Author: cho65415@gapps.uwcsea.edu.sg

And thus ends my experience with Philosophy Club. I had a lot of fun engaging in thoughtful discussions with the members and challenging my own academic understanding of philosophy by embedding it in different arguments and seeing if it makes sense. I feel that my experience in this club has allowed me a channel through which I can make theoretical understanding meaningful and hopefully help others gain that same passion that I have for philosophy. In my years being a member, and then a chair of this activity, I have thankfully had the opportunity to talk to many unique individuals and hear out their unique opinions, and this has expanded my own thinking. Through Philosophy Club, I have not only learned how to better explain and argue for a position or a point that I wish to make, but I have also learned that it is only by listening to others and their opinions that one can gain a deep understanding of the topic at hand, whether it be a topic of philosophy, another subject, or completely non-academic.

Philosophy Club has been a fruitful experience thus far. We have had many new members to the club, especially in the younger grades, and due to this, although our average academic understanding of philosophy may be lower than in previous years, our intellectual curiosity is strong, and discussions during sessions are helping these new members understand concepts in a meaningful way. Presentations in the club have mainly revolved around ethics. I, as the chair and facilitator of the club, have taken it upon myself to play the devil’s advocate on several occasions and ask prodding questions about seemingly obvious ethical decisions. I have also been attempting to apply ethical scenarios to practical settings to allow for a clearer envisioning of the scenario. For instance, for one session, a fellow Grade 12 and I decided to play an interactive cartoon game in which you have to choose to save a certain group of individuals over another group based on several factors including number, age, gender, and socioeconomic status. In essence, it is a game that attempts to assess by what factors we choose to prioritize human life. In this session, I pointed out inconsistencies in logic and created new hypothetical scenarios to make some of the members realise that their position was not sound when applied to other settings. This was overall an enjoyable session in which we pushed the members’ perceptions of morality to the limits and challenged them to think about how people should be judged in real life.

Chamber Ensemble has been everything I expected, as I have participated in this activity in the past. The work we have done so far revolves around some new chamber repertoire, including pieces by Florence Price, Ginastera, and the Beatles. We are preparing these pieces to hopefully perform in the Esplanade theatre in December, but if we don’t get the opportunity to, we will also perform these for an online music concert held by the school. I am enjoying this activity so far, and have been developing my general violin ability, as well as comfort with specific techniques such as spiccato and bow swells. Something I would like to specifically work on is communication with the other chamber members during a piece, as sometimes the different instrumental sections play out of time or out of tune, and I think this could be fixed by exaggerated bow changes and looking at each other when we play.

As I was part of the school orchestra for as long as I’ve attended this school, there really isn’t much to say about the activity itself, or any revisions I need to make to my current goals. I have been developing more familiarity with my instrument and some of the techniques that I may struggle with. My goals remain the same as in previous years: to be a solid cornerstone for my instrumental section (second or first violin) and to work on my individual performance as well.

My ITP sessions with my teacher have recently been more and more strict, as I have an international violin competition coming up in December. My teacher has been pushing me to work on specific, more advanced aspects of my playing that are required to create a good sound, and I have been practicing every day to train myself into these habits. I have also been playing with a piano accompanist who will accompany me for the final recordings of my pieces. The techniques have yet to master are solid, fast, and consistent spiccato, as well as retaining a good balance of bow speed and pressure when playing emotive passages.

As the chair of the High School Philosophy Club, my role this year has been somewhat different, but surprisingly, generally the same as last year. There is, of course, more organizational work to do, including but not limited to keeping track of absentees and following up with them, organizing sessions with guest speakers, and managing the weekly presentations. The bulk of my work in Philosophy Club, however, is not to be a facilitator, but rather to be a contributor to group discussions, as that is the point of every session. Something I feel that I have been doing well is contributing with valid comments, linking the topic at hand to other philosophical themes that may extend the conversation into a new lane. Something I would like to work on is allowing the conversation to move fluidly, rather than trying too hard to keep the group on track, because sometimes, going off on a tangent is when the best and most in-depth conversations happen.

The deadline for activity signups will soon close and I have chosen the activities and services I wish to be part of. In light of these choices, I have realized some areas in which I excel and some areas in which I do not.

Three of the activities I signed up for, High School Orchestra, High School Chamber Ensemble, and ITP Violin, are music-focused. My strengths in these activities are my ability to play the violin and my ability to play in a synchronized manner with a group of musicians, which entails being in tune, being in rhythm, and playing with the appropriate volume and timbre at certain moments. I have sufficiently developed these skills because I have over 10 years of experience playing the violin individually or in a group. A weakness of mine that may surface during these music-based activities is my tendency to overpower the other instruments, as I am primarily a solo violinist and therefore am used to playing in a manner that stands out from the accompaniment. I will work to build a subtle balance of sound with the other musicians by practicing different bow pressures while I practice.

Additionally, I am the acting chair of the High School Philosophy Club (together with Kartik, who leads the activity with me). This activity highlights my strength in familiarity with philosophical literature, as well as my ability to verbally construct and explain ideas. I aim to further my prowess in these fields over the next two years. One of my flaws that may appear in this activity is my light tendency to go off on a tangent. Although this isn’t a terrible quality, I will try my best to stay roughly on topic and guide the flow of discussion well.

Finally, the service I have selected is Capturing East. I have no prior photography experience, but I hope to learn some new skills during my time with this service, as well as increase my awareness of what different services do at our school.