#it also means that I have to neglect another assignment that would entail me going somewhere

[maladdy]

suffering through project revisions again

[basia2002ib]

Profile & summary of my CAS

Learning outcomes

All in all I can say I achieved all learning outcomes. 

1. I identified own strengths and developed areas for growth. I got involved in activities that based on my prevailing skills but opened new ways to develop. Language can be deepened without limits; although I have got a certified C2 level in German I can still develop my skills and I continued to do so throughout my CAS.

2. I have undertaken a range of challenges, for instance passing a C2 exam in German seemed outlandish at first but then I got used to the idea and focused all my efforts to pursuing this goal. And I did it, even though it might seem abstract. I wanted to challenge myself to spice up my life a little bit and grow personally from the process. Now I can see a difference - my German language skills developed to such degree that when I am reading literature in German now I see an immense difference - now I can easily spot nuances and extract the deep meaning.

3. I initiated and planned CAS experiences thoroughly. I am a pragmatic person who tends to stick to the plan because it gives direction. CAS stages came naturally to me, I did not have to force them because they are inherent parts of planning process. My intellectual challenges undertaken in German - 2 competition and one language certificate required detailed planning for adequate preparation. Also my internship in the foundation required planning and time-management skills as I had to combine it with my various initiatives and rigorous IB programme. CAS stages were useful to plan my CAS project as well - I was in MUN staff, which means I coorganized WawMUN 2019.

4. Commitment and perseverance are prerequisite for success. I understand it therefore in every action I take these factors resonate. Otherwise I would accomplish my goals such as honours in German, I would not be able to play volleyball in the first-line up or I would not fulfill my demanding duties throughout my internship effectively. These are only examples of actions where I used my commitment and perseverance to succeed.

5. I saw benefits of working collaboratively during the WawMUN 2019 conference, which I organized as my CAS project but also in my internship in the foundation and my service as a student goverment vice president. In the student government we need to rely on one another and have each other’s back. We do share responsibilities to make sure nothing is neglected. We help each other and in case of emergency may replace one another either during a debate or while discussing issues with the head mistress. Throughout my internship I served as an assistant therefore I needed to adjust to the current responsibilities. I was instructed by more experienced employees all the way and assigned tasks. WawMUN conference is the biggest MUN in Poland therefore the organization process is complicated and required the division of tasks. If we did not trust each other and if we did not share responsibilities, the effect would not be so spectacular. The results showed the benefits of the team work from its best side.

6. I engaged with issues of gloabl significance throughout my CAS project which was co-organizing the MUN conference. Practising debating skills is crucial in today’s world and new generations of politicians have a chance to challenge their capabilities on the conference. The topics discussed in individual commitees touched upon issues of global significance. It is great to give my peers a chance to gain skills, delve into controversial subjects and defend their position. Some of them would probably pursue politics further in life; MUN conferences are truly inspirational in this respect.

7. One of the ethical issues I adressed during my activity as a student government vice president was the animal consumption. To relieve the environment, make my own step to reduce cruelty against animals, at least at the local level, I negotiated with the canteen supervisor to introduce vegan food. Unfortunately it was not possible to serve vegan dinners because of technical diffuculties but vegan sandwiches appeared in the canteen soon after our proposal. This is the way to satisfy needs of people on a plant-based diet but also a way to promote environmentally friendly food, with no associated cruelty.

Creativity

I love literature and foreign languages. Throughout my CAS, I combine this two effectively to follow both of my passions simultaneously. I read and write a lot in German and do far beyond what is required in my school. My goals in German are wide-ranging and not confined to my German B classes, but I challenged myslef to take part in competition and to read German literature. Once I have read “The Sorrows of Young Werther”, “Faust”, “The Visit”, “The Trial” in original and it commenced my relationship with German literature. I was captivated by it to such extent that I made a German classic “The Magic Mountain” the center of my Extended Essay. I also chose “The Metamorphosis” by Franz Kafka to use in my oral exam. Thomas Mann and Franz Kafka are one of my favourite writers of all time and they allow me to trace different nuances of German language. Close analysis of these works of art should involve in my opinion delving into the original work. A valuable experience might be to compare it with the translation, which I did throughout my independent study.

