Category: Pranjal Sanjay Bhansali

This activity was my CAS Project. Surat Ultimate Open, basically, is an annual Ultimate Frisbee tournament hosted by Surat Ultimate. SUO 2015 was one of its kind as it was organised by two 16-year-olds (Khushi and me), along with the help of a few adults. There were about 28 Open teams and 10 Women teams, who competed for the title of SUO Winners and SUO Spirit Winners. This motive of this tournament was to encourage more cities to participate and hence, we had 3 different slabs for registration fee so that every player, fortunate or not, can participate and enjoy.

We designed the logo for the tournament and jersey for our team (Creativity), we also served the players who needed monetary help (Service) and we also played in Zero Gravity Women’s team (Activity).

I have been playing Ultimate for quite some time now, and the game itself along with team cooperation is my strength. My goal was to perform well as a player, both on and off the field. As a team, we aimed to win the tournament for which we practiced together on fitness and skills. However, on the day of the tournament, I broke my leg and couldn’t play. However, I did achieve and fulfill my goals by being motivating during practices. Moreover, on the organising part, my leadership quality is a plus. Hence, I used this to get field volunteers and explain them their job.

The whole activity was a challenge in itself, there were tough decisions to be made, strict deadlines to be met and many rejections to be content with. Juggling the planning of the event along with school work was a tough job, but we did come across strong when it was the day of the actual tournament. I think, personally, it was important for the both of us to take up this challenge and assess our abilities. The end result was satisfactory and all the players had fun.

This project was a collaborative work with immense planning for almost 4 months. Vardan sir, Hardik sir, and Pratik sir were our adult mentors and they helped us with the whole process. The plus to this was that we all had different kinds of experiences and expertise, which helped us in emergency situations. Each and everybody’s dominant skill was used to its fullest to reap the most benefits. We also had a crisis situation during the tournament day, but because of Hardik sir and Vardan sir, we got out of it and everything was sorted. A few players were also quite unhappy with the stay and the facilities, but we couldn’t have done anymore, so they decided to stay on their own. Khushi and I were pretty moved, but then our mentors handled the situation and we were alright the next day.

For me, fitness and sports is a must in every human’s life, especially children. And in this nation, a lot of them suffer because of the lack of opportunities. They are stolen from a lot of players to be because they don’t have enough money to pay for it. In this SUO we wanted to give an opportunity to everybody and anybody. We worked hard towards getting things in a budget and asking players, who were capable enough, to pay and partially subsidise the less fortunate players.

Moreover, the ethical aspect was always there. The way we used the funds/money, the way in which we directed and guided our fellow volunteers and the extent of fairness and equality we showed for every player/team. During the planning, we were questioned about our high fee prices, but it was our responsibility to justify our reason because people are spending their money to play. These were the major things we had to keep in mind and I think, we did a pretty decent job in doing the ‘right things’.

All in all, it was a great experience, with a lot of learnings. There were many problems too, but looking at the big picture, for me, it was a big success.

My name is Pranjal Bhansali and I am 17 years old. I was born in Mumbai, Maharashtra on 5th March 1999 and was brought up in Surat, Gujarat. I joined Fountainhead School in Grade 5, and have been studying here ever since.

Basically, my talents and interests include- playing Football and Ultimate Frisbee, strumming Guitar, once in a while, debating and sometimes being a role model for a few and dancing. I mainly enjoy playing all kinds of sports and games. When I was young I used to skate at the state level, I have also been part of state level championships for Athletics (long jump and hurdles). Later, I gained interest in Football and have been playing the sport since grade 6. Apart from Football I enjoy adventurous activities and trying new sports; like rock climbing, rappelling, squash, billiards, table tennis etc.

I try to take interest in current affairs, but reading has always been a problem for me. In addition, to strike a balance in personal wellbeing, I make sure I do well at academics too, as it is equally important. When I was young I used to take Trinity exams (communication skills) and used to participate in oratory competitions along with spell bees. But as years passed and I got caught up with school and Football, I stopped participating in extracurricular activities.

