When tasked with the assignment of interviewing one of my favorite teachers at Western Academy of Beijing (WAB), Ms. Palmer seemed like a natural choice. A very nice person and an experienced art teacher, she is always willing to help her students and comes around to each of us during class to see how we’re doing. Our art room is notorious for being cold until the heating is switched on and one time I was surprised to find that she had brought us warm drinks – something that remains in my memory. She regularly gives us feedback for our work and comments on how we can improve within a short span of time. This is my second year having Ms. Palmer as my teacher me and knowing she has been in Beijing for a long time, I knew Ms. Palmer would have some interesting responses.

What inspired you to become an art teacher?
Funny story, I originally went to college (Syracuse University in New York) for advertising, and when I felt disillusioned by it, I went to my college adviser and said to him "It’s all I ever wanted and I have no idea what to do now." He told me he thought I had a positive, nurturing attitude in our group critiques and I should try teaching. He sent me to a somewhat troubled school in Syracuse, NY, the kind where the supplies were locked up so that students wouldn’t steal them and stab each other outside class. As funny as this sounds, I loved it! The kids only wanted someone to listen, and I came in eager to do so, and to help them to use art as their voice. That was the beginning of teaching for me.

What brought you to Beijing and to Western Academy of Beijing?
I was teaching in The Netherlands and had a fair share of Japanese and Taiwanese students. One particular Taiwanese student, Toby, was brilliant. These kids knew more about Asian art than I did, as I came from a very Euro-centric background in art education. I wanted to be that art teacher that could offer more to all students of all nationalities. I had two choices: do I stay in The Netherlands, read about Asian art and learn about it that way or do I move to Asia to learn from experience? I made the right choice. 

You’ve been at WAB for a long time; could you tell us a bit more about your time here and what made you stay?
I have been at WAB for 13 years total.  I have stayed because I love the students, the energy of the school, the eclectic visionary nature of the people I work with. It is the kind of school that inspires teachers and students to "make the impossible possible" and to take risks. This is how I choose to live in my personal life, therefore doing this professionally is incredibly fulfilling!

What has been your most memorable experience to date?
Wow! I have so many! Can I share three?
1. I had a student writing his Extended Essay on Ai Wei Wei, so we went to his studio on a Saturday morning, knocked on his door and asked if he would let my student interview him, and spent the next hour having tea with him and talking about his art practices and beliefs. He is amazing!

2. The second most memorable was the creation of our Peace Park. The head of the school came to me with a parent donation and told me he wanted me to get professional artists to create sculptures for our Peace Park. I told him I would prefer if my students worked with those artists and made the works collaboratively. He agreed. At this point in time, WAB only went to Grade 10, so I worked with LaetitiaGouden of Imagine Gallery and we teamed my thirteen Grade 10 students with Chinese and International artists. The students and artists created collaborative concepts and ideas for their sculptures and then the students spent an entire week, ten hours a day, with the artists in their sculpting studios and in foundries, creating their works out of steel, fiberglass, copper, cement and stone. This experience for the students was a once in a lifetime and the legacy left behind at WAB is visible for all.

3. My art students of the class of 2014 had the incredible opportunity to exhibit their works in a group exhibition at the Today Art Museum. Working with one of the Today employees, I curated an exhibition, "The Opposite of Silence," which entailed my students’ works being exhibited throughout their third floor art space and the creation of a hard bound book of their works.  
 
What challenges have you faced in your teaching career?
The death of one of my IB art students last year truly challenged me. A student who wanted to go to art college and to have a career in art, I was especially close to her. I had to figure out how to support her closest friends in her IB art class, allowing these students to grieve through their art or privately. I also felt it was important to create a memorial for this student and worked with a group of people creating a garden where her friends and family could come to remember her. It is always challenging when you are faced with a death, but she was so young and it came as such a surprise.

Do you think that WAB has made any difference in you? 

Yes! Two things have happened:

1. I have become a better teacher in so many ways. WAB pushes teachers to find a deeper understanding in all that they teach and in doing so, I have refined my practice and continue to do so everyday. I think it’s important to be a life-long learner and as a teacher, I never rest on my laurels, but try to make changes and improvements to what and how I teach my students. In my time at WAB, I have been able to work with creative, talented people outside my discipline and in my opportunities to work with them, I have been fortunate to learn from and work collaboratively with them.

