Project Week: Reflection 2 (LO3, LO6 & LO7)
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LO3 INITIATIVE – Planning & initiating activities. Students can articulate the stages from conceiving an idea to executing a plan for a CAS experience or series of CAS experiences. This may be accomplished in collaboration with other participants. Students may show their knowledge and awareness by building on a previous experience, or by launching a new idea or process. |
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LO6 GLOBAL VALUE – Engaging with issues of global importance. Students are able to identify and demonstrate their understanding of global issues, make responsible decisions, and take appropriate action in response to the issue either locally, nationally or internationally. |
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LO7 ETHICS – Considering the ethical implications of actions. Students show awareness of the consequences of choices and actions in planning and carrying out CAS experiences. |
The first stages of planning Project Week with my group went smoothly. We met in D520 to discuss our roles and formulated a plan. I felt that I could use my skills to help organise the group and volunteered to lead us.
Roles:
Logistics Officer/First Aid: Shruti
Action Leader: Prad
Service Coordinator: Minayo
Media Coordinator: Cui Chen
Minutes Taker: Albert
PW Book Producer: Li Zhongrui
We emailed a representative of the New Hope foundation and found that we would be unable to go to the Beijing unit as it was closed. Instead, he offered that we could visit and stay at the care center that they ran at Luoyang, Henan. The aim of New Hope foundation is to takein physically handicapped babies and provide them with a caring and secure environment to provide long-term care in as close to a normal home environment as possible. They also aim to seek out the best medical solution to facilitate their treatment.
Initially, we faced a lot of difficulties in communicating with the representative of the Luoyang unit as we did not get an email back after sending several and we were approaching the internal school deadline for confirmation from a GC contact. However, we took this in stride and continued to attempt to get into touch with representatives. Finally we were able to get ahold of a contact and confirm our trip and everyone in the group was very excited to play and interact with the kids at the foundation.
Unfortunately, we got a email from our GC contact in late January which informed us that they may not be able to accomodate our visit at Luoyang Show Hope Special Care Center in June as planned. They shared their recent newsletter and told us that it was dependent on the funding they received in the next two weeks. We were all very understanding and wished all the best for the foundation. However, we had to regretfully cancel our visit due to the unpredictability as the school had required us to submit a concrete proposal by a deadline that had passed. This sudden cancelation left us all very worried. We had all formed this group because this trip had appealed to all of our interests and goals for Project Week.
This was (by far), the biggest challenge that we had faced so far. However, we all attempted to persevere. We began exploring any other options that were available to us in the moment. We faced a lot of disagreement during this process. I, along with the others, accepted that we all might have to sacrifice our preferences slightly so that we could all decide on a feasible trip. After all, there were only a limited number of options available to us. We kept in constant touch with Ms.Toth who helped us with our situation. Ultimately, we decided upon the Free The Bears project located in Cambodia, Phnom Penh. I was really pleased with how we all communicated and took the situation in stride. After this, the rest of our planing process went very smoothly. (Our planning document: 7 Free The Bears, Cambodia)
Unfortunately (once again), we were then faced with the COVID-19 pandemic. Things looked uncertain again, until we were finally told that we would be unable to make any trips this year. While I was undoubtedly disappointed, I also understood both the personal and global implication of travel during this time. I was in agreement with the school and believed that both they and the government had taken the appropriate action in response to the pandemic. The choice of travelling would not only affect us (who were making the trip) but others around us as well. As young students, we needed to keep in mind the vulnerable population who was more susceptible to catching the virus.
Project Week: Reflection 1 (LO2, LO4 & LO5)
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LO2 CHALLENGE – Undertaken new challenges & developing new skills. A new challenge may be an unfamiliar experience or an extension of an existing one. The newly acquired or developed skills may be shown through experiences that the student has not previously undertaken or through increased expertise in an established area. |
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LO4 COMMITMENT – Showing perseverance, resilience. This may be accomplished in collaboration with other participants. Students may show their knowledge and awareness by building on a previous experience, or by launching a new idea or process. |
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LO5 COLLABORATION – Working together to achieve an outcome. Students are able to identify, demonstrate and critically discuss the benefits and challenges of collaboration gained through CAS experiences. |
Project Week is an integral feature of the UWC experience. As students, it gives us an opportunity to develop our own skills of leadership, planning and inter-communication beyond the walls of our school. Even before grade eleven, outdoor education has been a constant and defining feature of our educational programme. However, what makes Project Week special is that small groups of students each plan our own trips from scratch.
Whilst I was really excited to be able to take on the responsibility of organising my own trip, something I initially found quite challenging was finding the group that I was going to go with on Project Week. The trip my close friends were wanting to plan revolved around activities that I (truthfully) was not interested in. This worried me because whilst I truly wanted to do something I was passionate about on this trip, the idea of going with people that I didn’t know made me very nervous.
