Final reflection

Appendix F

CAS Individual Student Completion Form

NAME OF STUDENT: Heesoo Kim

IB CANDIDATE NUMBER: 000245-015

CAS COORDINATOR: Ian Lockwood

SCHOOL YEARS: 2010-2012

Learning Outcomes	Achieved?	Nature/Location of Evidence
Increased awareness of their own strengths and areas of growth	Yes.	By learning to play tennis for the first time through CAS, I became more aware of my strengths in this sport, such as power/strength in using my racquet, which made the matches more interesting and constructive (LINK)I also realized that my strength involved good concentration and reflective skills on my performance, which also helped me to become aware of my weaknesses, such as clarity in the shots/serves. My such awareness for areas of improvement motivated me to practice more and helped me to grow as a tennis player and I thus made a great achievement in playing a very good tennis match (LINK)
Undertaken new challenges	Yes	Tennis was the new challenge that I undertook to broaden my understanding, exposure and skills in another sport (action).  Also, I undertook a new challenge in music(creativity). Having played classical music as a pianist, I took a new challenge by stepping out of my comfort zone and trying a new genre including New Age, Jazz and Pop-classics. (LINK)This enhanced my appreciation for and knowledge in music and skills in playing piano.
Planned and initiated activities	Yes	As a leader of Alzheimer’s, the main goal was to make our CAS more active and meaningful. Thus I made sure to plan in a balanced, effective and efficient way, such as when planning to visit the Alzheimer’s center or the annual Alzheimer’s Walk (LINK). Also, we planed and initiated a very meaningful activity of a food-drive, to donate to the new center for the patients (LINK).
Worked collaboratively with others	Yes	I led the Alzheimer’s Foundation with my partner Harini, the co-leader. It would have been impossible to achieve what we have achieved if we didn’t collaborate, through regular and consistent communication, being balanced and open-minded to each other’s, as well as group members’ ideas and encouraged and motivated each other. LINK As a Chief Editor of Key Club, I worked collaboratively with many members, as well as other CAS leaders(link) On a larger scale, as a delegate of Malaysia in ECOSOC during MUN, I collaborated with many delegates and people in discussing the important global issue and communicating & sharing our ideas with balanced viewpoint. LINK
Shown perseverance and commitment in their activities	Yes	In tennis, I showed perseverance when I was aware of my weaknesses and communicated with my coach to identify where I could improve on a regular basis and always practiced with patience LINK. In Alzheimer’s Foundation, I was a member for 3 years and a leader for 2 years, and such commitment and perseverance enabled me to understand the needs and wants of the organization and to initiate appropriate activities with commitment (LINK). In MUN, I showed commitment and perseverance as a delegate for 2 years’ conferences. In such situation, I committed myself to do my best in research, debate and resolution-writing and this required much perseverance as the research was very challenging, and many conflicting ideas/opinions arose in communicating. LINK
Engaged with issues of global importance	Yes	Alzheimer’s disease is a form of dementia that affects so many people in all parts of the world. I understand as I also personally witnessed the agony that such dementia can bring. One of the issues that I learned so much about is that patients and families do not exactly know how to deal with the disease, which worsens the pain it brings. Also, the perspective from the society on the disease is very limited and confined, which I witnessed when I communicated with the patients and their family members as a leader of the Alzheimer’s Group (LINK). In MUN, I was very fortunate to engage myself in the global issues that threaten the well-being of our international society. Based on research and analysis, I was deeply engaged as I communicated these issues with other delegates and discussed how we may approach these issues as the future leaders, including writing resolutions(LINK).
Considered the ethical implications of their actions	Yes	As a leader of the Alzheimer’s Foundation, I planned and carried out the food-drive across the school with my partner. Although it was a successful activity, it really helped me mature as a person as it motivated me to consider the ethical implications of our actions. The main goal was to invite people to donate certain food products (per grade) to donate to the patients at the Alzheimer’s center. Many people responded to this, which I am grateful about. However, I also realized that some people did it out of the competitive spirit, not the giving spirit. I really pondered about our motives in giving and whether it was ethical to give, just to win or make ourselves look good. This led me to write down and reflect my thoughts in my blog (LINK)
Developed new skills	Yes	In tennis, I developed so many skills from no-tennis to an extent that I can play good tennis matches enjoyably. As a pianist, I developed my new skills in using pedals and shoulder weight, as well as body&facial expressions appropriately for different genres (LINK).  Also, in Alzheimer’s and MUN, I developed my new skills as a leader (such as inviting people to participate and express their ideas) and communication skills, including public speaking with confidence (LINK).

Alzheimer's: Visit to the Center (22 Feb 2012

Alzhimer's: Art competition for primary school to raise awareness!

These pictures show me, working on serves in different angles , power-serves and receiving the serves from the opponent. 

