Final CAS Reflection

Increased awareness of their own strengths and areas of growth:

This learning outcome has been achieved in all of my areas in CAS. Last year during Event Crew, I struggled with planning events at first. But over the course of the tournament, I became aware of this and immediately worked to fix them. By the end of the tournament, I was planning events with Ravin and everything was running smoothly. 
When it comes to action, this outcome was achieved through Football and Track. In football, I realized that one of my strengths was y endurance and ability to run with the ball. I capitalized off of this strength many times during our final SAISA tournament (where we won). During track, I became aware that I needed to work on my ability to have a final kick and pacing my races. By realizing this, I have been able to work on fixing it and improving my pacing as well as my final kick. 
In service I came to realize that I needed to work on my communication skills. In SOS the orphans did not speak very good English and since I did not speak Sinhala, it made it very hard to communicate. But I realized that I needed to work on it and I came to be better at communicating with them. 

Undertaken new challenges:

This learning outcome mainly applied to my action aspect. In football this year, I undertook a new challenge and played another, completely new position: right back. Last year I played striker and to move from striker (the most attacking player) to right back (a defensive role) was quite challenging at first. It was a completely different mode of playing and I had to adjust to it. It turned out in the end that right back was a position that complimented my strengths. In track this year, the challenges that I have undertaken are my new events: 1500m and 3000m races. These races are brand new to me this year and it has taken a while for me to be completely adjusted. But just like any challenge, I tackled it head on and overcame it eventually. 

Planned and Initiated activities:

This learning outcome was met through my creativity aspect in my service group as well as track. In SOS service group, I have had to plan activities to complete with the kids. Most of the activities that I have planned are around teaching them English. I have had the kids write words down in English as well as do math problems (those were their favorite). When it came to track, as captain, I had to plan activities and workouts to do with my team as well as plan a warm up and cool down plan.


Worked Collaboratively with Others:

Football is one of the biggest team sports out there and you just cant win if you dont work as a team. I think that our team showed that this year at SAISA. We had to work collaboratively to play well and win all of our games and we showed that we can do that by winning the championship.

Shown perseverance and commitment in their activities:

Even though I have shown commitment and perseverance in many different groups, I think the group that I showed this the most in was Football. I would be at every practice and give it my 110% effort every time so that I gained the most out of it. And when we did not have practice, my brother and I went to kick the football around so that we would both get practice. I practiced football as much as I could and I did not miss practices because I wanted to be the best I could be when it came to the final tournament because I really wanted to win.

Engaged with issues of global importance:

Week without walls, IB orientation, and Gecko Inc. Service group were the three activities which had me engage with issues of global importance most. During week without walls in Jaffna we were able to witness first hand war affected villages and towns and historical sites from the war. this was very interesting to see the effects that the conflict had on the area and to see the communities that were devastated by it. 
During IB orientation we were split into groups to visit villages and people of different occupations to interview them. The Gecko Inc. Service group focused on meeting and interacting with local Sri Lankan school kids and teaching them various sports and games. Both these events involved me interacting with people and struggling with a language barrier. It helped me realize the difference of the lives we live compared with the locals and their past as well as their future. It definitely helped me see how fortunate I really am and the environment I was able to grow up in. 


Considered the ethical implications of their actions: 

Even though this was not one of the main outcomes that I focused on, I feel like I addressed this outcome through sport. In football and in track, I have had to understand and abide by the rules of the sport and consider the implications of my actions in these sports, For instance, in football I am a a very aggressive player and I have had to consider the implications of all of y actions and realize that I should maybe tone it down a notch.


Developed new skills:

This outcome was addressed through all of my CAS aspects. Over the past two years I have developed my planning skills through event crew and SOS village. This has taught me a lot about myself as a person and as a leader because a good leader can plan and initiate activities really quick and that was a skill that I was struggling with until I developed it. In football and track i have developed new skills such as: learn a whole new position and undertake that challenge, and pacing while running my new events. These are skills that I have developed very well over the past two years and I am really grateful that they are developed now because they are skills that I can apply to later in life if I do athletics. In service I have developed my communications skills over the course of the past two years.


CAS for the past two years has truly been an interesting and helpful experience. Thank you for taking time to read!
Peaceee

-Anthony

SOS Village: Final Service Trip

Last thursday, my service group traveled out to the SOS Village and visited with the kids. This was a very fun experience for me; since I have already visited the village, I did not need to take a tour and instead I just played with the kids. We started by playing a cricket match, OSC vs SOS. This match was so much fun because all of the kids were really enthusiastic and happy while playing. And they ended up beating us! After the cricket match I went to play some football with some of the kids and i showed them some tricks and they all loved it. After we all were finished playing games at the village, we had to say goodbye. For me, it was goodbye forever. This was a very heartfelt moment because I have spent this whole past year developing my relationship with Maric and Ishara and to say goodbye to them, that was very sad.
I will always remember and cherish the times I spent playing and getting to know these kids and hopefully one day I will be able to return to the village and see them once more.