Community & Service Final Reflection 2016/2017

As i have approached the end of my IB Community & Service journey i'm taking the opportunity to take a look back at all my accomplishments regarding the field of service. These past 2 years have allowed me to develop new abilities and change my perspective about service in general, although it requires you to work just as hard it also pays off in the end knowing what you did possibly just made someones life a little bit less complicating.

 Creativity 

During my time as a leader of Habitat for Humanities myself along with 2 other members have used our creative thinking to organise and participate in fund raising events as well as social events where interacting with people less fortunate to us becomes a frequent practice. It was our responsibility as CAS leaders to plan each meeting according to what was mentioned in prior discussions, to segregate the service group into different sub groups in order to speed up the work load required etc.
Although our group consisted of 12 people maximum we achieved a lot more than students running this service group years before.

It became important to us as leader to ensure that students of our service group were allowed to leave the confines of school walls and free themselves into an outdoor working activity. Getting the students outside and having them build houses, hear the stories of people struggling to keep a roof under their head, become open to a world yet to be experienced. When working in a CAS group like this acceptance is the most important. Students get to see the conditions many unfortunate people have to deal with during their life, and that buy granting them shelter we already make their lives easier than it is. By helping others we find true happiness in ourselves because their happiness comes from our hard work. Communicating with people of higher power when seeking for help never was strength of mine until i became a leader of my CAS. It became a necessity as constant communication between OSC and Moir was required, teacher and managers of organization, all needed to be contacted for our work to run smoothly. Becoming a leader really helps you develop personal skills you thought you never had.                    
                                                                                    Action: 

I've always been an athlete since a young age. I would say that my involvement in SAISA and sports in general is the most vibrant aspect of my time in the IB program. Growing up transitioning from one sport to another the ability to challenge yourself as an individual in the sports field has always been something i enjoy being a part of. As a whole, during my 8 years here i have participated in over 10 SAISA ranging between Football, Volleyball, Track & Field and Basketball. I have received the MVP award for both Volleyball and Football this year. My goals for Action originally was to do my best at SAISA and break all my personal best timings in Track & Field and the be considered the most valuable player in at least 2 SAISA sports tournaments. I can proudly say that i have achieved these goals and cannot be more satisfied with my participation to the athletics community. I was able to form new friendships at SAISA with people from around the world, i learnt how to take risk, push myself to the limit in training and most importantly learn how to deal with stress during the most important competitions.

Service: 

I was able to give back to the community by promoting the importance of recognising how hard a day to day life was for a person without correct shelter in Sri Lanka. The facilities needed fro them to be independent in public. My goal originally was to spread awareness of the needs of the houseless  and how everyday activities an average person finds easy can be seen completely different from the perspective of someone who struggles to maintain financial stability. Not many people within the OSC community really knew the struggles of someone fighting for financial AID. As a CAS group raising money and building houses became the up most priority, people needed to be aware of all these issues occurring in Sri Lanka. We fight, build, assist these people to better their survival in this cruel country where each day you are struck with unexplainable weather conditions, shortage of clean water supply and obviously the structure of ones house. People who can't afford proper houses divert their attention to us and the organization we associate with (Habitat for Humanity), seeking loans for the reconstruction of their homes is always granted, it became our job to go down to these regions in Sri Lanka and assist local workers build actual houses for the financially poor. It became a blessing to be able to grant someone a better chance at a new future, knowing that people are able to alter the way their life goes just because you helped them can be considered a great achievement. I will miss being a leader for these students as well as a role model, i've participated in CAS for 6 years transferring from different service groups in order to find the one that i truly belonged in. Habitat for Humanity brings hope to individuals, although i am no longer a part of the IB Community and Service program my desire to help people and associate myself with Service related activities will never stop as i will do whatever it takes to make a difference for people and or community. Service you have been greatly appreciated and shall be missed.

Community & Service (A new year)

Semester 2 had wrapped up! Service is almost done for most students but most importantly, Habitat for Humanity Service Group had succeeded in fulfilling their goals for the year.