2. I have become a better artist myself. From my experiences with working with Chinese and international artists (through the creation of our Peace Park or through parent introductions), I have developed my own art practice. A sculptor at heart, I have worked with many Chinese and international artists on the creation of my own bodies of work.

Had I not moved to China, had I not come to WAB, I would not be the artist or teacher I am today.

Miguel Azzopardi is grade 11 student at Western Academy of Beijing (WAB). Currently working for the Inkblot student magazine as well as the student design group Graphite Design, he hopes to share his thoughts and views of events happening at WAB.

The beijingkids student correspondent program gives high school students with an interest in writing and journalism a resource for guidance, feedback, and real-life training. If you are a student interested in becoming a beijingkids student correspondent, or you know a student who is, please contact yvetteferrari@beijing-kids.com
 

New to the British School of Beijing Shunyi campus’ humanities department this year, Mr. Tanusankar Chakraborty is a business and management teacher and became an immediate hit with the students. I was able to sit down with him for a brief interview to find out more about the man with more than ten years of IB teaching and examining experience under his belt.

When did you first decide you wanted to be a teacher and why?
In my childhood. I liked books, I liked the gentle life of teachers, so I wanted to do my PhD in an Ivy League University and become a professor there — which I couldn’t do. I started my career as an assistant professor teaching economics, but I somehow didn’t like it. I found it to be inflexible and impersonal, and that’s why I got into high school teaching. So far, I’m enjoying it a lot.

What’s the most rewarding thing you’ve received from teaching?
I think a couple of emails, which are more valuable than any gold or diamond. Last year, one guy got into Princeton, and his father sent me an email which has become one of my prized possessions. He didn’t have any professional connection with me, but he still felt that I had done something for him, and I think that that is the most rewarding thing.

A lot of my peers say you’re a really good teacher. What do you think constitutes a good teacher?
Firstly, I am a very ordinary teacher. I feel a good teacher should inspire. It’s not about content; anyone can get content anywhere. Nowadays, we are living in a very content-heavy world. It’s just one touch away, all you need is one laptop and one internet connection, and you have the content. A good teacher is always one who inspires.

Amy is a Year 13 student at the British School of Beijing (BSB). Having grown up in The Hague in the Netherlands, she has lived in Beijing for four years and hopes to share her views on current affairs and school news through her blogs.

The beijingkids student correspondent program gives high school students with an interest in writing and journalism a resource for guidance, feedback, and real-life training. If you are a student interested in becoming a beijingkids student correspondent, or you know a student who is, please contact yvetteferrari@beijing-kids.com

Tsinghua International School (THIS) is a school where discovery, collaboration, Spartan spirit, and engagement are valued. Though the school has been in existence for only seven years, what sets this school apart is its community, cool teachers, and the amiable students of this close-knit school in our big city.

Walking down the hallway of THIS, students greet teachers and teachers greet them. Everyone is included; every face that appears in the hallway will seem familiar. When new members join the THIS family, whether they are students or a teachers, everyone will attempt to include those who are new. Though THIS is a small school with approximately 200 students and 40 staff members, throughout the years the community has become tighter and its members have gotten closer.

Teachers are the motivators who keep students feeling alive. Though our teachers give students tons of homework, they seem much more approachable than our parents. In class, they always make jokes and faces to lighten students’ moods. Outside of class, teachers hang out with the students whether they’re engaging in a conversation or competing against each other in a sports game. The physics teacher competes against the high school boys in basketball while the math teacher engages in a passionate conversation about calculus with AP students. The biology teacher talks to everyone in the hallway asking whether they finished their homework. When girls are caught procrastinating on homework while going nuts over a Korean celebrity, what’s most amazing is the teachers who are able to jump into the conversation!

If teachers are the backbone of the THIS family, the students also strive to make our community stronger. Female students value friendship tremendously. Whether it’s going to lunch together, class, the bus, or bathroom, girls will always have a friend accompanying them. On the other hand, the guys are independent, humorous, and sporty. There are always guys shooting hoops on the court or mocking each other in the classroom. The more they joke, the tighter friendships become. The girls and the boys are close too. We get a long so well that there’s little distinction between the genders.

“I think that the most defining trait of THIS is that it is a very tightly-knit community. There’s ample time and enough camaraderie between teachers and students so that they see each other not as superiors and inferiors, but as more-experienced and less-experienced individuals,” says Yihua Zhang, Grade 11 student.

