We try to design every CAS Trip to offer ample opportunity for breakthrough moments.
It might happen in an off-hand conversation with a local partner, an unexpected triumph in the middle of a workshop, or while walking through a city that suddenly feels more complex than it did an hour before. We have learned that what makes a moment powerful isn’t just the activity itself; it’s the way it’s been designed, guided, and reflected on. Behind every experience is a Trip Leader thinking carefully about what students might notice, feel, question, and carry forward.
In this piece, we step behind the scenes with CAS Trips Leaders across Europe – in Vienna, Barcelona, Athens, and Amsterdam – to explore how they intentionally use local experiences to develop both the IB Learner Profile and the seven CAS Learning Outcomes.
From Experience to Growth
At the heart of CAS is a simple idea: experiences alone aren’t enough. It’s how students engage with them, how they prepare, reflect, and make meaning, that leads to growth.
The seven CAS Learning Outcomes guide this process. They invite students to become more self-aware, take on challenges, plan and collaborate, engage with global issues, and reflect on the ethical dimensions of their actions. But these outcomes don’t exist in isolation. On CAS Trips, they are woven into each day, often through small but intentional choices made by Trip Leaders.
As Alexandros, a Trip Leader in Athens, reflects, “the traits of the IB learner profile are all a very essential part of what we do… every one of these traits contributes to creating better people that subsequently will create a better world to live in.”
Vienna: Learning to Care by Asking Better Questions
For Amir, a Trip Leader in Vienna, a visit to the M.U.T. Homeless Support Center is not about “seeing” homelessness; it’s about challenging assumptions.
His focus is on developing the Learner Profile attribute of Caring while guiding students toward one of the most complex CAS Learning Outcomes: recognizing and considering the ethics of their choices and actions.
The experience begins before students even arrive. Amir introduces a tension: Vienna is often described as one of the “most livable cities in the world.” But livable for whom?
This question becomes a thread that runs throughout the day.
Students are encouraged to approach the visit not as observers, but as listeners. As Amir explains, “the visit becomes a powerful step in nurturing caring global citizens who can see beyond stereotypes and statistics.”
Later, during free time and evening discussions, the experience deepens as students begin to connect what they saw with the wider city around them. They reflect on privilege, policy, and the invisible systems that shape daily life.
Amir is intentional about creating space for this processing: “Some students may feel unsettled or emotional. Building in time to share feelings ensures the experience is processed constructively.”
Here, multiple CAS Learning Outcomes begin to emerge naturally. Students engage with an issue of global significance, homelessness, while also developing self-awareness as they confront their own perspectives.
Amir invites students to sit with questions like::
What does it mean to care, in a practical sense?
And what responsibility do we carry when we become aware of inequality?
Barcelona: Embracing the Risk of Creativity
Not all CAS growth happens in emotionally heavy spaces. In Barcelona, our Trip Leader, Mara, takes students through a trencadís mosaic workshop that offers a different kind of challenge.
On the surface, it’s a creative activity. Students design and build their own mosaic pieces within a limited timeframe. But beneath that is a carefully designed opportunity to develop Risk-Taking and Thinking.
Mara highlights something students don’t always expect: “If you want to achieve a specific design… There is an element of bravery involved in placing all your bets on creating the plan and sticking to it.”
To support this, she shares examples of past student work and speaks honestly about the process, what it feels like to run out of time, to doubt an idea, and to keep going anyway.
She frames it simply: “There are risks involved in dreaming big… but also satisfaction in scrambling and eventually achieving the desired design.”
This experience aligns closely with several CAS Learning Outcomes. Students undertake challenges, develop new skills, and engage in planning and decision-making. They also practice perseverance, staying with an idea even when it becomes difficult.
And in the end, many students come away with a new understanding of what risk and choosing to believe in your vision can actually look like.
Athens: Challenging Assumptions Through Human Connection
In Athens, Alexandros approaches similar themes from a slightly different angle. Through activities like a Homeless Interactive Bootcamp and Muay Thai classes at a refugee support center, he focuses on developing Open-Mindedness and Caring.
His starting point is honest: “Some of the people we interact with on CAS trips may have never seen a homeless person.”
That awareness shapes how he prepares students. Before the experience, he opens up conversations about the realities of homelessness and displacement, how easily circumstances can change, and how often multiple factors are involved.
He also draws on personal experience to make it real: “I have had many conversations with homeless people who were explaining to me how they had everything in life and how they ended up with nothing.”
During the activity, whether students are preparing care packages or engaging in shared experiences, reflection happens in real time. Alexandros keeps the dialogue open, asking students what they think, how they feel, and how they understand what they are doing.
Afterward, he brings it back together through discussion: “I always like to have a mini reflection to see where their minds are at and to further discuss this issue that is relevant almost everywhere in this world.”
Here, the CAS Learning Outcomes are layered. Students demonstrate collaboration, develop new skills, and engage with global issues like migration and inequality. They also begin to recognize their own biases and the possibility of changing them.
And just as importantly, Alexandros models the same mindset himself: “With each trip I feel like a better version of myself… There is always room for improvement.”
Amsterdam: Building Knowledge That Sticks
In Amsterdam, CAS Trips Leader Annerose guides students through a Slow Fashion Runway that brings together creativity, collaboration, and global awareness in a highly interactive way.
Her focus is on developing the Learner Profile attribute of Knowledgeable, but not in the traditional sense.
Instead, she starts with curiosity: “Ask first what students know about fast fashion and its impact, and add facts they don’t know yet to enrich their knowledge.”
From there, students research, design, and create outfits linked to specific UN Sustainable Development Goals. They must think critically about materials, messaging, and impact, then present and advocate for their ideas.
Reflection and feedback are key. As Annerose notes, “feedback on their presentation… is essential for them to integrate the learning experience.”
She also brings a personal perspective to the work. Coming to CAS without a prior IB background, she sees its value clearly: “Instead of just memorizing content, you learn to understand and apply it… not to forget the incredibly valuable skill of reflection.”
This experience touches nearly all seven CAS Learning Outcomes. Students initiate and plan their projects, collaborate with peers, engage with global issues, and develop both creative and analytical skills.
The Thread That Connects It All
Across these different cities and experiences, one thing becomes clear: CAS Trips are not defined by what students do, but by how they are guided through it and invited to engage with the topics at hand.
Trip Leaders are constantly balancing structure and openness, providing context without over-explaining, and creating space for reflection that allows students to arrive at their own conclusions.
As Mara puts it, the Learner Profile acts as a compass: “a reminder of what kind of future generations we’re trying to educate.”
And through this approach, the seven CAS Learning Outcomes come to life.
Students begin to identify their strengths and areas for growth, often in ways they didn’t expect. They take on new challenges, sometimes discovering resilience they didn’t know they had. They learn to plan, collaborate, and stay committed, even when things feel uncertain or difficult.
They engage with global issues not as distant concepts, but as lived realities. And perhaps most importantly, they start to consider the ethical dimensions of their choices, not just during the trip, but beyond it.
