Maira Gupta, Grade 11
UWCSEA East Campus
UWC is such a nice space to get involved in a whole bunch of things- be it sports, activities, services, or whatever else. It's a place that allows one to immerse itself in their interests and develop them further. The activities and academic units are also designed in a way that encourages students to think out of the box and go deeper with what they learn to create bigger things outside of school- it all ties into the greater idea of holistic learning that is not just limited to the 4 walls of the classroom.
Now, you must be wondering why I described any of that and what use is that information to you. Well, this set the foundation of the story I would like to share with you. The story of my most memorable experience on campus, in which the holistic learning approach plays such an important role.
Back in grade 9, we had an English unit on journalism. The idea was to learn the art of interviewing, writing, tailoring contact based on the target audience, finding the right people to interview, how to approach them, etc. the unit was one of the most hands-on units and allowed each student to research a topic they were interested in by conducting many interviews with people in the filed. The end goal was to craft the views collected from the interviews into one piece about the topic. My research was about different forms of media and how they are used to tell stories- such as books, dance, films, etc. the process of this interviewing was truly enriching and surprisingly, made me look forward to English class ;)
Learning a whole array of things from this experience, I never knew that these learnings would actually transform into a new idea! One weekend, I was sitting at home and reading the newspaper. Reading the articles, I was able to make connections between what was written and the process that I had followed. Identifying the carefully selected quotes, the people interviewed, etc, I was able to dissect the article into its [parfts and find similarities and thus and what I had created.
The idea suddenly sprung to me., what if I could also write in a newspaper? I believed that youngsters like me have an important say in world issues, and as a young girl who was unafraid to express her opinion, I found it unfair that only professional journalists could get published in a newspaper. And then came the realization that perhaps there are many youngsters out there like me who want to get published and have something to say/share but they lack a platform.
And this was it. I decided to start my own online newspaper for youngsters to voice their opinions and get published. The platform was called Youth Shout Out. After publishing about 5 editions of the paper, I contacted the UWC school staff telling them about the platform and then asking if we could launch a UWC edition of the online paper. I was elated to receive a positive response and received high-quality articles on a wide range of issues. After a lot of work, and communication with fellow students and supporting staff, I was able to come out with the UWC edition. I printed out copies of this and handed out a copy to each of the teachers in the English department, requesting if they could have it up in their classroom on display for students to read and get to know about the platform. I wasn't sure if all the teachers would be willing to put it up, but I did from my end and hoped for the best. Even today, after a few months, when I walk through the English corridor and look into classrooms and I see the Youth Shout Out printed newspaper in classrooms, that sight fills me with joy. Not just this, but after handing them out to teachers, I had students from different classes come up to me and tell me that they had a look at the paper and they loved it! Hearing such things is such a good feeling, seeing the hard work come into action. While this was a venture outside of school, seeing it come to life in school and receiving immense support from fellow students and staff has been one of my most memorable experiences at UWC. I thank the holistic learning and diverse units of UWC academics for this.
Now, you must be wondering why I described any of that and what use is that information to you. Well, this set the foundation of the story I would like to share with you. The story of my most memorable experience on campus, in which the holistic learning approach plays such an important role.
Back in grade 9, we had an English unit on journalism. The idea was to learn the art of interviewing, writing, tailoring contact based on the target audience, finding the right people to interview, how to approach them, etc. the unit was one of the most hands-on units and allowed each student to research a topic they were interested in by conducting many interviews with people in the filed. The end goal was to craft the views collected from the interviews into one piece about the topic. My research was about different forms of media and how they are used to tell stories- such as books, dance, films, etc. the process of this interviewing was truly enriching and surprisingly, made me look forward to English class ;)
Learning a whole array of things from this experience, I never knew that these learnings would actually transform into a new idea! One weekend, I was sitting at home and reading the newspaper. Reading the articles, I was able to make connections between what was written and the process that I had followed. Identifying the carefully selected quotes, the people interviewed, etc, I was able to dissect the article into its [parfts and find similarities and thus and what I had created.
The idea suddenly sprung to me., what if I could also write in a newspaper? I believed that youngsters like me have an important say in world issues, and as a young girl who was unafraid to express her opinion, I found it unfair that only professional journalists could get published in a newspaper. And then came the realization that perhaps there are many youngsters out there like me who want to get published and have something to say/share but they lack a platform.
And this was it. I decided to start my own online newspaper for youngsters to voice their opinions and get published. The platform was called Youth Shout Out. After publishing about 5 editions of the paper, I contacted the UWC school staff telling them about the platform and then asking if we could launch a UWC edition of the online paper. I was elated to receive a positive response and received high-quality articles on a wide range of issues. After a lot of work, and communication with fellow students and supporting staff, I was able to come out with the UWC edition. I printed out copies of this and handed out a copy to each of the teachers in the English department, requesting if they could have it up in their classroom on display for students to read and get to know about the platform. I wasn't sure if all the teachers would be willing to put it up, but I did from my end and hoped for the best. Even today, after a few months, when I walk through the English corridor and look into classrooms and I see the Youth Shout Out printed newspaper in classrooms, that sight fills me with joy. Not just this, but after handing them out to teachers, I had students from different classes come up to me and tell me that they had a look at the paper and they loved it! Hearing such things is such a good feeling, seeing the hard work come into action. While this was a venture outside of school, seeing it come to life in school and receiving immense support from fellow students and staff has been one of my most memorable experiences at UWC. I thank the holistic learning and diverse units of UWC academics for this.
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