CAS Experience (11th and 12th Grade Overview

During this program, I have been able to achieve a number of things that I can say I am proud of. This experience has made me become a well rounded person as I have engaged in global issues, I have worked with others, I have challenged myself by trying new things and many more. I think overall, I have been able to touch on all the 8 criteria for the CAS DP program.

Undertaken New Challenges

My major challenge during this program has been the interaction with kids. Prior to this, I always avoided situations whereby kids were involved but this time round, I decided to get involved with the hope for kids service project in order for me to make a difference in the lives of the children. At the beginning, the hospitals visit were very challenging for me but as time passed and as I got more comfortable with the kids and the situation, things got much better. I am really glad I took part in this service project. It also gave me the opportunity to engage in a global issue being cancer.

Planned and initiated activities

In 12th grade i became very much involved in the planning of a fashion show for the Maharagama Children’s Hospital. This was a very challenging thing to do as I had never done anything like it. Of course, I had the help of the leaders and other CAS members and together this was a success. We managed to raise over half a million rupees for the hospital and this money will be used to provide the hospital with facilities and medication for the children. Also the week without walls program also gave me the opportunity to plan activities. In 11th grade with the Lanka Alzheimer’s service project, I got the opportunity to plan some fund raising activities that we conducted during the food and fun fair.

Worked Collaboratively with others

I was involved with the Lanka Alzheimer’s service project in 11th grade. Together with the other CAS members and the founders of the foundation, we worked together to plan fund raisers for the project. Also, I worked together with members of hope for kids to plan fun activities that we will take part in with the children at the hospital. This gave me the opportunity to share my views with my fellow peers in relation to a global issue. Also, during volleyball training, in order to work effectively as a team, teamwork was important to keep the team and its members strong. This enabled us encourage one another during practice and games. During the organization of SAISA tournament in school, I needed the help of others to ensure that everything went on smoothly. Due to this, I had to work with a number of people to make sure that the right thing was done and that there was no confusion during the games. basically in all the projects and activities that i have been involved in during this program, i have had to work with others in order for it to be successful.

Shown perseverance and commitment in their activities

During the final months to the end of the program, I decided to involve in some exercise and I did so by going to the gym on a regular basis. Initially, this was quite difficult to do but I showed perseverance and I didn’t give up. It has been exciting and I will be continuing even after the program has ended.  In both 11 and 12 grade, i commited fully to all the activities i signed up for.

Engaged with issues of global importance

All my service projects have engaged with global issues. I started off with Recycling and Sustainability, Alzheimer’s and the Cancer hospital project. For recycling, once a week, we would go to all rooms in the school in groups and collect pieces of scrap paper and cardboard. We will then sell this to a local recycling place near school. The money made was then put into the recycling account. This is a global issue because of the issues of climate change. Although this is a controversial situation, it made me aware of a lot of problems that our planet is facing. I can say that this had not made me entirely ecocentric however; it has made a different in my life style.

Developed new skills

Over the two years of this CAS program, I have been able to learn how to play the guitar, take good sports photos and learnt how to play competitive volleyball. All these are new skills that I have picked up during the cause of the program. Now I am able to play the guitar while singing. Although I cannot play intense chords with quick transitions, I can play all the basic chords and some complicated ones. Also, in terms of volleyball, I think that I have learnt enough skills that will help me if I pursue the sport in future. Also, it really helped me in terms of teamwork and collaboration.

Considered the ethical implications of their actions

From the recycling service project, I have become aware of the impact that humans have on the environment negatively.

Overall, this has been a good program and I am pleased to say that I have learnt a lot during these two years 🙂

A glimpse of what I have done in 2 years 🙂

Gym

For the past three weeks, I have been going to the gym three times a week. initially, I was just going so that I can fulfill my action requirements for CAS but my attitude towards the gym has changed. I have come to realize that I actually like exercising. In the first week i found it difficult to go because i was tired after a stressful day at school. However, i showed perseverance and was able to go on a regular basis. This has been a fun activity and i am looking forward to continuing even after all my CAS requirements are done. 

