Street Play- Awareness about Organ Donation at U-Turn (Creativity/Service)

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

Vocals Inter school Competition

This activity was mainly to take a step ahead to places or events where I can upgrade myself, develop areas of growth, take challenges and take full advantage of my strengths. I was selected to represent my school for inter school vocals competition. Personally, I think I don’t have confidence in myself which is what pulls me back from doing things by which I can define myself.  I am a good singer and I am always recommended to select the songs from Shreya Ghoshal albums as people say my voice is very similar to her voice.PICTURE

 

First I took part in inter house competition where I was awarded the second position, after this achievement I gained confidence and started preparing for my inter school competition. During my practices I had severe throat infection which was a major drawback, because of which I lost all hopes of winning.My confidence level had become even less than before. However, I took it as a challenge and started working upon my song and had put all that it takes to perform better. I was proud that I didn’t give up, although I did not win but I think the most mandatory thing which matters is that I participated. Due to my throat infection I used to practice more and so that I don’t screw up on the day of competition. I was committed towards my duty and went to practices outside school as well so that I could improve upon my mistakes.

 

It was very important that I work cooperatively with my teacher. My teacher (Somnath Sir) and I made sure that we point out every mistake that I made and work on it so that it doesn’t make my performance weak on the day of the competition. I just knew that I cannot let this opportunity slip away from my hand so I worked with full dedication. I have a stage fear which has always been a reason of me having less confidence. However, by this activity I was able to work on my stage fear, it helped me improve upon my stage fear. I got really nervous when it was time for me to present my song and there were places where I made mistakes but it did not sound that bad. I was happy that I at least made an effort to participate.

Overall, I think that apart from the challenges I faced I was able to define myself, and develop the areas where I need to work to some extent.

 

French ISA Trip

The International School of Ambey hosted a french and Spanish language competition in Ambey Valley, Lonavala. I participated in the poetry reciting competition, Face Painting, storytelling and stall decoration. The biggest challenges faced were that when we went to this trip we had just started learning French and it had been just 6 months of us learning French and our competitors were at the advanced level.Some were learning French since 7 years. However, I made a goal to participate and attain an experience which would also help building more knowledge.

img_20160116_124857633For the poetry competition, my goal was to develop my public speaking skills, confidence and throughout the competition I focused on understanding french.i think I did well because one of my strengths are that I can learn things very quickly. We didn’t get much time to prepare for my poetry, i had to learn it in a day. However, I think I performed quite well.

My friends and I spontaneously gave our names for the face painting competition as we wanted to explore and learn as much as possible. I think the selection of judges was not right as they had selected people who didn’t have any background of French language. I felt that my art piece was very good and different than others. I felt that it was unethical of them for considering their students and giving them the first rank. we were not even considered. But, i think i will prepare well for the next time.

For me it was a wonderful experience because it gave me a good opportunity to make good connections with my French teacher and know her better. I also made great memories with my friends.

Teacher’s day volunteering!

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On the teacher’s day, I along with other students of my grade volunteered to take classes in younger grades, so that the teachers could take a break for that day. We dressed up as teachers and then proceeded to organize fun learning interactive activities in grade 7. We designed one activity to test the math skills of the students, we divided the class and then conducted a quiz, the other activity was designed to test creativity and sales techniques. We asked to students to design an advertisement for a vacation in Maldives. After this, we organized a khokho and kabbadi game for the students.

Through this activity, I was exposed to multiple situations where I had to manage young students, I also had to think creatively to come up with activities which would keep the students interested but also, provided them a learning experience. I identified that while creative thinking for games and activities was a strength of mine, but I realized, that management skills could be something I could work on. I felt good about my creativity as the students told us that they really enjoyed the activities, but at certain times I felt helpless as I could not manage and pay attention to every student at the same time. Maybe if I had better management skills, it would’ve been an even more fluent and enjoyable experience.

This activity was a new challenge for me as I am not used to taking care of children and don’t spend a lot of time around children as I do not have a lot of cousins either. The experience wasn’t as terrifying as I had expected it to be as I had already asked a few of my friends ( who had done this before ) about how I should prepare and behave with the students, which made it easy to overcome this challenge. Through this challenge, I also learnt teamwork and creative thinking, as I had to work with 2 of my other friends prior to the activity to plan out the schedule and activity of the kids. I also learnt how to be open to ideas, as we had a lot of different ideas for the activities and to be patient with younger students. These skills will help me when I will repeat this activity or go to NGO schools to teach children or plan activities for other events.

I am usually comfortable with working with others as long as they have the same thinking patterns as I do, but it was not the case this time, which developed me to be more open minded which will help me when I am planning other activities, I also felt good that I could be patient and listen, but I still have a long way to go.

There were various ethical issues that I had to keep in mind, I had to be careful that I was behaving patiently and appropriately with the students, I also had to make sure that I was making the most efficient use of their time as well as ours which made us plan fun – LEARNING activities, I also had to be open minded so that there were no major verbal disagreements among the people who were planning the activities and to pay proper attention and heed to the instructions of the organizers. These issues made me feel like I was turning into a more patient person.

Overall, I had a fun new experience, which tested my creativity and social skills.

Trip to Naggar.

I belong to a family which absolutely LOVES travelling, so I had been on a lot of treks and trips in the north before I took this trip with my classmates. And just like I expected, this trip was also an amazing, spectacular and beautiful one.

As a part of our grade trip, we had decided to go to a beautiful place called ‘Naggar’ near Manali, as soon as I came to know about this, I was very excited as I had been to Naggar before and knew that it was an amazing town.

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Even though it was my second time going to Naggar, this trip was one of the best treks I’d been to. We got involved in walks, activities, rides, sunsets and so on.

