Reflection on Goals

At the beginning of senior year I set several goals, with the aim to either accomplish or work on them throughout the year. My plan was to participate in Hope for Kids: Cancer Hospital continuously, as well as SAISA Volleyball and SAISA Track, and do outside training predominantly using the Tough Mudder Training Plan.
My goal to participate in Hope for Kids weekly has definitely been a success. I enjoy going to the hospital whether to interact with the kids or to help in other ways. This goal was strongly connected to my goal of improving collaboration with others and becoming more of a team oriented mindset. With Hope for Kids, not only have I had the opportunity to brighten kids lives, but I have been lucky to get to know other individuals from the CAS better who I might not have had the chance to in school. Over time, we have gotten to know each other better and how we fulfill our pieces within the team, leading to, perhaps unconsciously sometimes, a more unified and beneficial team.
My goal of taking leadership roles more often has not been filled to quite such an extent. As a senior, it is almost expected of me to take leadership and be responsible, not only in activities but as an individual setting an example overall. As previously mentioned, I fulfilled a leadership position to a certain extent in volleyball as one of three seniors as well as having strong volleyball skills and background. Within Hope for Kids I believe that instead of fulfilling a leadership position I set an example by interacting with the children and understanding what my strengths are and how they can benefit the CAS perhaps differently then other individuals talents.
Overall, when I made goals at the beginning of the year I was certain to make them broad in order to be applicable in a wide range of potential CAS opportunities. I have fulfilled many of the goals I have set, although most of them are ongoing goals which seek continuous fulfillment. 

SAISA Volleyball

SAISA Volleyball my Senior Year was fantastic. As a team we got third place and we continued throughout the tournament to challenge the other teams and push ourselves as individuals and a team to our limits. The photos are courtesy of the Lincoln School Yearbook Group.

Recently our group went to the hospital, instead of interacting with the children we cleaned the main playroom for the kids. Some people complained about how they signed up to work with the kids, which I think is a good reason to join the group, and they didn't want to clean. This made me think though, even if we aren't brightening the children's lives through interaction, do we still have the obligation to attempt to improve their lives through smaller actions? In my opinion, we do, as we made a commitment and we need to work collaboratively to bring about a better world as the next generation. This is why I have no problem with cleaning for the children, as simply dusting and sorting and helping through those types of things can help slightly. This is my personal belief and one reason why I feel good about my continual commitment and collaborative work with Hope for Kids.

Hope for Kids

For the first four meetings of Hope for Kids, we only managed to go to the hospital once and we spent the rest of the Thursdays planning. As a team we decided on different activities that would appeal to different interests of the individual kids. Being sensitive to the kids’ needs and generally their lack of ability to participate in physical activities, we had to come up with activities that would still be fun and engaging. As a group, with individual ideas being reviewed as a whole, we came up with activities such as origami, leaf painting, and board games. I took on a more leading role as I strove to keep the ideas flowing and the topic on track.

Some time during last year or this summer there were several hundred Hope for Kids t-shirts ordered. I was unaware of this, but we now need to find a way to sell them and raise money for the hospital. We first had to sort through all the t-shirts and organize them so as to not be a burden on the teachers who were kind enough to let us store them in their classrooms. We then needed to think of a way to sell them. As I believe that these shirts can be a great marketing method, I am very keen on continuing work in this area, however a conclusion hasn’t been made as to what the group feels we should do first. Several ideas were thrown around including selling tickets to a show of some sort that then pays of the t-shirt price and also raises money for the hospital, or if we could sell them at UN day, or something similar.

The future of this CAS is good for me, as it allows me to take a leadership role through committing to the program and being able to understand the new requirements of the program. Additionally, the group requires me as well as the official leaders, to initiate activities and have the leadership position in maintaining focus and perseverance within the group. Finally, I am lucky because the hospital allows me to have a hands on way of connecting with the people whose lives I’m trying to improve.