“The teachers cater not only to the students’ academic needs, but are great for conversations. They have advised students on things like how to make the best chili, or have told us random stories like the things they’ve done while bored on English potato farms. These are friendships that last beyond high school. This special relationship fosters respect, and it is this closeness of respect which pushes students to try hard,” she adds.

Undoubtedly, no matter where we end up in the future, we’ll  never forget the memorable times we’ve spent together at THIS – our  small school in a gigantic Beijing.

Photos: Courtesy of Jing Wen

Jing Wen is a junior at Tsinghua International School. She writes for the school’s newspaper, the Spartan Times, and considers herself an expert at swimming and badminton. Jing hopes to tell the world more about Tsinghua International School and of her life in Beijing.

The beijingkids student correspondent program gives high school students with an interest in writing and journalism a resource for guidance, feedback, and real-life training. If you are a student interested in becoming a beijingkids student correspondent, or you know a student who is, please contact yvetteferrari@beijing-kids.com

Vietnam shares a lot in common with China: Buddhism, its enviable locale in tropical South-East Asia, and its history of communism to name a few. Before we left to Hanoi for our last ever school trip, most of us Year 13s at The British School of Beijing Shunyi (BSB Shunyi) weren’t expecting anything spectacularly removed from what we were used to. The only unknown things that we thought we’d have to face were ants “all over” our hotel rooms, which one reviewer on Trip Advisor had seemed very passionate about.

We were wrong on two counts. First, contrary to my friends’ Trip Advisor-induced fears, there were no ants in the hotel. Second, Vietnam proved to be a most extraordinary country, a pocket of remarkable natural beauty and enthralling cultural traditions, the home of countless memories — both our own and those of devastating war still scarring the face of the otherwise flawless landscape. Not one of us would ever dispute that some of the best times we shared as a year group were during those six days in Hanoi and Cat Ba Island.

We slept in a junk boat out in Ha Long Bay, watching the sun rise out from behind rocky crags jutting tens of meters out from the sea like giant shards of glass. The sky stained the brightest shade of orange as the endemic species of monkeys and birds began their morning song from the jungles sprouting on the crags. Two eagles danced with each other, forgetting for a moment all the fish in the clear waters below. We slept on the decks, talking well into the night, and counting every star as they emerged in clusters; it was the first time I’d not heard a single one of my friends complain about wifi.

It was a precious time, bringing into focus how close we are. We’ve been friends for years, and have been the best parts of each others’ lives. The trip to Vietnam highlighted that we will be graduating in six months, scattered all over the world, from the Netherlands and Canada to the Philippines, possibly never to see each other again.

My whole life, as far as I can remember, has been one extended game of leveling up through year groups in school, waking up, and taking classes with the same people every day, eating lunch with them, studying together, hanging out, and talking about life after school; all leading to the culminating Year 13. Before this point, I haven’t had to worry about anything; not by any real standard. I level up to the next year group, avoid certain teachers, get just enough homework done to avoid major detentions, and deal with petty drama.

But during this trip more than any other, it hit me how all of this will fall away before I know it. It feels like when we leave BSB, our worlds as we know them, will be turned upside down and have the life squeezed out of them. Our best school trip ended on a distinct bitter sweet note of finality; a knowledge that after the bus pulled up in front of the school gates we would never be together like that again. This, I believe, made us appreciate our brief escape to Vietnam all the more.

Despite my latest realizations, there was a lot to admire through the nostalgia. Hanoi is a thriving, sprawling beast of a city. Fellow BSB student Casey Cheung says his highlights were: “the enthusiastic locals persuading me to buy communist posters, and the water puppet show which we watched in Hanoi. It was an hour of blissful enjoyment. Vietnamese culture has been engraved on my heart.”

Even though there wasn’t a whole lot of natural beauty in Hanoi, the free time we got to spend wandering the alleys weren’t outshined as Year 13 student Amy Deng notes of the experience. “We got to walk around on the streets, looking in local shops and trying out all the local food. People were extremely welcoming and enthusiastic.”

Perhaps even more poignant was Ivan Chow’s sentiment of the trip. “Being a firm believer of socialism, having the opportunity to see the only remaining statue of Lenin meant a lot to me. Vietnam was much more of a socialist state than I had anticipated, and the people of Vietnam have proven to me that people are indeed able to live in peace and harmony under socialist rule.

