Creativity

• LO 1: Strength & Growth
• LO 2: Challenge & Skills
• LO 3: Initiative & Planning
• LO 4: Working Collaboratively with Others
• LO 5: Showing Perseverance & Commitment
• LO 6: Global Engagement

At the start of the DP program, I was at the peak in my career as an avid debater. I participated in multiple MUN conferences, most notably SLMUN 2023 and ACMUN 2023, winning two awards in both (HC & BD respectively) whilst debating primarily in economic and military committees. These experiences strengthened my global understanding of pressing issues, such as debt trap diplomacy, and the incidence of present day wars, and particularly how they are interwoven tightly together, proving it quite difficult to find a ‘perfect’ solution. Afterwards, I turned my attention to organizing COMUN 2023 under the guidance of Pep Fernando. I played a central role as the Head of Operations, who oversees all the logistics and finances of the event, where I organized the venue, catering and merchandise (placards, notebooks, pens, nametags, gavels, certificates, medals, etc) for the 3 day event for around 380 delegates. The role demanded lots of calls, emails and traveling around Colombo – trying to obtain the best priced deals for our demands – to work around a tight budget constrained by an ongoing economic crisis in Sri Lanka. The event was an overall success – and acclaimed by almost all the delegates who attended as one of the best organized MUN conferences they have been to.

Later on in the year, after my responsibilities to COMUN had expired, I switched my focus to OSC’s very own TEDx event. Even though it collided with my DP 1 examinations, I gave a talk which detailed a scientific route down entropy, and its implicit meanings for our existence here on Earth. It was the first time I branched out into the domain of pure public speaking, but for my first attempt it went exceptionally well.

AcTIVITY

• LO 1: Strength & Growth
• LO 2: Challenge & Skills

I cultivated my love and skill for cricket throughout my DP years. Primarily, I always saw myself as a batsman and never explicitly dived into bowling – additionally because my bowling action struggled to find any consistency. However, after experimenting with both disciplines (spin and fast bowling), I settled for being a fast bowler. I spent lots of time, with a ruler stuck around my right arm, practicing my bowling action to ensure my elbow did not bend beyond the 15 degree legal limit (which was my biggest problem). Although this cut into my pace, it ensured I had much more control over my lengths and variations, which helped compensate for my lack of pace.

Furthermore, as a batsman, I have always had a leg-side over dependency. Whenever I hit a boundary, you can bet it was on the leg side – which was a big weakness as it meant that bowlers could counter my playing style by bowling wide off the off stump. Therefore, I spent a lot of time practicing off-side shots and coupling such shots with the use of my feet to ensure I can create room to freely swing without being boxed into the stumps.

Service

• LO 2: Challenge & Skills
• LO 3: Initiative & Planning
• LO 4: Working Collaboratively with Others
• LO 6: Global Engagement
• LO 7: Recognize and Consider the Ethics of Choices and Actions

Throughout DP, I worked extensively in my service group, Cultural Exchange (formerly USPeaceCorps) in order to teach underprivileged children, from local government schools, English – and act as a platform to mix Sri Lanka’s diverse cultural and religious groups. In DP 1, as we were still part of the US Embassy’s PeaceCorps program, my creative liberties as a service leader was tied down – and our service cohort was restricted to online calls with the local children. However, I still managed to come up with novel topics, from ‘Role Models’ to ‘The News’, and unique games to help the children loosen up – especially since many of them were incredibly shy to speak to a bunch of strangers over an online call. Over time, through planning and speaking interchangeably in Sinhala and English, I managed to get the children to be more open and engage more in the program.

The DP 1 service program was culminated by a field trip to Ingiriya, to one of the partner rural schools whose school children were a part of the program. The trip was planned by our service members, who organized a bunch of games and activities to do during our Sinhala & New Year celebrations. This event marked a changing point for me, as it was the first time we met with the children in person and saw the drastic difference in how attentive, engaging and friendly they were.

Fast forward to DP 2, our service underwent an entire revamp under my guidance and those of Mrs. Martina & Mrs. Nathalie. Parting ways with the US Embassy, we spoke with regional heads from the Department of Education, where I pitched our new, entirely in-person, program where our school brought in children from the surrounding local schools to perform our English & cultural programs. After months of planning and coordinating with the School Heads of these local schools, I initiated the program which went on from October to April, with a break from December – February. Each service session featured a new lesson for the kids, centralized around improving their English vocabulary and confidence, whilst emphasizing that they mix up and engage with other peers who attended the program who were of a different religion. One of our hit activities was the News Weatherman/Weatherwoman activity, where each of the children was presented with a weather forecast for Sri Lanka and had to present a breakdown for the class (as if they were on live television).

The service session ended with the handing of certificates of completion to the children, and a presentation of a cultural event significant to themselves (in groups). Overall, the whole program, from planning to implementation, was a massive success – and a huge positive shift from last year’s fully online program.