The end has arrived....

Final CAS Reflection

            Two years in the International Baccalaureate  program allowed me to not only study a wide range of subjects, but also pushed me to be creative, active and serve the community in whatever way that I could do. As an aspiring designer being creative was second nature to me. I channeled my potential and skills in art and design to help me fulfill my action requirements as well as organize activities in my service group.

Creativity : Almost Everything

          Through my visits to the cancer hospital, I conducted activities that related to art every session. Some of these activities were puppet-making, bracelets, drawing, snowflakes, dream catchers, etc. Through this, I was not only being more creative but I was also learning new ways of interacting and developing relationships with children at a much younger age, and that too with a communication gap, as I was unable to speak in Sinhalese or Tamil. This gave me the opportunity to interact with them through art. By using art as a means of communication I was able to not only help children learn new art making processes but it also allowed me to see art as a tool that I can use in the world around me.

In addition, as I am an aspiring designer, I was able to design T-shirts for the SAISA badminton team using new mediums such as Adobe Photoshop. This creative activities has helped me increase my awareness of my areas of strength and where I need to improve, acquire new skills in new mediums such as Adobe Photoshop and during SAISA art with led lights, plan and initiate new ideas, work collaboratively with other members of hope for kids, and lastly with my keen interest in the fashion field, I was committed to my duties and passion towards art and design.

Service : Hope for Kids and OSC Recycling

            Before joining Hope For Kids for the majority of my time in the IB diploma, I was initially a part of OSC’s Recycling and Sustainability group. My experience in this group helped me to understand the importance and severity of global issues such as waste disposal and the essence of recycling.

As the leader of Hope for Kids, my overall experience helped me develop my leadership skills and understand how to deal with a sensitive topic such as cancer. My experience at the hospital has always been more unique and special with every visit.  Each time I visited the hospital, I learnt something new about the children I spent time with. I have always tried my best to be aware of my surroundings and to consider ethical implications of the decisions I take as the leader.  

As an aspiring designer and avid artist, I always found my strength in conducting art based activities such as making sock puppets, dream catchers and bracelets with the children. By conducting new activities each session, I acquired and developed new skills of teaching and communicating with the patients. 

Action : Badminton and Yoga

              My main sport for the past two years was engaging in Badminton. I believe that I have shown signs of improvement in my gameplay. I am more aware of  new scoring techniques and how moving around the court in certain ways can help me to develop and polish my skills.  Working collaboratively with a partner,  also my coach Rishika who is a more advanced player than me gave me the opportunity to compete and further push my limits and improve my stamina. The competition amongst my peers pushed me to undertake new challenges.   My improvement in the sport over the year kept me committed to the activity and allowed me to show perseverance and dedication to do better. 

As the Season for SAISA Badminton finished in Mumbai in February, I decided to then take up Yoga for the rest of the remaining time.  My decision to take yoga was heavily influenced by my breathing problems with Asthma, as well as an activity to help relieve the tensions of exam stress. Although this only continued for 3 weeks, it has helped me to focus on my revision processes, and helped me develop new skills.

CAS  which is an integral part of the IB Diploma has prepared me to become a successful leader, creator and active student. These experiences will help me succeed and achieve in the Fashion Institute of Technology, Class of 2020 as a Fashion Design student. I hope to continue engaging in similar activities in the future and cherish all the memories I made on this journey of the IB Diploma. 

Ommmmmmmm.......

As the Seasons for SAISA Badminton finished in Mumbai in February, I decided to take up Yoga for the rest of the remaining time. My decision to take yoga was heavily influenced by my breathing problems with Asthma, as well as an activity to help relieve the tensions of exam stress. Through this activity I will also be learning and developing new skills. 

My first session for Yoga was more difficult than I thought. I realised that this was this was because my body had become stiff due to the gap between badminton and yoga, allowing me  to work on my areas of weaknesses and strengths.  We started with basic full body stretching exercises that started with the movement of heels to the head. This resulted in my bones cracking as the air began to release from within them. We then continued to the Surya Namaskar, which is a combination of 12 movements and postures. We repeated this exercise 4 times and moved on to leg lifts and warrior positions.

