CAS at SIS-PIK
Creativity Action Service (CAS) allows students to follow their passions. CAS gives students the opportunity to give back to their community, and enjoy learning through experience. It provides opportunities for self-determination and collaboration with others, fostering a sense of accomplishment and enjoyment from their work.
Each week we will feature one of our amazing JC students, and their latest CAS project. Please see Patricia’s story below.
Seni Bumi
Spreading social awareness through arts
Seni Bumi is a student-led non-profit organisation which strives to create a more sustainable community through arts. This organisation is inspired by the youth’s creative minds where we could help the world through arts and not just for political purposes. We try to empower those around us, accepting ideas and to let people express their artwork using it as the platform to shine.
With the inspiration from all the people around me, I co-founded E.S.D.X (Eco-social design exhibition) with Marjorie Wangsa (JC1) which led me to create Seni Bumi. This organization is the visual representation of what I strongly support and believe, this is where I can develop my passion into something more impactful for my community. As time passes by, Seni Bumi has grown bigger and I believe more impactful for the environment; I managed to create a collaborative campaign between Bye Bye Plastic Bags Jakarta and Seni Bumi called #Sip Away where we sell metal straws in hopes to achieve a reduction in plastic usage. 100% of the profits will proceed to charity. Aside from that, Seni Bumi has additional merchandise and Phase 1 is complete, now moving on to Phase 2.
During the term break, I managed to gather a set of volunteers from different schools to help the growth of Seni Bumi. I had a meeting with all of them, explaining our goals and aims and finally managed to tick off the first step of expansion. As for the second step, I plan on creating a Guide Kit for schools or individuals who has the same vision and is willing to create a team to achieve that goal. The Kit will include a guide book that I am currently working on, a milestone checklist and some advertising tools like posters, pins and stickers.
As for realising what the vision and mission for Seni Bumi are, took quite some time. It requires perseverance, dedication and determination in order to simplify this huge idea into a sentence. When I think of ideas, I don’t just think singularly, it’s like a series of web in my head and ideas attached to them. It’s to the point where my overthinking gives me a horrible headache. I used to hate the fact that I overthink a lot and to add to that, people who don’t understand are triggered by it. But now, I realise that it’s a tool that I can take advantage of. Creating new projects, thinking of ways to solve a problem or how to attract people into adopting a more sustainable lifestyle and more. It led me to my personal growth as a person, not only mentally but also emotionally. It made me learn how to handle different situations and different people with clashing personalities more professionally. It allowed me to be the bigger person and learn how to compromise.
There are numerous lessons that I’ve learned through this journey, not just about myself and my organisation but the skills and knowledge gained. I learned that in the real world there are people who care, people who don’t and people who pretend to care, and those who pretend usually take advantage of the current trend of being more sustainable. Aside from that, I also learned that there are hundred thousands of organisations working to solve the problem but to no avail. The only way for it to work is through the government, implementing laws that will support sustainability and the reduction in single-use plastic, palm oil and fast fashion can then be effective in solving the global concern. Small organisations like Seni Bumi serves as a change in the surrounding community, but it can’t solve global issues, I have to admit that but at least we’re making an impact.
