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Ideal for those of you who love children and want an out-of-school CAS challenge

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Marta F

Wed, Mar 4, 2026

Collaboration

Perseverance

PYP Afterschool Club

Looking back at this activity: In my experience of working with children, I realised how much it helped me grow. At the beginning I assumed that working with children would be a rather easy experience , however I realised that keeping children engaged requires a lot of patience and creativity. Some children were more extroverted than others but I tried my best to help each kid to have fun and do their work in serenity. I also adjusted my "communication" style depending on each child's personality which also allowed me to creta e better connections with most of them.  This experience helped me become more aware of my strenghts and areas of growth. I realised I am really patient and my creativity often us well liked by children. Overall I am grateful of this service opportunity as it has been of great use and also quite fun to do over a longer period of time.

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A calendar year of Service @ DIS  (2024-2025)

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A calendar year of Service @ DIS  (2024-2025)

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Doing an activity regularly over a long period.

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Every afternoon, DP students work as assistant tutors helping our young Primary students play and learn at "After-School". Read a reflection down below...

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Activity... Thomas G at his Sailing School 2020

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Activity... Thomas G at his Sailing School 2020

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By coaching a sport you love, you can mix Activity and Service...

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Boats and boating--Equipment and supplies

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at least one month’s duration that challenges students to show initiative, demonstrate perseverance, and develop skills such as collaboration, problem-solving, and decision-making. The CAS project can address any single strand of CAS, or combine two or all three strands.

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On Managebac... Creativity  is Red,   Activity is Green  Service is Blue. 

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On Managebac... Creativity  is Red,   Activity is Green  Service is Blue. 

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Many activities/ projects are a mixture of 2 or more strands.

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There are also 7 areas of learning that must be covered over the DP:

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There are also 7 areas of learning that must be covered over the DP:

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1. Identify own strengths and develop areas for growth 2. Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process 3. Demonstrate how to initiate and plan a CAS experience 4. Show commitment to and perseverance in CAS experiences 5. Demonstrate the skills and recognize the benefits of working collaboratively 6. Demonstrate engagement with issues of global significance 7. Recognize and consider the ethics of choices and actions”

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Initial reflection
Emmanuele S.

I was contacted by a member of Ce.Sto, who I had met during the school term when I was going to help at the afterschool, who asked me if I was willing to participate at helping with the kids for the school camp. I accepted and initially my idea was just to go to Genoa for one day a week. Due to the Coronavirus pandemic, the kids were split into smaller groups. My group of kids is made up of seven kids. Since I knew almost all of them from the school term, I was not as worried as my first day at Afterschool help. They talked to me and showed me their things and sometimes we even played together. Even though I still struggle to make myself be heard by the children (I believe probably due to the similar ages) I feel that there has been an overall improvement since the beginning of my experience at Ce.Sto.

My first day went well overall, apart from some little quarrels between the kids. Hence, when they asked me if I was willing to go to Genoa twice a week instead of one, I accepted happily.

Interim reflection

Since the summer camp is very long (8 hours), when I finish the day I am very tired. The summer days are very hot, and I always need to be focused and ready to act in case anything needs urgent action. However, I am really having a good time with the kids. They play together, most of the time pacifically and I really like when some of them come to me showing a new game to play or something they have discovered. The other people around me are very kind and helpful, showing me sometimes what I should have done and helping me improve with the way I interact with kids, and pushing me when I am not very self confident of what I should do or have done.

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You can help out at the after-school club or even volunteer for a Summer Camp

+393456203952. Chamunda.

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During the lockdown, we couldn’t meet most of the children from the school, even though sometimes we would meet some kids to get ice cream. Many of them didn’t even get out from their houses for weeks because of the fear of getting the virus. For this reason, when there were fewer restrictions during summer, we created a summer school of two weeks for them. It started in the morning and ended in the late afternoon. We would do a few minutes of physical activity in which the children had to stretch and dance to wake them up and afterwards we would help them do some homework. In the evening we would play some games altogether or go to a park near the school to play other games in open space.

