The Australian International School

Saigon
CAS - Project Planner
Student Name: Alishia Healey

From the IB:

A CAS project is a collaborative, well-considered series of sequential CAS experiences, engaging
students in one or more of the CAS strands of creativity, activity, and service.
CAS students must be involved in at least one CAS project during their CAS
programme.

All Diploma students will undertake the Project between June to December 2016. Planning should begin from
today.
It can be no less than 4 weeks duration but longer is expected.

A brief description of your nominated project.

What will you do? What do you hope to achieve?
As Head Girl of AIS, along with the Head Boy, we have chosen to start the Peer Mentoring program for students at
AIS. We will be leading the Prefects. We will be aiming to provide support for students who may need the support,
through creating a Peer Mentor room, where there is a safe space for students. We hope to provide a bridge
between the students and the Prefects, as there has typically been a gap between the two. Our overall aim is to
create a safe space for isolated students and provide support, in addition to organizing events involving the student
body and the Prefects, as well as assisting the staff with things such as assemblies. We want to be the bridge
between the students and the teachers in a more formal way.

Why have you chosen to do this?

I have chosen to do this because I believe that there is a need for a Peer Mentoring program within AIS. Because of
the wide diversity of the culture in our school, this often leads to segregation of students as they do not fit in with the
typical student cultures, such as Vietnamese and Korean, and students who dont come from the majority may find it
difficult to integrate into the school. Additionally, I have noticed that there are students who do not have a group of
friends they can rely on, and they are often left unsupported on their own. Therefore, we wanted to start the Peer
Mentoring program to help alleviate the cultural segregation within the school community, as well as to provide
support for students who may need it.
Location of project: Where will it happen?
Australian International School Vietnam
Duration of project: Include possible start and finish dates and how often you will be involved.
August 2016 April 2017
Which strand(s) of CAS will be integrated in this project? Explain
Service- we will providing a zone and safe space for segregated students and providing friendship; we are directly
targeting and engaging with students that are perceived to be struggling, or come to us with their problems, so the
Project is a direct service experience
Name and contact details of adult supervisor. (This does not necessarily have to be an adult who will
assist you throughout the activity. It may be someone who is aware of your involvement and is willing
to verify your participation.)
Andrew Masterton
The CAS Stages
For all CAS Experiences students are expected to use the CAS stages. This will often be
implicit. For the Project, students need to explicitly show how the stages are being used in
a greater level of EVIDENCE and REFLECTIONS

CURRICULUM: Is there a subject that relates to your chosen Project? Explain how and why.
SUBJECT: Psychology may be related to this Project, as the project aims to provide
assistance for students who may be segregated, or who may not have many friends, which can
have psychological aspects to it as it deals with why students may be feeling this way, and the role
of culture on psychological aspects that may cause people to unknowingly feel left out.

What TOK concepts can be used for your project?

Consequentialism: ethical principle that you should judge how morally acceptable an action is on the
basis of what its consequences are

Correspondence Check: matches up with what we can see

Ethics: considering the ethics of choices made and the ethics of a situation
 What INVESTIGATION will you do? This will help you make choices, plan and identify
any needs. It will help you go in the right direction. Research may be required so you
know more about your project. Make sure this is all documented.
We have organized a training session with a Peer Mentor professional, in order to familiarize
ourselves with how to act/ be Peer Mentors, in order for us to stay safe and provide adequate
mentor services. This is necessary, as we have never been in a program like this, so we need to
learn to behave in a way that will not jeopardize ourselves or others. This will also make us more
effective as Peer Mentors and Prefects. We will also do some research in order to identify how
social segregation in a school can occur, and how to combat it (this will also be covered in the Peer
Mentor training session).

What PREPARATION is needed? You will need to write a plan of what to do and what is
needed. Who will do what role and who will do what responsibilities? Maybe you will
need to write a timeline.
Ho and Alishia: Timeline for Room, Rotor creation and maintenance for Peer Mentor Room, event
timelines and outline, preparation for events, participation in events, recording and running Prefect
meetings for planning and reflection, conversations with staff, peer mentors
Prefects: Details of events, preparation for different events, participation in events, peer mentor

ACTION is when you implement the plan or the final stages of the Project.

DEMONSTRATION: Is your evidence. Photos, documents, plan etc. It demonstrates all

that you have done.
What evidence will you collect?
Photos, Emails, Meeting Notes, the Peer Mentor Room itself

REFLECTIONS: You will need to write reflections several times throughout the Project.

