𔓘Anja Zahorodni𔓘 @anjazzh - Tumblr Blog

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Pilates

Activity title: Doing pilates

Date: Long-term activity, 3-4 times a week

Type of activity: Activity

Learning outcomes:

◇ Identify own strengths and develop areas for growth

◇ Show commitment to and perseverance in CAS experiences

◇ Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process

Activity description: For the last 8 months, I have been doing pilates. It has been a wonderful and contributory experience for my mental and physical health.

Reflection: During the last year, when I got to know that I have scoliosis and other spine conditions, I have gotten more invested into exercises that can improve the state of my spine. Searching for ways to do so, I came across pilates. I liked that it was a relatively light and peaceful type of exercise. Initially, I mostly focused on following Youtube videos of some well-known pilates instructors, after which I made my own routine which was adapted to my needs and condition. Soon enough, I got to realize how much this activity helped me improve, both mentally and physically. As the exercises involve a lot of breathing and stretching, it helped me manage the stress gained upon exams and deadlines that was fairly prominent during the last few months. Although I am obviously not a professional and am only a beginner, I hope to be able to perfect my knowledge and performance in this activity.

Slovenian language

Activity title: Learning Slovenian language

Date: September 2021 - April 2022, 2 times a week

Type of activity: Creativity

Learning outcomes:

◇ Identify own strengths and develop areas for growth

◇ Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process

◇ Show commitment to and perseverance in CAS experiences

Activity description: I have decided to take up Slovenian language. I have been learning it on a course in a language school, with a few participants and by myself as well.

Reflection: I mainly started learning Slovenian because of my potential studies there, but I did not expect to have so much fun on the way! I was always skilled in languages, so it represents a naturally exciting activity for me - however, I was not as interested in this language, which is why I was surprised. During the course, I completed A1 and A2 level of Slovenian, and I plan to proceed further. I also met some amazing friends on the way, which is a great bonus!

Volunteering at Glossa

Activity title: Volunteering at Glossa

Date: December 24th, 2021 (4 hours)

Type of activity: Service/Creativity

Learning outcomes:

◇ Identify own strengths and develop areas for growth.

◇ Show commitment to and perseverance in CAS experiences.

◇ Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process.

◇ Demonstrate the skills and recognize the benefits of working collaboratively.

Activity description: Today, my classmates and I had the chance to volunteer at Glossa, the German language centre. We created a workshop, through which each of us partook in an activity they like - creating cards and making sweets for the upcoming holiday season, improving their communication skills and so on.

Reflection: One of the various beauties of the holiday season is the gathering of families and loved ones to recollect upon the year which passed. Although, it is important to remember that there are people who do not have this chance, which we often take for granted. This is why my classmates and I partook in a humanitarian action consistent of creating holiday cards and sweets for children residing in various institutions in Banja Luka. I decided to make cards for those without parents. I put a lot of effort and love into them, taking into account what could make children the happiest. Although I usually make cards for my family members, by expanding my craft to those in need, I learnt the importance of a mere few words in making someone`s day, or even year - which is why I would encourage others to take part in this action as well.

Financial literacy - a workshop

Activity title: Attending a workshop on financial literacy

Date: October 18th, 2021 (2 hours)

Type of activity: Creativity/Service

Learning outcomes:

◇ Identify own strengths and develop areas for growth.

◇ Show commitment to and perseverance in CAS experiences.

◇ Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process.

◇ Demonstrate the skills and recognize the benefits of working collaboratively.

Activity description: Four days ago, a workshop focused on economics and finances was held in the Banja Luka American Corner, by three economics experts of our town. It lasted for 2 hours, where participants were encouraged to actively listen and ask any question they have.

