As a Business and Management student, I’ve always craved practical application of the theories we discuss. So, when the opportunity for “Global Odyssey” arose – a student-organized market event – I jumped at the chance to be part of the accounts team. This wasn’t just a fun fair; it was a chance to apply our learning and contribute to our local community (and of course more importantly to have fun).

LO3 – [Initiate and plan a CAS experience]

Planning for “Global Odyssey” stretched over a month. We, the accounts team, planned and crafting a system to track sales and calculate profits. This wasn’t just number crunching – it was strategic planning as we had to anticipate customer flow and help stall members with the resources they require and the amount of products sale. Also we had came up with a coupon currency system, despite it not being used due to lack of time and management issues it wasn’t implemented.

LO4 – [Show perseverance and commitment in CAS experience]

Many times during the CAS experience, I would feel like the deadline of 1 week was too less and that I wouldn’t be able to completely help stalls in time. Even during the event we faced unexpected issues of missing records and stalls not able to fully keep track on sales. Sometimes, the commitment wasn’t needed to be shown due to time constraints but also the times when nobody would be doing anything. But through it all, our team persevered, and we came up with an accurate sizable profit value.

LO5 – [Demonstrate skills and benefits of working collaboratively]

We worked hand-in-hand with the stall teams, ensuring smooth transactions, and the resource team, anticipating our needs. Even with the coupon currency system, we had to again and again effectively communicate this to the Team leaders and come up with schemes with other stalls to ensure this currency system works such as the food stall and the games stall, ‘Get x amount of score, and you win a free brownie from the sweets stall’. Such schemes were required to ensure more profits and interest from customers. Despite coupons not being used, the scheme ideas were still implemented at certain stalls where we provided them the idea to the digital games stall and they printed out coupons for their own stall and the food stall they collaborated with. It was a true testament to teamwork and communication.

LO6 – [Engaging with issues of global significance]

But the true impact of “Global Odyssey” lies with LO6. All profits went to local NGOs. By ensuring accurate financial records, I played a crucial role in maximizing these contributions in the stall i worked at and even other stalls. It was rewarding to envision the joy of the people we helped with our efforts.