The rural immersion trip was a 5 nights 6 days trip during the month of December 2023. This trip was initiated by the school that allowed all of the students to portray the creativity, activity, and service aspect of CAS. I went on this immersion to experience life in a rural village, understand their struggles, help them, learn new creative things, and engage in thrilling activities with my friends.
Learning Outcome 1 — Identify own strengths and develop areas for growth
The trekking in the trip was one of the major fun activities that I had. Though, I wasn’t that good at trekking and didn’t enjoy it a lot, through this trip I was able to identify my balancing strength and develop areas for growth by improving my trekking skills and climbing a hill through rocks. Hence, this activity allowed me to develop areas for growth and identify my “balancing strength”.
Learning Outcome 2 — Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process
I wasn’t that comfortable in living in a rural place wherein we don’t even have air conditioners, though it was winter time, sleeping with an air conditioned room was very difficult for me. Hence, by the rural immersion, I demonstrated the challenge as I had taken a commitment of getting out of my comfort zone during this trip. This allowed me to do things that I wouldn’t usually, experience more things, and demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken.
Learning Outcome 4 — Show commitment to and perseverance in CAS experiences
Just like any other task, a 5 night 6 day rural immersion trip required commitment especially since I had to go outside my comfort zone and commit myself to activities that I’ve not done at such a scale before. Especially, living in a rural area and experiencing their lifestyle was what is the best evidence of my commitment throughout the experience, demonstrating my perseverance.
Learning Outcome 5 — Demonstrate the skills and recognize the benefits of working collaboratively
During bamboo crafting, I learned how working collaboratively not only saves energy of everyone, but also reduces the time taken to perform the task. While helping the people of the rural village in transporting bamboos from the field to the machine and from the machine to the truck, not only did we learn how does the process work, but also recognized the benefits of working collaboratively and demonstrated our communication skills to make the whole process a lot easier by working together.
Learning Outcome 6 — Demonstrate engagement with issues of global significance
As I spent time with the local people of the rural village, I engaged the global issue of poverty, as I did my best to help them in their labor intensive work especially while digging the soil and farming plants. The rural immersion allowed me to experience and engage with the local people to understand their living style, and as a student, do my best to help them out in their daily live routines. We moved and packed mango pickles, dug soils for plants, helped arrange bamboos in the factory, and also decorated a governmental school with wall painting. Along with a few other classmates, we also played cricket with students from the governmental school, and the smile on their face made my day.
Learning Outcome 7 — Recognize and consider the ethics of choices and actions
As I went to visit the village, it was my responsibility to take ethical actions and not do something that would hurt the sentiments of the people living there as they provided us with shelter, food, and safety at night. Therefore, the trip allowed me to recognize and consider that when someone is helping us, it’s very important to consider the ethics of choices and actions as hurting their sentiments is wrong.
During this trip, I developed various learner profile characteristics including:
- Caring
- Open-minded
- Principled
- Communication
- Responsible
I was caring when I helped the people over there without expecting anything in return. I was open-minded enough to not judge them for who they are, but to connect with them as a human being. I was principled as it was important for me to behave properly nor just because I’m representing my school, but because they’ve extended their heart forward by giving us shelter in their premises. I used my communication skills to better connect with them by being responsible for the ethics of my actions and choices so that I can increase the effectiveness of my communication with them.