Communication:
I have effectively engaged with those around me by utilizing various forms of interaction to spark meaningful discourse. For instance, my experience with the BuzzFeed Quiz highlighted my ability to leverage knowledge as a tool for communication, allowing me to connect with others in an enjoyable and engaging manner. Through geography trivia, I was able to challenge my friends and peers, fostering a sense of camaraderie while making learning fun. This experience illuminated the understanding that communication is inherently valuable and comes at no cost; an effective communicator has everything to gain and nothing to lose when conversing with others. Aside from my successes in avoiding awkwardness with my BuzzFeed quiz, I also ran for president of EQED, a service club that seeks to educate the visually impaired and create more interaction between students. The experience I have had so far of being president is incredibly helpful to my ability to communicate, because it forces me into situations where I must communicate with older peers and fellow officers who have been in the club for far longer than I have. By doing this, my fear of embarrassment in front of upperclassmen, teachers, and older peers have been dispelled, because of the sheer number of situations I have had to face where interaction was imperative.
Critical Thinking:
As a debater, critical thinking is one of my core strengths as a person. Being able to think on the spot and make sharp remarks is an ability I have been trained to have, thus, the large number of points I have in this category. I have so far demonstrated my critical thinking by completing activities such as analyzing sources for bias, choosing 15 words, and writing a short paragraph story. All these activities allow me to critically think because they are completed in a short and hasty period. analyzing sources for bias requires me to sift through information critically, determining where they would sit on the political spectrum. The discovery of implied bias in articles was incredibly intriguing to me, because bias is meant to be something Iām well-versed at as a debater (that was a joke). Additionally, the exercise of choosing 15 words and crafting a coherent short paragraph story in 30 or so minutes pushes me to think creatively while maintaining clarity and precision in my writing. It allows me to succinctly articulate my stories but also allows me to consider what I should include within my 15 words. Ultimately, these activities have strengthened my ability to understand the world, to view certain things I see on the Internet on a broader scale and analyze them at a quicker rate.
Creative Learner:
As a ātheatre kidā, I have demonstrated creativity on multiple occasions: designing my own movie set as well as acting out believable stage combat in our current unit. My partner Eden and I used Minecraft to create a set from scratch, creating a modified, contemporary version of Little Red Riding Hood in a true display of our creativity. In our stage combat unit, we have so far learned how to sell and give punches, kicks, all forms of violence that could be done non-violently (ironically). This doesnāt just require physical precision but also allows me to use my creativity to make angles to sell punches, or improvising lines as I ābeat upā everyone in the class. Theatre truly allowed me to blend my imagination with practical and physical skills. I also participated in a t-shirt design contest alongside the class, where my design was (miraculously) nominated (even though I didnāt win). Despite not winning, I was able to enjoy the experience of using the artistic acumen (that I donāt have a lot of) onto a t-shirt design that resulted in being lots of fun. These experiences coalesce to enhance my creativity, by honing my lackluster artistic skills but also allowing me to really allow my imagination to soar. As a result, I was truly able to āwear my heart on my sleeveā and display my true authentic self.
Resilience:
Going back to the topic of debate, it is the single most rigorous, time-consuming, and difficult extracurriculars to take part in. Prior to the biggest competition in Europe, I spent nearly 10 hours a week on debate preparation. As a member of the Chinese national debating contingent, the hellish and competitive environment of every debate training hones my resilience, making me a stronger person and debater. To offset this pressure from debate, I also took part in a 10-minute meditation that brought me inner peace and dispelled this overwhelming stress from debate. To put it into words what debate training largely looks like, it is essentially a trial by fire. Each person wants to put out the best speech possible and impress our rather tough coach who does not care about our emotions nor our mental wellbeing. The ensuing competition was just as mentally draining, but being able to be somewhat successful during the competition boosted my morale and fortified my mind from negative feelings. Ultimately, my experiences in debate have taught me invaluable lessons about my mental fortitude, in tandem with dichotomous activities such as meditation, makes me a stronger person. Not only can I deal with tough situations on my own, but I can also find solutions like meditation that can take some of the weight off my shoulders when I really need it.
