Experience Details:

As an integration between Business Management and Economics, the 5th edition of Global Odyssey was hosted this year. As a business management student, I contributed to the event by making use of my creative thinking and fine motor skills to create decor that was alluring and eye-catching. This role was important to me in more than one way, while it helped me enrich and showcase my skills as a whole, it also was a huge contribution to the event since for buyers to come and visit the stalls of the event, the decor had to be up to the mark.

LO3: Demonstrate how to initiate and plan a CAS experience.

We had to start from scratch when coming up with the entire theme of the event. We brainstormed a list of possible theme ideas that would go well with the concept of the event, while still being eye catching and something that had scope. We then came up with the theme ‘Pink Lemonade’, and researched on decor inspiration that aligned with the pastel pinks, yellows, citrus motifs, and playful summer vibes of the theme. We then had to assort these ideas according to the resources that were available to us, and had to decide what resources were to be bought keeping in mind the budget that was given to us.

Once we had everything ready, we prepared a timeline, beginning with the most important parts of the decor, and ones that took the most time. I applied my artistic skills in writing headers with typography, and painting fun graphics on the decor used in the event. There were deadlines set for ourselves so that we could make sure that every single idea we planned on was executed effectively.

LO4: Show commitment to, and perseverance in, CAS experiences.

The role required a lot of resilience and consistency, coming to every single meeting, missing free slots and taking out the time to ensure that everything was up to the desired quality. Sometimes, I had other upcoming tasks that had other deadlines, so I had to show my commitment towards the role and showcase my time management skills to prioritize my role in the event and ensure that the tasks that I was working on were completed.

I also had to demonstrate reliability since because of the skills I possessed, there were quite a few tasks allocated to me. I had to ensure that I took responsibility for them and completed them on time. There were also some challenges that came up, such as overflowing work and lack of appropriate resources through which I had to showcase perseverance and not give up.

LO5: Demonstrate the skills and recognize the benefits of working collaboratively.

The collaborative skills that were used in this role were team communication. We had to communicate regularly to discuss ideas and ensure that we were all on the same page about the progress and tasks that were to be completed. We also had to demonstrate problem solving skills together, which included coming up with ideas that worked with the theme, gathering resources, ensuring that the budget was taken care of, etc.

There were several benefits of working together, including diverse creativity: with a bigger team we could come up with more ideas and increase the quality of the decor. Through collaborative work, we could also share the workload and increase the efficiency of work altogether. We also had each other to rely on incase of any issues that came up.

LO7: Recognize and consider the ethics of choices and actions.

The major consideration of ethics was sustainability. Since this was a big event that required a lot of decor, the main concern was that our resources and decor had to be sustainable and environmentally friendly. In order to cater to this, we tried to make best use of the decor that was available in the school for previous events, as long as it aligned with the theme we were focusing on. We also ensured that we only used durable resources, so that the decor that was being made by us could also be used in the upcoming events of the school. During the making of the decor, we also ensured that the waste which was created was disposed of correctly, and could be recycled so that we practiced proper waste management.

Key concepts and Learner Profiles:

Responsibility: We didn’t just take responsibility for our roles and ensured that we fulfilled our own tasks as per our role, but also took responsibility for the impact of our actions.

Communicators: This experience allowed me to develop this learner profile since communication with all the stakeholders involved including teachers, core team members, and my fellow decor members, as well as members of other teams such as food and photobooth was essential to make this event a success.

Open-Minded: I became more open-minded as I learned to be open to newer ideas, perspectives, and bring them along to make the final event a great success!