My tangible achievements in German (the evidence for my skills) were: a C2 certificate in German, a disitinction in the translation contest “Juvenes Translatores” organized by the European Commision and a finalist title in the National German Olympiad. I reached my aforementioned goals in 2020. They involved CAS stages. 1. I investigated the area I wanted to deepen my skills in and specific aims I wanted to pursue and these were competitions in German. 2. I prepared my strategy, researched the most respectable competitions and exams I wanted to take part in, signed up for them and planned preparation which was necessary because of huge amounts of school work and limited free time. 3. I took specific action, exposed myself to the language days before the exam and throughout multiple months I was doing practice papers, reading and watching a lot. 4. I realized that by pursuing my passion in German and going beyond the curriculum I freed myself and could really delve into the language. The experience provided me with the sense of purpose - my life was not only concerned with my Diploma syllabus but I could get acquainted with literature and recognized the power of translation in terms of its strong influence on the reception of foreign texts. 

From then onward I worked to maintain my German on the same high level. I should not take it for granted - I am not a native speaker. My accomplishements required huge amounts of work and also talent but might disappear if not cared for properly.

Activity

In the course of my CAS journey I have been active in many disciplines. Sport is one of my few ways to unwind and stop stressing about reality. I think that the limited possibilities to practice sport were one of the major obstacles during the pandemic. I was deprived of my only way to switch off and relax. Before the pandemic I used to swim and play volleyball in a school team every week plus I attended 3 Physical Education classes per week. Now my prefered activities are not possible to pursue because of lockdown which entailed school, sport halls and swimming pool closures. Moreover I am concerned with the virus. At the start of 2020 we managed to take the fouth place in district-wide volleyball competition. My team and I wanted to improve next year but the pandemic unexpectedly shattered my plans. I am grateful, however, for having been given a chance to represent my school in the first line-up. Moreover, I would attend volleyball practice every Saturday.

My PE classes give me a chance to play volleyball, football or do fitness. I enjoy almost every activity that is physically demanding. And I am also great in sport which boosts my motivation. Beyond school, I used to exert myself a lot in swimming and have difficulties to find enjoyment in it. However, I am a really good swimmer and it strengthens my determination, improves posture and health.

Throughout the pandemic, I have been practising sport independently, as it is an extremely important part of my life. However, in the first lockdown in the spring I used to overexert myself doing long and intensive workouts every day on an empty stomach to the point when I got health problems. I had to give it up and switched to another physical activity, less demanding but equally fun: walking. Never before have I taken walks so often as during the pandemic. Now, in the winter lockdown I also go for a walk sometimes.

Service

I began my CAS journey in 2019 with giving tutoring to a primary school student from a underprivileged background. Teaching subjects I am comfortable in (English and German) and his improved grades were reasons for my satisfaction. It required a lot of patience and perseverance as it was extremely difficult to teach him something because firstly he lacked motivation and secondly he had difficulties memorizing. This made it a huge challenge but turned out to be rewarding.

The second half of my first IB year (2020) I sacrificed for my internship (voluntary work) in a foundation.  My scope of activity consisted in the cooperation with the Fundraising Director and the Spokeswoman of the foundation; I had duties related to fundraising and media such as: preparing summaries of the reports from humanitarian missions for fairs in Dubai, translating posts for English social media profiles, collecting data for media reports, translating official requests for the sponsorship, gathering contact details of potential sponsors i.e. big companies and Presidents of the biggest Polish cities, monitoring press mentions.

Throughout 2020 I have also been fulfilling duties of the student government vice president. My team was elected in February 2020 and until now (beginning of 2021) I hold this position. I resolve current problems with the head mistress, co-organize and participate in events e.g. open days, control social media, coordinate logistics. In March we attended an event for student governments across Warsaw. I also tried to organize the Physics conference with my 2 friends in my school but it was cancelled last-minute due to imposed school closure, one week before it was scheduled to take place. Everything had been arranged with lecturers and we had to cancel feeling miserable.

My wide range of CAS activities - other examples

Apart from my core activities which I described, I got involved in numerous other CAS experienced described on this blog. One of the most enriching ones was my participation in the process of creation of a book. I wrote my own essay to a book published this month by my former class teacher. I entitled my work: “School is people: about sparking authenticity and breaking patterns”. I also cooked a lot and published some of my recipes on the blog, wrote to my school newspaper, took part in environmental protests, wrote some poems, some diary entry, practiced Frech, including writing, took many beautiful photos on my trips abroad,... 

I also co-organized WawMUN2019 conference as my CAS project.

