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Archery

Activity title: Archery

Date: long-term activity, 4 times a week/2 hours

Category: Activity

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

Description:

Archery is a recent activity when it comes to my weekly routine, as I started only about 2 months ago. It all started with my mom going to archery practice and talking to me about it, which naturally got me interested. After spectating a couple of sessions, I decided to start training myself, which was a very good decision looking back. As for the description itself it isn’t that complicated - as practice involves shooting arrows at a target for 2 hours, but it is much more than just that, as will be seen in the reflection.

Reflection:

Besides shooting at the target, there are many different things one has to cover before shooting the actual arrow, as the technique is very difficult. For the first month I wasn’t even shooting at a target, but only shooting at a blank target from 2 meters out, concentrating on my technique. This was a big mental task, as a lot of thought was required to get the proper technique into muscle memory. Now I’m shooting at a target 20 meters away, and with every session I can see my form and scores improving. This activity is a big challenge, and with every obstacle I pass there is another one hiding behind, which is one of the things I find rewarding about the activity - it always pushes me beyond what I am capable at the time.

Donating blood

Activity title: Donating blood

Date: 29 Sep

Category: 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 engagement with issues of global significance

Recognize and consider the ethics of choices and actions

Description: As I couldn’t make the collective blood donation initiative with my school, I decided I should donate blood myself as the time at it is done is irrelevant - it is only important that you donate the blood. I went with a friend and we filled out the paperwork and donated blood.

Reflection: This was the first time I donated blood, which meant a lot to me, as I’ve always been keen on helping people, but this time it felt different. I felt for the first time that I was actually physically helping someone, which I guess is what doctors feel on a daily basis, but as I’m not too keen on studying medicine - the feeling was new to me. I am definitely going to do it again, as I don’t see why everyone who is able to do it shouldn’t - it is a noble act and your body is able to regenerate your blood in a relatively quick period. That being said, I look forward to making this activity a long-term one.

Volunteering day - Public Kitchen

Activity title: Volunteering day - Public Kitchen

Date: 24 Dec

Category: Activity, 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

Description: Along with our CAS coordinator, we organized a day on which all of us would go and volunteer in organizations across the city, some of which were language centers like Glossa, the public library, the public kitchen (where I went) along with others. The day was designed to allow for students to gain more CAS activity for our portfolios but also to actually help in organizations that may need it. For that reason I decided to opt to go to the Mozaik Prijateljstva public kitchen, where my classmates and I prepared rice by sorting it into meal doses, peeled and cut potatoes which were going to be given to those who need them most.

Reflection: volunteering and offering time to these organizations is one of the most noble things I could think of, which is why I was so glad that our CAS coordinator thought of this idea for the day. As I already did a project at Mozaik Prijateljstva before, it was very good to come back and meet all the hard working people there, and hearing their stories and how much work they have to do really made me think of how altruism can change people’s lives. After this experience I will surely try to volunteer more and continue helping the community in which ever way I can, and I would invite anyone willing to do the same, as it is a small act but for some people it may mean a lot more than you initially think.

Experiencing Spain and its culture

Activity title: Experiencing Spain and its culture

Date: 30 Nov - 06 Dec

Category: Activity

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

Description:

At the start of November, together with a friend of mine, I won tickets for the quarter and semi-finals matches in the Davis Cup, which was held in Madrid, Spain. This took us by surprise since we never even imagined going to Spain or just embarking on a trip this big, but the opportunity was too good to pass on. We bought plane tickets, reserved AirBnB’s and went to Madrid. Besides the matches themselves, where we had the opportunity to watch the Đoković-Čilić match in the semi-finals, we experienced the many sights and cultural traits Madrid has to offer. We went to the Prado Museum, which hosts one of the most extensive collections of paintings from artists such as Goya, Rubens, Velasquez, Caravaggio and many more. We saw the famous Estadio Santiago Bernabeu, the stadium of Real Madrid, and went on a tour of the club’s museum. One of the more interesting places is San Gines Chocolateria, one of the oldest places to make hot chocolate, which combined with the domestic specialty churros is a real delight.

