Grade 12 Equanimity – Page 16

FLASHMOB

March 29, 2016 Sahil Ramesh Juneja Sahil Ramesh Juneja

This was my first experience of doing a dance performance.My friends planned this activity and I participated in it . The aim of this activity was to spread awareness about various Global issues and spreading awareness about the importance of our indian festivals. We planned to do a dance performance followed by drama along with posters and flashcard giving clear message about the disease or problems people face in life.Which helped us to achieve our aim.

We performed at three different occasions :

Janmashtami(VR mall)

Here we performed a dance on lord krishna’s song followed by a skit on women empowerment.

Teacher’s day(VR mall)

Here we performed a dance to attract people followed by a skit on appling people to donate organs.

The garba fest ( in school) .

Here we performed a dance on famous various songs.

This was really important for me as it gave me confidence to perform in front of such a large audience.While doing this activity I was able to learn new dance forms like we did hip hop, garba we also did contemporary. As this was my first time it was very challenging for me to perform in such a large audience and also the training which we undergo was a tough job for me.

While doing this activity I found that I was not able perform dance steps properly as dancing was one of my weakness and was out of my comfort zone however after the performance it’s no longer like that as now I’ve gained more confidence to perform and also have improved on my stamina in doing such tiring jobs which has now become my strength in doing various things.And also this activity required a lot of commitment and perseverance as learning a new form of dance is not an easy task.I suffered a lot through this training phases as i’am not a regular dancer I got a lot of injuries while training.

This activity also required a lot of collaboration as it was a group performance and so if anybody does a single step wrong the whole group suffered and so we paid lot of attention on this thing.And also we paid a lot of attention on ethics while we were planning for drama. So we created such script in which we don’t hurt any sentiments of people’s religion ,cast ,creed ,etc and still make the message loud and clear. In our dramas we talked about women empowerment, importance of organ donation etc. At the end the event was successful enough and also the experience was a major learning for life.

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Literature and Humanities Fest- CAS PROJECT

March 29, 2016 Riya Hitesh Shah Riya Hitesh Shah

PROPOSAL STAGE:

It all began is 2015 year start, when I had a talk with our Language Team leader, Miss Subhlaxmi Iyer, about introducing a Literature and Humanities Fest in our school for the middle and senior years. To my delight, the proposal was accepted, and I knew from that moment on that this would be one historic and most remembered events of my life, because I was planning to be involved in it right from the proposal stage to the final execution.

Very soon, I got news that I was selected as the Event coordinator for this event… well, I was really excited about it, but I felt I just had a very huge responsibility on my shoulders beginning now. I had organised events in my school first, so I knew neither me nor my teachers doubted my experience in management, but what was worrying me was, that amidst the challenges of the IB diploma programme, would I be able to be consistent in my actions and give my best to the event?

To my relief, I wasn’t alone. My senior, Diya and I were together held responsible for this event. I am always someone who likes doing everything by myself, but I soon realised that in order to be effective and consistent, we required immense understanding within us, and needed to divide our work wherever necessary.

PLANNING STAGE:

In order to organise this big of an event, it was necessary for us to be very organised and hardworking, both that don’t come naturally to me. However, before planning for the event started, I penned down my priorities and assigned myself a checklist which consisted of my expectations from myself through this event.

The most important thing for me at first was to befriend and understand Diya. It was imperative for us to know each other’s strengths and weaknesses in order to work synergically. Turned out, over the course of the event, we became really great friends and it was honestly so much simpler to deal with all the crisis and work that came our way, together.

After thorough planning, we decided on the activities that will be held throughout the two days, held interviews, and assigned segment coordinators to these activities, but well, easier said than done. I had a lot of pressure on me to choose the segment coordinators. My position demanded objectivity out of me, there was very little room for me to choose people who I liked and not someone who was worthy of the position being offered. One such prominent incident was when I had to choose between my friend and someone I didn’t really like as an activity incharge. Deep down inside, I knew that the one I didn’t like was more capable, but I constantly made excuses like “It’s better if I choose someone I like so that you know, I can work better with them.” It was true to a certain extent, and I knew I had my friendship at stake but when I choose the better person for the work, maybe I think I lost my friendship to a certain extent, but it really did make me feel proud of the decision I had just made. It was a light of maturity that I had achieved already through this event. However, In order to be on top of all things, we came early to school for about 2 weeks everyday and held one to one meetings with all segment coordinators. Doing this was really challenging because this meant about 10 hrs in school. I had to sacrifice my sleep for a lot of days in order to manage both my academics and the event.

