MY CAS BLOG - SOFIA GONGORA

CAS

Hi! My name is Sofia

I was born on November 25, 2006 meaning I'm a Saggitarius. I'm half Mexican - half Spanish and I speak French, Spanish and English. I also love music and arts. You can call me Sof, Sofi, or Sofe just always make sure you write it with an F and not ph.

CAS BLOG

My hobbies

In my free time I really like to do what I like the most which is singing, playing the violin, composing songs and pretty much everything related with music. I also like to read and definetely love watching F1.

My dreams

I have many dreams, but my biggest dreams are being able to share my music to the world and encourage people to love themselves the way they are, make people find a place of comfort in my art and the things I do. I also want to be succesful in many ways and work in a marketing area, I want to travel the world and go to every F1 grand prix.

What is CAS?

CAS stands for creativity, activity and service it is one of the three essential elements that a student must complete in order to get the IB diploma.

It is divided in 3 parts:

Creativity: arts, and other activities that include a creative process

Activity: exercise, or other actions done apart from school

Service: an unpaid and voluntary action that benefits the learning of the student

CAS Objectives :

Identify in oneself the strenghts and areas in which improvement is needed.
show that challenges have been faced and new skills developed in the process
show me how to start and plan a CAS experience
Show commitment and perseverance in CAS experiences
Show teamwork skills and recognize the benefits of collaborative work
Show commitment to issues of global importance
Recognize and consider the ethical aspect of desicions and actions

AND HERE ARE MY CAS EXPERIENCES WHERE I ACHIEVED ALL OF THE OBJECTIVES ...

FIRST CAS EXPERIENCE :

RECYCLING TIRES

For my first CAS activity we recycled some old tyres and we transformed them into little chairs to use in school.

We did everything, from picking the materials to making them from scratch.

Results:

2.because I did things I never thought I could or would do and I challenged myself by trying new things.

5. I learned how to work in teams and not only with my friends but also with new people that I had never been with.

Travelling to Japan

at the age of 16 I travelled to the other side of the world, to a different language, a different culture and even a different continent and I did that all by myself. It was a great experience that gave me a lot of personal growth and responsibility. I will always keep this memories of such a beautiful experience.

Also not to mention how I did all of my homework before leaving for the trip and came back to the exam week.

Results:

I indentified my streghts in the way I was able to be alone and take good care of myself and be responsible not only with my money but also with how I behaved, still I need to work harder in being organized and being ready on time and faster.
I developed the ability to be by myself in another country and continent and i was able to administrate my time and money always being responsible. I managed to socialize with different people and learn about a different culture and even learned the numbers in japanesse.

Picking Up Trash In My Community

This activity consisted of picking up trash in my comunity to help with contamination in the area. Contamination is a huge problematic and it affects ecosystems. This time I was encharged of organizing the activity and I came up with the idea for the activity.

Results

3. Organizing a CAS experience, because this time we were able to organize this activity because we care for our town and we want to make a difference.

6. We care for our enviroment and we wanted to do something in order to create a positive effect in the world starting in our community. Because contamination is a huge problamatic that many people tend to ignore.

5. We worked in teams and got organized to pick up as much trash as posible.

CAS Picnic

The activity consisted of integrating and socialize with the 10th graders because they are the nexts to come into CAS with us and we wanted them to feel like a part of the group. We did many ativities, from collages that represented our personalities to fun team activities to learn how to work together.

Results

5. we worked as teams to be able to finish the activities and also socializing and getting to know new people

VIVA VOCE

This activity consisted on using my creativity to design a presentation where i exposed one of my most important school projects. This presentation was public and for the first time in my life I had to speak in in front of a large group of people, standing on stage alone. This helped me develop skills for public talking and gave me a lot of personal growth.

Results

I was able to identify my weak areas and work on them. This way I developed my public speech skills
I faced the challenge of speaking in public and facing the crowd which helped a lot in my personal growth.

Baking Christmas Cookies

This activity consisted in baking 85 gingerbread cookies for a large group of people to give them out to each one of them for christmas. This activity took up to 5 hours but seeing the smile on peoples faces made it all worth it.

Results

3. I planned this experience on my own and I made sure to have everything ready

6. I hleped a group of people by giving them a homemade sweet treat for christmas

Decorating a Gingerbread House

This activity consisted on using my creativity and decorative skills to decorate a christmas gingerbread house. I then used this gingerbread house to decorate my room and then ate it. This activity was amazing because I learnt how to do something new and practice my decorative skills.

