WELLS MANGROVE TEENS

CAS Outcomes:

1: Identify own strengths and develop areas for growth

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

3: Demonstrate how to initiate and plan a CAS experience

4: Show commitment to and perseverance in CAS experiences

5: Demonstrate the skills and recognise the benefits of working collaboratively

6: Demonstrate engagement with issues of global significance

  1. Investigation

In grade 10, I took my first AP ESS course which I found to be eye-opening. Since then, I've been trying my best to make changes to the environment and contribute to making it safer and greener. The 'Mangrove Teen Foundations' is a non-profit student-led organization that aims to create a better environment, by planting plants. I found out that there was an opportunity to become an 'ambassador' for this organization at my school, so I decided to take it. I found this project to be a perfect fit for me, because not only did it connect to my personal value of contributing to creating a better environment, but I was also keen on developing new skills such as leadership, time management, and commitment.

2. Preparation

The Mangrove Teen project required a lot of collaboration between internal group members (members within the school) and members of other international schools in Thailand. In order to become an 'ambassador,' I had to pick a specific role. As a result of previous CAS experiences, I found that many of my strengths were found within creating digital posters and running social media accounts, therefore I decided to take the role to become a content creator. However, I needed to keep in mind that I had to be committed, and develop time-management skills. As a content creator, I had to come up with a timeline of how often I was going to post, what I was going to post, and a theme I was going to stick to. In a google document, I laid out a plan

3. Action:

I then created an Instagram account for the Wells Team. The first photo I posted required a lot of collaboration between team members. I had to get in touch and contact all my team members so that I could decide on our first post and gain the information needed to post the first photo. I then went onto canvas and created a template in which I added the name, age, and IB subject of every team member so that the followers of the page would gain an insight on who we are, and be overall more engaged. At first, it took me quite long to come up with a post that all of my team members liked, however, as I kept doing it 2-3 times a week, I eventually got the hang of it. Since the Mangrove Teens organization has many accounts from other International schools, I found it hard to come up with unique content, however, since I created a plan before, I was able to overcome this problem.

4. Reflection:

Every time I got a compliment from a team member or Instagram followers for something I had created, I would get really excited and feel accomplished. The overall experience itself taught me so many new skills. I had to step out of my comfort zone and meet/ work with new people. I also had to make sure that I was very confident with my own work so that I could post it to the public. The whole purpose of creating content was to ensure that I was able to educate others about environmental issues and the benefits of mangroves. Every time I posted, I had to make sure that I was advocating the right thing. All the way from planning to creating the Instagram account and the content has taught me tremendous skills that have overall benefited my self-management skills. The effort and hard work that I put into creating this were highly appreciated, and it was rewarding to see others gain awareness and insight on something I am passionate about.

5. Demonstration:

The pictures above portrayed everything that had taken place during this project, from the planning all the way to executing it. This project has been ongoing for the past few months, and will hopefully help to create change.

  1. The first photo depicts the ideas that I had of content I wanted to post.

  2. The second photo illustrates the planning process.

  3. The third photo is an image of the Instagram account that I had created.

  4. The fourth photo portrays one of the posts that I had created for Instagram, with comments and feedback.