Have I achieved my goals? Final reflection

These were the goals I set at the beginning of IB Diploma:

Creativity- Colombo Model United Nations: This is my third year taking part in COMUN and my second year in the excercative comitee. Since next year will be my final year, my ultimate goal is to be Secretary General.- My passion is undoubtably fashion and up until now I've had my own clothing line (in which all the proceeds I recieved were donated towards an orgnization to aid dogs), taken part in fashion shows, etc. My other goal would be to take part in at least two more fashion shows displaying my creative skills. 
Action:- In order to stay fit I will be taking three zumba lessons a week. This will ensure I stay fit and it would also be a healthy break from the IB.
Service :- This is my second year in Cleft Palette and in my senior year I hope to become a leader along with Imran. My goal is to work with him in order to raise more awarness and funds and change the lives of little children. My goal would be to raise Rs. 300,000.

Have i accomplished my goals?

- I achieved my first goal in becoming Secretary General for 2013. This was one of my proudest accomplishments and COMUN 2013 was definitely the best in years! (http://yanika--cas.blogspot.com/2013/03/comun-2013.html) Through the entire process I showered perseverance by going through the ups and downs, dealing with conflicts amongst my peers and faculty and really sticking by COMUN in general whilst trying to make it a success. Through this experience I got to engage with issues of global importance whether it be issues dealing with human trafficking in 2010, issues to do with global warming in 2011, the energy crisis in 2012 and issues of crisis and conflict in 2013. Not only was I exposed to these issues from  a security, economical and humanitarian point of view but I saw these issues from the eyes of a 180 countries. However most of all, I gained a lot of self confidence and developed as a person.
Unfortunately, given that I had to balance my IB, University applications, SAT's and COMUN, I could not complete a fashion show yet at the same time, my interest in fashion did reduce and I have formed new interests throughout the past couple of years such as politics which triggered my to study Political Economy at UC Berkeley.

Action: My actions goals too changed slightly as the Zumba classes clashed with some of my other personal obligations thus I took up yoga. A lady called Malka would come home twice a week and yoga did help me stay in shape to an extent and helped take my mind off things!

Service: One of my goals was achieved in which we raised over Rs. 300,000 for the children through the battle of the bands! This was very special to all of us! The progress from this is evident from the link given (http://yanika--cas.blogspot.com/2012/12/battle-of-bands.html). However, I was not able to make leader and I think this was for the best because I simply would not have the time. However, as a group we did help members in society and helped change their lives!

An article that appeared on the Sunday Times regarding COMUN - http://www.sundaytimes.lk/130303/education/the-colombo-operated-model-united-nations-comun-brings-together-29-schools-in-its-19th-successful-session-held-from-march-1-3-34641.html

At the opening ceremony, welcoming the chief guest, the Hon. Sarath N Silva, PC. and the Head of School Miss Williams

 At the opening ceremony.

 Lighting the oil lamp at the opening ceremony.

 During session (on the head table)

 During session

Handing out prizes at the closing ceremony.

COMUN 2013

COMUN 2013 WAS A GREAT SUCCESS! Being the Secretary General was a goal I set for myself all the way back in 2011. It required a lot of work, maturity and responsibility yet I have a passion for COMUN and after being apart of it for 4 years, it only seemed natural. The past 8 months consisted of a lot of ups and downs as conflict arose when having to deal with certain faculty advisors and peers yet this showed me the necessity and importance of compromise and seeing a view from the other persons point of view instead of just your own. The entire process made me engage with issues of global importance and broaden my own knowledge on the events that shape our world.. This is helped me even for the IB as I now have a comprehensive outlook on the worlds economy, security issues and humanitarian issues. However the most important thing I gained was confidence in public speaking. Even though I've always been confident, I've never felt comfortable public speaking and when I first spoke on the 1st of March at the opening ceremony, I was shaking. However throughout the 3 days, like all the delegates, I too grew up and built up my confidence even further and when I gave the final speech at the closing ceremony, I was able to deliver it with complete confidence and ease.

The conference itself went smoothly. From an administrative point of view, the conference ran like clockwork and was organized to the heights quality. From a debating point of view, I believe this was the best conference in the past 4 years! Sachin and I made it a point to train the chairs and the training paid off as they were absolutely amazing and stimulated great debate which triggered all the delegates to blossom as well. A great improvement within the delegates of OSC was evident too as Sanoj Jayakody won an award for the best new bee. The calibre of the conference too was outstanding due to the incredible chief guests we had including the former chief justice of Sri Lanka, the Hon. Sarath N. Silva, PC.

