For one of my CAS, I went to Igatpuri, Maharashtra to accomplish activity and service. This trip was an incredible experience as I got to know about myself and the areas I need to improve upon and which areas I am good at. This trip was an amazing experience to connect with nature and also connect with the local community and have an impact on them. This was a 2-day program where we connected with nature and also the locals around the place.

LO1 – Identify own strengths and develop areas for growth

On the first day we had a trek in the morning and at the start it felt like it was going to be an easy trek but as it progressed it started to get tough for me. I started to get tired, But i fought through it and kept moving forward and completed the trek, but I had realised by the trek that I needed to work on my stamina and also work on my fitness. Another challenge was communicating with the locals when we went to the government school in the neighbouring school, it was hard for me to talk to them and socialize with the children in the school, to over come this challenge i tried to talk with more people and also ask my friends who understood them to try to communicate with them.


LO2 – Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills

During the trek on the first day, I was very tired when I reached the top of the mountain despite of several rests. Although i had my troubles during my first trek, during the second trek me and my fellow participants encouraged and supported each other to reach the summit without rests.

Another skill I developed is communicating and socializing with others. When we went to the government school I was not able to communicate with the childrens there because I was scared and I was unable to connect with them but I overcame my fear and we did activities and we even played together. Through this experience I have developed my communication skills.


LO5 – Demonstrate skills and benefits of working collaboratively

While cleaning the dam, it required everyone to work together because the dam had quite a bit of trash lying around and it was not a one person job to clean it, so everyone teamed up, one person was holding the trash bag and others were picking up the rubbish. The teamwork and working collaboratively made this project successful.

LO6 – Engagement with issues of global significance.

One of the major issues was the lack of cleanliness in the rural areas, and to engage with this issue we took the initiative to clean the dam from which i was able to take action upon this global issue. Another issue was the lack of education, for this we spent time with the underprivileged children in the government school and taught some things and we also played games with them, which took into account the 3rd SDG Goal and also Goal 6 by cleaning the dam.

In conclusion, this trip helped me understand the challenges what are faced by the the locals there and also helped me improve upon my communication and also helping the area there by cleaning it. The key part of this trip was the trek as it was my main reason to go to this trip. All in all i really enjoyed this trip. The learner profile which connects to this experience is “Communicator” as i had to go out of my way and to connect with the locals i had to understand them and communicate with them which helped my also after the experience to talk and communicate with new people i meet aside from this experience.