Hello,

Here are my impression and feedback of my first year at UWC Changshu China (CSC).

The first year of my UWC experience is over, and only now comes the realization of how much this year changed me. Every single thing I did during this year was contributing to this change. One of the most exciting experiences for me was definitely the project week, during which I with my friends were teaching English to kids in primary school of one of the poor provinces in China. This experience has changed my worldview a lot and made me think about things and problems and also start acting to solve the problems I saw during that week.

This year was a lot of fun, but it also was very challenging from the academic point of view. IB is very different from academics in my previous school and it took some time to get used to it. When I was coming to UWC I didn’t expect the academic part to be so hard, so when I had to face the level of hardness of the IB it was unexpected for me. IB made me think and act in the way I never did before. The last couple of months of this year were especially challenging, with all the Internal Assessments coming together with the final exams and EE. But as I was ready to work a lot, I did manage to achieve the results I am satisfied with.

My main activities for CAS were Animal Protection group, which I devoted a lot of time to, dragon boat activity, which challenged me physically and at the same time let me better understand the Chinese culture, along with the service project I have started with group of my friends.

It is hard to give any advice to future firsties because for every one of us UWC experience is very different and unique. Though what I can say for sure is that you need to be ready and open to the changes in your life and yourself, not be scared to do things that you have never done before (because when if not now) and try to stay open-minded and be ready to face a lot of challenges during the whole next year. But don’t let these challenges scare you because this year is going to be amazing and you need to do your best to enjoy it as much as possible.

Regards,

Elena, UWC Changshu China' 2018