Reflection: The time I got to spend in Spain really broadened my horizons, as I was exposed to a culture quite different to mine. The people were mostly really kind and they did speak with a certain passion, one of the things I love with Spain. I was glad to see the historical landmarks and learn about their significance and all in all I had the impression that I got a lot out of the trip. I look forward to learning more about Spain but also other countries, as I’ve grown to love traveling even more than I did before. However, I will always remind myself to keep an open mind and accept these opportunities as they come - as if I hadn’t decided to jump the ship and travel to Madrid, I would have regretted it definitely.

World NGO day - Bowling

Activity title: World NGO day commemoration - Bowling

Date: 27 February 2021

Learning outcomes:

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

Description:

Knowing the importance of NGOs for the world, me and my friends thought it only right to commemorate the occasion with some good-old-fashioned bowling. Another thing which was great is that it was Branko’s birthday and that we were able to celebrate it while contributing to a great cause. Although none of us (apart from Branko it seems) were particularly good at it.

Reflection:

It was a really good time, liked it - 10/10 would reccommend even to a person completely out of touch with sports. The fun we had was endless, and we even managed to commemorate a very important event - Branko’s birthday. And yes, the NGO day too.

My Freedom Day 2021

Activity title: My Freedom Day

Date: March 16. 2021

Category: Creativity, Service

Learning outcomes:

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

Demonstrate engagement with issues of global significance

Recognize and consider the ethics of choices and actions

Description:

MyFreedomDay is an annual event brought forth by CNN and many other media facilitators, it’s soul purpose is to shed light on the importance of freedom and the struggles of those separate from it. The event highlights the still ongoing instances of human trafficking, exploitation and slavery - which are the biggest detriments to the freedom of the victims. Therefore, as a class, we decided to contribute to this event by sharing what we think freedom is and why it is important. Me and my classmate Alen eagerly wrote a script and managed to film an intro, and the rest of our class filmed themselves describing what freedom means to them.

Reflection:

This was a unique experience for me, since I never had the opportunity to contribute to an event of such a great significance. I am happy that the rest of our class was willing to contribute to the cause and the everlasting for freedom. In the future I hope we as a class can participate in more events such as this one, as it was a wonderful time, not only because of the noble cause, but also the fun we had while filming it.

#myfreedomday

Comfort Boost Camp

Activity title: Comfort Boost Camp

Date: 15, 16, 17 January 2021

Category: 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

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

Description:

The ComfortMUN organization based in Indonesia is a well known Model United Nations platform, but this event slightly differed from the usual MUN event you see. This was a online camp, consisting of 3 days of constant work and many different activities. The main goal was youth development in the sphere of global relations and politics, and that was achieved through themes such as leadership, academic writing, research and public speaking. The staff was highly professional and the speakers related to each of the aforementioned topics conveyed really strong messages and managed to transfer knowledge to us with relative ease. The event had over 150 participants, which is another big plus.

Reflection: The camp was a once in a lifetime experience, seeing as I made so many friends and got so much information in only 3 days. This of course required a lot of work from my end too, seeing as I needed to get up at 5AM each of those days to accomodate the time difference between Bosnia and Indonesia. As you’ve probably seen from the first picture, the work I put in payed off and I managed to get the best participant award, which I view only as a motivator to continue participating in these events and simultaneously working on myself.

CAS Project: kNOWledge

Activity description: kNOWledge workshop

Date: indefinite - 4 times per month

Category: Creativity, Activity, Service

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

Demonstrate engagement with issues of global significance

Recognize and consider the ethics of choices and actions

Description: kNOWledge is an idea that was in the works for a long time, but ever since November 2020, it has become a reality. In 2019, among 15 other students from BiH, I had the opportunity to travel to the USA in a project led by the US Embassy in Sarajevo, namely the Youth Leadership Programme. The goals of the programme were to educate potential young leaders in fields such as project management, civil activism and global relations through a series of different activities. At the end of the project, after consultation with the US Embassy and the Dayton Mediation Center, me and my friend Irina got an idea to start our own workshop. The idea behind kNOWledge is to bring knowledge not represented in the schooling system to high school students, but doing so in a creative way.

Reflection: kNOWledge has been running for over 2 months now, and with almost 10 workshops behind us, we can safely say that we have managed to find a group of people interested in creative input and output. The themes of the workshops were very relevant topics such as applied psychology, creative writing and visual arts, in which alongside learning about different concept in these topics, the attendees were able to express their own views through a series of creative tasks designed to enable truthful representation and manifestation of thought. This was the first real project I worked on, and the outcome was very good so far, I was able to get to know the formal side of work, alongside gaining many social skills in the process.

