Me, Myself and I.

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“Life begins, at the end of your comfort zone”

This has been my principle throughout my life.

I am Priyam Joshi and I grew up in a convent school, but when I was in the 11th grade, I decided to take up a challenge, get out of my comfort zone and shift to an international baccalaureate school.
And just as the quote says, that was when my life truly began.

The opportunities that were provided to me, led me to discovering my true self.
I found my favourite hobbies like singing, acting, hosting merely by trying something new.
Meanwhile, I could also develop my existing skills like playing guitar, MUNning and debating by making use of the excellent resources that were provided to me.
But the most important thing that I found was my passion – raising mental health awareness! As a part of CAS, I conducted an event to provide opportunities for differently-abled children and raise awareness about developmental disabilities. While it was a just a one day event, organising and executing it truly impacted me, I was inspired to make my own start-up called “Make a difference” which continues to work for such endeavours!
This project definitely affirmed by ambition and inclination of being a psychologist!

Other than psychology, I have several other interests, out of which travelling and different forms of art battle for my priority. Having grown up in a family of artists, my childhood was filled with drawing sessions, road trips to heritage sights, pottery workshops and glitter-tainted hands. Consequently, I have fallen in love with exploring new places, and different art forms.
I have also peddled in classical music and dance, and to this day, still enjoy every bit of it!

However, the most I have travelled in through books! My love for reading has been catalysed through exposure to new people, MUNs, IB subjects etc. I have lived multiple lives, travelled to infinities and had amazing experiences just through these books.

As I begin a new chapter of college next year, I aspire to raise mental health awareness and contribute to the field of psychology. I hope to continue finding new passions, and living life with a positive outlook while always being ready to try new things!

I am confident that wherever I go, whatever I do, I will put myself further out of my comfort zone to live the true essence of a magical life.

CAS – A journey of memories, learnings, and fun.

I shifted from a Gujarat Board school to pursue the IB Diploma in the 11th grade. One of the most intriguing and interesting parts of the Diploma was the “CAS” component. Ever since I was a little child, I was always involved in some form of curricular activities everyday, so doing it as a part of a school curriculum seemed exciting.

I began my CAS journey by participating in activities that I was used to… like singing, debating, MUNning. I had a lot of fun developing my skills in these. I was exposed to new kinds of competitions where I had to use my skills, and identified areas where I could improve even more.

But as I moved on, CAS helped me get involved in things that were out of my comfort zone. I participated in sports, and activities which involved physical exertion. I learnt the importance of physical activity in maintaining my health, and also had new experiences of doing yoga, going for runs etc.

I also experienced the amazing joy of winning a team sport – Kabbadi! The feeling of unity and pride shared with your team-mates is a feeling which everyone should experience atleast once in their lifetime.

Additionally, CAS also gave me a chance to make the lives of other people better. I participated in various volunteering and tutoring, activities, book drives, plantation activities and other forms of community service which made me reflect on how privileged I am with the opportunities that I have been given. I also realized my duties as a responsible citizen of my country.

Apart from learning, CAS gave me an opportunity to become closer to my new classmates, I went on trips with them where I shared stories, clicked pictures, trekked, and had a lot of fun with my new friends in naggar! This trip made me get a lot of new friends, and create some fantabulous memories for life.

One of the most important things that CAS exposed me to were activities which made me realize my passion. The highlight of my CAS journey was my project called “Make a difference” where we organized events for differently-abled children. Through this activity, I gained insight into the problems faced by people with developmental disabilities and learnt techniques to make this situation better. I found my passion for working to raise mental health awareness!

Through this journey, I have grown tremendously as a person. The best part about this was that I learnt to do everything ethically. When I started, I was scared to try new things or to lead, but as time went on, I became a leader and faced challenges, learnt how to deal with failures, developed my skills in various areas like music, speaking, cooking, tried a lot of new things like kabbadi and in the end, created memories and friends for life!

