DESCRIPTION

Monsoon musings is a student-led event which will showcase poems, short stories in English, Hindi, and Gujrati. It will also showcase an art stall for selling the creations made by the participants. Seva cafe will feature food and beverage all the money that comes from the art sales and Seva cafe will be donated to charity. I am the head of the marketing department, and my job is to create an appealing poster and other forms of advert to influence people to participate in the event and sell their creation and inviting teachers, parents to participate in the event. The event was complemented by Seva cafe which will feature food and beverage, and the phenomenal Art stalls will showcase the potential of the students and what art pieces they have made. All the money that comes from the Artworks sales and Seva cafe will be donated to charity for a good cause.

Aim to choose this CAS experience

When I was filling the form for Monsoon Musings, there were four departments which were Marketing, media, Finance, Seva cafe and Art team. I was keen to join in either Marketing or Finance which were of my interest. So, I chose Marketing keeping in mind that I am very much inclined towards business topics and I am planning to pursue major in marketing in my further studies. Marketing is selling a product or service to the target audience with practical strategies to persuade the crowd to buy it.

Learning Outcomes Achieved

LO1. Identify own strengths and develop areas for growth

I have done activities relating to Marketing and Finance which I have experienced and worked upon. My plans are the o take marketing as my career option, so I cannot get a better opportunity than this. I am good at creating posters which were appealing to the school staff and students. I will learn innovative work as well as the judgement of what will influence the people to come into the event. b) We will be donating all the money we collected from seva cafe and the sales of the art pieces to an organisation. This event is for a good cause and getting creative minds at work.

LO2. Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process.

My biggest challenge was persuading all the grades to participate in the event. When I went to classes and told them that this was a literary event they did not want to participate but then knowing many other interesting things they were enthusiastic to participate in the event. It took a lot of time to get people to participate in the event. I identified my mistake and learnt that describing the event as clearly as possible so that people will be ready to join. By using this strategy, I was able to coerce them to participate in the event.

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

Planning needs to be done beforehand for any event organised.  I think that procrastination is everyone’s biggest enemy. I should admit that there was a delay from my side informing the teachers about the event. I found my free slots and told them right away with the help of my team members. We coordinated with the art team and helped them make posters and decorate the atrium where the event was going to happen. We had some delays, but we all completed every task before the event.

LO4. Show commitment to and perseverance in CAS experiences.

The heads had a meeting where we had to come early. We discussed the progress and approached everyone is using and maintain the pace in persuading everyone for participating in the event. We all had a clear idea on the tasks to be performed. The blog post and SMS to parents were delayed which meant that we had to shift all other tasks ahead this created a big ruckus for everyone. The planning stage is not every time followed, and we might move the responsibilities forward.

LO5. Demonstrate the skills and recognise the benefits of working collaboratively.

Collaboration adds up to significant progress to the event. In my Marketing team, I had partners, and we helped each other throughout the process. We divided the work so that each one of us will go to different grades and teachers for word of mouth. It also led to the members taking decisions and moving further. There were fewer participants at first but then the second time we all went for word of mouth, and there were more people interested in taking part.

LO6. Demonstrate engagement with issues of global significance.

The event was scheduled on 1st September, and at that time there was a big disaster in Kerala. The Kerala floods were unstoppable, and many people were killed during this devastating event. So our collection of money from the event will be a charity toward these naturally occurring disasters which will help some to survive. Many donations are happening in Kerala to save the people. Charity is significant for people in need of it. It is for a change and to make an impact for people in trouble which gives them the will to stay alive during these disasters. My opinion of charity is that it strengthens my values and I believe that it is essential to help people in need.

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

We had to make sure that the poems and artworks submitted are not plagiarised as this is not ethical. Copying someone’s work and calling it your own is something that our event does not appreciate. The artworks should be appropriate. There should be no slang, profanity used in the works that participants have submitted. These are ethical considerations which led to the success of the event.

The learner profile attributes that were obtained from this CAS experience are – 

1. Inquirers.
2. Thinkers.
3. Communicators.
4. Principled.
5. Caring.
6. Risk-takers.
7. Reflective.

Conclusion

The event was successful, and the hard work paid off. Everyone had contributed to this event to be successful. Some teachers got the ground to display their talent. The poems were extraordinary, and the Seva cafe was also the star of the event.