I enjoyed being the children because I got to know some stories about some of them. In addition, they really enjoyed being with us and with the other children. They were not limited by the restriction of their houses or their family struggles.

One day we even went by train to Pegli to the park of Villa Pallavicini. We all went to explore the different buildings that were there and when we got to each of them the children would play a game or do an activity that we planned beforehand. I believe children like that tour because they could run and move freely. In fact, we got on the ferry to get back to Genova, most of them fell asleep. The following they were happy about coming to school.

During the trip in Pegli, I got the chance of getting a new friend. Before we got on the train she wouldn’t talk and would answer briefly to the questions I asked her. I knew she had been living a hard time for a few months, so I could understand her being silent. On the train, she didn’t say much but I taught her a game I used to play with my father and she seemed to really enjoy it. I noticed with pleasure that from when we got off the train and got back to Genova, she almost never stopped talking or laughing. She still laughs when we meet, I’m not sure of the reason, but I'm glad she is happy.

It is surprising how some little actions can change a person's behaviour or how friendships begin.

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This association (Sant' Egidio) is happy to accept 16 year-olds from DIS to go and help children do their homework, play games and have fun, after school. Simply send an email and offer to volunteer, just like Tegest G. did .

Follow the link and read all about it and here is the contact for your involvement  s.egidiogenova@gmail.com

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English teaching at kindergarten

Challenge & Skills

Today our TOK teacher asked us to link our CAS project to a WOK and a AOK. This is my reflection.

The activity "Teaching English at Kindergarten" is linked with TOK as it reflects the WOK of Imagination and the AOK of the humans sciences in detail Psychology. Imagination fits my activity because every week I had to plan English related games and projects for different ages. Psychology was involved because I had to bond with many children and try to find the best approach to teach them a new language.

C. LOMBARDO

White Cross (courses and volunteering)

This activity ties in nicely with TOK, more specifically with human sciences. Indeed, thanks to psychology, I was able to learn to read people: if they were scared I had to calm them down with my language (WOK) by establishing a an emotional bond with the patient for example by trying to make them laugh.

Carlo  S

Video on Autism

School-based Advocacy

This activity can be related to TOK as it involves one Area of Knowledge and different Ways of Knowing. This video was done for our Psychology class and so we used this knowledge, which is part of "Human Science". Furthermore, my group and I used language, as we decided to create a video to communicate our information, and reason, since we had to explain how autism affects young children that are affected by this condition.

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April 25, 2020 6:33 PM Challenge & Skills Collaborative Skills Commitment & Perseverance Ethics of Choices & Actions Strength & Growth

I started in September to volunteer for the white cross. Before taking part of important emergencies, the White Cross told me that I had to attend a course of first aid that they offer every year to people wishing to become rescuers. The course lasted until December, but they allowed us to start participating in minor emergencies and patient transports to put in action what we were learning during the lessons both theoretical and practical. The course took place at the venue of the White Cross two times a week for an hour and a half. I was able to learn where the equipment is located in ambulance, what is my role as rescuer (also being a minor), how to behave during a patient transport, the life-saving manoeuvres and how to act in different possible situations (a patient with a stroke, with breathing difficulties, etc…).

On average, I went volunteering once a week while the course was still taking place and twice a week from January. Volunteering at White Cross help me grow both as an IB student and as a person. I was able to prove my self-control, resistance to stress and collaborative skills since we always have to work as a team. Moreover, it also helped me to develop my communication skills because one of the first characteristics of a good rescuer is to be able to communicate properly and effectively to the patient. Over time, I became more familiar with the procedure and going there constantly made me reach small achievements in integrating into the community such as doing my first helicopter rescue (I didn’t get in the helicopter myself) and receiving my uniform and my locker. In March I stopped due to COVID-19 pandemic, but I continued to volunteer also in the summer.

