Final CAS Reflection

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.