One of the challenges I faced in the trip was the immense walking and physical exertion. Especially, during our long trek to Rumsu village, I noticed myself getting very sick and exhausted. Since I am not a very athletic person and dont work out daily, I had some difficulty in maintaining my strength throughout the day. However, out of fear of missing out ( 😛 ) I still continued every single day despite my legs aching badly. I realised that I needed to work on my fitness. Luckily, we were taught yoga and exercises almost every evening, so I could incorporate those in my daily routine once I got back to surat.

One of the best things about the trip was the kindness of the local people, I had so much fun talking to them and knowing about the history of Rumsu, it showed me that despite having little resources, these people made the best of what they had and were very contended with it. They respected themselves, everyone around them, nature and especially their cultural values. We even saw the house and works of a very famous artist, we saw paintings, their rooms, the architecture, their books etc. And as someone who loves knowing about art and history, this was one of the highlights of my trip.

We also indulged in adventure activities, like skiing and tubing, as I am not a very adventurous person, this was a bit of a challenge for me, but since I had friends who were motivating me, I tried it anyway and had a LOT of fun! Turns out, we shouldn’t say no unless we have tried it.

Since, we were on a school trip to the himalayas, we had to be ethical and judicial when we were using our resources, we had to be careful that we did not waste too much food or supplies and kept everything clean.We tried not to use plastic bags and bottles, and to not waste too much electricity. Further on, we also had to make sure we did not litter as it would spoil our natural resources.

Since we were on a grade trip, it was important that we adjust as group members and not become very demanding, we had to cooperate with each other and share what we had for the common good. Also, all of us were happy to do that as this trip gave us a much needed break among the hustle of submissions and deadlines.

I was a new student, so this trip was very special to me as I made a lot of new friends, and memories which I am going to cherish for a life time, there were some conflicts among our classmates, but all of us resolved them with ease and understanding. I got to know a lot of people in my class in a way which I wouldn’t have in school, we heard horror stories, danced, celebrated new years, laughed, played cards and as someone who shys away from making new friends, this experience was truly eye opening for me.

Overall, this trip was a very memorable experience filled with adventure, historic knowledge, horror stories, yoga and fun! screenshot-2016-10-01-09-09-56

Book drive !

Books are a man’s best friend. Ever since I was little, I’ve been an avid reader and imagining a world without books is next to impossible. On a recent visit to a government school, I was shocked to find that a school where hundreds of underprivileged kids studied had a shortage of books.

I was highly motivated to do something about this, so I decided to get involved in  a book drive…but then I thought, why not do something close to home? I decided to organise my own book drive in my neighborhood. At first, I was really scared and lost as I didn’t know the process of how to collect books or where to donate the books I got. I asked a few people about book drives and prepared myself for this new challenge. I and a few of my friends planned carefully about how to approach people, which kind of books would be beneficial to the kids, which houses to visit, how to organize the books etc.

The next step was to find an NGO which would take our books, through some contact we found an NGO called “Yuva Unstoppable” who were ready to take our donations.

We decided to make posters and talk to people to spread awareness about how there is a very dire lack of resources for kids in our city.We made colorful, eye catching, bright posters with slogans about books and the necessity of reading in everyone’s life, including the ones less privileged. While researching and preparing for what to say, I was able to increase my awareness about resources, NGOs, the kind of resources needed according to the target population etc.

When we did go around to people’s houses, I found that people weren’t as open-minded as I thought they would be, it took a lot of convincing for people to even give us books they weren’t using, they would rather give it to the ‘pastiwala’. This was a little disappointing for us, and also increased our work load as we had to go to a lot more houses than we had planned as we did not get enough books at first. I realized that maybe I had to work on my convincing and public speaking skills, and I also realized that I should have a backup plans. However, as we had a group of people working together, we eventually managed to collect some books.

We continued this task for a month, this was a little difficult as all of us had time scarcities due to daily work and studies. But, we were committed to making this book drive happen as we had given our word, so with utmost perseverance we collected books whenever we had little time here and then.

Our next task was to segregate all the books according to genres, languages etc. We had to plan very carefully about this, and we, as group members had a lot of conflicts about this but finally we segregated it and sorted it out.

We finally donated all these books to an organization called “yuva unstoppable” and it was an amazing experience to contribute a little to make their lives more knowledgeable and interesting.

This activity made me realize a very important skill which I needed to develop – my communication skills within a team. I was not able to correctly portray what I expected from my friends and thus there were problems in our planning which led to last minute hassles. Further on, when there were conflicts about making any decisions like how to approach people, making posters or other forms of advertising etc, I was not able to make quick decisions. I observed that this area is something I needed to work on.

One of the ethical considerations I had to keep in mind was that, since I had committed to this cause, I could not fall back as I had given my word to the NGO, I also had to make sure that the books were of decent quality as they were to be given to other people to use and could not just be of bad quality.

Also, as a leader of a team, it was important that I stay rational and calm, and make smart decisions while respecting my teammates and their ideas.

 

Despite shortcomings and hurdles in our plan, I genuinely felt good doing this activity. I had lots of fun making posters, and felt proud when we collected a large number of books. Though it was a very small scale activity, I learnt important lessons on team work and Books impart knowledge in a way media never can, it improves language, stretches our imagination and implants new ideas in young minds. It is a necessity and the lack of available resources for underprivileged is a global problem and this small scale activity made me realize what a great problem this is and that we should all take steps to bring solutions to it.

With Nikita ( representative of yuva unstoppable ) segregating last batch of books.

With Nikita ( representative of yuva unstoppable ) segregating last batch of books.

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