Andrew's CAS

Its peak college essay season and I still have few to finish up before the New Year begins, but I have just received the position papers for my committee to review. I always look forward to seeing some of these ideas and getting hyped for the actual conference in the next few months. This year I am little more independent with these papers than last time, as it is my decision to decide and notify the schools and students who need to add either information or formatting (only major exclusions). Deciding whether to send a paper back or not is based on whether they fulfill the standard requirements. However, this decision is largely centered around debating whether, from the information given by the paper, will the student have a productive time at the conference. While sending a paper back is in my eyes the best thing for the student, I know from helping with the students at my school prepare that what is on the page is not necessarily representative of their knowledge. This is at times ...

I have been playing a little more than usual in the past few weeks and have been growing more competitive against my brother. It is fun being able to beat him as well as seeing my improvement over the last few months on my swing and ball control. I have begun playing with some of my friends at a local club and while I do not see myself playing competitively, I am still having fun improving my skill and playing.

I have started using a ball machine to uniformly toss balls at me to practice my swing. This has been useful in just practicing one after the other. It has also been interesting to be able to manipulate each individual shot on the machine itself and has given me a better understanding of the variables and characteristics the ball can have. I have been able to improve my serve over this time and am able to get the ball into the box most of the time. Now just to make the serve a little faster.

In the months leading up to MMUN conference, I help students learn about the United Nations and the program as well as prepare the needed materials. I do this with one of my friends and we both aid the teacher coordinators. While I enjoy being able to share my own personal knowledge with those who have yet to experience the program or would like some help, I have found this mentoring to be beneficial for both myself and the students as I am also learning better ways to communicate with students and teach certain concepts.

Working off the aerial inspiration from before, I tried to utilize and practice the techniques I learned in photography club to capture photos of the colorful sunset and the clouds. I found framing to be an important aspect as the positioning of the horizon had a large impact on the composition of the photo. This is due to the sky above the horizon featuring a largely blank and bare surface, while below it is complex with clouds and the ground below. Balancing this simplicity and complexity was interesting as I experimented with the utilization of negative space. 

Being able to see the world from above is something that has always amazed me. While flying above the northeastern United States, I was mesmerized by the grid and layout of the cities formed by the shining lights. I used the rule of thirds and what I learned with layouts in these images. My goal was to distribute the city lights in a way that would display the vastness of the grid, yet still feel small due to the sky above. I believe I was able to portray these feelings through the highlighted presence of the sky overlooking the city. In both photos below the sky is follows a uniform color or gradient which contrasts with the sprawling city below.

I have begun playing tennis with my brother again at my local park. It is difficult playing against my brother as he is a little athletically inclined than I am, but I enjoy the sport and trying to match his speed. It had been a while since the last time I played, so my swing was rusty and I could not control the ball very well. I plan on continuing going more regularly to practice my swing and control of the ball.

I have been invited, once again, to serve in the position of chair on the bureau at the February New York Montessori Model United Nations Conference. After my experience last year as my first time serving in this position, I am excited that I will another opportunity to be apart of this program. This will be my eighth MMUN conference, but I am still looking forward to leading a committee session, helping the process of creating some resolutions, and will aiding the MMUN students at my school in preparation.

I had the opportunity last week to visit the Virgin Islands Montessori School in St Thomas which I had been campaigning for over the past few months. During this visit I was able to visit my grandparents who live on the island, deliver the funds I raised through my fundraiser, and meet my fellow montessorians. I was able to talk with the principal of the school, Mr Bornn, and he told me how much the faculty and students appreciated the solar lanterns I was able to send. This impacted me greatly as I was able to fully realize the impact that my actions had. I also found his vision for the the school to be interesting as he seeks to be a leading example of renewable energy. He has currently implemented solar panels on a few of the buildings and plans on expansion of their storage capacity to provide greater energy independency and possibly provide extra energy for the grid and residents. While it appears I am wrapping up my major efforts to provide some aid and do my part to relieve so...

With the incoming Summer I have had a little bit more time on my hands than before and have been taking more personal time walking outside with Reyka. I have found that I have a preference with using a harness and leash rather than simply the leash attached to her collar, due to both look and less feelings that I am going to choke her when she tries to test the leashes length. I have been using these walks a period to simply think and clear my mind which has been useful for sparking different and new ideas. Sometimes I have also been introducing some music which has been a good use of my airpods, and which has made me incredibly fond of the lack of wires.

We have walked many miles and have hatched many Pokemon GO eggs, but now Reyka is definitely improving in her walking behavior. Previously my family overfed her and she was a little more overweight, which is no longer a large issue due now feeding her the right amount and having daily exercise. I think this joint experience has allowed for a better bonding between myself and the dog as she harasses me more than others.

