Prom committee is a club that consists of only 11th grade students at ISK. As the name implies, this club aims to raise $10,000 by March of 2012 so that the Junior class can host the prom for the Seniors. I am the head of the fundraising committee for this club, so my job is to think up of possible fundraisers that can raise a lot of money! We mainly raise money by selling drinks at almost every school event, and so far, this had proved to be successful. Since August, we have raised about $3,000 so our aim is to raise at least $7,000 more.
On the 11th of November, International Day was held at ISK, which is an event where every student dresses up in something that represents their country and parades around the campus. This event is always attended by many parents, and all the students and teachers. Therefore, it was a great opportunity for our grade to sell drinks, and this is exactly what we did. Although it was very hectic and we had no time to take a break for more than 3 hours, it was all worth it in the end as we managed to raise 104,000 Kenyan shillings!
We are already planning various events in the coming weeks and we will hopefully have met our goal of raising $10,000 by March!
Monday, 14 November 2011
MUN: Mock Debate
On the 12th of November, the Model United Nations mock debate was held at the International School of Kenya. In this event, all the schools that will participate in the actual EAMUN conferences in February came to ISK and it was a chance for us to debate various resolutions that participants had written and get a sense of what the conference in February will be like.
The country I represented at the debate was Ukraine, and I was a delegate for the ecology committee. This committee focuses on environmental issues and human interactions with the environment. Seeing as the entire event only ran for about 2 hours, we did not have time to debate too many resolutions and sadly, the only resolution that an ISK student had written was not debated. We managed to get through four or five resolutions and this was a chance for us all to see what components make a resolution stand out to delegates and what should not be included.
Soon, I will be given the country that I will represent at the conference in February and I will begin to write a resolution with the rest of the delegates from that country. Hopefully, by using what we learned at the mock debates, we will be able to write a powerful resolution that people will find hard to vote against!
The country I represented at the debate was Ukraine, and I was a delegate for the ecology committee. This committee focuses on environmental issues and human interactions with the environment. Seeing as the entire event only ran for about 2 hours, we did not have time to debate too many resolutions and sadly, the only resolution that an ISK student had written was not debated. We managed to get through four or five resolutions and this was a chance for us all to see what components make a resolution stand out to delegates and what should not be included.
Soon, I will be given the country that I will represent at the conference in February and I will begin to write a resolution with the rest of the delegates from that country. Hopefully, by using what we learned at the mock debates, we will be able to write a powerful resolution that people will find hard to vote against!
Monday, 31 October 2011
East African Model United Nations
MUN has been one of my favorite clubs that I have ever been a member of. I greatly enjoy discussing world issues and writing resolutions which aim to solve some of these issues. I have been a member of the MUN club at ISK for the past five years, this current one being my sixth. Every year, I find myself becoming more and more confident and I find it much easier to speak in front of large crowds and share my ideas now than I did a couple of years ago.
However, this year, the MUN club at ISK changed quite a bit. The main change (and what frightened me the most) was that as a result of more than 50 people signing up for the club, and only about 15 spaces available for the EAMUN conferences which take part in the United Nations in Nairobi, we were told that we would be closely examined during all meetings so that the club heads could see which ones of us stand out the most and would represent ISK well at the conferences. Naturally, people became very stressed and everyone tried to stand out in anyway possible. I was also one of these people and I tried to share my ideas at every meeting that I attended and make convincing arguments. In the meetings I attended, we were asked to discuss in groups about current world issues and think of solutions for them. Our solutions had to be realistic and doable, and most people struggled with this area. I, however, was used to doing this from all my previous years in MUN and I feel as though I rose to the challenge and gave some great ideas.
After two months of attending meetings, the day finally came for us to be told if we were going to partake in the conferences or not, and today was that day. I was extremely nervous as the list of people who were chosen was being read out, especially since we had been told that having previous MUN experience does not give you better chances of getting into the conferences. As the list was being read out, my anxiety grew larger and larger since I had not heard my name. Finally, towards the end of the list, my name was called out! I was so happy for this and I felt as though all my years of being a member of this club had not gone to waste. However, we were later told that this group of people is going to attend the mock debates at ISK. We are not guaranteed a position in the actual conferences in January, meaning that we still have to prove that we are worthy of attending. Hopefully, I will continue to stand out to the club heads and will be chosen for the January conferences!