Others of us, like Ella Malibiran of the Philippines, were adamant that Vietnam would never be the same without our friends. “The best part was getting the opportunity to spend time with my friends on the boat in HaLong Bay. Shopping along the streets of Hanoi with millions of Dong was crazy but cool as well. I would do anything to go back with my friends.”

Amy is a Year 13 student at the British School of Beijing Shunyi (BSB). Having grown up in The Hague in the Netherlands, she has lived in Beijing for four years and hopes to share her views on current affairs and school news through her blogs.

The beijingkids student correspondent program gives high school students with an interest in writing and journalism a resource for guidance, feedback, and real-life training. If you are a student interested in becoming a beijingkids student correspondent, or you know a student who is, please contact yvetteferrari@beijing-kids.com

Under the shadow of the street lights, a handsome, wealthy high school boy falls in love with a girl. She isn’t as wealthy as he is but she values life and discipline. He’s mesmerized by her beauty and values, but they know they can never be together. This is what millions of girls fawn over. This is the premise of Korean dramas. Having watched a number of Korean dramas such as My Love From the Star and The Heirs, I’ve discovered that every single drama starts and ends the same: A poor girl and a wealthy boy fall in love but there are barriers between them so throughout the film, they attempt to overcome these barriers. Even though this cliché plotline is tremendously addictive and dramatic, teenage girls yearn to be the main female protagonist. This leads me to wonder, what’s with youngsters and Korean dramas? And why are they so popular in comparison with Chinese dramas?

With the advent of winter, I could correctly predict that millions of grandmothers would begin purchasing large quilts and prepare to heat their homes with an intense Korean drama. However, what I couldn’t predict were large number of equally fervent young Chinese viewers, such as my female students at Tsinghua International School (THIS). Whenever I spot my friends on their electronics, I can guarantee nine out of ten are watching Korean dramas. Whether they are eating, chilling, or studying, they will always have an episode available on their phones.

A few months ago when a Korean drama called Pinocchio came out, I became obsessed with it to a point I couldn’t focus on my schoolwork. I wanted the life of the main character so badly because she was loved by everyone and was living the life that I’ve always dreamed of: The kind where you wake up in the arms of a handsome man whose face you’ll never get tired of gazing at. The kind of life where you can get lost in an unfamiliar city and your boyfriend finds you in a blink of an eye. This is my dream life, however I realize this dream is destroyed by reality. Girls frequently perceive watching dramas as a way to escape reality. With all the stresses students face in school, life, and in relationships, students use Korean drama as a means to alleviate stress. “Korean drama doesn’t [allow]me think of anything else other than the drama itself and it helps me relax because we get so much homework. I can just focus on the drama and escape to a new world where there’s no stress,” says THIS student Sue Yeom.

Korean dramas are certainly viewed as a form of escapism, however it’s also noteworthy that the number of Chinese viewers dwarf the number of viewers in America, Japan, Canada, and even Korea. What’s the difference between Chinese dramas and Korean dramas then? For starters, Korean dramas have incredibly attractive male protagonists with irresistible personalities whereas Chinese dramas have average looking guys with personalities that fans aren’t really interested in. Secondly, Chinese dramas are copying Korean dramas and the way they do so irritates viewers because the Chinese actors are not able to convey their love as well as the Korean actors. For example, a back hug shown in a Korean drama above seems very spontaneous whereas a back hug in a Chinese drama seems very forced and intentional. Furthermore, the timing of the scenes feel off and the dialogue between the characters seem unrealistic in Chinese dramas. Yoon Jeong, another THIS student agrees. “The theme and the general flow of Korean dramas are more natural in [comparison with]Chinese dramas. The fact that Chinese films attempt to create a Korean style plot makes the entire project meaningless and monotonous because there’s no point of watching it.”

Korean dramas are loved by everyone and they are the topic of numerous conversations. They will one day perhaps be worldwide phenomenon just like Hollywood movies. In fact, if you look at a typical street in China, they already have.

The beijingkids student correspondent program gives high school students with an interest in writing and journalism a resource for guidance, feedback, and real-life training. If you are a student interested in becoming a beijingkids student correspondent, or you know a student who is, please contact yvetteferrari@beijing-kids.com

On September 29, Tsinghua International School (THIS) welcomed President David Leebron of Rice University and his wife, Y. Ping Sun, as their last stop of the day after visiting Tsinghua University. As co-editor-in-chief of the school newspapaper The Spartan Times, I was able to sit down with Professor Leebron, his wife Y. Ping Sun, and others to discuss university admissions, college life, and the future of both international and higher education.

