I have studied at UWCSEA for almost 10 years and I can say that it has definitely had an impact on myself, and the decisions I take. I believe that UWC is a fairly open and accepting society, which is why it was quite easy for me to transition into East Campus after living abroad for a year. There is a wide range of activities that provide opportunities for each student to participate in, which is why I have always enjoyed studying here. I would describe myself as creative, open-minded, and definitely hard-working. The amount of opportunities provided and the slight competitiveness between students has allowed me to become these things.

As like many other students in UWC, one of my main, generic, goals is to improve in my academic subjects. I feel that I work hard in all my subjects, though I put more effort into the ones that I enjoy. This has been quite different for me this year, because I have noticed changes that I would not have anticipated, through the transition from middle to high school. I have noticed that my interest in different subjects have mostly stayed the same, though some have definitely shifted. Currently, most of my interest lies within Maths, Science, Economies, and Graphic Design. However, in middle school I was more interested in English, Spanish, along with Science. This has been quite unusual for me because the subjects that I am interested in now, may be slightly more challenging, though I am always intrigued and interested during class. Whilst this shift in interest has been interesting, I have realised that the subjects that I used to like more are becoming my worst subjects, in terms of grades. This is one of goals that I have set for myself to carry out through the rest of the two-year GCSE course. The only way that I am going to become better at subjects, such as English and Spanish, is to practice and to do things out of the normal expectations. In the short-term, my main action is to spend some of the summer practising speaking Spanish and enabling it to become quite intuitive which is a hard process. For English, it is quite a strange one, as the topics we do in class I enjoy greatly, such as Shakespeare and Poetry, though my interest does not exactly reflect in my grades. My main goal is to work on my application, by doing this I need to read more, so I can expand my vocabulary. This summer, I plan to read as much as I can in order to achieve this.

Something that comes up frequently in conversations with friends and family is how graphic communication is the future. This year was the first time that I have had proper experience with Graphic Design, and I can say that I thoroughly enjoy it. This subject is something that I definitely want to pursue in the future as I feel that it can be applied almost anywhere. I always find myself practicing different techniques and doing projects all the time that it is something I am considering for IB and university. However, my favourite subject is definitely science. From grade 6 to now I have always enjoyed this subject, due to the immense amount of topics and things that relate to it. My favourite being Biochemistry. I find this topic particularly interesting because it allows me to learn about what goes on inside organisms and how we work as human beings. Dissections are practicals that I enjoy doing every year in Science because it almost sparks my creativity. Recently with the heart dissection, I found it interesting applying the knowledge we already know from diagrams and explanations to the real-life and being able to connect the dots. Though I do not know if this interest will create some sort of career for me, I definitely would like to continue learning all about it, especially in IB.

Moving on from academics, sports is a big passion of mine. I have played Touch Rugby for almost seven years now, and my interest has never faded. No matter how many times I have not made it to the ‘A-team’ I have been able to carry out this passion outside of school, playing at relatively high-levels in different tournaments and leagues. In December of 2017, I received my first actual rejection email, and this set me back quite a lot. This was a rejection for not making it to the U18 Singapore National Touch Rugby team, and it was a disappointment that made me not go to training for almost a month, as most of my team outside of school had made it to the team. However, it made me realise that there is so many more opportunities out there and that I have to keep improving. Since then, my team has won the first league of 2018, which was quite exciting. My goal is to still make it to the school A-team, as it allows me to travel to Australia and to other countries for major tournaments that I have always wanted to participate in.

Moving forward, my main goals are to focus on my academics as well as touch rugby. I would also like to take on some leadership roles, which is something that I have started to. For example, in class I enjoy organizing activities and taking responsibility, and I am also running for chair in the GC that I joined in the beginning of the year. This is quite different for me, as in middle school I have always preferred to work alone, though in high school taking leadership is quite important. As well as grades, I would also like to improve my ATL’s which are my approaches to learning. I have always tried to keep these consistent, though I would like to improve some of these, especially collaboration – which links to my goal to be more of a leader and work with other people. As grade 10 is coming soon, which means more exams, I would like to focus on staying organized and keeping putting effort into everything I do, in order to do better in my academics and other interests, and to also explore other things as well.