Fitness

At the beginning of the year, i was involved with the SAISA Volleyball program. I took part in all training and i noticed that i improved a lot from last year. My serving and spikes have improved and i am really proud of my achievement.

However, other than this, i have not been involved in any action activities apart from helping the SAISA football team. Because of this, i had decided to engage in a fitness program where i will do intensive exercise that will enable me gain some muscles and stay healthy. i think it is important for me to stay healthy even with all the stress from school. in the past, i have figured out that exercise helps me keep focused and this is exactly what i need now since exams are approaching.

I will be going to the Body Bar gym and hopefully this way, i will achieve my goals. 

SAISA Football

For action, although I am not a member of the football SAISA team, I have been helping the goalie, Jennifer during training. Because this her first time playing as goalie, she needs a lot of work on her dives and goal kicks. During practice, I noticed she could not do much as the other team members were focusing on developing their skills in terms of passing and shooting the ball. In view of this, I volunteered to help Jen out so the she can practice. During SAISA training hours, I take photos for yearbook for about half an hour and then I practice with Jen. Basically, to prepare her for the tournament, what I do is, I shoot the ball from various angles towards the goal so that she can try and save them. At the moment I have been doing this for a week now, and I think this is really helping Jen. From this, I am able to run around and exercise and also, it have given me the opportunity to work on my football skills. My aim now is to be able to do brilliant corner shots that hopefully Jen can save. I am working hard on trying to kick the ball in the most trickiest ways possible because this is how it will help her. Hopefully, she will be ready before the tournament starts.

Photography-SAISA Sports

I have been taking pictures for the yearbook after school activity. On Tuesdays and Fridays after school, i stay back and take photos of our SAISA athletes. These pictures will be featured in this years yearbook. This activity has given me the opportunity to  explore all kinds of photography skills. at the start, i was really bad at taking action shots but now, i think my photos have improved. Photography is actually really interesting and i like capturing cool things. Also, my contribution to the yearbook this year is very significant as i have relieved them of a lot work. they are now able to focus on making the pages because i have been put in charge of taking sports pictures. This has given me some leadership skills. This experience has enabled me go out of my way to explore my creative side. In the up-coming SAISA tournament, I will be taking photos of all the athletes participating in the tournament as well as their coaches. Together with the other members of the yearbook committee, we are working collaboratively in order to ensure that everything is done accordingly.

!CHARITY CHIC!-Hope for kids fashion show

The Overseas school of Colombo presents Charity chic 2012!!! A fashion show organized by the ‘Hope for Kids’ service project in aid of the children’s ward of the national cancer hospital, Maharagama. The show took place on the 11^th of February. Our students will model the designs of some well-known Colombo fashion week designers. The show was choreographed by professional makeup artist and fashion stylist, Ms Jacquie Mei.

As a member of this service project, I was very much involved in the planning and organization of this event. Also, on the night of the show, I was the MC. Being the MC was a new experience because I had never done something like that before. Usually when I speak in front of an audience it’s for a play and so I am a different character. Although this is quite the same concept, I was a little bit nervous because I knew how important it was.

The planning of the show begun in early November. This gave me the opportunity to work collaboratively with other members in the CAS.  In order for the show to be a success and also to make sure we raised enough funds for the hospital, we had to have the support of a number of sponsors. This was the most challenging aspect of the entire show. Luckily for us, the two leaders, Sandushi and Uphanda had contacts that were beneficial to the show.

The models for the show were volunteers and this made our work very easy in terms of casting. Ms Jacquie Mei, the choreographer was of great help as she offered her services free of charge. Although the fashion show was time consuming and required a lot of effort and commitment, I am glad I was a part of it as it gave me the opportunity to deal with an issue of global importance which is cancer. After being to the hospital and seeing and interacting with the kids and their families, I can understand the burdens of the parents because it is not easy for them taking care of a kid with cancer. Most of these children are from poor families and more often than not, there is only one source of income because one of the parents has to stay with the kid at the hospital. Often when we think of cancer, we associate it with older people but that is not the case. There are a number of children in sri lanka suffering from this deadly illness and for me this is a way in which I can be supportive by providing my services and helping raise funds and awareness for the children. The money received will go towards medicine and hospital facilities needed.

