CAS final interview.aifc-10hlfez
Final CAS interview
CAS
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)!!!
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.
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.
Badminton special olympics… the olympics!!
My service, Special Olympics Badminton, is getting ready for the most exciting event of the year… special Olympics. This event gathers athletes around all Singapore to play badminton and other sports such as swimming, football, basketball etc. Our badminton team started preparing for this competition from the first Thursday of May since the tournament is going to happen around the first two weeks of June. So far, athletes have been divided by their skills and agility into three groups: beginners, medium and advanced. Students have been also split up to assist the athletes in their training. I am one of the four coaches for beginners ( since I am a beginner myself) and, to be prepared for this role, I have been trained in the last session by another student who is very good at playing that taught me some basic steps and movements I can teach to my group. I feel that no matter what results our athletes are gonna score, what medals they are gonna win, the long process to get until here has been fantastic. As we are approaching the end of the year and the end of the service, I feel i have developed a strong connection with the all the athletes. Thanks to them have learned how much a simple smile can change a person’s day, because at the end of the day, no matter how much productive or studying you can be, the people that surround you, are the ones that make your day.
Service: Badminton Special olympics – End of season 2
Collaborating with the service Special athletes Badmington has been very productive and full of rewards for me so far. I think the group of students who volunteer got together a lot more than at the start of the year, carrying confidence to the activity and more joy to the entire community. I tended, during these last months, to get to know and talk with more athletes as possible respect to the last season, cause as I mentioned in my last reflections, I did not have the change to talk and play with each of the athletes before. I think I development good relationship with every athlete but specifically with some of them that I previously did not know. One issue the students still need to figure it out is how to improve our internal dynamics. Mr Hannah has pointed out during the de-brief session that we have after every service session, that he noticed lack of organization and division of roles among students. This is true so, as a group, we listed from now until the end of the year who is going to be responsible for what in each session, in order to not loose time fighting between us addressing fault but instead just working on what the service really should focus on.
I personally feel very engaged with this service now, and we are looking forward to organizing a tournament after Chinese new year among the athletes to have a community moment with everyone.
Badminton reflection – End of season 1
At the end of the first season, it is time do some reflections on the service that I have been collaborated with during these first 6 months of grade 11. Special Olympics Badminton has given me more than what I expected. At the start, I did not enjoy the first sessions because I found myself unsure about how I could have really contributed to this service, seen that I was not able to play badminton but things changed when I started looking at it from another perspective. My relationship with the service and with the Special Olympics athletes changed when I understood that my work was not just playing badminton with them but instead it was more about creating a relationship and a friendship while playing. Being able to talk and interact with them has become with the time more important than actually being able to play badminton and this gave me confidence and desire to continue working in this service. I personally took initiative several times in suggesting games and activities as warming up before playing. I feel my contribution to this service has been relevant bringing with my enthusiasm and initiative contaminating everyone that surrounds me. One thing that I would like to improve in the next times is trying to interact with as many athletes as possible, in fact, I haven’t had the chance to play and talk with every one of them.
Until now, this experience has already given me a lot and I am looking forward to giving and receive more from Special Olympics Badminton service in the next season.
Badmington 2nd session
On the 21th of Semptember I had my second badmington coaching session. This session it has been harder than I thought. My buddy changed and I met for the first time Tyler, a little 9 years old boy who with down syndrome.I worked with Valeria, another girl who joined the activity for the first time this year, to make Tyler play with us ,responding back to the shuttles and to the incentives we gave him.The main problem we faced was that after few minutes he did not want to collaborate with us anymore. After the end of the activity I was very down and discourage by what happen questioning myself where I did wrong ,why my actions had not a good impact on the situation.
Special Olympics Badmington – Local Service
Last Thursday I had my first CAS activity ever. I was excited but at the same time a little bit nervous since I had never done something similar before. I joined the special Olympic Badminton team, a local service that consists of playing badminton with a group of people with different abilities. I decided to join this activity because I have never worked or known very well any disabled person so I wanted to try this new experience to get the chance to know each other and create strong relationships with them. I’ve have been buddied to a boy for this year-experience. He is Wei Jun and he has an attention disease but not any physical issue. Collaborate with him has improved my skills in communication since I understood that the words are important but only if they are accompanied with gestures and tones that make the emphasis. This happened, for example, during the different games that we played: I had to call him several times to maintain the focus and sometimes using my arms to get his attention. My goal is to know my buddy as much as I can and to create a relationship of friendship with him. I still don’t know how to approach him in the right way and this scares me a little bit but I think that with the time it will get easier. I am looking forward to the next session.