However, this year, the MUN club at ISK changed quite a bit. The main change (and what frightened me the most) was that as a result of more than 50 people signing up for the club, and only about 15 spaces available for the EAMUN conferences which take part in the United Nations in Nairobi, we were told that we would be closely examined during all meetings so that the club heads could see which ones of us stand out the most and would represent ISK well at the conferences. Naturally, people became very stressed and everyone tried to stand out in anyway possible. I was also one of these people and I tried to share my ideas at every meeting that I attended and make convincing arguments. In the meetings I attended, we were asked to discuss in groups about current world issues and think of solutions for them. Our solutions had to be realistic and doable, and most people struggled with this area. I, however, was used to doing this from all my previous years in MUN and I feel as though I rose to the challenge and gave some great ideas.
After two months of attending meetings, the day finally came for us to be told if we were going to partake in the conferences or not, and today was that day. I was extremely nervous as the list of people who were chosen was being read out, especially since we had been told that having previous MUN experience does not give you better chances of getting into the conferences. As the list was being read out, my anxiety grew larger and larger since I had not heard my name. Finally, towards the end of the list, my name was called out! I was so happy for this and I felt as though all my years of being a member of this club had not gone to waste. However, we were later told that this group of people is going to attend the mock debates at ISK. We are not guaranteed a position in the actual conferences in January, meaning that we still have to prove that we are worthy of attending. Hopefully, I will continue to stand out to the club heads and will be chosen for the January conferences!
Tennis Match
Today, I played my third match of this tennis season. Once again, I was partnered up with Tatiana Zeller, who has been my double's partner in all practices and matches so far. This match was against West Nairobi School who we previously played about a month ago. As I recall, the last match I played against students from this school was not very interesting and for this reason, I went into this match with a very pessimistic attitude. Although I played against different people this time around, I was expecting it to be an extremely easy game and just as dry as the previous one.
As soon as the game began, I realized that I had made a wrong prediction. The players were at a much higher level than the previous matches' ones, and they made us work really hard to win points. Although we won this game with a score of 6-0 (the same score as the previous game), both Tatiana and I were satisfied by the end of it and felt as though we had actually been challenged, making the win that much more rewarding. One of my goals for the tennis season is to improve my service game and I was extremely proud of my improvement in this area today as I managed to serve a couple of aces. In general, my serves are much faster than they used to be and much more accurate, seeing as I only had 1 or 2 faults in the entire game. I hope that this improvement continues to happen and that I win all the service games in my next match.
As soon as the game began, I realized that I had made a wrong prediction. The players were at a much higher level than the previous matches' ones, and they made us work really hard to win points. Although we won this game with a score of 6-0 (the same score as the previous game), both Tatiana and I were satisfied by the end of it and felt as though we had actually been challenged, making the win that much more rewarding. One of my goals for the tennis season is to improve my service game and I was extremely proud of my improvement in this area today as I managed to serve a couple of aces. In general, my serves are much faster than they used to be and much more accurate, seeing as I only had 1 or 2 faults in the entire game. I hope that this improvement continues to happen and that I win all the service games in my next match.
Wednesday, 26 October 2011
AISA Conference
From October 16th to October 19th, the AISA Conferences (Association of International Schools in Africa) were held at the International School of Kenya. Teachers from all over Africa come to these conferences to attend seminars that they find interesting or that they believe they can learn from to become better at their jobs. In order for these teachers to choose seminars and register for them, they need to talk to the secretariats, and in this case, the secretariats were 10 ISK students, one of which was me.
On October 16th, the first day of the conferences, we were responsible for setting up the secretariats' area and organizing our work space. This included connecting laptops to the AISA server and finding out all about the seminars so that we could advise teachers on which ones to attend. After this, the registering began. Teachers would come to us with questions about the seminars and after deciding which ones they wanted to attend, we would register them. Later, we were each assigned to one classroom/ seminar and were responsible for signing people in as they came. This job was actually quite difficult as some teachers refused to follow rules and all we could do as student was try to persuade them to listen to us. Although we were given permission to stand up to the teachers if they were not following rules, most of us did not do this because we were afraid of being rude! Our final job was to help the presenters of the seminars and make sure that everything was good to go before the seminar began. We often delivered water bottles to teachers and once or twice, we were even asked to bring them coffee!
The next three days were basically organized in the same way and the ISK students had the same responsibilities. The last day of the conference was a bit more hectic as we were each given two seminars to watch over, and there was a lot of going back and forth to make sure that everyone was satisfied and that everything was running they way it should have. Before the conference was over, Dr. Roberts, the ISK Director, thanked all of the ISK students for the work they had done and for "giving up" half of their October break to help out. He presented each of us with a certificate of appreciation and the conference was over.