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CAS Plan

Activities Components (C/A/S) Duration & Start/ End Dates Learning Outcomes
Young Orators 15-16 Creativity 1st December 2015 – 20th January 2016 L1.Identify own strengths and develop areas for growth L2. Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills L4. Show perseverance and commitment in CAS experience L6. Engagement with issues of global significance
Youth Run Synapse’16 Action/Service 26th January 2016 L1.Identify own strengths and develop areas for growth
L2. Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills L6. Engagement with issues of global significance
L7. Recognize and consider the ethics of choices and actions
Fountainhead School Model United Nations 2.0 Creativity/Service 28th November 2015 – 30th November 2015 L1.Identify own strengths and develop areas for growth
L2. Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills L4. Show perseverance and commitment in CAS experience
L5. Demonstrate skills and benefits of working collaboartively
L6. Engagement with issues of global significance
L7. Recognize and consider the ethics of choices and actions
Book drive for Youth Unstoppable Creativity/Action/Service 1st February 2016 – 29th March 2016 L1.Identify own strengths and develop areas for growth
L2. Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills
L3. Initiate and plan a CAS experience L5. Demonstrate skills and benefits of working collaboartively
L6. Engagement with issues of global significance
Teacher’s day volunteering! Creativity/Service 5th September 2015 L1.Identify own strengths and develop areas for growth
L2. Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills
L3. Initiate and plan a CAS experience L5. Demonstrate skills and benefits of working collaboartively L7. Recognize and consider the ethics of choices and actions
Trip to vansda ( Tree plantation ) Action/Service 18th July 2015 L1.Identify own strengths and develop areas for growth
L2. Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills L4. Show perseverance and commitment in CAS experience
L5. Demonstrate skills and benefits of working collaboartively
L6. Engagement with issues of global significance
L7. Recognize and consider the ethics of choices and actions
Trip to naggar Creativity/Action/Service 26th December 2015 – 4th January 2016 L1.Identify own strengths and develop areas for growth
L2. Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills L7. Recognize and consider the ethics of choices and actions
Make a difference – Fest for Special Children Creativity/Action/Service 25th June 2016 – 7th August 2016 L1.Identify own strengths and develop areas for growth
L2. Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills
L3. Initiate and plan a CAS experience
L4. Show perseverance and commitment in CAS experience
L5. Demonstrate skills and benefits of working collaboartively
L6. Engagement with issues of global significance
L7. Recognize and consider the ethics of choices and actions
Adds to add up – LitHum Fest Creativity 18th August 2015 L1.Identify own strengths and develop areas for growth
L2. Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills
L5. Demonstrate skills and benefits of working collaboartively
L7. Recognize and consider the ethics of choices and actions
Debate Competition – LitHum Fest Creativity 17th August 2015 L1.Identify own strengths and develop areas for growth
L2. Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills L4. Show perseverance and commitment in CAS experience
L5. Demonstrate skills and benefits of working collaboartively
L7. Recognize and consider the ethics of choices and actions
Singing in Kala Utsav Creativity 15th October 2015 L1.Identify own strengths and develop areas for growth
L2. Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills
L3. Initiate and plan a CAS experience L5. Demonstrate skills and benefits of working collaboartively
Kabbadi Tournament Action 30th August 2016 L1.Identify own strengths and develop areas for growth
L2. Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills L4. Show perseverance and commitment in CAS experience
L5. Demonstrate skills and benefits of working collaboartively
L7. Recognize and consider the ethics of choices and actions
Swimming Action 15th January 2016 – 30th April 2016 L1.Identify own strengths and develop areas for growth
L2. Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills
L3. Initiate and plan a CAS experience L5. Demonstrate skills and benefits of working collaboartively
What’s the good word? – LitHum Fest Creativity/Service 1st August 2015 – 17th August 2015 L1.Identify own strengths and develop areas for growth
L2. Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills
L3. Initiate and plan a CAS experience
L4. Show perseverance and commitment in CAS experience
L5. Demonstrate skills and benefits of working collaboratively L7. Recognize and consider the ethics of choices and actions

“Just keep swimming!”

“Challenges are what makes life interesting, overcoming them is what makes life meaningful”

Inspired by this quote, I decided to take up a big challenge as a new years resolution –> to swim everyday for an hour!

I am not a very athletic or active person, and would rather curl up in my bed and read a good book in winter than go and swim in the chilly water, however, I was determined to conquer this challenge and become fit.

I already knew the basics of swimming but started training under my coach, who was very strict about the methods of swimming and made me work very hard every single day. In the initial few days, I would come home very exhausted and drained and would sleep immediately…and in the mornings, my entire body would ache, additionally, it took me a lot of efforts and pushing from my mom to get the willpower to wear a swimming costume in the cold weather. I was very close to giving up, but since I had promised myself to try this activity for at-least 30 days, I continued going and stayed committed.

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With time and practice, my strength started increasing and I would not feel so tired, soon, I would actually look forward to my swimming lessons. My coach taught me a lot of new styles like butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke and so on, he also taught me breathing exercises. In this manner, I learnt a lot of new skills as well.

However, I realized that I needed to work on my stamina and also improve my sense of commitment as I would skip classes on some days, I also had to increase my strength for enduring cold and had to remove my habit of being lethargic. There were certain ethical considerations which I had to keep in mind, like making sure that I did not dirty the swimming pool and the locker rooms as they were public property.

