Category: Grade 12 Equanimity

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.