I have joined UWC as a FIB student at the beginning of this year. I have learnt and done a lot this year.
Activities: I have done total of 9 activities (excluding services) and a ballet class out of school. I have done three stage related productions. First is culturama. I have made many new friends from other grade and was able to feel at-home since I was a little bit nervous at the beginning of this year. Second was drama production (THORH). I really love drama and was hoping to be able to be in the show, so I was really happy when I heard that I was able to be in the show. I was surprised that the teachers allowed me to do ballet solo on stage. The third one is dance showcase. I was not able to do more than two dances due to my schedule, however, it was really enjoyable since I was able to be in an amazing group. We met each other every Thursday even after the show. I got to do a lot of sports this year as well. I have done two pre-season sports (netball, basketball) which was interesting because I got to learn new sports that I have never done in my life or have not done it as much as others do. After the pre-season, I have joined Netball team. Even though I started in group C, I got to join B at the end before CB. I have learned a lot of new skills like communication. Besides all of these activities, I have done Science Society which was really interesting because i am really interested in science and was able to participate in science fair. Origami is my way of calming myself so it was really good in terms of refreshing myself and typing was interesting because I got to be able to type much faster than before. At last, ballet class out of school was tough but really fun to do. I got to join 3 competition groups in addition to the normal classes.
Services: I have done two services this year which is one local service (Apex Harmony Lodge) and Global concern (Tabitha). It was really fun and interesting to interact with the elderlies. I struggled a lot to get comfortable in interacting with my partner but through long time of having time together every week, I got to talk by myself with out any help from the teachers or the staff who works there. Also, in terms of GC, I was the Chair from the beginning of the year because most of the members are graduating this year and there are only one more who are remaining next year. It was a tough job because of my language skills and because I do not know any of the informations that I have to manage. However, it was a really significant experience for me because it makes it easier for me to sustain the job next year. Also, I have learnt a lot from the experience (organising things, thinking of what we should do etc).
Outdoor education: This year, I went to a FIB Tioman trip. A lot of the activities got cancelled because of rain and haze, however, I got to learn a lot of new things. Firstly, it was really refreshing and relaxing to interact with nature without any technologies which we heavily rely on. Secondly, since it was at the beginning of this year, I got to know other people from FIB which helped me a lot later. Practice kayaking before going there was a really rare and fun experience that I have never had. It got cancelled due to haze and rain, but it was really fun to go through the mangrove forest. At last, it was a great opportunity to rethink about myself and face myself seriously in a quiet and great environment.
Learning: I managed to manage my time for studying. Even though I did not really have time, I thought studying is the most important thing in all the things that I have to do in school. So, I took time to review before tests and used long holidays efficiently. Also, I got better in writing essays. At the beginning of this year, I was not able to write more than 1000 words without the teacher’s help. However, I am able to write the required amount without any help now. In addition, I found my style of studying which I think is applicable for IB. I could have communicated with the teachers better (I am sometimes too shy to ask the teachers what I am not sure about), however, it is getting easier to go to the teachers and ask questions compared to when I first came to Singapore.
Other relevant actions: I have gained a lot of new skills this year. First of all, I have learnt how to manage my time more. This is because I had a large number of schedule that I have to consider everyday. I did a lot of activities and services which was already hard to manage, however, in addition to the school activities, I have been doing ballet and tuition outside of school. In addition, I had a lot of work and meetings out of these scheduled activities which I had to manage. I controlled all my schedule myself and I think this is really useful in IB. Also, I gained research skills that I did not have before I entered school. I am particularly bad at finding useful informations online, yet, I had a lot of opportunities to practice those skills. At last, this year, I got to make a lot of new friends out of FIB which I think is useful next year since I have a wider range of people to ask for help when I have any kinds of struggles.