Last year for our Community Service, our school hosted students from the local government school at our school from 5th to 20th August 2023. The goal was to promote cultural exchange and understanding between students of different backgrounds. My CAS group took the lead in planning interactive games and activities for the visiting students.

In preparation, we designed collaborative games that highlighted skills. We also focused on making sure each activity encouraged communication between participants. On the day of the event, I was eager to see our preparations in action. When the visiting students arrived, many looked nervously at our school campus. My CAS group and I helped make them feel comfortable with an icebreaker ball game.

After introductions, we moved to playing our planned activities. I was assigned to facilitate a one-on-one game of frisbee. At first, there was hesitation, but as students worked together regardless of which school they attended, smiles and laughter followed. It was amazing to see relationships forming through simple acts of cooperation. Personally, facilitating the activity pushed me out of my comfort zone as I socialized with them. However, by encouraging participation, I saw individuals come out of their shells and enjoy interacting with others different than themselves.

This experience reinforced for me how working collaboratively can positively impact real social issues as emphasized in learning outcomes 5 and 6. Bringing together students from diverse backgrounds showed me how understanding tends to emerge from direct engagement and open-mindedness. Hosting the day was extremely rewarding as I witnessed barriers dissolving between communities through play. I’m grateful for the chance to learn from students outside my everyday surroundings and conquer the value of international-mindedness. Experiences like this have motivated me to look for other opportunities to take action on issues of global significance through CAS.

The learning outcomes 5 and 6 met in the experiences, helped me reflect back on the event’s significance. Working collaboratively with my classmates and the students helped me overcome the boundary of comfort-zone, and made me overcome my challenges with ease. The collaboration also highlights how we managed to target issues of global significance, as spending a day with students from the local government schools gives them a chance to interact with people from the modern world, and gives them an insight of how to implement their skills effectively.

Overall, hosting the event for the students allowed me to directly engage with individuals from different environment, where I saw beyond surface differences to the shared humanity in all people. Experiences like community service are impactful for dissipating boundaries constructed by society. In the future, I hope to continue working with open-mindedness and using CAS to cultivate empathy between diverse populations. This activity was an extremely rewarding learning experience that showed me how understanding starts with direct engagement and cooperation across perceived divisions.