My UWCSEA Learning Journey

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#3 Service – Music therapy

I joined the service for G12 as well since I was very passionate about this service. I was amazed by the amount of rewarding reaction that we are able to receive from the residents at the Apex Harmony Lodge residents. This year, due to the COVID-19 situation, we were not able to physically go nor have an online call with the residents for the first half of the year. Therefore, we decided to use this opportunity to make a AI system where it helps the song discovering process for the elderlies in the future.

During the process of the project, there were many collaboration required in order to finish all the work to develop the technologies. I was involved in the research team where we find a place where we can get surveys from the elderlies in Singapore. The other groups were in charge of different sections, and without each component, the development of the technologies are not possible. Therefore, I realised that collaboration is key to any projects or events that involve many tasks or people.

After the project, we were able to have an online music therapy session with the elderly with dementia who takes the day care. Since I have been working with patients with dementia since G10 (three years), I became more comfortable in the way we should communicate with the residents. I try to respect them as much as I can at the same time as trying to communicate as much as possible even we have languages barriers.

In conclusion, through the experience of working with the patient with dementia for almost three years, I have learnt the importance of collaboration, communication skills and the realisation of how rewarding working for others are. I am considering to work in a medical related jobs, therefore, I would like to remember this experience and use the skills I was able to develop through this service to be a better person.

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#3 Service – Knit a Square

Through the one and a half year of being in this service, I improved on many skills through the exposure to many different challenges. One of the biggest challenges I faced was the organising of time as I mentioned at the beginning of the service as my weaknesses. Since I had many extracurricular activities including the ballet competition that require practice for about four times a week. Therefore, distributing the time for this service and taking some rest was a tough thing to do. However, through this experience, I developed my organisation skills and were able to manage this issue that I had.

Additionally, I improved on my communication skills. Despite this being a little individual work based service compared to other due to the involvement of knitting, there were many occasions where communication was key. For instance, there were some situation where I have to teach the other member how to knit which require a lot of ability to deliver the process concisely otherwise the instruction will be confusing. I did not have much opportunities where I had to teach someone else, therefore, I realised how difficult it is and improved on the skills.

In summary, this service have improved me in many ways including the organisation skills, skills to manage my stress and also the skill to communicate with others.

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#2 Service – Knit a square

Through the experience in Knit a square this year, I was able to develop the skill of planning ahead of time since this year was my transition year into IB diploma which took a lot of time due to the amount of work that needs to be done as well as the time required to be familiar with the new syllabus. I was able to finish more than three squares and two squares extra during the holiday. This was able due to the planning and the improvement in my organisation skills.

I also learnt many things regarding the HIV and AIDS issues that exist in Africa and how some children are suffering due to the issue. Through the experience in knitathon, I think we were able to share the information with others that does not belong to this service which is significant step in spreading awareness. The awareness may lead to more discussion and thus may lead to more support for the children in Africa. I am grateful to be be able to be a part of this service since it have a direct contribution which is knitting a square that are used to make a blanket. I am happy that I am able to use my skill to knit to contribute to global problems and spreading awareness for them. I am planning to continue this service for G12 as much as I can since the experience that I am able to have in this service is extraordinary and beautiful.

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#4 Creativity – Yearbook

As I entered G12, I continued the activity as the c0-head of yearbook since the experience of getting to edit yearbook was an enjoyable experience in G11.

Since I am the head now, there were a lot of responsibility and skills required that came with it. Firstly, I had to be organised in order to lead the team since the people vary in terms of the working speed and the knowledge about editing/designing a page. It was not easy to organise my time in editing the template at the same time as managing my other activities and study time since there were a lot of assignment during the IB curriculum. I also realised that communication skills are required as the position of leader as well as the organization skill. There were some miscommunication that happened which lead us to the redoing of some templates once which emphasised the difficulty of communicating with the team members especially when there are more than ten people. Aside from skills required as a leader, I also acknowledged the importance of collaborating with one another. If one person does not do their work required for their part, it causes a delay and extra work for someone else in the team, thus, collaboration is key when doing a massive project like yearbook.

Through this experience I think I was able to strengthen my skills as a leader. I did have a experience in a leadership position before, however, since there were more people in the team and the amount of work that have to be done was massive, extra skills for organisation and communication is required which I think I got better at.

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CAS final interview

 

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Humour and Satire

What happens when satire is not recognised?

Satire is a significant way to address some issues to the audience by not being too serious. However, there are some occasions where satires are not recognised. This can be caused by the lack of background information of the reader or misunderstanding of the underlined messages. The danger that not recognising satire may have is that the humour will not be understood, thus the reader interpret the satire in an extreme way which may cause controversies.

Is Satire dead?