During the Investigation, Preparation and Action:

How often will you write reflections?
Once a term, as well as after any major events that have taken place with the Peer Mentoring program.

What are your overall goals and how will you know that you have met them?
Our overall goal is to mainly launch the Peer Mentoring program, and continue it throughout the year, in order to
raise awareness of our program. Because it is expected to continue into next year, the goal is to establish it and have
people know that our service exists. The social stigma around programs such as the peer mentoring program may
make it difficult to get traction from students, but by promoting the program, we will be able to show the student
body that there are people who can provide help.
What do you need to do to make it happen?
Plan and launch the room, promoting the program, plan and launch events relevant to the program and that promote
the program, be involved with students, particularly in the younger year levels

LEARNING OUTCOMES

CAS - LEARNING OUTCOMES

1 Identify own strengths and develop areas for growth
2 Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in
the process
x 3 Demonstrate how to initiate and plan a CAS experience
4 Show commitment to and perseverance in CAS experiences
X 5 Demonstrate the skills and recognize the benefits of working collaboratively
6 Demonstrate engagement with issues of global significance
x 7 Recognize and consider the ethics of choices and actions
Choose 1 or 2 more Learning Outcomes that will be achieved during the Project.
Learning Outcome 5 has already been chosen for you.

As with all CAS experiences, the Project is measured by how you have achieved the Learning
Outcomes.

How will you achieve and measure the Learning Outcomes: Be specific and detailed.

Goals and Evidence of collaboration: Indicate who you will be collaborating with and state the
title of each person involved. Note that Student is an acceptable title if collaborating with friends.
You should also detail how you are going to collaborate with others records of meetings, working
together, etc. What skills will you need or learn by working collaboratively.

Main Collaborator: Hyeon Ho Lee (Head Boy)

16 Year 12/13 students (Prefects)

Hyeon Ho Lee and I are the Head Boy and Head Girl, who lead the Prefect body. Ho and I will be
working together, to plan things out, and how we want the Peer Mentor project to go, and set aims
and goals for the Prefects to meet. We come up with the main framework and timeline for events
we want to have throughout the year; however, we will have meetings throughout the year with
the Prefects to do the details of the events, as well as to reflect on how we can improve as Peer
Mentors, and how we can further promote Peer Mentoring due to the stigma around coming to
someone for help. We will make some records of meetings, but meetings will be mostly verbal
discussions, so notes may not always be made.
Skills that I will need to develop by working collaboratively are compromise, listening, and
discussion. I believe that being able to be a compassionate listener is key for collaboration as you
have to listen to others in a way that makes them feel that there voices are being heard, and this
allows for other persepctives to be heard, which allows for us to improve as a functioning body.
This ties in the discussion skills, as I need to develop such skills to be able to talk with collaborators
regarding the project and its events. I think compromise is definitely a collaboratative skill I need
to work on that is needed for the CAS Project, as I tend to be quite stubborn when it comes to how
I think things should go; in order for this project to work, I need to be able to compromise with
others in the group to plan out events and timelines. Another skill I will need to develop is being
able to talk and discuss with teachers/ senior members of staff as we need to communicate with
the teachers to be able to relay messages to the student body, as well as discuss with these
members of staff ideas or improvements that need to be done regarding the Peer Mentoring
program. I need to develop this skill because at the moment, I am not entirely comfortable or
confident in communicating with figures of authority.

Learning Outcome: Demonstate how to inititate and plan a CAS Experience.

Initiative and Planning: This project involves initiative and planning, as we will be planning
multiple events around the school to promote mentoring program amongst the students.
Additionally, initiative is also shown because this is the first time the program is being carried out in
our school environment, thus we have to think of ways in which to make the program successful for
future years to come.

Learning Outcome: Recognize and consider the ethics of choices and actions.
Ethics of Choices and Action: This activity involves the consideration of ethics of choices and
actions, because due to the sensitive nature of the information being conveyed towards the
Prefects. A lot of the information being told to the Prefects is often quite personal to the individual.
As we've been told by many people, students will often come to the Peer Mentors with information
such as mental health or issues with school and bullying. We will have to consider the ethics of our
actions and whether we decide to tell a teacher some of this information, or chose to keep it
between the students and Prefects.