April 12th, 2017: The Big Finale!

Today my last 4 years of GIP work came to its culmination. I had the great opportunity to present my project to Ms.Bartucca's Freshman World Cultures: Africa class. My final GIP project was titled, "The Key to Sustainable Agriculture: A Symbiotic Relationship with Animals." The general focus of my project was using my experiences in Baja, Dominica and Jameson Ranch as inspiration for my project researching sustainable agriculture. I focused on Africa because I wanted to see the impact sustainability could have on a culture other than those I had experienced. I really enjoyed teaching the World Cultures: Africa class, I loved sharing the concept of Sustainable Agriculture with the freshmen because they really are the generation we need to start teaching to respect their environment and balance the idea of need vs want. I felt that this class, in particular, was very engaged in the topic I was discussing. At the end of my presentation, I quizzed the kids and they were able to remember very specific details about my presentation. I loved their attention to detail and it really helped validate my feeling that the lesson went well. When I went around the room and talked to the kids individually about what their favorite thing they learned was, I was surprised to find that none of them mentioned the gross video about tapeworms I showed them. All their favorite facts were very mature and informational points of information about how animals relate to sustainable agriculture. I'm not sure if there was much that I would change besides maybe having another interactive element to just help solidify the information they learned. I was really glad to hear from Mr. Caragher and Ms. Ramirez that they admired how my presentation highlighted the positive aspects of Africa and showed that there is hope in a country we so often hear horrible things about. I really loved this opportunity and I'm glad I chose to teach a class for my project because it was a very engaging experience that will definitely help me in the years to come! 
Click here to link to my powerpoint if you are interested! 

(Pictures to come soon!) 

March 13th, 2017: Mei Fong

© USC

I had a fantastic night hearing Mei Fong speak at Garland. I was truly jealous of her work in the field and I felt that Mei was so knowledgeable on the One Child policy. The One Child policy is truly something of another world as we don't really imagine having that kind of restriction of freedom here in the US. We learned of all the different very personal stories of the One Child policy that were really impactful without even hearing it from the families themselves. Mei paralleled her own struggles with having kids to what was going on in China at the time. I'm interested to see the future of China with the new policy change and I'm very fortunate to see such a prominent professional on a very current issue of today. 

February 25th, 2017: Masauko Chipembere

Me, Masauko, Masauko's Mother, Ms.Cocumelli, and Kara

I had the pleasure of introducing Masauko Chipembere at an Upper School GIP assembly. Poly alum Masauko Chipembere is an accomplished musician, activist, and citizen of the world. Masauko attended Poly in the late 1980s when his parents were living here in political exile from Malawi. A household name in South Africa, his acoustic duo Blk Sonshine has shared stages with Stevie Wonder, Joan Baez, Bonny Rait, Mary J. Blige, and most notably Nelson Mandela at his 2005 46664 concert, for which Blk Sonshine became Ambassadors. One of the greatest lessons Masauko learned from Mandela was that African musicians need to prioritize the liberation of women and girls on the continent. In 2012, Masauko received a grant from the U.S. government to serve as a musical ambassador in their Arts Envoy Program. As part of this program, he performed in his first solo tour of Malawi.  His unique blend of African and American sounds is internationally recognized by both worlds as a benefit to their cultural development. Currently, Masauko and his wife live with their two children in Costa Rica and he continues to use his music to bridge his African and American pasts, focusing his support on building rural schools in Malawi through his mother’s organization, and furthering the cause of women’s liberation worldwide. His assembly at the Upper School was an incredibly moving concert where he showed all of us how his music intertwined various cultures. He sang songs in all different languages and even invited our school's vocal ensemble up on to the stage to sing with him. It was amazing to hear Masauko's story and very inspiring because he also attended Poly. Masauko truly followed his passion and now he helps to bridge huge cultural gaps. I was so happy to meet with Masauko and hear his lovely voice.

January 11th, 2017: Kicking off the New Year!

© Webb Chappel

It is rare that a high school student gets to have the chance to hear a Pulitzer prize-winning author speak to them, especially in a group as small as I got to experience in the Garland theater. It was just surreal to have the opportunity to hear Viet Thanh Nguyen speak to our small school. Viet shared a lot on the stereotyping of Asian culture. It was really impactful what Viet was saying although I couldn't connect to it personally. The part of his speech that was most poignant to me was his discussion of Hollywood and the way Asians, especially Vietnamese, are portrayed in cinema. It was truly exciting to see my appreciation for film and this great lecture overlap. In my film history class, we talked a lot about the misrepresentation of various cultures and I loved the opportunity to hear a professional's side of how Hollywood twists people's culture around to use it for their own benefit. Viet talked about the movie Apocalypse Now and how the director never showed the culture of the Vietnamese people or even let them say a word when it was a war on their own soil. I absolutely loved this experience and can't wait to attend more great events this year!

November 17th, 2016: Stephen McAndrew and the Emergency International Red Cross

Stephen McAndrew was a fabulous speaker and I was really appreciative of the opportunity to hear him speak. As a student who's going through the college application process, I was very surprised and relieved to hear that he had no intentions of working in the Red Cross. I was inspired by the fact he didn't have a set path and just started volunteering with the Red Cross to do something good for humankind. I was moved by his compassion and empathy. Mr. McAndrew really helped to bring to light very serious issues that we have had in our world regarding the refugee and Ebola crisis. Despite such solemn topics, Mr.McAndrew was able to bring some humor and joy into the room. His message of unity was really prominent to me. I now believe that unity in times of trouble rather than disconnect is the answer. I was so glad to listen to such an international superstar who has interacted with a huge variety of cultures. 

November 9th, 2016: Lunch with Nirayama High School Students

Japanese students visited Poly from Nirayama High School and I got the exciting chance to eat lunch and converse with these students for a short while. I was really happy to talk to these students that really were also excited to share their culture with us. They tried to help us pronounce their names right and also tried to teach us some fun Japanese words. Although I can't even remember any of the words they tried to teach us, I really appreciated their efforts. We had Nirayama's Cheer Leader sitting at our table and he explained the significance of his armband to us. It has their school logo which are the horns of a dragon because the translation of their high school in English has the word Dragon. We watched him tie his red wraps as seen in the picture which seemed really complicated. He was very excited to perform for us and we couldn't wait to see our new friend lead his fellow students. They sang us their school song and we were quite impressed and gossiped about wanting our own school song. I really loved getting to hear about their experiences at their school and definitely wished I had the space to host a student! I can't wait for our next group of exchange students to come visit. :)

October 12th, 2016: Celebrating the Universal Language of Fútbol

Pelé's Famous Bicycle Kick

This past Wednesday, I had the fortunate opportunity to join a viewing of Pelé: The Birth of a Legend (2016) with one of the producers of the film. I was never much of a soccer player myself, but I was captivated by Pelé's story and skills. The movie transported us to Brazil and took us through the same journey that the Brazilians experienced with their World Cups. I was really able to connect with the movie and feel the sorrows when the Brazilians lost their 1950 world cup. This connection at the beginning of the movie allowed me to embark on a journey with the characters and be more invested in Pelé's success. When the Brazilians went to the 1958 World Cup with Pelé, it was fascinating to see how soccer was the universal language that all these different countries spoke. Whether you speak German, Spanish, or French, you can appreciate a great soccer player like Pelé.