The major goals set for grade 11 were to run the after school badminton and also to run Art Project. Both these goals have been achieved and overall I believe that this year’s commitment in CAS has been successful.

Badminton after school activity was said to be one of the most popular ASAs. Through collaborating with Mr. De Silva and Mo, it was very successful and this has allowed me to continue to be the leader in the 3rd block as well.

The involvement in the community service at OSC was Sun Flower Project in semester 1, and Art Project in semester 2.

Sun Flower Project was one of the projects which I did back in 10th grade, so I already knew exactly what we were supposed to do. However, I believe that I’ve achieved more than just the main aim, that is to teach swimming, but also to build a friendship and have interactions with the children, despite the language barrier. It was not an easy task at the beginning, however by being close to them and playing with them, I feel that I’ve accomplished this and this built a confidence in myself; that through perseverance and commitment, difficult tasks can be achieved.

Art Project is something, which I believe is the action that affected other people the most, especially the art students, by organizing the rooms. With 4 members, we worked collaboratively and put in a lot of effort in organizing the place. The initial goals set for this were:

  • File papers, colored papers, paper-boards and card-boards in the correct place.
  • Organize the room where most of the tools are kept. Label the boxes and sort the tools in each box, so that tools are not in any random boxes, and students can easily access the tools.
  • Categorize the brushes according to the different sizes, separate the usable brushes and unusable brushes.
  • Sharpen pencils and sort each pencil according to the type, darkness, and size.
  • Organize the place where the paints are kept. Categorize the paints which are new and used. Replace the paints when the tube is empty.
  • Organize grade 12′s Art Room.
  • Tidy up where all the color pencils, erasers, scissors and other commonly used tools are kept.
  • Use the database (created by a student last year) to make a record of the number of pencils, paints, colors and other specific materials and tools.

I believe that all of these goals have been achieved, apart from the last one. Our actions revolved around these goals and we were always working towards accomplishing these goals (which are virtually not possible to fully achieve, thus worked continually every now and then).

Another big action this year was the first badminton team at OSC and becoming the captain of the team. Leading badminton after school has helped me in this and I really enjoyed learning more about badminton, improving weaknesses, playing with players from other schools and so on. I believe this is where my leadership was really shown and became one of my strengths.

Other CAS included helping lighting and managing scoreboards. These were not as big as others, however, these events were great opportunities to undertake new challenges and increase the awareness of my strengths. I myself have enjoyed doing these and if I get an opportunity for these events next year, I’m fully committed to do them.

In terms of the CAS 8 criteria, I did a good job with all of them.

  • Increase awareness of own strengths and areas for growth:

This was shown from every actions that I’ve taken this year. Some of the major strengths were leaderships, taking initiatives and collaborations.

  • Undertake new challenges:

Many of the CAS this year were new to me, but I undertook these challenges without a hesitation. Some major highlights include becoming the leader of badminton after school activity, becoming the captain of the badminton team and creating Art Project as one of the community service projects at OSC.

  • Plan and initiate activities:

Planning and initiations are important for anything to be successful. I’ve clearly shown that I’ve planned and took initiatives, especially from badminton after school activity and Art project.

  • Work collaboratively with others:

In this criterion, I believe that I did an excellent job. There were no times when I was working alone and I was always working with other people. Collaboration was very important especially in groups, and I’ve shown this in Sun Flower Project, during WWW, badminton after school activity, badminton team training and in Art project.

  • Show perseverance and commitment in activities

These were clearly shown, for example, by attending regularly, and dealing with problems that were encountered.

  • Engage with issues of global importance

Dealing with issues of global importance was especially shown during WWW, when we went to a pre-school and did many things to enhance their learning environment, such as painting walls, maintaining the play ground and so on. In Art project, we dealt with issues in community scale.

  • Consider the ethical implications of actions:

These considerations of ethical implications of actions were shown especially in Sun Flower Project, WWW and Art project.

  • Develop new skills

This was something I did very well on. Some actions were new and some were extensions of existing ones, but I’ve increased expertise in areas, such as leadership, taking initiatives and collaboration.

As mentioned in the beginning, my commitment in CAS was clearly shown through the updates of my blogs and I believe that actions which I’ve taken made some sort of difference to other people’s lives. One of the things which I can improve is to have more “Creativity”. This year, many of the events were Action and Service based. Creativity was not seen as frequent and this is something that I hope to do next year.