Even though I am an extrovert, I can only stand a few people’s company. Many say that I am a strong girl and a role model for a lot of people. I strongly believe in self-growth and anything that hinders it affects me greatly. I try to take a clear stand in places where it is necessary and fight for what I believe is right. I am very short tempered and it does affect my relations with people, but I try to avoid instances like that.

There are a lot of things that I enjoy doing and the same amount of new things that I would want to learn. I did start playing drums a year back but stopped because I lost interest. Now, I think I am getting it back and I would like to play and learn drums again. Moreover, playing a grand piano has always fascinated me and my mother, apart from singing. If I get a chance and time to spare some time for music I would like to indulge in that.

Life, for me, is unpredictable, and I like it to be that way. I have always been a person who goes ‘with the flow’. I believe it is important for each one of us to think little about the past and future and live the present to the fullest. This has helped me in most places, but when I think about everything this way I end up procrastinating and not working at all. There are a few things that define me- smart, sporty, rage and lazy. As funny as it sounds, this is me.

I don’t feel for world issues too much unless I actually encounter them. When they strike me, it is not for long, I try to take a few steps towards it and then the fire is gone. But there is one thing I am very intolerant about, i.e. unfairness in the sports sector. I strongly believe in fairness, at least here. Everything that has been up in India and sports is not very pleasant to hear; but when the stories of athletes, participating in Rio Olympics came out, I was impressed by the efforts.

I would always want to be a person my mom asks me to be. A rational yet selfish being. Family is very important to me and friends too. I try to keep everybody happy and strive to fulfill everybody’s expectations. Like everything else, this is both good and bad. It affects me sometimes but other times it does bring the best in me.

CAS was the most fun core component out of the three. The whole idea and aim of this subject were very well inculcated in us by our teachers. Creativity, Action, and Service was done for 18 long months to help others and rejuvenate ourselves.

The first activity that comes to my mind when I think about this experience is when I organised the SUO’15. It was a very difficult task, but enjoyable at the same time. The sport is very close to my heart and I showed my passion towards it by working for it even though I had broken my leg. As it was a big tournament/event, it was tough to handle so many tasks and people at once. There were a lot of communication problems, sponsorship rejections, stay problems etc. but we tried our best to resolve it and give everybody a memorable experience.

There is a list of things that I have learned from CAS, most importantly, time management. Every activity taught me how important keeping things under deadline was and the ill effects of not doing so. Every activity was a learning experience and a whole new insight into myself. The Service activities made me more open-minded, reflective, caring and tolerant to the world around. In addition, I also realised how important being a good communicator and a well-balanced student was. Balancing school work, along with other duties and also, handling the actual activity in hand.

The 2 most major highlights of this experience would be Math Science Trivia and GSES’15. These two academic related activities were tremendously beneficial and fun. Both of them were group activities and we strived to work for the betterment of the receiver. There were a few difficulties we faced, like any other activity, but at the end, they were resolved. During the Trivia, we were nearing our exams and it was difficult for us to manage everything at once; but our supervisors were very supportive and took over for a while. Furthermore, GSES was a summit where teens were asked to get into groups and make a social enterprise. At the beginning of planning it was a tough job, but as we dug deeper into the enterprise, we got closer to our final goal.

The learning outcomes were really helpful in understanding the purpose and end goal of the experience and each activity. However, there were a few LOs that were difficult to achieve. For example- “Demonstrate engagement with issues of global significance”; most of the activities that I engaged myself into were either about working collaboratively or developing areas for growth. Activities that come under Service were only ticking LO6 off and I didn’t really indulge myself in Service related activities too much. But later, when I realised that it is important, I met all the requirements by volunteering for activities that would make me more knowledgeable about the world around.

It is said that CAS is the heart of IBDP and the most important aspect of “overall growth”. Therefore, I would like this experience to be taken forward. Although it has its own difficulties, the final product, and the experience, itself, is wholesome and benefiting. I am glad to have such a subject in my high school years, that made me learn and grow.

