8
LUMEN | PROGRAMMES
Excercising
Creativity , Service andAction through
International Project Week
By Andaman Setavoraphan and Nadiah Afiqah
For one week , the Senior School students set aside their academic work and focused instead on implementing service projects or conquering a mountain in a foreign land . International Project Week provided a refreshing switch from the academics to that of creativity , action and service .
The International Baccalaureate curriculum encourages students to challenge themselves in their personal development and to experience the world outside their comfort zones .
In the last week of Term 2 , students from SJI Senior School left Singapore for various destinations to carry out service projects that they had been planning for months . This week that was set apart was the International Project Week ( IPW ) – an extension of the Creativity , Service , and Action ( CAS ) programme . The purpose of the
... no one can say we did not have a good and meaningful trip .
Nigel Loh
IPW was to provide the students with experiences and lessons beyond the classrooms .
The destinations that students had to choose
from were Quezon and Erap in the Philippines , Laos , Indonesia , Thailand , and Cambodia .
The students who went to Lombok , Indonesia , hiked up Mount Rinjani which fulfilled the action component of the CAS program . Two days of trekking did seem insurmountable especially for those who were first-timers to climbing up a mountain . In addition to the hike , they visited several schools around Lombok to interact with the students , as well as to teach them some English .
In Thailand , the students visited the La Salle Bamboo School at Sangkhlaburi , which was near the Thai-Burmese border . The students of this school are mainly stateless . During the three days of interacting with them , it was indubitable that friendships were forged . Nigel Loh remarked , “ Our plans didn ’ t turn out the way we intended . And yet , no one can say we did not have a good and meaningful trip .”
This page : Amanda Low and Wong Zhenglong enjoying the company of their new found friends