Reflection: In today`s day and time, money is not only important, but it is a necessity for a comfortable life, which is why I`ve decided to get more educated on the topic of economics and finances, and think that more people should as well. The workshop was set on explaining some of the main premises of economics, but most importantly, it emphasized how important saving up is in the long-term. Although I do save up and manage my finances privately, this workshop gave me a perspective of the long-term benefits that saving up provides, which motivated me to do it with more care. The hosts also talked about some effective sources of income, such as investing which got me interested in investing more of my time into it. Overall, this workshop was really practical and helpful, and if there is a similar one in the future, I will for sure attend it!

Divulgation of new plants

Activity title: Discovering new plants

Date: June 12th - June 14th 2021

Type of activity: Creativity/Service

Learning outcomes:

◇ Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process.

◇ Demonstrate how to initiate and plan a CAS experience.

◇ Show commitment to and perseverance in CAS experiences.

◇ Demonstrate the skills and recognize the benefits of working collaboratively.

Activity description: At the end of our 2-day trip, my friend Sara (@tesatesanovic) and I decided to explore the periphery of our town. Here we managed to see many interesting sights and most importantly, discover plant species we haven`t seen before.

Reflection: I`ve always loved plants, specifically flowers. The sight of them always made me happy, therefore this experience added to my love for them as well as inspiration for my paintings. We took as many pictures of the plants we didn't know as possible and searched them up on the internet, deepening our knowledge. Even if I`ve been to my grandmother`s village a handful of times, going there with a friend who can guide and show you new things really made it special and more interesting. I hope we can repeat this sometime! 🌷

A trip with classmates

Activity title: Taking a trip to Šipovo with classmates

Date: June 10th - June 12th 2021

Type of activity: Activity

Learning outcomes:

◇ Identify own strengths and develop areas for growth

◇ Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process

◇ Show commitment to and perseverance in CAS experiences

◇ Demonstrate the skills and recognize the benefits of working collaboratively

Activity description: On June 10th, my classmates and I took a small trip to the town of Šipovo. During our 2-day stay there, we managed to explore the various beauties of the environment (such as Ada Sokočnica and the river Pliva) while activating our body and spending time together.

Reflection: This was the first trip some of my classmates and I organized by ourselves which makes it special. During the stay there we did everything by ourselves - from cooking our meals to organizing our time and events as well as activating our bodies, which deepened our already existing skills. My favourite part of the trip are most likely the walks we took, where we saw many beautiful sights, like animals and nature (which you can see in the photos attached).We also deepened our bonds, which truly means a lot. I hope that we are able to repeat this trip on a more far away destination, and in a bigger number in the near future. :)

CAS project - Anja`s gazette 📖🖋

Activity title: Anja`s gazette/reviews

Date: August 5th - August 19th 2021 (2 weeks)

Type of activity: Creativity, Service

Learning outcomes:

◇ Identify own strengths and develop areas for growth.

◇ Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process.

◇ Demonstrate how to initiate and plan a CAS experience.

◇ Show commitment to and perseverance in CAS experiences.

◇ Demonstrate the skills and recognize the benefits of working collaboratively.

◇ Demonstrate engagement with issues of global significance.

◇ Recognize and consider the ethics of choices and actions.

Activity description: As my CAS project, I decided to open up a blog where I post reviews on various pieces of art and media. Doing this project has allowed me to develop skills such as website building and advertising, but I managed to have a lot of fun and build new connections on the way as well.

Reflection: I am usually the type to thoroughly analyze every piece of art or media I consume - such as music, anime, books, movies and so on. I always wanted to share my analyses of them on a blog (other than this one, of course) but never had enough time. However, this cause came as a motivator to do so. At first, I was a bit confused and did not know where to start although it certainly was not my first time making a website. Still, perfecting the appearance and functionality of the website on both the web and mobile versions took long - for example the website title, which I changed numerous times to find the best-sounding fit, as well as the overall accessibility of the site. Although long, it was entertaining even if I really was only getting started. Soon enough, the most important part - or writing the blog posts came. I cannot describe how happy it made me to finally be able to have my own space where I can talk about the things I like or am passionate about, and for it to even benefit me for school. I found that others liked it as well and met like-minded individuals by sharing my blog through social media. Although this project is marked as 2 weeks long, I will still continue to post on Anja's gazette as one of my pastimes because it fulfills me. 💌

Anja`s gazette is a blog made by me directed towards sharing my reviews of various pieces of art and media, like anime, movies and so on.