This activity ties in nicely with TOK, more specifically with human sciences. Indeed, thanks to psychology, I was able to learn to read people: if they were scared I had to calm them down with my language (WOK) by establishing a an emotional bond with the patient for example by trying to make them laugh.

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The planning and setting up took a lot of time (more than expected). We tried to think about what students may like and

things that we could do to encourage and persuade them to join the server. In fact, we planned various activities and

events such as: free tutoring, 24/7 help channels where they may ask for clarification on anything, different tournament

style events such as gaming, spelling bees, rubik's cube. We wanted to create a place where students from different

classes could connect and hang out together, especially during the quarantine period.

The major risk and reason for which the project couldn't really move on was the fact that people could act and behave

how they want. We thought about different solutions, however, we came to the conclusion that this kind of problem is

just a risk that comes with the internet and there is no way to prevent it. It is also slightly unfair in a way because just as

how the school cannot prevent certain things, we can only stop them as soon as we can, but not prevent. We think that

the issue of preventing people from doing certain things is an ethic unresolvable issue.

The area of knowledge of ethics ties in strictly to this project because of the ethical issues we faced that I mentioned

before.

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Focus on Perseverance

Examples of CAS Activities involving “Perseverance” , described by the students.

English Summer Camp Project

The activity consisted of helping children speak English and write: The average day started 8 am when parents left their children and lasted until 5,30 when they picked them up. It was challenging to have a full work day and deal with different age groups of kids (6-13 years).

| Helping middle school students during after-school hours.  I went to help middle school students in the school I attended during my elementary and middle school years. The school is Scuola Secondaria di I grado Paritaria "Santa Maria Immacolata". I helped the students during after-school hours twice a week.

| Athletics:  I am doing a competitive sport, such as athletics (middle distance runner: 800m and 1500m). I am doing it 5 times a week, for 2.30 hours long (17.30 to 20), in Villa Gentile, Genova.

| TEACHING CHILDREN TO SAIL IN CAMOGLI

During both MYP5 and DP 1 summers , I was the sailing instructor in CLUB VELA CAMOGLI. I was in charge of planning the courses throughout the weeks and to bring children in the water to teach them how to sail.

| It was working in a school in Swansea. During last summer, I stayed 2 weeks in Swansea (Wales).My family organized this trip so that I could improve my English and be helpful for other people at the same time, that's why I went to a private school in the city and helped a Year 3 class and his teacher for 10 days.

| ADOV (Associazione Donatori di Voce) is an association who wants to give people who have higher difficulty in reading, such as dyslexic and visually impaired, complete access to books and audio books. I am recording at least one chapter of a book every month I dedicate about 3 hours every weekend to record a chapter or some pages because the due date of one chapter is the 25th of each month.

| Volunteering at the Center for Autistic Children

I decided to volunteer at the Emozioni Giocate Onlus, an assosciation looks after kids and teens diagnosed with autism. I chose this center because I really like children and psychology, and a friend mine told me they really needed help on Fridays, which is when I go now. There are many university student volunteers, and a couple educators and psychologists who tell us how to properly interact with them. On Fridays, which is when I go, we help them socialize with dogs, since most children are scared of animals. The second year I went to the the art program hour, helping children to paint and do crafts, which requires a lot more participation and interaction from the volunteers. In the course of the two years I went to several meetings for staff formation and was required to learn a considerable amount of knowledge on autism.

| Ambulance volunteering in Croce Bianca

Once a week, I went to Croce Bianca to work as an ambulance volunteer. I got on the ambulance with other workers and volunteers in order to accomplish different missions. A mission involved either a transfer of old or disabled people or an emergency, which was classified according to the type and severity.

