Overall, writing this Extended Essay has provided me with the skills of diligence, self-management, and flexibility that I will need in the future as I complete the IB and embark on further studies. Moreover, this essay has provided me with a rigorous understanding of what is needed to produce a research piece on a literary work. Before commencing, I had not realized that I needed to incorporate research about ‘The Namesake’ from scholarly articles, experts’ interpretations and author interviews. However, after writing this essay, I realise that like any other research article, a literary analysis also has to contain conflicting viewpoints and expert opinions to provide evidence and supporting arguments. If I were to change my approach in confronting the Extended Essay, I would do more preliminary research about themes and arguments in the literary work — The Namesake — I was writing about. As such, I would have gotten a deeper understanding of some literary debate potentially surrounding the themes, characters and context of the book and could have angled my essay in a light that attempts to resolve a contentious debate or argument. All in all, I am proud of my work and the research I have conducted.
EE Reflection 2
After submitting my first draft to my supervisor, he raised the point that my essay did not so much talk about the characterisation specifically that explored cultural dislocation, but simply just the author’s exploration of cultural dislocation in itself. Therefore, I changed my approach to the essay by rewording my research question. I worked to focus less on the characterisation of Ashima and Gogol, and instead on their experiences, dialogue and character development that showcased such dislocation. I have also learnt how to conduct successful research in literature specifically and how to use such research to formulate my own unique ideas. Through finding scholarly articles about Lahiri’s portrayal of identity and culture in The Namesake, I was able to quote differing interpretations in how Gogol and Ashima fit and digress from their American and Indian identities, as well as build upon or contradict those interpretations that I found by inserting my own judgement and reading of the characters.
G12 Preparation – PSE
I identified some challenges for grade 12, some of them being college applications, exams, IAs, coursework and my Extended Essay. The biggest challenge for me in grade 12 in my opinion are college applications – not just managing my time to get them done, but putting all my effort into them and making them the best they can be. Some ways that I am going to work to do this is by starting early. I think that if I start early, I will not get overwhelmed when all the other IB assignments and IAs hit. I think that if my college applications are a continuous project in the background, I will be able to focus on my schoolwork while devoting a little bit of time to these applications. Furthermore, with my applications, I think that I need to be pragmatic in how I work around them and choose colleges that are realistic. Not only will this help me in the application writing process, but also once college applications start coming back to me.
Behind the Beautiful Forevers Production
Assistant Directing the Junior School Drama Production
Link to final reflection
Summer Internship Dilucidar
- Describe your individual process of job search:
- What were your goals and expectations?
My goal was to gain an experience and an idea of the workplace and working life. My goal was also to see what kind of career opportunities were available for someone of my interests .
- Were you able to meet your goals?
I was able to meet my goals as I was able to get an idea of working life and the kind of jobs I could pursue with my interests and background.
- How close to your expectations were the actual outcome?
My expectations were that I would be working on more of a writing-based job, however, I was quite heavily involved in the creative processes of the company – like working with Adobe Creative Cloud.
- What have you learned through the process? What skills have you learned or applied?
I learnt how to adapt my skillset and use what I know and apply it to what I do not know. I also learnt how to conduct self-directed learning as I had to learn how to use Adobe Creative Cloud.What skills have you learned or applied?
- In what other situations or areas in your life might you apply the same skills and learning?
No matter what job or field I enter in the future, I will always need to be able to overcome and adapt my current skills to gain new ones. Furthermore, I will need to be able and adept in conducting self-directed learning.
Project Week CAS
Learning outcome 7 – final planning stage
Final reflection – post project week:
Project Week Evidence:
EE Reflective Conversation 1
I knew from the outset that I wanted to do my research on Jhumpa Lahiri’s stories as I am a third culture Indian and resonated with the themes in her stories; this would help my research and writing as I believe having a personal connection would enhance my engagement in the essay. Initially, I had wanted to do a comparison piece of two of her stories but after discussing with my supervisor, I realised that there was limited scope for comparative analysis and decided to write on ‘The Namesake’ in isolation. I identified a few themes that I was interested in, such as women empowerment, the motif of food and the impacts of cultural dislocation. After a discussion with my supervisor, I decided to explore the characterisation of two characters in ‘The Namesake’ and how this characterisation is used by Lahiri to explore cultural dislocation. The narrowing down of a question gave me a sense of direction for where to commence my research.
