Final CAS Reflection

Over the last two years of IB, CAS has allowed me to do much more than just
achieve academically. I feel that I have pushed myself beyond my limits and
have learned much more than I could in the classroom.
The most memorable moment that I have had with CAS was when I decided to
audition for a professional Thai youth orchestra. This was a very exciting
experience for me as first of all I have never auditioned for an orchestra and
second of all it is the first organized orchestra that I would be a part of. The
orchestra also posed a new challenge for me because there is a huge language
barrier. Everyone spoke in Thai and as one of the three foreigners in the
orchestra it was very hard for me to communicate with the rest of the members.
Another orchestra experience when I was appointed the concertmaster of the
Bangkok Charity Orchestra. It was a very different experience from being just a
normal violinist than to have to sit in the concertmaster chair and lead the
concert. It was not only a huge challenge but also a huge commitment. In order
to be a successful concertmaster, I needed to write out all the bowing and make
sure that I knew my part very well. This demanded a lot of my time but the end
result was very much worth it.
The Omgoi CAS trips are also a very memorable event that I undertook. Going to
the village, I got to experience first-hand issues of global importance and also
experienced the ethical implications of my actions. As Omgoi is a very
conservative village with traditional Karen values, I had to make sure that the
actions that I was going to take were all in line with the villages cultural values
and also the fact that development might be very much detrimental and cultural
homogenization could cause them to lose their traditional culture altogether.
Leading the Mixed Up Concert was when I got to plan and initiate activities. As an
interschool battle of the bands, there was a lot of organizing and communicating
with various departments of the school and representatives of other schools. It
was a very hard and large task for me to do. But I was able to organize a
successful event and also develop new leadership, organization skills and
learned how to effectively work together in a team. These are some of the most
vital skills that I could bring with me for the future.
Some troubles that I have had when I am engaging in CAS relates to the fact that
sometimes I do not keep up with reflecting. This is very difficult for me
sometimes as it is hard to find the time to actually work on all of these
reflections. Another is the fact that certain CAS learning outcomes is harder to
meet than others. This means that more thought had to be put into doing them
and thinking about how certain activities would link to a learning outcome.
The CAS learning experiential learning cycle really worked for me because I think
I was able to go through the cycle without actually realizing that I am going

through the cycle. Although sometimes my reflections are not as deep, I have
always been reflecting with conducting these CAS reflections.
I have learned quite a lot from engaging in CAS activities over the last two years.
I have realized that I have a wide interest in various activities and would engage
in them actively over the two years. It has been a great experience and I look
forward to doing something like this at university.