Throughout the past 4 years, COMUN more than simply catalyzing my growth has marked my growth. I started 9th grade as a rather shallow teenager not worried about issues that shape our world yet as each year progressed, I grew. I learnt how to collaborate with people of different ages, classes and view points. I gained more confidence than ever whilst broadening my knowledge and lastly, I realized if I set a goal for myself, it can be achieved as i beat out 500 other children for the position of Secretary General.

MUN PR

For the COMUN conference we had to do a lot of PR in which Sachin and I spearheaded it.. They ranged from interviews for MTV to articles to newspapers! Below are the links to the respective sites:

First Part:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cq_opuRIpFM

Second Part:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HzQqonZbMsM

By doing these interviews, I gained more confidence than I could have possibly imagined. It made me realize the importance of the necessity to sometimes hide nerves and essentially, "fake it till you make it"

Updates February 14th.

These past couple of months have been so busy! I have been continuing with yoga and Cleft Lip and Pallete in which we have been raising awareness about the disorder however my main focus has been on COMUN which is taking place from the 1st-3rd March.

As the Secretary General, the amount of work needed to get done has been quite overwhelming. Whether it be making sure sessions run smoothly during practice debates (which were held on the 12th of January and 9th of February) or finalizing certificates, I really have had to work on my leadership skills. I've had to learn how to allocate tasks to all member of the team, multi-task whilst improving my own knowledge on this issues being discusses which has been both challenging and rewarding. However, I developed my leadership skills in terms of organization during last years conference in which I was Head of Administration thus in order to gain even more confidence and challenge myself, I have been chairing. It has been a little intimidating as all the delegates present are extremely intelligence but it gave me a sense of confidence and love for COMUN I haven't had before which is also great as that was my goal for my senior year!

The theme for this year has been Conflict and Crisis which has turned out to be extremely interesting as it not only involves issues of global importance but it allows a variety of issues such as the Israelian-Palestine Crisis, Eurozone Crisis and legalizing of gay marriage, amongst others to all be explored.

We have one more practice debate left and thereafter, a hopefully amazing conference will take place!

Updates with COMUN and Yoga

COMUN has been quite stressful as sometimes working collaboratively with others in different age groups who have extremely strong views can certainly be a challenge however through this I've learnt the importance of compromise and communication. We are in the process of collecting funds while trying to prepare the team for workshops/practice debates which will be held at the start of 2013.

Yoga: yoga in it's own way has managed to kept my sanity during the past couple of months as I have been extremely stressed out by SAT's, university applications, IB and COMUN.

BATTLE OF THE BANDS!

Battle of The Bands was a huge success! in addition to an amazing concert, both tickets and raffle tickets were sold in order to raise funds. Through this process, I learnt the importance of producing a "quality" event as people ultimately pay to be entertained. On the day of the concert, I was working the front door and in charge of body checking. Thereafter, our CAS group went inside the concert and made sure things were running smoothly. Through this event not only did we help raise money for a good cause but we engaged with issues of a global importance and worked collaboratively with others in order to achieve this goal.


Below are some pictures taken by Amila Withanage and the link to the album.

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.495542797152474.118733.100000902741391&type=1

COMUN UPDATES!

There has been a lot going on in COMUN within the past month! We have been getting in a lot of sponsorship deals and a lot in terms of advertising (including an interview I will have to do on TV regarding COMUN) furthermore, things have been extremely stressful as registration forms have been coming in and we have had to keep track whilst creating letters of terms and conditions, the country matrix and contacting all the foreign schools. This has all taken a lot of collaborative effort in which we all worked together to get the tasks completed.

 (harshini's photpgraphy!)

Two weekends ago, we have the Student Coordinator/Faculty Advisor meeting which was very successful from our end as everyone was well rehearsed and organized. However we encountered a speed bump thereafter due to an incident, which took place with the OSC faculty advisor. I won’t get into detail about it, however it really brought out our diplomatic side as we had to handle the situation in the most professional and mature way. This certainly wasn’t easy however it really did show our “MUN” colours and it helped develop my leadership skills as I had to guide the entire group through this process. COMUN has certainly gotten interesting however we are proceeding forward!

Pictures&sites

COMUN is coming along quite well. We're still in the middle of raising sponosors. This is a picture taken at a usual Wednesday afternoon meeting.
This is the URL to the site www.comun2013.com
The concert for Cleft Lip and Pallate is coming along as we however we've also decided to make monthly trips to the hospital.

COMUN progress.

