Final Reflections
How did you increase your awareness of your own strengths and areas for growth?
Throughout the completion of all of my CAS hours, I found all kinds of strengths and weaknesses within myself. I believe that most of this raising of self-awareness and self-criticism came from my time during Junior year. That year, I experimented greatly with leadership, discovering all kinds of new things about myself. Within ACE, I worked as a section leader and in marching band I became drum major. In these groups, I have found that my strengths included serving as a role model for other student musicians, creating environments that both nurtured a sense of community and encouraged fast-paced learning, and making choices that helped me to leave a mark on the organizations I led. Undeniably, I also found areas of growth that I needed to touch upon. First of all, I found an innate fear of leading large groups in paranoia of failing. Secondly, I found that I often over-analyze situations, causing many of my decisions to be delayed and untimely. Finally, I found a much needed area of improvement in my communication skills. My participation of both Action and Creativity hours allowed me to hone in on these areas of growth and actually grow. Of course, by the end of that year, I became Vice President of Key Club and Vice President of Sharing Our Humanity. These presented me new leadership opportunities in the form of Service hours, in which I learned how to apply many of the same strengths and weaknesses I found within myself to organizations that were not set out in the stadium or choral hall, but in the classroom and beyond.
How did your activities demonstrate that you've taken on new challenges?
My activities include a wide spectrum of different interests. Starting with band and choir, I have learned to participate in organizations that require absolute dedication, and even in times when it was difficult to keep on going, I pushed myself to face the challenge presented and overcome the obstacles placed in front of me (as was the case with choir for me). Moreover, the building of service leadership in KC, SoH, BioClub, and more showed that I could participate in the community and help contribute by means of service while also maintaining my usual social and academic life.
How were your activities planned and initiated?
There really was no plan to the initiation of my activities. I often did things in a very sporadic manner, such as very random moments of service including various trips with BioClub and a Saturday working in the IB Chemistry lab to help my fellow peers with their design labs. Earth Club, Key Club, and Sharing Our Humanity often dominated my activities, and, now that I think about it more, I was often attracted to these events because of the people involved. I think that the greatest benefit that could be found in the development of Creativity, Action, and Service hours is the sense of collaboration that come from it, especially one that culminates from places of interpersonal relationships, such as these clubs.
In what ways did you work collaboratively with others?
In band and choir, all of any type of activity or practice involves collaboration. When there isn't collaboration is when problems begin to emerge. [More elaboration on this can be found in the corresponding posts within the blog on marching band and ACE]. Cohesion is essential to musicians playing in a larger group, and whether you are on a field of 70 people marching together in synchronized 180 tempo or in a room singing with 30 others in French unison, the concept behind musical collaboration is the same: that every person is a piece of the whole. With Key Club, I worked with my fellow officers to reconstruct the way that our club works, often resulting in team efforts between the six board members and twelve committee members. With Sharing Our Humanity, I also worked with my officers in an attempt to pull off a revamped annual dinner that took the speech-and-dine gala concept and turned it into an interactive night of activities and communal fun. Collaboration is an ultimate part of CAS, and neither is same without the other.
How do your activities demonstrate perseverance and commitment on your part?
I think that being a part of any type of activity that earns no tangible credit or recognition is something that demonstrates perseverance and determination. The story gets old, but I think the central event to this idea has to be my involvement in choir. As I am typing this, actually, I am sitting in the dressing room waiting for Ms. S. to call us to the stage to rehearse our extensive choreography as part of our Spring Showcase in mid-May. My body aches and I have I.B. tests coming left and right. My involvement in this group at this point has no 'point,' but allow me to clarify that in 'point' I mean no credit. I am not receiving any physical academic credits for this nor am I using this entire season for CAS; however, the reflection of this season in conjunction to the Winter season that I did use for CAS develops the core idea, that I am doing all of this for the fun and comrady it has to offer. There are many moments when I think that I could be at home, either studying or sleeping, and I am often tempted; however, I do persevere and I am a determined character. This sense of pulling through can really be applied to any of the events/groups that I have participated in.
How were you engaged with issues of global importance?
What immediately comes to mind in terms of global importance is Key Club and Sharing Our Humanity. Key Club, first of all, is an international organization that connects high school students from all around the globe in efforts of solving world issues. For example, the major fundraisers that we support are Pediatric Trauma Program and Project Eliminate. Project Eliminate pools together Key Club's fundraisers, collecting dollars in the millions and eliminating maternal and neo-natal tetanus from already several large countries. Thus, the immense power of being a part of such a group that promotes international cooperation on the student level in aiding causes of massive proportion really does justly portray Key Club.
Moreover, our Sharing Our Humanity club is a club that was created based on the I.B. theme: Sharing Our Humanity. At its core, the club focuses on bringing attention and funds to areas generally outside of local issues of need (with the exception of water politics in 2014 in California). In the club, we have raised over thousands of dollars for different countries in different years, and have consequentially contributed to the world in a way that not many high schools students are able to .
Moreover, our Sharing Our Humanity club is a club that was created based on the I.B. theme: Sharing Our Humanity. At its core, the club focuses on bringing attention and funds to areas generally outside of local issues of need (with the exception of water politics in 2014 in California). In the club, we have raised over thousands of dollars for different countries in different years, and have consequentially contributed to the world in a way that not many high schools students are able to .
In what ways did you consider the ethical implications of your activities?
In terms of ethics, the only thing that I can really think of that relates these activities to worldy understandings of right and wrong is the possible questioning of our roles as high school minors in issues that run ferociously throughout the rest of the globe. While I understand the validity of some claim out there that these activities may or may not deserve to be considered world-changing, I have to whole-heartedly disagree. Of course, the direct activities themselves (like the service activities) come directly in contact with ethics and the belief that even the smallest of activities, whether they be with or without certain proclivities, play absolutely significant roles in shaping the world that they are being done in. Even if we look at some of the things that my friends and I do, between music, sports, and drama, I find that there is truly a large amount of ethical value found within, especially in the ability of different disciplines or areas of knowing in helping to educate new generations and masses of knowledge that seeds itself initially the seeming superficiality of singing, acting, or swimming. As it develops though, the ethics is that these activities should be fostered in order to help build the communities that will use the collaborative and decision-making skills from these to apply to the construction of the greater world. And this is truly indoctrinated within the understanding of the purpose of CAS.
What new skills did you develop through your activities?
I think that the main thing that the activities really taught me was the accepting of a global responsibility that goes beyond credit or payment. I have never really realized the power of collaboration in bringing about change and good until now. The student that I am now looks back to the student I was before I began this journey, and he recognizes the way in which each individual in the world is interconnected and plays a significant role in building interpersonal relationships for the betterment of all communities, local and distant. Within this, though, I believe that I have become a more selfless character.