CAS final interview.aifc-10hlfez
Final CAS interview
Author: piroz86711@gapps.uwcsea.edu.sg
Kahaani 2019 – One week to go!
After I watching last year’s show, I decided to join the fantastic initiative that the Kolkata GC organizes to raise funds for the organization Voice of World that helps visually impaired and orphaned children in the city of Kolkata. In the last two months, dance rehearsals have been consistently taking place. Learning the dance was quite hard for me since I had never danced an Indian choreography. The most challenging part resulted to be the synchronization of the movements among all the dancers that required a lot of time and several changes in the overall choreography. Personally, I have a tendency to not rely on people when working on sometimes I really care about. From this experience, on the contrary, I learnt that sometimes one HAS to put his trust in others to achieve a bigger goal. I am looking forward to performing the dance this Thursday ( 31th January)!!!
EE Final reflection
Every stage of this process was for me an important learning experience that pushed me to grow both academically and personally. I consider my work to be successful because the whole process, and not just the final piece of work that will be actually marked, was for me a chance to really understand and deeply analyse a piece of cinema that is close to my culture and my country. In particular, the research process was really engaging for me to the point that my interests grew towards topics and areas of study that were new for me and that I got to discover thanks to this essay. While answering the research question of my extended essay, I realized many potential questions and further investigations that can arise from the reading of the essay: How is the Catholic church differently portrayed by Fellini and Sorrentino? How similar is the role of the woman in the two films? The process I went through writing my extended essay has been full of gratifications. If I had to give a piece of advice to a future student, I would suggest being really open to possible changes in your research question in order to narrow best the focus of your paper.
Reflection Culturama 2018 – Ethiopia
Joining Culturama 2018 was an easy decision to make for me. I joined the dance show last year and I enjoyed so much the whole preparation process that I wanted to live it all again. This time I decided to try out for the country of Ethiopia, which has never been represented in Culturama. I did so because I had never tried any African dance before since I was afraid I was not rapid and flexible enough to perform those kind of dance. Despite this, I auditioned and I got in. After few weeks the rehearsals started, the co-leader of the dance, left the group because of personal problems. A this point, Feven, the dance leader, proposed me to take the role of co-leader since I showed commitment to the activity. I was very surprised she asked me but also very honoured so I accepted. In the following month, I helped Feven to improve the dance adding new elements and coordinate better the dancers.
Being a dance leader was a responsibility that I did not regret to have taken since it taught me the importance of being a point of reference for other people. The dancers saw me as a person, together with Feven, to go ask to in case of any doubt so I took my role as a chance to help my peers.
At the end, the show was a success. I was glad of the fact that all the effort and commitment I put in this activity resulted to be helpful in setting up such a big show as Culturama 2018.
Second Reflection EE – Sep 2018
For several days I was stuck with my research question and so I decided to change it. This decision was a consequence of a later realization that my topic was slowly leaning more towards a sociological aspect of the selected films rather than an analysis of the technique used to convey their messages, which is what an EE in Film really should be focused on. Changing my research question made my life easier but less exciting. The sources available for this new question were more and of a better quality but overall the question did not intrigue me as much as the original one. After receiving feedback from my supervisor, I understand that I focused my interest on a detailed report of cinematic techniques without really explaining the reason why exactly these have been adapted to communicate a certain idea. My next step is to explicitly link the ideas that the films want to communicate with the techniques used.
Project week reflection- after the trip
Project week has been a life-changing experience. 7 days immersed in the beauty of Laos, hiking mountains, kayaking along the Mekong river and visiting the city of Vientiane had contributed to make my trip extraordinary fun. What really made this trip unforgettable is the service me and my group did with the NGO SEO Lao. This no-profit organization based in a Vang Vieng, in centre run by volunteers, helps local farmers with the work in the field in the morning and takes the responsibility to organise english lessons in the afternoon for farmers’s kids. As a group, we’ve been involved in both activities. Teaching english to kids and also people of my age.
Debrief of the year- Special Olympics Badminton
Here’s hyperlinked the document of the SWOT analysis (Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats). Filling this document helped the whole group of students involved in this service to debrief on what we achieved this year.
SWOT Analysis – Grade 11 Special Olympics Badminton – Thursday
Project week reflection- before leaving.
First of June 2018: the day before the start of project week. Our flight is at 4 pm tomorrow and I still don’t realize we are actually leaving for Laos. The time since the first meeting for the planning of the trip literally flew: it seems yesterday when we chose our service, our destinations and supervisor. I am extremely excited for the highlight of this year!! During these months of preparation and planning, I learned a lot in terms of teamwork. I understood thanks to the several disagreements we had in our group, how important is to arrive at a deal to satisfy everyone equally. I feel our group (10) will not have many problems, at least not among ourselves, because we created with the time a strong bond that allows us confronting on everything. The thing that I am most concerned about is my health. For the last days, I have been under antibiotics since I had a an infections that weaken my body. Since we will do rafting, hiking and caving in the first two days I am worried I will not be in the best conditions to enjoy the most of this experience. Besides that, I am sure everything will go alright and this one will be one of the experiences that remain forever.
Global cooking class…ITALY!!
On the 16th of May, I joined primary school students for a cooking class! Global cooking is an activity run by Risa, a parent in school who weekly introduces a cousin from a new country to a group of students from grade 3 to 5. This Wednesday it was time for Italy so Risa contacted me to join the class on that day. It was a great experience for me because I made cooking all the kids a recipe my grandma used to make for me: gnocchi. I must admit it has been quite challenging keeping up with 20 kids excited about the yellow-soft dough and contemporary trying to replicate my childhood recipe which, despite all the good memories linked to it, I did not really remember. Here below some photos of the day with me and the kids cooking (maybe just playing) with extremely tasty gnocchi.
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Z8Gs1b-ZTGbPwHHUC27PzMMkbSHTI_Z3
Initial EE reflection
This is my initial EE reflection. About a month ago, I had my first check-in session with my supervisor and, thanks to this first conversation, my ideas are much clearer now. The most challenging, but at the same time most helpful, part of work I’ve done is the final outline. It was hard for me to narrow down ideas because I had many and all of them interested me equally. In the end, I chose to focus on a film respect to another due to the greater amount of data and information that can be found about it. I’m ready to dive into the actual research process which I feel needs time and attention from my side because it will give me enough knowledge to start writing down the real EE.