I truly enjoyed helping out at AISA. I had never done anything quite like this before and it was a completely new experience for me. I never thought that I would enjoy being someone's "assistant" for such a long time but it proved to be very fun. Not only did I feel like I had done something useful with my October break, but I also felt as though I had learned something new and I now understand how much planning goes into holding an event as big as this. I look forward to possibly helping out at AISA conferences again next year if they are held in Kenya!
The next three days were basically organized in the same way and the ISK students had the same responsibilities. The last day of the conference was a bit more hectic as we were each given two seminars to watch over, and there was a lot of going back and forth to make sure that everyone was satisfied and that everything was running they way it should have. Before the conference was over, Dr. Roberts, the ISK Director, thanked all of the ISK students for the work they had done and for "giving up" half of their October break to help out. He presented each of us with a certificate of appreciation and the conference was over.
Tennis
Tennis is and always has been my main athletic focus. Although I am not a very active person, I really enjoy playing tennis and it is the only sport that I have stuck by and never stopped playing. This year, I made the tennis team at ISK. This means that I attend three practices a week, two of which take place before the school day begins. On top of these practices, I will have four matches against other schools and one tournament. My main goal is to improve my service game since the service is the worst part of my playing. I regulary practice serving in the team practices and measure how much I have improved by seeing how many service games I win in matches against other players.
I have already played two of my matches, one of which was singles and one which was doubles. The singles match I played in early September was against a Varsity team tennis player from Rosslyn Academy. I found this game to be extremely challenging as my opponent was a better player than me and was able to make the game difficult for me. Although he was a better player, I tried my hardest to make the game interesting by sending him some challenging shots. I ended up losing the match with a score of 6-3, but I was not at all dissapointed by this result because I felt that I had given the game my all and tried as best I could to win.
The second match that I played in early October was a doubles match, and my partner was Tatiana Zeller, also an ISK student. We played against two students from the West Nairobi school, but neither of us found this game very exciting. We won the game with a score of 6-0 and although we won, we did not find this game fun or interesting because we did not have to put a lot of effort into winning. I personally feel as though I did not improve as a player from this game, but it did give me a chance to practice my serving, which is the weakest part of my tennis game. I already feel as though my service has improved as my first serves have become more powerful and are more difficult for the opponent to return.
I have already played two of my matches, one of which was singles and one which was doubles. The singles match I played in early September was against a Varsity team tennis player from Rosslyn Academy. I found this game to be extremely challenging as my opponent was a better player than me and was able to make the game difficult for me. Although he was a better player, I tried my hardest to make the game interesting by sending him some challenging shots. I ended up losing the match with a score of 6-3, but I was not at all dissapointed by this result because I felt that I had given the game my all and tried as best I could to win.
The second match that I played in early October was a doubles match, and my partner was Tatiana Zeller, also an ISK student. We played against two students from the West Nairobi school, but neither of us found this game very exciting. We won the game with a score of 6-0 and although we won, we did not find this game fun or interesting because we did not have to put a lot of effort into winning. I personally feel as though I did not improve as a player from this game, but it did give me a chance to practice my serving, which is the weakest part of my tennis game. I already feel as though my service has improved as my first serves have become more powerful and are more difficult for the opponent to return.
Piano
I began learning how to play the piano about five years ago, right after I saw a pianist performing live. I was immediately attracted to this instrument due to the nature of its sound, and I knew that i had to master it. About a year after I began to play, I decided to take the ABRSM piano exams because at the time, I believed that this was the way to prove that I was improving in my playing. I progressed up to the grade 4 exam, which I passed last year. However, I have decided to stop taking exams and actually focus on enjoying the music that I learn, since the exams only gave me room to practice three songs year round and I found this to be very tedious.
Therefore, I am going to focus on getting through two piano books in the next two years, which each contain about 50 pieces. These books are called: John Thompson's Modern Course For The Piano (The Second Grade Book), and John Thompson's Modern Course For The Piano (The Third Grade Book). I am currently working on the former, which roughly corresponds to a grade 5 level in ABRSM exams. I take weekly hour long lessons with a piano instructor, who expects me to be able to perform all of these pieces at a professional level by the end of the two years. To achieve this, we focus on around three pieces weekly, and I practice them until I do not make any mistakes, whether it be a wrong note, not keeping to the rhythm, or not following dynamics.So far, I have been able to perform 14 pieces without any mistakes, although I am currently playing many more songs. To be able to "master" a piece, I need to commit to practicing the piano for at least half an hour per day and not giving up when I become frustrated. Although half an hour does not sound like a very long time, it has been difficult for me to stick to this routine as homework is constantly increasing and I find myself having less and less free time. As a result, I have had to be very flexible with my practice schedule, but I do try to make up any practice time that I have missed. On top of practicing the pieces, I also practice scale work as it is the foundation of playing an instrument, and by mastering my scales, playing actual music will be much easier in the future.
