Recently, before Diwali, one of our classmates contacted us about volunteering in a service that required creative skills; his mother is a member of this NGO that educates Specially challenged children; this NGO functions through personal funds, donations, and orders taken by the organization, which in turn helps in purchasing resources and managing the school. This Diwali, Shree Mahadev Educational & Rehabilitation Public Charitable Trust placed an order for 10,000 Rangoli sets to be assembled with stone work and folk art symbols painted in the centre of each piece. Each student was required to complete at least 15-20 Rangoli sets as a volunteer, with the art created not violating any religion or caste.

LO1: Identify your own strengths and develop areas for personal growth: As previously stated, we took the initiative to finish these rangolis by handcrafting them in patterns with beads, glasses, and small figurines of traditional art in acrylic paint. As I have always been interested in arts, I used this as a platform to demonstrate my strength in serving people, improving my hand-on-hand skills, and improving my neatness while making these rangolis. In arts, when we practise it consistently, we try to get better at it, improving our skills. Through this experience, I was able to cultivate a sense of patience and neatness in my work.

LO2 Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken developing new skills: I set a goal of completing at least 20 sets of rangoli pieces, which included everything from painting acrylic figurines to adding beads and glasses in a pattern. Until now, my work has never been neat, and it is clear from each of my works that I lack patience. Taking this experience as a challenge, I tried to demonstrate neatness throughout the 20 rangoli sets as well as be patient about each and every step, keeping my mind calm while working.

LO3 initiate and plan a CAS experience:I planned my CAS experience in a group where our arts group came together to meet one of our classmate who brought this opportunity to us, which helped us in making a thorough plan of this CAS experience, about the materials that would be used, the time that would be required, and accordingly we planned dates to meet at our classmate’s house to complete the rangoli sets.

LO4 commitment to and perseverance: This experience was planned very late, and our exams were approaching, so it was critical to finish the rangoli sets before Diwali so that they could be distributed at the appropriate time. Between all of my IA of business management and Design technology assignments, I had to take time out to finish the rangolis on time. At one point, it was the last date for BM IA submission on that day, even though it was pending, and I was committed to this, which is why I came together to finish the rangoli sets.

LO5  Demonstrate skills and benefits of working collaboratively: Because we all had an art background and knew our juniors well, we asked them to volunteer to make the rangoli, which allowed us to make more rangoli sets in less time. We were almost 12 people and completed nearly 100 sets of rangoli in 3 hours.

-Arjun Agarwal