The most difficult thing was consistency, this wasn’t an event wherein you take out a day and complete everything. It required time and efforts over a long period of time. For example, simultaneous to our Lit fest, there was going to be an Arts Fest. This demanded that our timetables were set harmoniously so that students could take the most off both events. The trouble began when the event coordinators of Arts Fest did not make their time table for a very long time, we had to follow back with them everyday for about 3 weeks! I lost my temper multiple times but I still never stopped asking them each and every day if the timetable was made. Eventually they gave in and our timetable was made in about a day.

The biggest crisis was faced just 3 days before the event. After posting students selections on the blog, we started getting SO many grade 7 and 8 emails saying their name wasn’t there anywhere. We realized that there was a technological flaw and none of their responses were recorded. It was devastating and panicky, we didn’t know what to do now! Just then Diya and I sat down together and started brainstorming. Her support really made me calm and helped me think out of the box for solutions. Together we decided to keep a session with Grade 7 and 8, and sorted things out with grace. With that, our 1 month’s hard work and perseverance was almost coming to end, soon it was THE day!

EXECUTION:

I couldn’t have any complaints with the two days! They were flawless! Our determination grit and hard work was clearly reflected! I began with giving a speech and guiding the students through the two days, while Diya checked all the venues and made sure individual events ran smoothly. It was a fabulous team effort and the greatest thing wasn’t it’s success but Diya and my friendship.

FINAL TAKE AWAY:
This event was crucial in my learnings about time management and crisis handling. I had also realized an area that I can work upon, it was that being in leadership positions did NOT essentially mean being loud and bossy, in fact it meant being strategic and calm.

Given a chance, I would take up this activity next year as well, and this time I would keep in mind 3 very important things:

1. Portray true leadership skills

2. Market this fest so well that people can do nothing but just wait for an event like this

3. Change perceptions about language, literature and humanities in not only minds of the students but also parents.

With that, I believe this was in fact a wonderful and enriching experience for me in organizing and for students in participating. Looking forward to more such challenges that force me to grow as a person everyday 🙂

EVIDENCE:

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Playing Football for Subroto Cup and SGFI

March 29, 2016 Vanshika Manoj Agarwal Vanshika Manoj Agarwal

The football camps started with the advent of the new academic year. The team had already been informed of the upcoming district tournament however, most of the players were irregular with their attendance. Since it was a new team and field for me, it took me some time to adjust and coordinate with my new team. During the morning training sessions, when I cribbed about people not turning up for practices, I realised that circumstances will hardly ever adjust themselves according to my needs and that to work in a team, we needed to not just criticise but to listen and learn to adjust according to everyone’s requirements. Meanwhile, the real problem was that the position that I originally played already had players in place and that there was another position that required

During the morning training sessions, when I cribbed about people not turning up for practices, I realised that circumstances will hardly ever adjust themselves according to my needs and that to work in a team, we needed to not just criticise but to listen and learn to adjust according to everyone’s requirements. Meanwhile, the real problem was that the position that I originally played already had players in place and that there was another position that required to be filled. Not wanting to mess up the team’s general rhythm, I volunteered to play at a position I had never played before. I was assigned to play as the main defence. The first task was to learn to coordinate with everyone on the team. I realised that I had to develop overall as a player and not only brush up my football skills. The position came with a lot of responsibility that I had to undertake.

Guiding the team to ideal locations take shots from was one of those. I learnt many better ways of coordination with the team and being a defender only helped me to enhance my football skills. During the days following up to the state tournament, the 11th Grade along with the rest of the team made it a point to come regularly for the morning training sessions no matter what. There were times when some of us weren’t allowed to board the early bus and other times when there was too much workload however we overcame all those challenges together as a team. The best part of working collaboratively was that all the required permissions were obtained easily when the entire team went to the coordinators as one voice.

