Night – Transformation and Inhumanity
Transformation (4)
Before entering the concentration camp, Eliezer had deep faith in God, however, during his experience in the concentration camp and by witnessing the injustice to children, women, and the elderly, he doubts the justice of God, considering that the Jewish have not done anything wrong to deserve such cruel actions by the Nazis. Many people believe in god due to their miracles and justice, however, from what Eliezer has experienced, he does not witness justice to the children, women and elderly, therefore, he ‘doubted [God’s] absolute justice’. Through the descriptions of the situation, Wiesel evokes pathos in the audience where he makes them realize that the cruelties experienced by the minorities are inhumane and are unjust, especially for those who strongly believe in God, therefore, Wiesel makes the audience also feel the need to doubt the justice of God. As Eliezer is slowly reducing his beliefs in his culture, he is also loosing a crucial aspect of his identity.
Inhumanity (2)
During the Holocaust, the officers tattooed numbers onto the Jews instead of their names to refer to each Jew almost as an object or a slave, where they are not allowed to express their identity. Considering that a person’s name is a significant aspect of their identity, the identity of the Jews was replaced. For instance, Eliezer “became A-2713. From then on, [he] had no other name”. Through the numerical names of the Jews, they were dehumanized, almost treated as objects. Moreover, when Eliezer confronts God that he has betrayed his adamant devotees by allowing them to be tortured, slaughtered, gassed, and burned. Through the confrontational tone, Wiesel makes the audience realize the inhumane actions that children, women and the elderly are experiencing just because they are unable to do manual labor.
Tech Tinkers #2
Tech Tinkers, as an environmental initiative, has come a long way. During the past few months, I have been planning on initiative an e-waste week that will be held annually during October in order to spread awareness regarding the issue of e-waste as well as our initiative. In order to prepare for this event, I directed the production of a video, with the rest of the leadership team, that explores the issue of e-waste as well as provides information regarding Tech Tinkers to the wider school community from Junior Schoolers to High Schoolers to Teachers. This video will not only spread awareness but will also allow Tech Tinkers to receive more electronics donations from the school community so that we can further donate the electronic devices to our local service and GC partners.
Currently, the video has been released to the school community and we have received positive feedback from teachers and students. Since we are still in the earlier stages of the initiative, significant changes in donations cannot be seen, however, we predict that as our video is further shared within our school community, the community will be more aware of the issue, rethink their choices of throwing away their old electronic devices and hopefully donate them to us so that we can help others with technological needs.
High School Science Fair 2021 – Reflection & Demonstration Stage
While I not only planned the Science Fair, I also participated and presented. Although I participated in the science fair, I did not participate in the award as this would be ethically wrong considering that I was also involved in determining winners. I really wanted to participate and compete for the Applied Sciences Awards as my presentation was about CaproGlu, a newly invented medical adhesive, which applies aspects of biology, chemistry, and physics in the real world. Since I am a part of the leadership team, if I were competing for the awards, there may have been an aspect of bias from my team members, which is ethically wrong, hence, it would not be fair for the other participants. Therefore, I had to make the ethical decision to not compete for the awards, but still, participate and present during the Science Fair. Alongside making an ethical decision of my participation, I also had to think about the ethical implications of assigning dates to presentations. It was only ethically fair if all groups presented for the same duration, hence, when assigning dates and times, I had to take this into consideration as well.
My presentation
Therefore, through planning and participating in the High School Science Fair, I have learned various things, in terms of making ethical decisions based on specific scenarios as it is extremely important to understand how my decisions impact others around me as well as whether they are ethically correct. Additionally, through this process, I have improved my skills of collaboration, communication, and time management. The many obstacles faced by my team and I in terms of the COVID-19 regulations have further developed my problem-solving skills. Therefore, this CAS project in general has allowed me to improve many of my skills and accomplish my goals.
