SEAMC: Action + Demonstration

CAS

LO5: Working together to achieve an outcome

Planning and running SEAMC was one of the hardest yet most rewarding things I have ever done. This year, our organisational committee was faced with the challenge of preparing students for the competition while also partaking in the logistical aspect of hosting. I can confidently say that the outcome of our efficient and targeted planning was a success, especially in regards to how our school’s team performed. We were able to take home many medals and placed 2nd overall, which was an unprecedented feat in UWC’s history.

A major challenge that my fellow planners and I faced was during the week of the competition however. We were given the task of opening the competition with an hour long presentation as well as providing help with running the different rounds. We were only given a week’s notice for this and without our effective communication and organisation, we wouldn’t have been able to pull it off. This was also a personal challenge for me, because I absolutely dread public speaking. I grew into a more confident and self-assured person after presenting to over 300 people and helping them throughout the weekend. It was a great experience of personal growth.

It was thanks to the fellow organisers, teachers, and staff that we were also able to execute this event successfully. We obviously faced challenges with logistics, timings, delivering questions, and the results, but it was ultimately through the support of everyone that we were able to overcome them. For instance, Joanna (another organiser) and I faced the problem of having a lot of volunteers drop out on the last day, so we had to divide the work between ourselves to get everything done instead. It was challenging, but worth it.

Something interesting that we also had to address was an important ethical dilemma. As the organisers of the competition, we had access to everyone’s tests, results, and the questions in the rounds. But we had to be incredibly responsible about maintaining their secrecy. It was an interesting for me to experience such an unfamiliar responsibility, because normally this sort of stuff is taken care of by teachers or other adults. I think it was an important lesson for us to learn for the future; we now knew the etiquette and the trust that comes with leadership.

SEAMC Highlight Reel

Yoga: Final Reflection

CAS, Uncategorized

LO4: Showing perseverance, resilience, and commitment to activities

I participated in yoga for two seasons and I can say with confidence that my fitness level improved. Since I am asthmatic, it was very important that I stayed committed to this activity. I was able to demonstrate this resilience and commitment by attending the weekly sessions, challenging myself with harder poses, and practicing yoga at home with my mom. Maintaining motivation for me was easy because of the wonderfully supportive community during the sessions. Additionally, I knew I was doing the activity to improve my health, which helped me to keep working hard. Although at times it was challenging, especially going on a Monday afternoon (during which I just wanted to go home and sleep), the positive outcomes from the activity outweighed any arguments I had. Every Monday, I saw myself going home relaxed and calm, ready to work.

Kahaani: Final Rehearsals + Performance (Demonstration)

CAS

LO5: Working together to achieve an outcome

Kahaani Full Dress Rehearsal

This phase of Kahaani, I feel, is the most important. I saw this as the time as our group showed the most development and growth. It was remarkable how we went from being sloppy and uncoordinated to one of the most in-sync and energetic performances in the show. I think there were so many important factors that shaped this process. The first was definitely our collaboration as a group. We initially faced a lot of challenges (which were expected of a dance show), but it was our ability to put aside our differences and continuously make time for extra practice which was what helped us overcome them. Everyone’s enthusiasm and commitment throughout the process only further motivated me to stay committed to the process. Their supportive attitudes were also key in making me more resilient when I failed. I would say that this collaboration was crucial in shaping our performance to what it was on the day of the show. I think this experience was spectacular and completely worth it, despite all of the time I had to dedicate to it. This time commitment only helped me manage my time and balance my school work with activities better. I would not have traded this experience for the world.

Kahaani: Initial Rehearsals (Action)

CAS, Uncategorized

LO2- Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process.

This year, we performed dances which symbolised the progression of a blind man’s life in order to raise awareness for Voice of the World (Kolkata GC). I was placed in the dance which represented the part of his life where he fell in love.

The initial rehearsals were probably the most challenging for me. There were probably two major hurdles that I worked to overcome.

Learning the dance: I hadn’t danced in probably a year, and getting back into intense Bollywood choreography was quite a challenge for me. It took a lot of practicing outside of our group sessions as well as attending extra practice for me to become comfortable with the dance.

Coordinating with the other members: The fact that I had my friends in my dance really helped motivate me and build resilience. They were an important support system for me. However, coordinating with them in the dance was a completely different story. Since this was a new environment in which we were collaborating, we had to develop different strategies to effectively communicate.

Naturally, our initial rehearsals were not perfect. Our group’s most significant weakness was that we kept forgetting choreography. We definitely had to make the most out of our allotted rehearsal times during this phase of the preparation of the show.

 

 

 

What have you learnt about the role of reasoning in ethics in this video? What have you learnt about your own ethical values?

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Across society, our morals and ethics vary greatly. We are constantly debating whether abortion is right or wrong, whether gene therapy is the right step forward in medicine, or even whether artificial intelligence is beneficial or dangerous. The root of these debates lies with both factual science and our ethical value systems. This video made me realise that as we engage in these debates, our morality is shaped by the science underlying it. I realised that these facts actually form the basis of the premises we use in reasoning. For instance, if someone believes that gene therapy is wrong it is because from the basis of science we know that interfering with our DNA has the potential to change our genetic makeup completely.

