the app.

This week I created what is known as an editor’s scrap – essentially what it is, is an edit I wouldn’t qualify as good enough to post but involves me trying out and experimenting with different techniques. For this, week, I decided to focus on 2 skills one called velocity and the other being coloring.

Velocity is essentially the manipulation of real time video content to match an audio. For example editing a clip of a goal or a game to sync with an edit audio beat. I would then use the time manipulation grid on the app that I use (Filmora Pro 9), to slow down and speed up different parts of the sequence and use the beat form bar to guide me in finding beat drops. This was a technique I have been in awe of since I got introduced to editing; instead of having the entire video in slow motion, you can split the clips to go from real time to extra slow; capturing the impact of the moment in a single instance.

As for coloring; it isn’t as simple as it sounds, for one I needed to choose a 3D LUT preset (ready made), I used cool film for mine, and I had to made certain adjustments to contrasts, saturation, brightness and threshold etc. to get the perfect preset for my video (I was actually very happy with the results and saved my custom preset for future use). However, I decided that I wasn’t entirely happy with my edit just yet; I increased the glow effect on the video and used a second editing app VideoPad to enhance the clarity to make the clips more standout.

As for the clips I included, I made a plot twist velocity edit from the 2016 Rio Olympics when the US Women’s National Team lost to Japan; during a critical penalty shoot out to a transition to the team’s unforgettable upward climb to the top during the 2015 and 2019 World Cups.

My intention was to make it both unforgettable and powerful. I did this by using a SoundCloud edit audio titled colors by elvctric and by including subtitles. Overall I was very happy with my productive progress and I even felt proud of my edit despite it being a scrap. Not only that, but best of all, I finally mastered velocity editing!! This has been a major milestone for my learning process after 2 years. (LO3)

Here is a link to my final edit! :))

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1am6cgwM7R8gYSzoXMbZLZvhMT7WRTQCh/view?usp=sharing

(DO NOT ENTER FULL SCREEN)

CAS GOALS

Posted on November 2, 2020 by cascoordinator under Uncategorized

“Success comes from curiosity, concentration, perseverance and self-criticism” – Albert Einstein

Overview

The CAS program has a rather crucial role in helping DP students in balancing their lifestyles in the midst of closing in on the the daunting workloads we are expected to complete over the course of the next 2 years. It it is important to me that I achieve personal growth in the areas of Creativity, Activity and Service as I find the healthiest and most holistic students are most often capable of extending themselves to these ideas, applying themselves to extracurriculars (as well as the school’s academic work)!

Below is a flexible plan I have devised in order to help me complete my DP CAS Program successfully. Despite being in the midst of a global pandemic that has created a massive grey area of what could be expected of the future, I have set myself goals that will show my personal perseverance as well as, ability to grow outside of my comfort zone in this time. I have also separated my goals into areas wherein the reader can identify if the goals can or cannot be completed during lockdown; with clear mentions of implied backups that could be used in the case of there being to be no improvement in the outlook of the current situation; demonstrating my adaptability to the situation. This structure should help in enabling me to complete my CAS projects to the best of my ability regardless of the challenges I will have to encounter on the way.

My CAS Goals

KEY:

r (can only be completed without the constraints of CO-VID)

h (hybrid goals can take place regardless of the situation)

Creativity

This academic year, I plan on applying myself to the area of creativity by building my skillset in the areas of music and videomaking (mastering a new editing program).

Goals –

To participate in the school’s guitar ensemble over the course of the next two years, in hopes of effectively improving my performance skills by the time I would have completed a spring or winter Gala performance presented by the school. This goal would also improve my aptitude in musical knowledge as it requires me to learn guitar notation and fingerstyle guitar which I have never taken up nor learned before. This project would also improve my awareness of different musical genres as I will be transitioning from learning pop acoustic pieces to classical guitar rather abruptly. This is a continued program from last year, an effort which unfortunately got shut down due to the closure of school amidst the coronavirus. However, with the start of a new term, we have decided to continue zoom ensemble lessons to learn pieces until we re-group in school and will continue to do practices regardless of the certainty of the Gala performance. (h)
To take supervised guitar lessons for half an hour each week (with regular practices of 15-30 minutes each day in between). I have been learning this instrument on an off since the 2nd grade and have taken a great liking to it, however, I have decided to make a clear commitment to teaching myself how to play simple pop songs of my choice this year, with the help of a mentor. This way, I can also simultaneously improve my performance skills by playing for family and friends when the occasion arises. (h)
To continue to create and post video edits that I have made over the course of the last year and upcoming years on a social media site such as Instagram in order to promote, empower and advocate for the women’s game in football / soccer and even basketball. This was an effort I took up leisurely a couple of years ago; I consider myself incredibly passionate about sports and find myself shocked on a daily basis at the blatant disregard and hatred expressed towards females in the sporting industry who fight, not only to compete for medals, but for respect and things as basic as equal pay. I created an edit account which gradually gained popularity over time, my following resting well above 1k followers having received from various sporting icons and celebrities such as US Women’s National Team players Carri Roccaro and Lindsey Horan and FIBA player Sushantika Charvrotty to name a few. This effort tests my technical abilities as I have to learn the ins and outs of using a complex editing program like Filmora 9 while also learning how to manipulate audios to fit a certain timeframe and to transform it to avoid being copyrighted. Overall this is one of the most exciting endeavors I have taken on and I hope continue to build on my successful start. (h)

Activity

For my activity goals, I intend on improving my overall technique, skills, strength and health with the purpose of helping me prepare and retain my fitness and competency for competing in SAISA badminton and football.