Collaboration:
As mentioned beforehand, I worked on a theatre project with my partner Eden. In this process, we werenāt just able to demonstrate our creativity; we were also able to work as a pair as well as split our responsibilities equally. This was a testament to how well we could work together despite never having done so before. From the initial brainstorming processes to the execution of our set design itself, we set boundaries and rules for each other, which allowed us to work together with minimal quarrelling or disagreements. This assisted my growth in collaboration, because I was able to streamline things like workflow through effective collaboration. It enriched our experiences and allowed me to understand how I could potentially work with others in the future, regardless of whether I know them well or not. Additionally, I also work in a service club that requires me to work with other club members and fellow officers, splitting tasks and each fulfilling our obligation. Additionally, we map out what we will do this semester, which enhances my ability to collaborate with others and have a clear plan that aligns with their interests as well as mine. Ultimately, this has made a more collaborative person who is willing to work with anyone regardless of who they are. These activities exemplify my growth in collaboration and makes my interactions with peers and teachers far smoother in the future.
A critical thinker: I was able to analyze the possibilities of the boat being in the picture of being outside of it. This allowed me to be a critical thinker because I was able to weigh my options.
An effective collaborator: I was able to listen to other people and their ideas. We worked cohesively to eventually complete the task.
A skillful communicator: We communicated well and corrected each other when standing in the wrong position.
A creative learner: We were able to vividly describe what was on the picture, while simultaneously imagining what was going on in other people’s pictures.
Resilient: We didn’t give up despite our struggles to find a common ground at times.
Throughout the span of the International Fair, I spent half of my time huddled in a corner of the cafeteria “binge eating”. My shift started an hour before the event ended, resulting in a fairly unproductive but still quite enriching experience. The game I monitored was about seizing the ability to see with a blindfold, then forcing players to walk on tiles with nothing but a walking stick. The difficulty of traversing while being unable to see was able to allow players to empathize with the visually impaired. I think it is pretty helpful for many to understand the cruel reality of blindness, and to be sensitive to these issues by experiencing it themselves. Whereas I did have fun, the end of the International Fair was fairly enriching because I was able to educate others while laughing at struggling kids walking to random stands blindfolded.
I decided that I would choose my clarification and goal cards to match the goal of using AI to help me with learning. I can use this as a source, much like an article, to absorb new information and assist me with my assignments. My commitment card states that I will monitor my AI-use by strictly citing my sources and using it purely for idea generation. I don’t think it is very enriching to utilize AI as a means of writing an essay word for word, but to use it to kickstart my brain.
So far, freshman year has been nothing short of exhilarating. All round, everything has changed; teachers, peers, but most importantly the environment. Moving to a new building, it’s perfectly understandable to be nervous (I think). What I am anticipating can be split two-fold: athletics and academics.
As for athletics, I am a JV1 volleyball player. Coming into a new season, there is a lot to anticipate, being able to represent the school on a platform as large as JPAC. I haven’t attended such a high stakes competition in my past experiences, so its worth looking forward to. Moreover, I can learn a lot more from my teammates and opponents, enabling me to make a push for potentially varsity or a better season in JV next year. I also look forward to bonding with teammates in various grades to expand my social circle.
Academically, I won’t be providing the generic answers everybody else would say. Instead, I am specifically looking forward to interacting with teachers about my work and getting more personalized comments. In high school, we all have more agency to interact with teachers and peers, so I intend to use the newfound opportunity to become more proficient in my various subjects such as Asian History and Math. Moreover, I look forward to the rigorous courses and what I could potentially add to my knowledge, while of course showcasing what I am already capable of.
Here is my preparation for my Passion Project 3.0 pitch.
Why have a digital portfolio at SAS?
Creating a portfolio, or blog is a great way to collect all the work youāve done throughout your academic career. You can include academic, athletic, and personal artifacts or experiences that you want to share with a wider audience. This is a great way to organize all your learning in one place and you can take it with you when you leave SAS.Ā When you make your portfolio, you create posts that are categorized according to your subject. Some categories have already been set up for you, but if you need more categories you can add them as needed. Itās important that your posts have the following:
- An engaging title ā this should not include the name of the subject since this is referenced in the category. Think of this as the first opportunity to engage and hook your reader!
- Body ā this is where you share your learning. This should include a combination of text and media in the form of images, graphics, and embedded videos. You should always consider how your post looks to your audience. Is it engaging and organized? Do they want to keep reading?
- Category ā select one that has been set for you or add a new category. Posts can have more than one category e.g. Humanities and Myself as a Learner
- Tags – create tags that can be used as keywords to describe your post. Tags help organize your post a little more! Aim to have 3-5 tags for each post. For example, if you are posting about a novel you wrote, you might want the following tags: #Fiction, #MurderMystery, #Theme, #PlotDiagram
Click on the images below to find a few helpful tips for creating your posts, adding media, and making categories:
