Food = Health @ Brent?

A Philippine Daily Inquirer headline reads, "500 Pinoys diagnosed daily with diabetes". The World Health Organization, has declared obesity a global epidemic.

If this issue AT ALL concerns you, you could develop a really productive CAS project that would have a lasting impact on the school and the health of many Brent students.

What can you do about it?

Start local. One of the major themes of CAS is to "Think globally, and act locally." That means that often times the best way to have an impact on many global issues, is to work on them at the local level.

So ask yourself, how many times have you seen young lower school students eating ice cream, cookies, or soda ("fruit drinks" aren't much better either) at recess time?

What other options are out there? What can be done about nutritional health at Brent, in the community, in the world?

Raising Chickens for the Environment and Better Health

There is a town in Belgium whose city government gives out two chickens to every interested household as part of the city's integrated waste management system. Hard to believe? Read this.

Image by grandmasandy+chuck

Last I heard was Baguio had a trash problem. What if a CAS student at Brent wanted to do a project where they learned how to take care of a small (2-4) flock of chickens as a way of promoting local, pesticide-free and organic food (eggs) and at the same time diverting biodegradable garbage that would take up space in an already over capacity landfill???

Image by ap

Adult sponsorship and materials will not be a challenge if you are interested in this project. You will almost certainly GROW in areas of creativity, problem solving, commitment, perseverance, and ingenuity. You will also grow in your appreciation and knowledge of agriculture and farming, the environment and sustainable living.

Stuff that's due August 6th

Start the year off right by getting your CAS Plan and Self-Review done so that you can turn it in tomorrow.

Click HERE to fill out the Student Self-review form on-line. Don't forget to click submit!

Click HERE for a copy of the preliminary CAS Plan. Remember, this can change throughout the next year so just write down your ideas.


While you are here, scroll down and check out some of the recent blog posts about different CAS ideas.

CAS Service Project - Women in Congo, Africa

Here is a great service opportunity that deals with raising awareness around a serious global issue.
 
My aunt is a college professor in Vermont, USA. One of her college students started a project to raise awareness of the horrible situation that women face in conflict areas of the East Congo in Africa. The project involves reaching out to students across the US and around the world to start "Dear Hillary" chapters at their schools and educate their community about this issue and hopefully do something about it!

 What do you do?

1. Visit the Dear Hillary Campaign for the Congo website and educate yourself about what the project is all about.
2. Write a CAS Proposal for this activity.
3. Click on the "Register a Chapter" tab and fill in the information required.
4. Organize a viewing on October 26th of the film The Greatest Silence: Rape in the Congo at BISB or in Baguio City.

Goals, Goals, Goals!

If a man does not know what port he is steering for, no wind is favorable to him.

- Seneca (Roman philosopher)

Goals are important. That is why your CAS proposal must include an explanation of your personal goals for the activity. How will you know if you have succeeded at anything if you don't aim for something?

• What do you want to learn? 
• What do you want to improve?
• What do you hope to attain?

43Things is a social networking site devoted to helping people reach their goals. It's worth checking out for inspiration and ideas (and laughs - one odd goal I encountered was "to become a mermaid"). And if you join and submit your own goals, other users will give you tips and encouragement.

The goals that you set in your CAS proposal should be included in your CAS portfolio. If you use a blog, it is easy to just copy and paste your CAS proposal into a new blog entry.

To blog or not to blog...

Now there's more reason than ever to create your own CAS blog. Blogger, the free Google blogging platform, lets you easily set up a personal blog and now you can choose from numerous customizable templates! Here is the link to the CAS Sample Blog.

Interested in Wildlife and the Environment?

It is shocking where our plastic bottle caps end up and the damage that they do. Below are photographs of albatross birds who have died as a result of eating garbage that they thought was food. Click HERE for more information.

Getting involved with the environmental club at Brent, improving recycling programs or educating community/school about minimizing plastic bottle use so that this doesn't happen could be a really great CAS activity or goup project.

Image by Chris Jordan

Image by Chris Jordan