Charity Chic

The fashion show is only a month away. In view of funding, we have made changes to the venue of the show. Instead of having it at the Park Street Mews, the show will be held in the OSC auditorium to cut down on cost. Casting of the models was held on the 14th of February. We got professional help from Jackie Mei and this enabled us select the 15 models who will participate in the show on the 11th of Februaury.

My job in the planning aspect of the show is to organize the music that will be played during the show as well as MC. I will be MC-ing with Thaim and this will enable me have a different experience since i have never done it before. It may be challenging but I am confident that I will be able to do a good job.

Planning…

Our main focus now is to plan the fashion show well in order to raise funds for the hospital. We have encountered a few obstacles that has caused as to change our plans. Inintially, the idea for the fashion show was to get international schools in colombo to design a couple of clothes that would be modelled at the show. Due to date clashes, the schools that we proposed this idea to turned our proposal down. We are not going to cancel the show because we have already booked the venue and besides, this is an obstacle we can overcome. After a couple more meetings we came up with the idea of getting the designer stores in colombo directly involved in the fashion show. We have asked then to let students from OSC model their clothes for the fashion show. We asked Odel, Mars, Dillys. Lanka Institute of Fashion Design and a couple other places. So far, the response from these places are promising and we are going to push through with this idea.

Now our main focus is the funding of this project. We don’t want to use too much of our money as it will defeat the pupose of saving enough money for the hospital. We have started looking for sponsors. We mainly need a sponsor for the ramp because this is the most important part of the fashion show. The venue is the Park Street Mews. They gave us a good offer and so we are going to stick with them. I have been contacting a couple of people I know for lights and music and I am hoping that they offer their services to as at a less costly price considering this is a charity event. In our next meeting we will plan out the budget so that we know exactly how much to spend and if its too much, we might modify a few things.

Time to make a difference

Uphanda teaching one of the kids how to make clay dough

Me sweeping

Last Thursday, the 30th of November, we visited the Cancer Hospital. Two weeks before our visit, we started planning activities that we will conduct with the kids. Together as a group, we decided we will make some clay dough and make objects out of them with the kids. Personally, I thought this was a very good opportuinty for each of us to directly interact with the kids. When we arrived at the hospital, we noticed there were not many kids in the play area so we split ourselves into two groups. Some of us did some cleaning and the others made clay dough with the kids.

I swept, mopped and dusted the office and the front corridor of the play area. Doing this really made me feel like I had an impact in the lives of the children and their famillies. I put aside all pride, and I committed to this excersise fully. It felt good doing something different for a change for someone else. After cleaning, the room was neat and the best part of all this was the attitude of the parents present. They were grateful for the little deed that I had done and this was very rewarding.

Next week, we might be going to the hospital again. If not, I plan to take direct initiative in the up-coming fashion show that we are planning as a fund raiser. I hope to share my ideas with other member’s of my group.

SAISA Event Crew!

On the 7th of October, my school hosted the SAISA volleyball tournament. This was a successful event. There was a lot of time and effort put into the organization of it. Five schools from around south Asia were represented at this tournament. each school had about 10 athletes and 2 coaches. the schools that were present are

• Overseas School of Colombo-(OSC)
• American International School-Dhaka (AISD)
• American International School-Chennai (AISC)
• American School-Bombay (ASB)
• Lahore American School (LAS)
• Lincoln School (LS)

The tournament went on for three days. The winning team was AISD, with OSC coming second. This finals match was ery entertaining and congratulations to the OSC Lady Geckos. As the event crew, our job during these three days was to make sure the athletes and officials were satisfied and also to make sure aspects of the tournament was successful. I was put in charge of score keeping the games. I put together a rooster with five people and we each took turns in attending to the score table. This was quite tiring after a while but it was worth while. During this event, i planned and initiated activities as well as worked collaboratively with others. During the day, the gym was hot and when the host team was not playing there was not much of a crowd cheering so this made score keeping very boring. however, i showed perseverance and commitment throughout the tournament.

Working the Score Board