CAS 2017

CAS has been a fun learning experience for me. I was always inclined a lot towards co-curricular activities. May it be Arts, sports or social service. Before opting or knowing IB, my hobbies and co-curricular activities were things that concerned me because I was afraid that probably I would have to drop them because High school is one of the most important phase in life. But, CAS is like that one requirement of IB that is a stress buster and is fun. It has given me an opportunity to enhance my talent and continue my exploration and learning in the non-academic world. During my CAS Experience, I attended Subroto Football Tournament at district and state level, attended a plantation activity at vasnda, organised a Basketball 3 on 3 event as a part of my project work, became a part of the organising committee in FSMUN in our school, worked as an intern at Span Design Organisation for a month, learnt Corel Draw software, took part in an eye checkup camp affiliated with Rotary Club and spending time with special kids.

Coming to my CAS Experience, it has been great. One of the best achievement and the best learning part was my CAS project. From just an idea to the real event, it was a great journey. I got know about how people really are, what kind attitude we need to have in front of different kinds of people, how a sport event is actually conducted etc. Not only that but I also enjoyed learning different skills in all the three strands creativity, activity and service. Learning Corel draw, Attending an Internship and different service projects. It was a great learning experience all together.

CAS wasn’t just a learning experience, it was way more than that. Our morals, honesty and values were built, knowing what was right and wrong and building of problem solving skills was very helpful and worth. Knowing how much vital role our ethics play in all the situation is one thing I understood which I think is farmost the most important thing you learn in life.

CAS was not only something that was beneficial to me. It benefitted me as an individual, but a society as a whole. The service projects I did, helped the environment and the needy people. Contributing to these random act of kindness as a purpose to finish my CAS requirement, it gave me a feeling of happiness and a proud moment wherein I contributed to an act of kindness to the society. This made me realise that everything is not just done because it is required, there things that are done because they make you happy and proud, probably not at that particular moment, but later in life.

There were many incident which I came across during my CAS experience which I were life long learning experience for me. During my planning for FS 3/3, we were in search of sponsors. In that case we had a deal with one of the sponsors and then were betrayed by them due to some trust issues, that was the day when we realised everytime we trust someone in case of money or business or something like that, we’ve got to be very careful and take signatures in written to avoid problems in future. That is when our ethics played a role, after negotiation with the higher authority from the school asked the assigned person to pay but then, we the tournament directors mutually decided on not taking those money that we were given unwillingly with so much of grudge. There also came a time during the event day when one team raised protest against the other claiming they were above age. So, that was one problem that I came across for the first time but handled it pretty well probably. So incidents like this, build not only my confidence or problem solving skills, but also makes me a better and a honest person. At the end, that is what that counts.

CAS was a overall a very helpful programme set by the IB in order to make us balanced in terms of our academics and extracurricular activities, making all of us good at all the three important aspects that are creativity, activity and service.

After a grand Success of first edition of FSMUN, that is the Fountainhead School Model United Nations, FSMUN 2.0 is back. I was the OC Head for Utilities last year and took up the same responsibility as I recognized it to be developed strength in organising department.

There were some changes in the responsibilities this time. A significant change for me was that this time I had to share my OC Head position with my friend. Both of us, had to work together with more responsibilities. Our goal was to buy the best quality stationery for people participating in the minimal amount of money. Second goal was to make our work as organised as possible in order to save time and make it easier for the logistics and the registration team to do their jobs. I have always been someone who finds ways to keep things very simple. I thought using same skills here to make our work easy. The preparations started 3-4 months before the event.

Both of us, the Utilities OC Heads, divided our work to meet all the deadlines. The director and the secretary general seemed to be happy with our work as we were committed and finished all our work with our efforts and passion. We sacrificed our holiday to finish extra work and help other departments too. It was a good opportunity for me to get exposure of different departments. As I already had experience of my own CAS Project work, I gave suggestions and my own inputs in order to help the OC and also for the betterment of the event as a whole.

We, the whole OC faced challenges like having less count of delegates than expected, crisis in food. I tried my best not to have challenges in my department and make everything go smoothly. As I enjoyed the responsibility given to me, I was ready to do more and more work than assigned. Ultimately, enjoying your duty is what that matters. Then I made a whole CODE SYSTEM to code all the folder and the delegates in order to give them the stationary material as soon as possible when the registrations happen on that day. I learnt different techniques to keep the documents and stationery organised and easy to manage. The code system was not so much complicated so as to the volunteers could manage it pretty well. There were a lot of delegates who did not turn on that day, and to keep the event and the debate going, we had persuade people in the OC to participate for the betterment of the event. That was the  challenges that we faced of having less people contributing than expected, I developed persuasive skills in order to persuade people to contribute. Not only on that day, but also while promoting this event and asking people to participate, i built that skill.

Overall, FSMUN 2.0 was a great experience for me and I wish to take part in it next year as well to develop and more and more.