GCD Personal Goal – Personal Project

My personal project in Year 11 was based on my passion for sustainable development and the environmental conservation. The main aim of my project was to identify areas in which my school as a whole can improve  on protecting the environment. This finding would then be presented to the administration of the school for consideration.

I started off my project with walking around school to observe things that could make NIST greener. There were of course the most obvious things such as turning off lights and air-condition when there is no one in a room. That provided me with a good foundation on which I was able to base my research on and allowed me to dig deeper into my goal. Searching on the internet, I discovered that sustainability doesn’t have to be defined as “saving the environment”, but instead it is the ability to meet our current needs without compromising the needs of the future generation. This inspired me to apply the sustainability concept to a wider range of areas.

GCD Advanced Academics – Music

When we got to choose what art subject to take in year 10, I immediately chose to do music. Music has been with me for as long as I remember and I have always taken an interest for this creative subject. Now haven taken music for 4 years, it is truly something I understand and have studied quite in depth.

The MYP music course was a lot of fun but I was also able to expand my musical knowledge in a wide range of styles. This was also the first time I got exposed to composing my own piece of music. This first piece was based on “the Four Chords of Awesome” which is the tonic, sub-dominant, dominant

GCD Management – Red House

NIST has a quite a unique house system. This system is similar to the Harry Potter houses but instead of 4 we have 6 different houses: Red, Yellow, Green, Orange, Purple and Blue. The houses would compete in various different activities throughout the academic year which will ultimately contribute to the House Cup which is awarded to the winning house at the end of the year. This house system presented various student leadership opportunities as every house had a President and a year level representative from each year level.

I have been involved in the leadership team for the NIST House program for the past few years. I was elected as Red House President when I was in year 11 and I have been able to develop my leadership and management skills.

GCD Digital Citizenship – Digital Footprint

We live in a world today filled with information that is easily accessible by us. With a touch of a screen, I am able to watch live football game that is going on in England. This would have never been possible just 20 years ago and we owe this to the rapid expansion of information communication technology. I have been part of this “netizen” for a couple of years and I have used this amazing tool to do quite a number of things that would have not been possible without the help of the internet.

GCD Fit for Life – Sleep Cycles

I had never kept track of how long I sleep in a night, so it was very interesting for me to take on the task of recording my sleep cycle for a whole month. I have tried many ways to maximize my sleep quality in minimal amount of time such as using the 90 minute sleeping cycle system. This allowed me to wake up at the right time making it feel much more natural. To keep track of my sleep, I used an iPhone application called SleepBot. This application keeps track of the amount of time you have slept and records any movement or sound during your sleep. Here is a screen shot of my sleeping records for a month:

GCD Apprenticeship – Violin Repairing Apprenticeship

I have been playing the violin for many years now. However, I always had the curiosity in the making and repairing of this amazing instrument. To learn this skill, I worked at Xinghai Instrument for two weeks during my last summer holiday in highs school. I was put under the guidance of Master Shiying Zhang. Master Zhang has been fixing different string instruments for the majority of his life, and he is a real master when it comes to the art of making and repairing these beautiful instruments.

GCD Global Perspectives – Maeramit Development Group

The Maeramit Development Group or MDG (yes, it is a subtle reference to the UN Millennium Development Goals) is a CAS group where the aim is to sustainably develop Baan Maermait village located in Omgoi District, Chiang Mai province of northern Thailand. Omgoi district is one of the 10 poorest districts in Thailand.

The only way into the village is hike. It was not a short walk along a country road, but in fact a 4 hour long hike through mountainous terrain. It might seem unpleasant but in fact it was very enjoyable and the scenery was beautiful.

GCD Leadership – Mixed Up Concert

The Mixed Up Concert is an annual interschool band competition concert which aims to raise funds for the Love Wildlife foundation who conducts a lot of wildlife conservation work in Thailand. This was my second year working with Love Wildlife and my team and I were working very hard to raise awareness and outreach animal conservation to the international school community.

GCD Communication – Bilingualism

One of the advantages of growing up as a third culture kid is that I am able to speak more than one language at a conversational level. Growing up, I was placed in an international school which communicated mainly in English and at home I would spoke to my parents in Chinese. I slowly developed the both English and Chinese proficiency and I didn’t lose either in the process.

GCD Personal Accomplishments – Concertmaster

“The concertmaster (from the German Konzertmeister) is the second-most significant person in an orchestra. The concertmaster becomes a spokesman, explaining the new conductor’s instructions to the rest of the players.”

                                ~New York Times

I have been playing in the Bangkok Charity Orchestra (BCO) for a few years now. BCO is the first orchestra to be committed to raising funds for charities in Thailand. It is established with the aims to support well respected charities as well as to promote classical music while being a platform for aspiring musicians to perform to a high standard.