Introduction to CAS

One of the aspects of the International Baccalaureate Program that appealed to me was the CAS program. I have always enjoyed facing new challenges, and I have often found myself creating challenges where I could not find any, to make life more interesting and rewarding. I have truly enjoyed these past 2 years in the IB, because I know that I have developed both mentally and physically through the CAS program.

In the course of the past 2 years, I have begun doing activities that I did not expect to have done while attending high school. I had thought about tutoring before, because I really enjoy working with children, however I had never tutored until last year. I did not think that I would do yoga, and today it is one of the most fulfilling activities of my weekly routine. As for snowboarding, thanks to it I discovered a courage within myself that I did not know existed when it came to sports.

I truly believe that CAS is an enriching program that completes the IB in terms of making students become more aware of their surroundings and help take part in raising awareness in their communities. As a member of the International Chain of Awareness, I participated in the conference, and played an active part in the running of a fundraiser concert at our school.

I believe that after graduation, I will be entering college equipped with the skills necessary to be on my own in an entirely new world, and CAS was instrumental in preparing me for the next step forward.

Snowboarding

My only attempt at doing an extreme-sport, snowboarding was an activity that I did not think I would be good at. I have a slight fear of heights, and although the idea of snowboarding was always tempting, I had not attempted to try it until the winter of my senior year. My best friend and I went to Kartalkaya, where we took 6 snowboarding lessons and attempted to snowboard by ourselves in between our lessons. It was exhilarating! I loved the mountain, and I loved snowboarding. It was exciting to do something in a field I that was completely out of my comfort zone.
I went snowboarding 3 weeks after those lessons. I snowboarded by myself for the weekend, and with the help of a more experienced friend, I managed to snowboard on the steepest hills. I felt really brave, and I’m glad to have started snowboarding.

Fitness

At the beginning of IB, I had a very difficult time balancing my fitness schedule and schoolwork. I went twice a week in October, and I attended the Beginners Cycling classes every tuesday. It was exhausting, but it also felt really good to work out. I also worked out with small weights to get my body accustomed to doing sports.
Overall, I completed my full work-out program 10 times (Cross-trainer, Bike, Weights), took 5 cycling classes. I also occasionally ran on the treadmill when I was feeling too tired to do the program. Near the end of the year, I combined my work-out schedule with swimming (as I’ve mentioned on the previous page). I took a break in the summer.
I started coming to the gym again in August to balance out the extra work I had taken on (because I was preparing for the Turkish University Entrance Exam). I swam a couple of times, then came to the gym every day for 2 weeks before school started. I could not go for the following 3 months, but I began again after November, going at least twice a month.
I changed my schedule to a more advanced one in December, and even though I have not been able to go regularly, I will do so after the IB exams.

I believe that going to the fitness center was necessary in order to have a balance in my life, since the majority of my extracurricular work does not involve physical activity. To that end, I really enjoyed working out, meeting new people and trying to improve my athletic side.

Swimming

I used to swim regularly when I was in primary school, because it helped me win my battle with asthma. I had stopped swimming until May 2008, with the exception of recreational swimming on holidays. In May, I spoke with my trainer at the gym, and he told me that one of the best ways to increase my muscle strength was by swimming, and that I should swim. So I began to swim 2 hours every week with my trainer for 6 weeks, and he showed me how to improve my strokes and how to swim without tiring myself too quickly. It was a difficult 6 weeks, because I do not have a very good physical discipline. My trainer motivated me to come at the scheduled hours, and thanks to him I improved greatly at swimming consecutive laps. I also feel that my respiratory system is stronger, since I would not be able swim more than 4 laps without having to stop to breathe for 5 minutes before. Now, I can swim 10 laps without having to rest for more than 2 minutes.
I did not continue swimming in my senior year, however I plan to start again after my IB finals since I will have a chance to swim everyday without worrying about classwork.

Philosophy Club

I began to attend philosophy club workshops in the fall of 2007. We discussed various issues such as ethics and existence in several meetings after school for two months. Then, we began to meet once every week to arrange the first Enka Philosophy day. I was present in the workshops we had after school, and in the end I was given parts from Goethe’s Faust to read in between the speeches of the other participants.
We had Professor Saffet Murat Tura, a famous psychologist who also has works in the philosophy field, come to our school for a panel. We asked him questions about existence and ethical values. He had some interesting insight on how the value given to people evolved over time, especially between the Industrial Age and the beginning of the 21st century.
About two weeks before the presentation, we had some strong arguments about the language of the presentation. Some participants believed that the higher mode of address of philosophy should be kept, while others argued that the presentation was being made to high school students and should therefore be understandable. I thought that the argument itself was a topic for the philosophy day, since it was debatable and both sides had valid points. In the end though, the students who wanted to keep the complex language of their speeches did so, while others made their speeches a bit simpler.
In January, we had the first Enka Philosophy day and it was great! We received some positive feedback regarding how we had combined acting and philosophy by adding incorporating Faust into the presentation.
In April, we attended the 2nd Annual Ethics Forum at Yüzyılışıl High School. In my committee, we discussed the ethics of interfering with the genetics of a fetus to create a baby that fits the view of society, with special focus on gender identity and sexual orientation. In the end, I was chosen to be the Most Adept Speaker, and was also selected to explain our committee’s conclusion in the closing ceremony.

Even though I could not contribute to the Philosophy Club’s activities in my senior year, I learned many things through discussions with my peers and speeches that we’ve heard during various workshops. I believe that the Philosophy Club broadened my understanding of people, norms and culture. I hope to take some philosophy lessons when I go to college.

Yoga

Even though I have written this in a report format so far, I would like to copy here what I wrote about yoga when I first started doing it:

After discussing it with Mrs. Tombaz, I decided to start doing yoga. I met our instructor, Neslihan İskit today. She seems like a really positive person. The poses and the motions were difficult at first, but she told us that once we managed to breathe correctly, we would move much more easily. Sure enough, once I got the hang of the special kind of breathing Yoga requires, the rest of the session passed more comfortably. We meditated at the end of the session, and I must say it was an amazing experience. I am really glad I chose to do Yoga. I can’t wait for next week!

For me, Yoga has been one of the most significant activities I have ever done. It has pushed my mental and physical boundaries, and broadened perception of myself and the world around me. It provided an outlet for pent up stress, and I enjoyed not thinking about anything for 2 hours every week. It is the single activity which I missed only 5 times over the course of the past 2 years, and I tried to make up for those sessions by attempting to meditate and do the basic Tada Sana (Hailing the Sun) movements at home.
There were days when my entire body ached because of some of the exercises, but the following week I could reach farther, bend more, and do everything easier than the previous week. I felt rejuvenated, energetic after every session, and I loved that!
I plan on continuing Yoga for the rest of my life.

Tutoring

I began tutoring a 6th grader in October 2007, because he was falling behind on his English lessons. For our first lesson, I tried to get to know him better and asked him to explain his interests to me in english. He was a bit shy, so I talked about computer games (which he had mentioned he liked) to make him feel more comfortable. Then, we went to the library where I asked him to pick a book in english that he would like to read in our lessons. He picked one, and I asked him to read a couple of pages until the other week so that we could discuss it.
The second week, he told me that he had not read the book, and I told him that we could read it during the lesson. I tried my best to relate to him, even though I loved reading books when I was his age I reminded myself that people can be different. I did not want to become an annoying teacher, so I made jokes to him and we laughed while we read the book. I asked him if he wanted to read for next week, and he said that he would like that.
The third week, he told me that he had not read again, and that he had some english homework he was having trouble with. We went through the homework while he promised me that he was going to read for the next week.