My UWCSEA Learning Journey

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#2 Creativity – Ballet (AF)

After the COVID-19 restrictions have been lifted, I was able to go back to physical lessons in the actual studio. Despite having difficulty retaining the muscle memories, I was able to dance as usual after approximately three weeks of lesson. In terms of the turns which I was concerned about, I was able to improve on those by practicing those intently both in class and out of the class. I took a slow motion video of me turning and examined which part I am able to improve on. This helped me a lot and the success rate of double turn have gone up significantly. After being in a stage of not having any difficulty with double turns, I am now trying to be able to do triple turns which I still have problem with. I tend to go down after double turns since I am not used to turning triple. Despite not requiring double turns in the actual exam, it will be one of the areas that I will be working on.

Additionally, I have chosen variation 1, which require a lot of expressions and softness but also the clearness in movements. This is a very difficult variation since it is hard to find the balance between dancing softly, but at the same time have to be precise in movements. I will work on my expression more before the exam.

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#3 Activity – Netball

The netball season of this year have finished and when I look back at the sessions I had, I think I faced a lot of obstacles but at the same time, I improved on multiple aspects.

I improved on my planning skills through this experience. The pre-season netball session started from six o’clock which is very late at night and I will have approximately 3 hours of free time in between classes and the session. It was important to plan ahead and to make sure I am able to catch up with whatever I am doing in school as well as to finish all the assessments that I have. This made me plan ahead more than I usually do otherwise I will not be able to finish all the things I need to finish in school.

Additionally, I think I improved on my communication skills well. This was one of my weakness when it comes to netball since I did not know any of the other people in this team, causing me to be a little introvert in the team. Being a second language English speaker also accelerated the difficulty of communicating effectively with others despite my English being decently acceptable level. It was a huge challenge I faced since communication are key in sports. At the end of the session, I was able to be open with the team mates and I was more confident being in the team. I was able to break through the difficulty I faced as the time goes on and also, the team mates were very welcoming when I was trying to communicate more in the team.

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#1 Service – Knit a square

I joined the group a little than others as I was not able to join at the beginning due to excess amount of members, however, I joined afterwards as I was very interested in the issues they tackle but also, I enjoy knitting as I have been knitting and crocheting since 13 years old. I am very grateful to be able to join the focus group as I had no idea about the issues (AIDS and HIV in Africa) before I joined this service. I researched a little bit about the issue after joining the focus group and realised how this issue is a very serious issue in Africa. This Focus group aim to spread awareness about AIDS and HIV in Africa within the UWC community as well as knitting 20cm times 20cm square of wool square which will be joined together to make a big blanket for children with HIV and AIDS in Africa. In addition to the squares, they also accept scarfs and hats. I am very looking forward to make as many square as I can in a year and to participate in events which aim to spread awareness of the focus group (knitathon like last year?)

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#2 Service- Apex Harmony Lodge Music therapy

We have started the music therapy which we were planning to do online. We are using the slides that we all prepared which contain multiple songs from their generation. We have collected more than ten songs from different background/ languages so that we can choose songs that suits the resident. We are planning to meet different resident every week and will be listening to different music and see their reaction.

My first session was with an uncle who did not have much expression and was just sitting in his seat observing around. He was able to have a general conversation with the staff working but did not have any reaction towards what we are saying. We tried to get attention by moving very big and speaking out loudly but it did not really work even though he looked at the screen for a few seconds. However, when we started playing a song “the moon represents my heart”, the uncle started singing along with the song. He also mentioned that it is the memorial song which he listened to with his wife. I was very happy about it because he started smiling and felt rewarded of doing this service.

During the session, I tried hard not to be rude or treat them as a patient as they are also human and they are seniors which have been though a lot of the things and even though they have dementia and are not able to react, I should respect them. I tried hard to understand what the patient is thinking or feeling even though they are quiet and not moving, so that I can say the right thing other than just “ok let’s move on to the next song”.

 

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#1 service – Tabitha GC

I have joined this GC since I enjoyed it really much last year and also, I am the chair of the GC this year. This year there are really less people with only 5 people actually participating. This is because majority of the member graduated last year and two were left. We were able to welcome 3 new students. Even though we were able to get five members, the minimum requirement of GC is 10 people, thus we were not able to get enough people.We are currently having a campaign in order to get more member in the GC.

Tabitha GC supports the NGO called Tabitha Cambodia which provides support the poor in Cambodia through multiple different kinds of program such as clean water program, building houses for people who does not have a safe shelter and silk industry program in order to provide more employment opportunity. I am really eager in this issue since I have visited Cambodia and I was shocked to see poor children not being able to wear a clean cloths like we do as if it is a normal thing. Tabitha provides direct support for them and also, we can know the consequences of our support through the monthly email which contains many different thing that occured that month.

So far we have come up with mask making program which I think is a timely and interesting due to COVID-19 situation we are in. Also, we are planning to advertise about our Global Concern in as many platform as possible. We have made a presentation for mentor class, poster to stick around school and online learning platform. Since we are in a small group, we are all collaborative and engaged in the issue that we are supporting.

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Rory Sutherland’s statement

Rory Sutherland states that “a change in perceived value can be just as satisfying as what we consider ‘real’ value”  and in his conclusion, he states “When you place a value on things like health, love, sex and other things, and learn to place a material value on what you’ve previously discounted for being merely intangible … you realise you’re much, much wealthier than you ever imagined.

I think the implication of the statement that Rory Sutherland made is that the values that we realise that it is there is as satisfying or more satisfying than the ‘real’ values that we have. This is a really interesting statement and I have never thought about it before.  In addition to this, in his conclusion, he states that when we learn how to give a material value to things that we have thought to be not important and ignored, you will feel like you are more wealthier than you have imagined yourself to be.

I agree with this statement. In my opinion, I do put stress in my obvious and precise value. For instance, I think fair amount of money, people to trust and access to many different objects or services are the happiness, thus they are one of the most obvious values that I have towards happiness. Also, as I grew up in Japan for half of my school life, I value assessments and test grades a lot than other people. I feel really happy when I score fairly good grades, but I get overstressed when I get a bad score in the subjects that I would like to be good at (in my case scientific subjects). This is because Japan indicates all the grades and ability based on the end of term exams and the grades are important for university admission. This is a specific values that I got affected by my cultural identity. However, when I moved to Singapore, I started seeking happiness through other things since I put a material value in things that I have never thought about when I was living in Japan.

As a conclusion, I think this wanted to tell us that changing what you put value on is more important/ enjoyable as much as real values. I agree with the statement from my experience and other people.

 

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Personal statement

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.

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