Banjalučka Gitarijada 2020

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hThFTNBCg2U

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1LMXjTjaZ4

Activity title: Banjalučka Gitarijada 2020

Date: 13 December 2020

Category: Creativity, Activity, 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

Description:

On December the 13th, me and my friends had the opportunity to part take in the annual band contest named Banjalučka GItarijada which has been going on for decades now. The event consisted of 7 bands playing their own songs, this time in a setting of a music video, since live shows are not allowed amidst these circumstances.

Reflection:

As a lot of people know, music is truly a passion for me, and to be able to perform even in front of a few people and some cameras was a remarkable experience to me. In the end, I am satisfied of how the videos turned out, not as good as I hoped - but I can’t complain. Me and my band mates are looking at this event as a learning curve, it serves as a motivator to keep writing music and keep progressing together as a band, as well as improve our own individual music skills. The only regret I have is that we weren’t able to perform at Tvrđava Kastel, in front of people - as it has been a custom in the years prior to this one, but as we all know, with the pandemic and everything, that isn’t possible right now. The entire music scene and musicians all over the world were hit, and by part taking in this event, we and many other musicians from Banja Luka were able to show their music to the world and hopefully start an initiative on keeping the music scene alive.

Secret Santa gift exchange

Activity title: Secret Santa gift exchange

Date: 18 December 2020

Category: Creativity

Learning outcomes:

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

Description:

The Secret Santa gift exchange is not a novelty for most of us, seeing as we did it before with our former classes, but we decided to do it this year too. It involved everybody getting gifts to one random person they pulled out of a hat, and the event always has a very festive and holiday-esque feel to it. In the end everybody got a gift and we got to spend more time as a class and we also got to know each other even more.

Reflection:

The event really put a smile on my face - as can be seen in the pictures above, it was a fenomenal experience, and I even got a great present - Camus’ Plague. The great thing about these kind of events is that you get to enjoy both giving and receiving gifts, which ultimately is the main point of the gathering. Even though we are facing these troubling times, regarding the COVID-19 situation, we got to have a little fun and experience the holiday spirit with our fellow classmates from IB1. Hoping to do many more of these!

The Culture of Remembrance in Human Rights Education Webinar

Activity title: Educators’ Institute for Human Rights’ seminar on the culture of remembrance

Date: 21 December 2020

Category: Creativity, Activity

Learning outcomes:

Identify own strengths and develop areas for growth

Deonmstrate 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

Demonstrate engagement with issues of global significance

Recognize and consider the ethics of choices and actions

Description: Last Sunday I had the opportunity to attend a seminar about the culture of remembrance and the utility of memory itself. The webinar had presenters and attendants from all over the world, who shared their stories on experiencing certain mass atrocities and the way they use remembrance and memory to guide people and aid them in preventing these atrocities. I was especially touched by the presentation of a Rwandan genocide survivor - Nepo. Nepo told us about his experience in being a survivor of such mass atrocity, today he is an educator, he works with children and implements the importance of remembering those times so that we can spot if something is going wrong - in other words we can and must prevent it.

Reflection: This was a great insight and a reminder on how cruel people can sometimes be, it helped me assess my current state and my actions - the presentations put me in a deep state of contemplation from which I arose with different thoughts about certain dillemas I had and still have in my personal life. I hope to attend many more webinars from the EIHR initiative, and to keep bettering myself by learning about human relationships.

Football

Activity title: Football practice/training

Date: long term activity, 10-12 hours/week

Category: activity

Learning outcomes:

Identify own strengths and develop ares 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

Description:

Football has been a major part of my regular every day life for 12 years now, every or every other morning, I wake up and I go to a training session or a game. It is definetely challenging to keep at it and be persuasive in an activity for 10+ years, but I have managed to do it and I have no reason to stop now. I have been playing at Borac Banja Luka for the most part of my career, only to recently transfer to the senior squad of Ofk Spartak, also in Banja Luka.

