Komorebi was the first of its kind event that happened in school. Komorebi was the culture day which was held at Fountainhead School and I was the project coordinator of the event. My job was to manage and run the whole event from the planning till completion and during the whole event, I got know about a lot about different cultures from all around the world and it provided me with immense knowledge about these cultures as I researched in depth about different cultures from different continents of the world.
LO1: Identify own strengths and develop areas for growth
As I was the coordinator of the entire event, I had the task to make people work efficiently hence I used my leadership skills to segregate people into groups and divide them into continent leaders (7 continents so 14 leaders) and the rest of the grade were segregated by me and the continent leaders as per the size of the continent. I used my creative skills to help the continent leaders to come up with creative ideas for countries and displays outside each continent.
LO2: Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken developing new skills
During the course of the event, some of the continent leaders were not doing their tasks properly as they were not arranging their meetings for their assigned continents and we had to push deadlines because of them. There were arguments amongst group members and even the continent leaders which was causing problems for the event. To get the issues sorted, I made some changes in the continent leaders and shifted a few people to different continents which helped calm things down. Issues were not usually taken to the teachers, rather they were sorted by me through emails or personally having to talk with the people. Another challenge faced by me was to keep track of the progress of each continent. At first, I was finding it difficult to ask each and every leader of the progress they’ve made and till when can they complete particular tasks. To resolve that problem I asked all the continent leaders to send me progress reports through email after every time they met with their team member which helped me read and comprehend their progress and I could help out the struggling continents.
LO3: Initiate and plan a CAS experience,
Planning was a must to make Komorebi a success as I had to deal with the whole grade and it would have been difficult if I did not have any plan in mind. I had to make rough plans for the continents to follow when I gave each continent leaders a list of tasks that they had to complete before a set deadline. It helped both me and the continent leaders to maintain deadlines as I had to report back the progress to the teachers. I gave the continents one week to look for ideas, then I gave them 3 weeks to execute their ideas onto paper and one final week to finalize everything before the event. Planning was crucial for me to keep everyone on their toes and make sure that they had completed what they were required to do.
LO4: Commitment to and perseverance
As the topic of world cultures was very important to me, I was committed to making this event a success. I made sure to maintain progress reports, help everyone complete their tasks before deadlines and help out the struggling candidates with ideas or helping them set up their booths. I made to motivate others in order to run the event smoothly and hence I even asked everyone to have a mock run in which I and the teachers would give them our suggestion on what can be improved for the final presentation
LO5: Demonstrate skills and benefits of working collaboratively
I had to work and coordinate each and every detail of Komorebi with 14 team leaders, the members working under the team leaders and the teachers. This developed my communication skills as I learnt how to respond to problems instantly while yielding the best possible outcome for all the parties. Teamwork is what helped Komorebi run smoothly as the continent leaders along with me helped out each and every student which helped them improve their content.
LO7: Recognize and consider the ethics of choices and actions
During the course of this event, I had to make decisions which were not supported by the majority of the people, I decided to call the struggling continents early to school for some extra time to research and the member s were not happy and were not willing to come but I made it compulsory for them because I had the greater good in mind which was the success of the event. Most of the grade was also not ready to do a mock run but after taking help from the teachers I made it compulsory for all the students to attend and be prepared at the mock run. These decisions might have been seen as unlikable decisions as I was asking people to put in extra effort but the end goal for me was always the same.
Komorebi was one of the few huge responsible roles that I had undertaken and was nervous to mess up the event but my commitment and liking towards the particular topic helped me make the event a success. I learnt a lot of new things about countries, continents and cultures through the whole event and Komorebi was a memorable event for me as I had experienced how to truly be a leader and make a whole bunch of people committed towards one particular goal
