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. 

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. 

To be part of something Great

Being a service leader, for Hope for kids, comes with a lot of responsibilities. Due to several cancelations of Service, we have had very few sessions. The last session involved splitting our group into 3 parts, and engaging the kids with activities such as Card games, Play-dough and Paper cutting.

I joined into the group that was in-charge of the play-dough. Seeing the children mould the dough into a variety of shapes reminded me of my younger years when i would play with play-dough. I taught a girl how to make a small doll with the dough. However, as these kids are quite young, I had to be careful with the tiny pieces of dough, as with intake, it can be very harmful.

Shenali with the youngest child in the room.

Tala beginning to engage children with the dough.

My experience at the hospital has always been more unique and special with every visit. 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.  By conducting new activities each session, I acquire and develop new skills of teaching and communicating with the patients. 

I hope to further demonstrate outstanding leadership skills in my visits to the cancer hospital. 

Hope For Kids - LoomBands

I realised with the first session of Hope for Kids, that as a Service Leader, my responsibilities will grow. I had to ensure that everyone part of the group was present there on time and was fulfilling their duties.  I was responsible for deciding which activities will take place on which days and to carry it forward by gathering the necessary materials. 
The first  day back to the Cancer Hospital was productive. We arranged materials to make Loom Bands with the children. As we had conducted this activity in the previous year, many of the kids still knew how to make them. This made it easier to teach them as they taught each other as well. We had to be careful as the younger children could easily intake the small rubber bands. I assigned one member of the group per two children. This allowed us to teach them with less distraction and to be attentive towards their actions. 

 Making loom bands with - Minul

Although I was used to engaging with cancer patients form the hospital, going back there after a long period of time brought back a feeling of uneasiness. Before going to the hospital, I had talked to the group about the after-effects of visiting the hospital and how a feeling of sadness washes over you. However, after spending the hour with them, I realised that we were the reason the children were happy. They enjoyed creating the loom bands, and were extremely happy with their outcomes. 

In this session, we planned and initiated an activity, learned how to work collaboratively with the patients and one another, engaged with the issue of cancer and how it is a matter of global importance, considered the ethical implications of our actions as the way we act at the hospital could hurt someone else, increased our awareness and finally as a service leader  this session taught me how important it is to show perseverance and commitment to the activity. 

CAS Goals 2015-2016

My final CAS Year of the IB diploma in DP2 will consist of costume designing for Bugsy Malone, Badminton and Hope for Kids.

For my creativity this semester, I will be part of the crew for the senior school production of ‘Bugsy Malone’ as the costume designer. With my avid interest in pursuing Fashion Designing as a career, this experience will help improve my skills, boost my confidence and give me more knowledge about the designing field. In the upcoming week, I will be watching the movie and sketching designs inspired by the movie. I will also be attending play practices, as this will help me visualize the designs on the characters and make changes and add items onto the designs. Costume Designing will allow me to showcase my skills and also help me to understand how the costume of a character is essential to his or her identity in the play. This creativity will help me increases my awareness of my areas of strength and where I need to improve, acquire new skills, plan and initiate new costumes and ideas, work collaboratively with the entire Bugsy Malone Crew, teach me how to design appropriate garments suitable for the audience keeping in mind the ethical implications of my actions, and lastly with my keen interest in the fashion field, I will be committed to my duties.

For Action this Semester, I will be playing Badminton. I have developed a keen interest to play Badminton and therefore have decided to continue playing the sport for the upcoming year. Badminton helps me to stay fit and healthy. Last semester, I learnt new techniques and how to play collaboratively with another player in doubles. This year I hope to improve my gameplay and continue to work on improving my stamina. Badminton will help me to release the tension of the week. This year I aspire to increases my awareness of my areas of strength and where I need to improve, work collaboratively with a doubles partner, develop new skills, and be aware of my surroundings and be careful with the racket.

For Service this Year, I will continue to work with Hope for Kids. In the previous semester, I enjoyed interacting with the cancer patients and was also able to interact with one girl on a personal level. Gimhani was a very talented artist, and I loved teaching her new arts and crafts.  In the upcoming semester, I will be planning and initiating new activities such as paper-maché, paper lamps and bracelets. This will allow me to work collaboratively with the group of students from OSC as well as the cancer patients.  By conducting arts and crafts activities I will be improving my artistic skills and also develop new skills.  Working at the cancer hospital, I will be dealing with issues of global importance relating to cancer and the depression caused by it. I hope to spread awareness of the disease and how keeping the mind fit can help in tackling depression, and thus make the course of treatment easier. As, I will be travelling to a hospital; I will be considering the ethical implications of my actions there. I will show perseverance and commitment to this service group for my final year in the IB diploma and hopefully also to continue working with cancer patients during my further studies elsewhere.