ANAND UTSAV:
Anand Utsav was my CAS project, an event that me along with 4 of my friends planned within the span of 7 months for the ancillary and admin staff of our school. Since our time in the school has begun, one of the few people who were always there when we needed them, irregardless of the time and space, were the ancillary staff of the school. And when we were brainstorming about ideas for our project, this seemed to be one that all of us were passionate about. The event was going to be one that allowed the staff to have fun, play games, let go of their responsibilities for once and just have fun.
| LO 1 | Identify own strengths and develop areas for growth |
The whole experience of planning the event really put the connection and unity of our group at the test, while also helping us realize our strengths and our weaknesses. There were several times when I had to work overtime, irrespective of my pending school work and take out time to prep for the event, there were many meetings with the teachers and among ourselves which overlapped with my other submissions, however, it made me identify my strength of working towards compassion, how if I am passionate about something, I will manage my time effectively to get the best outcome. Along with this, it also made me realize the few lacks which I have, including the decision making skills, one which is most prominently required while organizing an event. As the event organization progressed, it made me aware of my creative thinking skills, as for the event we were supposed to think of fun games that the staff would enjoy playing, some different than the ordinary ones we play, and hence that is where I put my creative thinking skill to use.
| LO 2 & LO 5 | Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process. Demonstrate the skills and recognize the benefits of working collaboratively |
There were many challenges that were undertaken while planning this event, one was the continuous interference of covid with the planning. We had initially started planning the event at the start of Term 2 of Grade 11, however because of the increase in covid cases, we had to delay the final dates of the event while also delaying all the planning. This was a major setback and really destroyed the self-esteem of our group, while also having us worry if our project will ever see the light of day. With this, there were also many obstacles with the group that was undertaken, several disagreements amongst ideas for games and events and how to plan and structure the event, which also caused several fights, however, all were undertaken and resolved peacefully within the given time. There were many benefits of working in a group, one that each person got a job that they wanted to do, for example,m because I was good at planning and thinking of games, I was assigned that task, while Jiya Patel was good at taking videos and drawing, she was given a task respectively, this division of work made it easier for the group to complete the planning as soon as possible. This division of authority during the day of the event also allowed the event to flow and function smoothly.
LO3. Demonstrate how to initiate and plan a CAS experience.
The main idea that surged us to come to the conveying of this event was when we were asked to initiate a case experience. This was a huge experience for us because this was my first event where I did everything from scratch for an official event. I was the one who was involved in the creation of the idea and was also there throughout while planning the games of the event, the activities, and the photo booths. We were often coming across difficulties as to where to start the planning and because of this we were often lost while initiating the process, which is why when we were to plan we sat down and quickly decided on the major things to first shift our focus to, cutting down work and dividing it equally according to one’s strength to keep the plan going.
| LO 4 | Show commitment to and perseverance in CAS experiences |
I showed a lot of commitment and perseverance as, when the execution of the event was uncertain, I still kept on pitching it to the teachers and still kept on working with the aim of the end in mind. And even though covid restricted our activities, we did not give up and stayed on the execution of the plan. And as mentioned above, we were getting many rejects on our ideas from our teachers, the committee members however, we kept on, and did not give up. And lastly, even when we were facing internal problems, as a committee, we held on and worked on the plan without prejudices and bad blood.
| LO 6 | Demonstrate engagement with issues of global significance |
I do believe that this engages with a global significance as there are staff and workers all around the globe at every school, and they work day in and out to help the students learn and I do believe that they are under-appreciated at times and that they need to be more appreciated. And hence, we decided to set this event as an example for other students to show their gratitude towards the staff in any form they can. And I do believe that everyone should be appreciated for the hours and hard work they put in on a daily basis.
| LO 7 | Recognize and consider the ethics of choices and actions |
We had to consider a lot of ethics while planning the event, one of our actions not being offensive to anyone, the choice of games not making the staff feel inferior or more. Also, with covid we had to make sure to reduce physical contact to it’s fullest. WHile we wanted the event to be successful we were also working on a school budget, which kept us re-checking the choices we make on a daily and constant basis, because there were many ideas that we wanted to put through however could not be so because of the budget constraints.