CAS 2017

I’m Vinit Jogani (informally called V, Vi, or even Vii). I was born on December 21st, 1999, in Surat, India. I come from a Gujarati family, and although I don’t really believe in a God, I do follow many aspects of Jainism.

I can play the guitar and the keyboard. My friends say I’m pathetic at singing. I believe they’re right. Other than that, I’ve endeavored intro drama and visual arts and have been rewarded in some form or the other. My parents say I used to be a good dancer when I was a kid, now I only dance when weddings are due.

At some points in my life, I have played lawn tennis, table tennis, cricket, basketball, billiards, and football. I can swim, and have participated in a range of athletic events like high jump, long jump and running at a school-level. I’ve also trained in martial arts for quite some time. Other than that, I have tried my hand at volleyball and skating but couldn’t quite get the grip. I figured I wasn’t cut out for those sports. Now, I only play football now and then. I found real amusement in this sport, and I still play other sports sometimes, but in a busy little life, when asked which sport to play, I mostly choose football.

Although I have explored a lot in art and sport, I’ve always considered them to be my hobbies – never serious career-influencing choices. They help me distract my mind when I am sad, or they help me collect myself up after a stressful day. From a pretty early age, I had my eyes set on computer science. Computers have always fascinated me. The tremendous potential that you put into people’s hands when you hand them a gadget is completely fabulous. I began computer programming since I was in 5th grade and I never stopped. It is the one skill that I am absolutely proud of and has helped me in my life at countless occasions.

I now spend most of my programming time making web applications. The trick is that the code is never breakthrough. Anyone can program it. My dad taught me that the challenge is not making it. The challenge is thinking of it before anyone else does. I’ve learned a lot of things from my dad. I believe I get this kind of obsession for perfection from him.

I’ve been a great fan of design. Being a crazy user of the internet, you usually come across such a huge chunk of poorly designed, old-school websites. I’ve made it a point to apply a sense of finesse to my websites. Fonts, modern, minimalist and material design principles and color combinations – they really fascinate me.

I’ve been an introvert for most of my life. Although I did make quite some friends in high school and (as a sigh of relief for my mother) became a bit more sociable. Although, most of the times, I still admire solitude. I find great comfort in writing my feelings into poems and songs. Listening to other songs, therefore, I really pay attention on the lyrics. Connectable songs really breathe life into me when I’m sad. I love music.

Honestly, I don’t really engage myself into worrying about many global issues. Some express their disregard to my indifference, but really I don’t quite see the point. Most people who worry about child labour and animal trafficking end up doing absolutely nothing because they lack the sufficient means to make a change. Big talks about it don’t really intrigue me. It does make me feel sorry for the victims but I think that’s about it. No fancy talks. I am, however, a believer of a vegetarian diet. Killing animals, with the senses to perceive pain, love and belonging – it is really something that I would urge people against. I also do my best to not have a large environmental footprint by littering and wasting. Also, I do take interest in small issues that affect us at a large scale. These are the issues that I believe I can actively and measurably fix. For example, issues that I faced while studying physics in my 10th grade.

If I could build up a skill, I’d probably build up the passion to read. I’ve never seen an avid reader who is dumb. Reading is really a very important skill. I used to love reading when I was small, I just lost the passion as I grew up. Maybe someday I’ll get back at it. I hope that day comes soon. I would also like to skydive once in my lifetime. I like the thought of feeling weightless, falling through a wonderful wind brushing past my cheeks and flying at such a height. It seems wonderful. Other than that, I would love to dive deeper into the subjects I love like physics, math and computers.

Finally, I really want to do something meaningful in life – I just haven’t found it yet. I’m trying to find some higher purpose to live my life to.

 

My journey with CAS has been memorable and spiritual. I’ve actually grown closer to myself while pursuing different forms of activities over the course of these 2 years. Helping others and myself along with the joyful experience of CAS has been truly fantastic. There have been challenges, but I believe that’s the only way to learn!

I believe Fizz was the most memorable activity in my total CAS journey. It gave me a lot of experience in handling large scale projects, and we were able to secure an enormous user base too. It was an amalgamation of my web designing skills and my physics knowledge with my desire to give back to the community and help other students overcome the challenges that I once faced. During this process, I not only have had to work on the software development, the front-end designing, content development, and marketing, but I have also had to work on coordinating work and getting the best quality out for the users. The sense of responsibility I felt while working on this project has truly illuminated the path of service for me.

Apart from that, I believe Visual Arts has played a massive role in my development and growth as a person. The passion I have felt while working on an artwork has been totally inexorable. The fact that I could put down whatever was on my mind in the form of an artwork that everyone can appreciate was truly useful for an introvert person like me. Creativity has helped me think innovatively and constructively, and have witnessed a very spiritual connection with myself and the art during this journey.