If I was UN Secretary-General for a day, what would be my first action?
As I wake up to my day as UN Secretary-General, I would bask in the idea of being the leader of the UN – embodying the ideals and aspirations of the world’s people, riddled with authority and responsibility. Leading an organisation such as the United Nations calls upon individual fortitude and devotion, and at the same time, exemplifies the collective ambitions of all nations. Needless to say, the role of Secretary-General is a position of incalculable gravity. As such, I would be reassured in the pursuit of my actions that I had been collectively nominated and voted for as the best fit for this position. But what would happen if I was, indeed, not the ‘right’ fit for the role? That my personal ambitions were not in alignment with the will of the people? I would risk leading in oblivion, or if not oblivion, in selfish pursuit. As Secretary-General, my first action would be combatting cyber warfare particularly in the face of elections.
‘Elections belong to the people’ as 16th President of the United States Abraham Lincoln once said. The individual who abolished slavery in the United States in 1865 took a stance that guaranteed his celebrity status but did not meet his individual goals. As a President with a personal indifference to slavery, Lincoln succumbed to the abolitionist zeitgeist of the time and ensured that democracy reigned supreme and the whims of the people would be followed through. As such, in the 21st century, it is with the same urgency, if not more, that the elected government officials of the democratic nations of the world are collectively and justly elected – not only to equitably represent the majority’s ideology but also to bring the nation’s morals to an international forefront.
The nature of warfare has shifted from physical to online, seeing a inundation of cyber attacks particularly on the West. With Russia particularly being blamed under global spotlight of interference in the 2016 US elections and other nations acting as public and private instruments in swaying the currents of elections, there has never been a time more critical to act than now. It is the time for political leaders of nations to be held accountable for interference in other sovereign nations. As Secretary General, my proposed solutions would involve calling upon technologically advanced countries to aid in the development of vulnerable states response systems and launching international defences around IT systems.
With an array of 2020 presidential and parliamentary elections of, there has never been a time more critical to act than now. With the socio-political atmosphere of today resembling discord, politics is intertwined with the people. To guarantee a future with responsibility upon delivering the majority’s sentiment, combatting cyber warfare would be my first action.
Unit 2 – Reflection Questions
What were some of these roles and stereotypes? To what extent are gender roles and stereotypes prevalent in your life ?
Some of the gender roles were prevalent in school, work, and home/family life. For school, we concluded that there were different expectations of boys and girls – for example in terms of subject choices, sports and general attitude. We concluded that boys were more likely – or had a higher expectation – to do subjects such as Math, Physics, Economics and other STEM subjects, whereas girls who pursued those same choices were viewed as anomalies.
In what ways do you see Gender Bias or Gender Privilege in…..your family? your community? Your World?
As a group, we discussed that there exists gender bias in the work and in the wider spectrum of the world. In terms of employability, there is a higher percentage of men in positions of power in comparison to women. There also exists the wage gap between men and women working the same job. In terms of family, I believe that the gender bias towards me is unintentional but it still exists. I can especially see this in the treatment I get in comparison to my brother; for example, I usually have stricter curfews and have to tell my parents more information when I go out.
During our final activity last week, you were given a role and asked to step forward when answer questions about self-determination, education, safety, etc. What role did you have? Where did you finish in comparison to others ? Why?
In the activity, I was a closeted gay boy in a local college in Singapore. I was nearly halfway to the end or closer to the end than majority of the other players. Although I was gay, since I was a male, I gained many advantages in society and my sexuality was concealed, so I did not receive any backlash or controversy for it. The only area that I struggled with, or that I received setbacks in society for was being expressive about my sexuality.
In your view, what are the drivers for social mobility in society? In what instances to do gender limit that mobility?
Some drivers for social mobility in society are sexuality, wealth, and gender, just to name a few. Gender limit that mobility to a great extend, but I believe the limiting factors of gender vary in different countries and nations. For example in wealthy countries, although gender bias exists, is exists to a lower degree than in less wealthy countries.