A trip to Bijeljina

Activity title: Taking a trip to Bijeljina

Date: May 16th, 2021

Type of activity: Activity

Learning outcomes:

◇ I have identified my own strengths and developed areas for personal growth.

◇ I have shown commitment and perseverance in Cas experiences.

◇ I have demonstrated that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process.

◇ I have demonstrated the skills and recognized the benefits of working collaboratively.

Activity description: Last Sunday, I took a small trip across Bosnia and Herzegovina with my family. We had the main objective of going to Bijeljina and visiting the etno selo Stanšići but also stopped at some places such as Tuzla, where we explored the environment and discovered various beauties of our country.

Reflection: I love travelling, and it does not necessarily matter where. Wherever I go, I still manage to feel the joys of sitting in the car and listening to music, while looking at the road - it provides a nostalgic and truly blissful feeling. However, this time what made me the happiest was the fact that I once again recognized how beautiful our country can be. Even if I went over a very small portion of the country, at that much of a small space I saw various beauties, while getting to activate my body by walking and also getting to know new people. Overall, I had an amazing time and hope to get to know more of my country in the future.

Cooking 🥘

Activity title: Cooking

Date: Unspecified, long-term activity

Type of activity: Creativity

Learning outcomes:

◇ I have identified my own strengths and developed areas for personal growth.

◇ I have demonstrated that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process.

◇ I have shown commitment and perseverance in CAS experiences.

Activity description: A few times every week, I love to sit down and cook various delicacies, which benefits me in many ways.

Reflection: Creating in any shape and form is what represents true beauty to me, and it is the same in cooking. I love making various dishes and seeing how the same set of ingredients can turn into dozens of different dishes. Although it represents a fun activity to me, I think it is also beneficial in other ways as cooking is a basic life skill and is necessary for each of us, no matter who we are - but especially those of us who plan to study abroad and most likely live alone, it represents an important skill. Moreover, here are some of the various foods I like to make, shown on the picture. My favourite is the pizza with the crust made of zucchini shown on the second picture - I hope you enjoy it!

Although I am merely a beginner, I wish to continue working on my cooking skills and to perfect them in the near future. 🍲

Art Without A Frame

Activity title: Participating in the AWAF project

Date: January 2021 - April 2021

Type of activity: Creativity/Service

Learning outcomes:

◇ I have identified my own strengths and developed areas for personal growth.

◇ I have demonstrated that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process.

◇ I have demonstrated how to initiate and plan a CAS experience.

◇ I have shown commitment to and perseverance in CAS experiences.

◇ I have demonstrated the skills and recognized the effects of working collaboratively.

◇ I have demonstrated engagement with issues of global significance.

◇ I have recognized and considered the ethics of choices and actions.

Activity description: Art Without A Frame (AWAF) is a project focused on contextualizing and reframing the way that borders affect our lives and relationships through exchange of personal narratives, in a creative context. It was organized and held by three University of Texas undergraduates along with many young students from Bosnia and Herzegovina. The objective of the project is for individuals to make short narratives on how borders affected their lives, which would then be posted on the AWAF website.

Reflection: Borders are very important and there is a variety of them - psychological, ethnical, societal, economic ones and so on. They all interfere with our daily lives and can be both positive and negative, although they are mostly deemed as negative. Throughout this project I was able to recognize the significance of these borders in my life, especially due to the fact that my partners were primarily young Bosnian students - from a country where borders are prevalent almost everywhere. I was able to meet and talk to people from various parts of Bosnia which made me really happy, as we ignored any of the possible ethnical and religious borders. The project consisted of 4 workshops in which we all perfected our short narratives, along with our self-taken pictures which corresponded to the narrative. I wrote about COVID-19 and how it had a positive impact on my psychological borders in the sense that it made me feel freer and more confident. If you want to, you can check it out and try to find it on the website which I am going to put below. Overall, it was an amazing time and I hope to join more projects like this one in the future.