 

Activities	Components (C/A/S)	Start Dates (mm/dd/yyyy)	End Dates (mm/dd/yyyy)	Learning Outcomes
Football- Subroto Cup 2015	Activity	9/7/2015	9/9/2015	L1, L2, L5
Health Posters for School	Creativity, Service	8/10/2015	8/10/2015	L2, L6, L7
Making a Foosball Table	Creativity, Activity	1/30/2016	2/6/2016	L2, L3, L4, L5, L7
Jersey Designing	Creativity	10/30/2015	11/17/2015	L2, L3, L4, L5, L7
Surat City Half Marathon- Pit Stops	Activity, Service	9/13/2015	9/13/2015	L2, L4, L5, L6, L7
Math Science Trivia	Creativity, Activity	10/3/2015	10/3/2015	L1, L3, L4, L5, L6, L7
Photography on Teacher’s Day Celebration	Creativity, Activity	9/4/2015	9/4/2015	L1, L4, L5, L7
Global Social Entrepreneurship Summit	Creativity, Activity, Service	2/25/2016	2/27/2016	L1, L2, L3, L4, L5, L6, L7
Street Play- Awareness about Organ Donation at U-Turn	Creativity, Service	8/7/2016	8/7/2016	L1, L2, L3, L5, L6, L7
Surat Ultimate Open 2015 (Project)	Creativity, Activity, Service	7/15/2015	12/6/2015	L1, L2, L3, L4, L5, L6, L7

This activity was a group initiative. It was a street play done at U-Turn to spread awareness about Organ Donation. Basically, our main motive was to inform people about the importance of organ donation and persuade them to pledge their organs.

 

The preparation for this activity wasn’t very great. But enough for us to perform on the day. We planned to shoot a documentary at first, then finally decided to take U-Turn as an opportunity to get more people’s attention. We wrote the script in 2 hours and spontaneously, called two of our friends to help us in replacing the other actors. The hustle was real and intense, we did have some experience with handling pressure, but it did get onto our heads, later.

 

This group project was a collaborative work with Riya, Aarsh, Ronak and Vinit. We all had a reasonably decent experience with street plays, and hence, felt little confident that we would pull through. It was challenging for us, but in the end we did grab enough people’s attention and got pledges too. I wouldn’t say our activity was a complete success, but it was a great learning experience. People didn’t listen to us at first, but that didn’t stop us. We repeated the play over and over again to get more people.

 

Because we worked collaboratively, we got ideas and help from each and everybody. This issue has a global significance, as people all around the world face problems with transplants. We wanted to bring a change locally. By doing the play, we also did not want to hurt anybody’s self esteem or feelings in any way. We took into consideration that we go by the code of conduct and not hurt anybody in any way. Language and body language was a difficult hurdle to cross, but we worked pretty well and did it.

 

This activity, all in all, taught me to work well under pressure and overcome fears for a good outcome and experience. It was a fun, short CAS experience with a lot of learnings.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxAtRhr1ujGic3lxdElpdF9vbkk/view?ts=57a70d63

Global Social Entrepreneurship Summit (GSES) was held by American School of Bombay in February 2016. This summit was mainly for students who were interested in gaining knowledge about enterprise and understanding the society. Along with that, it’s amalgamation too; how each one is dependant on the other. I volunteered for this activity because I thought it would be a great learning experience and could also help me for my CV. Mainly, I wanted to explore this area/field and meet new people.

Firstly, talking to new people and collaborating are not my greatest strengths. GSES was majorly a combination of both these weaknesses. I knew I would do alright after a few sessions on the first day, but there was still a hitch. During the whole summit I tried to talk to more people and gain more knowledge about their lifestyle, as there were people from many parts of the world. This way I tried to overcome my fear of opening up to new people.

On the first day itself we were taken to Dharavi for a tuning in session and it was very challenging for us as we had to watch our steps and words. We were taken there to know about the enterprises that happen in that area and how people live there. It was a very unique experience and was challenging in a way that we had to move about in groups and ask questions in the local language. In addition, we had to make sure we asked the right questions as this was a one time trip. We wanted the most appropriate information with the least amount of harm. In the end, after coming back, we realised that the field trip was insightful and resourceful.

The next two days were given to us to work on our personal social enterprise. I grouped with 3 other girls who shared the same concern as me, lack of awareness about Dharavi. We then initiated a plan where we listed down all the problems that Dharavi faces and problems that we think Dharavi faces. With this list we knew our purpose was correct and the issue was finalised. We worked on it for 2 days and on the last day we presented our idea and won the “most promising enterprise” award.