Can you tell us what you’re working on in Beijing?
Here in Beijing, today’s visits were with Tsinghua University, and tomorrow’s is with Peking University. Our goal is to try and move forward joint programs such as student exchanges, and joint research programs.

More and more Chinese and US universities seem to be collaborating. Where do you see the future of cooperation between international institutions of higher education?
It would continue to be very complex. I do think there will be more student mobility, [and]eventually you’ll see undergraduates in dual degree programs. I would love, for example, to have an undergraduate degree [program]at a university like Tsinghua. There’s going to be an increasing number of [multicultural]people, so I think you’re going to see people [traveling overseas for school more]. We now take over 50 students from China each year [at Rice University]in our entering class of 950 students. So that’s a significant part of our student population.

There’s a lot of interest among high school students around the world to attend US universities. Up until now, standardized testing has been the best way to gain acceptance.  Recently however, Hampshire College stopped taking SAT and ACT scores.  Do you think this will continue to be a trend for colleges and universities?
I think that tests are going to continue to evolve. I think you’re going to see more schools go SAT-optional or get rid of the SAT. There’s going to be a few schools who just don’t think it’s useful, but you’re also going to see a lot of schools do it because they think that will help drive up [the number of]their applications. For Rice, we’re getting [18,000] applications for 950 places. We want whatever information we can get – we don’t want you to overvalue that information, but we still think the SAT is valuable.

One problem that has emerged is that there are many quality students who want to go to top-notch colleges, but too little resources, and too few schools. What kind of solution would you propose?
Our [current]solution is to expand the student body. We expanded by 30 percent, so now we’re educating, in percentage terms, more students than we used to. If you look at the top universities, it’s interesting that most of them have not grown their student bodies very much, but I think you’re going to see more schools growing [their student bodies.]But what [really]has grown, according to some analyses, is the number of schools that are regarded as top universities, including lots of state schools. For example, in Texas, where before there was only the University of Texas, there’s also Texas A&M, [and]they offer pretty high quality education.

You mentioned that for international students applying to colleges and universities in the US, environment is a big factor. Rice University has been consistently ranked as one of the schools with the happiest students. How does Rice University help international students integrate with other students and the environment?
There are lots of different kinds of international students we get. We get the Chinese citizens, who’ve spent the last three years in a boarding school in New England – they’re international students – or you have American students who’ve been abroad for a very long time. They’re not international students, but they may have some of the same challenges. We do have a special week-long program for international students [in which]we bring them in early because more things need to be explained to them. Some are pretty serious such as the Honor Code*;  some of the students we get from foreign locations [don’t understand] the basic principles. But the way we mostly succeed is by integrating students into a system that is very supportive and relatively small scale. At Rice, though many students spend one year off campus, we don’t have fraternities, sororities, or special dorms, so when you come into our residential college system, that’s a four-year system, the first thing that happens is that you’re welcomed by upperclassmen on campus. So the typical Rice student knows students three years in front of them, and three years behind them. And then you have advisers at the college level, as well as people living in the college assigned to provide advice.

*The Honor Code is a system unique to Rice where a council of students manages student life and handles any misdemeanors.

Rhea Jiang is a senior at Tsinghua International School, an international campus affiliated with Tsinghua High School. She is the co-editor-in-chief for the school newspaper, the Spartan Times, and co-president of the debate club. Through her blog posts, Rhea hopes to share her unique thoughts and experiences at Tsinghua International School.

The beijingkids student correspondent program gives high school students with an interest in writing and journalism a resource for guidance, feedback, and real-life training. If you are a student interested in becoming a beijingkids student correspondent, or you know a student who is, please contact yvetteferrari@beijing-kids.com 

Photo: Ceremony and Reception – Rice University (Google Images)

Tsinghua International School (THIS) is one of the many international schools in Beijing. Like most other schools, Tsinghua has its own sense of school spirit and culture and a big part of that is internationalism.

