Fundraising for the ‘Cedar‘ Foundation

For their CAS Project, twelfth grade students Nikol, Maria, Lily and Selim decided to support the Cedar Foundation by organising a book sale during the PTO Welcome Back BBQ last Saturday.They raised a total of 627 leva and are grateful to everyone who bought a book and supported the cause.

The Cedar Foundation has the mission to provide better care for disadvantaged children and adults and support their integration in the communities so they can have a fair, full and dignified life. It is an active participant in the formulation, implementation, and evaluation of deinstitutionalisation policies and provides 24-hour individual care and specialised support to children and adults.

Throughout the year, the students plan to organise more events with the intent of raising more money for ‘Cedar’. They will collaborate with a cosmetic company called Thracion Bio and set up an area next to the library where they will sell the company’s products to the AAS community. The proceeds will go to support the Cedar Foundation.

‘Open Buzludha’ Project 

During her summer, Maya signed up for working on the ‘Open Buzludzha’ Project, which aims to bring awareness to Bulgaria’s socialist past. She was a part of the staff for the ‘Open Buzludzha’ festival, cleaning the area around the peak, setting up stages and then selling merchandise.

Maya shares that this was a new and exciting experience for her – sleeping in a tent, working in a team with other young people from all over the country.

She learned many new skills – surviving on her own in the mountain, approaching strangers, selling various items, but she also had a lot of fun and realized that any task is doable if you have a positive attitude. Maya admits that this CAS project was an unforgettable experience for her and she made a lot of good friends for life.

Christmas Food Drive

This is an IB1 CAS project  that the students did to support the local Sofia citizens. Thanks to the AAS community, they managed to donate food such as bread, rice, and canned foods for the homeless and those who do not have easy access to food. Although engaging the entire school in the project was difficult, the students overcame this obstacle by informing students during advisory times and making it a project solely for the secondary school.  “It was an extremely fulfilling experience to give back to our community, and become advocates who raise awareness about people who are living in such conditions’, shared the students, involved in the project.

Helping in the Soup Kitchen

This year, Grace W. spent some of her Saturdays volunteering at a soup kitchen for the homeless and less fortunate. The soup kitchen is connected to a church at ‘St. Prorok Ilya II’ in Druzhba area. Every Saturday, a group is organised there, where volunteers chop vegetables and prepare sandwiches and broth. Grace shares that preparing food takes a few hours and afterwards her hands hurt from pressing the containers of hot soup closed. However, when the people would show up to get the little food packages,it is all worth it.

‘It was such a rewarding and humbling experience, especially because in most of my day-to-day life I’m surrounded by people who are very well-off, and I forget how fortunate I am. Volunteering at the soup kitchen has helped remind me how important it is to support my community, and to use my extra time and privilege to help those who need it.’ reflects Grace.

Gender Justice Art Exhibition

Noam Z., Iulia I., and Bianca D. from 11th grade held The Gender Justice Art Exhibition, which included different art forms such as posters, paintings, drawings, texts, photography over a range of different mediums, including both digital and physical artwork. The goal was to raise awareness about gender equality and how to help the Bulgarian community in achieving this equality. In this project, the students created and encouraged the creation of art from the school community, their teachers and families. With the help of those resources, they managed to put together the exhibition that was open throughout most of the week and available to anyone in the AAS community, as well as friends and family from outside that want to visit and take a look. The Gender Justice exhibition took place between 15-24 of February 2023.

The students achieved their goal of creating an art exhibition which contributed towards service as well as creativity. The Gender Justice Art Exhibition was a great success and the team got very positive feedback from a significant number of people within the AAS community. Noam, Iulia and Bianca hope to continue raising awareness around the issue, hence they have created an Instagram account for the project: https://www.instagram.com/genderjustice23/

The Effects of Climate Change on Bulgaria

This CAS project is a documentary focused on exploring the effects of climate change on our nation Bulgaria, with a focus in Sofia. The students explored the many sources of climate change in Bulgaria and saw the potential effects it could have on the nation, and even on the AAS community and its surroundings. They offered sustainable solutions, and encouraged  the AAS community and dozens of other watchers to live a more efficient and environmentally friendly lifestyle. The seniors hope this documentary is remembered and used by AAS to continue educating future generations about the problem of climate change!

You can watch the video here.

Participating in the Special Needs Support Program

For one of his CAS Experiences, Egor went to Croatia to help in the Special Needs Support Program. He worked in a school for children with mental disabilities. Egor stayed there for two weeks and mostly played a supporting role to the actual staff – organising the activities for the children and helping the staff in the kitchen (by washing the dishes and taking care of cleaning). Overall, Egor thought it was a great experience, because he got to work with people who are often ostracised from the community. Also, he gained real life experience of volunteering and multitasking.

‘ I would definitely recommend volunteering abroad, as it allows you to see the world around from another perspective.’ Egor shared.

Producing Music 

Seojun’s CAS project is about producing music as a beginner. He has been doing since last year, using the Logic Pro app.

‘It always satisfies me when I make a catchy melody with drums. In this project I will improve various producing skills like the usage of 808s and drum patterns.’ Seojun shares.

With this session, he has identified his strength of actually implementing the producing tactics of actual music in his experience, as well as being able to figure out solutions from the challenges such as trying and listening to more examples to find patterns of different types of instrumentals.

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