Open mic events are such events that most people enjoy! I volunteered in an event named “Word Wise” by Moonsoon Musings, Season 4, to contribute to the literary section and host that event. WordWise is an open-mic organized for students, staff, and parents on 27th November 2021, Saturday in Fountainhead School. I took part in this event and had the job to manage the literary section which includes approving poems or any literary pieces, writing the script of the event, and hosting some part of the event. I also helped in putting on the decorations. This CAS experience developed many of my skills and I even gained new skills during this process. While volunteering in this event I demonstrated the Following LOs:

LO1: Identify own strengths and develop areas for growth:

Since my childhood, I am good at public speaking and have great communication skills but I lack experience in public speaking. I still have a little bit of stage fear, which is one area of growth that I can work on. As previously mentioned since I was one of the hosts of the event and spoke in front of almost 100 people my stage fear reduced, I got more experience in public speaking which made me even more confident. Hence, I identified my strength which was having good communication skills but public speaking was something I could work on. This CAS experience provided me an opportunity to work upon it and improve it.

LO2: Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process

This was a big event and many people were involved in the organization of this event. Many challenges took place, to discuss the script and flow with the entire team, Early ins were required but they didn`t get approved. Hence, time management, efficient work division, and collaborating in the regular school time was difficult, but meeting outside the school hours, using spreadsheets for organization, and dividing the literary pieces to check and color-coding helped us. Hence, I developed collaboration and social skills during this process.

LO3: Demonstrate how to initiate and plan a CAS experience

Since this was a big event happening, a lot of time went into planning the event. We had created timelines, added calendar updates, scheduled meetings, drafted the scripts, etc. I planned the entire process that I gave the responsibility for according to my schedule, such as checking the literary pieces and learning the script.

LO 4: Show commitment to and perseverance in CAS experiences
Sometimes our plans to meet, Early ins got canceled, we also changed the theme twice, and initially, we got fewer participants hence at that time the entire team including me thought of giving up but we stayed committed to the project, showed perseverance, and then did various announcements, enrolled the form once again, decided the theme and collaborated with the Admin. At the last everything got finalized, we got many participants and the event was a hit!

LO 5: Demonstrate the skills and recognize the benefits of working collaboratively
I am usually good at communication but collaborations skills are something I need to develop. Considering this, it was difficult for me to work with others during this experience because of opinion differences, different subjects hence meeting issues, time issues, non-matching schedules, etc. However, working collaboratively did make things easier as the workload was divided. For instance, I checked 12 literary pieces, wrote certain parts of the scripts, etc. Hence I recognized the benefits of working in a group and developed collaborative skills.

LO 7: Recognize and consider the ethics of choices and actions

While writing the script we had the reference of the previous Moonsoon Musings hosting script, we had the option of using that and modifying it according to our flow. Here the ethics of choices came, it is not ethical to use somebody else`s work without their permission, hence we just took reference of the script but created an entirely new script. Giving credits is also one of the ethical practices, we gave credit to each and everybody who participated such as a Grade 12 student who gave her installations for decorations, so credits were given to her too.

I also demonstrated several learner profiles during this CAS experience. I was a communicator as communicated my ideas to the group, hosted some part of the event, and interacted with the audience. I was a thinker and reflective while analyzing each literary piece like no offensive/ inappropriate content is presented, hence I reflected on every literary piece given to me for checking.

The highlight of this experience for me was when many people participated and appreciated me for volunteering for the event, and also when people were interacting when I was hosting, hence it improved my communication skills and improved my confidence.

I would love to be part of the wordwise event again! Next time, when I participate I want to be part of the logistics team to get a new overall experience! I loved every part of the event, it was extremely insightful!