As mentioned in pervious blog posts, our main focus is to be able to raise enough money and construct houses for the people who need it. Now creating something like this for people does not come easy because there are a lot of steps involved in making sure everything goes as followed. Our group had been committing each week to assisting people and making sure that plans were completed. 

• Fundraising (Donation) 
• Advertising 
• Sponsorship deals 
• Construction of Houses 

These 4 bullet points were our main objective. As one of the three leaders i had already been on multiple builds and school trips which then involved me to take part in community and service, the ability to grant people something beneficial in life was something i always admired. Yes, it is challenging, but when you are able to accomplish these things you feel nothing but joy and admiration for yourself and your group. Over the last 2 years being the leader we had not only raised 250,000 rupees, but we had also reached out to other international schools and local groups for assistance. Now working towards raising 600,000 rupees we are going around places asking for jobs, possible work opportunities, something to keep our younger students busy and interested in our program. As we strive to make the world a better place for the poor we are willing to take what ever offer is there for us. Taking charge of a group containing 9 boys and 1 girl we are dynamic and work well amongst each other.  

With some students dropping out of community and service we had to find some other replacements to our group, so far we have only found 1 new student willing to take part in helping us progress even more. As of now, we are working towards making as much money as possible through peoples donations, and fundraising events. This will then allow us to organise a trip for students to go out into the rural areas of Sri Lanka and help people feel safe and not threatened. Contacting other work groups for possible trips out of colombo to work has been rather successful. Just this weekend a few students from our group took a trip up north and worked along side a former OSC representative who ended up creating his own constructive program granting people a roof over their heads and a bed to on. As students of OSC it is our responsibility to take matters into our own hands and become independent learners as we grow. Habitat for Humanities allows you to do just that. You develop your organization skills, your time management, your ability to speak out to the public and become a risk taker. You will always be asked to reflect on prior works, fundraising events etc, simply to identify what could've been done better or what can be added on top to make the event stand out more. Each student takes on multiple roles and works along side one another in making the right things happen. 

From being participant myself to become the group leader i've not only seen the Community and Service group change in terms of work but also in terms of commitment and determination. All my students are more than 100% willing to take risks and make chances possible for people.

SAISA Football 2016

Having been apart of the OSC SAISA Football team for more than 4 years i've seen much growth. This was my final year taking part in any competitive sports as a representative of my current school. Couldn't be more proud of where i am today with my fellow team mates. 

As OSC was last years winning team, we had set ourselves some goals prior to this years tournament. It was important for us as a team to maintain that title and take hold of that trophy one more time. For seniors, including myself this was more than just a competitive trip, it was our last time ever playing for our team which meant winning became our main objective. Going into the tournament with our heads held high we felt like we were able to accomplish anything either opposing team threw at us. To start off with, our team had changed quite a lot over the last year, losing our seniors and some other players had impacted the team in some ways, never the less we were determined to prove people wrong and show them that we still have the capability of winning and remaining on the top of the leaderboard. Like always there were some challenges some members on our team faced during the course of this 6 week Football season. Some players were inexperienced, some weren't physically capable of playing for longer than 30 minutes at a stretch, others had academic issues that needed to be resolved in order for them to be able to travel and take part with the team. We faced many challenges but overcame them all together as a team, like a team should. We had all been there and cooperated well with each other, supported them day in and day out. The closer the tournament was for us the closer we became as a team. 

Diverse yet wildly entertaining, we had a wide variety of ages that tried out and played among us seniors and i personally must say it was quite a life changing experience for me. The transformation from week 1 to week 6 was the most unexpected thing to happen. Overall we placed 2nd as we encountered some challenging teams who not only played 100% but as our coach would say "wanted the game more than we did" which was true. This years determination to win was lower than the previous year. I would like to believe that it was because this was the first SAISA for most players on the team so pressure did definitely build up within most players. Although we were organised and some what mentally prepared, it was our physical conditioning that took the best of us. Whether or not we won that trophy, i am very proud to say that this year was quite the success for OSC students including myself. I only hope that the intensity and willingness to play increases as the years go by and maybe there will be more opportunities to take home that trophy once again. Never the less SAISA Football 2016 was a huge accomplishment. 