These past two weeks have been interesting as I have been working with both my executive committee and the OSC delegates. For both activities, I have been undertaking new challenges. During the EXCO meetings, I have had to work collaboratively with others in organizing the conference which is going to take a lot of perseverance however I have 2 years of experience in the EXCO hence it is relatively easy. Training the OSC COMUN members to be good delegates however has been a task as it is a completely new challenge to me however whilst dealing with issues of global importance and working collaboratively with other members such as Raya and Nikhil, we have been doing a pretty good job so far.

Summer 2012

During the summer, I took my part in a summer program in Columbia, New York. The experience was amazing but the highlight was the venture we created for my course, Entrepreneurship and Innovation. My group consisted of me, Anisha from Dubai and Joe from California. We were inspired by a service project Joe had undertook in California in which he interviewed the elderly in order to get an insight into their values, morals and life lessons eventually composing a documentary with the footage collected.

While brainstorming ideas we realized that people hold on so closely to photographs, jewelry, clothes, etc. of lost loved ones as that is the last relic left of them. Hence we developed the idea of creating a company in which families would hire us and we create documentaries (for any during per requested by families) documenting their life lessons, morals, values, advice for their children/grandchildren, stories and answers to questions asked by us. The questions would revolve around topics of regret, love, loss, etc. The aim of the documentaries would be to capture the essence of the elderly and hopefully bring back good memories for the family while watching them. It could hopefully give future generations an insight to a lost loved one. We were told to form the business proposal from start to finish focusing on costing, income flow, marketing strategy, etc. Throughout this process I improved my skills of working collaborately with others as I had to week for three weeks with two people I had never met before who had different viewpoints from me. I increase my awareness of my own strengths in which I realized I'm quite creative (for example, I came up with the vision statement for our venture "keep the lost found") and also showed perseverance for three weeks, even when things got hard. Lastly, it was rewarding to come up with such an original venture which we got great feedback for!

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Senior year goals (2012-2013)

As senior year finally came along, so did my final year of CAS. I achieved the main goal I set for last year which was becoming Secretary General for COMUN for the coming year. Furthermore, I was an active member of the Cleft Lip and Palette group and also kept active throughout the year by doing yoga and going to the gym with a friend. For this coming year, my goals are merely to develop upon these activities.

Creativity: My passion truly does lie with COMUN. After becoming Secretary General, I met with the other two head positions as well as Miss Jasmine (COMUN faculty advisor) and organized interviews towards the end of June. All in all we interviewed over 42 people over two weekends. The process was definitely exhausting but rewarding as we found an excellent executive committee. While performing the interviews, it raised my awareness of my own strengths and weaknesses as I realized I have good people skills and organizational skills however I could possibly improve on my overall knowledge of current events. We had our first meeting with the 30 selected members at my house which was also successful. Meetings would be every Wednesday after school for 2 hours in addition to random weekends which would take place throughout the course of the week. My goal as Secretary General would be to improve the quality and smoothness of the entire conference by working collaboratively with others and encouraging my team to persevere through the rough times. My personal goal however is to develop my confidence with public speaking and improve my knowledge with world issues as I will be engaging with issues of global importance. 

Service: This year for service, we are planning on organizing a repeat performance of last year’s event as it was very successful. We still have to plan out and work out the finer details however my overall goal for this activity is mainly to help in planning and initiating it. During this process and during the actual event, I am hoping to undertake new challenges.

Action: Last year I opted to go to the gym and learn yoga instead of taking part in a sport as I was extremely busy with my other commitments and gyming and yoga were two activities I really enjoyed. I'm hoping to continue the same routine this year as the flexible hours of these activities allowed me to perform them constantly for the past 8 months. My main goals would be to go to the gym twice a week and do one lesson of yoga. I hope to show both perseverance and commitment to this activity as they enable me to feel a sense of personal accomplishment

Updates - 25th May

These past couple months have been extremely busy and stressful, however I have still been keeping upto date with CAS.
Creativity - Around two weeks ago, Miss Jasmine officially appointed me Secretary General from COMUN 2013. This was very exciting as I was chosen amonst a number of candidates, 2 of them being from OSC as well. Furthermore, this was the initial goal I set at the begining of the year hence I felt a sense of achievement. Even though we haven't started working on the conference yet I have been doing minor duties such as collecting post conference money, working on EXCO interview letters as well as undertaking new challenges. I have also had to work collaboratively with Sachin and Nelaka who're the PGA and Head of Admin for 2013.
Action - For action I have been working out at the gym as I mentioned on a previous post. I either swim, or gym, according to the weather and have been developing my personal skills when it comes to fitness.
Service - For Cleft Lip and Pallate, we started planning and initiating another event, a battle of the bands - redemption, for next year. We've still been brainstorming ideas on the ideal dates, etc. Furthermore, we sold goodies at the carnival in order to raise money for the service group.