We are Art Without a Frame, an initiative established to boost collaboration and connections among Bosnian youth through digital storytellin

Gardening

Activity title: Gardening

Type of activity: Activity/Service

Date: Long-term activity, unspecified

Learning outcomes:

◇ I have identified my own strengths and developed areas for personal growth.

◇ I have shown commitment to and perseverance in CAS experiences.

◇ I have demonstrated that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process.

◇ I have demonstrated the skills and recognized the benefits of working collaboratively.

Activity description: A few times a week, I visit my grandmother's village and take care of her garden, accompanied by my mother.

Reflection: I have always loved flowers and taking care of them. As a very small child, I would draw myself as a florist and help my grandmother with the garden. As my grandmother is fairly old now, and she cannot take care of it by herself, me and my mom take care of her garden for her. We plant and take care of all types of plants - fruits, vegetables, flowers and so on. Recently I planted a hydrangea flower, and I cannot wait to see how it grows in the end. I am going to update you on my progress with the garden, using various pictures.

Gardening is an activity that always helps me clear my mind and makes me happier. I hope to have my own garden in the future.

My Freedom Day

Activity title: Taking part in the My Freedom Day event

Type of activity: Service

Date: March 16th, 2021

Learning outcomes:

◇ I have identified my own strengths and developed areas for personal growth.

◇ I have shown commitment to and perseverance in CAS experiences.

◇ I have demonstrated engagement with issues of global significance.

◇ I have recognized and considered the ethics of choices and actions.

Activity description: My Freedom Day is an annual event, backed up by CNN where students around the world hold events to highlight modern-day slavery. In order to participate in this event, my class and I made a video describing what freedom means to each of us in one word. Afterwards, the video was posted on Instagram.

Reflection: I feel that events like these are very important, and one should do their best to participate. Slavery still exists, and it is should not be viewed as merely a part of the past. It made me happy that the rest of the class and I could take part in this project. It was a great opportunity - not only for the cause of the event, but also for comimg together as a class, even in the present difficult situation. I definitely hope that we are going to be able to spread awareness and take part in similar events in the future.

#myfreedomday

International Relations: Theory and Practice

Activity title: Attending the discussion on the theory and practical application of International relations

Type of activity: Service

Date: February 24th 2021

Learning outcomes:

◇ I have identified my own strengths and developed areas for personal growth.

◇ I have show commitment and perseverance in CAS experiences.

◇ I have demonstrated engagement with issues of global significance.

◇ I have recognized and considered the ethics of choices and actions.

Activity description: American Corner frequently makes informative discussions and workshops on contemporary topics. This one was held by Rami Blair, the Deputy director of the Banja Luka branch office of the US Embassy. He provided a great and realistic outlook on International relations and its use in real life.

Reflection: As previously mentioned, I hold a great interest in International relations and law. This discussion helped me develop an even stronger one. Rami Blair provided a less idealistic, but just as tempting outlook in his presentation, making us realize what it actually means to be a student of Foreign affairs and, later on, the real life and routine of a diplomat. Overall, I learnt a lot in this presentation and hope to be able to attend more interesting discussions in the American Corner!

Colours of Volunteering: Painting youth solidarity

Activity title: Attending a webinar about the colours of volunteering

Type of activity: Service

Date: February 11th, 2021

Learning outcomes:

◇ I have identified my own strengths and developed areas for personal growth.

◇ I have demonstrated that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process.

◇ I have shown commitment and perseverance in CAS experiences.