Volleyball as a Team Sport

This year has had a short volleyball season. As a senior I am disappointed at this fact as volleyball has been an activity I have committed myself to passionately for over 6 years. We were very lucky that last year’s team was a truly special combination of incredible talent, passion to push ourselves to new limits, and not afraid to try new things. Coming from last years team into a team that is starting almost from scratch is a bit of a challenge; I am one of the first to admit that I sometimes (basically: a lot of the time) lose my temper when we don’t get something this year that we did perfectly last year. 
But I am also very proud of our new volleyball girls. While I am not team captain or co-captain, as one of the three seniors on the team I have a crucial role in that my actions on and off the court and even outside of the gym play an important role. I must be a good example, something which doesn’t always come naturally to me. As one of the older girls I have to often initiate activities, undertake and develop new skills and be supportive. Volleyball more then most sports is a team sport, which makes communication and teamwork crucial. I am thrilled to say that our team this year is much more of a team mentality then the team last year. We have all worked very hard and made much improvement and I’m looking forward to all of us being able to show our ability at SAISA.

CAS Goals for Semester One of Senior Year

·         Blog at least once a week about CAS accomplished.

·         Include at least one photo or piece of evidence per post. 

·         Improve collaboration with others. Become more of a team member and less of an individual worker.

·         Participate in Hope for Kids: Cancer Hospital weekly, showing perseverance and commitment in my activities, and push my own boundaries in the Service, understand my areas of weakness and work on improving them. Push my boundaries while working with the children. The creative element would come through if I could improve their website possibly.

·         Take leadership roles more often and initiate activities within this role. This would be through Volleyball and Hope for Kids.

·         Simultaneously participate in SAISA volleyball and follow individual training plan outside of school (Tough Mudder training plan).

http://toughmudder.com/

http://toughmudder.com/obstacles/

http://toughmudder.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/maybe-mudder-boot-camp.pdf

http://toughmudder.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/tough-mudder-boot-camp.pdf

·         Come up with new and positive ways to document active progress to show perseverance and improve moral. This is response to the understanding that an area of weakness I have is losing commitment when progress isn’t shown in obvious ways.

Contacting Ashwini and Ashani

Ashwini:           

When I needed to get in contact with anyone in the dog rescue/adoption/rehabilitation field, I knew to contact Ashwini again. We exchanged emails and worked collaboratively to determine what organization I would work best in a collaborative sense considering my strengths and weaknesses and what talents I have, and then who we should contact for me to work with. Over the course of several long emails exchanged at unholy times in the morning we worked out that I could meet and discuss my ideas with a friend of Ashwini’s who worked at Odel and Embark, named Ashani.

Ashani:

I spoke with Ashani, the woman who Ashwini recommended over email several times about the global issue of stray dogs and their effect on the community, then I had to face one of my weaknesses, which is talking over the phone with people I don’t know. After several phone calls we organized to meet at Waters Edge to talk about my individual skills and how I could help Embark and Ashani, and which way would be best for everyone for me to help.

Over the course of the meeting I outlined my technical and artistic skills, and we compared schedules to see possibilities of when we could work collaboratively and initiate activities such as the Maharagama Clinic. Overall she outlined several basic possibilities that benefitted my already existing skills and help me find new skills such as public speaking (which I’m terrified of) and advertising. Overall, I could:

·      Help raise awareness on the importance of sterilization and vaccination,

·      Especially in schools to help educate children on sterilization, vaccination and preventing dog bites, also help promote responsible and correct pet ownership,

·      Encouraging others to help save street dogs by adoption,

·      Helping a litter of rescued puppies by fostering or encouraging others to,

·      Volunteer at events like adoption day, sterilization clinics, fundraising events, and more,

·      And helping to fund raise.

Overall we decided I could:

·      Work at the Maharagama Clinic (which spayed and neutered dogs), helping around and cleaning up.

·      Working with special needs dogs.

·      Advertising.

·      Fund raising.

·      Creating awareness in the community of younger individuals (visiting schools, etc.).

·      Possibly training dogs.