SWA encourages each and every one of its students to participate in Community and Service (CAS) groups and activities. And excitingly, the development of CAS projects has intensified over the last couple of months!

As a Grade 9 student, I’m actively involved in an eclectic range of CAS projects. Some of them include the ‘Riveria’ project (which branches into 3 different programs, the Language for All, Soccer Academy and the Mobile Library Program), the ‘Craft and Teach’ (CAT) project, and the Global Issues Network Indonesia (GINDO) Conference Organizer Team.

Being immensely involved in these activities I continuously have to shape and reform my outlook. A few years ago, I was one of those students who had “I want to change the world” stamped at the back of her head, and it’s actually amazing that now I get to go out there and initiate genuine changes! Furthermore, being in a CAS group means that you will need to spend a lot of time working with other people; this therefore helps you gain and learn a lot of life-long skills. These range from communication and leadership skills, to creativity and problem solving!

Just recently I was featured in GADIS (a teenage girls’ Indonesian magazine) – for one of the CAS groups that I co-founded in 2009: Riveria. One of their reporters called me a week ago, saying that she heard about the ‘Riveria’ project from the GINDO conference last February. I guess being able to get your word out about the actions and changes you and your friends started is an extended positive impact of being involved in CAS activities!

Which is why I would like to sincerely encourage everyone, to take part in CAS actions! Find the global issues that interest you most, and channel yourself to a group that contributes to that issue. No appropriate CAS groups? Don’t be afraid to establish your own! After all change begins with the individual!

- Christy Zakarias – Grade 9 -

I learned how to make sock monkeys over the holidays after seeing one in Ms Marion’s classroom. I learned how to make it by watching a video on YouTube. Did you know that it takes five hours to make a sock monkey?

After making two monkeys, my mum posted a photo on her Facebook page. Vanda Parengkuan, the editor of Bobo magazine, saw it there. I told my mum that I could try to write an article for that magazine. We wrote an email to Ms Vanda and she arranged to visit SWA with a photographer to interview me. I was so excited to see my published article. I was paid for my work. I am now writing a new article on crochet. I hope to write a book about craft.

Taruli Tambunan, Grade 4