This content marketing series is divided into three parts under the themes of sports, leadership, and the arts. This is part three of the three-part series. In part one, we spoke to the talented art students and their insight can be found here. In part two, we spoke to the sporty students and they share their fuller school life experience here. As the graduating class of 2017 bids farewell to family and friends, they have come full circle and share their ups, downs, and advice for younger students.

Students have a greater ownership in school when their voices are heard. Dulwich College Beijing (DCB) provides numerous avenues for students to realize their full leadership potential on a small or large scale and joining the Student Leadership is one of them.

Far left: Silvia, Lesley, and Johanna with friends

Students need to apply for the Student Leadership team and undergo several rounds of interviews, including an elevator pitch in front of the Headmaster and the school leadership team. The aim of this process is to mentally prepare the students for future application or selection process to universities and jobs. The prefects, as what the leaders are called, are comprised of a Head Boy, a Head Girl, and their Deputies, and the rest of the team with individual portfolios ( i.e. Sports, Media, Performing Arts, Sustainability Prefect etc.). The leadership team is open to Year 12 and serves a one-year term until Year 13.

We sat down with outgoing Head Girl Johanna S., who has been at the school for eight years, Deputy Head Girl Lesley Z., who has been at the school for five years, and MUN Prefect Silvia S., who has been at DCB for almost nine years.

Silvia giving a speech at MUN

The three young ladies share their background and motivations for wanting to take up leadership roles.
Lesley: I’m Chinese-American. I always wanted to be a prefect when I was a younger student because prefects were like role models. It seemed like it would be a nice way to give back to the school community. I really didn’t think of becoming a prefect leader until the process was announced when I got to know more about it. Then I realized that if you become a leader you could do so much more than just be a prefect.
Johanna: I’m Swedish-Chinese. I have quite a similar experience to Lesley on how I got involved in this role. I always looked up to the prefects especially the leadership team and they really encouraged me to take different pursuits. I saw how they were able to influence the school and they were almost seen as teachers more than just students, so I really admired that.
Silvia: I’m Austrian-Chinese. I was running, alongside Johanna, DIMUN (Dulwich International Model United Nations), which is the school Model United Nations. I got into that from middle school. I started participating in MUN conferences then I realized it was quite an intellectual challenge and a way to meet new people who were really smart as well. And so I decided to get into leadership in this area because I have a lot of ideas and I thought they might bring some benefits to the system as well.

Johanna on stage at DCB’s Founder’s Day last year

These were some of the benefits they were been able to gain from their roles.
Lesley: As deputy head girl, most of my leadership experience comes from managing a portfolio. I’m in charge of the ICT [Information, Communication, and Technology] sector. One thing that I learned from this so far is probably taking initiative. It’s because when you do a lot of tasks, it’s easier to envision ideas. But to actually get down to materializing those ideas, it requires you a certain level of commitment. I learned how to tweak my approach to things to make it easier to get things done.
Johanna: It really challenged my time management skills and resilience. The IB program is quite rigorous and with a lot of other extracurricular activities. It was a bit hard to balance everything at the beginning but then it taught me to prioritize and be most efficient with the tasks I was given.
Silvia: I guess as a leader in MUN, firstly you have to be good at MUN itself to be able to organize a conference. We’re also a kind of hands-on in what’s happening.

Johanna, Silvia, and Lesley take a selfie at their graduation ceremony

Balancing between their academics and leadership roles did not diminish their enthusiasm for either.
Johanna: I wouldn’t say my leadership role took away anything from my academics, I would probably say the opposite. Having all these extra-curricular activities is more of like a stress reliever than something that pressures you most of the time. Also, having so many things can help you become more efficient.
Lesley: I agree. I like making a list of all the things I need to do and prioritize them.
Silvia: I just do it.

Future prospects
Lesley: Amherst College
Johanna: Yale University
Silvia: Oxford University

Learning by Leading: Model United Nations at Dulwich

Dulwich International Model United Nations Conference teens are anything but ordinary.

Words of advice
Lesley: Taking a leadership role can be scary! But the ultimate experience and benefits greatly outweigh the fear, so you should definitely try.
Johanna: Try to take every opportunity out there and be dedicated!
Silvia: First, know what your talents are and then be good at them. 