Despite Tsinghua’s reputation as a division of the local high school attached Tsinghua University, many people accuse Tsinghua of being more tri-national, as the student body is primarily made up of American, Canadian, and Chinese nationals. While most of the students at THIS are one of the three, what’s makes Tsinghua as “international” as any other school, is its faculty. THIS faculty is comprised of teachers from the US, Canada, China, Japan, Greece, Hungary, Finland, Mexico, France, in addition to many more countries. These educators offer an array of vibrant languages, cultures, knowledge, and teaching styles. Every teacher brings pieces of different education styles to our school, forming an education system that is, in the most fundamental sense, international. A diverse student body and faculty is what defines Tsinghua as “international” rather than “Tsinghua American.”

In terms of curriculum, THIS offers American Advanced Placement (AP) courses, but does not strictly follow the American curriculum. While fostering advanced programs in language arts, social studies, and science, Tsinghua keeps up a rigorous Chinese course at the same level, if not higher, than its local school counterpart. This combination of native-level English and Chinese raises its students to be bilingual in a way that many international schools around the world strive to achieve. We are able to understand both modern and classic literature and ancient Chinese poems at a deeper level than most bi-cultural people as Tsinghua teaches these courses throughout its secondary school Chinese course. It is through examining classic poets from Shakespeare to Li Bi that Tsinghua students are truly bilingual, surely a quality which will aid us in our further studies.

While most bilingual students have a good grasp of language, Singaporean studies show that it is more difficult for their bilingual students to understand the essence of classical literature and ancient Chinese poems in one of the two languages. Steven Owen, a famous East Asian studies professor at Harvard, has written several works about Tang dynasty literature. He says:  “The understanding of [any]classical literature serves great purpose in the early years before launching into a professional career; [school]is the best time to become more worldly, knowledgeable people.”

On the outside, THIS may seem to be a “99 percent Asian school,” as people have been known to say, but inside the walls of Tsinghua is an energetic mix of cultures from different countries, shaping the future of global citizens that will become leaders on a global stage.

Rhea Jiang is a junior at Tsinghua International School, an international campus affiliated with Tsinghua High School. He is the co-editor-in-chief for the school newspaper, the Spartan Times, and co-president of the debate club. Through her blog posts, Rhea hopes to share her unique thoughts and experiences at Tsinghua International School.

The beijingkids student correspondent program gives high school students with an interest in writing and journalism a resource for guidance, feedback, and real-life training. If you are a student interested in becoming a beijingkids student correspondent, or you know a student who is, please contact yvetteferrari@beijing-kids.com 

Ready, set, go! As time raced into October, students and teachers at Tsinghua International School (THIS) have been running for the Third Annual Terry Fox Run and the first Terry Fox Foundation (TFF) Runners’ Challenge.

The Terry Fox Run has been a proud tradition of THIS, brought to the school by a Canadian member of the PE department, Ms. Maskus. Terry Fox was a cancer patient from Canada, diagnosed at the young age of 19. In 1980, after having one leg amputated, he decided to embark on a journey that would change the world forever – the cross-Canada Marathon of Hope, aiming to run across the country raising money for cancer research. Even though he was unable to make it all the way across Canada, he had already become a national hero. Terry Fox is now an international symbol for hope, resilience, and cancer awareness. Every year in October, the students and teachers at THIS run 5 kilometers in honor of Terry, and last year, we were lucky enough to have Terry Fox’s sister, Judith Fox, come to Tsinghua to celebrate Terry’s achievements.

The spirit of Terry was once again passed on as hundreds of students and teachers gathered on the school field on the morning of Saturday, October 18 buzzing with anticipation for the upcoming event. Once the PE department announced the official start of the Terry Fox Run 2014, boys and girls raced down the track in whirls of blue – the color of this year’s TFF fundraiser t-shirts.

However, this was not the first time these shirts were seen on the field. This year, THIS started a new tradition: the TFF Runners’ Challenge. In the week leading up to the Terry Fox Run, students and teachers were invited to go to the field during lunchtime and run or walk at least one mile. Popsicle sticks were given out for every lap, and at the end of the run, the homeroom with the most Popsicle sticks would be given a special treat. “I got 12 sticks today,” Justin Yap, a student in the high school division says proudly. “And I’m going to get 12 more tomorrow.”

The students’ eager participation resulted in a total running distance of 16,000 km, thrilling everyone, because this means that THIS teachers will dress up in wacky costumes and put on hilarious performances for the students.