The winter trip to Naggar has also been a memorable one where I actually got to open up to people and make new friends that I would keep for a lifetime. The tranquility that is instilled in my memories of that place and time is truly something that I would like to keep, and keep looking forward to seek again in the years to come. I have experienced a connection not only with friends on this trip, but also the nature that I was so covered by. While the trekking wasn’t much of a physical challenge in itself, I really felt uplifted and motivated to pursue more treks in search of this inner serenity.

There have been many challenges, but I think the most important one was overcoming my shell to cooperate with others, to mix with people, and to synergize for a common cause. It was challenging for me because I have never been a people person. I learned that alone, a man can only go so far. With teamwork, we were able to achieve success in all three: arts, sports and service. Another great challenge for me was to address issues of global significance. Later in my life, I really want to use technology to change the world for the better. However, at this point, I was really clueless about how to do it. I wanted to do something for issues that I cared about, not just any other flash mob or awareness campaign for some global issue that I read in news 2 days ago. This is why, I had to put in intensive

Through my CAS experience, I have learned a lot. From specific skills like woodcut printing in arts, to more general life skills, CAS has been a very constructive programme for me. I have been a thinker sometimes, and sometimes a communicator. I’ve undertaken risks, reflected on my progress, and have been open to new ideas. Through CAS, I was able to lead a balanced life with all the stress and anxiety that comes with a busy life. However, most importantly, with CAS, I have been able to do something to address the issues I care for, and I have overall been transformed from this unfeeling person into a livelier person. I would really love to continue this in university and beyond to make this world a better place.

Proposed Activities	Description of the activity	Components (C/A/S)	Duration with start date and end date	Learning Outcomes	Location
FSMUN Website	The school-initiated MUN’s website and handling of the entire tech department	Creativity, Service	— August through November —	LO1, LO2, LO4, LO5	Fountainhead School, Surat
Subroto Cup football	U17 Interschool football tournament	Activity	7/15/2015 (1 day)	LO1, LO2, LO4, LO5, LO7	Essar School, Surat
Chess tournament	Interschool chess tournament	Activity	7/22/2015 (1 day)	LO1, LO2	JB Diamonds School, Surat
The Fizz Project	A project to make physics an interesting subject through simplifying complex principles using cartoons and succinct explanations	Creativity, Service	— project work — — entire year —	LO1, LO2, LO3, LO4, LO5, LO6, LO7	Surat
Visual Arts	Learn visual art in school CAS classes. Participate in activities like Wood cuts, installation art, pottery and painting!	Creativity	— entire year —	LO1, LO2, LO4	Fountainhead School, Surat
Interhouse Debate Competition	A debate against capital punishment		17/8/15	LO1, LO2, LO5, LO6, LO7	Fountainhead School, Surat
Naggar	Winter Trip to Naggar	Activity	26/12/15 to 3/1/2016	LO2, LO4, LO5, LO6, LO7	Naggar
Organ Donation Street Play	We went to U-Turn for doing a street play to convey the importance of organ donation and taking pledges from viewers that after their death, their organs should be donated to the needy to better their lives.	Service	8/7/2016	LO3, LO5, LO6	U-Turn, LP Savani Road, Adajan
Tree Plantation	Planting trees with nature club members.	Service	7/3/2016	LO6	KV Central School

Every year the school hosts numerous competitions like interhouse debate and interhouse ad-making and creativity enhancing competitions but I failed to show enough enthusiasm to participate in the events. However, when I participated in the Interhouse Debate competition, I learned that it was actually quite interesting and exciting. Debate had always been an area of my interest but this way I could actually grow in many ways, and hence the activity helped me identify my areas of growth and development. I learned that when I participate in such competitions, I not only refresh and sharpen my skills, but also keep learning new techniques in the area. For instance, because my stance in the debate was emotion-oriented, I learned to debate by making emotional claims – something I wasn’t inured to until then. It took effort, obviously. But new are learned with efforts and I enjoyed it heartily. I was supposed to debate against Capital Punishment with my group. We started to consider many points creatively during the research, and we also paid special attention to the ethical concerns associated with the issue. We put in our best for the debate, and it went on quite good. Everyone in our team got a chance, and hence we learned to cooperate effectively – something that was appreciated by the judges too. Thus, we learned the importance of collaboration and teamwork in such an event. We had divided the tasks of forming counter-arguments to points put forward by the opposite team, noting down the points put forward by them and speaking up in a convincing manner between our team members based on our strengths and weaknesses. Capital punishment was a global, ethical concern and during the debate we fought for what we thought was ethically more appropriate and suitable on a global scale. Should countries across the world allow killing people for crimes they commit? How are they different from the criminals in the first place then? Capital punishment is a pressing debate issue for governments across the world – and we considered the significance of this! This way we acted, and listed down the advantages and disadvantages and most importantly ethical concerns for a rational analysis of an issue that we thought had global significance. All in all, it was a great experience with lots to learn and to take back. I am looking forward to participating in more of such events…