I did volunteering at Scuola della Pace every Friday afternoon from 15:45 until 19:00 in Genova's Vicoli. It is a community where immigrants kids can get together after school and get help from young volunteers like myself to do their homework and study, since their parents can't look after them in those hours. We brought them snacks and helped them read, do their homework, study and play together.

SCOUT and SCOUT LEADER

SCOUT: In both years of the DP, every Wednesday night I meet up with my scout group from 8 to 10 PM (via Zoom during the Covid emergency). We also go for hikes or do charity fundraisers in the weekend.

SCUOLA DELLA PACE:

The Scuola Della Pace ("school of peace") is a completely free center, which qualifies as a family that supports the child in the school, helps the family in its task, proposing an educational model open to others, supportive towards the most unfortunate, capable of overcome barriers and discrimination. It is animated by volunteers who accompany children in the educational process. I was one of the volunteers and I helped from October to May. I have continued it until it was possible, and this year I won't be doing it anymore in the hope that younger students will take on from where I've left.

Glider License

I took lessons to finally obtain the license, this activity will probably be useful for my future job career. The course is finalized in obtaining the glider license to be able to fly all types of gliders independently. The course is made up of at least 40 takeoffs and 13 hours of flight. The training was completed at Novi Ligure airport.

| Recycling

Me and five other students, as a group project, decided to help keep the school clean by dedicating three hours of our free time during the week, to go around the school and collect all of the recycling in each classroom and then throwing it away in the appropriate bins.

| [SERVICE] Afterschool help at Ce.Sto

On every thursday, I am going to help at an afterschool in Genoa. I start at 4pm and end at 6.30 pm.

| Helping kids at "Il Laboratorio Cooperativa Sociale"

I intend to go to "Il Laboratorio Cooperativa Sociale" every Friday afternoon for at least until Christmas.

| Coach for F.C.Bogliasco

This year I am going to work as a coach for F.C.Bogliasco. I’ll train kids and I will share all my knowledge in this field, in order to help the club and the other coaches.

I train them on Wednesday and Thursday for 1 hour and 30 minutes.

| ENGLISH TEACHING AT KINDERGARTEN

From January I have been volunteering at the ABEO association in Genoa. I go there every two weeks for two or more hours. My role as a volunteer is to play and entertain the children hosted by ABEO.

I attended a first aid course at the Croce Biance in Piazza Palemo. The course was held twice a week (on Mondays and Thursdays from 9pm to 10.30 pm) from September to January and at the end I took and passed both a practical and two theorical exams. Furthermore, I volunteered at least once a week as an observer on an ambulance. Not only is this a great opportunity for me to help people in need, but also to challenge myself, mature and learn how to efficiently work in a group.

| Share your reading!

Every week or ten days, on monday or thursday, I go to "La Colletta" hospital in Arenzano at the "NeMo" ward. In this section of the hospital patients with long-term cure diseases stay for therapies. The project consists in creating a collection of book reviews, recorded in videos where the patients talk about the book they want to share.

| My favourite book hospital project: We aim to visit the hospital once every 10 days and interview and video patients, with their consent, on the books they think made a difference to their lives which helps them with their recovery and outlook on life.

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For example:

* Catch-up clubs for languages and maths and more...

* DP Recycling Project

* Psychology Presentations, then shared with MYP to raise awareness

*Teaching assistant in Primary School

* Open Day Hosts

* Model United Nations (MUN and GeMUN)

* Local Beach Sweeps and Clean-ups on last day of school.

* DP students are also welcome at most MYP Service events

Many more events are organised by the school

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Chinese Catch-up Club
Learning Outcomes:

1. Show commitment to and perseverance in CAS experiences

The CAS activity during which I worked as the supervisor of the Chinese Catch-up Club ties in with TOK and the Area of Knowledge of Ethics. This is because my personal moral code makes me want to help people in need, therefore, helping kids who fell behind during the Chinese course was morally correct. Every time the kids came back to the catchup club after receiving a good grade I felt proud of myself.
The CAS activity during which I worked as an assistant coach for F.C. Bogliasco ties in with TOK and the Area of Knowledge of human sciences, more specifically psychology. Indeed, in order to work well with kids, your first of all have to understand how they think and what they have to achieve personally and as a group. Fortunately, having studied group dynamics and social acceptance in psychology definitely helped me with my work.

