An Ending to the CAS Programme

I have now reached the end of my CAS programme. I have thoroughly enjoyed these last two years and I feel I have learnt a great deal from my experiences in fulfilling the CAS requirements, nurturing me to be a more able student. The activities that I participated in allowed me to engage with my creative and active sides, as well as a side that dealt with providing a service. The 8 learning outcomes were fulfilled by taking part in these activities and I feel this has contributed to shaping my as a more well rounded student.

I have always considered myself to be a somewhat creative person, because of my love for art and music. The creativity aspect of the CAS requirement was enjoyable to fulfill because I considered the creative activities that I did to be a way of taking a break from my daily studying. I have been playing the piano since the age of 6, and I absolutely adore playing it even now. Over the last two years I have been practicing piano on a daily basis, finding the sheet music for some of a favourite pieces and playing them. Through this I have shown perseverance and commitment, which I found fairly easy since I looked forward to these practices everyday. Everytime I started practising a new piece, I tried to find something more difficult than the one I had played before which demonstrate my ability to undertake new challenges and  develop new skills. Although I have not been playing the guitar for as long as I have been playing the piano, guitar has been a big part of my life as well. Since my father is very good at playing the guitar I have asked him to teach me some songs that he knew well. I have developed new skills in doing so, and I was able to thoroughly enjoy myself. Art is by far my favourite subject and I have often painted for fun over the last two years. Painting outside of school has enabled me to develop more skills in art which I may find useful if I ever decide to pursue being an artist in the future. I was able to work collaboratively with others when I undertook the new challenge of taking part in Bollywood dancing. I worked with two others towards a performance, and the practices I attended demonstrated this, as well as my perseverance and commitment.

I took part in various sporting activities, both for fitness and for fun, developing my already existing skills as well as working to develop new ones. Swimming has been my main sport since primary school and over these two years I have been swimming on a regular basis, having gone to the school practices for the swimming season as well. Swimming both inside and outside school demonstrated my perseverance and commitment and through this I was also able to increase awareness of my strengths and areas for growth, such as my stronger and weaker strokes, stamina, breath support and so on. I found that the Overseas School of Colombo has a lot of great swimmers so I was able to learn a lot from the coaches and my fellow swimmers which helped my develop some new skills. Badminton has also been a big part of my life, but not for as long as swimming. I attended after school badminton practices, in which I developed some new skills and worked collaboratively with others (in doubles games). I undertook new challenges by taking part in the school basketball practices. Basketball is something I have never done before in my life and I thought it would be fun to try out something new for a change. It was obviously very difficult for me because it was something completely new to me, but the other players and the coach helped me develop new skills by teaching me many techniques that basketball players use in their matches. My position as a pitcher in a softball tournament I participated in also showed that I had undertaken new challenges because I had always played as second base man and had never been a pitcher before. In taking part in basketball and softball I also worked collaboratively with others because in team sports, working together is one of the most crucial things.

One of the most important things a person can do is help those in need. To me, the service aspect of the CAS programme is the most important because it allows us to be selfless and shapes us to be better people. My father works for a volunteer agency called the Japan International Co-operation Agency and I have always admired the work that he and his co-workers do to help others. He told me about a group of Chinese students who were studying Japanese but was experiencing a shortage of books which made me want to do something to help them. This led me to my book drive, in which I worked collaboratively with others because we worked as a team to make this happen, and we carried out planned and initiated activities together. I also took part in the school library service in which I worked collaboratively with others to make the school library a more efficient place and by going to this service activity every thursday, I also showed perseverance and commitment. The biggest service activity that I took part in, though, was the Hope For Kids Cancer Hospital. We met every thursday, which showed my perseverance and commitment and we carried out planned and initiated activities by planning what to do in our hospital visits and also by planning the big fundraising fashion show. The fashion show 'Charity Chic' was by far the biggest fundraising event that I have been a part of and I worked collaboratively with others when I was working backstage. We managed to raise over 700,000Rs in this event which we donated to the Maharagama Childrens' Cancer Hospital. In taking part in these service activities I was able to engage in issues of global importance especially regarding childrens' cancer, because that is an issue not only of Sri Lanka but of many many other countries as well. I also considered the ethical implications of my actions because by participating in these activities, it made me think about how my actions were going to help those that I was trying to help.

Overall, these past two years in this CAS programme has definitely shaped me to be a better person as it enabled me to try out things I would have never tried out and as a result, developed many new skills. By fulfilling all 8 criteria, I have become a more well rounded student and these skills will definitely be of great use in my future. I enjoyed this programme very much and appreciate it for where it got me!

Painting For Fun!

Although I have been quite busy studying for my final exams, I found some time to do some art as a break from my studying. Through doing this I am hoping to develop new skills in art.

The Birth of Venus in the Animal Kingdom

World of Colours

Charcoal Piece

Animal Paradigm Shift Version 1

Animal Paradigm Shift Version 2

Hope For Kids Charity Fashion Show: 'Charity Chic'

The big fundrasing event that we have been planning finally took place on Saturday 11th of Ferbruary 2012. I previously mentioned some of the plans we had for the event, but we made many changes to make the show as successful as possible.



Melche's Designs



We initially planned to hold a designer competition for different international schools to pick student designers to present their clothes in the show. However, we found this difficult as many of the school principals were reluctant to have their school involved, and it turned out to be quite time consuming. We therefore decided to ask some professional desginers to present their clothing lines in the show. The designers who offered to present their clothes included Darshi's 'Buddhi Batiks', Melache, Arugam Bay, the Academy of Desgin and one student desginer Avinash Hirdaramani from our school, the Overseas School of Colombo. All these desginers offered to present the clothes for free, which helped us make more profit so we are appreciative of that.