However our these debates are specific examples in where we have to apply our ethical value systems. Some people question whether these systems are just a set of absolute rules we have in our heads. For instance, the idea that stealing is wrong is something almost all of us believe. However, without placing them into a context, we cannot evaluate the real worth of these “rules”. Is stealing still so wrong if someone who was living in extreme poverty stole? Don’t our human rights state that we should all have access to resources? Isn’t it ironic that without context based off of scientific explanation and factual data, we cannot assess whether our morality is actually “good”.

Kahaani: Investigation and Preparation

CAS

LO1-Identify their own strengths and develop areas for growth

Kahaani is something that I look forward to every year. I see it as a celebration of my incredibly diverse culture and it is something that is very close to my heart. I signed up for it last year and I knew I would sign up again this year. The cause it supports (to empower the blind and raise funds of Voice of World) is also something very important and impactful.

This event is a dance showcase, which meant that I would be doing something a bit unfamiliar to me. I was a little apprehensive at first especially because I would have to perform in front of so many people but I wanted to challenge myself through this experience. I wanted to gain more confidence and also develop a new skill. This was why I was quite happy that I was assigned to a dance with all of my friends; they helped me overcome a lot of my nervousness about performing on stage.

The initial stages of rehearsing were quite tedious. I was put into the back line of the dance and I found it hard to keep up with steps as I was quite short and not noticeable. I was also finding it hard to keep up with all the new moves being added every session.

Here is one of our very first practice sessions as a group:

Yoga (Season 2)

CAS

LO4: Show commitment to and perseverance in CAS experiences.

Yoga was one of the new activities that I tried this year and I can say that I am thoroughly enjoying it. Finding motivation to exercise is quite challenging for me and I tend to make excuses not to do anything. By signing up for an activity with a time commitment, I managed to find motivation to consistently do yoga every week. I also signed up with a friend and we ended up pushing each other to go when the other didn’t feel like it. This was another key reason I was able to maintain my motivation and commitment.

The activity also helped me develop new relationships since the yoga group consists of many approachable and friendly people. I found myself growing quite comfortable with the people around me since everyone was incredibly kind and supportive as we developed our skills together. Despite everyone having different levels of mastery of yoga skills, we made sure no one was left behind. A lot of this was also due to the teachers incorporating different levels of yoga poses (beginner, intermediate, and advanced). As of now, I have lost a lot of the self-consciousness I originally had when I started the activity.

This safe environment, the friendships I made, and the physical progress I was making (e.g. becoming more flexible) really helped me strengthen resolve to continue to do yoga and start doing it outside of school as well.

The Siege

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Does familiarity with literature itself provide knowledge and, if so, of what kind – knowledge of facts, of the author, of the conventions of the form or tradition, of psychology or cultural history, of oneself? 

There is a fundamental difference from the knowledge literature can provide us and the knowledge science can. The understanding we gain from science explains how things happen in the physical world and how we can model that. Whereas, literature gives us insight into why things happen and what effects they have on the people around us and ourselves. Literature is the translation of human thought and emotion into a text. Familiarizing ourselves with it helps us understand core human beliefs and values while also pushing us to question our own nature as individuals. It also weaves together many different aspects of human life and society within it. “The Siege” by Helen Dunmore, a literary work of historical fiction, is a prime example of this. When I read it, I noticed that it gave me much insight into a few key areas of knowledge: cultural and political history, and human psychology.

Image result for the siege helen dunmore book cover

The Siege is set during the Nazi siege of Leningrad (St. Petersburg) in the winter of 1941. The most factual knowledge the novel provides us with is through the context of the narrative. The book opens with a letter from the German Naval staff who write, “The Fuehrer has decided to have Leningrad wiped from the face of the earth.” from Berlin in 1941. This letter makes allusion to Hitler and his hostile political relationship with Soviet Russia. Throughout the book, although never explicitly mentioned, there are multiple references to Stalin and the Communist Party. Anna refers to him as “Koba” which was one of his many nicknames and resentfully talks about the many privileges his party members received such as more food, warmth, and better salaries. This political context is key in establishing the general social sentiment in Russia at the time. These interwoven details are also important to understand Anna’s actions and why they are emotionally compelling. They are also useful in giving us perspective of the societal and emotional impact of historical events that are normally studied analytically.

Another way this literary work provides us with knowledge is through the emotions of the main character and how she deals with the situations she is faced with. It gives us an understanding of human psychology, especially into the fight-or-flight response described by Walter Bradford Cannon. Although it was originally proposed as a physiological response, it is often used to describe emotional responses as well. Throughout the book, Anna is portrayed as facing the most dire, dismal, and hopeless of a situation. She tries to survive the Leningrad winter under German blockade with barely any money and food, an asthmatic brother, and a bedridden father. The burden of surviving falls almost entirely upon her. But even under this pressure, she consistently perseveres to make the most of the situation and somehow make do. Whether it is saving a “quarter slice of bread” every day for her brother, going to a black market to acquire a “burzuika”, or walking through unforgiving weather conditions just to find wood to burn for warmth, she never gives up. She tells herself that she will fight to survive and she does. This inspiring narrative of human determination helps us gain knowledge into the incredible resolve we are capable of. Since it is such an emotionally compelling piece of writing, The Siege makes us question ourselves regarding our own resolve and willpower, helping us discover more about ourselves too.