The Terry Fox Run is a great way to have fun and promote cancer awareness, however, that isn’t what the run is only about. “We want people to appreciate exercise,” Audrey Tao, student organizer of the TFF Runners’ Challenge, says. “We want them to appreciate the fact that they are young and healthy, and that they are able to do sports. It’s such a wonderful thing to be healthy and fit. We want people to value that, and stay active in the future.”

The Terry Fox Run isn’t just about running, or cancer. It’s about valuing your health while you have it, and helping the ones who weren’t as lucky. No matter the illness – whether it’s cancer, ALS, or AIDS,  the lesson to take from the run is to appreciate our body and to spread awareness, and hopefully stop the spread of horrible diseases that take away so many lives each year.

The beijingkids student correspondent program gives high school students with an interest in writing and journalism a resource for guidance, feedback, and real-life training. If you are a student interested in becoming a beijingkids student correspondent, or you know a student who is, please contact yvetteferrari@beijing-kids.com 

Photo: Courtesy of Rhea Jiang

As a senior at Beijing No. 4 High School, I’m starting my college application at the end of this year. Like many other seniors at international schools, I realize finding the right fit for myself is important and to that measure, I am currently researching college information and rankings. Recently, I had to chance to interview Robert Morse, chief data strategist at U.S. News and World Report, an American magazine known for its influential ranking and annual reports of colleges and graduate schools. Morse answers questions about college rankings, school data, and more. See part one of the interview here.

In the past schools have been known to provide inaccurate statistics. How does U.S. News and World Report secure the authenticity of its data?
General speaking, the data we’re collecting, has also been reported to the US federal government. The fact that particular schools misreport to the US government as well as U.S. News and World Report causes a negative reputation for the schools once they are exposed to the public. The public shaming has made schools more careful about submitting genuine data. Broadly speaking, the data accuracy that has been reported has improved, but it is still possible for schools to falsify their data in the future. U.S. News and World Report doesn’t have the power to enforce policy to prevent this from happening; the federal government can do way more in terms of data accuracy since they can use various kinds of aid programs to sanction schools that are misreporting the data. But they haven’t done that yet.

Many international schools in China don’t have college guidance counselors. Commonly, students and families turn to agencies to measure the success of the students’ application merely by the ranking and the US News ranking. What are your thoughts on this practice?

We are aware of the fact that the ranking can be more powerful in China than it has already been in the United States. But we do try to counsel people that the ranking shouldn’t be the sole reason to choose a school over another. One needs to take other factors into account. The study abroad agencies are using the school’s ranking as proof for the students’ parents to pay them money. If students enter a top ranking school like an Ivy League school, it might not mark as the ultimate success. It is a distortion of reality to solely rely on the number of the ranking because there is much more other information that is worthy to look into.

It is a prevailing phenomenon that students are now looking for what the projected payback is after they graduate and get a job. If it is the trend, why doesn’t U.S. News and World Report take the potential payback into account for overall ranking?
We definitely have people taking this measurement into account. We also look into the data, but people should be skeptical towards it because they are self-reported by graduate students so there is no absolute accuracy in it. In addition, it’s not using a scientific sample to form the result. It’s complicated to get an exact result since the bigger the school, the more different types of degrees it offers.

There are other publications that offer college rankings, such as Princeton Review and Times Higher Education, which rank schools differently. How should students and parents know when looking at these rankings?
There is no overlap of data between U.S. News and World Report and Times High Education. If you are looking into colleges specifically in the United States, U.S. News and World Report might be a good idea, but if you are comparing schools globally, Times Higher Education is the one doing. Keep in mind Times Higher Education is fairly remote from student experience, but is something that can be use for global comparison. Different rankings have different kinds of measurements and people should take advantages of them.

Harry Liu, (Liu Yinhao), is a senior at the international campus affiliated with Beijing No.4 High School, a public high school in Beijing. He is the community outreach officer for the student’s council, the president of the photography club, the deputy president of the science and philosophy club, and the editor and photographer for his school newspaper.  Through his blog posts, he hopes to share unique and exciting experiences at Beijing No.4 High School International Campus.

The beijingkids student correspondent program gives high school students with an interest in writing and journalism a resource for guidance, feedback, and real-life training. If you are a student interested in becoming a beijingkids student correspondent, or you know a student who is, please contact School Editor yvetteferrari@beijing-kids.com

Photo: Static (Flickr)