Final CAS Reflection

Goodbye IB, goodbye diploma program, see you later OSC… au revoir (from 2 years of French), zai jian (from 2 years of mandarin) and from my mother tongue, ayubowan (sinhala). Going to school at OSC and doing the IB was a great experience, but it was also filled with troubles. It brings me great comfort that I’ll never be required to study a new language again. And without CAS, and all it entails, these troubles would have been harder to deal with. This is why I am grateful to CAS, for allowing me to do things that engaged me outside of academics, distracted me from stress and taught me things I couldn’t have learned from papers alone.

To begin with I learned to better manage my stress, by learning commitment and perseverance through physical activity. This was first through archery which required commitment to improve, this work and practice thought me the skills to commit to other things in my life like studying. Then there is personal fitness, I was never very athletic when younger but having committed to improving my fitness for my health, I had a difficult challenge ahead. And so over the last two years I have worked to improve my personal fitness though exercise. Not being very fit to start with this required perseverance on my part, at first with bits of exercise, and then gradually increasing amounts. This learning enabled me to follow through on my commitment to health.

From here commitment and perseverance helped me plan, initiate and execute my own CAS experiences for greater learning. An example of this is me being a founding member and Chief Editor of the Advocate, OSC’s literature club and magazine. Through this activity I gained an understanding of the challenges and skills required to advertise, edit other people’s work, organize competitions and design magazines to be printed. All skills I can take with me for future projects.

 

 

 

I learned a lot from running the Advocate and other CAS experiences, perhaps most importantly I learned how to collaborate effectively with others both as a leader and member. This was a necessary skill in most of my CAS activities but most sharply in Colombo Model United Nations where I acted as Under-Secretary General working, working in collaboration with the Secretary-General had to organize a three day conference and practice debates for approaching 500 students requiring catering, debate training and of course, sponsors. This would have been impossible without the thirty-member executive committee working under us who we had to coordinate, delegate to and support. Through this activity I developed my ability to collaborate with others and this is a skill that will help me across any project I pursue in the future.

Of course through model united nations I also engaged with and studied topics of global significance such as war, economics and justice. This engagement has helped me think more in terms of global citizenship, thinking of the bigger picture and my place in it. But alongside this I also did my Checkmates service working with children from under-privileged backgrounds, allowing me to see the micro impact of issues of global significance.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Taking on so many diverse challenges I have gained a better understanding of my own strengths and weaknesses. An example of this is in our schools senior productions of Oliver Twist and A Midsummer Night’s Dream where I played main cast for both. And I realized that while I enjoyed delivering my lines with emotion and taking on interesting characters, I was uncomfortable with the physicality of performance. Recognizing this weakness I minimized its impact on my performance through heavy rehearsal so as to have each movement be comfortable. This process of identifying weaknesses and correcting for them is one I hope to make into a habit across my work, so as to continually improve and develop.

All of this is why I am grateful to CAS, for keeping me sane in the IB and for giving me skills to use after. Though oddly, that’s not what I’m most grateful for… what I value most over anything specific I’ve learned, is the bonds that working alongside my friends in CAS foster. Without whom I would be a less fulfilled person. And of course, this also applies to the teachers who guided my through the experience, and my family who supported me. To any grade 10s or DP1 reading this, get a running start on CAS and rack up as many experiences as you can, it isn’t always clear what you get from engaging in a new experience, but there is usually something.