The Linh D.

Journal
april 2013 - Celebrating 18 months of CAS

How I started CAS

DO WHAT YOU LIKE; LIKE WHAT YOU DO
Life Changing Moment Reasons why I wont be a teacher Producing your own magazine

THE CONVERSATION

The start of my CAS journey wasnt very smooth and memorable. But without it there wouldnt be any meaningful ending.

How I started CAS...

HIGHLIGHT

Contents
LIFE CHANGING MOMENT

My way of combining Service and Creativity together, and more importantly, how I realized an universal truth

Like what you do; do what you like.

THANK YOU, CAS

Running Club

The most tiring project that Ive made it through ... ALIVE!
THE VIETNAMESE SPEAKER

Piano Lessons

Sometimes a little bit of CAS pressure make you become more efficient, motivated, or simply less lazy.
PRODUCING YOUR OWN MAGAZINE

Smile Bank
I stepped a step outside.
A NIGHT TO REMEMBER

Dragontale

The whole reason why you are able to read this.

REASONS WHY I WONT BE A TEACHER

Charity Concert

Athletes work for years just to shine for one moment, and so do SSIS talented musicians

Summer Tutoring

Those who can, do ; Those who cant, teach : Oh Youre WRONG.

How I started CAS...

To be honest, my CAS journey didnt start smoothly. When most of my IB Diploma peers handed in lots and lots of proposal for their CAS projects, I didnt have anything in mind anything Id like to do for CAS It took me a while to hand in my first proposal, it was a Creativity project where I decided to continue my Piano career after years of discontinuation due to my laziness. At that moment, I thought CAS can actually help me to take piano more seriously, and perhaps more passionately. Such a win-win situation! Despite my enthusiasm towards CAS, I ended my junior year with only 3 proposals. One of each pillars. There were so many promising ideas, but not many of them made it through: early in the morning from 6AM - 6:40AM. I never managed to attend any session because it was impossible for me to get up early back then. The Swimming plan, for some sort of the same reason, fell apart too. And then I realized that all of those reasons were so unimportant, but I couldnt understand why they affected my CAS desicion that much, especially for Action and Service. It was frustrating! What if I failed the whole Diploma just because of CAS? Should I just take on any random projects to fill up my portfolio? But isnt CAS supposed to be for the development of your characters and personality as well? There were so many questions, but I felt like I know the answer. I would rather have a few CAS projects that I enjoy and define me rather than having lots and lots of them just for the sake of CAS and my resume. I really started CAS at the start of me senior year. I have five different projects this year, and I truly enjoyed all of them. I was able to learn, to change and to develop myself as a person. One of them, which is Craft for a Cause, was so inspiring and enjoyable that Im still working on the project although Ive finished with CAS. Linh Dao

THE CONVERSATION

I would rather have a few CAS projects that define me rather than having lots and lots of them just for the sake of CAS and my resume.

For Service, I thought of many things too. I researched about charities and orphanages to work at, but they were so far away from my home, and it was difficult for my parents For Action, I thought of learnto arrange me transportation ing Yoga, or Swimming. Im on a regular basis. The only an incredibly introvert girl. Service project that I got in So I dont really familiar with my junior year was a tutorany sport except Chess (which ing project, which my student is also a sport but not very had to come to my house Active isnt it?). I planned to everyday. go to the yoga lessons that my Mom was currently taking

This is the yearbook picture of the Running Club. You can see me in a blue shirt standing at the far right of the photo.

LIFE CHANGING MOMENT

Running Club
At the start of my senior year, I wanted to do somthing different, anything. I was also lacking an Action project for CAS, and collectively they were the reason why I signed up for Running Club at SSIS. I chose running club because: It was not a highly-competitive sport, and doesnt require as much skill like sports such I wanted to quit from the first as volleyball or basketball. day. If it wasnt a CAS commitment that Ive got to make, I can easily practice running I would have just quit from whenever I can at home the first day. I had never ran like that before, so my body I think it would suits me well still hurt 2 days after the first because Im not a very active running day. It was a very, person and running would be very significant experience, a good action project to keep a true Action encounter for me active. me. After the first session I decided that I will practice I underestimated running. The first session was on the 27th August. And it was one of the most painful day of my life. Although we ran and walked every one minute, I wasnt able to catch up with the whole club, which was quite... embarassing. Eventually I came back last... running every day, or at least as frequent as I could to catch up with everyone and if possible, never come last again! It rarely came true. Although I ran regularly, I still couldnt catch up with the others. But I guess that made sense. Athletes train for years. It wouldnt sound very convincing if I only did 5 extra runs and become the top runner of the club. However, I did see myself improving. Running for a minute, or even two is a piece of cake for me now, which is totally different compared to the day I started.

