Final DP CAS reflection

The time has come for us students to leave our schooling phase and enter the world around us. When I look back at my two years in terms of CAS I believe I can safely say it has been a roller coaster ride. The numerous activities and the range of diverse skills explored have been more than I anticipated. Whether it was leading a service group, organising a massive fundraising event, climbing walls, hosting an awards ceremony or regularly acting for an audience I have been fortunate to have enjoyed all of it.
The ultimate lesson I have learnt through these two years is the importance of collaboration. Having worked in a team with regards to creativity, action and service I feel much better prepared for the collaborative skills that will be required when I enter university and embark on many new things.

Increased their awareness of their own strengths and areas for growth: I was able to achieve this by performing in the secondary school drama production at the end of grade 11 and grade 12. The experience I gained from the 11th grade production paid off and helped me perform to a much more convincing and believable manner in the 12th grade production and indicated my growth as an actor over the course of the IB diploma. 
Undertaken new challenges: With regards to creativity I undertook a new challenge when I agreed to host the oscars, an awards night at osc where students are attributed for skills designed to amuse each an every person. It was the job of the host/compeer to keep the crowd entertained during the short intervals between each award. This was a very new experience for me and whilst being nerve-wrecking it was thoroughly enjoyable and put my speaking skills as well as my whit in general to the test. 
Planned and initiated activities: This skill was put to the test during the fundraiser where I collaborated with others in order to organise a concert where bands from Sri Lanka would compete in order to achieve a treasured reward. This particular activity required immense preparation as it consisted of major plans and coordinating with students as well as teachers and members of the music industry. 
Worked collaboratively with others: This skill was put to the test when I took part in the  drama production during grade 12. I was given the privilege of working with students in the younger grades in order to help them grow as actors and in some cases I found much to be learnt from them as well. The combination of naturally acquired skill and new found skills through direction and collaboration made this experience one of the most fulfilling for me the
Shown perseverance and commitment in their activities: I believe that this is one learning outcome I fulfilled in all of my activities whether creativity, action or service oriented. This is mainly due to the fact that the activities were chosen so that I could enjoy them immensely whilst fulfilling my CAS requirements.  
Engaged with issues of global importance: I got an opportunity to fulfil this learning outcome during my service project. As it was a fundraiser that aimed to help children with cleft-palette disorder it helped me understand an issue of national and global importance. This was a holistic learning experience for me as it enabled me to understand the amount of good a little extra funds can do for children in the country who actually need it far more than ourselves. 
Considered the ethical implications of their actions: In order to meet this learning outcome I took a more active role in my service group which I became leader of in the beginning of 12th grade. This experience made me think hard on my decisions as CAS leader as all the time I dedicated to the service would need to be beneficial towards the cause. This made our decisions as a group more challenging and gave us an idea of what it is like to make important decisions that affect others around us more than ourselves. 
Develop new skills: I developed new skills this year with my regular gym sessions during the course of the two years. The gym sessions helped me reach a target weight and fitness level which was one of my main concerns in terms of achieving due to the intensive hours spent on homework in the IB. 

Secondary Production - Final Performance

Last night was the final opportunity for us to act on the stage at our school. It was a memorable experience and encouraged me to use my character to create my most convincing characterization yet. It was challenging for me to create an impact on the audience as I had a relatively small role in the play. In the past I always had either the central or one of the central characters. Due to the intensive IB workload it was suggested that the seniors only be given smaller roles. Hence I was put the test and had to make the very most of the relatively few moments I had on stage.

Below is an image of when I first come on stage. At this point I am in a neutral state of mind hence my vacant facial expression. This is an example of



The image below depicts heightened feelings of sadness when my character is on the verge of confessing for his crimes. At this point he is saddened by the events that have transpired and faces the fact that he must confess in order to save other innocent people from being tried and falsely accused.

Below is an image of me in action towards the end of the play. This picture of me is one of many outbursts of rage that my character experiences. This is the extent of his anger and the facial expression depicts the rage felt by him when confessing that there were others to blame.

To conclude, the play was a satisfying and excellent collaborative experience for me. It taught me some of the hardest aspects of teamwork and companionship. The atmosphere required to depict a court room in reality was challenging to create. I believe we succeeded and am proud of my fellow colleagues who were mostly younger than me and required the guidance of the diploma students on many occasions. 

Bodybar sessions - Progress

During the last few weeks I have found it increasingly difficult to do a sufficient amount of exercise on at least three occasions per week. Due to my increasing workload and multiple tests I found very little time to devote to CAS in general. However I managed to maximise the little time I had and continue exercising nevertheless.