This series of photographs contains selected pieces taken by myself in Ireland. My goal with this project is to capture the minute detail and viewpoints that are often missed by the common eye. This objective required me to look at everything from multiple angles in order to ensure that I found the one I wanted to highlight. I sought to deviate the attention away from the main attraction and to the outer details. I captured scenes that typically went overlooked such as in a few photos of the pavement, where the people simply walk over. I also centered around objects that commonly only supplemented to the overall landscape like the small weed or grass. With these aspects in mind, through this series, I want to project this different perspective and shine the spotlight on the smaller details that otherwise would be passed over.

I have been walking Reyka regularly for a little while now and have been able to see improvements in both her behavior when walking as well as ability to walk further. These differences have also translated over to myself as I find myself being able to go further after each week feeling less exhausted comparatively. I am feeling personally better as now I want to walk more and am matching the excitement of Reyka when going for the daily stroll. This time has been useful for myself as a way to replenish myself and simply think, though I am still distracted by Reyka trying to tug away.

I have just returned from the MMUN conference in New York, where, if you have not been keeping up, I just served on the Bureau as the chair for the first time. My committee had around hundred delegates (students) who were all there to collaborate on creating a resolutions they had been studying from a country's perspective in preparation and my job was to ensure that everything went smoothly and to procedure. I had a great time this year and the ability to pass on the conference experience that I would have enjoyed to the next generation of participants was quite satisfying. I would not say I am the most confident public speaker, so I was often nervous throughout the conference when calling rules of the procedure and speaking to the staring crowd of eyes, but as I went through I became more and more comfortable and am grateful that I have had a chance to practice and utilize these skills. This made me step out of my normal comfort zone as I generally wait for people to approach or ...

All my materials have arrived for my Dice Tower, as well as my leather pen case was almost done getting sewed up. The Carvey and the laser cutter both had long queues (especially the former) and I initially planned on using the Carvey to cut out my tower's outline so that there would be no scorch marks around the edges. Unfortunately, I decided to use the laser cutter to cut my tower due to almost everyone in class signed up to use the Carvey and highly likely event that it would not reach my turn by the end of the term. While waiting for the queues for both machines to get shorter and for my turn to come up, I went to finish my pen case. After a few more stitches, I cut the thread and bam-I had a pen case. I was very pleased with how turned out and look forward to transporting my stationary in my own handmade pouch.  I finally got to do my laser cuts with my walnut. When they were finished being cut out, I constructed the tower and realized to my dismay that my measure...

Laser Cut Time Lapse I first went through designs of dice towers to gather inspiration and information on what I should incorporate into my own. I created cut out the enclosure for of the tower in order to see what placement of the ramps and at which angle they would work best, so that the dice would roll, fall to the bottom, as well as not get stuck inside. The final design of ramps has them being inserted at an angel which allows for the ramps to provide greater structural    support as well as simpler overall looking design. This method also allows for the side of the ramps to be seen as they are actually coming out of the sides, this was a decorative feature that I wanted and I am happy about how this was implemented. Three Iterations of my Dice Tower I went through multiple versions each time changing certain parts and proportions that needed to be tweaked. I also added some decorations so that the final version would not look like a simple box. I dec...

This week, or couple days due to inclement weather, I focused on my second project for two reasons: I needed to figure out what else I wanted to do and the material to finish my first project had not come in yet. I wanted to do a project that would be usable to me and I decided upon doing a pen case due to to fulfilling that factor, as well as being a leather-working project—something I have wanted to work with for some time. Leather Pile To begin, I had to get some leather. After obtaining my material, I set out towards designing my case in Illustrator as I wanted to use the laser cutter to cut out my design. After cutting the leather with the laser cutter, I had to learn how to use the awls to create the stitching holes along the edges, as well as learn how to properly sew them together. Fortunately for me, Mr. Grisbee was willing and able to teach how to use the leather-working tools we have in La Tinkeria to do my project. Designed Illustrator File Sewing the leather t...

For my project, I decided to design and build a dice tower. A dice tower is used to ensure that the dice are rolled without any manipulation or sleight of hand. I am planning on using walnut and padauk (an orangey colored wood) as the materials for the tower, but the local store did not have the exact pieces and they will come in through Amazon later on this week.   Dice Tower AI File I have had previous experience with Adobe Illustrator, the laser cutter, and other tools that we have in La Tinkeria™ and this project was still difficult as there were many parts that needed to be exact and meet up in order to fit together. I will only have one shot when I use my final materials, so I want to be as precise as possible with my final version.

I have decided to take on a project in order to practice and gain some design skills to create real practical objects. For this project I aim to learn how to create material lists and familiarity with design software, materials, tools, etc. through building a dice tower—a tower that rolls dice unbiasedly. To begin I searched for inspiration projects in order to help determine my direction and what aspects were absolutely necessary for this tower. I then researched different materials to decide on which to use. This process was enlightening as I discovered the different attributes of wood types and the limitations of the equipment at my disposal—laser cutter and cnc cannot cut metal which eliminates that material as a possibility.