Growing through CAS _ Grace

November 4th, 2020

At the beginning of CAS, I was not very good at delegating. In group projects I naturally rise to a leadership position but would often end up taking over and doing way more work than fair, just to get it done. Nevertheless, my CAS experience has taught me that delegation is key and you cannot do everything by yourself. At the beginning with Terraza, it was very hard for me to be a part of a group with not a ton of initiative, I wanted to take over and change the entire structure, however, I learned life doesn’t work like that. I also learned that with everything else going on in IB I didn’t have time for that so I needed to work as a team member doing work proportional to my team members. This would also happen in Student Government I would get myself involved in too many things and in charge of more things than I could handle. However, when we were planning Prom I began to figure out how to balance it. I learned to focus on my strengths and take on jobs I can succeed in and put more effort there, instead of trying to do it all and doing it all poorly. I’m great at marketing and communication when it comes to CAS projects. I make announcements and connections to get people to participate, so I was in charge of that. I made the poster and worked on connecting with the student body. I choose to not take on the responsibility of decorating because it is not one of my strengths and it would have ended poorly.
In my senior year, I have become student body president, now in a true leadership position I have taken what I’ve learned in junior year and am working on my delegation skills. Trying to make sure the members of the student government work evenly, encouraging participation and effective making use of our resources. It’s still a work in process but through this delegation, I have seen empowerment from my student government members and I am proud of them and proud of myself for creating an environment, through delegation, that fosters that empowerment.
I will continue to work on delegation through thoughtful planning, using my business skills in student government.
Thanks for reading,
Grace

*Identify strengths and areas for growth, Challenges were undertaken showing that new skills are learned, Plan and initiate an activity, Show perseverance and commitment to your project, Work collaboratively with others, Demonstrate the skills and recognize the benefits of working collaboratively.