Following on my previous lesson, I expanded my learning of new skills of serving with greater accuracy and strengths. Thus I learned the new skills of serving from various angles, power serves as well as receiving these serves from the opponent. Therefore, in practicing serving as well as receiving serves, I also collaborated with Charity, my tennis partner, to commnicate our different weaknesses and strengths and stay balanced in each otehr's advice as to how to improve. Thus, we were inquiring during our collaboration as well and helped each other to practice better with greatr patience and perseverance. 

As a result, we were able to master these new techniques and skills and improve our applying different skills in a shorter period of time, which gave us a great pleasure. This would help us to inquire further and realize our potential and strenghths, as a result of paying close attention and staying aware of our weaknesses as we sometimes served poorly. Thus having seen ourselves with various skills and abilities, we can now choose as to how we want to move further and develop in our tennis. Our goal, therefore, for the next session is to play good matches while applying these important and fundamental skills. 

Tennis Reflection (4th February)

This is me,  practicing my serve. 

Tennis is getting more intense, with more focus on improving my areas of weaknesses and maintaining my strengths. I worked on mostly serves, with specific targets. By aiming to hit a specific area before serving, I would improve in the accuracy and power of the serve. I achieved this by practicing so many times, with perseverance. Also, I inquired and asked my coach and Charity for where I could improve and listening to thier advice while being open-minded, responsive and balanced helped me to become aware of my situation and work accordingly patiently. Thus, from this session, I was able to develop in my serves much better and learned the importance of perseverance, practice and adjusting to the valuable advice. 

Piano:

I was impressed by different movie clips of different piano battles, such as the ones by Andreas Kern.  Also, I came across a movie called A Secret that Cannot Be Told, which is a Taiwanese romance film, with different pianists in it. I was an inquirer, as I wanted to research different interesting pieces that were played in the movie. A lot of the pieces were the derivatives of some of the famous classical pieces such as Chopin. Thus, I was being a risk-taker by going outside my comfort zone of classical music, as I am more used to playing this genre of music, and trying something new.  The pieces are divided into three movements, which are approximately 3 pages each. Although it wasn't too challenging, I took much effort and time and developed patience  to get used to the style, and the finger-ing. After spending about 2 days of reading the notes and practicing, I was able to play the pieces by ear in a steady pace with much accuracy and clarity, with the appropriate use of pedals and weight-lifting. I became more knowledgeable, open-minded and  balanced in terms of my view on different genres of music and took anotehr step to inquire different skills and taste in the field of music that I like.

 

 

Alzherimer's Foundation Reflection (020212)

Today was the first Alzheimer's Meeting we had in 2012 ^^  and it was really special as we have another new member Akshita from grade 10, ,who re-joined our group after somet time.
As leaders, me and my co-leader Harini discussed about raising more  awareness around the school community especially the younger ones in the primary school and  didn't have a chance to approach them yet. In order to achieve this macro-goal, we came up with an idea of a memory box, where one is encouraged to bring his/her special memory-related object to place it inside the  time capsule which would be kept underground so that that person can come back to it later. However, I reflected and evaluated on the effectiveness in terms of both keeping their memories and promoting more awareness about the disease. Fair enough, it would have been a more open-minded and caring approach if we stepped out of our comfort zone and tried to feel what it would it be like when someone cannot treasure the precious memories with loved ones. However, question arises whether it is actually practical and realistic and also whether it is possible to keep someone's privacy. Therefore, I tried to be more objective and realistic about it and communicated and discussed my ideas with the whole group. We were then able to come to a general agreement and came up with different ideas and ways to promote them and plan them in a more practical and effecitve way.

 This includes attending the primary school's assembly and asking the students to share some of their most memorable moments and then help them realize about some of the difficulties others, especially the elderly ones face in doing what they are capable of. Another brilliant idea includes promoting art competition, where we would ask the primary school students to submit the drawings of thier memorable/happy moments, setting the foundation of raising awareness for them. While motivating them with different prizes; I suggested and communicated that we should give different prizes such as 'most colourful' or 'most inspiring' instead of having first,second...; we can also use those drawings and artistic works to donate to the Alzheimer's center to relieve some tension and sadness there and make it a happier place! The third idea we communicated and exchanged was promoting some sales, such as pen, cards and possibly T-shirts, at the Food and Fun Fair.
This is a different boundary, outside our comfort zone, in which approach younger and more sensitive groups to engage them in this global issue and help them realize and become more aware of what is going on around hte world. In fact, dementia is something that can come upon any families at any time. This would require more thorough planning and cooperation with the new people, including the primary school principal and teachers as well as the students and parents.

Another important aspect Harini and I have to work on is getting ready to pass on the leadership to the juniors, as we will be leaving for studies and graduation soon. Thus we communicated about the challenges we faced when we suddenly became leaders as we did not receive much training/preparation and took lead in promoting our service as more active, meaningful and fruitful one. It would be easier and more helpful if we shared some of our responsibilities with the juniors who are eligible to become the next leaders so that they would know what sort of planning, communication and organization are required. Also,we hope to share about our privileges that we enjoyed from being in this group and leading it together.