Overall, I am glad that I took up this new years resolution and found a love for swimming and water! I also took part in a competition in the summer and have noticed an increase in my stamina, however, this activity also highlighted some aspects of me where I can improve.

 

Trip to Vansda!

A large part of our country’s population consists of farmers. Farmers are one of the most hard working kind of people, and I got a little taste of this tremendous hard work through this plantation and farming activity organized by our school.

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This activity took place in Janki Van in early july, and being a new student, I was very anxious to go on this trip because I was not a very active person so I was worried if I would be able to the hard work and also, because I didn’t have a lot of friends yet as I was a new student. However, I decided to take up this new challenge of planting and getting dirty in the mud with new people! And it is safe to say that I did not regret it.

When we arrived to the beautiful Janki Van, we were first shown and instructed about how to plant the saplings, how to get the mud and ground ready for the plantation, how to dig etc… all these things looked very easy but when we started doing them I realised how difficult they were.

While digging and planting at first, we were all very confused and bored, a few hours went by, and despite all our hard work, we were very slow and felt exhausted in the heat. Then we came up with the solution to divide the work according to our strengths, the people who were good at digging, started doing that and the people who were good at planting and getting the mud ready started doing that, so with this sort of team work, our working-speed increased.

After a few hours, even when we were very tired, we stayed committed and we continued working until we had finished planting all the saplings and all the work assigned to us, by mid afternoon, our hands and legs were aching but we did not stop working. After all of this work, we went to a river and relaxed there and had fun.

At the end of the day, I was very exhausted, and realized that I needed to get more active and increase my stamina for physical exertion. I also realized the importance of team efforts in getting a job done and also ended up making new friends in the process. I had to be ethically mindful as I needed to stay committed to my promise of getting the work done and doing it properly while using proper methods so that I did not waste the resources of Janki Van, I also had to be mindful that I did my efforts as a team worker and did not just laze around and let everyone else do the work.

One of the most important lessons I learnt was that of the hard work that our farmers do, I got tired in just one day of a small plantation activity but my sense of gratitude for the farmers of our country grew immensely. I felt a new found respect for them, and also vowed to never waste food as a lot of effort has gone into growing the food and grains.

Another lesson I learnt was the importance of growing plants in saving our earth, while farming is hard work, I learnt a new skill of plantations and realized that if we all knew the basics of planting small saplings, we could do our own bit to save the world from global warming.

Kala Utsav Singing ( 2015 )

Since I was a child, I have persistently participated in activities involving music but one area which I hadn’t explored was singing. This year, in the Kala Utsav held in my school, I decided to audition for singing to represent my house, fortunately, I got selected for solo singing. Considering that this was something I had never tried before, I was nervous to go on the stage and sing, but nonetheless, I worked hard for a week leading upto the competition. 5 minutes before I was supposed to sing, I started panicking but I overcame that and sang. I did not win but I did overcome my fear of singing in public, I was complimented by my friends. This activity taught me that its important to try new things and to overcome your fears. It was a new challenge and I realized that I have a lot of scope of improvement, which is something I have been working on since the day of the competition. Even though I didn’t win, I really enjoyed singing and I will surely participate next time.

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Debate competition for the LitHum Fest.

Oratory and speeches have always been something that I was good at, so participating in this debate was just another way to develop my skill.

When I participated in this competition, I was still a new student so I did not even know my team members very well, so I felt that this would be a way to make new friends while doing something I love – Debating!

We were first selected in the semi finals and then moved on to the final round. The topic which we had to prepare for was “Is competition necessary?” and we were against the topic, while researching for this topic, I came across a lot of new information which I hadn’t known before, so it enhanced my knowledge about a global issue.

While debating, I prepared my points and speeches in advance, I had to convince the other team with the most logic, instead of just fighting, so this helped me develop a new kind of skill for debating which I did not learn in MUNs

In this competition, I had to work collaboratively with my team-mates, unlike oratory and MUNs where I usually argue on my own, we did face some hurdles as even within the team we had disagreements, but we overcame those and were able to work together to win the competition!

I realized that even though we won, my arguments could have been much better and well-formulated, I could also recognize that working in a team was something that I had difficulty with and needed to learn as a survival skill for life.

While participating in a debate, it is crucial to have some ethical considerations, in this instance as well, I had to be mindful of the language I was using so that I did not offend anyone and also to remain unbiased and not cheat in the competition.

Overall, it was a fun experience where I learnt a lot of about a new topic and also made a lot of new friends!

Debate competition

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Oratory and speeches have always been something that I was good at, so participating in this debate was just another way to develop my skill.

