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I still remember the day I started my DP career and heard about what CAS is. At first, I thought it was simply about community service. All I have to do is pick up some trash, and it will all be done in a blink of an eye. However, as I learn more about CAS, I slowly realize that the situation is far more complicated than I previously thought. CAS requires students to use their creativity, the will to serve, and the ability to conduct action for them to complete their CAS. In my opinion, it provides a perfect opportunity for students to get away from all the exams and homework, and allow them to do something meaningful, that doesn’t relate to schoolwork. I was shocked by the system of CAS because it emphasizes the uniqueness of IB, and how much they value each student's learning process. Alone side with all the other tasks I have to do throughout DP, including TOK, IA, and CAS is the one that I think I can have a lot of fun doing it. Therefore, I am looking forward to completing my CAS, by following the 7 learning outcomes of the CAS. Now, looking back at my journey of doing CAS, I think I have become a person that willing to try new things, no matter whether I will fail or not. Before participating in the CAS, I was a person that afraid of challenging new things, because I’m afraid that I might fail. But since I have to do CAS, I have to push myself to do things that I never thought I will do. I will showcase what I have learned and become in the following paragraph.
1. Identify my own Strengths and Develop areas for Growth
As a student that continues to learn and grow, I should identify and develop my strength throughout my CAS experience. Several experiences can be counted as a way to help me identify my strength, to a large extent. For example, While I was learning tennis. Although I was having a hard time catching up on what the coach taught me, I do find myself becoming better and better at some of the skills that the coach taught me. I was bad a serves, I have to practice for hours to improve. However, I realize I become particularly good at it, and I rarely miss any of the balls. It was at this time that I know I am good at serve, I just need to practice a little more. I had also discovered that I am good at volley, at technics that were used to block the ball at a close distance towards your opponent. If I didn’t use tennis as my CAS experience, I wouldn’t be able to know that I am good at this. Therefore, by learning tennis, I realize that I am good at some of the tennis technics, which demonstrated my strengths and growth throughout this activity.
2. Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process
As I complete my CAS experience, I found several challenges as an obstacle for me to finish my CAS. While I was doing my winter festival fundraising, I had to invite customers to our club’s booth. But I was never good at this. I was having difficulty communicating with strangers, not to mention, I have to attract them into participating in our club’s activities. I thought I could never do this job right. However, my classmates had taught me some of the skills for me to interact with the customers. It helps me to a huge extent, and my problems were successfully undertaken, and by continuing to practice the ability to interact with the customers, I found that I was good at keeping our customers staying at our shop, showcasing my new ability to interact with the customers. Therefore, to a large extent, I undertook my obstacle and developed new abilities at the same time.
3. Demonstrate how to initiate and plan a CAS experience
I made several plans throughout my time doing CAS, and I will share some of them in the following paragraph. First, for me to properly learn how to ride a bicycle, me and my partners had to plan out where we should practice our bicycle, and how many times we should do it. It takes a lot of time for us to discuss and prepare for this, and I was one of the main group members that conducted the discussion. Therefore, the plan to learn to ride a bicycle can be seen as a way to help me demonstrate my ability to plan a CAS experience. My plan of practicing basketball has also fitted the criteria of planning a CAS experience since it also took me some time to finalize my plan of practicing basketball. The plan includes deciding how often I should be training for the basketball, determining the location, etc. However, I wasn’t fully showcasing my ability to plan a CAS experience, because I was merely part of the discussion, but not the person that planned out the whole thing. Therefore for these CAS experiences, I will say to a minimum extent that I demonstrate my ability to plan out a CAS experience.
4. Show commitment and perseverance to CAS experiences
Throughout my time completing the CAS experience, I had gained a lot of experience in commitment and perseverance towards CAS experience. These experiences, showcase my ability to being commitment student towards my CAS project. Although I don’t necessarily need to become good at tennis, I still tried my best to learn all the technics that the coach has taught me, and learn all of them the best I can. I think this demonstrated my commitment to this activity to a huge extent since I tried to remember all the technics and the ways to use them in the field. Another experience that I think can also fit the aspect of commitment is learning to ride a bicycle. I and my partners have planned out where should we ride the bicycle, and how often we should go. It demonstrates that I value this opportunity to learn about the bicycle and be committed to my plan.
5. Demonstrate the skills and recognize the benefits of working collaboratively
While I was preparing the props for the musical, I need to understand the importance of working collaboratively, for me to work effectively. While I was working, I faced a lot of challenges, because I don’t good at making artwork. I tend to mess things up to a huge extent. However, my classmates will always inform me to stop what I’m doing and do the things that I am more good at. I consider this as a way of working collaboratively, all of us were working separately, and everyone was doing the job they are good at. This showcases the benefit of working collaboratively, and I gain the ability to work with others throughout this CAS experience. Working at the clinic is also helping me demonstrate the ability to work with others to a huge extent. I and my partners were working at my best to make sure we can provide the best service to the patient in the clinic. I consider this a way to demonstrate our ability to work collaboratively since we do our specialty to provide patients with wonderful service. Based on the statement above, I believe I am managing to demonstrate my skills and recognize the benefits of working collaboratively.
6. Demonstrate engagement with issues of global significance
Throughout the time, although I manage to complete most of my CAS experience, and gain a lot of skills and knowledge at the same time, I don’t think any of my CAS experience can be qualified as a demonstration of engagement with issues of global significance. Since my CAS experience was more revolved around the topic of teamwork and self-exploration, I lost my opportunity to engage on the theme of global significance. If I can spend more time doing CAS that relates to this theme, I believe the outcome will be hugely different.
7. Recognize and consider the ethics of choices and actions
Throughout the time I was completing my CAS experience, I found the importance of working ethically, and this aspect can be shown in the time when I was working at the clinic. To produce the best environment to take care of the patients, I had to try my best, and make all the right choices and actions for me to be a good volunteer. I choose to clean the environment over and over, to provide them with a more comfortable space to sit. This shows my commitment to the job, and also shows that I consider ethics an important factor throughout my CAS experience. Thus, to a large extent, help me make the choices and actions that revolve around ethic.
To conclude, I think CAS is a fun activity for students to participate, in as a way to help them escape from the heavy work of the school, and do something different. I have several pieces of advice for the upcoming CAS students. First of all, try something that they never tried before. This will provide them a fun experience of trying to brand new things that they never tried before, which can be fun. Second, make every one of the experiences meaningful. These activities need to be fun and meaningful at the same time, so the students can learn something new from all of these experiences, and become more wholesome people. Now, it is the time for me to officially say goodbye to CAS, I will remember all the new things, such as the way to interact with customers, and my skills of riding a bicycle and playing tennis, as the most memorable memories during my time of doing CAS, and they will be coming skills that I can use for the rest of my life.
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