Science Society #2
The High School Science Fair has just ended and over the past few months, as the logistics officer, I have been quite occupied with organizing the logistics of the science fair as well as preparing my individual science fair project. Due to COVID-19 safe-distancing policies and other restrictions, I have faced quite a few problems with allocating spaces to each group in order to adhere by the COVID-19 rules. In order to overcome these challenges, the leadership team and I decided to split the number of groups participating into 2 main groups in which the 1st group will present on Monday and Tuesday and the 2nd group will present on Wednesday and Thursday. This way, we were able to adhere to the COVID-19 restrictions as well as have successful presentations during the Science Fair.
Moreover, at the start of Science Society, my goal was to introduce more interactive sessions as well as try to make the science fair more inclusive in terms of the number of participants from different clubs and I believe that my goal was accomplished since we had various interactive sessions which consisted of watching videos as well as discussions on new and pre-existing scientific discoveries. Additionally, this year, we had over 60 participants in the Science Fair which is double the amount of participants we had last year and we formed new partnerships with other clubs such as Neuroscience Society for the Science Fair.
Overall, I believe that I was able to fulfill my goals set a few months ago and I was able to overcome the challenges faced when figuring out the logistics of the science fair.
High School Science Fair 2021 – Action Stage
The High School Science Fair has just ended and I am extremely happy about how smoothly it went. I had implemented the different logistical additions that I had decided to implement during my investigation and preparation process. Additionally, even after the preparation stage the leadership team and I discussed different ideas as well. While I was brainstorming this with the leadership team, the members had many disagreements regarding potential solutions alongside the ones we had chosen to implement. However, I was able to take into account everyone’s ideas and combine them to create a plan. Collaboratively, we realized that some people may unconsciously break the one-meter rule, hence, in order to further ensure that a one-meter distance was maintained between the presenter and the viewers, placed safe-distancing stickers on the floor to remind them of the regulations. I was really happy to see that the rest of the leadership team had helped me set up all of the tables, boards, posters, and signs the week before the science fair. Through our collaboration, we were able to quickly set everything up and ensure that everything went according to plan and our vision was accomplished. Even during the Science Fair, we would walk around (I would walk around when I was not presenting) the presentation areas to ensure everything was going smoothly because safe-distancing ambassadors were also present, hence, if they found that regulations were not being followed, then they may complain to the government agencies. Through our collaborative monitoring system, we were able to ensure that COVID-19 measures were enforced. Therefore, while collaboration amongst strong-minded people can cause disagreements when making important decisions, it can also be proven to be beneficial as things can be done quickly and efficiently when all minds are put together and concentrated in specific areas.
These are some pictures from the science fair:
Kolkata GC #2
In Kolkata GC, we planned Kahaani, the annual dance showcase, and as the Head of Finance, we devised a successful solution to raise funds from the showcase. Due to COVID-19, we could not have a live audience, therefore, we decided to film the event and share it with the UWC community. To raise funds, my team and I collaborated and found a solution that raised funds from the show from lunchtimes. During lunchtimes, we decided that we would go around raising awareness regarding Voice of World and the mentally and physically disabled community in Kolkata and ask for donations. Additionally, when the recording of the show was sent to the UWC community, we also attached a donation link which received quite a positive response. These methods were quite successful were we able to raise a total of $3494. Although this amount was lower than what we have raised in the past pre-covid, this amount is still a very big amount which can bring about a large impact on Voice of World in Kolkata. I believe that I showed great initiative by launching this new idea. In the future when the condition of COVID-19 improves, and there are live performances for Kahaani, I believe that the current solution we found will also help us increase the amount of money raised.
Unorthodox Analysis – Esty and Yanky’s marriage is on the rocks
The global issue associated with Esty’s seeming inability to bear children is the societal expectations of women in a patriarchal society, a society run by men in which women are meant to complete household chores, give birth to many children, and take care of them. The scene in which Yanky asks Esty regarding the reason she is facing problems, the room is quite dark and gloomy, therefore, setting the mood, as well as representing Esty’s emotions of pain, and misery when Yanky compares her to his brothers’ wives. Esty herself is also unaware of the reason she experiences pain and her inability to conceive, therefore, further evoking her emotions of sadness and misery. Through, Yanky’s stern and authoritative tone, his power and frustration are portrayed as he is unable to be pleasured because of the pain Esty experiences and he is unable to impregnate her.
