CAS resulted as one of the best experiences I undertook during my IB
experience. Initially I thought it would have been stressful to include all the
activities into my study plan. In the end I realized how all of them together
helped me grow as a student but also as a person. I not only learnt how to
better organize my time to include all the extracurricular activities, but I
have understood the importance of undertaking challenges and activities never
experiences before. This is definitely important for a student looking forward
a balanced and complete educational growth. Many where the skills that I found
myself improving, discovering, or strengthening during these past eighteen
months. Some of these are described in the next paragraphs to come.
One thing I believe the CAS program left
me with is bravery. Finding new activities to pursuit and accomplished
definitively helped me to push my limits and exit that comfort zone I was
laying in. The first time I noticed this was at the beginning of 12th grade
when, at the start of the volleyball season, I proposed myself to be the
captain of the team. It has been an amazing feeling when I got confirmed the position.
Initially I was scared and intimidated by the great responsibility I had over
my shoulders, but with some organization and communication with the coaches I
managed to learn the tricks. Definitely this experience made me improve my role
as a leader, but especially it made me understand the importance of
communication within a team. Not only for game strategies, but most importantly
for human relationships. I definitely gained a lot from this experience and I
am sure the skills I have learnt and improve will help me in my future life
inside and outside of court.
Pushing my limits is definitely the key
sentence to describe my 12 months of CAS. Not only in the sports, but also in
music. It has been almost 9 years now since I started playing the piano. Never
since the beginning of CAS I have pushed myself to new horizons. First of all I
started taking piano lessons in German. This has been a very big step for me as
I do not speak the language fluently and I came in Switzerland almost 3 years
ago without speaking a single word in German. Definitely through music I
managed to improve my communication skills not only through music, but also
through a new language. Furthermore I also took part in the school musical's
orchestra ("Sound of Music"). My role was the pianist and for the
first time I found myself surrounded by many other instruments playing
together. I have to admit it has been quite and experience for one's used to
only play by herself. I had to improve my awareness of others, but the big
improvements in my communication skills I gained with the other activities
helped me overcome the initial problems of miscommunication with the rest of
the band.
Thinking about the importance of communication
brings up the activity I have organized with a friend of mine in school. Lena
and I designed an art workshop for Kindergarteners during our activity week at
ICS. This activity involved a lot of reasoning and planning ahead, and
obviously a whole lot of communication between Lena and I. The big challenges
appeared during the organization phase when we had to analyse our limits in the
artistic field, and consequentially those of the kids. The challenge was to
find something doable, enjoyable and interesting for both the kids and us. We
realized that the more involved us two where the better we were at delivering
the same interest to the kids. We definitely learnt from our mistakes as we
were able to see the big improvements in between the first and last lesson we
gave. Every time I
find myself in front of kids that experienced great changes in their life,
considering their young age. Some changes that probably myself cannot even
imagine. Something that I have found very important as well was to be able to
reflect on my actions, because every single movement of expression of mine
could have had a great impact on the kids. Surprisingly the task did not result
too hard to accomplice. Or better, it is a hard task but it is leaving me with
so much non-scholar knowledge that I am enjoying myself to the point that I do
not find this hard anymore.
The second activity was teaching
volleyball. The best thing was that I had been able to teach kids what I love
to do the most outside of the classroom. Again I faced the difficulty of
planning a lesson and showing my leader role. In the end, with the help of two
other classmates, we managed to carry out our experience in the best way. It
has been amazing to see the great improvements in the kids skills going along
with ours in the teaching field. Again communication and reason became
fundamental as the best lessons where the ones well planned and structured.
CAS not only bought me to push
my limits but it also taught me the importance of persevering and committing to
my activities. This was shown since the day I joined the "Awareness
Committee". Initially it resulted to be very boring and tedious to
participate at each meeting, but with the months passing I noticed the
importance of attendance, as everyone's contribution was necessary. To increase
my commitment to the cause I also offered myself to be the main communicator of
the group along with another student. We were in charge of sharing and
summarize all that was said in the meetings for those who missed them or just
as a reminder. Sometimes it really has been a challenge, we had to sacrifice
our study time to keep up with the work inside the committee but it has
definitely resulted useful. Especially when all the activities we planned
resulted to have an impact on the whole school, therefore we had been able to
raise awareness. In this activity especially, I saw myself as never before as I
gave many presentations in front of entire grades and classes. This was very
unusual for me as I never really wanted to expose myself. I definitely became a
much more aware risk-taker now.
Almost coming at the end of my
experience I also noticed how different sports changed me. I undertook many new
challenges and activities never tried before: I joined the badminton team, the
swimming team, I run a 10km race, and last but not least I joined the
"Dare Race". The first two, even if they seem two sports focusing on
the single person, taught me how to play in a team and how to build up stronger
and more lasting friendships. The 10km race definitely made me improve my
planning skills and my self-awareness of my body when doing unusual efforts.
The same could be said for the "Dare Race" which is more of a sum of
the first three sports in the list. In the dare race I was in a team of four,
communication was key and good relationship between the team were fundamental.
No matter the ups and downs. I learnt how the single person, in a critical
situation, could affect the entire group. Everyone then had a great
responsibility during this race and sports activities.
In conclusion I would also like to
mention my experience working in a public Italian library. In there I
discovered a whole new world, I experienced my first real job, and I saw myself
becoming much more responsible. I could say that all I learnt from CAS could be
summarized by this activity as it involved a lot of organization, perseverance
and collaboration skills and also the ability of being very open-minded towards
everyone.
CAS definitely helped me
changing rom the shy kid staying in the corner to the one taking her chances,
the one taking opportunity and making the most out of them. I have learnt a lot
form these pas 18 months of CAS and I am very proud of what I have done and
where I got to.
