CAS Project Progress & Future plans

INTROduction to CAS Project

A Swimming Lesson Last Year (Photo Credits: Phillip VanHorn)

As I have discussed extensively in previous posts, contributing to community service during the COVID-19 pandemic has been admittedly difficult, and the Gecko Inc. team and I have been forced to devise creative solutions to continue our work. As such, we have transitioned our program to be fully-digital for the time being (keeping this in mind, we understand that the vast majority of our participants have limited or no access to the internet, and we have plans to create comprehensive printed content in the future). Thus was born my CAS project: spearheading the creation of a video series (available on platforms such as youtube and Instagram) that would provide children the world over with opportunities to take part in beginner, intermediate, or advanced swimming lessons.

Progress on CAS Project

Thus far, the Gecko Inc. team and I have completed work on the scripts for 3 videos (one beginner, one intermediate, and one advanced) that we plan to complete before the end of the year. We have currently filmed the entirety of the beginner video and are nearing completion in the editing stages.

Future Plans

At the moment, we have plans to film both the intermediate and advanced videos within the next two weeks. As was previously stated, the scripts (and all other preparatory materials) have been completed, and the only tasks left to complete are filming and editing. By my estimates, editing each video should take approximately two weeks. Thus, we plan to complete the project within six weeks, or by April 26th. This coincides neatly with our last official day of classes (April 27th) but means that we have very little room to fall off schedule. Fortunately, however, I do not anticipate that this will be an issue.

Reflection

CAS Goals Reflection

My CAS goals focused primarily on individual swimming lessons (as that was the only possible form of service) and thus crafting a reflection that pertains specifically to my initial aims is difficult. However, I do believe that the progress that the Gecko Inc. team and I have made thus far would have been comparable to goals set at the beginning of the year (had we actually set any).

Learning Outcomes Reflection

1. Demonstrate how to initiate and plan a CAS experience
   1. I believe that my contributions to the process of forming the initial plans for transferring our service operations into a digital forum have shown sufficiently that I am able to initiate and plan a CAS experience.
2. Demonstrate the skills and recognize the benefits of working collaboratively
   1. Completing the process of writing, filming, and editing a series of videos required a heavy reliance on collaborative efforts. It would have been extremely difficult to achieve such ambitious goals as the ones that we set without the contributions of a number of service members. In this way, I, along with my fellow leaders, was encouraged to demonstrate the skills (and, of course, recognize the benefits) of working collaboratively.
3. Demonstrate engagement with issues of global significance
   1. Given the importance of preventing childhood drownings (especially in Sri Lanka, but internationally as well), the fact that our service engages with an issue of tangible global significance should be clear.