This post is paid for by DCB.

Photos: Courtesy of DCB & Uni You

This series is divided into three parts under the themes of sports, leadership, and the arts. This is part one of the series. As the graduating class of 2017 bids farewell to family and friends, they have come full circle and share their experiences and advice for younger students.

Behind every great artist, there’s a great teacher, and many of those performers and creative types are quick to thank their mentors and educators — from actors like Kerry Washington to legendary singers like Patti LaBelle and more. We might one day hear some of the stars of tomorrow giving the same credit to their teachers at Dulwich College Beijing (DCB), seeing that this British international school in China brings such strong programmes to nurture budding talents.

The school knows that starting early is key to igniting a passion in talented students. That means even their youngest students (18 months to 3 years) have a specialist music teacher in their class every week. In Year 3 (7 years old), students kick things off with a recorder and ukulele then move to wind and strings instruments.

Flemming performs her piano solo at Dulwich Music Awards

There are also over 100 music and drama events, art exhibitions, and artists’ visits (VPN required) in an academic year that provide pupils with the opportunities to hone their skills based on DCB’s philosophy of student-led projects.

We spoke to three students, Flemming L., who has been at the school for six years, Simone Z., who has been at the school for eight years, and Tristen W., who has spent his entire academic life at the school.

The three talented Year 13 (Grade 12) students share their background and reasons for pursuing their creative paths.

Flemming: My interest is in music, especially piano and choirs. I started playing at a really young age and my parents just really urged me to move on. They really told how important it was to have one skill that you are really good at. Over the years I have discovered my talent in music over many other subjects so I continued on this road.
Simone: When I was younger I used to love drawing and my parents encouraged that. They sent me to sketching classes, typical kinds of art related classes and I chose to continue to take art at school at GCSE through [to]IB.
Tristen: I didn’t have a passion for music until I was a teenager. That’s when I started to fall in love with music in general because I have been actively listening to different kinds of music.

Tristen in one of the state-of-the-art music production studios at DCB

Here are some of the benefits the students have experienced.
Flemming: I have met many great musicians and fellow students like Tristen. I also built really good relationships with every music teacher I have had.
Simone: For me, pursuing art is cathartic at times and it’s very different, the arts and performing arts, from your other subjects. Being able to take that class many times a week gives you a release from the typical mathematical, science subjects.
Tristen: Definitely my social skills [improved]. I remember when I was small, I was a really closed [off]person. Then, when I got into music and started to attend a lot of the events at school, I was able to open up myself a bit more and communicate with more people. That helped me make more friends.

Royal Shakespeare Company Practitioner Guy Jones at DCB

DCB interviewed director, dramaturge, and facilitator about his time at DCB.

The students have projects that they are most proud of accomplishing.
Flemming: The project I’m most proud of is an oral class for junior school students that I initiated and am the only teacher of. There’s this external music exam called the ABRSM and it includes a section called oral. I started this project because I benefitted from this system from a really young age and I wanted to help more junior school students prepare for it. I knew that a lot of students at DCB would be taking ABRSM exams. I started this project in Year 12 as part of my CAS project but after CAS ended I found it really interesting so I kept on offering it.
Simone: The teachers gave me license to decorate and refurbish our Common IB room last year. I solicited photographs from fellow students in the IB programme. I was quite proud of the final result because it proved to me that art doesn’t have to be something only critics look at, it could be something students and everyone can appreciate.
Tristen: I’m really proud of the composition arrangement that I wrote for a songwriter/producer. I’m not exactly proud of the project itself but because it marks the beginning of my musical career.

Simone at her final IB exhibition at DCB

Future prospects.
Flemming: Northwestern University
Simone: Brown University
Tristen: Berklee College of Music

Words of advice.
Flemming: Grab all the opportunities you can get. You can get something meaningful out of everything you do. There’s no such thing as a waste of time; you can learn even from the smallest thing.
Tristen: For someone with a strong passion, [try]not be too desperate to reach it [success]. Once you are too desperate you lack the experience and head into things without knowing much.
Simone: Fake it until you make it! I think the key to improving and increasing your ability is to have the confidence that you can do something and throw yourself at it until you get better. 

This post is paid for by DCB.

Photos: Courtesy of DCB and Uni You