For Action, I've been going to the gym around 3 times a week. The purpose of this is merely to keep in shape. I don't do much cardio however I do a lot of stomach exercise and arm exercises. Due to the fact that I go with a friend, I feel constantly motivated. Through this I have increases my own awareness of my strengths as when I started going to the gym I was only able to do minimal exercises (such as a pull up, while doing a stomach) however now I am able to do 10 which shows improvement. The gym is a relaxing place to be while simultaneously improving my health.

Personal Project Blog

http://personalprojectyanika.blogspot.com/

MUN 2012

COMUN  2012 was a great success. As the Head of Administration which is the 3^rd highest position, I had a lot of responsibility, perhaps even more than the two positions above me. To the week leading up to conference, I did SO much work and stayed late in school almost everyday whether it be sorting out placards with my deputy head of admin or sorting out packages, parcels, certificates, purchase requisitions, placards, etc. In addition, I single handedly handled the 3^rd day which was taking place at Cinnamon Grand thus I was always in contact finalizing details, etc. with my contact from Cinnamon Grand. In addition to organizational aspects, Suleik, my deputy head and I had a lot to do in terms of training the admins and assigning them final responsibilities, etc.

The day prior to conference which was the 1^st of March, I along with some others were at school till around 11.00pm working on MUN related things. As conference finally approached and after 8 months of hard work, things went really smoothly, especially aspects I was in charge of. There were a few errors such as one room not having enough seats, a slight mix up with assigning of countries however they were all things that the EXCO worked around and problem solved. On the 3^rd night, the Head of Logistics (Jaish) along with myself transported all the banners, equipment, printers, etc. to Cinnamon Grand in the night and later on that night most of the EXCO joint us as Cinnamon Grand to set up for the following day.

The 3^rd day was an absolute success and everyone was completely impressed whether it be delegates, faculty advisors, viewers, etc. this made me feel especially good as I was completely in charge of the final day. The arrangements, food, setting, staff were all very helpful and I received very good feedback from the faculty advisors who said I did an excellent job. In addition, Suleik and I received an award for the Best Admistrative staff which were decided upon feedback from the faculty advisors as well as Miss Jasmine and Miss Snyder. The conference went amazingly well!

I learnt many skills through the entire experience. I increased the awareness of my own strengths as I realized I’m very good at organizing events, getting people to listen to me, etc. I also learnt what I need to work on in the context of COMUN as I realized I need to get slightly more familiar with MUN protocol and world issues.  Throughout this entire process I undertook new challenges such as being completely in charge of the final day in which I had a lot riding on me. This process forced me to plan and initiate activities but more importantly it allowed me to collaborate with others and that is something I think I did quite well. Despite me getting extremely stressed out during tense situations, I felt as if I got the opportunity to work with different people ranging from different ages to races and people with different outlooks. The conference itself engaged with issues of global importance and lastly, throughout the past 8 months, despite things getting hard I believe I showed a lot of perseverance. I am right now most likely to get the position of Secretary General 2013 as every single member of the EXCO excluding one voted for me. If and when it finally is made official, I would achieve a goal I set at the beginning of the year in which I said I want to be Sec Gen ’13. I’m proud of myself :)

MUN 2012

COMUN  2012 was a great success. As the Head of Administration which is the 3^rd highest position, I had a lot of responsibility, perhaps even more than the two positions above me. To the week leading up to conference, I did SO much work and stayed late in school almost everyday whether it be sorting out placards with my deputy head of admin or sorting out packages, parcels, certificates, purchase requisitions, placards, etc. In addition, I single handedly handled the 3^rd day which was taking place at Cinnamon Grand thus I was always in contact finalizing details, etc. with my contact from Cinnamon Grand. In addition to organizational aspects, Suleik, my deputy head and I had a lot to do in terms of training the admins and assigning them final responsibilities, etc.

The day prior to conference which was the 1^st of March, I along with some others were at school till around 11.00pm working on MUN related things. As conference finally approached and after 8 months of hard work, things went really smoothly, especially aspects I was in charge of. There were a few errors such as one room not having enough seats, a slight mix up with assigning of countries however they were all things that the EXCO worked around and problem solved. On the 3^rd night, the Head of Logistics (Jaish) along with myself transported all the banners, equipment, printers, etc. to Cinnamon Grand in the night and later on that night most of the EXCO joint us as Cinnamon Grand to set up for the following day.