Habitat for Humanity Student Group has spent the last 2 months planning and trying to figure out new solutions to raising awareness. It was time for something new to be done so we threw away our old ideas and brainstormed for ideas that would really work effectively in conveying our message and get us the public awareness that we've been looking for since the beginning of this year.
Today i walk around school and hear people through the cracks of the walls speaking about the event happening on December 13th. It is important for us to get the response we need and bring in large amounts of people so that we can make everything possible. We live in a world where we dont have to face the hardship and the stress of not having money to support ourselves or not having a well constructed house to shelter us. We as a group want nothing more than to give to others and make a difference in their lives, we have all we need but they dont and its time we took the initiative to make things right. Growing up in this country i open my eyes to a place unlike where im from and questions for years why things weren't the same as in my home country Switzerland. As i grew older i was able to understand the reasons for why these things happen and how they come up. "Poverty" one of the most commonly used words by foreign people when i was young, this is how they referred to Sri Lanka as.

Being able to do something for the community and country i was surrounded by is a privilege, this run will be considered the most successful event host by the Habitat for Humanity Student Group. Our meetings would consist of brainstorming, planning, organising etc. Once we had the idea to what we wanted to do, it was time to take what we said and actually make it come true and have things happen. As a leader it is my responsibility to make sure that when we meet together that we work collaboratively and focus highly on getting every area of this Charity Run completed to perfection. It was more of a challenge for us when we found out that Elizabeth Moir School dropped out because they felt like we weren't committed enough. That did make things harder for us as a group because without Moir we were smaller in number and that meant each person in our group would have to work 110% in order to accomplish this plan. We split up into 3 teams, (Organising, Advertising, Sponsoring). Each team would finalise specific tasks related to the Charity Run.

SAISA Volleyball 2015-16

This being my 2nd year taking part in SAISA Volleyball, i’m more nervous that excited due to many reasons. Losing members from your team due to graduations and moving isn’t easy to deal with, having adapted to being a part of one team i have realised that there is nothing i can do about that but simply to move on. The team we have this year is younger, and less experienced but over the course of 5 weeks we have developed our partnerships, individual skills, and communication which has raised our standards and expectations for SAISA that awaits us end of October. 

Travelling to Nepal for the second time this coming year will be an interesting turn out, im ready to be apart of and play with the team that has been put together. I am fairly confident that we have the capability to achieve the goals we had set for ourselves as players and as a team in whole. Being students of the IB and participating in international sport events allows students to participate in something they are personally interested in and compete to challenge themselves to accomplish various things. SAISA to me is not only a one way ticket away from school but a moment 10 players can share amongst each other.

Trainings take place Tuesday, Fridays & Saturdays. During Thursday and Wednesdays we play the sport for fun just to get used to constantly playing and practicing certain aspects of the game. Every friday we take part in a game against local schools volunteering to play against us for our benefit as well as for them to compete with newer teams. Our team focuses mainly on being reflective participants, at the end of each game we meet together and briefly summarise the positives and negatives on the game, we analyse what can be done better, where each individual players need to improve on and how they should do that. Other than being reflective and changing our mistakes we don't focus on other IB Leaner Profiles. 

With the tournament 3 weeks away i'm static to see how well we do and what the results will be for OSC SAISA Boys Volleyball team 2015-16. 

CAS Goals 2015 (DP2)

Creativity: 

This year i needed to make sure i had fulfilled Creativity Action and Service requirements specially under the creativity concept. Having not posted or made as much commitment with Creativity other than my Service (Habitat for Humanity) i have come up with the idea to do a fitness course for students in my grade that takes part at my house. By the term "fitness" i expand into particular areas of the body that people would like to build on. This program last 100 days and i have already started it about 1 week prior to this post. I do this 4 days a week (Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday). Each day comes with a completely new workout which allows me and my peers to work different parts of the body each day through without risking any muscle problems or pains. 