Reflection:

As I already said, it is quite difficult to endure the length of such an activity, but one of the things that keeps me going is passion. My whole life I have been passionate about the sport and what it represents - teamwork and individuality combined into a whole, and for this reason I have never gotten bored with it and still to this day enter the pitch with a radiant smile. Football has taught me a lot of things, not only limited to kicking the ball hard, and running fast, it has taught me the importance of effective cooperation and the essence in balancing the individual goals with collective ones. Although it is primarily looked at as a collective sport with a collective goal, it depends on individual sacrifices and the willpower of individuals to be persistant. Those sacrifices mentioned are not as simple as skipping the pizza every now and again, or going to trainings regularly - they are vast and substantial. For a devoted athlete such as myself, regular partying, staying up after midnight, eating junk food and excessive free time are a thing of the past. I have had to skip birthdays, events, parties and many more alike because I had training or a game the next day, purely because I wanted to be fully prepared for what is following. Regardless of those sacrifices, I still enjoy life and football all the same, and view them as a means to an end, rather than something I’m losing.

Thanksgiving celebration

Activity title: Thanksgiving lunch

Date: 28 November 2020

Category: Activity, Creativity

Learning outcomes:

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

Demonstrate how to initiate and plan a CAS experience

Demonstrate the skills and recognize the benefits of working collaboratively

Demonstrate engagement with issues of global significance

Description:

Along with the cold weather which is slowly creeping its way towards as, so are the holidays. As we are facing a global pandemic and we are forced to stay behind screens for our schooling, some of us from the IB1 class decided to combine CAS and our own enjoyment in getting to know each other. As a part of the event, each of us got to cook a dish according to the thanksgiving spirit, and me and Nikša decided to make an apple pie. It was my first time making an American style apple pie so that was a plus for my cooking resume! Furthermore, all the other meals were splendid (especially Iskra’s and Nina’s seasoned vegetables).

Reflection:

Even though we were celebrating the holiday on the wrong day and the wrong continent, we saw it as an opportunity to meet each other and get to know some of our class on a more personal basis. As I got to make the pie with Nikša, I got to know him especially and find out that we have similair taste in many things and that our understandnings of pop culture isn’t so different. Along with that, we all got to play cards and do things while not confined to a screen in a room, which is a big plus amidst these troubling times. I am looking forward to many of these group activities and hope that the world recoveres so that we can make it a continuos thing.

#theboyz

Guitar practice

Activity title: Guitar practice

Date: continuous activity, at least 10 hours/week

Category: Creativity

Learning outcomes:

Identify own strengths and develop ares for growth

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

Show commitment to and perseverance in CAS experiences

Description:

Every day I have to have music integrated in my daily routine, but most of the times it is either piano or guitar practice. I usually spend my time writing my own music, but this piece is one of my favourites so I decided to post it as my first video. It is the intro to Megadeth's Conquer or Die, and I resonated well with the harmonies of the whole piece hence it is my song of choice for today's post.

Reflection:

As I've already stated, music plays an enormous role in my life, I've been playing some sort of insturment since I was only 5 years old - for guitar, the journey started about 5 years ago. It helped me to learn a different way of expressing my thoughts, as well as enabling me to communicate with other people since music is the most universal language there is. Being able to disconnect myself from my surroundings and enjoy the sounds of the guitar is essential for me and if I didn't have the ability to play on a weekly basis, I wouldn't be the same man I am today.

The third international comic book fair

Activity title: Attending and exploring The Third International Comic Book Fair.

Date: 9. 10. 2020 - 11. 10. 2020.

Category: 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 the skills and recognize the benefits of working collaboratively

Description:

With the help of our comic book-loving friend Nikša we as a class were able to attend the fair and have a great time. Apart from hanging out with friends and meeting amazing people, those who chose to attend the event were able to hear the minds of the very people who write comics, part take in an interactive experience by contributing to the next years gallery with their drawings, as well as support the artists directly by purchasing the comics. The fair took place at Tvrđava Kastel in Banja Luka, and the place was filled to the brim with comic books, drawings, witty people and a certain style which the word “comic book” evoked.

Reflection:

I was a fan of comic book and manga culture since I was a kid, be it in print, video game, anime or film the very culture behind it fascinated me. I was glad when I got the opportunity to find out more about the very creation of comics and meet the people who do it on a regular basis. What exited me more was the fact that I had the chance to go outside of my comfort zone and do some drawing on my own in order to help the organizers who were collecting drawings for next year’s fair. The drawing is very simbolic and influenced by the distopian novel “We”, so I was able to kill two birds with one stone - do some CAS, and pad my learner portfolio a bit.

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