Working with the team also taught us how to be selfless, courageous and to not get disheartened on small losses. Playing football also made me realise the code of conduct I need to maintain at a personal level. It taught me the kind of discipline that is required to a play a sport ethically. However, we came across a dilemma when we were faced by a team of very young girls playing for U-17. We didn’t know whether we were supposed to play an easy game or play tough to secure our positions for the state championship. The entire team unanimously decided to go with their gut and play at a certain level that the opponent team would benefit out of the match however not play rough at all because we realised that winning by defeating and probably injuring those little girls wouldn’t be winning at all. We played ethically and got selected for the state tournament and stood as runners up there.

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Bal mela

March 28, 2016 Unnati Tarun Agrawal Unnati Tarun Agrawal

This was an activity that I was very familiar with but it was the first time that I had actually volunteered for it. Bal mela is an event that is hosted every year by fountainhead school for underprivileged kids so that they can enjoy a few pleasures of life that they are not as fortunate to experience as us. This year I volunteered for the category of running stage. The running stage team created a playlist on which we made the underprivileged kids dance. It was quite a workout and we also had to spontaneously create steps which require a lot of creativity on our part.

There were a lot of kids, more than 1000 maybe and it was really difficult trying to handle them, However we took it as a challenge and in the end we did manage to handle all the kids. We had a strong team work, and we had to collaborate because the kids had to follow our steps for which all of us had to do the same steps. That I felt was the most difficult part because I was in the crowd with the kids and the others were on the stage so my friend Kripa and I thought of a solution in which one would stand facing the stage and the other would have their back facing the stage. That way we could effectively copy all the steps that were being done on the stage and simultaneously keep the kids engaged. This way I also developed the problem solving skill in me. Dance was already my strength but doing dance on the spot was something I learned. I had to be careful as to interact with all the kids so that none of them would feel left out and also because we were the privileged ones we had to be careful so as to not hurt the kids’ sentiments by showing off (even if it was done unconsciously. E.g. through our clothes or our difficult steps).

I learned a lot from this fest and seeing the display of talent in those kids really made me question my own paradigms and taught me that those kids are not fragile and I shouldn’t treat them like they are because they are just as strong as any privileged kid I have met. In the end the smile on the kids face made me really happy because it told us how much they enjoyed the mela; it warmed my heart knowing that all of our efforts had paid off.

DSCN6549

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Surat City Half Marathon

March 28, 2016 Muskaan Gajendra Agarwal Muskaan Gajendra Agarwal

Some of my friends and I had volunteered to help SCHM on their first ever hosted Marathon. We were supposed to work on the pit stop and provide the runners with energy drink and water. When we reached on our pit stop it was nothing compared to what we had imagined.

Our Pit Stop

There were just tables and water bottles that were provided but we were so fascinated by the idea of being a part of the marathon and helping people that it did not matter to us anymore.

It made me really happy when I saw the first runner approaching and the feeling of helping people and doing something good was overwhelming. We weren’t just providing them with water but were motivated them, clapping for them, hooting and were cheering for almost every runner. As a welcome they cheered and thanked us back.

I definitely learned multitasking as we had to open the water bottle caps as well as provide water to the runner which had to be quick. This also made us realise the importance of teamwork as when we started working collaboratively and divided the work, it not only decreased the time that took to do the work, but also the efforts.

We also had to show commitment to the task as we had to stand there for about 2 hours which also bought thoughts of quitting but knowing that it wasn’t ethical for us to opt out of the activity we had chosen and also the commitment of the runners to complete the race kept us going.

There were runners who were 70-80 year old and there was also a blind runner. Seeing them run in the marathon made my mind boggle and that also set a live example for me of how passion cannot be affected due to any limitations. It extremely motivated me to not be lazy for things I am passionate about and make an effort to work hard in other to achieve success. All in all, I am grateful that something like CAS exists which encourages me to explore and participate in such events.

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Volunteering in Garba Fest

March 28, 2016 Muskaan Gajendra Agarwal Muskaan Gajendra Agarwal

Garba fest was an event organised by two of my colleagues and I was the head of the decorations department along with Avina. I was very happy to be in the decorations department as I love doing the same but it was one big responsibility as the main glam of the event would be the decorations.

