Joshua Morgan, Grade 11
UWC Thailand
Hello! I’m Josh from Wales, and I’m studying at UWC Thailand (UWCT). Ever since I moved here at the beginning of last August, my life has been crazy! Strap on your seatbelts as I’m about to take you on a ride through my UWCT experience so far, including the extreme highs and somewhat lows of it.
When I first arrived at UWC, I went through the first week of orientations where I met other new students and we were introduced to our ‘second years’. We took part in many activities, from mangrove planting to eating at the night market. These experiences enabled each and every one of us to be comfortably brought into the community here at school. Before arriving at UWC, I was scared of living a boarding school life. Questions raced through my mind; Was the food going to be bad? Were the rooms going to be small? What about WiFi? As I reflect back now on the feelings I had before, I realize that I needn't have been worried at all; the food is not so bad, the rooms are spacious and modern and the WiFi is actually better than it was back home! The diversity of the community also caught me by shock. We’re also so much more open to each other here than what we were in my circle of friends back home, increasing our solidarity.
Later on, I was introduced to the International Baccalaureate (IB) alongside the other new students. Listening to the explanations of how heavy and complex this course is, I started to get a bit worried. This curriculum was slightly different to the GCSEs which I had completed back in Wales. Over the past few months, I’d taken 4 HLs (Maths Applications, Physics, Chemistry, and Global Politics) and two SLs (French B and English A). I now felt that there was too much on my plate. This feeling was unusual because, during the time of my GCSE’s, I was able to do well alongside managing an extra GCSE (Computer Science). I was even taking part in 2 extracurricular activities every day. I had also picked French as my language choice which turned out to be quite challenging however I really wanted to pursue the French language. Despite gaining my GCSE diploma for French, till this day I still struggle to keep conversations! After reflecting on my IB grades (released in December-after semester one) I decided to drop HL Physics to SL. Although the SL course matched turned out to be a better choice for me, it closed the door for engineering. However, I am considering shifting my SL English up to HL, which will bring me closer to my aspiration of studying politics, philosophy and economics (PPE) at university.
The academic study here is also very engaging, and there are many opportunities to show off and utilise our knowledge in each subject area. For example, me and a few friends from my science classes, Hunter, Kechen, and Grace, formed a team to compete in a physics Space Settlement Design Competition during our first term. I and a team of 11 others competed in the initial round International Space Settlement Design Competition (ISSDC) from the months of October to December. For the qualification round, we designed a spaceship, called Benevectoras, to transport people from the Earth to space, including the infrastructure on-board - which was my role in the team. We were successful in designing this spaceship and progressed to the Asian Regional Finals in January–this was a valuable experience for me. In terms of work ethic, it gave me an insight into the highs and lows of working within an industry as tough and competitive as the space one. It was also very interesting, not to mention fun, to work on such a project with like-minded people from across Asia. In the regional finals, we worked with other teams from across Asia to design a settlement (called Aresam) that would sit on Mars’ moon Phobos. At the end of the competition, we completed as runners up. We were judged on our presentation of our settlement(including NASA and Boeing engineers). It was a great experience. We can now work on submitting our original proposal once again, with a chance of being selected to compete in the World Finals in at Nasa in July 2020.
Living in Phuket has also given me the opportunity to travel more. During my first break in October, I travelled with 2 other second years to Singapore. We stayed at UWCSEA (Dover campus) to complete a service activity. I was able to work with the wonderful and kind community at the “Willing Hearts Soup Kitchen'' through and researched food waste, working and distributing food to the less privileged within the Singaporean community. We also spent time sightseeing in Singapore. We visited Marina Bay Sands and Universal Studios alongside many others! We got to see what life was like at one of our sister colleges. In the future, I hope to visit more UWCs around the world!
When I first arrived at UWC, I went through the first week of orientations where I met other new students and we were introduced to our ‘second years’. We took part in many activities, from mangrove planting to eating at the night market. These experiences enabled each and every one of us to be comfortably brought into the community here at school. Before arriving at UWC, I was scared of living a boarding school life. Questions raced through my mind; Was the food going to be bad? Were the rooms going to be small? What about WiFi? As I reflect back now on the feelings I had before, I realize that I needn't have been worried at all; the food is not so bad, the rooms are spacious and modern and the WiFi is actually better than it was back home! The diversity of the community also caught me by shock. We’re also so much more open to each other here than what we were in my circle of friends back home, increasing our solidarity.
Later on, I was introduced to the International Baccalaureate (IB) alongside the other new students. Listening to the explanations of how heavy and complex this course is, I started to get a bit worried. This curriculum was slightly different to the GCSEs which I had completed back in Wales. Over the past few months, I’d taken 4 HLs (Maths Applications, Physics, Chemistry, and Global Politics) and two SLs (French B and English A). I now felt that there was too much on my plate. This feeling was unusual because, during the time of my GCSE’s, I was able to do well alongside managing an extra GCSE (Computer Science). I was even taking part in 2 extracurricular activities every day. I had also picked French as my language choice which turned out to be quite challenging however I really wanted to pursue the French language. Despite gaining my GCSE diploma for French, till this day I still struggle to keep conversations! After reflecting on my IB grades (released in December-after semester one) I decided to drop HL Physics to SL. Although the SL course matched turned out to be a better choice for me, it closed the door for engineering. However, I am considering shifting my SL English up to HL, which will bring me closer to my aspiration of studying politics, philosophy and economics (PPE) at university.
The academic study here is also very engaging, and there are many opportunities to show off and utilise our knowledge in each subject area. For example, me and a few friends from my science classes, Hunter, Kechen, and Grace, formed a team to compete in a physics Space Settlement Design Competition during our first term. I and a team of 11 others competed in the initial round International Space Settlement Design Competition (ISSDC) from the months of October to December. For the qualification round, we designed a spaceship, called Benevectoras, to transport people from the Earth to space, including the infrastructure on-board - which was my role in the team. We were successful in designing this spaceship and progressed to the Asian Regional Finals in January–this was a valuable experience for me. In terms of work ethic, it gave me an insight into the highs and lows of working within an industry as tough and competitive as the space one. It was also very interesting, not to mention fun, to work on such a project with like-minded people from across Asia. In the regional finals, we worked with other teams from across Asia to design a settlement (called Aresam) that would sit on Mars’ moon Phobos. At the end of the competition, we completed as runners up. We were judged on our presentation of our settlement(including NASA and Boeing engineers). It was a great experience. We can now work on submitting our original proposal once again, with a chance of being selected to compete in the World Finals in at Nasa in July 2020.
Living in Phuket has also given me the opportunity to travel more. During my first break in October, I travelled with 2 other second years to Singapore. We stayed at UWCSEA (Dover campus) to complete a service activity. I was able to work with the wonderful and kind community at the “Willing Hearts Soup Kitchen'' through and researched food waste, working and distributing food to the less privileged within the Singaporean community. We also spent time sightseeing in Singapore. We visited Marina Bay Sands and Universal Studios alongside many others! We got to see what life was like at one of our sister colleges. In the future, I hope to visit more UWCs around the world!
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