Goals-

To make the SAISA Football team – like I mentioned earlier, football is one the most important things in my life right now. I have been playing the sport since I was in the second grade and it has easily won over my heart, become one of my favorite past times, whether it be watching or playing. I have been travelling competitively for the sport since I was 12, and just last year, I had the honor of making my first SAISA trip for the game. Unfortunately the arrival of the pandemic cut my time with the team short and it still remains unclear if SAISA will happen this year… Regardless, I believe that it is essential to prepare for the game; to be at peak fitness even after a void in practices. Therefore, I plan on coming up with my own training regime to help me keep in shape. I plan on using the exercise bike for 30 minutes a day, spending another half an hour a day to practice skills, shooting and passing drills with the help of the internet, to regularly completing targeted body conditioning and other workouts. In addition I will occasionally try and meet up with a teammate who lives close by (when safe) to practice together. Once school starts, I would join the after school scrimmages the high schoolers play on Thursday afternoons for extra game time and experience. These actions should ideally keep me in shape for when the tryouts roll around again and make my transition into the team much smoother. (h)
To make the SAISA Badminton team – another of my goals is to make a 2nd SAISA team during the academic year, this time, with focus on badminton. Last year’s tryout period concluded with me securing a position for myself on the A team, only for the tournament to be cancelled last minute because of corona. While it was disappointing, I am now more prepared than ever to take that challenge on proving my perseverance to the sport and my intentions to improve my match performance. I have started taking lessons for 2 hours each weekend outside of school, thus giving me time to practice competing with others my age from across the country while also enabling me to improve my technique and skills like speed and agility with the guidance of a coach. These practices are currently halted due to a relapse of the pandemic situation but are sure to start again with a smaller group involvement that allows for lessons to be conducted safely. In the meantime, I will take up practicing with my brother in the backyard to playin recreational matches, while also applying and adapting my football workout regime to best suit badminton’s requirements. This should serve the same purpose of helping me stay fit during quarantine in the time leading up to potential tryouts. (h)

Service

On the subject of service, I intend to apply myself in a way that I can make valuable contributions to my community and causes that I am passionate about supporting and advocating for.

To continue my participation in the Hope for Kids Service Program – In the upcoming years, I hope to show continued contributions to the Hope for Kids program which has enabled for OSC students to visit the CCC Cancer Home in Maharagama, in order to interact and provide for the children that are cancer patients at the home. I started my involvement in this service last year, and since have not been let down by my participation in it. The results of the work that we do is always incredibly fulfilling, seeing the children and their parents light up with smiles- it really warms my heart to say the least. In the past, my experience has made me realize how often we take things for granted, and has reminded me to give my best efforts to make the kids’ uncertain childhoods something memorable and happy. I intend to contribute in any way possible interacting, spearheading and working towards miniature projects we will later establish to aid the children and their families. This year, our visitation rights to the home will most likely be limited, understandably, considering that the virus possesses too much risk in our interaction. The continuation of the service is currently undecided, but if it were to continue even virtually, I would be sure to partake in it. (h/r)
To take up a volunteering based position of co-coach at Decathlon’s The Academia Football Club to teach football to young children between the ages of 5 and 11 – I have thus for pointed out my dedication to the sport time and time again in my writing, so once again I reference it, in my most recent service project. As of October 2020, I took up a non-paying role as co-coach at Decathlon’s football club under the supervision of two professional coaches. They have been mentoring and monitoring me through the process of engaging and teaching this sport the children who I have been introduced to and have thus far, had the opportunity of coaching multiple times during the past few months. It has been an absolute honor, spending my weekend teaching my favorite thing in the world to these young excited and energetic players. It has been equal parts draining and fun getting work experience to an extent in this field and it has not only taught me responsibility, but good work ethic and perseverance. Most importantly, I have been developing my leadership skills as a 16 year old coach. I have loved my experience so far and look foreword to continuing it (as of right now via zoom calls, hopefully to be changed in future after the threat of the pandemic subsides).(h/r)
To plan, organize and carry out seasonal dive cleanups in Trincomalee with the additional task of logging data onto the Project AWARE Dive Against Debris Campaign -this goal would be a continuation of my MYP 5 personal project, an endeavor I took on, which was to carry out a single dive cleanup in Trincomalee’s Swami Rock dive site to remove debris content from the popular tourist and pilgrimage location. I am now an advanced open water diver and I try to visit Trincomalee as regularly as possible to retain my skills. After careful consideration, I have decided that want to make the dive clean ups a regular occurrence (once – twice each season). I will plan and organize a series of dive cleanups in partnership with Sri Lanka Diving Tours (my dive center), and visit locations around Trincomalee and perhaps Negombo to conduct the cleanups. This time my prospects could even potentially be improved as I could organize a larger dive team by advocating within the school. After the cleanups are completed, I will log the data regarding what I collected and other logistics onto Project AWARE’s campaign website which is a global catalog for ocean pollution data used to pass laws and protect reefs legally using evidence that divers across the globe collect. This course of action can only happen when there is a minimal risk of coronavirus involved for the sake of the safety of those involved. (r)

Devanga's CAS Journey

Snapshots from my learning in the IB Creativity, Activity & Service (CAS) program

Author Archives: cascoordinator