Nevertheless, I persevered and took the tough decision to not go on this trip with my group of close friends. Instead, I began to explore other opportunities. Ultimately, I ended up starting a conversation with three other grade twelve students from the global concern – Smiles of China – that I was a part of. We discovered, that we all were interested in doing the same kind of things and made a plan to visit our global concern for Project Week. Two of the group members even invited two other students from outside our global concern to join our group for Project Week. Regardless of the fact that I wasn’t close with these students from before, I began to realise how happy I was that I chose to take a risk and join this group. As we began the process, I was able to meet and become friends with a new set of students.
In the end, collaborating with one another, helped us all to achieve our desired outcome: to be able to plan a Project Week experience that both interested and challenged us. Having taken this risk, I really felt as though I have taken a step forward in being able to embrace rather than shy away from difficulties. In the future, I hope I can continue to develop this growth mindset.
HS Medical Society: Reflection 5 (LO2 & LO4)
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LO2 CHALLENGE – Undertaken new challenges & developing new skills. A new challenge may be an unfamiliar experience or an extension of an existing one. The newly acquired or developed skills may be shown through experiences that the student has not previously undertaken or through increased expertise in an established area. |
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LO4 COMMITMENT – Showing perseverance, resilience. This may be accomplished in collaboration with other participants. Students may show their knowledge and awareness by building on a previous experience, or by launching a new idea or process. |
As grade twelve begins, Medical Society has become a place not only where I can participate in various medicine related activities but also a space and time which I can use to work towards my medicine applications for college/universities programmes – which have been quite challenging. One such challenge has been writing my personal statement for my UK applications. With only 4000 characters to fill, I was quite confused with how to communicate why I wanted to study medicine and show that I was suitable.
What actions did I take to overcome these challenges? I decided to do some research and ended up collating advice from the UAC’s sessions (at UWCSEA), universities’ own guides and youtube videos (from medical students). I then made a plan of the different areas I needed to focus on in my personal statement (for instance: interest, school, shadowing, etc.) I then brainstormed my ideas on a document and picked the strongest points I had come up with and interweaved them together. The last step was simply making the entire statement more concise (as to fit in the character count) and edit according to the advice I received from my own UAC advisor.
Throughout this process of writing my personal statement, I’ve really developed some of my skills when it comes to approaching such writing assignments in the future. One of the most important skill I learnt was following certain steps: researching, planning and then simply attempt to start (with whatever I may come up with), instead of wasting time stressing out about the task.
Upon reflection, working towards these applications have affected my commitment in Medical Society related activities to an extent which meant I was not participating as much as I could have been doing. Perhaps, I can help others in the activity by sharing the valuable resources that I ended up using for my personal statement and advice in case they face the same challenges that I did. One way to do this might be to collaborate with my friend who has taken up a leadership position in Medical Society. We could organize a session on personal statements and prepare a resource for future students that compiles advice and other useful links.
HS Art Club: Reflection 1 (LO1 & LO2)
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LO1 AWARENESS – Increased awareness of strengths and areas for growth. Students are able to see themselves as individuals with various abilities and skills, of which some are more developed than others. |
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LO2 CHALLENGE – Undertaken new challenges & developing new skills. A new challenge may be an unfamiliar experience or an extension of an existing one. The newly acquired or developed skills may be shown through experiences that the student has not previously undertaken or through increased expertise in an established area. |
Growing up around my mother, elder sister and cousins who are all very artistically talented, I’ve developed a keen interest in arts and crafts. From a young age, I’ve enjoyed engaging in origami, photography, sketching, colouring, painting, pottery etc. I’ve even regularly attended art lessons (outside from school) and had recently opened up an Instagram account to capture the art that I create. In fact, during my IGCSE’s I even took Graphic Design, where I learnt and improved my skills in photoshop and adobe illustrator.
Unfortunately, since I’ve begun IB, I haven’t had the chance to regularly partake in my art. Art Club seemed like the perfect opportunity to hone my art skills in a variety of different mediums. Whilst I’ve have been working on my oil and acrylic painting for quite some time, my involvement in this activity has made me aware that an area for growth might be digital art (using my iPad) and I may be able to use some of my graphic design skills to develop it. Therefore, for the following term, a challenge I want to take on is to work on some digital art pieces and consistently update my art account. For instance, I took a photograph of various different tools in the past, and my goal is to attempt to recreate a digital art piece using the application Procreate on my iPad based upon it during this next term.
