DHIRUBHAI AMBANI INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL

SECOND CAS INTERVIEW FORM 2023-2024

.....................................................................................................................................

Name of the Student: Kiara Maniar Tutor: Miss Shama Shaikh

.....................................................................................................................................

1. What has been most enjoyable and beneficial for you thus far in CAS?

The most enjoyable experience has definitely been the CAS Fete. The reason being
that it helped me understand the various components that go behind a single event
and the level of cooperation and communication that it takes for that event to be a
success. I think that after learning about the behind-the-scenes, it also gave me an
opportunity to be able to think of my feet, improvise, and go with the flow.
Although I spent majority of my time managing the EdYouth stall, there were
several moments where we switched - whether it was related to pricing, rules of the
3 games, or ways to attract more people to the stall. We also divided the various
tasks in our stall, allowing people to work in areas that were their strengths,
learning about collaboration. Overall, I believe that it was not only a really fun
experience to be part of but also taught me a lot throughout the process.

2. What has been a highlight of creativity? Activity? Service?

For creativity, one of my favorite experiences was working towards the Wharton
Global High-School Investment Competition. This was the first time that I got the
chance to learnt about investment and finance in depth. We learnt the different
aspects to research while contemplating about investing in a particular company,
the different strategies we could use to please the client while simultaneously

1
receiving a high return, and the confidence to take risks by investing in a lot of
micro-enterprises instead of bigger firms.

For activity, the dance piece that I enjoyed the most was a different interpretation
on one of the classic stories of Radha and Krishna. I had actually learnt a similar
piece before, but now I got to explore that through a different manner that I quite
enjoyed.

For service, one of the highlights was the session where we spent majority of the
time playing different games like Wordle, spelling bee, boggle, connections, etc. I
think it was particularly interesting because although we started the games with
one of us giving a word or leading it, we soon shifted to the students leading the
activities. It became really exciting especially with some of them games like
Spelling Bee where the students gave a very random assortment of letters and
everyone tried to find words. I think it was a special session because we interacted
a lot more with each other and how each of them was thinking about a strategy to
make the game more difficult.

3. What do you hope to achieve most from CAS? How can you do this?

I think that the one thing I want to achieve from CAS is considering the ethicality
and consequences of choices on others. I think one of the ways I could do this is by
taking more initiative and trying to lead more service or creativity sessions. I think
that in a position of leadership one is bound to make numerous decisions while
thinking about their impact. I think that by practicing this, it would be give me
more experience and allow me to learn about this.

4. What have been the biggest challenges for your CAS involvement, and how
have you overcome them?
One of the biggest challenges for my CAS involvement would be time
management with regards to my other activities and commitments. However, I
think that I’ve been working on this by prioritizing certain tasks over other and
learning to create a schedule and stick to it. I think that following these steps, I’ve
been able to devote more time for my CAS activities and will continue to do so.
2
5. Have you ensured an equal balance across the three CAS strands? If not, how
will you rectify this?
I think that out of the three strands of CAS, the one I haven’t prioritized as much as
the others is activity. I have tried to maintain an equal balance between creativity
and service but haven’t managed to give enough time to activity. I think that in the
future I can rectify this by managing my time better and being able to prioritize
certain tasks over others. Hence, I’ll be able to devote enough time to activity.

6. How have you used reflection to gain insights or understandings?

I think that the reflections have been very beneficial to learn more about my
strengths, weaknesses, and goals. It helps me to identify areas of growth after
which I can work on them. I think that being able to identify weaknesses is quite
important because only when I know them can I work towards them. It also helps
me realize the contributions of different activities and the ways in which they help
me.

7. Can you describe a situation where reflection happened very naturally and
easily?
I think that a lot of my reflections, especially for the service strand, happened quite
naturally after the first semester. I started thinking about how we could improve,
what extra I could do to enhance the situation, was there something that we were
doing wrong, or were the ways to make the session more interactive. I believe that
thinking about all of these questions is essentially reflecting on it. By pondering
about this, I was trying understand the strengths, weaknesses, and areas for growth
which constitutes reflections.

8. Does your collected CAS evidence show ongoing CAS involvement? Are
there ways in which this could improve?
I think that my collected CAS evidence does show ongoing CAS involvement
because I always try to include exactly what we had done in the sessions and the
3
impact of those activities. I think that I could improve upon certain aspects,
however. For activity, I think that I could undertake more challenging pieces and
choreographies to demonstrate my development and progress in this field. For
service, I think that I could have taken more initiative by introducing some more
new activities to keep the sessions engaging.

9. In what ways have your CAS experiences, assisted you in achieving one or
more learning outcome?
For creativity, being part of the YMM club, I definitely learnt a lot about finance,
business, and investing. This also helped me develop my passion for economics. I
think that being aware of the financial world helped me engage with global issues
better since it gave me a new perspective on them. For activity, while trying
something new and different, I was able to undertake more challenges and learn
new skills for my personal development. It also taught me the discipline of
continuing something that I enjoy for a long period of time by demonstrating my
commitment. For service, I learnt about brainstorming collectively to come up
creative activities. I realized how fruitful discussions in a group are which I plan on
applying to all my future activities.

10. Give details of your physical activity done through the year.
Throughout the year, I practiced a lot of Kathak – an Indian classical dance form. I
have been learning this since the past 10 years and have continued with it. Now,
however, I incorporate a lot of semi-classical dancing as well. I think that it’s a lot
more interesting because not only do I get to choreograph most of it myself
according to my preferences, but I also enjoy tuning it to more lively music,
making it more exciting. Throughout the past year, I’ve done a lot of new tukdas,
tihais, and Gintis to improve my footwork and coordination. I’ve also performed
some more parans to learn more diverse hand movements.

1. CAS Advisor’s Comments: Kiara has exhibited significant personal and

collaborative growth in the CAS program. She has demonstrated exceptional
commitment and discipline in her Classical dance journey over the past term. This
dedication reflects not only in her physical progress, evident in attached portfolio
pictures, but also in the development of valuable skills such as time management and
4
discipline. In addition to this, Kiara has actively contributed to the EdYouth Learning
Foundation service activities, particularly in planning the sessions organizing a variety of
engaging activities for the students, teaching them functional communication and
reading skills. This showcases her commitment to community service and leadership.
Through her active and significant involvement in DAIMUN, she has shown resilience,
organizational prowess, and effective communication skills. She has also helped with
stall decoration and game management during the CAS fete. Kiara’s commitment and
perseverance in her CAS experience are evident from her service to the eye camp as a
part of the local community.