The 3^rd day was an absolute success and everyone was completely impressed whether it be delegates, faculty advisors, viewers, etc. this made me feel especially good as I was completely in charge of the final day. The arrangements, food, setting, staff were all very helpful and I received very good feedback from the faculty advisors who said I did an excellent job. In addition, Suleik and I received an award for the Best Admistrative staff which were decided upon feedback from the faculty advisors as well as Miss Jasmine and Miss Snyder. The conference went amazingly well!

I learnt many skills through the entire experience. I increased the awareness of my own strengths as I realized I’m very good at organizing events, getting people to listen to me, etc. I also learnt what I need to work on in the context of COMUN as I realized I need to get slightly more familiar with MUN protocol and world issues.  Throughout this entire process I undertook new challenges such as being completely in charge of the final day in which I had a lot riding on me. This process forced me to plan and initiate activities but more importantly it allowed me to collaborate with others and that is something I think I did quite well. Despite me getting extremely stressed out during tense situations, I felt as if I got the opportunity to work with different people ranging from different ages to races and people with different outlooks. The conference itself engaged with issues of global importance and lastly, throughout the past 8 months, despite things getting hard I believe I showed a lot of perseverance. I am right now most likely to get the position of Secretary General 2013 as every single member of the EXCO excluding one voted for me. If and when it finally is made official, I would achieve a goal I set at the beginning of the year in which I said I want to be Sec Gen ’13. I’m proud of myself :)

Updates

Creativity (MUN) - MUN has been crazy recently as the conference is two weeks away. I've had A LOT of work to do such as sorting out the invitations, organizing all things relating to Cinnamon Grand, sorting out ID cards, sorting out banners and sponsorships, etc. It's been a little stressful however I've got all my tasks completed whilst balancing them out with my acedemics. I've shown both collaborative skills as well as leadership skills within the past weeks as I've also had to delegate. The conference should be interesting :)

WWW

Goals -
1) Give the children a pleasent learning environment.
2) make sure he murals painted are attractive and colourful.
3) Make a child's day.
4) Make something the kids will be proud of.
5) Help develop the school. The tsunami which took place on the 26th of December 2004 destroyed many houses/schools, etc. along the costal area.. thus everyone school/house being created or imprpoved is a symbol of development.

Tuesday 24th January 2012 - On tuesday we first played with the children for the first half an hour but at a point, some people went off to start working on their induvidual projects such as maintanence work, murals, etc. The wall we had to create a mural on had a couple of elephants drawn on it and we were instructed on keeping those elephants. Hence my group mates and I (Zara and Margarret) decided to turn it into an underwater world. We used blue's to paint the water and there after painted fish, star fish, turtles, etc. we ensured that it was very colourful.We were orginally going to paint trees in the background however due to time constrains we decided to paint the background light blue. We planned on completing and adding finishing touches to the mural the following day. I was quite impressed at my groups cooperation today as having to work with an existing image was tricky yet we came through. In addition, even though I was group leader, I didn't feel as if I needed to tell people what to do as everyone did an outstanding job, all collaborating really well.

Wednesday 25th January 2012 - On Wednesday we added final touches to the mural and Onkar and Bryce helped paint the top bits of the mural as we couldn't reach. Thereafter Ashwini and I had to write sinhalese on the inside of the school which was definetely tricky as I havn't written sinhalese in a long time but it came through in the end. There after I drew flowers on the wall and tried to make it more attractive. There after I helped with minor jobs here and there such as sanding, painting, etc. The day however was a short day as we had to do a performance. We sand "Stand by me" and a sinhala song "rambari". The sinhala song was a little bit of a fail as I didn't know the words but everyone had fun with it. We got to see the children performing too and they were absolutely adorable.

Thursday 26th January 2012 - The following day we went site seeing and saw two temples. One temple was on the top of a rock so it was tiring getting up there in the really hot sun. Later on we went on a safari which was quite fun.

During this week I believe I really undertook new challenges as I had never painted a mural prior to this and taking into consideration the preasure to make it look appealing, I think I did a good job. We also had to make use of our collaborative skills as we had to collaborate with other people in our class. Even though it was tricky at times, it was a group effort which eventually made everything a success. Lastly, peservereance was shown as the murals did get tedious to do due to the heat, etc. however everyone struck through it in order to make it succesful.