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During the IB diploma program I have always been told that CAS was of great importance, and now that I finished it I understand why. CAS involves three important types of activities that creativity, action and service, which have to be carried out during the two years program.

One of the activities I am most proud of is a project that I began last summer which consisted of a first-aid course to become second rescuer on the ambulance. Through the experiences I had thanks to this activity I learnt how to work in a team and cooperate with people of every age and thus I became more open-minded. By going even more than twice a week for a ling time I have showed perseverance and commitment. Additionally, I became acclimated to work in busy and time-pressured situations and this helped me to effectively deal with problems. This activity has opened my eyes to the world of medicine, it has stimulated me to work harder and it has helped me to be more responsible and caring. This activity was a new challenge as I had never done something like this before and thanks to it I increased my passion related to the medical field.

For what regards the “action” part of CAS, I improved my skiing skills and I developed a new skill by practicing a new sport, athletics. This was a sport I had never done before and which I really enjoyed as it gave me the chance to do several athletic sports, such as running, high jumping, triple jump…etc. At the beginning I had planned to go once a week, but after several times I decided to go more than once as I enjoyed it a lot. Thanks to this activity I increased awareness of my strengths and areas of growth and I showed perseverance and commitment since I managed to reach my goal.

Additionally, I took part at the Gemun, which is the model united nation in the city of Genoa, where I live. I participated as a delegate. Firstly, it was an international environment where I had the opportunity to meet people from different countries and discuss with them. Furthermore, I learnt how to discuss in public and I engaged with issues of global importance. Thanks to this experience I widened my knowledge about cultures in different countries but also about global problems such as poverty, food and agriculture, terrorism, etc. This activity especially helped me to strengthen my ability to communicate as well as to be thoughtful when debating about such important issues and lastly I learnt to consider ethical implications when taking important decisions in a global environment.

Other CAS activities I did during the last two years are taking piano lessons and perming songs in rest homes and churches, thanks to which I developed a new skill and I undertook a new challenge; I also took part in an acting activity in a church which helped me to effectively collaborate with others and I organised the school prom for both middle school and high school students, which helped me to improve my organisation skills.

In conclusion, CAS was a very important component of my IB diploma as it opened my eyes to many aspects of the world in which we live today, it helped me to improve and develop many skills and it helped me to become a more open-minded, caring, responsible and organised person. Thanks to CAS I also developed my passion for medicine as many activities helped me to strengthen my communication skills and involved me in issues of global importance but especially I learnt the importance of helping others.

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Listen to ex-student  Anna talk about how CAS affected her life and guided her choice of career....(14 min 25 sec.)

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Listen to ex-student  Anna talk about how CAS affected her life and guided her choice of career....(14 min 25 sec.)

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Helpcode: A charity with an office here in Genova which works towards helping children in an international context. You can listen to Riccardo Tadei, our first student to volunteer there,  talking about his work for CAS, as well as other elements of his DIS experience here....

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Helpcode: A charity with an office here in Genova which works towards helping children in an international context. You can listen to Riccardo Tadei, our first student to volunteer there,  talking about his work for CAS, as well as other elements of his DIS experience here....

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Inter-DIS-views 1: Riccardo Tadei (class of 2020)  ITA-ENG-FRE video

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Since 2019, our most caring, mature and sensible students have volunteered to go to a centre near Gaslini hospital and help the children and families there while they are convalescing from serious illnesses.

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DIS students have joined this association then helped at weekends, cleaning-up the dog and cat shelters and feeding, playing with and caring for the animals there. You need to be over 18, or go with an older relative.