Our social enterprise (The Heart of Dharavi) wasn’t a product or a big service, it was just a well developed Facebook page that worked like  “Humans of New York”. It was unique in a way that we asked people of Dharavi to talk about themselves on the group. Hence, this project could be easily extended even after the summit was over. And we tried to do that by updating the group with a few posts here and there.

Collaboration in this whole experience was a big upside. When we used to not work on our enterprise, we used to discuss about different social enterprises and talk to social entrepreneurs, who have successful TED talks. We went along with our enterprise as an actual business and hence, we looked at everything from finance to customers to marketing. This skill was highly required and we took help from teachers around along with our own knowledge.

This activity was majorly about doing good to the society. We thought it was important for us to make people aware about what actually goes on in the slums. No empathies. This holds huge significance in the lives of people who live their. Our whole idea to banish the perceptions was because we wanted the people who live there, to live in their own peace. We only wanted people to know about the real problems, without any empathies, and work on solving them.

Along with all this, the activity held a lot of ethical considerations. From the beginning to the end. When I first stepped in Dharavi, I told myself to not do anything that would hurt the people living their. It is their place, they live there and have been living there since generations. Our morals say that we should respect everybody and never hurt anybody even unintentionally. This is was all of us had in our mind every time we took a step and opened our mouth to ask a question.

All in all, this summit/activity was a perfect amalgamation of creativity, activity and service. Surprisingly, my efforts to open up to people worked, as I still talk to people I met there. Friends, knowledge, experience, food was enough a reward after we got to know that Heart Of Dharavi was one of the top 4 best enterprises in the Summit.

Teacher’s Day in Fountainhead has always been a big event since many years. Similarly, even this year FH celebrated this occasion very uniquely. Students of grade 10 and 12 prepared a few performances for all the teachers in our school and the rest of grade 11 and 9 students conducted classes for lower grades. In this event, Disha and Khushali (organisers), decided to have a photo booth to capture all the memories for the teachers, and considering my keenness for photography I happily volunteered. Basically, we (Yug and I) set a photo booth with funky props in a designated area, so that all the teachers could come with their squad and get their pictures clicked.

Photography has always been my strength and in this activity I used the best of my interest to help the organisers and the teachers. People say that photography can never be aced in the first try, and practice is necessary. Even though this opportunity wasn’t the most appropriate one to practice the kind of photography I like, I grabbed it anyway as a learning experience. I did identify my strength and learnt a few new things from Yug, my partner in this activity.

This activity/sector was all on Yug and me. We had to be sorted and planned for everything, from setting to props to lighting. Therefore, it was important for us to be committed to the responsibility given to us. I am not a person who can focus on one thing at one time and so it becomes very difficult for me to give my 100% time and energy in the task at hand. But I somehow did manage to give my attention and patience for this particular activity, as my passion was playing a major role.

I had a lot of different ideas for the working of this activity, but because I was working with people, I had to consider their opinions as well. Moreover, there were people above me, so it was important for me to abide by some guidelines and work under a certain decorum. These were my personal ethics playing role, which was a positive as at the end of day all the decisions were made correctly and everybody was happy.

Therefore, working collaboratively and abiding by my ethics, to let people take the upper-hand, helped me enjoy and learn from this CAS experience.

Maths Science Trivia is an annual quiz held for senior school (grade 7-10). This quiz has been held for 3 years and this year was the 4th edition. For this year’s trivia, the teachers decided to give the opportunity, to conduct and host, to the students. We were a group of 4-5 people who volunteered to conduct the quiz for Grade 9 and 10.

Basically, my goals for this activity were to enhance my Math and Science skills, and to use my prior understanding to enhance somebody else’s knowledge. The quiz was divided into 2 rounds, where, in the 1st round everybody from both the grades had to participate (mandatorily) for a quick test, and then 2 winners from each grade and house were sent to the 2nd round (final trivia).

