School life at Tsingua International School (THIS) isn’t just limited to academics – being a student here means not only spending time and effort on studies, but also becoming involved in school activities and using these activities as opportunities to learn outside of an academic setting and discover new interests. Though there are a lot of clubs and sports teams at THIS for students to participate in, there are also many special events that happen during the year and here are some of them.
Arts Festival
Every May, the students and teachers of THIS take a day to celebrate the arts and share the year’s works of art with the entire school. After talking with Ms. Peters, it’s safe to say that from performances to installations, the THIS Arts Festival is an event not to be missed.
Ms. Peters: “It is a beautiful way to showcase our students’ talents without the usual academic component. It is clear that students are inspired as well as skillful at expressing their interests. Art gives us an alternative. It is not about ‘getting it right’ or fulfilling a task someone pushes on you, but finding an area of freedom in us that allows us take an active role in shaping our thoughts and our environment.”
International Day
Another popular event in May is International Day, a day where every homeroom is assigned a country and together, we have a big fair with booths representing each country. Students can go around and learn about other cultures, listen to different music, and try out different foods. The fair, called Global Village, also has a number of performances from homerooms that demonstrate their interpretations of the culture of their assigned country. This is a time when you can see remakes of ‘The Fox’ right after a traditional tango, eat a dumpling, and then have some Danish cake. The gathering of different people and cultures in our little THIS community is a truly unique experience.
Stella Huang (Grade 10): “International Day was an opportunity for everyone to learn about different cultures by ‘being’ that culture, instead of simply reading about them from textbooks. It really opened up my view.”
Prom
For most high schools, one of the biggest events (arguably, the biggest) would be prom. At THIS, prom is a chance for sophomores and juniors to have fun and for seniors to relish in one of their last events as high school students. On the last day of May, students gathered at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Beijing, dressed in lavish gowns and polished suits, enjoying the last of May together with a barbecue dinner in the garden, and a night of dancing in the ballroom. Prom 2014, themed “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” was a magical night for everyone who attended. From fairy lights to the faint summer breeze, this year’s prom was a dream indeed.
Philip Mo (Grade 12): "My favorite part of prom was definitely dancing with my date. To me, prom symbolizes the end of bad days. It’s a new beginning."
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Photo courtesy of Rhea Jiang