HS Student Voice: Reflection 4 (LO4 & LO6)
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LO6 GLOBAL VALUE – Engaging with issues of global importance. Issues of global importance can include any issue that is significant on the world stage. Examples of global issues include environmental preservation; gender equality; race relations; child poverty; ageing population; the effect of pop culture on morality and traditional society; freedom of education; freedom of speech; fair trade; disparities in wealth; Students are able to identify and demonstrate their understanding of global issues, make responsible decisions, and take appropriate action in response to the issue either locally, nationally or internationally. |
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LO4 COMMITMENT – Showing perseverance, resilience. This may be accomplished in collaboration with other participants. Students may show their knowledge and awareness by building on a previous experience, or by launching a new idea or process. |
Discussions in student voice this first term have inevitably centred around the current COVID-19 pandemic – giving us all a chance to reflect upon it’s global and local implications. Starting grade twelve in-school rather than online has been a privilege especially when a lot of other schools around the world are still closed due to current situation. For instance many schools haven’t even had the opportunity to engage in online learning – halting education completely. Other schools such as those which offer the IB programme are having to still continue online. Whilst rewarding, it’s important to remember how rigorous the IB programme is and with grade twelve students not having the opportunity to attend school in-person, it’s but natural that there will be many struggles (with the heavy workload and remaining syllabus to cover). I definitely know, I would feel that way.
In fact, we identified that many students in our grade, at our school were in this exact position – having been stuck in their home/other countries due to travel restrictions/quarantine. We actively decided to find a solution with an aim to provide support to these students who may have been feeling lost or alone in these uncertain times. Over the course of a few sessions, I was involved in organising a plan to bring together and connect all these students who were having to sign-in online to attend school once a week. With a supervisor present, they could therefore voice out any concerns or issues they were facing. Furthermore, by being aware of others who were facing the same situation, they could communicate and aid one another – giving them a sense of community.
Grade 12 | HS Student Voice
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Reflection on ‘Grand Paradigms’
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–Slideshow on ‘Grand Paradigms’. -Link to video clip from Toy Story where Buzz realises he is not a real space Ranger after all. |
1) In your view, how might the video to any of the ‘Grand Paradigms’ that we looked at today?
In my opinion, I feel that Buzz’s realisation that he is not a real space Ranger in the video parallels the shift that perhaps occured when we transitioned from the classical paradigm/modern paradigm to the post-modern paradigm. Firstly, I feel that it is important to establish what paradigms refer to. Paradigms are a distinct set of concepts, a pattern of thoughts or standards that constitute legitimate contributions to a particular field. It essence, they are the dominant discourse. Consequently, significant changes in the paradigms of concepts such as that of human existence can have major consequences – demanding reappraisal. In addition, when the innate egoist nature of animals is considered (which can be seen as a reductionist view), it is no surprise that when one finds that their existence – their lives, their choices and their feelings – are ultimately inconsequential in the face of the vast universe, that it is difficult to digest. After all, in our minds, the world constantly (yet inevitably) revolves around us. In the movie, Buzz is anthropomorphised and therefore his reaction reflects that of ours as humans. When he is shown that what he has believed in for so long is not true, it terrifies him because he is now faced by the unknown.
2) Later in the movie, Buzz gets over the dismay that we see in this clip. (Don’t worry if you have not seen the movie). Why do you think this might be?
(I haven’t watched the movie but) I think that despite knowing the ‘truth’, perhaps Buzz resorts to what we ourselves are often guilty of: denial. As humans, when we are confronted with the choice to continue living as we have always have in the past or to instead tackle the new – we often choose the former because it feels more safe and comfortable when we have all the answers. We ignore what we don’t know even when we are are subconsciously aware that it exists. And in the end, if doing so doesn’t hurt anyone, what have we got to lose? After all – does it really matter what we choose to believe when we are our existence is ultimately so inconsequential?
3) What’s your reaction to these these paradigms? How do they appeal to you /repel you?
Personally I believe that there has been value in all the different paradigms to do with human existence that have existed thus far in the past. After all these paradigms are an ever-evolving reflection of how we as humans interpret the new knowledge that we come to possess. They help people to acclimatise to the changes that we counter in our quest to further progress and become more and more intelligent. Therefore it is less a matter of them appealing or repelling to us and more of how much of our thoughts we can see mirrored in them. After all, we feel a sense of security and comfort when we know that other’s see the world in the same way that we do. Undeniably, there is strength in numbers.
If you ask me, I feel that no single paradigm that speaks to me. I see a level of substance behind each of them. To me they are ‘food for thought’. However thinking too much doesn’t get me anywhere because no matter how much I think, I am confronted with questions I do not have the answers to. And so, I believe the smartest thing to do when we are faced with the concept of our existence as humans is to just keep on living as we do – in a pursuit to become smarter (and hope that one day we might stumble upon this supposed ‘truth’.)