Since starting my regular gym routine I have noticed some remarkable changes in my physical well-being. Since July 2012 I have gained 11 kilograms of muscle mass which my trainer claims is very good progress and reflects the intensity and commitment I have had towards my physique. I am proud of what has been achieved and I am hoping to improve and get improve my physical state as I progress with life. Through this experience I have learnt the importance of maintaining a good physique throughout life because only when a person starts at a young age can they achieve the optimum weight and stamina for long periods of time. Supposing I started later in life the initial process of motivating myself would have been much harder due to ageing, cholesterol and other factors to consider when people age.

Cleft-Palette Progress

"During the last three weeks the cleft-palette service group has been procrastinating and contemplating different ways of spreading awareness about our cause. We have been attempting to correct the flaws we had during last year. We had been told by our CAS supervisor that we spent much more time on fundraising than we should have and much less time on personally engaging with the victims of the condition. This lead us to devise a new perspective on the issue. From now on we will spend time at the Lady Ridgeway hospital while making efforts to complete the sequel to Battle of the Bands which hopes to surpass the total funds that we made last year for the victims of cleft-palette"

The above paragraph outlines what I was hoping to achieve with my service group over the course of the year. I can now safely say that we have achieved our goal a were able to create a successful concert with a good atmosphere and a strong competitive vibe amongst the bands was evident. Since the concert we have spent our time creating presentations and planning on ways to spread more awareness about the cause the and seriousness of it.

We have also planned a final visit to the Lady Ridegway hospital where we intend to notify the doctors about the progress we have made. Another goal we recently set for ourselves was to see how the money we donated the previous year has lead to to progress and benefited the patients suffering from this defect.

Creativity - Hosting the osc oscars

For creativity this semester I initially committed only to the school play but I realised that more opportunities would arise and it would be up to me to take them. A fine example was the hosting of the Osc Oscars which is a night where most students are accredited and awarded for skills intended to amuse each of us. The tradition has always been for two students to host the event and present all the awards. This job however entailed a lot more creativity than I had presumed hence I was compelled to volunteer for it with Giorgio, my classmate. The idea of inventing my own jokes as a means of entertaining the entire secondary school was exciting for me as it would enable me to connect with everyone in our society and bring them a sense of humour in these stressful times that we find very little amusement in.

This experience helped me develop new skills as I was entertaining people without being in character as we usually are when we act on stage. This was an unusual feeling for me as I had to be myself in front of an audience without a script for the majority of the act. It helped me understand and appreciate the difficulty of hosting events like we see on television and although the views gain nothing but amusement, the people on the spot have a much more challenging and sometimes stressful job.

The experience was a true test of collaboration as I was had to co-host an event with another student. As most of the act was without a script, we had to ensure that we each had our own contributions and didn't overlap each other. Instead we hoped to aid each other and act like two voices in unison so as to gain more appreciation from the audience. We achieved this by allocating different sections of the awards ceremony to each other and evening the the amount said by each person. We also prepared a little skit for the opening monologue of the Oscars (The only part where we used a script) which required collaborative preparation when writing the script.

The preparation helped me meet the learning outcome of planning and initiating. The opening monologue was a poem with a musical element to it which featured rhymes and elements of modern comedy. The monologue was challenging to create as we wanted to do something unusual. We had a segment that was dedicated to the event itself and the grandness and glamour of the Oscars. This featured more Musial elements. The second part however was a spoken poem in verse that was said by alternating the lines so one person would say a line and the other would follow after and so on. This segment was dedicated to academics and our jokes were targeting our students and teachers in a friendly way that even they would appreciate. We knew it was successful as the crowd response was very positive.

Wall climbimg

At the beginning of the 2nd semester I aimed to increase my action related activity for this semester.Although I have continued my gym sessions from last semester I felt it wouldn't be enough as my collaborative and interactive skills weren't being tested sufficiently. One way to do this would be to engage in the Wall climbing elective as it would enable me to do I something I enjoyed and keep my physically fit whilst being able to help others in the elective. Due to having done the elective in grade 10, I was familiar with the technique of climbing as well as belaying so was prepared to help the younger students as they hoped to become experienced climbers as well.

The first session for me proved to be significantly more challenging than I anticipated. This was mainly due to lack of practise over the last one and half years as well as a bit of complacency. I found it alarmingly difficult to finish even the lowest difficulty wall and it then occured to me that I too would be learning during this process and developing skills that I thought I knew well but no longer really posessed. I hope to this during the remainder of the semester by collaborating with my teachers in charge of the elective as well as learning by watching other students and helping each other overcome our respective weaknessess in the art of wall climbing.

Service - Battle of the bands

The highly anticipated competition for almost 4 months finally took place on Saturday the 24th of November. The concert was a tremendous success and the feedback we received was very positive. The funds will be directed towards the Cleft-lip and palette foundation at the Lady Ridgeway hospital in Colombo. We will submit the check to the hospital once the accounts have been finalised and the money is ready to be given. 

The process of organising the concert was demanding and required time and effective planning. The stage was at our own school and the audience comprised of members of the school (students + staff) as well as members outside of our school.