Class of 2022 CAS Final Reflection and Celebration

Ervin's CAS Journey

Final CAS Reflection

Time flew by quickly; even before I noticed it, the conclusion of my IB journey had arrived. As part of finishing the IB DP program, CAS has been essential for my personal development and learning. As the name had implied, it has inspired me to integrate creative, action-based, and service-based learning into my academic endeavors. CAS was essential in keeping me interested in additional extracurricular activities and allowing me to explore different facets of my experience along this trip.

From the outset of the IB, my principal CAS aim was to develop and strengthen my communication, creativity, and athletic abilities. Based on my analysis of my CAS journey, I was somewhat effective in selecting and focusing on activities that assisted me in achieving my core objective. I committed myself to sporting activities at school or outside of school throughout the two years. However, I also participated in non-athletic activities that engaged large groups of people and required strong communication and cooperation skills. It assisted me in breaking out of my comfort zone. CAS emphasizes seven distinct learning outcomes and encourages students to address them in our CAS blogs. Most of the learning objectives were demonstrated and explained in my CAS blogs.

7 CAS Learning Outcomes

1. Identify own strengths and develop areas for growth

This specific learning result seems to be attained consistently throughout my DP journey in all three parts of CAS. I believe I've developed my leadership and collaborative working ability the most throughout these two years. For instance, the image on the right is the 'Sports Day Ref' experience. Before this activity, I thought teamwork was finishing my designated work. However, after this experience, I realized that the proper role of a leader is not to accuse or criticize a team member for their failures but rather to take on the part of leading by example. Furthermore, everyone should be comfortable helping one another increase our working efficiency.

2) Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process

The most challenging task among these CAS experiences was 'Sports Day Ref' as I was the team's chosen leader in designing sports day activities during this once-in-a-year event. As I didn't have many opportunities as a leader before, I cherished this event and worked at my best. Throughout this leadership opportunity, I’ve discovered that leadership is more than just getting others to follow orders. Being supportive, fostering communication, and understanding others are better than autocratic leadership. I believe that leadership is the ability to make each team member a part of something bigger than themselves. Leadership requires me to continually assess the benefits and drawbacks of how I conduct myself, communicate, and listen to every one of my colleagues. It has benefited me and encouraged my peers to be a better version of themselves.

3) Demonstrate how to initiate and plan a CAS experience

Planning allows us to define our objectives precisely. It forces us to explain clearly and concretely what we need to do to have the desired impact on society. By incorporating everyone in the planning process, we can ensure that we all understand our objective and what we need to do to achieve it. In the 'Sports Day Ref' activity, we planned and listed out everything before operating them. Since this activity required high participation and cooperation between the staff and the participants/students, every member of my staff team must be familiar with all the instructed plans beforehand. In the images shown below, we discussed face-to-face as a group, making sure everyone understood and was aware of what he was doing. We then transfer the conclusion onto excel or google docs digitally, allowing us to go through the plans whenever we want to. Sometimes, our instructors even printed out digital copies for us to help us familiarize the programs.

4) Show commitment and perseverance in CAS experiences

In the 'Internship for advertising' activity, I showed my commitment and perseverance in the CAS experience. As somewhat of an introvert before, I was very hesitant to ask questions, even if it was directed by my father. But as time passed, I noticed that the set had a very community-like feel, and everyone was very respectful and communicative. Amidst the unfamiliarity, however, it provided me with a sense of belonging. I was no longer afraid to make inquiries. I've learned to be more attentive and self-assured when expressing my thoughts with skilled professionals. Making direct inquiries with the cast, who are impeccably adept at formulating and communicating their ideas, has not only encouraged my thinking skills but has equipped me with the appropriate critical thinking and communication skills relevant within the film industry. These internship experiences allowed me to overcome being an introvert and have invigorated my interest in film production. They opened new doors of opportunity for me to grow as a filmmaker. My passion for filmmaking encouraged me to show my commitment and perseverance during this 2-day internship.

5) Demonstrate the skills and recognize the benefits of working collaboratively

I was the varsity basketball team captain for both my sophomore and junior years. During the 'Basketball TISSA' experience, despite excelling athletically in most workouts and team practices, I struggled with motivating my fellow teammates and steering them in the right direction. My aspiration and role as a leader have always been to help players to improve. I acknowledge the biggest fear that kept everyone from training: Afraid to fail. By relating my experiences of failure, I was able to establish mutual trust between us and ensured that we were contributing positively to the team. Self-training at least twice a week wasn’t arduous for us since then. After this consensus, my teammates have shown significant improvement in basketball. Through this experience, I realized it is essential to keep the team chemistry motivated as to maximize the outcome collaboratively since basketball is a team sport.

6) Demonstrate engagement with issues of global significance

When arranging my activities, I aimed to constantly relate even the little events to global challenges. I sought to powder the otherwise translucent threads linking my CAS work to the actual world by harping on the concept that every action has purposeful repercussions. 'Environment' is the aspect that I chose to include in my CAS experiences. My friend and I realized the importance of our environment after completing the 'River-cleaning' service. AS a citizen in Taiwan, we were highly aware of the "reuse, reduce, recycle" process when it comes to waste. However, after we finished this activity outside of school, experienced the tiredness that we usually won't have from cleaning up the waste along the riverside. Outside of Taiwan, there are many more countries that suffer the same situation where there is non-renewable waste all around the country. This activity helped my friend and I realized how important it is to keep our environment clean by doing the "reuse. reduce, recycle" drills properly.

7) Recognize and consider the ethics of choices and actions

I feel that ethics is addressed in everything we do, even if we are not conscious of it. I believe that thinking about what is ethically right or wrong and what would benefit me and others is necessary for life. I feel that ethics is essential for all sectors with collective participation. This consequence is critical in fostering collaboration and progressing toward success. Almost all of my CAS experience involved teamwork, this made ethics of choices exceptional crucial. For instance, in team sports, saying the correct words to inspire my team while stating the truth impacts ethics, as do many other activities I have participated in. The sport I played in, basketball, where the ethics of the actions we took among themselves had to be acknowledged. Ethical consideration is always essential when there is a partnership since everyone has various thoughts and ideas, yet everyone should share moral conclusions. I learned to always care about my group members to motivate them, disregarding the diverse CAS activities I've participated in.

Overall...

I believed I handled all of the learning outcomes effectively, implying that I got a lot out of the exercises, which is reassuring to know. More than that, I look back on the things I did and recall how much fun they were, which I believe is at least as essential. Although I think it is necessary to attempt to develop in areas where you are weak and reflect on your progress, certain activities are crucial for me to do simply for my passion and enthusiasm for doing them.

For future CAS students, CAS may not be an essential subject to complete; however, I suggest you find something you are interested in. This can potentially make the activities more fun to meet and enhance the further development of your interest. I enjoyed every CAS experience I had, and I will remember them by heart as the years pass on.

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