Result

I needed to develop creative and decorative skills in order to finish this activity

Hiking with Friends

This activity consisted on going to a local mountain and hiking it in one day. We then had a picnic on top of the mountain and we were able to socialize and excersise together while we also worked as teams to get to the top and we were able to connect with nature.

Results

2. We faced our laziness and worked really hard to get all the way to the top of this mountain

5. We worked as a team to be able to get to the top and organize our little picnic

Camping in a mountain

This activity consisted on spending the night in the nature in a mountain. I was able to develop some new skills and connect a lot with nature. Where there was no internet or society we had to prepare everything and spend the night alone in the middle of nowhere.

Results

2. I learned how to start a fire, how to live without my phone and I connected with nature in ways I never thought possible.

First Aid Class

For this activity we had help from the firefighters from our community to teach us and show us how to perform first aid in people who need it. This is important because we get the chance to become useful in situations of danger and when someone is hurt.

Results

4. We took this course in the weekend because it was the only day available for the firefighters but we all assisted and participated because we understood how important it was to be a part of this.

5. In order to provide first aid services to someone you need a team, it not only something you can do alone and this makes you learn how to communicate and collaborate with those around you even in stressful situations.

6. This course is useful and necessary for everyone in the world to be able to assist and help everyone around you.

7. First aid comes with many ethical and moral decisions when being put in practice and we not only learnt them but also had to put them in practice.

Dia de Muertos Tribute

For this experience my friends and I decided to create a Dia de Muertos classic altar like the ones our ancestors did. We did this mostly to pay tribute to our roots and history. We worked as a team and made this creative artwork together.

Results:

4. Even on a day with no classes we still decided to do this activity not just for CAS but for pur traditions as well

5. We worked as a team to come to this result

Learning How To Ride a Quad

I decided to test myself and learn something new to develop new skills in myself. I always thought quads were pretty cool so I decided to learn how to ride and use one.

Results:

2. I developed new skills and I was able to face every dificulty and persevere in the process of learning

Going on a Solo Date

This activity consited on facing my fears of being alone, and learning how to be with myself. I did not only did this superficially but I went big taking myself on a coffee date alone. This did not only helped me grow as a person and overcome my fears but it also changed my perspective on the way I live my life.

Results:

I knew one of my biggest fears was being alone so I decided to act on that and took myself on a date.

2. I was able to learn how to be with myself which was one of my biggest fears and I was able to grow as a person and develop not only new skills but new perspectives as well.

Visiting an Important Art Museum

We discovered our city has one of the most important museums in the country so my friends and I decided to organize a trip to visit this place and get to know our city and the art it was holding. This way we learnt about our city and we also developed the skills to understand other points of view and expand our knowledge.

Results:

3. We took the decision to go over and learn about our culture

6. We did not only learn about our city and art but we also took acountability of how important this museum is not only for the city but for the country and the arts in general.

Scavenger Hunt With Friends

Similar to the museum my friends and I decided to visit an art exhibition where they told us there were 14 codes hiding all over the museum and we decided to look for all of them in order to win the price. We worked as a team going all over the place looking for every code and taking a picture of us with each one of the codes.

Results:

5. We needed to work as teams to be able to find all of the codes together

Learning How to Play Videogames

Not only did I decided to do this to be able to develop new skills and find new hobbies for myself but I also wanted to be able to play with my little brother for when he has no one else to play with. So even when this is an activity I would also consider it an act of love.

Results:

2. I learnt and developed the skill to play videogames

Learning How to Drive

This activity was very much needed since I am now 18 years old but I had tried many times and none of them were really succesful therefore I gave uo but decided to persevere and now I can gladly say I can drive and get myself to wherever I want or need to go. Even when this took a long time I was able to do it.

Results:

2. I was able to develop a new skill, to face all the dificulties and to be able to finally drive

3. Even when it was hard and the process was full of challenges I was able to make it and I can now say I drive.

Learning How to Make Pizza

I love pizza and as a hobby, and activity and with the desire to learn something new and develop new skills I learnt how to make pizza from scratch.

Results:

2. I developed the ability to make something new and I was able to delete all the challenges and make it through this process.

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