Gym Weekends

LO 2 – Demonstrate that they have undertaken challenges, developing new skills in the process.

The Covid 19 break motivated me to get active and I did this by committing to go to the gym on the weekends. I tried working out on my own and couldn’t utilize or push myself on my own so I got a trainer. In my first session, we had a lot of stretching and then warming up on the treadmill. That instantly made me lose stamina and made me tired. I realized that one of my weaknesses is stamina and correcting my breathing. My trainer pointed this out and we planned cardio workouts for the following week. I found the push-ups and skipping to be the hardest. In the following week, we spent more time working on the push-ups and skipping. Practice made me better definitely. After the first few sessions, I had terrible body pains but I pushed through and kept going to my sessions as I knew this was a commitment I had to keep and not quit.

Project Week

LO 7 – Recognise and consider the ethics of choices and actions.

As soon as COVID-19 hit, we knew project week was going to be cancelled. 2 weeks later, Project week was cancelled. I can’t say I was not sad about the decision because I was but I also realized it was a good and responsible decision. COVID-19 is highly spreadable and it wouldn’t be ethically correct to expose other people or myself in such a situation. We emailed our camp providers to tell them about our cancellation. The disappointing thing was that all the planning went to waste but my friends and I hope to go on this trip once COVID 19 is not a danger to us.

Project Week

LO 4 – Show commitment to and persevere in CAS experiences.

Project week is a week where we travel as a group of 5 to a destination where we focus on service, creativity or activity. My group and I chose to focus on activity and started planning a trip Gopeng in Malaysia. We had a lot of back and forth about where we should go and what we should do. Our initial idea was to do scuba diving in Thailand but one of my groupmates had an ear problem and couldn’t participate in scuba diving because of the water pressure and altitudes. So we committed ourselves to do an adventure trip to Gopend where we could trek and do white water rafting. We had a budget and we needed to stay within it so we spent a lot of time negotiating with the camp and found reasonable flights and visa prices. We made daily schedules and coordinated with the camp provider. We found traditional Malaysian cooking and textile classes in a village we were excited about. We made our proposals and got approval accordingly. It was hard to manage with the budget set but we persevered, researched and found alternatives for everything we couldn’t afford. All in all, it was a learning moment for me who never planned a trip before.

Global Cooking with Junior Students

LO 2 – Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process.

When COVID-19 hit, I had to leave Singapore and go back to India due to visa regulations. So, I faced a lot of challenges when it came to this activity as its a very hands-on learning approach that I take in this class. I coordinated with parent leader, Risa and came up with a plan. I made the PPT’s remotely and shared them with the class while Risa took on the in-class teaching. I realised I missed sharing my recipes with children so I started making an online blog to post my recipes and some videos of me demonstrating the techniques used in the recipes. I learnt new skills like food writing, food photography and filming. I tried making and adapting recipes at home so I could teach them in the future when I was back in Singapore to the kids. It was a new experience but a rewarding one as well.

Global Cooking with Junior Students

LO 3 – Demonstrate how to initiate and plan a CAS experience.

In Global Cooking, I deal with children’s safety on a regular basis and we have to follow certain rules to keep them safe like adapting recipes because we cant use stoves and fire. A major component of cooking is using fire and heat, which made it very tough to choose recipes from different cultures for the kids to learn. I spent my weekends trying to remake recipes using only the oven for heat which was a weird experience. I made pancakes using the oven, cheese bites in the oven and so on. I had to write down all-new recipes for the kids and plan PowerPoint presentations, to understand the heritage behind each dish I introduced to them. It was helpful to me as well as it improved my skills in the kitchen when it came to adapting to certain appliances. I took on the initiative to teach no heat cooking and told my parent leader about it and we taught the children how to make sushi.

STEM Club

LO 7 – Recognise and consider the ethics of choices and actions.

In STEM Club, we have one hour-long debates and discussions about science, technology, engineering and math. We also focus on the aspects of ethics when it comes to scientific experimentation and research practises. One particular discussion my friend and I had revolved around a scientific study about prison inmates and guards where the experiment recruited people to act as prisoners and guards for a couple of weeks. This study let verbal and physical abuse take place and was ended in a couple of weeks because of psychological damage to volunteers and people quitting. We researched the situation as we thought it was ethically and morally wrong and were curious as to how they got permission to create such an experiment just in the name to further science. We also had many other debated about animal testing and alternatives… It was an enlightening experience.

STEM Club

LO 6 – Demonstrate engagement with issues of global importance.

In STEM Club, we have regular quizzes and debates about all things STEM. One of the main parts of the club is the end of year presentation on one aspect that exists in the STEM world. My partner Daniel and I chose to focus on science, specifically Plastic Surgery. Daniel being from South Korea gave the rundown about how plastic surgery is like a lunchtime activity in South Korea and doesn’t have any taboo there. So we chose to focus on two points – popular plastic surgery practises and plastic surgery in South Korea. I chose to talk about science and Daniel focused on South Korea as he knew the situation personally. I focused on rhinoplasties, breast augmentation and liposuction as well as present plastic surgery trends and side effects. We wanted to bring notice to the fact that plastic surgery shouldn’t be looked down upon in society and there are many valid reasons for it.

Culturama

LO 2- Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process.

I don’t know how to dance or I didn’t know how to dance before I took on the challenge of Culturama. I did it for the purpose of being a part of something so hugely UWC. I learnt how to chant being tone-deaf and how to gracefully move my body to music when I was incapable of it before. I made amazing new friends and had a great leader to teach me during rehearsals. I learnt a lot about the Maori culture and heritage as well. It was a scary experience yet one of the best decisions I made to challenge myself.

Culturama

LO 7 – Recognise and consider the ethics of choices and actions.

For Culturama, I went into auditions sure that I wanted to celebrate New Zealand’s culture through dance. As New Zealand in the Culturama was always an only boy dance in the past we wanted to do something different this year and make it available to girls as well, showing equality in the auditions. During the first practice, our group decided that we were going to keep it very traditional in terms of chanting, movements and style. Our costumes were chosen tastefully to display the Maori symbol and express it in the spotlight. Our movements were learnt from traditional Hakka dances and we learnt the original chanting used in New Zealand to honour the origin and heritage of the tribes.