When I participated in this competition, I was still a new student so I did not even know my team members very well, so I felt that this would be a way to make new friends while doing something I love – Debating!

We were first selected in the semi finals and then moved on to the final round. The topic which we had to prepare for was “Is competition necessary?” and we were against the topic, while researching for this topic, I came across a lot of new information which I hadn’t known before, so it enhanced my knowledge about a global issue.

While debating, I prepared my points and speeches in advance, I had to convince the other team with the most logic, instead of just fighting, so this helped me develop a new kind of skill for debating which I did not learn in MUNs

In this competition, I had to work collaboratively with my team-mates, unlike oratory and MUNs where I usually argue on my own, we did face some hurdles as even within the team we had disagreements, but we overcame those and were able to work together to win the competition!

I realized that even though we won, my arguments could have been much better and well-formulated, I could also recognize that working in a team was something that I had difficulty with and needed to learn as a survival skill for life.

While participating in a debate, it is crucial to have some ethical considerations, in this instance as well, I had to be mindful of the language I was using so that I did not offend anyone and also to remain unbiased and not cheat in the competition.

Overall, it was a fun experience where I learnt a lot of about a new topic and also made a lot of new friends!

MAKE A DIFFERENCE! EMBRACING DIVERSITY!

Proposal stage :
When I was in nursery school, along with me, there were a few kids who were mentally challenged or disabled, they had developmental disabilities. My mother is a psychologist, so because of this, I spent a lot of time and had a lot of exposure to kids who had these disabilities. As I was growing up, I began to notice that these kids were not treated well by the society, they didn’t have equal opportunities according to their abilities, and they were not subjected to kind behavior, so I had a talk about this with some of my friends who were psychology students and it came as a shock to me that even psychology students didn’t know about these kids, and how to behave with them and what they need. This got me thinking…so I researched and found that 2% of the entire world population has developmental disabilities.

I realized that education about mental health is scarce, and it is a global problem, as until mental health education is given to people, suitable treatments can not be formulated and also, people suffering from mental health diseases would never gain acceptance in the global society.

So I talked to my psychology teacher and came up with the idea of initiating a fest where normal kids could interact with special kids to learn more about them and how they live.

I figured that in this way, I could spread this message of global importance on a small scale in my way.
Planning stage :
I along with my friend from my psychology class decided that we should do something about this problem, but our first challenge was…whether we would get participants for this activity. With low hopes we decided to send out forms and surprisingly got an overwhelming response of people who wanted to get involved in our activity.

We then spent a few weeks planning a half-day activity which included art and crafts, sports, games, learning activities. With the help of our parents, we found a school called “Shree Nandan School” who was willing to let us conduct this fest in their school. We regularly worked collaboratively with the teachers of the school, with consistency, and constantly kept updating our participants to ensure that we understood every process correctly as there was a certain way that we had to behave with the kids. We prepared the schedules, and separated the 30 special kids ( ages 5-18 ) in groups according to their intellectual levels.  This planning was a new challenge for us, as neither me nor my friend had organized an event before, and more importantly, an activity of this scale regarding special kids and mental health.

However, we were motivated to play our part in spreading this message so we worked hard. One important ethical consideration I remembered ( thanks to IB psychology ) was to make consent forms for the parents of the special kids, which we sent to them 3 days prior to the event.

Everything was going smoothly, all our activities were planned, we had gotten all the resources, Dhyay and I went to the school 2 days before the event and helped to set everything up…but that day itself, our school announced that there was an important compulsory meeting on the same day as our event.
We got really scared as all our participants would be going to this meeting, and we wouldn’t have any participants at all, I called the teacher up and she said that she had already informed the parents so we could not postpone the event.
Getting 30 new participants before 24 hours was  BIG CHALLENGE for us! We didn’t know who we would convince, how we would explain everything to them so quickly, however, with collaborative work of our volunteers, and my friends, we somehow managed to get a few participants, even then, we were still very anxious about our event.

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Execution stage :

Finally, the day of the event had come and Dhyay and I reached there early, and with the help of the teachers and volunteers, we were able to quickly prepare everything and set everything up.

We held a minor session to educate the participants about how to behave with the kids, which activities to perform, we sorted the participants in groups as well and told them the work they would be required to do as a team.

Throughout the day we engaged in various activities with the kids. We would rotate the groups so that everyone would have a chance to interact with kids of all intellectual levels. Everyone worked collaboratively, whether it was making the acts indulge in craft activities, or whether we needed help in moving around the groups. Because of the learning of our school policies, everyone was also very careful not to waste the resources like paper, paints, colors etc. Through efforts together, the entire event went smoothly.