We were also considering different venues that were located in the Colombo city area, as we felt many outsiders would be willing to attend if it was held close by. However, when we took into account the cost of renting the place, carrying the runway ramp to the venue, the help needed to carry the mirrors and clothes etc, we thought it would be more practical if we held the event in our school auditorium.



Darshi's Designs



We encountered some problems regarding the prices of the tickets, which were priced at Rs 1500 for normal seats and Rs 2500 for front row seats, because many found this too expensive, especially our fellow students. We did not want to price the tickets cheaper because we wanted to make as much profit as possible, and the music, lights, make up and so on were proving to be quite expensive. However, we reduced the price to Rs 1000 in the end in order to sell as many tickets as possible.





Professional Dancers






The show itself was a great success, and all our hard work paid off! Our CAS leaders Sandushi and Upandha worked especially hard so we owe them a lot. The Pepsi company agreed to provide drinks for free, and a nearby super market called Keels set up a hot dog stand to sell to our guests. Our teacher in charge, Ms Tanuja organized a group of professional dancers to perform during breaks as well. The music and lights were done very professionally, and all these contibuted to making the show a big success!

I designed the backdrop as well



Avinash Hirdaramani's Designs



I designed the backdrop for the ramp and was also in charge of the decor in the foyer. During the show, I helped out backstage, getting people in order, helping the models get dressed and so on. In taking part in the Charity Chic Fashion Show, I have increased awareness of my strengths and areas of growth, as I now know that I am confident in helping back stage and getting everybody organized. I have undertaken new challenges as I have never been directly involved in such a big event, which was a significant planned and initiated activity, since a great deal of planning was required in making this show a success. I worked collaboratively with others as I worked not only with my fellow members in the Hope For Kids group but also with the models to help the show move smoothly along. I showed perseverance and commitment by attending practices and rehearsals, so that I could give advice on how to improve the show. I have also engaged in an issue of global importance as children's cancer is an issue that affects children all over the world, not just in Sri Lanka, and this event aimed to raise funds in order to help those in need in the Maharagama Cancer Hospital. By helping out back stage, desgining the back drop, making decorations for the foyer, I feel I have developed some new skills. Overall, this was a thoroughly enjoyable and exciting event for me, the biggest event so far, and I feel I have benefitted from being involved in this event that aimed to raise funds to help children's cancer.

I was in charge of the decor of the foyer

Goals For The Second Semester

This Semester, I am focusing on continuing my CAS activities from last semester. I will continue to engage in creative activities as a break from my school work, focusing on my independent piano and guitar practices and creating artworks separate from my Visual Art pieces. This semester, like last, I would like to engage in active activities for enjoyment, rather than competing. I will continue to swim 3 days a week focusing on improving my weaker strokes and increasing my stamina. I have already participated in two active events organized for enjoyment, Bollywood Dancing and Softball, and I would like to continue some Softball practice over the course of this semester. In terms of my Service activities, I plan on continuing my part in the 'Hope For Kids' group that aids children who suffer from Cancer. The first half of this semester is focused on our big fundraising fashion show, but after that is over, we will continue our weekly visits to the Maharagama Cancer Hospital.

My CAS activities are as follows:
Creativity: Piano, Guitar and Paiting
Action: Swimming and Softball
Service: Hope For Kids Cancer Hospital

I would like to enjoy these activities and develop many useful skills for the future!

Softball Tournament

On the 29th of January 2012, the Japanese Community in Sri Lanka held its annual softball tournament. The teams that participated was interesting, because there was an 'International Aid' team (a team consisting of people who came from Japan to Sri Lanka to give international aid), a 'Construction' team (a team of Japanese people dedicated to building bridges and power stations), a 'Japanese School' team (a team consisting of teachers and parents of the Japanese school in Sri Lanka) and so on. I was on the 'International Aid' team, as my father works as a co-ordinator of volunteers here in Sri Lanka.

During the practice match the day before, on January 28th, I played as the team's pitcher. I played softball for a brief period in Junior High school, but I had never played as pitcher before so this was a new experience for me. On the day, I played as the second baseman. The team that I was on had a lot of experienced players so we actually ended up winning 3 of our 4 matches, which surprised us all since we were very outnumbered by the other teams. The experienced players taught me a lot about softball that I didn't get a chance to learn in the brief time that I played long ago, and I thoroughly enjoyed myself!

 

In taking part in this tournament, I undertook a new challenge by playing as the pitcher, which was something I had never done before. I also developed new skills that I did not have before, by playing with the experienced players. I worked collaboratively with others in planned and initiated acitivities as teamwork and planning is a very important part of team sports such as Softball.

Bollywood Dancing

On Saturday 7th of January we finally performed the dance that we'd practised over the last month or so. Despite living in Sri Lanka, a lot of our audience didn't really know about Bollywood Dancing so they thoroughly enjoyed watching our performance. We even managed to inspire people to take Bollywood Dancing themselves!

 

It was exciting to try something that I hadn't done before and through this experience, I feel like I got to know the culture of the country I live in. By taking part in this activity, I undertook a new challenge and developed new skills since this was something completely new to me. I also took part in planned and initiated activities and worked collaboratively with others by attending practices to go over the routine as a group.

Hope For Kids - Semester Reflection

I thoroughly enjoyed being a part of the Hope For Kids CAS group this semester, and it was a pleasure to spend time with the kids! Even though we didn't visit the hospital as often as we wanted to, the time we spent together was a great experience for all of us, including us students, the kids and the teachers. The end of this semester was mainly focused on the upcoming fashion show fundraiser, and we expect next semester to be too. I'll definitely be joining Hope for Kids nex semester, to finish planning for the fashion show, to raise money for a very good cause, and of course to spend more time with the children at the hospital :)



Making paper frames with the kids




Making decorations for the hospital




Playing with the kids! Kashmika and me :)