[moodr1ng]

someone asked for the reasons i id as transsexual and wished to remain private, however i think my answer might be valuable to more people who dont understand this pov so heres what i had to say to add my perspective here:

"no problem! first i gotta say i id as transgender as well and i dont think one is better for me than the other! i just have use for both labels. for me, i have a personal relationship with the term "transsexual" due to my transition. when i started coming out and looking towards transition at 15, here in france basically no one knew what a transgender person was, there was no awareness whatsoever, so first i gotta say that i grew up in a country where "transsexual" was the only word anyone knew outside of trans communities for a long time. then when i started to actually go through medical transition, the medical world assigned me the word "transsexual". it was never said "transgender" on my papers for hormones or surgery or when my doctors discussed it, it was always "transsexual". and transitioning has been a long, drawn out, emotionally and physically exhausting, years-long process that is still ongoing in my life. being classified as "transsexual" by the medical world is relevant to me daily and claiming it for myself is a way to empower myself out of a process that has often been painful, humiliating and frustrating.

another reason i still have need for the word "transsexual" is to describe my struggles as a medically transitioning trans person. now i absolutely dont think everyone who medically transitions needs to call themselves that, and i also am not like, gatekeeping the word - i think transgender people in general can choose to reclaim that term if its useful to them even if they are not in the process of medical transition. however thats the purpose it serves for me. very often in lgbt spaces and especially young, real-life lgbt spaces, my experience as a trans person specifically undergoing medical transition is erased or neglected, including by other trans people who will not/did not medically transition. ive been faced with a lot of incomprehension and ignorance from both cis allies and other trans people because they had done no research into what medical transition entails and the struggles it comes with and simply had no idea what my lived experience was! in those cases, ive often needed to describe myself not just as transgender but as transsexual because some of these other trans people who would speak over or ignore my experiences would excuse it because "well im trans too", as if being trans means you can speak on every trans experience out there or cant be ignorant of other trans peoples struggles that you dont face.

"transsexual" also serves a third purpose for me of aligning me with a specific lived experience that isnt necessarily exclusive to transgender people. the most obvious example of this in my case is the similarity of my experience with that of cisgender butch/masc women who go on testosterone and/or have top or bottom surgeries for reasons related to dysphoria, for aesthetic reasons, or for safety, and who may or may not also pass as men in their life, but who still identify as cis women. for me personally (there may be debate on the topic if its ever brought up) these are people whose lived experience is intrinsically linked to mine even though they are not, by definition, transgender - i would argue that they are still transsexual, at least if they choose to identify as such. they are changing their sex characteristics, despite not identifying as a different gender. this is also true of course of cis men who make use of transition tools usually associated with trans women. and of course there are also people who dont identify as transgender (usually because when/where they came out/grew up the term was not in use) and only identify as transsexual, and i think thats their right. my use of the term is not as is often assumed to exclude people who dont id as transsexual, but moreso to extend community to people who share my experience even if they dont identify as transgender as well!

there are tons of reasons one may id as one label, the other, or both, and theyre usually pretty personal - these are just mine. hope they help!"

ill add here (bc i didnt think to add it to my reply) that my one gripe with the word "transgender" is actually that i think its not inclusive enough. i think the definition of "identifies as a different gender than their assigned gender at birth" isnt like, bad, but it leaves a lot to be desired, and i think its gonna exclude people who would have use for the term "transgender" simply because "identify as" is such a difficult concept to grasp. after reading up about the debate in the 90s about what "transgender" should mean and who it should include, i actually think that we missed out on including the experiences of people whose identity is less clear cut and less digestible. i love the definition of transgender as "transgressively gendered". that is what it means when i call MYSELF transgender. by the fact that i want to widen the inclusion of "transgender" to include more experiences than the most easily understood ones, i also have a further need to clarify my experience as that of someone who is physically transitioning and faces specific challenges due to that.

the thought tonight: some of us who are transgender are also going to identify as transsexual and at one point youre going to have to get over it and let us live our lives. iding as transsexual in and of itself is not a truscum dogwhistle or exclusionary, its an identity term that many of us still do reclaim and have use for. im not sure what the motivations are behind some people on here accepting that you can reclaim and identify with tons of actual slurs but you cant call yourself a transsexual bc its “outdated” or even like… offensive to ourselves? but honestly it feels dodgy.

the reality of it is my identity, my experience, and the ways i describe them do not exist to be aesthetically palatable, to be digestable, to be acceptable by the standards of society at large, or to make “the community” as a whole look better by association. i dont owe anyone intimate self-censorship for the purposes of not making us “look bad” to cishets or to avoid making them uncomfortable because THEY dont identify with a word i claim. i will never call someone a transsexual unless they explicitly want me to but i will call myself that as much and as loud as i want because it is what i am and it is what i need to call myself so i can put myself into words.