Politics play a significant portion of our lives and nowadays, giving opinion to politicians or accessing some information about the politics have become easier due to the establishment of social media. This caused the boundary of what is considered to be acceptable and what is not to be difficult to be distinguished. Due to the increase in sharing of similar news or exposure to different information daily, satire have lost values which was to shock the audience and lead the satire to convey the message to the audience. This caused the decrease in satire values, creating the sense of uselessness of Satires.

What makes something funny, funny?

There are many different techniques involved to make something funny. To create humour, there are mainly two different kinds of techniques which are expressing a relatable issue or giving an unrealistic situation. When they are able to relate to a certain humour presented, they will connect them to their personal experience which cause them to find it humorous. Moreover, when the exaggeration or unrealistic situation occurs, it creates humour due to the ridicule. There are some techniques such as juxtaposition, reductio ad absurdum and the use of irony which reinforces the humour creates. Despite the things stated above makes something funny, huge proportion of the creation of humour relies on the experience the person have had. This can sometimes cause the misunderstanding of humour or differences in perception of humour amongst people.

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CAS project reflection

1. Investigation- Initial sign-up and investigation of the activity

Since I was in the group since G10 and I was the only one who were able to take the role as the group leader, I automatically became the leader of the GC despite having less confidence than what usual leaders should have. Since there were only 2 people at the beginning of the season, our main goal was to promote more members in the GC in order for it to be able to continue as a group. There were a lot of pressure since Tabitha has been a long lasting GC and there were many people who have supported the GC over a long period of time. I took extra effort to encourage people to join the GC in the panel discussion which lead to three more member joining the GC.

2. Preparation- Planning the experiences

The process of planning the “mask making workshop” had a lot of steps to go through. When discussing what we should do in order to increase the awareness of our GC within our community, we had different ideas, but we came up with a mask making workshop because of different reasons. First reason is that it is useful skills to share within the community. Additionally, it is a activity which is usually very fun to do, thus it can encourage more people to join. Lastly, it is relatively easy to prepare since the kit required is the cloth and the needle which is also sustainable. The difficulty communicating with the head of grade and the service department was a huge obstacles we faces, which lead us to promote very less which caused less awareness in the community.

3. Action- Ongoing experiences – doing them!

The mask making workshop was successful with more than ten visitors despite having less opportunities to promote. There were many things that we did not prepare well such as the method of teaching the visitors, which caused some confusion or waiting in some groups. Nevertheless, I had a wonderful time interacting with many people and describing about the precious things we do in our GC which allowed me to be proud of what I am doing in the service.

4. Reflection – Reflect on the overall process so far, raise questions, askĀ 

I think this experience of being in a leader position which have a lot of pressure and obstacles were very precious since it is difficult to encounter in a normal/ big GCs. Due to a lot of things we have to sort out, it allowed me to be more eager in the issue and it allowed me to think more about my GC more than last year when I was just a member of a GC with more than 10 people. By initiating a project ourselves with a small team and uniting well with each other, I realised the importance of team members and how inefficient doing things alone are.

5. Demonstration- Consolidate your understanding and growth

Despite the fact that the GC went extinct, I am really proud of the work we put into the activity over the process of trying to sustain the GC allowed me to learn different skills, made me think and learn what it is to be a leader and allowed me to grow as a person. I learned how communication is key since we had many attentive and hard working members in our team which lead to a smooth and efficient work. Additionally, I came out of my comfort zone and contacted many different people for support despite having a language barrier. I became more open to trying new things instead of hesitating to take an action that I am not used to doing. From this experience, I think I was able to gain more confidence, which lead to different self in terms of challenging new things and asking for help to others.

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#3 Creativity – Ballet (AF)

This year, the exam was conducted online since the examiners were not able to travel from England due to the current COVID-19 situation. I was able to finish the exam without making any obvious mistakes which I am very pleased and proud of. There was a week of consecutive lessons right before the exam so that our body will be well prepared for the exam. For the first three days, I was not in a good condition in terms of dancing due to fatigue as well as lack of preparation before the lesson. However, after the three days, I was able to return back to how I usually dance in class.

I was able to receive a “distinction” level certificate with the overall grade of 79/100. Despite it being a few points lower than the previous grades (83), I am very happy and honoured to be able to receive a high grade while having many things to complete in IB diploma program.

Through this experience, I learnt that collaboration with one another is a key to success. The class consisted of 8 person and we all worked together and support each other throughout the journey for the RAD exams. I am very grateful to be able to support the classmates as well as being supported by others when I need support. One of the biggest memories are when my classmates all supported me when I had an exam in school and was stressed. I think the importance of teamwork does not be limited to ballet and it can be said to any other circumstances even in the future.

Furthermore, I think I was able to improve a lot on my ballet skills through paying attention to all the detailed advices that the teacher give me. Since dancing is one of my favourite things to do, I am grateful to be able to improve on my dancing skills. I was also able to learn to be confident while in the test/exam condition. I used to be very nervous when i am on stage, however, I became more confident in showcasing what I can do in from of people or in a formal places.

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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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