Service is an essential part of our life, whether it be on a familial, local, national or international scale. As a child, I often liked to contribute to the community in some way or the other. CAS gave me an opportunity to engage in meaningful service towards children and even enjoy doing the same. The community service I participated in involved educating children the skills of art & craft, science, dance and sports along with spending time with the children to bring a smile on their faces, even if it was only for a brief period of time. The children studied in local government schools, and seldom had any access to tools or resources to develop or pursue their talents. To provide a platform where the children can open up to us and learn new skills, this community service was organized. The sessions were scheduled early morning on the weekends for three consecutive weeks, during which my role as a volunteer was to teach art and craft such as marble painting, origami, etc to the interested students. While interacting with the children, I realized how privileged I am to have access to quality education.

Community Service gave me a chance to retreat from the tedious routine of a student and to blend in and understand the perspectives and the daily happenings of children who have it worse than us. This made me feel grateful and even content with all I have, knowing that there are many children who are not as privileged to have access to quality education as effortlessly as I do.

During the community service, I demonstrated several Learning Outcomes(LOs) which include:

Learning Outcome 1 – Identify own strengths and develop areas for growth

During the time of community service, I communicated with the children to teach them art & craft. This activity made me identify my strength of communication with children, as once I opened up to them freely, they felt more comfortable conversing with me. I also realized that art & craft is one of my strengths but improvising on the spot to make the best use of the resources I had was one of my weaknesses. I often stuck to the planned schedule and found it difficult to make changes in the craft I taught. I realized that making changes at the last moment, and staying committed to the change was one of my weaknesses that I had to improve upon. Being flexible would help me adapt to an unfamiliar environment with ease and even execute any action effectively. Overall, I grew more aware of my strengths and weaknesses such as communication and flexibility. 

Learning Outcome 4 – Show commitment to and perseverance in CAS experiences

To get any work done, commitment and perseverance are of the utmost importance. Community service required me to wake up early in the morning on the weekends and be prepared with the craft being taught to the children. Weekends were the only time I got enough time to complete my schoolwork and even focus on resume building. Moreover, I often felt indolent on Sunday mornings. As a result, spending a few hours from the weekend to engage in community service, as well as memorizing the steps for the craft, required me to be committed to bringing a change in the world and even persevering in doing so. 

Learning Outcome 6 – Demonstrate engagement with issues of global significance

“Quality Education” is Sustainable Development Goal 4 which aims to bring quality education to the lives of all children and provide them with ample learning opportunities. However, there are still innumerable children across the globe who, though have access to education, do not always have access to “quality” education. I learned more about this during my interaction with the children, who confided that they do not have resources such as chromebooks and stationary at all times. This fact made me more determined to teach the children skills that they would otherwise not have gained in their schools. I tried to make their lessons with us a fruitful experience by teaching them various artistic skills such as how to fold paper with precision, or how to apply delicate brush strokes that they could forever remember and apply whenever they created an artwork. This way, I engaged with the goal of “Quality Education” with the children.

Learning Outcome 7 – Recognize and consider the ethics of choices and actions

At the time of teaching, I had to be very mindful of my actions as my behavior would influence the children profoundly. This was one ethical issue I faced, which made me more alert and conscious of my behavior and actions. There was also the use of stationary involved, which meant we had to reuse each resource to avoid wastage of resources such as paper. Wasting papers is a habit many of us possess, and we often waste valuable resources unintentionally. To avoid this, resources such as papers were being used thoroughly before being disposed of, and some resources such as water for painting were being used mindfully to prevent wastage of water.

On the whole, Community Service was a humbling, gratifying and nostalgic experience for me. Having learnt Visual Arts in my MYP years, I was able to refresh my memories of the same while I taught the children some of the skills I had learned earlier. This made me nostalgic of the times when I used to sketch almost everyday and vent out my feelings through art. Not only nostalgia, but by teaching the children I also realized how gratifying it is to bring a change, no matter how small, in the lives of the less fortunate. It made me humbling as I realized I used to complain constantly about my workload, yet these children, even though they have less resources than us, are still happy and cheerful. This made me humble as I realized that they had more lessons to teach me than the ones that I taught them. It also made me more open-minded, especially when I learned that the possession of material goods or something more does not always guarantee happiness. 

In all, I persevered and committed myself to this experience, engaged with the issue of “Quality Education”, identified and became aware of my strengths and weaknesses, made ethical choices, and earned humbling insights that made the experience worth it!