July 26th, 2020 – Jimena CAS Journal Entry

CAS Journal Entry #45

Healthcare Project

During times of stress, hysteria, and panic, innovation and creativity thrive. The pandemic, COVID-19, has allowed for many different organizations to invest in the young minds of this generation to innovate or create ideas that could prevent the spread of this virus. My friend, Nicolle, was the person in charge of this project on behalf of La Paz (since the head of the project wanted a bunch of IB schools around Costa Rica to be involved).

One day, she texted me asking me if I wanted to participate in this project as a spectator and observer to give them feedback on their upcoming projects, events, and ideas. With their project which is marketing the app EDUS, they want everyone around Costa Rica to be informed about COVID-19 and see if they’re at potential risk of contracting it. I gladly accepted and decided to join the Zoom call they had.

At first, it was a little intimidating since the students barely spoke but in the end we got into break-out rooms and I was able to give Nicolle not only feedback but also new ideas that she could potentially give her colleagues that might improve this project successfully. I told her an idea would be to divide this project into different groups (like at Snack Shack); with an Operations group, a Marketing one, Finance, IT, etc., and see how it works. I also gave her ideas on how to target this app on different audiences such as elders, adults, young adults, teenagers, kids, etc.

Overall, the three hours I spent helping these people made me realize how it is important to stay in touch with the people around us and help them no matter the circumstances.

Learning Outcomes:
• Demonstrate engagement with issues of global significance: COVID-19 is an issue of global importance since it’s a pandemic we’re all undergoing, and helping this project allowed me to contribute my ideas to the prevention of such.
• Demonstrate the skills and recognise the benefits of working collaboratively: If it weren’t for my advice and feedback, these students wouldn’t have been able to gather different perspectives on their project and allow it to flourish.

IB Learner Profile:
• Communicators: I communicated alongside other students from different parts of Costa Rica who were willing to instigate change.
• Open-minded: I entered that Zoom call with an open mind ready to understand the multiple ideas that these students wanted to share with me.