2020
Let me tell you a story that happened the entire year of 2020. Once upon a time a caring
girl from Costa Rica decided to take the lead of a project called Students Sponsoring Students.
The project consisted of a collaboration with community members and volunteers that wanted to
help fundraise money for fulfilling financial needs of financially unstable La Paz
families(families of their school). They organized and planned events to give back to the
community and raise funds for the scholarship students and their needs in and outside of school.
This project consisted of her and her friends IB CAS project. Through the whole year of 11th
grade, they had weekly meetings to plan their next step or objective. However, the one problem
was both girls had opposite personalities; it became a challenge. The first stage they passed
through was organizing and planning Día de las Mascaradas(Halloween) for the school. So on,
both girls kept planning and initiating activities to fundraise money. Happily helping the
scholarship program, didn't realize their greatest obstacle would be yet to come.
2020 was a powerful and devastating year for humanity as coronavirus arrived.
Coronavirus was a type of virus that caused a worldwide pandemic of respiratory illness called
COVID-19. Due to the pandemic, Students Sponsoring Students (S.S.S) stopped activities and
objectives and goals were ruined. Both girls developed their own mini project to focus on in
S.S.S during quarantine. Stacy decided to focus on continuing with a tutoring program they'd
started before COVID-19. The program was exclusive for scholarship students attending La Paz.
Stacy sets herself apart from others when taking the opportunity of home-learning to keep
developing her tutoring program. She has insight on motivation and assists students who need
extra academic help in times of online classes. Stacy shows qualities of empathy, paciencie,
generosity, optimism, altruism, respect and integrity.
Although it´s challenging giving back to your community this time, I am still doing.
These kids are gaining social skills, language skills, and self-control. Their thinking skills are
developing as they learn to think critically by solving problems and decision making. Their
growth is seen in their normal classes throughout the year. Not only am I giving back to my
community, but also, I´m gaining skills and future lessons. I will certainly use these skills at
college. Specifically because I want to graduate from english teacher.
Adding on, when it comes to who Stacy is collaborating with, it's herself. She belongs to
her own group. However, to make a difference in the community, Stacy´s class was assigned to
create something that stopped genre violence in spanish class. Stacy stayed working
collaboratively with her group by posting every week posts about genre violence to create
awareness. They´re creating a difference due to the fact that they stand out from other schools by
being the first generation who took an initiative to carry out this project.
Overall, Stacy has used her CAS experience to motivate herself to do something for the
community by the fact of being empathetic towards kids that are passing through what she did.
Stacy motivates herself when the experience will serve for future skills. Due to the decision she's
made about what major to study. However, challenges still need to be overcomed. Stacy plans to
move forward. The lockdown has shown Stacy to persist. Despite all the problems, up´s and
down´s, etc… life will bring the best of her. THE END
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