RAFT

R : Who do you need to reconcile with? How can you do that? Who can help you?

There are some friends I want to reconcile with before I go off to University, I want to do that by just having a conversation with them and explaining the issues I am having with them,

A: Who are those special people you want to thank?

I have a lot of my friends and teachers I would like to thank for making my time at UWC so enjoyable- individuals I will miss a lot.

F: Who do you need to say goodbye to? How and When?

Mainly my family as I would assume they will miss me the most but, also the friends who I won’t see for a long time. I would probably start doing this closer to when I leave.

T: What do you need to know about your destination? What will you need to bring? What support networks are available there? Who can you contact already to find out more? What else will you be able to do other than academic work?

I should find out more about the environment in the place I want to go and study, I would assume I would have to bring a lot of utensils, not just clothing but also cooking utensils and basic living materials. My uncle lives in the place I would like to go to study so I have someone there who can inform me more about the place I am going. There are many clubs and societies in the place I want to go to University, therefore, I will have things to do other than academics.

The Planning Stages of Kahaani

During the first term of Kahaani we had to do all the preliminary planning to ensure that as we get closer to the show day we have no hiccups. However, for the second term we have much more we need to focus on that will ensure the actual beauty of the show. Such as: getting decorations, costumes, seeing whether the dances are on track, as well as editing all the music and making it easier for the tech coordinator.

As we inch closer to the actual show date it starts to get more stressful as we have to keep everything in check and everything needs to start adding up. There were a few hiccups along the way such as, team members not completing working on time, miscommunication between team members but, as we work together and more efficiently we will be able to pull off a show that is good

Final Culturama

Culturama 2018 has come to a close and I really believe that the show went off without a hitch, our dance was energetic and full of life and I am so proud of what we achieved during the final shows. I was really nervous to perform considering I was at the front of the stage for a lot of the performance and I was scared to miss a step or a beat but, luckily I was able to do the dance in the way I wanted to and I achieved my goal of ridding myself of the stage fright I originally feared I would have. As this is my last culturama I have really seen growth in myself throughout the past 3 years in terms of my confidence, I remember during my first culturama I was not confident dancing on the big stage as it meant there were over 500 people watching but, now after 3 years of doing culturama I have now mastered the art of being in the moment on stage. Realising that once you are on stage it really doesn’t matter if there are 500 people or just 10 you just do the dance and focus on the dance and it’ll be fine. If we hadn’t worked together as a team the show would not have been as good, we organised many outside school practices to help us master the steps and be the best we could on stage. Culturama comes down to the effort we all put in and if each of us had not put in the effort we did in the practices the show would not have been the hit that it was. I am very proud of what we achieved as Culturama India 2018.

Viva Voce Reflection

Originally, I thought the question I had chosen would be one that would be hard to find actual research for considering the specificity of the chosen question itself. However, I believe I showed resilience when finding suitable sources that would help me come to a conclusion. In the end, I was able to get many reliable sources that supported any claims I was making, this, contributing to the strength of the arguments made in my essay. The online sources I used best fit the research I was conducting given how easily available they were.  Overall, I feel I have learnt a great deal through the exploration I conducted when writing my extended essay, I don’t believe I was very shocked by any of the findings that I came across but, rather I realised that there are changes I need to make to my lifestyle in regards to the amount of negative news I watch and expose myself to, as the conclusions of my essay point to repeated watching and viewing of disturbing content as a cause for mental health issues.

Culturama 2018

This year will be my 3rd and final Culturama. Culturama is a show that aims to be inclusive allowing students to take part in dances that are representations of their own culture and one’s representative of other cultures. The idea behind Culturama stems from the mission of uniting people but, in this case through dance.

I will be taking part in India (Garba) as the culture that I represent. Culturama has always been an event I love taking part in every year, and I am very glad that I am able to return to it this year. Being my final year I would really like to go on stage with absolutely no stress and stage fright and enjoy myself as a way to assess the growth I have had through my years doing Culturama. Stage fright has always been a weakness for me and I hope that with the experience I have had for the past 3 years I will be able to just purely enjoy myself without the worry of forgetting steps and missing counts. We will go through countless hours of practice and try and perfect our dance. This will be a big commitment on my part which means I have to stay on top of my work and other activities in order to be present for all practices. Therefore, I will have to play to my strengths of being organised and try my best to not be bombarded with too much work in our final Culturama week.

I am really looking forward to my final year of Culturama as it has been almost a tradition for me for the past 3 years. I would really like to remember my final year of doing this dance show as being the best one.

 

EE Interim Reflection

I was successful with findings gained for my research question. However, a surprising thing I learnt through my research was that there is an abundance of research out there that relates to some aspects of a specific question you have. The hardest and most important part is being able to narrow the search results down to what you really want to learn and take away in order to answer your own research question. I definitely had to change my approach towards answering this question multiple times in order to use relevant research as there were too many varying journals that did not directly answered the question at hand. My understanding on this particular issue has definitely changed and has been enhanced in such a way that I am more aware of how much negative news I expose myself to, so that I am attending to my own mental health whilst still being aware of the issues occurring around the world.