Having this be something completely new for me to do i thought it was possibly the most reliable way for me to complete my creativity part for CAS. Setting an example for the IB Learner Profile im being a risk taker by going out of my comfort zone and creating workout plans for people who are willing to come 4 days a  week and train. Bring in my knowledge to my friends and collaborating with them for my benefit including theirs. 

Action: 

As for action SAISA has begun again and i am going to be participating all year round, for the first 2 months of this semester i will be joining the volleyball team for the 2nd year round. Travelling to Nepal for the second time will definitely be an experience for me. On the second semester we have Football season and being my favourite sport i will be joining my team for the 3rd year. Going out to Dhaka, Bangladesh we hope to head into the tournament with our heads up high and end the tournament bringing the trophy home for the 2nd year in a row. 

Service:  

My 5th year in Service i have chosen to stick with Habitat for Humanity once again. For my last year of being a community and service leader my partners and i have accomplished all the goals we set for the year. This year is time for progress and change. Starting the year with more volunteers than the previous year we are more determined to set harder challenges and have them become accomplished. Fundraising is still our main goal but for the time being we will be recreating that bond with Elizabeth Moir school and finding some time to get together with British School. 

Final Reflection

This year had all turned out well for me, i managed to achieve regularly set goals for myself over the time and grew as a student in the IB Diploma as well. Understanding the upcoming challenges for next year, setting myself more goals will allow me to maintain control of my schooling situation and excel in the classes that require better scores. Developing my understanding as an individual for Habitat for Humanity i was able to find a certain interest which i will continue to uphold for the next year to come. I have not only grown fond of working along side an organization here in Sri Lanka but have also been taking initiative for what they stand for and aim to achieve for their people.

At the beginning of this school year i stepped into the responsibilities and challenges the IB holds, coming from MYP it is a very big change and requires you to be organised and well prepared with the work load. For me this became more of a problem as i had already realized my organization skills weren't up to par with the other students in my class and that it was something that needed to be changed. Knowing it was going to be hard for me to accomplish it was probably one of the only goals that remain uncompleted. In most classes i became more productive and focused with my work and time, excelling is most of my classes my aims for the last year of school would be to be able to get higher than an average score in all my classes, that means a 5 or above.

During the last week of January 2014 my grade and I were split up into little groups and combined with students from the grade below. Each student was given the option of choosing their trip that they wanted to take part in. Week Without Walls helped was always the most important trip for me because of what we learned and the fact that we would be missing a whole week of school. The idea for me was to choose an area that i had never visited and looked at its features and learn more about it. Im very fond of Sri Lanka and all that it has to offer but that doesn't mean i know everything about this country which is why i always remain interested. Being born and living here for the last 17 years i have seen a lot of change, i have grown with the country itself and i am proud to consider this place my home. That field trip allowed me to better understand the country i call home, all its aspects and stories that make Sri Lanka what it is today.

3 years ago on October 2012 i joined Habitat for Humanity and for me it was a new experience and something i really enjoyed taking part it. Being an MYP student i was first introduced to Community and Service and saw the reality of problems that people in Sri Lanka face and go through in their daily lives and that developed my emotional interaction with people from these poorer locations. I was never mentally prepared to see such harsh conditions and deal with the idea that people do suffer because i knew nothing about Sri Lanka. As the first year ended i was determined to stay with the Service group and do everything i can to help and make a change. I was emotionally affected by what i had seen and i remained confident that we could really make a difference for these people. It's been 3 years and today i am the Community and Service Leader for Habitat for Humanity. Today we are working together with other schools and creating a stronger inter-school relationship where we help raise awareness and inform people of the needs of global importance. We will remain to remind people about what we do and get them to help us make a change. I have gained more knowledge then i have ever expected to receive over the course of this year. Becoming more of an individual student i am able to make the right choices and make a difference with my studies as well as my Community and Service.