Developing life skills through CAS

Creativity, activity, service (CAS) is one of the three core elements that IB students must complete as part of their Diploma Programme (DP). CAS provides students with the opportunity to: reflect on what they’ve learned, develop strategies for personal growth, and embrace new challenges and contribute to local and global communities. We look back on some of the interesting student initiatives of 19-20.  

What does CAS stand for? 

According to IB, CAS focuses on 3 areas:

• Creativity – arts, and other experiences that involve creative thinking.
• Activity – physical exertion contributing to a healthy lifestyle, complementing academic work elsewhere in the DP.
• Service – an unpaid and voluntary exchange that has a learning benefit for the student. The rights, dignity and autonomy of all those involved are respected.

Through such activities/projects, students are then required to demonstrate or develop the following skills:

• initiative
• perseverance
• collaboration, problem solving, decision making etc

To give CAS more context, we look back on some of the interesting student initiatives of 19-20. 

Food bank committee
To raise awareness on food insecurity, a group of grade 11 students set up a Food Bank committee in conjunction with the Singapore charity Foodbank. Under the guidance of Ms Melissa Sit, MYP math teacher, the club worked closely with The Singapore Foodbank through monthly volunteering sessions at its headquarters. The club also participated in the Global Issues Network (GIN) and Service fair before the March break so they could spread awareness about Foodbank’s goal and various initiatives.

Sheetal, grade 11, said: “although our club activities have been impacted by Covid-19, our committee of 25 students from grades 7 to 9 are organising a food donation drive that will run when the current situation stabilises, either during the summer holidays or when school reopens. The goal is to encourage people to donate unwanted non-perishable food items instead of throwing them away.” 

billionBricks
As an Indian, homelessness is a global issue that is close to Rishi’s heart. After a chance meeting with billionBricks a year ago during Social Justice Week, the grade 12 decided to set up the BillionBricks service club as a part of the Global Issues Network (GIN) in school. His goals were not only to increase awareness about the issue of homelessness within the broader CIS community but also to raise funds for billionBricks so they can provide weatherHyde (an all-season life-saving tent) to homeless families and help them survive in harsh outdoor conditions as well as improve their quality of life. 

Through the sale of billionBricks merchandise before and during Social Justice Week 2020, Rishi’s club managed to raise a total of $500 that went to billionBricks. It might be a small achievement, but to Rishi, it was also a great opportunity for him to raise awareness of this important cause and learn valuable leadership skills.