Growing up, I have always had the chance to explore various activities and develop my hobbies. Our school provides a component called Holistic Development Program, which includes various sports and art activities that a kid may want to explore. I was always privileged enough to access these activities. However, there are a lot of kids out there that are not able to access these activities or are not able to explore their hobbies. Our school conducts these sessions of community service where students of MYP and DP can teach underprivileged kids multiple activities such as art and craft, dance, scientific experiments, football, frisbee etc. Kids from nearby government schools visited our school for 3 weekends and we and our team developed their arts and crafts skills. We as a team wanted them to enjoy this entire segment and wanted to learn something as well. We planned out these 3 weekends in a way where they learnt new creative crafty things. These sessions were 1.5 hours long so the kids had so much time to learn so much stuff. It was such an amazing opportunity to provide our learning to others who are not privileged enough to receive it. 

This experience included service and creativity as components of CAS. Service, since it helped me understand and care about others who are less fortunate or less privileged than me and it helped me share my learnings with them without any secondary motive. As for creativity, since I used my creative skills and shared my knowledge of arts and crafts, I was able to efficiently use these skills. 

This experience was full of learning and so much fun. There were so many learning outcomes from this experience since I was able to develop myself and others at the same time. Learning outcome 4 states showing perseverance and commitment in a CAS experience and it took a lot of commitment in this entire experience. Since it was on weekends it was very tiring to go to school every weekend and socially interact with everyone. Since every session had multiple creative objects to be made, I had to learn every one of them and practice them well so that I can transfer my knowledge easily to the kids. Since I can easily commit to tasks I take on myself, I got out of my bed every weekend and came to school and enjoyed every moment with those kids. It was extremely important for those kids coming to our school for us to show perseverance and commitment since they came every weekend to our school to learn and expected a lot from us. Hence, it was very important for all the volunteers to show their commitment and dedication, and come to school to teach them with a smile on their faces. 

Learning outcome 5 states demonstrating skills and benefits of working collaboratively. Throughout this experience, I have learnt how to work with various types of people and how to communicate with them. Working with people is a little bit difficult for me, as I need perfection in everything and until and unless, I do not overview it, I do not get satisfaction. Although working these 3 sessions with various volunteers helped me learn that with people helping, the work gets easier and quicker. On our first day, we had a resource shortage due to the overuse of resources by all the volunteers, however, the very next day, we ordered a few more resources and asked the volunteers to not take resources without permission or requirement so that the resources do not get wasted. It was an experience where I learnt how to deal with such situations on the spot and at that time my fellow volunteers helped and we worked together so that such situations/problems can be avoided. It was extremely important to work collaboratively with the volunteers so that the kids are comfortable with us and do not get nervous seeing us angry or anxious about everything. Working together made things much easier and efficient results were achieved. 

Learning outcome 6 states engaging with issues of global significance. For this experience, the global issue was ‘quality education’ the 4th sustainable development goal. This goal states everyone receives equitable education and promotes lifelong learning and opportunities for all. Through this experience, we educated those kids holistically. They developed artistic skills which will help them in multiple ways. Using resources in simplistic ways and not giving more importance to materialistic objects. This education will also help their mental state and well-being. Emotional intelligence is built through this type of education which will help them build their confidence and get more strong. Overall this experience was a solution to the global issue of less quality education. Being a way through which this global issue could be provided with a solution, makes me feel extremely grateful for the opportunities provided to me.

To conclude, this activity didn’t only benefit the students/kids from the government schools but also helped me grow in multiple ways. This experience was an act of service, 3 weekends of immense love from the kids that visited. These 3 weekends were tiring and exhausting but at the same time extremely rewarding and fulfilling. I haven’t had so much fun in such a long time. This experience was a complete success as I was able to teach the kids my learning and was able to receive their love. That was the highlight of the entire event for me. In the future, if I get an opportunity again, I would love to volunteer again and again. It would be such a delight to spend my time with such happy faces.