Additionally, when Yanky’s mother arrives, Esty is shocked that she is at her house to give her advice about making ‘a man feel like a king in bed” and Esty agrees with her. However, when Esty asks whether giving her husband importance and making him feel like a King would make her a queen. Yanky’s mother responds with a smirk and further provides advice, therefore, emphasizing the male-dominating society in which they must be the powerful one in the relationship, and the women should obey and entertain her husband at all times.
Through this scene, the audience can witness that the perspective of the patriarchal society is given the privilege in which people holding the same values and beliefs are given the privilege as they abide by the societal expectations of their culture and society.
High School Science Fair 2021 – Investigation and Preparation Phase
The High School Science Fair is an annual fair that is hosted by Science Society, a club that I am a part of. This year, the science fair was quite different due to COVID-19. Due to the COVID-19 safe-distancing measures that needed to be enforced, planning out the logistics has been quite difficult. As the logistics officer of the Science Society, I am in charge of organizing the event with the Chairs of Science Society. In order to ensure a successful science fair, firstly I had to investigate whether the Science Fair was a possible event to happen in lieu of COVID-19. After we received confirmation from the school, my team and I proceeded to plan the logistics of it. As planning the event in COVID times is a challenge, in order to overcome this, we decided to ensure that there is a one-meter distance between the presenter and the viewers by placing a table in between. The table will not only allow the presenters to keep their computers and other items of their project on the table, but this will help enforce the one-meter safe-distancing measure. Additionally, in order to reduce the crowd, we decided to use the science pod as well as different science rooms as these were spacious areas.
After we finalised the award categories (Physical Sciences, Life Sciences, & Applied Sciences Awards) and the dates, we published the Science Fair advertisement posters online in our school portal and put them around the school. When we sent out the registration form for the science fair, we had an influx of registrations with approximately 80 participants. This put us in a dilemma as this was the highest number of registrations the science fair has received in many years. This meant that in terms of the logistics, the areas we chose may be too small and there were no other venues and places available. Therefore, to tackle this issue, we decided to allocate specific dates for different projects to reduce a large crowd. Additionally, we have allocated 2 science teachers for each project for marking in order to determine the winners and runner-ups for the science fair for each of the award categories.
The process of investigating and preparing for the event has allowed me to develop and improve my skill of adaption because, through the investigation and preparation process of the event, I learned how to better adapt to the COVID-19 situation and find solutions to problems around them. The High School Science is in 2 weeks and hopefully, it goes smoothly.
Unorthodox Visual Analysis
I have chosen images A and C. The similarity between these scenes is that they both portray the issue of freedom. The first image is captured when Esty is in Berlin, riding a taxi to her mother’s home. In this shot, the majority of the image is covered in greenery which can symbolize a fresh environment. Additionally, the golden angel in the shot symbolizes the freedom she now has where she can fly away and conquer her dreams in Berlin. Through this image, a comparison is brought between the environment in Brooklyn and the environment in Berlin, in which she was suffocating in Brooklyn whereas she is now able to freely roam around and follow her passions without having to worry about strict societal norms. In the next scene, there is a flashback to when she got to know that the matchmaker has someone in mind. There is a sudden change in mood and tone in which when Esty questions the matchmaker about the boy, the matchmaker responds in a suppressing tone that she does not have the freedom to pick her soulmate or question the man she could potentially marry. The matchmaker also responds in a way as if Esty was questioning her ability to bring a good match. Although Esty seems somewhat excited, her facial expressions and response to the expectations of the behavior of women foreshadow her unhappiness. Throughout these scenes, soft and solemn music is being played in order to set the mood of dismay, sadness, and regret.