MS Pride: Community Service

Posted on October 16, 2012 by admin

This year, Zoë Doyle, Elijah Flomen and Rebecca Ross are very proud to be your community service heads. We have a lot of ideas we would like to share with you, such as different community service activities you can do to complete your hours. We have already organized a show that the grade eight band will be performing in December, which will contribute up to two hours to their total hours of community service required. Several other events and activities will be available for the Middle School soon. These events will be fun and entertaining, yet productive at the same time.

Au cours du Middle School vous devez faire 15 heures de service communautaire pour pouvoir recevoir votre broche à la fin, mais nous vous encourageons à en faire plus. Vous pourriez faire des activités durant les fins de semaines pour accumuler vos heures. Il y a un jeu qui s’appelle «Penny War» qui va commencer bientôt. Ce jeu durera toute l’année, il est amusant et peut faire gagner beaucoup d’argent.

This year, all money raised by school activities will go to an organization called Madagascar In My Heart. Madagascar In My Heart est une organization qui aide Tulear (un village en Madagascar). La responsable du projet est membre du Round Young Square of Americas. Voici le site web: http://madagascarinmyheart.org

Nous sommes ouvert à écouter vos questions et idées, n’hésitez pas à contacter Rebecca, Elijah ou Zoë. Here are our email adresses: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]

Merci! Thank you! — Zoë Doyle ’16, Elijah Flomen ’16 and Rebecca Ross ’16

Round Square: Elephant Whispers

Posted on October 11, 2012 by admin

The very last day of our pre-conference tour took us to Elephant Whispers, a sanctuary for elephants. What an amazing and unique experience! How many times in your life will you be able to interact so intimately with the largest land animals on the planet? After listening to the handler’s explanation on all things elephant and some cheesy, overused jokes, we went to touch the elephants. Full of prickly sensor hairs, they were rough to the touch. Their trunks were cool too, albeit nearly impossible to keep still when they know there’s food around (they can smell tens of thousands of times better than we can). We actually got to ride them too, a bumpy but unforgettable experience.

The elephants are still wild animals and are free to roam across the 3000-hectare property as they wish. They have only been trained through positive reinforcement (perform a task=food reward), and their intelligence has allowed them to learn over 150 commands without much difficulty.

Elephants are such magnificent animals. So much raw power, but they can still pick up a twig on the ground with tremendous dexterity and precision. They have a very gentle nature to them, but don’t mistake them for wimps; they will attack when threatened. Family is incredibly important to them too. A pack will actually take care of its sick and even mourn the death of lost loved-ones. And it’s not just a myth; elephants do have incredible memories and are notorious for holding grudges for decades. Oh yeah, did you know that elephants are right or left-handed? Who knew? — Zachary Dionisopoulos ’13

Round Square: Service Day at Primary Schools

Posted on October 11, 2012 by admin

On the second day of the conference, we headed out in small groups to spend the morning at primary schools. Arriving at the schools, we were greeted with smiling faces and warm hugs. We spent an hour with individual groups of ten children cutting out pictures from magazines and creating personal artwork for them to bring home. The boys enjoyed gluing pictures of motorbikes, while the girls had a blast adding glitter to the cutouts of dresses and models they had stuck onto their bags. It was great seeing their smiles as they held up their own unique pieces of art.

Once the classes were clean, we celebrated our visit with games, dances, and songs. There was a feeling of nostalgia as we sang the words to songs like “London Bridge” and played “Simon Says.” The children were fascinated by our cameras and asked us for group pictures. They were so excited to see their faces on a screen.

The memorable events of the morning were sadly coming to an end as the students from the primary school sang a few of their favorite songs from their culture. Hugs and kisses were offered when we said our last goodbyes. We felt a sense of community and warmth from the children and their smiles and affection. Although we did not leave having given a large sum of money or supplies to the schools, we look back on our visit with hope that the feeling was mutual.

That night, the Jump! Foundation led two hours of icebreakers and personal development activities. Not only did this allow us to meet a range of new people but it also taught us respect for other cultures and opinions. Those who were courageous stood up and voiced their points of view; their confidence was praised with a loud cheer by the delegates screaming “ROCKSTAR!”

The impact of the days memorable activities were recognized at the end of the trip, as almost all of us marked this day as one of the trip’s high points. — Sabrina Aberman ’13

Round Square: A Global Experience

Posted on October 11, 2012 by admin

September 29

Tonight we visited the Blue Moon cafe. Sitting on a hill facing the stage, we ate, chatted with some of our new friends, and heard from local artists. The musicians, many of them alumni or even students of our host school, played a mix of their own music (in a South African style) and songs we knew and could sing along to. We also had the experience of looking up at the South African night sky, free of light pollution. This enabled us to see all of the stars in their full glory – there are, after all, different constellations in the Southern Hemisphere.

So far, I believe I can speak for all of us when I say we are having a blast. We’ve all made friends from the four corners of the globe, listened to speakers on a range of topics on the theme of coexistence, and participated in a range of adventure and service-based activities. Personally, my baraza group (a sort of discussion group) includes two Canadians, a Bermudian, three South Africans, a Brit and two Indians. Our speakers have included an Emmy-winning documentary filmmaker, a motivational speaker and the first African to climb the Seven Summits (he has also made an unassisted trek to the South Pole). We also had an “adventure day,” where we participated in our chosen adventures and made even more new friends, since we weren’t in our barazas or our school groups.

We have had amazing sessions with the Jump! Foundation, a group which encourages participation in leadership. In one activity, our right hand became our “heart,” and our left, our “sword.” The objective of the game was simply to survive. By the second round, we learned to band together in groups of 2-4, and the third round featured people in groups of 30. We eventually learned to follow the objective to the word : there really isn’t a need to kill each other at all to “win” at the game.

We’ve had an amazing time, and Tuesday will definitely be a sad day, as it is the last time we will see many of these people. — Andrew Hamilton ’13

MS Pride: Les arts

Posted on October 10, 2012 by admin

Bonjour, je m’appelle Michael et je suis un de vos représentant des Arts cette année. Comme membre du Middle School Pride, j’aimerais vous inciter à faire les Arts. Je suis fier de vous dire que j’essaierai d’avoir le « Glee Club » comme activité, et la pièce de théâtre serait toujours là. Si vous avez des idées pour des activités artistiques, n‘hésitez pas à m’écrire un courriel. J’espère que votre année sera la plus artistique possible! – Michael Hamilton ’16

Hello my name is Ryan Hawa, the other Arts representative for the 2012-2013 school year. Michael and I are committed to giving you, the grade 7 and 8 students, the opportunity to enjoy and enhance your knowledge and understanding of the arts. This year, my goal is to keep arts activities going strong with new possible additions, such as musical jam sessions and workshops. We would love to hear your ideas so please email us! Remember, we want your help to make these activities work to make it a memorable year. Have fun this year, and remember to give us your suggestions. The more ideas the better! – Ryan Hawa ’16