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May 10th, 2008
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Community, action, service at EISP

Students stepping out of classroom with new projects

By Brooke Edge
For The Prague Post
January 23rd, 2008 issue

KURT VINION/THE PRAGUE POST
Community project: Jason Kucker, CAS program coordinator, poses with students Michael Zámečník and Olga Zhukova.
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When the English International School of Prague jump started its International Baccalaureate (IB) diploma program for its eldest students, it also took on a project to help expand the minds of those kids to issues beyond classroom textbooks.
The project, called “Creativity, Action, Service” or CAS for short, mandates that students spend at least 150 hours during the two-year IB program engaged in an artistic or community-service activity.
“Ideally you can combine everything, but you can also do them separately,” says program coordinator Jason Kucker.
“It’s not just about doing something, it’s how you’ve grown as a person while doing it,” Kucker adds. “You can see your difference and see that you’re making an impact.”
One notable project undertaken by three hard-working EISP students takes them not only into the community, but into a world foreign to most teenagers — volunteering with the visually impaired.
Every week for the past three months, Michael Zámečník, Olga Zhukova and Nicole Sternová, all 16, meet with people associated with TyfloCentrum, a local nonprofit organization that provides social services to the blind. The students assist these TyfloCentrum clients with daily chores, provide companionship and, perhaps most importantly, gain inspiration from the interactions.
“I really wanted to experience something new, to see how these people live, what their days are like,” says Nicole, explaining why she initially volunteered for this project.
Michael and Olga both had similar reasons for signing on.
“I always wanted to try doing voluntary work in general, and TyfloCentrum gave me a perfect opportunity to do so,” Michael says.
From assisting with grocery shopping to reading the newspaper aloud, each student — all three speak fluent Czech — says being able to experience and ease the life of a disabled individual is one of the project’s biggest advantages.
While completing their hours of arts and service, students are required to write “reflections” about their CAS work to fully digest the experience and not simply have someone sign off on a time sheet.   
“We actually have a lot of fun,” Nicole says. “We spend hours and hours talking.”
Olga recalls that at one point her client asked why she would volunteer to work for no reward. Her reply: “It’s just for the good feeling in you.”
Thanks to this project, Michael adds, “not only can I carry out my CAS hours, but I also feel [I am] a better person, as I can help a person who is in great demand of someone’s help and guidance.”
These positive experiences and inspiration are precisely what EISP was looking forward to instilling in its students through the IB program’s CAS component, Kucker notes. Community service, students point out, is not something that is particularly emphasized in Czech public schools. Nicole and Michael both previously attended public schools, where neither had to complete community service hours.
“Now, after a while of voluntary work in the TyfloCentrum, I really consider it a substantial flaw of the educational system,” Michael says.
As the CAS coordinator, Kucker is still working on building contacts within the community and finding appropriate arts and service options for his pupils. Students are able to design their own CAS projects, but, for now, they rely mostly on leads brought in by Kucker.
One difficulty, Kucker says, is that “only about half of our students in our program speak Czech,” inherently limiting the kinds of community outreach options available to those kids. Kucker, however, does encourage nonspeakers to pair up with those who are fluent.
Due to those language limitations, many project options are also available on campus, from tutoring younger students to helping the girl-scout troop and planting flower beds. Still, a goal of Kucker’s is for CAS students to expand their horizons.
“I try to encourage them to get out of school,” he says. “It gives them an escape. For the kids who are really academically centered, it gives them a mandatory escape from academics.”
This is especially important, he adds, for kids at an international school from a non-Czech background. CAS projects can help draw them out of the non-native bubble and get them more involved with the Prague community. To push students out of their comfort zones, Kucker is currently trying to organize a summer Habitat for Humanity homebuilding venture.
In general, though, CAS seems to be enjoying a warm student reception.
Olga for one says she would recommend volunteer work to others her age “because working with the community gives you a variety of experiences that you can use later in life.”
And Michael credits participation in the community as a way for students to become “not only a better citizen in our society but also a better person.”

Brooke Edge can be reached at specialsection@praguepost.com


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