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DIS Students have volunteered as assistants on the ambulance crew, helping the team, using the knowledge gained in training at their local "Croce Bianca", like Carlotta and Lucrezia. This activity is incredible but requires a promise to the organisation to do at least 50 hours of work, in return for free-training.

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Some CAS Activities and Projects @ DIS in cooperation with other organizations.                                                             * Croce Bianca (various local associations) Ambulance Assoc. allows 16 year-olds and above to train, then accompany patients in the ambulance.     * ADOV: allows students to record their voices, after training, to contribute to "speaking books" for the blind.                * Banca degli Occhi, for PYP5, MYP1/2 but open to DP CAS participation helping raise funds by lottery ticket sale for eye-transplants.                                    * CEPIM: long-standing partnership allowing activities with Down Syndrome assoc.                                                           * Helpcode: an NGO which has given DIS CAS students the chance to work in their office and learn about their work in aid for 3rd world countries and for immigrants.                                                  * Scuola della Pace: DIS students have volunteered to help children after school with their studies.                          * Monte Gazzo Dog and Cat shelter. *Kindergarten Project at Scuola Infanzia San Luigi.                                  *Sant'Egidio volunteering.                 *ABEO volunteering to help children convalescing at Gaslini Children's Hospital.                                        *Peruvian Embassy in Genova, invites DP students to work during elections.                    

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Some CAS Activities and Projects @ DIS in cooperation with other organizations.                                                             * Croce Bianca (various local associations) Ambulance Assoc. allows 16 year-olds and above to train, then accompany patients in the ambulance.     * ADOV: allows students to record their voices, after training, to contribute to "speaking books" for the blind.                * Banca degli Occhi, for PYP5, MYP1/2 but open to DP CAS participation helping raise funds by lottery ticket sale for eye-transplants.                                    * CEPIM: long-standing partnership allowing activities with Down Syndrome assoc.                                                           * Helpcode: an NGO which has given DIS CAS students the chance to work in their office and learn about their work in aid for 3rd world countries and for immigrants.                                                  * Scuola della Pace: DIS students have volunteered to help children after school with their studies.                          * Monte Gazzo Dog and Cat shelter. *Kindergarten Project at Scuola Infanzia San Luigi.                                  *Sant'Egidio volunteering.                 *ABEO volunteering to help children convalescing at Gaslini Children's Hospital.                                        *Peruvian Embassy in Genova, invites DP students to work during elections.                    

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And many more.........

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The DIS student CAS Handbook: download  

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The DIS student CAS Handbook: download  

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ABEO Project
February 04, 2020 7:22 PM Commitment & Perseverance
After going to the ABEO association just twice I can already write something about this experience.

I first met the children hosted by ABEO at the Christmas party that took place in the “Aula Magna” of the Gaslini hospital. Before the children arrived I helped the "old" volunteers to organize a show to entertain them. When the kids and their parents came they were really happy to see all the room decorated and a beautiful christmas tree in the middle of it. I got really emotional when I saw the children laughing while watching the play. When we finished the show, I played and danced with the kids who were continuously smiling and telling me how happy they were about the presents that Santa gave them. That day I also met a girl from Russia and I immediately became fond of her. She was very excited because she was finally able to talk to someone in her mother language and also sing russian Christmas songs with me. I understood to be really helpful to these children when the mother of this girl told me about her daughter’s illness and thanked me for giving her some moments of happiness and peace.

The second time that I went to ABEO I was introduced to a very nice girl named Teodora. She showed me and my classmate how to do origami. It was very nice to see how a girl of her age was able to teach us something new and also quite complicated. We had such fun together that Teodora did not want us to leave until we promised that we would bring her an origami made by ourselves.

All the children that I met for now really impressed me because of the strength of mind and the big smile that they use to tackle their illness. I’m really proud to be part of this amazing association and I am looking forward to continuing this project.