I am enjoying the pieces that I am playing much more than I enjoyed the exam pieces, as they are much more interesting in the sense that they expose me to new techniques that I have never used before. With every new piece comes something new to learn and it is exciting to know that I will be constantly learning more and more by just playing new pieces. I have gotten rid of the stress that I had last year when I was constantly trying to perfect my playing so that I would pass the exams, and this is why practicing the piano now is so much more fun!
Tuesday, 25 October 2011
Habitat For Humanity
The Habitat for Humanity club at ISK works hand in hand with Habitat for Humanity Kenya to build homes for the people who were displaced during the post election violence in 2008. I have been a member of this club for two years, and this is now my third. The reason I enjoy being a member of this club so much is because I am able to see the effects that my work is having on the displaced people as soon as I start it. When we go on building trips in Maai Mahiu and begin to build houses, we can see the smiles on people's faces that show how much joy they are feeling and it is a very rewarding experience. To be a member of this club, you have to be committed to attending two meetings per month and going on 3 building trips throughout the year.
I went on my first building trip at Maai Mahiu on September 24th 2011, which lasted from 8 a.m to about 4 p.m. At Maai Mahiu, a Habitat for Humanity Kenya member talked to the ISK students about the progress that the organization has made, saying that there were less than 100 houses left to build. This news was great to hear as I can still remember the first time I went to Maai Mahiu in 2009, when Habitat was just beginning to build houses. Later, the ISK volunteers were split into two groups which each had a different assignment. The group I was put into focused on carrying sand and cement to the building site, and then actually mixing the cement. This work was extremely tiring as can be expected, but we took regular breaks to interact with the community and play games with the local children. We had a lot of help from local families as well in shoveling sand and carrying cement and they were all very enthusiastic about the prospect of another house being built.
After the cement was mixed and the foundation of the house finished, we visited the local library. This library exists mainly because of ISK's book donations and commitment to the education of the displaced children and also due to a woman who gave up a large portion of her house to be made into a library. The library was in much better shape than I remembered it to be as all the books were up on shelves and were organized according to the Dewey Decimal System. We had the pleasure of donating another 100 books to the library, for which we received a lot of praise from both the adults and the children. After leaving the library, we got onto the bus and headed back home, and although all of us were very tired, we all had smiles on our faces.
I enjoyed this trip more than any other one that I have been on because I interacted with the community so much more this time than I had ever done before. It was great to listen to stories of how much living conditions have improved for the IDP's, especially since they themselves were the ones to tell us this. Playing with the children was a lot of fun not only for them, but for the ISK students as well because we got to see how happy they were when we were around and this made us feel appreciated. Finally, donating even more books for the local library was great because in this way, we are contributing to the education of the children and possibly allowing them to create a better future for themselves.
I went on my first building trip at Maai Mahiu on September 24th 2011, which lasted from 8 a.m to about 4 p.m. At Maai Mahiu, a Habitat for Humanity Kenya member talked to the ISK students about the progress that the organization has made, saying that there were less than 100 houses left to build. This news was great to hear as I can still remember the first time I went to Maai Mahiu in 2009, when Habitat was just beginning to build houses. Later, the ISK volunteers were split into two groups which each had a different assignment. The group I was put into focused on carrying sand and cement to the building site, and then actually mixing the cement. This work was extremely tiring as can be expected, but we took regular breaks to interact with the community and play games with the local children. We had a lot of help from local families as well in shoveling sand and carrying cement and they were all very enthusiastic about the prospect of another house being built.
After the cement was mixed and the foundation of the house finished, we visited the local library. This library exists mainly because of ISK's book donations and commitment to the education of the displaced children and also due to a woman who gave up a large portion of her house to be made into a library. The library was in much better shape than I remembered it to be as all the books were up on shelves and were organized according to the Dewey Decimal System. We had the pleasure of donating another 100 books to the library, for which we received a lot of praise from both the adults and the children. After leaving the library, we got onto the bus and headed back home, and although all of us were very tired, we all had smiles on our faces.
I enjoyed this trip more than any other one that I have been on because I interacted with the community so much more this time than I had ever done before. It was great to listen to stories of how much living conditions have improved for the IDP's, especially since they themselves were the ones to tell us this. Playing with the children was a lot of fun not only for them, but for the ISK students as well because we got to see how happy they were when we were around and this made us feel appreciated. Finally, donating even more books for the local library was great because in this way, we are contributing to the education of the children and possibly allowing them to create a better future for themselves.
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