Creativity

– Puzzle making

– Friendship bracelet making

– Poster making

Action

– Cricket

– Musical Chairs

– Games

After all the activities were over, we spent some time just talking to the kids and dancing with them. One of the best feedback we got was that one special child who hadn’t talked in 3 weeks had spoken because of the efforts of one of our participants. We tied friendship bracelets and then gathered around in a circle to talk about our experiences. We got great feedback from our participants about how this experience had created a difference in their mindsets about mental health, what they had liked and what they thought could’ve been done better.

( We also sent a form later on so that we could incorporate these suggestions the next time we organized something like this )

 

 

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We got featured in a newspaper…So that was a matter of great pride for us!

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Organizing this event taught me quite a few things –

1) Quick thinking – This was required when we had to get participants 2 days before the event
2) Consistency – Throughout the planning of the activities, we had to be consistent with our meetings with the school so as to ensure proper execution of the activities
3) Ethical concerns – We had to prepare consent forms for the parents of the special kids and also inform our participants about what was expected of them. We also had to be careful that we did not waste the resources.
4) Appreciation – I gained a lot of appreciation for teachers, as I realized the amount of hard work they put in every single day for the students so that they have the best facilities.
5) Reflection – The teacher taught me that after organising such an event, we should always take feedback from the participants about what they learnt, what they liked, what they expected more. I took this suggestion and collected reflections and they gave me a very helpful and deep insight into how I could improve this initiative the next time I do it.

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A few areas, which I identified that I could work on, were –

1) Leadership skills – On such busy events, I realized that it is important to take decisions rationally and take the charge, which is something I’d want to work on so that I can lead better in future events.
2) Backup – We should always have backup help, and resources, for eg – that day we did not have enough activities and materials to play games with., so we could have preplanned accordingly.
3) Patience – I realized from my activity, that there a lot of people who have disabilities and are not as blessed as we are, and to help them and understand them, we require a lot of patience. This quality could be practiced in our daily relationships as well.Screen Shot 2016-08-19 at 19.28.19Screen Shot 2016-08-19 at 19.18.41

Final takeaway :
After spending time with these kids, I realize that society needs to work a lot on awareness about mental heath, there are a lot of misconceptions which need to be cleared and we, as society members need to do our own basic human duties to make people with these disabilities feel accepted in our society. I learnt that intelligence is a gift which we often don’t value, and we keep whining about things we don’t have, when in reality, we are truly blessed. Patience is something that is a necessity when we are spending time with these kids, but their response and honesty is truly rewarding.
I aspire to go into the field of psychology, therefore, this event was really close to my heart but I also realized that the field of special education was not something I would do, as I do not have the patience in me to give my best to this field.

 

Kabbadi tournament!

“Life begins at the end of your comfort zone”

I realized the true importance of this saying when I had to force myself to participate in the kabbadi tournament held at my school. My friends continuously kept nagging me that I did not participate in sports, was lazy etc etc so I was determined to prove them wrong, and for the first time, I decided to challenge myself by doing something which I had never done before and gave my name in the Kabbadi competition.

There were various matches spread over a few number of days. If you won a match, you advanced to the next round.

In the first match, I was blank, I didn’t know what to do, I was just blocking the way of my team mates, and I felt really bad that I was spoiling their chances of winning, through the first game only, I realized that come what may, I had to develop my strength and increase my stamina. I decided that I would start running or working out the next day itself!

Surprisingly, we won the first match, but I did not want to be a bother to my team, so I approached my team captain and he explained to me the rules of the game, feeling a little confident, I went to the second match! I was surprised to find out much team-mates mattered, I realized that to win, we needed to use each other strengths as a team, and defend ourselves accordingly, and by using this strategy, to my joy, we cleared to the next round!

However, now, I had to buck up, so I started learning a few skills which I saw on the internet, took tips from my team mates so that on the day of the finals, I could do my best.

Finally, the day of finals came and we as a team won the tournament! It was a great moment of pride for me, as I am not the kind of a person who ever wins at any sport.

Throughout the competition, there were a few ethical considerations which we had to keep in mind, we had to be mindful that we did not cheat in the game and did not intentionally hurt anyone.

This activity ended up teaching me a lot more than I had expected, I had participated just with the intention of proving my friends wrong, but I ended up learning how to work together as a team to become a stronger competitor. I think the most important lesson was to put myself in situations which made me uncomfortable, as this was the only way that I could grow as a person.

I am glad that I stuck to this activity even though it was a new and difficult challenge for me. It was conducted over a span of one month and if I had quit, I wouldn’t have been able to develop a new skill of Kabbadi, hence, perseverance and commitment to this activity ended up giving me great rewards!

 

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