One of the core requirements for the International
Baccalaureate (IB) diploma is CAS, which stands for Creativity, Action, and
Service. Although it has made my
last two years of high school very occupied, it has definitely developed me
into a much more open-minded thinker, a global citizen and a lifelong learner,
the perfect description of an “International” scholar. These aspects of an
individual is also what Brent International School want for their students,
stated in the ESLRs( Expected S). The CAS program forces us to engage ourselves
to not only our school but also our community and maybe even the global society
in general. It reminds us of the things that count and matters, by this I mean
academics are important and we learn multiple subjects so we can build skills
that will allow us to enter the professions we want but when you graduate and
go into the big world, there are many things that we will need to learn that
can be simply be attained through reading books but actual on-the-spot
experience. For me, the hardest part of CAS is not engaging ourselves and to
participate in activities but is the documentation of our progress. To
document, we are required to write up a proposal, then keep journal entries
through out the timeline of the activity and then finally write up a
reflection. All this writing can be extremely frustrating but I think this is
an essential factor to the success of CAS, making it more then just
participating. Writing journals and reflections has allowed me to think twice
about a subject matter, see my own progress throughout the activity, and
constantly participating (except for short term activities). The IB CAS program’s goal is for
students to achieve 8 learning outcomes which are: Increased awareness of his/her own strengths and areas of growth, Undertaken new challenges, Planned and initiated activities, Worked collaboratively with others, Shown perseverance and commitment in
their activities, Engaged with
issues of global importance, Considered
ethical implications of their actions, and Developed
new skills.
My
longest activity was Student Council 2010-2011, it was school year long
activity. Being in this school for all my life, I’ve been hearing election
speeches every single year and very rarely was there a good speech that wasn’t
repetitive. I wonder every year whether or not these candidates know what it
means to be part of the Student Council, and so curiosity hit me, and I was
lucky enough to have been elected as Student Council Treasurer. What I realized
as I was learning the functions of the Student Council and keeping up with
journal entries was that the things the council provides is nothing that’s a
“NEED.” For example, there is no need for throwing parties, having a spirit
week, raising funds and helping the ones in need in our community. There was
not a TO-DO list on the first day, the only job is to satisfy the student body
and meet their expectations, we had to make our own to-do list, which took a
lot of initiative, creativity and collaboration between council members. One huge lesson I learned throughout
the year, is that it takes a lot of careful planning for an activity to work
otherwise many on-the-spot problems will come up and everything will just be a
mess, and when things are a mess it is very hard to work with your fellow
council members.
Throughout
my high school year I’ve always engaged myself to joining varsity sports teams
such as basketball, volleyball, soccer and at times track & field and cross
country. In the 2 years of IB, majority of my action requirement are covered by
my sports activities. CAS for sports are generally the same, you set a goal for
yourself then formulate ways to reach it and then in the end you have an
evaluation of whether or not you reached the goals. With CAS in my mind I was
more concentrated in my overall development as a student athlete, I have gained
awareness of my own strengths and looked for ways to improve my
weaknesses. One of my very own
motto for sports is that commitment and perseverance will pay off and it
definitely has for me this year as our commitment together as a team led to our
ISAC championship in basketball. Never would I have known that sports are not
only dependent on a person’s physicality but also their mentality.
The
Tzu Chi Medical Mission, Lower School Soccer Club, and POCCH completed the
service parts of my CAS: Make a Better World. These 3 services gave me the most
feedback as I was writing up my reflection. All 3 made a point to me that every
single person in the world has the rights to live and be heard. Although the
kids of the lower school soccer club were not underprivileged as the people in
the medical mission and POCCH, but while I was working with the little kids I
realized that even their contributions and thoughts can be valuable because I feel
that often times the voices of children are undermined. With this said the
learning outcome of engaging with issues of global importance and considering ethical
implications of their actions were met.
In
conclusion I have grown into a mature young men being experienced and worked
together with many kind of people which allowed me to think through the many
perspectives in life.
