Some of the activities I did in high school
I began taking karate classes when I was around 10 years old, which I attended consistently for about 10 years (even during the pandemic). In the end, I attained the rank of second-degree black belt. I have since stop attending ever since moving up to Toronto but wish to continue my journal into the martial arts in the future.
One of the side effects of taking prednisone is brittle bones. This being a worry among my family and the DBA doctors, they advised me take an impact sport. I will admit, I was and still am not an avid sports player, so instead, I attended the New Generation Martial Arts dojo at around 10 years old and took up karate. For the next ten years, I progressed through the belt ranks, eventually stopping at second degree black belt by the time I stopped attending regularly. In addition. tolearning open handed forms (choreographed sequences of strikes and blocks; also called "katas" and "pinans" in our dojo), I learned weapons forms as well, namely bo-staff, kamas (Japanese farming tool that resembles a sickle), and fan. Neverthless, I nowadays try to go in whenever I am back in Boston.
Additionally, I became a teacher's assistant during my time as a black belt and still training full time. I helped mentor younger kids, teens, and adults of lower belt ranks attain their black belt. I also helped set up a spreadsheet for scorekeeping when our dojo-wide tournament moved online during the pandemic. This was my first experience using Excel.
Here are some clips of me doing forms, both open handed and weapons (coming soon).
Over the summer of 2017, I was a Counsellor in Training (CIT) for a summer camp called Drumlin Farm day camp. As the name suggests, this took place at Drumlin Farm Wildlife Sanctuary, which is an organic farm and wildlife rehabilitation centre in one, overseen by Mass Audobon. There I helped the other counselors oversee groups of kids as well as led my own lessons on ecological principles. I helped oversee groups of kids as young as in the first grade (so around 6-7 years old) to as old as in the fifth and sixth grade (so around 10-12 years old. Overall it was a great experience being able to help younger kids appreciate nature and sustainable farming practices.
I attended the National Student Leadership Conference (NSLC) at Yale University the summer before my high school junior (11th grade) year. I specifically attended the session focused on environmental science. There I met some amazing people, mainly from around the States but also abroad (namely the Philippines, Singapore and Hong Kong). I also got to explore the Yale campus and meet Yale faculty, who were our speakers.
Some activities I got to perform included performing a soil analysis, performing a macroinvertebrate water quality survey, and visit the Woods Hole Marine Biological Institute.
Below is a link to some photos I took during this conference and my trip to New York City after. Feel free to take a look. Contact me if you have further questions about my experience, especially for any prospective NSLC participants.
*To my former groupmates: I have included our group photos and selfies in the album. You are welcome to contact me if you want me to take them down. No questions asked.*
I attended the Washington Youth Summit on the Environment (WYSE) at George Mason University the summer before my high school senior (12th grade) year. Additionally, I went to the Smithsonian0-Mason School of Conservation (SMSC), which is located within the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute (SCBI) that weekend. Like NSLC, I met some amazing people, mainly from around the States but also abroad. I got to listen to speakers from a wide variety of places, including the Smithsonian, National Geographic, and other environmental organizations. I also had the opportunity to visit Washington DC for the first time in three years (at the time the last time I went was in 8th grade).
Some places I got to visit included the Smithsonian Zoo, Smithsonian Natural History Museum, Air and Space Musuem, and some national monuments. While at SMSC, I got to detect bats with a bat detector (it detects their echolocation), radio track an eastern box turtle, look at camera trap photos, and canoe in Shennadoah National Park. This was my first time seeing fireflies in person :)
Below is a link to some photos I took during this conference and my stay st SMSC after. Feel free to take a look. Contact me if you have further questions about my experience, especially for any prospective WYSE participants.
*To my former groupmates: I have included our group photos and selfies in the album. You are welcome to contact me if you want me to take them down. No questions asked.*
I embarked on two trips with Global Leadership Adventures (GLA). One was to the Galapagos Islands the summer of 2016 and the other was to Thailand the summer of 2018. You can read and see photos of my trips below.
I stayed in the Galapagos Islands archipelago for two weeks. This happened the summer before my high school freshman year and marks the first and only time so far that I have been to South America. All in all, I have nothing but fond memories of the trip. A shoutout to my travel group for making my first trip to South America a memorable one!
During our trip, we appointed two leaders at the end of each day to lead the activities for the next day. The leaders were then asked to write a blog post about the day before. This is the blog post I wrote in collaboration with another person on my trip, Max. Note that the beginning sentence has been cut for some strange reason, so it is in brackets (from what I remember it to be):
"[Our day began with the loud drawn out crow of a rooster at five in the morning.] We were then greeted by a delicious breakfast of croissants, papayas, and bananas. Following breakfast, we boarded two buses that took us to the harbor where we first landed when we arrived at Isabella Island. As when we were there last time, sea lions laid in slumber on the beach, allowing us to get great photos of them. This is where our guides also took us on a tiring yet rewarding and fulfilling sea kayak tour. The “rewards” included an unusual amount of penguin sightings (SEVEN SIGHTINGS), sea lions swimming next to or under our kayaks, and the first fur seal sighting of the season! Our sea kayak tour ended in a rocky bay, where we hopped off the kayaks to snorkel. Though the water was cold and there were “technical difficulties” causing a few of us turn back to the kayaks, a majority of us were able to spot sea turtle after sea turtle, sting ray after sting ray, as well as schools of fish after schools of fish. Other sightings included puffer fish, eagle rays, and shark fins! On the way back to the harbor, some of us were able to spot even more sea turtles and sting rays. Our morning concluded with ice cream at a an ice cream bar not to far from the beach and sea lions basking in their sea lions ways under the mangrove trees at the beach. Lunch was also delicious, consisting of the typical soup as a starter (kuinua this time), typical rice, and other delicious homemade food. Just like yesterday, we cleared out invasive plants from the tortoise sanctuary during the afternoon. Besides that, we alternated between marking out the pen for baby tortoises and weeding. Our time at the sanctuary concluded with the second soccer game of the trip. This time, however, a few locals decided to play with us and had quite amazing talent and control of the ball. As usual, we all had a fun time playing. The day concluded with the usual awesome dinner and sharing of our reasons for why we came on this trip. A majority of the people shared a common love and admiration of the environment as well as getting out in the world to help out society."
If you would like to see blog posts from other members of my group, they are here:
During the second third of my 2018 summer, before high school junior year, I went to Thailand (Chaing Mai specifically) to visit an elephant hospital and an elephant camp. On this trip, my travel group and I explored the ethics of elephant keeping, particularly throughout Thai history. We also explored Thailand as a city and the various temples in and around it.
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