(completed the requirement of CAS project)

Farewell is a very important event for the senior school, as we, the juniors get to bid goodbye to the graduating class, marking the closing chapter of their school life. For grade 11 students, it’s more than just an event, organising the event provides an opportunity to step outside their comfort zone and contribute to a truly memorable day. This year, I was in luck to be part of the main leadership team, where I, with my other team members, took on the responsibility of coordinating all departments (decor, dance, logistics) involved in planning the event. This experience taught me so much from developing leadership skills, collaborating with all different departments at school, handling the teams, working together, and finally witnessing our hard work of more than a month to come to life on the day of farewell. I did not just limit myself to just organising the event, I even took part in the dance team as I have always been fond of trying and exploring new things and skills. This gave me the perfect opportunity to put in hard work and learn multiple dances over the period of a month, learn all the team work that goes into performing a well synced dance and then perform them in front of a crowd.

LO1- Identify own strengths and develop areas for growth

One of my strengths is that I am organized, I plan all the tasks, give them particular deadlines and ensure that everybody works in team to fulfill their own responsibilities. This skill was highly helpful and needed as to ensure that the event would be a success. I was also able to use my creative skills while giving suggestions regarding songs to choose for dance team and decorations for the event. However, there are a few things that I can work upon such as accepting that not everything goes as planned and to always have a back up plan and stay calm in critical situations. There were a lot of difficulties we faced for example not having the correct resources on time but I would want everything to be on time and perfect but I had to learn to accept such situations and work accordingly.

LO2- Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process

There were a lot of challenges that came in the way. Most were the critical feedbacks that we were getting, our team was putting the best efforts we could and yet we were not encouraged. Everybody was underestimating us and we started doubting ourselves. With this, there were a lot of times where we did not receive the resources we had ordered until the very last moment. I had not planned such an important event with just the team of 8 and a few teachers ever. This was really challenging but taught me a lot of new things. We overcame this challenges by pushing ourselves out of our comfort zones. If one resource was not available, we would try to find a faster alternative or take up another faster task to be done until we receive other resources. We believed in ourselves no matter what others said, we put our ideas freely, spent all our free time ensuring all the tasks such as ordering cake, transport routes, designing e-invites were done on time and at last we made the event a success.

LO3- Demonstrate how to initiate and plan a CAS experience

Like mentioned above, this was a really important event and I had done nothing like this in the past. I am usually a very organised person which helps me segregate tasks according to their priority and fulfill them all on time but this event was another thing. At the beginning we were a team of just 8 and it was difficult for us to complete all the tasks but then the team just grew and it was difficult to manage such a huge team. However I decided to focus on my role which was ensuring that the subteams do all their work. I with the guidance of teachers and support of other team members, made a list of things to be done and assigned it to different teams with deadlines and then we just needed to ensure that all of it was done on time. This way it was way easier to understand what was going on and what all tasks were done. I discovered that I am actually good at this and planning events is something I really enjoy. It is important to plan and initiate activities to learn how to work in a team.

LO4- Show commitment to and perseverance in CAS experiences

This project was really long with a duration of about 2 months (27th dec- 17th Feb 2024). It was difficult to manage school deadlines with an event. A lot of work was overlapping with the deadlines of the event and we could not miss our classes for the event, therefore, we had to come early in. This made our day long and tiring, it was really difficult to consistently come early in for 2-3 weeks. But commitment is what was important. I understood the expectations that teachers and our seniors have from us and we had to fulfill them. A lot of time the circumstances would be against us but our dedication towards the event helped us fulfill those expectations.

LO5- Demonstrate the skills and recognize the benefits of working collaboratively

Like I have repeatedly mentioned teamwork was the most important. From the team of 8 at the beginning of the event, as the sub-teams grew, we became a team of 51. If we would have not worked as a team we would have never pulled this off. We used to spend a lot of time together, supporting each other, listening to each other, solving problems, coming up with new ideas and most importantly respecting each other. It is very important to respect all the ideas that are coming in even if you don’t agree. When working in a team we need to compromise and work together.

LO7- Recognize and consider the ethics of choices and actions

Even though this was a very fun event it was important to remember that it was an in-school event. I had to make sure that all my choices were ethical and respectful to both the school and our seniors. Moreover, one of the ethical decisions that we needed to make was regarding the resources that were provided by school. Even though the school is providing everything, we need to ensure that we are using them wisely and not wasting any resources.

In conclusion, organizing the farewell ceremony wasn’t just about creating a memorable event for the seniors, it was actually a memorable journey for me. Through this project I developed leadership skills, stepped out of my comfort zone, developed social skills and overcame a lot of challenges. Most importantly, this event helped me foster personal growth and sense of accomplishment that I’ll carry with me for a long time.