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Gradually I enjoyed running more and more. As a result, I only missed one session of the Running Club, which was already a huge achievement! There were people who ran faster than I did on the first day, but they eventually gave up! Until now, I still run voluntarily after the project had finished, and I guess this is really the thing that matters: the impact that CAS has left on your daily life after it finished. Coincidentally, I was able to come back to my strength again. I was involved in the designing process of the Running Clubs T-shirt. I also coordinated with the printing company to produce a brand new T-shirt instead of sticking to the older design

ing to the older design. I also coordinated with the printing company to produce a brand new T-shirt instead of sticking to the older design that the club has. The outcome, of course, was much better than last years. My supervisor, Ms. MacArthur, was very pleased with my work. Compared to Badminton, which I did last year just to make myself more active. Running club posed a real challenge. I might not be able to reach my goals, which was to not finish last, but I truly saw myself slowly, and steadily improving. I have never been an active, sporty person, so even though this was a relatively small and short

compared to other projects such as Craft for a Cause or Dragontale, it was still one of the projects that I believed have changed me. One time, I exercised to hard that my blood sugar might have dropped too low. Everything around me turned pitch black and I was alone. It was scary at the first place, but it was such an exhilirating moment, a life changing moment because I felt like Ive uplift my limit somehow. I could have run for 5 less minutes than I did and never knew that I was capable of running 5 more minutes, that simple sort of thing. Linh Dao

This photo was taken during a Badminton session in my junior year. Together with Running Club, these are the only two Action projects that I did for CAS. Im definitely not a good athlete, but after each project I feel like I have become a better, healthier person. Thanks Action!

FLASHBACK

One of Smile Banks event was the screening of Skyfall, where I was in charge of advertising and helping on the day

As a part of my CAS project, I designed the organizations official logo.

I STEPPED OUTSIDE

The Vietnamese Speaker

This year, I stepped outside of my Vietnamese group and start to work with friends that dont share the same culture and mother tongue with me, and it turned out all right!

At the start of this school year, I joined Sherry Kims new organization called Smile Bank, a project dedicated to helping victims of the Agent Orange in Vietnam.

I was very happy that I was able to use my Vietnamese skill - something I have always taken for granted - to help people reaching towards each other. The motivation for me in this project came Most of the club members are when I witness the suffering Korean and non-Vietnamese of the kids at Thien Phuoc Orspeakers, and because of that, phanage, where Smile Bank beside my main role as a de- is currently sponsoring and sign coordinator, I was also in also by working with Sherry. charge of contacting and find- I have learned so much about ing information about dif- organizational skills from ferent Agent Orange shelters Sherry, which have helped me that needs help so that the or- a lot with organizing my own ganization can sponsor more project Craft for a Cause. and more victims. Linh Dao

HIGHLIGHT

Craft for a Cause

do what you like; like what you do.

During the summer before my senior year, I had a hard time figuring out what would be my next service project. Back then I didnt know that I would have many other Service projects like Dragontales or Smile Bank, so I was pretty frustrated. I just didnt really know what to do. Among the clubs available at school I couldnt found one that I truly believe that I would be able to really contribute to, I didnt I enjoyed making bracelets a lot, want to join a club just for the but I dont really wear them. I sake of my CAS or my resume. gave these to my sister During the summer a friend of mine taught me how to make friendship bracelets, which I still enjoy doing until now. It was so much fun to make, but I dont like wearing bracelet or watches so at the end of the day I kept giving bracelets to my friends. One day I started to think about selling bracelets and other craft goods like greeting cards at our school charity bazaar as a CAS project! So I recruited a gang of students who have the same hobbies as I do and thats how we started.

I believe that service work, like any other thing, must be originated from passion.You must enjoy doing it, dont make it a painful. Because of this approach, I start a project where I used my hobby (making craft) to serve for a good cause.

Since making bracelets was time-consuming, we started to expand the range of our craft goods to greeting cards, quotes collection, stickers, notebooks, sewing goods, etc. so that our members have a wider variety of projects to choose from. To keep track of things, Ive created a Google Spreadsheet to record all the goods, CAP hours and even the projects balance. Craft for a Cause was sponsored by the PTA for a 500,000 VND starting fund. By the end of the bazaar, we earned around 2,400,000 VND, which was a solid achievement. All proceeds had been donated to Smile Bank. I thought that would be the end of Craft for a Cause, because I was a graduating senior, there wont be anyone who will take up my place when I leave next year. Surprisingly, a freshman in Craft came to me and ask whether Craft for a Cause would continue, because she really enjoyed making bracelets.