One Photo booth and me

There was a lot of work to be done from preparing the photo booth to the lightings of the venue which was a challenge to coordinate with academics . Avina and I had to work collaboratively to ensure that the work is done on time. But because of less experience our planning did not go right due to which Naomi( another volunteer) and I had to work on the photo booth for the whole day on the main day which was hectic.

This definitely taught me time management and gave me experience of how things are managed which will help me in future as well.

Moreover it was the first time I had to talk by myself to several dealers of different things which again increased my knowledge in the field. It made me realise the strength I have in the field of event management and made me want to participate in more such events.

Rangoli made by us

We found ourselves pondering for a solution to the social issue of global significance : Wastage of food. A lot of food was wasted on that day because not many people consumed the food. We thought about what we could do with the food; give it away to someone who needs it and thankfully our school also has a compost system.

The outcome of all the hard work and time we had put in was great. Not only I was proud and happy with the beauty the venue had but other as well who appreciated me and Avina. In the end everyone enjoyed the whole event by doing garba in the beautiful atmosphere that was created.

Venue

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Plantation trip

March 28, 2016 Sahil Ramesh Juneja Sahil Ramesh Juneja

This was my first CAS trip . We went to Janki Van – a new botanical garden ,there we planted saplings of “mehendi”.This was completely new for me as I’ve never done plantation before. I thought that the activity will be fun but I actually found that the activity was not only fun but at the same time It was tough work to do. I learnt many things from this experience such as working collaboratIvely ,as we were divided into teams.so we were also divided into groups like I was given 2 jobs 1st one to bring the plants from one place to other and the other job was to plant the saplings in the ground and pack them tightly with sand. I completed the assigned work on time and didn’t hurt others while doing any task . I felt that I was out of my comfort zone as this was a very tiring activity and I’am not used to do such lot of work regularly so it was difficult for me. I think the benefits of this is that one can know his real strength . I also found my weakness as I was lacking stamina. I got tired very soon .

My efforts made the place green which was for a good cause my effort also helped the people working over there and also the efforts which I made helped me to built up stamina .I enjoyed the cas trip very much as It was a worth experience .It was something which I’ve never done before and from the trip I learned how to work In such conditions how to help people how to plant etc.It was very challenging for people like me as I’ve got very low stamina I am a very lazy person so working like this in rain and under hot sun was very difficult. The thing which motivated me a lot was the environment there was the cause behind the cas trip which was making the place green .Everybody was involved In the activity no one was sitting ideal this was just because of our ma’am who was constantly motivating us to do our work this made us more enthusiastic . And all the friends were helpIng each other and if one was not able to do a certain kind of job others were there for him .

The skills which I developed was working collaboratively , I was able to know my strengths in doing this kind of work. I was also able to undertake the challenges as the weather out there which was rainy and sunny at the same time and still we were doing our job.I was also able to put lot efforts for making the place green . I was also able to follow my ethics as In the whole trip I didn’t hurt anyone and helped the people out there as much as I was able too. The highlight of the whole trip was the fun which we had during the trip the pain which we gone under during the plantation activity . There were many thing during the whole trip which surprised me which were the beautiful green field ,people working so collaboratively the vast vast field there at the end I would like to say that It was very lovely trip and the experience was worth enough to train me how to tackle further situations in life .

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GYM

March 28, 2016 Sahil Ramesh Juneja Sahil Ramesh Juneja

My classmates were planning to go to gym and as I’ve never done gymming before and so I joined them .I did this activity for 6 months .This was a new and worth experience for me .In this period of six months I worked very hard. I went through intensive training which was very challenging as it tested my determination as well as my patience.In this period of six months I learnt many skills such as identifying own strength and weakness as in the starting I was not able to even do 2 sets of dumbbells as my muscles were too weak and then later I was able to convert my weakness into my strength after a long period of 6 moths and now I can do 7 sets of the same dumbbells roll.The training part was very tough and challenging as we were required to increase weights of the dumbbells ,leg extension etc ,in every 2 days of gymming .The only way by which we survived was showing determination towards our activity.This activity had a huge impact on my daily routine as I was asked to wake up by 6 o’clock then undergo extensive training then eat healthy food, etc .This all really helped me in developing my muscles . I also learnt some new skills like doing squats on one leg,pull -ups, chin-ups,etc .The highlight of the activity was that the activity was tough enough and at the same time it was fun as I was with our friends and also I was able to learn new things about exercise and diet from my supervisor and friends.