Defence of a quote about religion in politics

“The religious leaders don’t know how to govern. They will return to their mosques. The proletariat shall rule! Its inevitable!!” (Satrapi, 62)

“[The Iranian National Anthem] had been forbidden and replaced by the new government’s Islamic hymn.”(Satrapi,

“The educational system and what is written in school books, at all levels, are decadent. Everything needs to be revised to ensure that our children are not led astray from the true path of Islam” (Satrapi, 73)

I have selected “The educational system and what is written in school books, at all levels, are decadent. Everything needs to be revised to ensure that our children are not led astray from the true path of Islam” and I will be defending how it is morally just by pointing out how important education in the early stages of a child’s life is. During the Iranian Revolution there started to be a very thin line between religion and politics, this started entering the many aspects of the citizens lives including education. Children’s education was being controlled and it seemed almost as if the government was brainwashing them through religion and the things these children were being taught. Instead of teaching these children to grow up in an expressive manner whereby they learn about every religion and choose how they want to live they were being brought up in a very regressive manner constricting them from becoming their own people. Education should be a way to unite people with other cultures making sure they are being brought up in an open minded environment, through using extremist religion as a way to bring children up constricts them in their future endeavours.

Post IFP Conference Reflection

“Dear new UWCSEA IBDP Class,

Initiative for Peace is a once in a lifetime experience, the lessons you learn during that week are some of the most important lessons you can ever learn. After coming back from this conference I feel like a new and improved version of myself and I have made friends from across South East Asia who I will never forget. If you are signing up to do IFP you must be sure to be fully committed to it.

These are the top 3 ethical considerations to bear in mind before joining IFP: you should know to be someone who is not patronising, be someone who is aware of what these delegates have been through, as well as this you need to be someone who cares enough to not let go of the friendships you make during this week log conference. The last ethical consideration you must bear in mind is the way you act with your fellow facilitators, you shouldn’t leave the delegates out, most of them travel hours and hours to see you so please ensure that you make them feel included at all times.

Through IFP I was able to identify my strength in leadership, this evolved over the course of the year. I noticed this during my time in IFP, before arriving at the conference when we had to present at school,  I would always shake and stutter when asked to present. However, upon reaching the conference something within me changed. I was able to speak confidently in front of all 80 people, as time went on at the conference I found it easier and easier to speak in front of larger groups of people. As well as this I got more confident in giving simplified instructions.

You would’ve seen my commitment to IFP when we were doing our outside of school sessions, we did the Peace by Piece conference, through these many different IFP activities I was able to show that I would be able to commit my time to the conference. As well as this during the entirety of the conference there was never an occasion where my energy wavered, I knew that these delegates spent hours and hours getting here and it was not right of me to ever act low or detached from them. I made sure to make them feel as welcome as possible. Not only this but, even months after the conference came to a close I am still in contact with delegates who were a part of the conference on social media.

IFP cannot happen without a strong belief in the power of collaboration. The three moments which best demonstrated our ability to improve as a collaborative team were when one of the groups was struggling to stick with the time allocated to them, we found a way to work out ways to include the activities they wanted into the timetable of the conference. This meant compromises from the other groups but, we worked together to come up with the best possible outcome for the conference. As well as this we also worked together in a less direct sense, what I mean by this is that we worked together to make sure all the delegates felt welcome and felt like they belonged. We would split up and sit with a variety of delegates and made sure none of them were ever alone.

The one most significant thing that I learned through IFP was that the world is in need of a lot more positivity, the amount of positivity I experienced in IFP is indescribable, we supported each other throughout the conference, we overcame our differences and learnt to just accept and love. As well as this I learnt that it is up to us, our generation to make a difference whether it is small or big is not the point,  I was able to access this learning by speaking to many of the delegates. Through them I was able to learn that I have what it takes to make a difference, I have what it takes to do more than just a desk job. They taught me that I can do something and that what I do can have an impact because I impacted them.

IFP is an experience that can never be replaced in my mind, it is something I will never forget. Whenever I feel down I know that the thought of what I learnt in IFP will take over and make me determined and hopeful again. So, if you are joining IFP be sure to be very committed to it because it is truly an experience you will never forget.”

Project Week

Project week is a key part of learning at UWC, we learn to plan an entire trip with at least 2 of the elements of CAS, we are told to plan everything all by ourselves. In a sense project week is the first step to growing up.

The planning stages of Project Week have been very difficult, a major problem we faced was our service, when we found a service that was close to where we were doing our activity we had a complication, this was that there was another group at UWC aiming to do that exact same service. Both of our groups wanted to do the same service and unfortunately there was a regulation that no two groups can stay at the same accommodation at the same time therefore, we had to figure out a way for both groups to do the service whilst not staying at the accommodation they provided at the same time, this service was in a province that didn’t have many hotels and the service provider provided us with accommodation if we were doing service there.

This was one of the major issues we faced in relation to the planning process as it was very difficult to find dates that suited both groups. Luckily we figured out a way for the other group to go before us and for us to go after them allowing us to both do the service whilst not staying at the same accommodation.

1 2 3 4