NACIS Graduate’s Reflection: IBDP Makes Me Become a Lifelong Learner (2)

'Trip to Tanzania Shows Me How Important it is to Have a Sense of Social Responsibility'

Service is an important part during IB learning. Through the global resources of our school, I was lucky enough to visit the Nord Anglia Base in Tanzania, which was a precious experience. I joined the activity together with students from four or five other schools of Nord Anglia. After camping at the national wildlife park, we quickly became friends. But the next two events are the highlights of the trip.

In many people's eyes, the public service activities may be more formalistic, but we really helped local villagers to build sheep cot and school by our own hands. The teacher only gave us a piece of drawing, and we finished the construction work by ourselves. We sawed wood and nailed nails, and finally built a sheep cot successfully. We also gave the villagers a sheep, which they could raise for income. In the next two days, we built a primary school classroom together, and made desks and chairs out of wooden boards. Without this trip, I think I would never have such an experience.

Living in a better material environment, I seldom think that there are many people in the world who need help from others. Now I know that even as high school students, we can help lots of people. There are many things we can do to improve society besides focusing on our studies.

'IB Makes Me an Independent Thinker'

Finally, I would like to talk about IB, which is the international baccalaureate diploma program. It is initially a challenge for a student like me coming out of a national school. To complete IB courses, we need good learning methods. During learning IB courses, our critical thinking and independent thinking ability have been greatly improved. 

Learning is no longer that teachers give papers and we finish them. It is not simple to cope with the test through finishing excessive assignments. When I began to write a paper for the first time, I was very resistant to it. At the thought of writing 4000 words, I had no way to start. In fact, the writing process is relatively smooth, and the most difficult thing is the process of thinking and determining the theme before writing.

In the preparation of a paper in grade 12, I had no idea and changed the topic again and again. Finally, the topic was "The Comparison and Connection Between American Comedy and Ancient Greek Comedy". I spent a lot of time searching materials and arguments. Since I need linguistics knowledge and I know nothing about linguistics, I asked my English teacher to help me.

We had a brainstorming session, concluded a research direction, and then I made a deep analysis on the theme. The paper is divided into several parts, rather than a lecture with 4000 words. After that, the writing process went very smoothly. I often stayed up until 4 o 'clock to improve my ideas and examples due to bursts of inspiration and forgot to eat and sleep. 

After that, I found that writing a paper is a process of exploring the issues that I am really interested in. I choose my own subject topics, put forward hypotheses, collected data, completed argumentats and solved problems. Such an autonomous learning process relates to the learning mode of universities. We no longer finish the homework assigned by teachers step by step. The most important thing is that I learn to think independently and solve problems. IB makes me become a lifelong learnerwho really loves academic research and makes improvements.

It is said IB is difficult. But in fact, if you master the right learning methods, you can overcome it completely. During the process, you will not only gain learning results, but also form good learning habits, especially time management. We often must write a lot of papers and it takes a lot of time for students who are trying to write a long paper for the first time, so it is very important to give yourself enough time to prepare and use the fragmented time to complete the course.

Three years ago, I was scared and timid with no courage to make a speech.

Three years later, I will take the initiative to join the speech activity, drama club, music and public performances. With the encouragement from my teachers and classmates, I beat the inner fear of standing under spotlights and broke free of chains. As I become open-minded, I would prefer to put forward my own ideas, explore with my classmates, and collect data to an argument...

The three-year learning at NACIS changed the course of my life. In August, I will leave for George Washington University to start my college life, but I will remember the support from NACIS forever which contributes to a brand-new Evian.