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“When in doubt Dance it out”-Kalautsav

March 28, 2016 Dhyay Himanshu Kapadia Dhyay Himanshu Kapadia

Dancing is one of my hobbies and always been passionate about this activity as it is a stress buster for me. I have always wanted to join dance classes to learn new dance forms, however Hip-Hop is the dance form that I am more passionate about and loved doing it but never got a chance to learn this dance form from an expert. So I joined Dance Classes in my school. We leant 2 dance forms Hip-Hop and Contemporary. Attending these dance sessions have always made me feel fresh and made me feel more energetic. I managed attending the dance classes for 2 days a week for more than 3 months with my regular school. These dance classes have helped me in many ways like developing new skills and improve my previous dancing skills.

Learning Hip-Hop and a new dance form Contemporary has improved my body posture, also helped me get control over my body while dancing and by attending these dance sessions my body has also become more flexible. By joining the dance sessions I have started enjoying dance more than ever and now I can feel the intensity of these dance forms. By learning these dance forms I have also improved my stamina because dancing continuously requires a lot of stamina and especially dances like hip-hop need a lot of stamina because it is a very energetic dance.

In theses dance sessions I also learnt a new dance form Contemporary which helped me to get more balance and focused. I didn’t like Contemporary just because I thought it was a very boring dance form. However after learning this dance form I loved it because it helped to get more balance and focused. As this was my first time, learning this dance form was a very big challenge because this dance form is quite hard, but after learning this dance form I felt very energetic and flexible.

We performed our dance in “Kalakriti” which was an Arts event were we students performed on stage in front of our parents. As this was a stage performance in front of such a huge audience it needed true commitment and dedication. Sometimes during the practice we were supposed to come early to the school and we did that. This is where I was committed towards the activity that I was doing. To have a great performance we had to cooperate with each other to have a synchronized dance performance as we had a group of around 13-15 students, and this helped me in interacting with students from different grades which improved my communication skills.

Dancing one of the mediums through which I can express myself when I am out of words and I have become more expressive due to dancing. Dancing gives me extreme happiness and immense pleasure, every time I dance I get to know a new side of me and dancing has brought grace in my moves and clarity in my steps.

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OGIS Football Tournament 2015

March 28, 2016 Dhyay Himanshu Kapadia Dhyay Himanshu Kapadia

I was selected for an U-16 Inter-State Gujarat Football Tournament which was held in Olive Green International School Ahmedabad. I was feeling very enthusiastic and was looking forward for the tournament. As it was a long time since we played as a team in a tournament, we lacked coordination. I was self-assured that I would perform to my best ability, however, as football is a team game it is necessary for all the teammates to have practiced together instead of each being

We played our first match against Podar International School who were last year’s champions of this tournament.The pressure was at its peak because our match was the opening match and for the first time I got an opportunity to be the Vice Captain of the team. We(captain, coach and I) had a difficulty deciding the lineup for the game. The difficulty was mainly because all of us had contradicting views and consumed a lot of time, however after a long discussion we came up with the starting lineup. I learnt to accept differences and others point of view which i wouldn’t have learnt if i would not have participated in this championship.

We lost the match 3-0, however, I was satisfied with my performance throughout the game. However I was quite happy with my and the whole team’s performance. We had several attempts at scoring goals but missed by mere inches. Coordination and communication seemed to be the major reasons for us to lose this match. I think that I gave my 100% in the whole game, I was making many passes and was playing in the whole ground however I feel I was able to execute all the techniques that I had practised effectively before the match, nonetheless, I was able to identify mistakes and where to improve (long passes and heading in defence). We lost our first match. However, even before the match had begun, we were aware of their strengths and knew they had a greater chance at winning, but still we didn’t show that and planned on showing the best that we had.

Through all this, I have experienced playing against a strong team, accepting failure and managing a team. Managing a team isn’t easy when you are also a part of that same team, many issues rise up as this was my first time. This tournament gave me an insight into how you can manage and collaborate equally with teammates. Also a new thing that i leant was working collaboratively with my team mates.

Team Photograph before the match

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