I joined Legacy, only a year ago, and experienced what has been arguably the most interesting part of my student life, despite having to do it confined to my bedroom. Apart from dense academics I undertook as part of the IB Diploma program, the parts of the year I remember more fondly are those beyond my Zoom classroom.
Early in the year, I participated in the ‘Buddies without Borders’ conference, where for one month, we devised unique and sustainable solutions to tackle some of the problems faced by students due to the Covid-19 pandemic. While co-authoring an academic paper on “Education policies for Covid-19” and a policy recommendation paper on managing teen mental health during the pandemic, I enjoyed working with students form over 80 countries, looking at various new perspectives and ideas. While engaging in continuous and parallel debates with almost all students, my research skills improved, and I became even more accepting of new ideas.
My experience at the International MUN 2020 with university students from across the world complimented my interests in global issues, international affairs and policy. I took that interest further to Nanyang Tech University, Singapore MUN where I developed my diplomacy skills, and was awarded at both conferences. I wanted to further develop these skills, and help my juniors, leading me to co-found Legacy’s only completely student-run team, the MUN Team, which proudly boasts many awards this year. My passion for debating and research further led me to the LSAC Global Moot Court, where I engaged with corporate law, and presented my legal arguments to practising lawyers. This part of my journey helped me explore my interests, and then affirm my passion for the law.
Another part of my journey at Legacy I really enjoy is the IB Diploma courses. In particular, 2 of my HL subjects, Math and Economics, changed my perspective of the world. Economics developed my views on everything from human interaction to the stock market. Perfectly supplementing economic theory was calculus. My math course helped me further understand a variety of topics outside classical mathematics, from finance, to music, government policies and more. The IA papers within the IB Diploma curriculum only increased the possibilities of exploration in these subjects, and helped me establish concrete links between classroom concepts and real-life problems. Infact, I took part (along with my classmate, Deeksha) in an International Math Fest, where we placed first in the ‘Math and Economics’ event. My most important takeaway here is that more than the academics, the IB Diploma curriculum teaches how to learn, and doing so independently. The various subjects you study give you corresponding tools to study the world around you, and the IB diploma program guides you as you explore your areas of interest. Mine being law, something that is not conventionally taught at high school, I found this to be incredible value.
Fortunately, my engagements for the academic year are not making an abrupt pause on account of the summer vacations. The career counsellor has helped me find an internship for the summer to help me further develop my skills, and my teachers have all offered to remain in touch throughout the break to help me complete my IA research and the 4000 word original research based Extended Essay.
In conclusion, the IB Diploma program is all the more enjoyable, because it has a self-discovery and self-learning approach, a significant change from the information-consumption approach many of us were engaged in before. My experiences at Legacy with the IB Diploma courses are pushing me towards the lifelong learner I want to be, and I look forward keenly to my high school senior year.
About the Author:
I’m Tejas, an IBDP learner at Legacy, where I experienced what has been a very interesting part of my student life, despite being confined to my bedroom. I’m very keen about law and economics, and wish to study law at university. I explored my interest in the law this year, by means of MUNs, Moot Courts, debates, mock parliaments, policy writing events and an internship with an NGO, Mudita Foundation. I also completed a college course on Law and AI, following which I started my academic law blog, The Gavel Labs, which covers legal commentary on current affairs, simplified legal theory and articles on the impact of AI on Law. I’m very excited for the coming year, and am looking forward to visiting the school campus.