I joined OSC in 2018 and now I’m simply a few weeks away to calling an end to my journey as an IB student. I never could have imagined the some of the challenges such as the easter bombings, however the most significant being the covid-19 pandemic. Over these three years, I’ve had the opportunity to par take in several sports, creativity, and service opportunities whilst striving to achieve my best within my academics. My CAS blog, containing over 20 post, sums up my experience as an IPC delegate award winner participating COMUN, music production, etc. Though my final two years in high-school was far from what I thought it would be, looking however I feel nostalgic for the journey but also a great relief how having reached my destination.
Identify your own strengths and develop areas for growth
I would describe myself as someone who is very critical of themselves, however through the CAS program I’ve discovered areas in which I still need to develop and grow on. One of which being my leadership qualities, from the start of my DP journey I set myself out to be the leader of my service housing and habitat. I felt that it would provide me with the challenge as well as being able to help me develop on my leadership skills. Since these two years I can say that this is perhaps one of the areas that I have grown the most in, having succeed becoming service leader for DP2, I feel that I’ve been able to guide the service itself into a position ensuring the longevity of the group. Having fought to keep the service running during DLP and built foundations for potential future projects, I feel that I along with my co-leader have done a justice in leading our group.
Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process.
During CAS I undertook many new activities and stepped out of my comfort zone such as, participating in the Colombo Model United Nations (COMUN) and learning how to produce music. These new ventures were certainly challenging, however they were possibly some of the most worthwhile endeavours I’ve taken throughout my DP journey. Within it I managed to find success amongst several students in COMUN. Moreover when what started out as a venture of my curiosity and simply engaging the creativity aspects of CAS I managed to find a genuine hobby in music production, something which I only plan on continuing and developing.
Demonstrate how to initiate and plan a CAS experience.
My CAS project involved planning and hosting a fundraiser to help mitigate the effect of the on going pandemic on Sri Lanka. The project not only involved meticulous planning but also a significant amount of collaboration, not only from the one’s who were planning it but also from the various amount of people sending in video’s, donations, etc. Additionally having to do a online live stream as opposed to a face to face fundraiser event came with its own set of challenges. As it entailed in many of us having to learn new programs all from scratch. With the success of the project I firmly believe it taught me the importance of being able to collaborate amongst not only your peers and local community, moreover this project continually stressed the importance of planning.
Show commitment to and perseverance in CAS experiences.
Throughout my CAS journey I have been regularly involved in creativity activities (such as COMUN and music production) and my service group Housing and Habitat across the two years. Through being consistent with my CAS experiences I was able to find a balance within the challenging IB curriculum whilst also being able to step out of my comfort zone and venture out of my academics and explore new activities within creativity and activity.
Demonstrate the skills and recognise the benefits of working collaboratively.
Collaboration took place in my CAS journey through my collaborative CAS project as well as participating in badminton as well as helping out for production. Moreover, I also helped host my service groups fundraiser event Home Run as well as collaborate on the WWW project as well. These experience in total have taught me the importance of working with others and the value that it’s able to bring, as it enables for greater thinking and development.
Demonstrate engagement with issues of global significance.
I believe this area of CAS was largely addressed by my CAS project. As we were working to host a fundraiser to help mitigate the damage caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Working along side UNICEF only furthered the importance to combating this issue as we were able to get a clearer image of just how the country was effected by the pandemic. This only motivated us to work harder and produce a fundraiser to the best of our abilities.
Recognise and consider the ethics of choices and actions.
As a result fo the pandemic one significant ethical consideration was making sure the activities that I took part in were safe during a pandemic and avoided putting people at risk. This resulted in us having to move service sessions online, with even the likes of COMUN going digital. Moreover, for activities were it was necessary to meet face to face such as planning our Home Run route, it was integral that everyone wore mask and followed the social distancing guidelines.
With that I don’t have much else to say, it’s been an amazing journey that had its fair share of challenges along the way and its safe to say that none of us could’ve predicted the various events that occurred during it. It’s been a pleasure to be able to communicate and collaborate with such wonderfull people and I wish every single of them the best.
And that leads to the end, with one door closing its time for the other to open.