CAS Program
A recurring, school-year program.
Ages 12–18 · School Year
The Story Behind the Name
CAS Program runs alongside the school year rather than replacing summer break — a series of shorter, recurring trips built so students can log meaningful, verifiable CAS hours (Creativity, Activity, Service) without the all-or-nothing commitment of a single flagship summer trip. It's open enrollment rather than application-only: the same real-service, real-structure model as Future Leaders Program, on a rhythm that fits around term time.
What Is CAS Verified?
CAS Verified is Impact OG's badge for a trip whose Creativity, Activity, and Service hours are logged as they happen and signed off by an on-site lead — not reconstructed from memory afterward. Every trip's activities are mapped to the three CAS strands during planning, tracked in a short daily log, and closed out with a written reflection. At the end of the trip, students and their school's CAS coordinator receive a CAS Verified summary — hours, strand breakdown, and activity descriptions — ready to submit directly toward the IB Diploma's CAS requirement, or as documented material for the activities section of a university application.
Creativity
Designing a social enterprise concept (Young Changemakers), producing a short documentary or prototype (Create), travel journaling and cultural documentation (Explore), designing a community awareness campaign (Serve).
Activity
Outdoor leadership challenges and expeditions (Young Changemakers), innovation challenges and prototype building (Create), hiking, kayaking, and trekking (Explore), community build and renovation projects (Serve).
Service
Mentoring younger students (Young Changemakers), producing educational materials for a nonprofit (Create), environmental restoration and conservation (Explore), renovating a community space (Serve).
What a Trip Actually Looks Like
Each trip is built around one destination and one primary pillar focus, so a year's worth of trips can cover Young Changemakers, Create, Explore, and Serve.
Shorter format than the flagship summer program — single-day, overnight, or long-weekend trips — designed to slot around school terms and exam schedules.
Every trip closes with a short written reflection and a signed activity log, mapped to CAS categories, so hours are ready to submit rather than reconstructed later.
Trust & Safety
- Same staffing model as Future Leaders Program: 1:7 for ages 12–13 and 1:10 for ages 14–18, on-site and for every leg of travel.
- A named Impact OG staff lead is assigned to every trip and introduced to parents and school coordinators before departure.
- Parents and school CAS coordinators both receive the same-day update and the same post-trip documentation.
Parent Promise
- Every CAS hour logged on an Impact OG trip is backed by a real activity your child actually did, verified and ready for their coordinator.
- The recurring format means you don't have to choose between one big summer commitment and nothing — there's a lower-barrier way in.
- The same safety, staffing, and communication standards apply whether it's a one-day trip or a flagship summer program.
What Happens Inside This Program
Every trip runs across four pillars — the same four, whichever program you're in.
Young Changemakers“Who can I become, and how can I use my strengths to make a difference?”+
On a CAS Program trip built around this pillar, leadership isn't a one-off summer peak — it's practiced in a shorter, focused format, then logged and signed off the same day. Each trip maps its leadership activities to specific CAS Learning Outcomes, so a term's worth of workshops, team challenges, and decision-making exercises builds into a verified record your school's CAS coordinator can actually use — not a single big experience to remember, but a running account of real leadership moments.
Key Experiences
Creativity
New solutions to real-world problems, campaign ideas, social enterprise concepts, presentations.
Activity
Outdoor challenges, team sports, adventure activities, expeditions, team-building exercises.
Service
Community projects, mentoring younger students, supporting local organizations, leading a small social-impact project.
Skills Developed
“Every leadership activity your child takes on — on a single-day trip or a long weekend — is logged and signed off as it happens, so by the end of the school year you have a verified record of real growth, not just a claim on a college application.”
Create“What can I create that makes life better for others?”+
A CAS Program trip built around Create turns a single destination visit into a complete, mapped creative project — a prototype, a short documentary, a pitch — logged and reflected on before students go home, not left half-finished until the next big trip. Recurring trips mean a school year can carry several of these projects through to a finished, CAS-verified result instead of just one.
Key Experiences
Creativity
Design a product, create a social enterprise, produce a short documentary, develop an educational game, build a prototype, tell someone's story through photography or film.
Activity
Innovation challenges, team competitions, site visits, field research, prototype building, community-based design projects.
Service
Create educational games for children, produce learning materials, create a community awareness campaign, design a fundraising initiative, produce a documentary highlighting a community issue.
Signature Projects
Skills Developed
“Every project your child starts on a CAS trip gets finished, reflected on, and logged before they come home — so what shows up in their CAS portfolio is real, completed work, not an idea they never got back to.”
Explore“How does understanding the world change who I become?”+
CAS Program's Explore trips trade one long expedition for several shorter ones across the school year — a weekend hike, an overnight immersion — each one mapped to CAS Learning Outcomes and closed out with a written reflection before the group heads home, so cultural growth accumulates in a documented, submittable record rather than living in memory alone.
Key Experiences
Creativity
Photography, video, travel journals, storytelling, art, cultural documentation.
Activity
Hiking, kayaking, trekking, camping, orienteering, team expeditions, water activities, outdoor survival skills.
Service
Beach cleanups, tree planting, conservation, environmental restoration, community projects, supporting local schools — students work with communities rather than simply "help" communities.
Signature Projects
Skills Developed
“Instead of one big trip to remember, your child builds a documented record of independence and cultural growth across several shorter trips — each one verified and ready for their CAS coordinator.”
Serve“How can my gifts help others flourish?”+
On CAS Program trips, service isn't a single afternoon — it's a recurring commitment. The same community partnership can span several trips across the year, so students Understand → Connect → Contribute → Reflect → Continue with an organization more than once, and every hour is logged toward the same CAS Service strand instead of scattered across unrelated one-off visits.
Key Experiences
Creativity
Design awareness campaigns, create educational materials, produce videos, develop community events, design fundraising campaigns.
Activity
Community build projects, renovation projects, sports activities with children, event organization, environmental projects.
Service
Renovating a community space, supporting schools, mentoring younger students, environmental conservation, supporting community organizations, working with underserved communities.
Signature Projects
Skills Developed
“Your child's service hours build toward the same CAS strand trip after trip — a real, ongoing commitment to one community, verified and ready to submit, not a single day of service they'll barely remember.”