My CAS Plans! First Reflection

by | Sep 21, 2020 | Activities (CAS), CAS, CAS Highlights, Creativity (CAS), Service (CAS)

Hello! 

I’m Teia, I’m 16 and currently in Grade 11, and I’m going to outline my CAS plans this year. 

In terms of Creativity, I’m planning to take my Grade 8 ABRSM Piano Exam in July, and therefore will be taking private piano lessons (ITP) at school throughout the year. Through this, I would like to increase my already existing skills in Piano as well as challenging myself and broadening my repertoire of pieces (playing pieces from womxn/ethnic composers, for example). Grade 8 is a challenge, and with all my other activities this year, I feel that the stress could pile on, but I have developed a practice schedule outlining total 3 hours of practice each week at specific times (Monday, Wednesday, and Sunday) to establish a routine in which I can maintain my practice. I would like to prioritise my piano playing over my classical guitar classes (which I am also taking weekly on Sundays) due to the pressure of my Grade 8 Exam. To challenge myself further, I would also like to try to overcome performance stress through performing in school music exhibitions such as ‘Unplugged’. 

When it comes to Activities, over the past few years Dance has become an outlet for me to build confidence in my body and sweat out the stress of academics. I attend dance classes almost twice a week at Studio De S in Singapore, sometimes learning entire choreographies with formations which requires careful coordination and collaboration with lots of new people (from lots of different age groups and ethnicities). Now, I would like to bring my love for Dance into my activities at school through Culturama and Kahaani. If I have time, I would also perhaps consider auditioning for the Dance Showcase! I would like to attempt harder and harder choreographies, as well as improve my own coordination and technique to build confidence in myself! 

Lastly, when it comes to Service, I would very much like to continue being the Chair of Ladakh GC (a student group that focuses on giving underprivileged children in the Northern Indian community of Ladakh a quality education), and I am very much looking forward to being the Head of Communications for the Service and Sustainable Development Executive Committee. I have had many leadership roles in the past, but I believe that my nervousness still gets the best of me sometimes, and I would like to learn more about different leadership styles and how I can best encourage effective collaboration within the teams that I lead. I would like to be seen as a compassionate, empathetic and adaptable leader! I would also like to go to Ladakh for Project Week (if it happens this year) and engage with the community that I have been fundraising for for the past 2 years in an even more personal manner. And within my CAS projects, I would like to put emphasis on the idea that the decisions I make are based on the needs of the community, rather than for my own skill gain or advantage. I want to raise awareness about tokenism and how it can be so incredibly destructive for CAS experiences. 

Over the course of the next year, I’m really looking forward to meeting my future self, and truly introspecting on how my extracurriculars are going to change me as an individual. 

Thank you for reading!

Ladakh GC: First Impressions and Ambitions

by | Oct 23, 2018 | Grade 9, IGCSE Archive, Service (CAS)

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23rd October 2018
Ladakh GC: First Impressions and Ambitions

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The school year is finally in full swing, with introductory units and final adjustments complete, and activities ramping up to season 2 already. We’ve all had adequate time to settle into our new places, perhaps returning back to an old routine or making a completely new one. For the first 8 weeks of school, I’ve been trying to adapt to high school life, and I’ve been trying a lot of new things that I haven’t done before, one of them being in a high school GC.

First impressions of Ladakh GC:
I’ve found that being in a high school GC is actually quite similar to being in a middle school GC. The only thing that is really different is that we students have a lot of responsibility and freedom, which gives us more opportunities to become leaders. I feel quite positive about being involved in Ladakh GC this year, and I do not regret my choice to join at all. The environment is comfortable, and we all have the space to share our ideas. I also feel like we are not unproductive at all, so I look forward to working with members of my GC in the future to achieve our goals (which we just set before the holidays!)

Our goals as a GC:
Our goal as we have stated officially is to promote Ladakhi culture whilst aiding the efforts of Lamdon school; this will be by providing necessary classroom materials and organising 1 key event that we will raise majority of our funds by. Lamdon school has also just communicated with us their plans for upcoming projects that they wish to undertake, and after our chat with Ladakh GC Dover next week, we are going to finalise goals for fundraising. 

My personal goals for the GC:
Personally, as a member of Ladakh GC, I really want to raise funds specifically for the toilets in Lamdon school. The school has told us that their bathrooms are inadequate and need to be renovated, so I think that this issue is definitely a priority, for obvious hygienic reasons.

However, for me as a person, I would like to gain something from my experience in Ladakh GC, and one of those things is knowledge of Ladakhi culture so that when I am in Grade 11, I will be able to take my project week to Lamdon School and work there. This is a very long-term goal, but my initial intention when joining a GC was to stay loyal to it so that eventually I could do my project week there.

I also really want to host an event this year. Despite not having been in Ladakh GC before, I think that this GC is definitely a place where I could grow a passion for the issue, and I think that by organising an event, not only would I gain important organisational skills, but I would also learn about Ladakhi culture and be able spread this knowledge to the rest of the school, just like our official GC goal states.

So, these were my goals and first impressions of Ladakh GC, and I definitely look forward to working with the team and accomplishing our goals so that we can all have a meaningful service experience. Thank you for reading!