Learning is an integral part of one’s growth and development, along with extra curricular activities that are just as important to help promote our well-being. However a lot children do not get the opportunity to be a part of such activities due to their economic status, hence I volunteered to be a part of the school community service programme that offered us students to partake and teach a range of activities to the underprivileged students of the nearby government schools. 

The school community service was held in school on the 3 weekends (from 26th July – 7th Aug). In order to create a balance in well being we incorporated various activities for the students to engage in, from sports to ICT, art & craft, science experiments, dance and many more. As I´m more inclined towards art craft, I worked with other students & staff to help the younger children get their hands on various art & craft activities like bubble painting, string art, origami that would help them improve their creativity skills.

This programme dually catered Creativity & Service. Creativity in terms of planning creative art & craft activities and teaching them in a fun manner through building small circles with students & providing each of them with personal space & assistance. It also catered service as we students dedicated a significant amount of time & effort in terms of planning, procedure and the execution of the event. Considering that these children aren’t usually a part of such activities except academic learning, our collaborative work helped them indulge an interest and engage enthusiastically which also gave them a fruitful learning experience.

This experience catered the following LOs

LO 1 : Identify own strengths and develop areas for growth

I worked according to my strengths. As I am more inclined towards Arts & craft, and I have a creative perspective too so I chose to teach the same. Another part of my strength was my interpersonal & communication skills, which helped me interact and gel with the students easily. I could identify that the students were very comfortable in the space and were enjoying their activities and as I have already been a part of such acts, the confidence in me came naturally. However, there was a minor drawback; the students of the local school were most comfortable in Gujarati, and I was not that fluent with the language, which left certain gaps in our communication. But I tried my very best to speak Gujarati and demonstrate the activities to them, and as the sessions progressed, I improved on it and finally overcame my weakness by speaking Gujarati fluently in order to explicitly communicate my understanding.

LO 4 : Show commitment to and perseverance in CAS experiences 

I showed commitment by attending all the 6 sessions of the school community service, regardless of the other classes, and submissions that I had to take care of. It was sometimes challenging to gather attention of the students and teach them the particular art, as they were young and of different age groups, still I tried being persistent and tried to teach in the most simple and effective manner for the children to cope up with the process.

LO 5 : Demonstrate the skills and recognize the benefits of working collaboratively 

There were several students working under each activity, and as this was a student-led programme, it was a collaborative effort, through planning the process till accomplishing the task with children. I made use of my social, leadership and communication skills while working collectively with other volunteers & teachers by making wise decisions to ensure the smooth flow of the event. This experience helped me understand my peers better, and it was very easy to work with them as everyone was able to keep up with the tasks, hence we were easily able to assist the children so everyone could fulfill their tasks.

LO 6 :  Demonstrate engagement with issues of global significance 

This experience connected with the several SDG´s like Good health & Well – being, Quality Education & Reducing Inequalities, as this experience gave access to the underprivileged students through quality education & including them in various activities to maintain a balance in their health and well – being, and this opportunity also led to reducing some inequalities between social & economic status. Therefore all of these SDG´s indicate the issues that are significant globally and promote such small events to create a better place.

I developed the LP attribute Caring; showing empathy, compassion and respect to the children, being committed to service by teaching them arts and craft and appreciating their work, ultimately creating a positive difference in their lives. 

I also developed the LP attribute Communicator by expressing myself confidently through different languages (Hindi/Gujrati) that the children were comfortable in and were able to understand and follow my instructions and likewise carefully listening to their perspectives and views.

All in all, this experience not only helped the underprivileged children nurture, but also helped us as students grow and learn; to interact and know the lives of children that are less privileged than us, and taught me to treat everyone with equal respect & kindness no matter what their background or economic status is. Also the bonding with them was so pure, the event was genuine and wholesome and the smiles on their faces proved our event to be a great success

Evidence :-