CAS Essay…

Ever since I started with IB DP program, I realized that there are various skills that I lacked in  and consequently, wasn’t able to complete tasks properly on time. I gradually had to face a lot of issues in fighting with my ‘laziness’. In the beginning of the 11th grade, I barely used to complete any homework or participate in any indoor or outdoor activity. This hunger of laziness had started to affect my daily life, influencing my scores and personality. It was then, when I was introduced to the IB program ‘CAS’, well to be truthful, in the start I found this program, boring and time wasting; but after I began performing tasks, taking part in activities with my peers and even organizing a few of them, I understood how fun this program was for me and the various skills it was helping me develop exponentially. ‘CAS’ standing for Creativity, Activity, and Service – has overall helped me by making me more aware about my strengths and weakness along with developing new skills, building up the confidence to undertake new challenges, initiating and planning activity collaboratively with my peers, showing perseverance and commitment in my activities as well as being engaged with its global importance and the ethical implication along with it. As a whole CAS, has helped me shape myself into a well rounded person.

Thinking of CAS, the one activity that immediately strikes in my mind is the ‘Learning Camps’. This activity was a project which I had initiated with my friends. Well, the fact is that I will never be able to forget this activity in my whole life is because no other activity pushed me through such mental and physical pressure as these ‘learning camps’. On the very first day of this activity, we were planning to teach a bunch (more like 10-12 students were expected to come) of students with the starter course for computers (like what is computer, a bit of its history and ask them that do they even know how to use a one?), but to our surprise, more than 50 students just smashed in; Shashvat literally had to barricade the ICT lab. A hell of a day that was! Even after that, every day at learning camps, there were many critical surprises for us; like the one when one of the student, simply got lost in school, and all four of us were running in every corner to find him like cats and dogs. But even though we had to face such difficulties, at the end we realized the many skills we lacked in ourselves such planning, and worked on it. This activity helped me interact with stranger more fluently, even in a language I don’t know, ‘Gujarati’.  

CAS has taught me how to improve the skills I lacked in and also how to develop new skills, by taking an initiation to participate in all or random activities. It helped me cover all the skills I lacked which further helped me in my IB program. The one thing I have learned about myself is that, when I am dedicated to achieve something, well I achieve it, with the help of my family and friends. Taking an example of ISA, teamwork and leadership was the key for our great success in the fest. It was because we work collaboratively with each other that time in ISA was fun all the time. There were competitions such the “presentation of stall” which would have been a debacle – in which we were suppose to decorate stalls and present a particular country. We also kept the ethical considerations in mind, we did not cheat at all or break and of the fest’s rule. “Win or lose, we will not cheat” was our motto in the fest.

Today I am a different person from the one I was 2 years ago, and that is because of CAS. It has helped me to become a well-rounded individual and to become more proactive. My overall CAS experience has been adventures and fun. Today I use the skills I developed through CAS in my day to activities and in tough situations, which has made my life easier and more productive. In short, I can say that the ‘CAS’ program has effectively made me an International Minded person.