CAS 2017

I participated in the district level football tournament on 16th July 2015. Although I have been playing football for a long time, this was a completely new experience for me as I played as I played a position that was new to me. Usually, I play football as a defender, but in this tournament, the coach asked me to play as an attacker. This experience taught me about the pressure that attackers feel when they are under a lot of pressure to score a goal. I used to think that defenders played under a lot of pressure, and that attackers always got second chances if they missed goals, but this experience taught me otherwise and made me realise that everyone on the team equally shares the responsibility of winning or losing the game. 

The activity helped me fulfill Learning Outcomes 1 and 2 particularly well as I was able to identify my skills as a footballer, and channel them into a new aspect of the game.  I think was able to handle my new position well because I ended up scoring two goals for my team and assisting several other key goals.

Learning outcome 3 was also fulfilled as football is a team game in which you will never win if your cannot collaborate successfully with your teammates.

An ethical dilemma arose in the tournament when we had a match against a team of very young children who were playing in the tournament  meant for girls under the age of 17. We were conflicted whether to be tough and play our game or to go easy on the kids. In the end, we decided to play an easy game, i.e. with minimal body contact, so that they wouldn’t not get hurt, but we did not compromise on the level of our game so that they could learn from us.

Winning this tournament has now given the team a chance to represent our district in the state level tournament, something that everyone in the team is eagerly looking forward to.

I participated in the fifth session of Harvard Model United Nations India that took place in
the city of Hyderabad as the delegate of South Sudan in
General Assembly I: Disarmament and International Security Council. Although I did not win any awards in this event, this conference ended up becoming extremely rewarding.

While preparing for the conference, researching about the country that I was representing, South Sudan, enabled me to get a deeper understanding about the conflicts and problems that newly made, war-struck countries face. The topic area that my committee was discussing, “Asymmetric Warfare and National Sovereignty” was, in the beginning quite difficult to understand, but after further research, I discovered that although ‘law’ seems like a universal, eternal concept, changing global scenarios and advancement in modern warfare techniques has caused the foundations on which the concept of ‘countries’ has been built to become obsolete. Therefore, this conference helped me connect with issues of global significance.
This conference also gave me the wonderful opportunity to interact with people from different walks of life. I made friends who came from different countries and backgrounds and not only learnt about their perspectives on international politics, but also realized that the world today has become so flat, that no matter where we come from, we are all able to dance to the same songs and laugh at the same songs.

This conference taught me the importance of working collaboratively and the need to be patient and tolerant because in a committee of nearly 200 people, resolutions can be formed only if people work together. This conference also inculcated in me important lessons about compromise and leadership while working in a bloc (a bloc is a group of countries that has the same position on a topic). My skills were tested when I had to use my research and knowledge about international relations to come up with creative, yet pragmatic solutions for the topic area.

Overall, I am really glad that I attended the conference, and I hope I’ll be able to attend and maybe even win next year.

I was the segment coordinator for an event called ‘Ads to Add Up’ in the Literature and Humanities Fest. Using the activity, I was able to provide my peers with a platform to exhibit their creativity and persuasive skills.

Organizing this event was a unique experience because I have a tendency to micro-manage everything that I do, but in this event, I tried to be a little more liberal. In the beginning, the chaos that was ensuing in the room was agreeable to me because I like order, but then I realized that I need to let participants make noise and have fun for them to truly appreciate the event.

I was able to connect the event which required participants to make advertisements about ‘a pen that only writes the truth’ to what I’ve learnt about marketing in Business Management and what I’ve learnt about advertising in Hindi and what I’ve learnt about persuasion in English. Out of all the advertisements that participants made, the one that used the elements of humor seemed to be the most popular, because it was directed at a target audience that consists of school children. The best advertisement also used the 4 P’s of the marketing mix (Price, Product, Promotion and Place) which was evidence that following the theory that we have learnt in Business Management will lead to better results in practical life.

This activity really helped me work on my tolerance and patience simply because it tested my tolerance and patience at every step of the way. It was extremely difficult to manage so many students who were making so much noise. I learnt that the best way to get people to listen to you is not to speak loudly, but to become quiet. When you stop addressing the crown, individual participants come and ask you their doubts, which leads to better communication.

I also took a feedback session about the activity, and found that most participants enjoyed it. Some of them did not quite enjoy the topic that they had and I think that’s something I can work on the next time I do such an event, i.e, I can do ‘market research’ before setting up the event (More BM connections!).

Overall, I am satisfied with how the event turned out, and I was able to use my creativity in terms of coming up with the topic, rules of the event and the poster for the event to provide a service to my peers.