CAS

In Season 1, I had the opportunity to be a part of the softball activity that took place on Wednesday mornings before school commenced. Hence, one of the main challenges that I faced was to wake up early in order to make it for softball at 6:30 in the morning. Taking into consideration all the work that I have in all my classes, it was not easy to manage my time where I was able to finish all my work, get a good nights rest and then make my way to school for Softball. But, as time passed by, I was able to overcome that problem and complete all the tasks that I had due. Hence, the main challenge that I was faced with by being a part of this activity was the organizational aspect.

During the course of this particular activity, I was mainly able to improve the batting aspect of my game which I always thought was a weak point in my game. However, with practice, I was able to understand the nuances of batting and with time, I was able to get the hang of it.

In Season 1, I had the opportunity to be a part of a local service by the name of Lighthouse motor skills. By involving myself in this service, I was able to learn many new skills and qualities which I was unable to do so in previous instances where I was involved in a service.

Since I had been a part of a local service before, I was aware of the proceedings and what I should strive to achieve during the course of this service. Being a part of the service, it was natural that there were many challenges that I would encounter. First of all, this particular service consisted of visually and hearing impaired children and the main challenge of being a part of this activity was to convey instructions to them because they were not able to follow what we were saying. Hence, it was important for us to communicate via sign language as that was the only way through which they were able to pick up and understand what we were trying to get them to do. In my opinion, the main risk that I took throughout the course of the service was interacting with the kids from the school that we were helping because I was unaware about their likes and dislikes and hence I was also unsure whether or not they will cooperate with me. However, I took that risk and luckily for me it paid off as the children tried their best to understand what I was trying to convey to them without reacting in a manner which suggested that they were not interested in it. Although this was one of the major risks that I took, I still believe that one thing that I was unable to achieve was that of getting all the kids to understand what I was trying to convey as there were a few of them who were in their own world. Hence, I strongly believe that I will be able to achieve the goals that I set before joining this service if I am able to reach out to all the kids and get them to be a part of the activities. Throughout the service, I had managed to develop the skill of patience as it was important for me to remain patient with the kids if they were to gain most out of this experience. Although there were times where I felt like I should not be as patient, I held on and that has helped me significantly.

Since this service involved me dealing with children with special needs, I realised how lucky I was to have the things that I do today and whenever I start cribbing about something, I should realise that there are many kids who do not have access to these and I should feel privileged about what I have and not take anything for granted.

In order to connect with the children in the future, I should focus on making my points clear and communicating effectively. I should also be able to understand and cooperate with them as there will be times when they will be unable to understand what I am trying to convey to them thereby making it important for me to follow what they are trying to convey to me.

In Season 1, I had the opportunity to be a part of a global concern by the name of Leher which is based in Mumbai, India. Being a member of this particular global concern, I had the opportunity to learn many skills and develop any prior skills. In the previous years, I was part of global concerns but for the first time, I was a part of this particular global concern. Hence I could bring all my previous knowledge about global concerns. There are many new things that I was able to learn just by being a part of this particular Global Concern.

Being a part of this particular Global Concern, there were many activities that we had to plan. The big Global Concern group was split into three smaller groups in order to plan for the events that were coming up. My group was in charge of planning the football tournament that was supposed to take place early in the year 2018. There was a lot of detail put into our planning in order for the smooth flow of our event. Firstly, the event had to abide by the guidelines that were put in place as to how an event should be run. As the time for our planning had elapsed, we had to keep considering the number of people that would eventually take part in the football tournament that we were hosting because we were aware that there may be last minute dropouts or some more people would like to be a part of this. This was one main difficulty as well. Each group member was suggesting a series of different ideas but not all of them could be implemented because it is impossible to do so. Hence, we had to make a decision as to which idea should be implemented and we did so by analyzing the impacts that the particular decision would have. In order to respond to the changes in plans, I just thought of better ideas that would suit the activity in a more clear and concise manner. In the future, I would just react according to the situation as there might be a different problem that I may encounter while planning such events in the future.

Being a part of this activity, I had learned how to be perseverant, resilient and committed. There were many times where the ideas that I contributed were not up to the mark but instead of putting my head down, I had to come to a realisation that I must come up with better ideas and I was successful in doing so and if I had not persevered, I would not be able to do so. I had to be committed as being a member of this Global Concern, I was able to have the opportunity to help the people who were not as privileged as I was and the onus was upon me to show that I was committed to helping them in whatever possible way I can. In order to keep myself motivated to continue doing my level best, I just think to myself what would happen if I was in the place of these underprivileged people. This thought also motivates me to continue to strive and do my best for the benefit of these people. Since this Global Concern is based in India, it adds a personal touch regarding my feelings for the people involved as I am from India as well.

All these skills that I acquired and the ones that I hope to acquire will be integral in my active participation in this Global Concern.

In Season 1, I had the opportunity to be a part of the Model United Nations activity. During the course of this activity, I learned many things which I found really helpful.

I was a part of this activity for the last year and as a result of that, I had managed to gain a lot of experience. Since an activity of this caliber requires a lot of knowledge pertaining to the proceedings, I realized that I had to be very detail orientated in the speeches and all the points that I had made. Hence, all the experience that I had gathered in Grade 10 helped me consolidate my skills this year. I believe that I am good at making my points clear as they are clear and concise. I also believe that I am a good self-manager as I am able to take responsibility for my learning throughout the activity. I would like to improve in working together with people when we have to make resolutions as I believe that I have to be the one who single-handedly should control everything that goes on.

Being a part of this activity, I learned a lot about the way I collaborate with the fellow members of the activity. It was important for me to collaborate with the people in the activity as well as the people who were in the same committee as me during the conference. It was important to collaborate in order to get our respective ideas forth for the smooth running of the debate. The fact that there were so many points that had to be debated about involved a lot of collaboration in order to come up with points in order to improve and fruitfully contribute towards the smooth running of the debate. Some challenges that we faced on the way was that of the different points of views that each one of us had and coming to a conclusion on the what we want to be presented in front of the topic. To overcome these challenges, we analyzed the pros and cons of each point that was controversial and we had discussions as to why these points should be included. This was a good test of our collaborative skills as we had to collaborate in an effective manner in order to decide what points we should go ahead with. Some challenges could not be overcome because there were too many people who were against certain points that were made. In the future, I should focus more on listening more actively to the points that were put forth as that will not only help the course of the debate as well as my knowledge.

Through all the skills that I acquired during the course the Model United activity, it led me to actively participating in the conference and as a result, I was an honorable mention. Hence, I had a very fruitful session where I was able to develop many new skills as well as consolidate my acquired skills from the past. Throughout the course of this activity, I have also become aware of my strengths and weaknesses in terms of collaboration and communication since those are the two main skills that are required in being successful in this particular activity.