Charlotte Chen's CAS Journey

During all the experiences and activities in these two years of CAS, it can be said that almost all of the activities and experiences made me reflect on my strengths, weaknesses and develop areas for growth during the reflections. For example, as I have participated in TISSA Volleyball for five years, I think my developed areas for growth and the things I learned are interpersonal relationships, physical development, and balance in all aspects of life.

Not only that, I was also aware of my weaknesses in this activity, such as the fact that when I am under extreme pressure, I often cannot manage and control my emotions, and I can even easily put my emotions on others accidentally. During this experience, I also noticed that many people react and deal with pressure and frustration differently. In sports, an activity that requires teamwork, I realized that often we couldn't just deal with our own emotions but also have to pay attention to others and give encouragement to help the whole team become better.

Besides weaknesses, I have also recognized my strengths in this activity. Firstly, as the team's setter, I knew my responsibilities and importance. I constantly reminded myself that I needed to try my best to help the team win before the match. Secondly, when I was not performing well, I knew that I needed to adjust myself, focus, and remind myself of my problems. Thirdly, I always tried to cheer up and cohere our teammates because I knew it was important and would significantly affect the performance of all of us. At the same time, I noticed that some of my teammates did not perform well because they were under too much pressure. In this case, I cheer those players up and encourage them. I hope this will help everyone get back to their best and win together.

In conclusion, I have identified my strengths and developed areas for growth to a large extent since I always reflect on myself after the experiences. Meanwhile, I'm always clear about my weakness and the aspect I need to improve.

During these two years of CAS, I have tried my best to challenge myself in various activities and experiences. Although I have faced many different challenges in three facets of creativity, activity and service, I think I have been most challenged in the facet of activity during these two years.

Since I am a very active and athletic person, so I wanted to challenge myself in the facet of "activity" during my two years of CAS. As everyone in school knows, I always present at any dance-related event in Kuei Shan because of my passion and love for dancing, I wanted to challenge myself more in this area. I have been participating in the Kuei Shan sports day opening dance for five years, but I became a planner this year for the first time. I realized that this was an opportunity to challenge my planning and dancing skills.

Therefore, in order to challenge myself in this event, I first made the overall performance more difficult, not only to make the whole performance look more exciting but also to challenge my dancing skills. Even though I have always been familiar with dancing, I thought it was time to give myself more challenges and develop higher dance skills.

In addition, as a first-time sports day opening dance planner, it was a new and unfamiliar challenge for me. For example, I realized that when planning a sports day opening dance, I could not treat it as a typical dance performance, but I needed to think about what songs could perform and the boundaries of the dance movements at the same time. These are all new challenges for me because they influence and limit my choices of what to perform and what songs to play.

In addition, I also faced some challenges with the performing members. One of the members had some problems with her time, so she could not participate in the second show. However, we could not find anyone with equal dance skills, so it was a whole new challenge for me, and I had to use my understanding of the school students and my experience to figure out how to solve this problem.

In summary, I believe that during these two years of CAS, I have achieved "demonstrated that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process" to a certain extent since I have been trying to challenge myself throughout many activities.

During these two years of CAS, I have worked very hard to organize my CAS activities and experiences from the beginning of grade 11 to ensure that I balance my coursework and CAS. There were many times during my two years of CAS that I would initiate and plan in order to help my CAS activities and experiences go smoothly. For example, during the 2020 Sports Day Fundraising - The Gift Exchange. For example, I have been able to plan on funding estimates, staffing schedules and cohesive our activities by suggesting creative ideas, proposals and solutions. In conclusion, I have demonstrated how to initiate and plan a CAS experience in these two years to a certain extent since not all of my activities require a large amount of planning.

I think the first thing that has kept me going during these two years of CAS is that all the activities and experiences I have been involved in have been of interest and enjoyment to me. However, the most important thing that has kept me going was my need to maintain perseverance and commitment for my CAS activities and experiences. For example, during the "Seussical" activity, when I was facing challenges or feeling tired, I always reminded myself that if I gave up now, all my past achievements and process would fall short, and it would also affect many people in many ways. This is how I was able to get involved in long-term CAS experiences and CAS projects. Among many other activities, this perseverance and commitment to CAS also helped me complete two years of CAS, and I grew a lot in the process.

In conclusion, I have had many experiences in long-term CAS experiences and CAS projects. In conclusion, I have been demonstrating regular involvement and active engagement with CAS experiences to a certain extent since I have made an effort in various activities and experiences. However, I often forget to reflect on myself due to my time management.

Many of my activities require working collaboratively with others. Therefore, I am also used to collaborating with others in different activities to some extent. However, I have experienced many different kinds of "work collaboratively" in these two years of working at CAS. For example, during the "Seussical" activity, I worked not only with my friends from the same year as before but also with teachers and students younger than me. For instance, I found that to work collaboratively with the students, I had to adjust myself in many different aspects when working with the students, such as the language, tone, and approach used when instructing the students, which were very different than usual. I also noticed that younger students needed more encouragement and praise, which helped increase their self-confidence and made them feel happier throughout the process.

Meanwhile, working with peers was very different from working with students when I was working with peers. Although we had different points of view and ideas, and since our goal was to work together on a choreography, we needed to learn to incorporate each other's opinions and ideas. We also need to think about the best choice for Seussical and the students together. Most importantly, although our role in this activity was choreographer, we also needed to learn to listen respectfully to the ideas and opinions of the students in order to make the performance better.

In conclusion, I have achieved this outcome to a large extent since many of my CAS activities involved demonstrating the skills and recognizing the benefits of working collaboratively. Meanwhile, I have also learned how to work with different people.

● What advice do you have for upcoming CAS students regarding making CAS enjoyable, sustained over time and meaningful?

The advice that I would give to the upcoming CAS students regarding making CAS enjoyable, sustained over time and meaningful is that time management is the most important but often forgotten by students. There were many challenges and tasks during the two years of DP. In order to make CAS enjoyable, sustained over time, and meaningful, students must be able to control and manage their time and task to balance CAS and academics.

Meanwhile, to make CAS enjoyable, sustained over time, and meaningful, students must try to do activities or experiences they love or would enjoy. However, students still need to try to face some challenges and difficulties in order to develop themselves.

● Five years from now, what will you remember most about your CAS programme?

Five years from now, I think the activities and experiences that I will remember the most is being the choreographer and teacher of "Seussical". As a person who loves dancing and communicating with people, being a choreographer and teacher made me feel unforgettable.

Meanwhile, the TISSA volleyball activity was unforgettable since it means a lot to me. It is not only one of the few activities that allow me to exercise in my DP life but also my passion for volleyball. It made me feel enjoyable and very relaxed. In addition, this activity is not only about sports but also about interpersonal relationships and teamwork. This event was so helpful and meaningful on many levels. It made me feel that it was significant and unforgettable for me.