Along with weekly classes, my mother and I have also decided to continue Yoga at home on Saturdays. This will act as a positive improvement in learning the exercises as well as body toning, and act as a motivating factor for me to show dedication and perseverance. As my mother has been practicing Yoga for several years, she will also be helping me with Breathing exercises that will help control my breathing. 

Art SAISA 2016

As a group of 8 students, we travelled to Mumbai, India to the American School of Bombay for 4 days. As an aspiring designer going to art school, the 4 days were extremely important for me to experience meeting new people and learn new media techniques. We travelled along with the SAISA Badminton team from OSC. This made us a group of 16 students plus 3 teachers.

We spent our first day visiting 8 different Art galleries in the city of Mumbai. This was a great experience as we saw a range of different artists using different mediums, from different countries and creating art of different genres.

Nisala and I posing for a picture while looking at an artwork. 

The Second day was workshop day.
From the three available workshops, I chose to join the 'New Media' workshop as I would benefit by learning the use of new technologies in the creation of art. The Workshop was very interesting and really got me interested into the use of mediums such as led lights and circuits to create are.

As the theme of 'Justice', which is  an issue of  global importance was the basis of the creation of our artworks. I decided to create a work that showed the Objectification of women in the media. As an aspiring designer in the field of fashion as well as a Higher Level Visual Arts students, I had always shown keen interest in the issue of the portrayal of women in media and the different perspectives that they are seen from.


I created this using Led lights and learnt a new skill  of using wires and batteries to create a circuit for the lights. This gave me a challenge as I had not taken physics in 4 years. I found this section of my work extremely interesting as it was a new experience.

Art Work; On (top picture), Off (bottom picture)

Me and Shivangi (extreme left) with Host Family

on the third day of SAISA Art, after setting up our exhibitions.

Bestfriend Rishika Narayanan from the SAISA Badminton Team

Wanna hear a pizza joke? I can't tell you, it's too cheesy.

For the service that I'm part of, Hope for Kids, we arranged our second Pizza Drive of the year. The fund raiser was a huge success as we sold out within 15 minutes.

We ordered 15 pizzas worth 18,000 slr which was donated by each member of the group. (1000 slr each). Within the 15 minutes of selling 15 pizzas, we made 12,000 rupees (plus 18,000 that was donated.

This gave us a full profit of 30,000 rupees. We will be using these funds to buy materials for activities such as beading, painting and most importantly putting together packets of sanitary essentials and dry rations. The large profit gave us confidence and also helped to make more students in our school aware of our service and what we do to help the course of treatment of cancer patients. 

Pictures from the Pizza Drive : Amira Holding a box of pizza,  A Customer enjoying the pizza, Aamir posing while selling the pizza.

Hope for Kids is not only turning out to be a huge success in terms of attaining and efficiently using funds, but after being part of this service for over a year now, I can proudly say "We are making a Difference". Visiting the Cancer Hospital every week has allowed me to observe the difference that we make. Seeing the eyes of the children light up as they see us walking in with tubs of goodies and art materials has helped me to form a deeper and more profound connection with Hope For Kids. Being able to see a smile on their faces, as they go through the most difficult phase in their lives gives me hope to overcome the minute problems that I face in comparison. Working with Hope For Kids has helped me to become a mature adult and to become more aware of issues that come along with cancer. Some of these concerns involve depression that have a severe and serious impact on the course of treatment of chemotherapy. 

"We are making a Difference"

With the strenuous and time consuming schedule of the IB diploma, along with the never-ending university applications, essays and portfolios, visiting the hospital every week is the best therapy for stress. Working amongst the children and being able to form a connection with them is so extremely important and worth all the time in the world. Although, not being able to speak in Tamil or Sinhalese is a barrier to efficient communication, it was only a small wall that I needed to climb. The children at the hospital converse with me using hand signs and by prompting words in English which makes the experience all the more enjoyable. 