◇ I have demonstrated engagement in issues of global significance.

◇ I have recognized and considered the ethics of choices and actions.

Activity description: Since last December, YEA have been organizing many online events with various themes of culture, human rights, environment, economy, and most importantly, youth engagement in the Western Balkans. I attended a webinar on volunteering and volunteering programs in this current situation.

Reflection: I`ve always wanted to volunteer, however, I never had the chance to. Now, being on this webinar I have heard stories of various people, and how volunteering has changed them and their environment to a certain extent. In result, I once again assured myself on the impacts volunteering has and the immeasurable value the experience itself and volunteers have. These stories touched me, and urged me to pursue volunteering more seriously, rather than just being a passive member of the society. I will be sure to attend more of these meetings and to start volunteering in the future!

World Cancer Day

Activity title: World Cancer Day

Type of activity: Service, Creativity

Date: February 4th, 2021

Learning outcomes:

◇ I have identified my own strengths and developed areas for personal growth.

◇ I have demonstrated the skills and recognized the benefits of working collaboratively.

◇ I have demonstrated engagement with issues of global significance.

Activity description: Every year, February 4th is celebrated as the World Cancer Day. Due to this year`s situation, me and my friends (Nađa, Lana, Sara and Teodora) decided on contributing to this event by making flyers on various themes related to this disease. For my part, I made a short informative flyer with general information on cancer as well as what to do to help the ones affected with it. You can find it attached in this post.

Reflection: Cancer is one of the most fatal and fastest spreading diseases at the moment, therefore I think that it definitely represents an issue that should be talked about more. It does not only have consequences for the ones ill, but for many people around them, therefore we should unite and, step by step, fight cancer. I enjoyed participating in this activity as I (most importantly) did a good deed and contributed to the society as a global citizen, expanded my knowledge on the topic and what I can do as a member of the society, along with learning and experiencing the spark of working collaboratively. I cannot wait to celebrate World Cancer Day next year as well, with even better ideas!

Baking

Activity title: Baking

Type of activity: Creativity

Date: 2-3 times a week, long-term activity

Learning outcomes:

◇ I have identified my own strengths and developed areas for personal growth.

◇ I have demonstrated that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process.

◇ I have shown commitment and perseverance in CAS experiences.

Activity description: Every once in a while, I like to take some time alone and bake. I make various sweet dishes - here are some photos of them!

Reflection: I love creating, no matter in which form or field - and it is the same case with baking. Rather than the outcome, my favourite part is the process, seeing how the same set of ingredients could make a variety of completely different dishes, excites me. Not only that, but baking is an essential life skill, which is surely going to be useful, especially for us young adults planning to live alone in the near future. I love baking, and I am going to do my best to improve this skill further.

Books and reading

Activity title: Reading books

Type of activity: Creativity

Date: Unspecified, long-term activity

Learning outcomes:

◇ I have engaged with issues of global significance.

◇ I have identified my own strengths and developed areas for personal growth.

◇ I have demonstrated that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process.

◇ I have shown commitment and perseverance to CAS activities.

Activity description: Whenever I have the time to, I like to sit down and read books - various genres of both fiction and non-fiction.

Reflection: I`ve liked reading ever since I was very small. When I was a little girl, I would spend days reading various types of books. Not much has changed - except the book types, of course. By each book I read, I notice myself becoming more aware, empathetic and educated. Books give us a sense of reality, although the events described in them don`t necessarily have to be real. In this reality though, we perceive most events as real and are able to empathize with the people in it, and maybe even find bits and pieces of ourselves in them. Not only that, but the more I read, I notice my vocabulary becoming richer as well as written/vocal expression, while also becoming aware of themes of global significance. I love books, and they`re always going to be a regular hobby of mine. One of my favourites is "The Life of a Stupid Man" by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, a mix of both fiction and non-fiction. I definitely recommend it!

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𔓘Anja Zahorodni𔓘