I want to set a goal: to make sure the next Pre-DP students will fully integrate into UWC life. No more idling away time without a clear purpose in mind. I want to improve community bonding and cohesion and build a stronger sense of responsibility next school year.

At the end of March 2017, after Pre-DP Project Week, I posted this on wechat:

 “I want to set a goal: to make sure  the next Pre-DP students will fully integrate into UWC life.  No more idling away time without a clear purpose in mind.  I want to improve community bonding and cohesion and build a stronger sense of responsibility next school year.”

Within a few minutes, the post received loads of comments from friends, teachers and classmates.  Some supportive, some doubtful, some had no idea what I was talking about.

In the following days, I met a few students who were members of the Pre-DP project week organizing committee: Beichen Zhang, Ban Fujun, Hanzhi Wang, Lingxuan Qi, Xueying Wang, Yinting Zhong and Yue Feng.

We all share a commitment to the same goal: continuing to develop the pre-DP programme so that it is wide-ranging, rigourous, challenging, embraces UWC ideals and values and not only prepares students for the IB Diploma but also ambitious enough to let us engage with ideas and concepts from elsewhere.  

 From left to right: Xueying Wang, Hanzhi Wang, Beichen Zhang, Yuqing Wu 

Everyone in the team is enthusiastic and dedicated.  We did plenty of brainstorming about what students had said in the previous years: rightly or wrongly, some had complained about their subjects.  Others found it difficult to fully integrate into the school community.  We want to address these concerns.

We are realistic: Pre-DP is a new programme, so naturally there is still a lot of room for improvement.  Most importantly, I did learn something extremely valuable from my experience: If you are unhappy with the status quo, you can take actions and change it.  So, we formed a small group named “The Pre-DP Advisory Committee”.

Since summer holiday started in early June, we only had two months to get our act together before the next academic year.  The urgency made our meetings highly efficient: agendas were set, notes taken assiduously.  Our first discussion focused on academics.  We collected feedback from students, and invited each Head of Department to join the conversation.  Finally, we put together a proposal and presented it to the School. 

I realized an unique feature of UWC when we were writing the proposal: if you want to do something or change something, DO IT. UWC has the platform and opportunity for you, and everyone will support you. After we sent out the sharing link for Pre-DP students to write suggestions for this program, many students commented on the current curriculum. Our Pre-DP co-years did not complain, but pointed out problems objectively, and added possible solutions to solve the problems. This means that everyone WANTS to make the Pre-DP program better, and bring a better UWC experience for next year's Pre-DPs.

——Beichen Zhang

When I met Wesley Chiu, a UWC alumnus, who supported us throughout, asked me, "if you were still studying in your previous middle school, would you step forward and challenge the syllabus?" Honestly, I may not. I may not have the courage to discuss with my teachers my true opinions. The academic principal may not be receptive to suggestions about the way students are split into classes, for example. The proposal was only made possible because of the inclusiveness valued by this community. 

We did run into problems and made mistakes during the process.  From April to June, everyone at the School was busy: I was always in a hurry, sending out messages to my teammates while backstage at a musical rehearsal.  On occasion, I rushed to teachers' office right after class and stayed there till the next class began.  We found some people more receptive than others, of course, although most teachers were happy to help our proposal. 

On the night we finished, in order to get a student signed letter to the Principal, we asked for signatures from students without going through with them the entire proposal – in hindsight, this was a mistake which we should not have made.

I always remember what Kokming Lee, our Dean of Studies said:" If you don't like something, change it."  I feel so glad to come to UWC, meet with a group of like-minded friends to try to accomplish something meaningful for junior schoolmates for them to have a better Pre-DP experience. Let's stop complaining, but turn your dissatisfaction into strength to move the stumbling blocks on your way forward.

——Xueying Wang

The process itself helped me learn the importance of talking things through, and listening to others – especially those with whom I may not agree.  

In one example, even though a teacher initially doubted our ideas, he still invited us for an in-depth discussion.  Eventually, we found out that our thoughts were similar after all. He became a key problem solver for us among other departments.  Such open-minded exchanges have given us enormous encouragement and become a driving force for us to move forward.  

In addition, another teacher brought up many questions when she first heard about our work.  To answer some of her questions, I researched IB principles.  After we answered her questions, she wrote more than 1500 words of comments for the student report in which students put forward a lot of suggestions on various subjects.  

I am really grateful to so many people in our school who tried their best to strive for a better community.  It's a great privilege to be able to chat, study, and do projects with them.  As Ban says, “We are living together as a family.”

With many mistakes along the road, we are so grateful that our peers and the board showed such a great understanding! Though we encoutered so many difficulties, in the end, we also have received so many praises and thanks.  

——Hanzhi Wang

To our great delight, at the beginning of the new school year, we found out that the curriculum of Pre-DP has been redesigned, including  elements of our proposal. Honestly, our proposal is just a start.  It planted seeds yet to be harvested.  The coming term will test the feasibility of some suggestions in our proposal.

I really want to tell the new Pre-DP students: the best experience comes from your full participation without pre-judgement.  If you're a new Pre-DP student, and get confused or perplexed, as often happens when adapting to a new School, please go talk with your teacher, house mentor, or crew leader.

If you find some problems you feel disturbing or afraid to talk about, you can send us an email via predpadvisorycommittee@uwcchina.org.  We are there to help you.

Finally, if you are also keen to contribute to the improvement of Pre-DP experience and enrich students’ academic and social life, you are more than welcome to join our committee.

Written by: Yuqing Wu, DP1

Photo: Shengkai Xu, DP2, Member of Media Group Zhixing