Our greeting cards were also very popular during the PTA Charity Bazaar on the 18th November 2012

This made me very happy, because I feel like I was able to inspire people to follow my way. I restarted Craft for a Cause, and we are currently working on launching Craft for a Cause next year as an official after school activities at SSIS. There are many things to take care of, and my time as a senior is running out, but I always look forward to each meeting because Im doing what I really enjoy. I want to help other who share the same hobbies with me to have a place to relax, make friends, have fun and serving the community at the same time. Thanks to Craft for a Cause, I was able to become friends with freshmans and sophomores whom I would never have a chance to talk to if we didnt work together like Pavi, Julie, Ruby, Giang, Na Young, etc. To help promote Craft for a Cause to the community, I have brought the idea to the Global Issue Network Conference in ISHCMC from 8 -10 March 2013 to advertise for our project. Our servicepromoting booth in the Service Fair took place in the 9th March was the most popular and crowded booth at the conference. During 45 minutes of the Service Fair, we were able to sold out all the craft goods which we have prepared in only one week prior to the conference. As a result, we were able to raise 860,000VND to fund for our material costs for the next school year.

A photo of me making bracelet in the rush preparation for the GIN Saigon Conference, hosted at ISHCMC.

From a personal perspective, Craft for a Cause has made a big impact on me. It was the first leadership role that I had taken since I started CAS, which meant a lot of responsibilities towards our supervisors, members, vision and the ability to plan ahead, especially for a newly established project like Craft for a Cause. In the end, this project had provided me the chance to work with many people, thus improving my communication, organization and management skills, which will be very useful for my future. I also appreciate Craft for a Cause in way that it has also helped me strengthen my friendships with my Craft Gang - a group of CAS students who stood with me since the very start. Although we have been together for a year as a group of IB Diploma students, working with them on Craft has brought us closer together and created many memorable experience that I would never forget after I graduated. Linh Dao

A big thanks to Mrs. Featherstone for always supporting me and the seniors in my Craft Gang : (in the picture, from left to right: Marina Yamamoto, me, Linh Nguyen, Jo-an Chen, Khanh Ta and Monica Woo)

A NIGHT TO REMEMBER

THANK YOU, CAS

Charity Concert
This was a short and quick Creativity project that I participated in. My friend Monica has asked me to join her CAS project Charity Concert, in which she and her friends were organizing a concert night at school around mid October. I was in charge of designing These are poster and program posters and leaflets to adver- of the Charity Concert that I was tise for the event as well as also in charge of making. participating in the overall planning of the event. Since most of the members in the group were performing on the day, I was also in charge of checking tickets at the entrance, selling extra tickets and other logistical tasks.The concert was a great success, I was in charge of counting the money we raised and the total amount was around 12 million VND ( around $600)! Linh Dao

Piano Lessons
This was my first CAS project that I started from November 2012 until around December 2013. The reason which I chose to learn Piano for CAS was that although I started my piano career since I was five, I never really quite made it. I have always given up halfway and almost start from the beginning again. For this reason, I chose Piano as a CAS project in the hope that the pressure of CAS commitment would be able ot help me overcome all the obstacles that had prevent me from mastering the art of piano. During this project, I learned new classical pieces as well as contemporary pieces. I also challenge myself with pieces at different paces, etc. For the first time, thanks to CAS, I was able to learn how to you the pedals to adjust sound and echo. Because I started and quitted at a young age, my legs back then werent long enough to reach the pedals. Without them the sounds would sound very amature and shallow. As evidences, I will upload the video/audio of me playing the following pieces: - Valse favourite & Turkish March by Mozart - Valse, Opus. 69, No.2 by Chopin - Canon, The Entertainer, and more!

This was the design for the Charity Concerts ticket that I made.

My designs for the the Quarter 1 issue of DragonTale and also my first designs rendered using Adobe InDesign.

Years from now when I thought back about CAS and DragonTales, I would probably remember a chocolate chip cookie. It was the reason why I joined DragonTales at the first place. During the club expo at the start of the year, Mrs. Katie made some delicious cookies to recruit new members for DragonTales. Only people who signed up got a cookie. I signed up, the cookie was so good.

