After almost 3 years, It’s time to leave and get on with the new adventures that life has for me. The last two years may have been online bur nevertheless, I met some amazing people that are going to be my friends forever despite the different places we go! In these last two years of my high school, I had the opportunity to do CAS,, which was an amazing program as it made me get out of my comfort zone and pursue different activities, which I wouldn’t have if it were not for CAS. This final post will highlight some of my CAS achievements over the two years and connect them to the seven learning outcomes.
LO1. Identify own strengths and develop areas for growth
I personally think that this learning outcome was one of my most targeted ones. In the last two years, I undertook various different activities where I had some skills and development in to further improve on it and some activities which I took to get out of my comfort zone and try new things and improve in them. A few examples of this would be taking up sports like volleyball and badminton. I had started playing these sports in MYP so I came into DP with some skills and abilities in these sports but I still tried to improve my game. For example, In volleyball, my form and footwork used to be terrible in MYP but in DP I rejoined the training and mainly focused on improving my techniques on the sidelines. Similarly in Badminton, I did some private badminton training and playing games with friends to improve on my stamina and my shot techniques which had been a problem for me in MYP. I also undertook a lot of activities where I had to get out of my comfort zone. For example, Singing in the school band (boys voice) is something I hadn’t done since primary school and so boys voice gave me more confidence in my singing and I developed more as a singer.
Badminton Training
Volleyball
LO2. Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process
During CAS, it gave me an opportunity to pursue new challenges and skills. For example, when our grade went for the orientation trip, I was pushed to my limits as there were a lot of water sports involved and I couldn’t really swim. But I did take on the challenge by doing 4 rounds of diving and water rafting. I had a great opportunity last year before the pandemic to go to Bombay for SAISA Art which was my first ever SAISA involvement and a new experience. I was a part of the photography group and learned a lot from the workshops and studio sessions we had. I think it really helped improve my photographic skills as after that trip I made about 4 photographic pieces for my Visual Arts class.
SAISA Art
LO3. Demonstrate how to initiate and plan a CAS experience
My CAS project was creating an Instagram Account for The Margin. The Margin is a diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice group and its mission is to empower learners toward an intercultural understanding of all groups of people. We achieve this through doing educational campaigns, discussions, guest speakers, etc. The margin also follows the calendar and marks different months for different awareness campaigns. For example, this month was autism awareness month so the daily bulletin every day was filled with information about autism. I didn’t think the daily bulletin was good to post all this information as most of it gets skipped during HR. So, I had the idea to create an Instagram account that will target our OSC students and get all this information to them. By doing this CAS project, I was able to demonstrate initiative and planning.
The Margin Account
LO4. Show commitment to and perseverance in CAS experiences
Commitment and perseverance aren’t so easy to achieve in CAS especially when you are in the Diploma Programme surrounded by so much work. However, I think I’ve done pretty well over the last two years in being present and on time for most of my activities and not giving up on them. I was a grade representative in SGA for the last two years and it was pretty upsetting when OSCars got canceled very last minute due to the COVID-19 Pandemic. Despite, not achieving my SGA goals for DP1 and the challenges of SGA being online. I still returned for a second term as a grade representative and were able to do a spirit week and are planning to host Gecko Factor and Sports Day towards the end of the year. In my other activities as well, I’ve been pretty engaged despite the online challenges which were there for the first half of this year.
LO5. Demonstrate the skills and recognize the benefits of working collaboratively
collaboration took place throughout my CAS Journey. Activities such as SGA where I had to work with a group of people to come up with Ideas for SGA events, executing the plans. In Eco-Schools and ReefKeepers, doing auditing paperwork and planning and executing ideas creatively.
LO6. Demonstrate engagement with issues of global significance
I was a part of three service activities which were ReefKeepers, Eco-Schools, and The Margin. As we all know, Climate change is a pretty important issue around the world. In ReefKeepers, we advocated for climate change by doing a Friday’s for Future protest in our school inspired by Greta Thunberg. We also did stuff like neighborhood sweep and planning other educational events and future projects. In Eco-Schools, we assessed the situation of the school and what can we cut off to make the school an Eco-Campus. Even though these may be small initiatives and actions, these actions spread awareness about the threats our planet faces and hopefully helps the OSC community become better Eco-Citizens. I know for me, I have learned so much about environmental threats and changes from being engaged in Reefkeepers, Eco-Schools, Environmental Science and Geography classes.
Neigborhood Sweep
LO7. Recognize and consider the ethics of choices and actions
I think I’ve made ethical choices and actions throughout my CAS journey. I made the choices of joining groups like Eco-Schools and Reefkeepers which are great organizations that help our school community and also the local community. The Margin was another amazing group that I was a part of which is trying to spread more information about marginalized groups to the OSC community. I am grateful that I was able to be a part of these groups and help them. Helping out Eco-Schools to make OSC an Eco-Campus in the future and spreading awareness about the environmental issues and social issues were good ethical choices I made.