In this activity, my biggest strength and weakness, Math and working collaboratively, were put together. I think I did a pretty decent job in showing off my strength, as I made sure I had put in enough efforts from my side while making the test and the final presentation (for the quiz). Moreover, my weakness to handle audience and work with people was looked after once I made myself feel comfortable. Because we had to work on making the quiz and hosting it, hence it became very difficult and crucial for us to have everything sorted.

The activity was planned in such a way that the work is divided into stages and assigned to different people. We made sure that out of the 4 people making the final presentation, each one of us get our area of strength/ interest. We did have problems in getting things done under the time set, but we made sure we didn’t push the deadline too far. Coordination with the teachers was also a task as they had their classes and other work. Initiating this task wasn’t easy but the outcome was satisfying and good.

Moreover, we had to abide by the plan. Personally, I had to be committed to the deadline of adding all Math questions in the sheet that was shared with us. Adding to that, because we were working in bits and not in one go, we had to be persistent with our quality and quantity of work.

The biggest plus of this activity was that teacher volunteers and students, both, had different areas of interest/strength/specialisation which was good in a way that we got insights from different people with different background knowledge. This collaboration helped me in getting  different kinds of views on a problem, also more number of problems (questions).

It was very important for us to be ethical- academic honesty- while making the test and presentation. We used many questions and pictures from the internet and to acknowledge it was very important. We took a very easy step where we kept adding links in the same sheet where we added the questions. Hence, it made our work very easy. It is very important to acknowledge somebody else’s work.

This activity was an interesting one. I got to learn new things, show off my knowledge and overcome my stage fright. This activity also taught me to manage time and collaborate effectively to get the most out of everybody’s potential. Hence, I think the things I accomplished here will help me in other group activities.

My friend, Harshil, and I had volunteered to design a jersey for our Ultimate team (Zero Gravity). Our team did not have a personal jersey, for a long time, and so we thought it was important for us to design a new one. We wanted to make something very cool, and so in the end we decided to go superhero themed. Once we started working we realised that it was not possible for us to design the jersey, so we took help from Khusbhu Thakur.

This activity taught me immense time management skills. We had been running late for all our deadlines as we did not prioritise. Later, we pulled up our socks and finished it considerably late. But, the upside was that Khusbhu ma’am and Harshil were very cooperative and worked even during the holidays (including me). Even though we got the jersey on the day of the tournament, we were happy that we could design such an amazing jersey for our fellow players.

The one thing that this activity taught me was to be committed to work/ people all the time. Had we left working during our holidays, we wouldn’t have seen so many happy faces. We raised people’s excitement even before we started working, just by saying “we are designing a new Superhero themed jersey for 0G”. Therefore, it became a serious task for us to reach their high hopes.

The cost price of the jerseys were 450 and 650, but we sold them at 500 and 700, respectively, to gain some funds for Jhumbish. We got a decent amount of Rs. 3000/- by the end, but then we encountered a problem. A few people’s jerseys were misplaced even before they got them and so we had to make sure we repaid them. This taught me the second like lesson of being ethical at all times. We repaid them the complete amount and did not take any money for funds.

In a nutshell, this activity was fun and riveting. I got to see many happy faces.

 

SCHM hosted their first ever race on 13th September 2015 and a few of us volunteered to help them at the pit stops, to provide energy drinks and water bottles to the runners. We were very excited about the whole event and reached our venue in time. But, to our surprise, our pit stop wasn’t as fascinating as everybody else’s, we just had small tables and only water bottles as supplies. However, this didn’t really stop us from frantically jumping around the road in wait of the runners.

This activity definitely taught me a very important skill of multitasking. During the event all of us were opening up boxes, preparing the table, uncapping the bottles, passing them to the runners and hooting for their encouragement, all at the same time. It was a tiring job, but the excitement didn’t give us any negative feelings.

This activity helped all the runners a lot. We were not only providing them water, we were giving them pure motivation to run and finish their goal. In the end we went to another pit stop to give the runners a refreshing water bath. The happiness was enough of a reward for us.

There were runners from ages 12 to 70 and it was more motivating for us than astonishing. This was a life lesson I learnt. ‘There is no age for your passion (sports)’. This activity has changed me for better, at least it gave me some motivation to wake up early and practice for something that I am really passionate about.