Thats when I had to rush to learn and got used to the features of Adobe InDesign. Thanks to Mr. Dzim, the designer of DragonTales, I was able to take a grasp of this new, professional software and hand in the submission on time. One difficulty that I faced doing this project was that the DragonTales meeting time was in conflict with my NHS meeting time, and so I couldnt participate in any meeting. But I supposed this had improve my communication skill in the sense that I had to coordinate between Jae Yeon, the magazine editor , Mrs. Katie, and Mr. Dzim for any technical issue online, via email or short conversations outside of the meeting. So far I finished the design for Quarter 1 and 2 issues. Im working on the third issue and will still be working as DragonTales designer after my CAS is finished, because this is such an interesting project.

However, I came to my mind that I wouldn t be able to contribute effectively as a writer because I was not good at writting. Instead, I asked Mrs. Katie and Jae Yeon to let me design the pages for DragonTales for CAS. I thought this was an easy project to do, but I was wrong. I usually do my designs using Adobe Photoshop. However, designing pages for a magazine would require a DTP (DeskTop Publishing) software, like Adobe InDesign, which I have never tried to use. I did not know this until the first batch of acticles came and the deadline Thanks to Dragontale, I was for actual printing was able to produce my own magdrawing near. azine... (continue on next page)
PRODUCING YOUR OWN MAGAZINE

This school year, I participated in the desgining process of the SSIS magazine DragonTale, and was able to learn new skills in publication design. Without DragonTales, you would never be able to read this magazine today. Im really glad and grateful to have done this project.

DragonTales

called The LinhD. Journal to present my CAS journey. Making a whole magazine was another experience because it showed me how much hard work is put into each DragonTales issue by its members. Mine was only a short, simple, electronic magazine and yet it took me a week to write, edit, typeset and format. Imagine the effort to plan, write, organize, design and print and finish a DragonTales magazine. Its such a great effort!

REASONS WHY I WONT BECOME A TEACHER

Summer Tutoring

Last summer, I agreed to tutor a son of my mothers friend in the belief that Those who can, do; those who cant, teach. That, of course, I believe, was the biggest misconception ever made. Those who said that had never been My only regret was that I a teacher, teaching is very didnt achieve my goal in set- hard. It has always been hard and will always remain so. ting up a designer group for DragonTales that was student-based. I might not make But I didnt know that last summer. it for CAS, but since Im less busy now, I might make this come true by posting a recuit My student was going to take page in the third issue of Drag- the entrance exam at the BritonTales for students who are ish International School for like me, wanting to contribute Grade 10 placement. He used using their creativity through to be in public school, so he the designing process instead was unfamiliar with conversational English as well as of the writing process. English terms used in school subjects like Maths and Physics. My job was to teach him mathermatics and physics vocabulary, from the most basic (plus, minus, multiply, divide) to the advance on geometry and algebra as well as basic vocabulary in physics. His English proficiency made me worried, but his ability in solving mathematical and physics problems was above average. So my main job was to go over the new vocabulary as well as past papers of the One of my design for the QuarIGCSE exam for student in ter 2 issue. Grade 10 in the UK to make sure that he understand and

fulfill the command terms of the entrance that he was going to take. Since we only had more than a month to prepare for the exam, I had to tutor him almost everyday for 2 3 hours. Unfortunately, very slow progress was made, I felt like his English was not ready for the test yet, especially in Physics where we would need to answer some short answer question. With Math, however, the student was constantly making progress with an average of 70% to 85% for each exam paper, which I thought was satisfactory. I had spent a relatively long time in international schools, that was the reason why I found it difficult to get the ideas to the student in Vietnamese, and yet his English is not enough for a conversation about Math and Physics in English. What frustrated me the most was the feeling that he did not understand me, and I couldnt make it easier for him to understand an idea or question. This is when I realized that being a teacher is a huge and sacred, difficult job. People should have said Those who cant, do; those who can, teach instead! As I feared he failed the entrance exam, one part is because of his English and I believe no one could improve it significantly in a month. He eventually got into the bilingual department of the school (BVIS) instead of BIS. Linh Dao

I want to thank everyone who helped me make my CAS projects became true and in the shape they are today, from the supervisors to students and friends who were always giving me advices and support in order to finish the CAS Program. Thank you!

o t s k n a h t l a i c e Sp
My Supervisors Mr. Nguyen Thanh My Mr Joe Graziano Mrs. Mai Nguyen Ms. Kim Kyung Hwa Mr. Johnston Mrs. Zimmermann Mr. Dzim Nguyen Ms. MacArthur Mr. Ellson Mrs. Featherstone Monica Woo JaeYeon Park Sherry Kim Linh Nguyen Jo-an Chen Marina Yamamoto Khanh Ta Julie Song Ruby Chen