As service leader it has been extremely important for me to not only maintain a good relationship with my group members but at the same time push my fellow members to do their best and give their maximum efforts. Working alongside Maya Dethebrew (co-leader) has been extremely pleasant as she has been part of this service for 4 years now. I have not only been able to connect with the cancer patients and my group members, but also successfully learnt valuable leadership skills from Maya, who I hope will take up my position as Service Leader next year.

With the almost end to Service for my final year in the IB Diploma, I hope to spend the following months giving my maximum efforts and making any change I can . Hope For Kids, does not only give hope to children suffering from Cancer, but it has given me hope to achieve and fulfil my dreams in the future, and to continue to serve in the society around me. 

Creativity is the greatest rebellion in existence. — OSHO

For the SAISA 2016 Badminton Team, I designed the Jerseys. In order to design the jerseys I had to learn how to use photoshop. This new challenge  gave me the opportunity to develop new skills. 

Girl's Jersey

Girl's Jersey Backside

Girl's shorts

Boy's Jersey

Boy's Shorts

Designing the Badminton jerseys for the SAISA Badminton Team of 2016 was extremely enojoyable. I was able to finally learn how to use photoshop which will help me in my future, in the field of Fashion Design. 

This was the first time that I had ever attempted at designing or creating both Sport Wear and Menswear. I had to keep in mind the different body shapes and sizes, along with how I can make it aesthetically appealing at the same time. Rather than write 'Geckos, which OSC's mascot, I decided to use minimalist techniques to say the same. I used the print of a Gecko and placed it on the side of the jersey, so that it goes around the bodice giving the illusion of a moving Gecko. 

Why are badminton players so loud? Because they are always making a RACKET

In the past two sessions of Badminton, I have been able to play matches with Rishika (coach). As an experienced player she has been teaching me ways to score and how I can improve on my stamina. Her careful monitoring has helped me develop new skills  such as smashing and fore-hand shots and work on my weaknesses such as long shots and long serve. 

 As I am shorter than her and my long shots are weaker, I usually covered the front half of the court. This gave us both an advantage as her long hand shots are very strong, and gave me the opportunity to utilise my reflex skills. It was extremely important for us to efficiently communicate with each other and evaluate my mistakes after every 2-3 points.

Travelling across the court and jumping to take a shot.

In conversation with Rishika and ducking while she takes a shot.

By playing with a player who is advanced in the sport, I had to ensure that I was keeping up my level up gameplay as well. This competition pushed me to undertake new challenges.  I had to  travel from one side of the court to the other swiftly and carefully without tripping or hurting my partner with my racket. 

Overall, I believe that I am showing signs of improvement in my gameplay. I am more aware of scoring techniques and how moving around the court in certain ways can help me to develop and polish my skills.  Working collaboratively with a partner gives me the opportunity to compete and further push my limits and stamina. My improvement in the sport keeps me committed to the activity and allows me to show perseverance and dedication to do better. 

The Course of Gameplay

The past couple of sessions of badminton have helped me to re-gain my stamina after the summer break. I was carefully coached by Rishika Narayanan (http://casrishikan16.wordpress.com/), as she is the captain of Girl's Badminton Team.

She has played both against me and as my partner in doubles, which has helped me to work collaboratively with others. I have been able to cover the front court properly without missing a large number of shots. However, as my back-court was weaker, I have decided to undertake new challenges, and learn and acquire new skills. 

As, improvement takes time and hard work, I am committed  to improve my gameplay and to become more acquainted with specific skills required to play matches. While, playing the terminology used for shots as well as the pattern of changing service was very confusing to me. This took me time to learn and become comfortable with. 

My semester started with learning new techniques of long serves and smashes, as these are my main weak points. Over the past 4 weeks,  I believe that I have improved on my smashes. Over the past few weeks, I have been successful in maintaining and hitting consecutive shots without feeling tired. 

I further hope to play single matches as it allows me to be independent and use more arm and leg strength. This will further develop my stamina. There are times when I feel extremely breathless and tired, but I still keep on playing. I am also slowly overcoming my asthmatic problems by doing this.  This is helping me to improve my overall game play along with my backhand and forehand shots.