Year Took: 2019-2020
Singing is what I love to do the whole time. Joining the choir open my horizon from singing pop music to the world of classical music. Throughout these two years, I learned music such as Exsultate Deo, Bridge Over Troubled River, One Mile, NISHKA BANJA, Music’s Echo, etc. Besides English songs, I also get to learn songs in the language of Spanish and French. Ms.McCormick, my choir teacher for both two years, really provide me with a broad view of world classical music.
Besides learning a variety of music, I also had been chosen to be the leading singer and the solo many times in the two years. Since the Concert Choir class had many performance opportunities such as during the Winter Concert, All Schools, and Shakespear Festival, I got to defeat my fears of singing on the stage in front of hundreds of students and teachers again and again, which now trained me to a more confident person.
Learning choir made me sure about my love and passion for music. Ms.McCormick encouraged me to attend the Kirchimski competition held by the school, which until now, I have attended this competition all four years and won the 2nd, 3rd, and 1st place. Choir inspired my interest in doing musicals, and I got to combine two of my favorite things-- singing and acting-- together. It is the Concert Choir that opens up my music journey in high school, developed my music taste in classical music, and trained me into a girl who is full of confidence and passion.
Year Took: 2021
I always sing and compose, but in the past, I sang and composed casually with impulsion as my only inspiration. By taking the advanced music theory and composition course, I dug deeper into learning classical music while more importantly, learning how to change the theories into material works, practice what I have learned, and make the classic more modern. During the course, we learned the structure of the sonata. Not only did we listen to many famous pieces of sonata from Beethoven, but we also got a chance to create a piece of our own sonata. To create my own style, I did not write the song in a classical music way, but rather a piece consisting of piano lines and records I collected from the environment. When collecting sounds, gave me a chance to keep close listening to things around me: I recorded my cat Candy eating her food, the sounds of raindrops on the umbrella, and the whispering of the trees when the wind blew by. With the piano line, the recordings together created a peaceful sentiment that drags me into the environment. The process had created a lot of fun which made me more interested and curious about composition. Since music has always been my biggest passion, taking the course really helped me develop my skills and open up my creativity.
Furthermore, as I learned more about music cultures and musicians from the western world, I began to be interested and wish to explore more about music around the world. Shifting from classical musicians we learned in class, I was inspired and started to explore more about hip-hop music: its history, representative/innovative figures, and localization in other countries. I read articles, learned about the OGs such as Africa Bambaataa and DJ. Kool Herc, compared and listened to hip-hop music from around the world and explored the expressions within. For example, I read about Cartel, a German-Turkish rap group, that labeled their music as “Oriental Hip-hop”. Their music, both visually and lyrically, explicitly expressed racial pride as immigrants and minorities in German society. Advanced music theory class laid the foundation for me to explore more about how music communicates throughout the world.
Year Took: 2022
Until the moment I choose to take darkroom photography, I already decided I want to learn Film and Media Studies in college. Although I know that I am interested in media and taking photos, I lack the fundamental theory and knowledge of photography. Darkroom photography first provides me with an introduction to film history, and the usage of cameras. I got to learn what is the speed when taking photos and how to focus by using a film camera, but most special and important, I learned how to wash a photo from a beautiful curly set of film. I did two projects in this class: landscape and portrait. During the weeks of producing pictures, I would spend all of my Sunday afternoons in Art Barn working on washing films. It is a process that requires failures, patience, and risks. In the project of landscape, I use my photos to show what FVS looks like in my eyes: peaceful, quiet, with a little sadness due to its isolation from the city. In the project of portrait, I use flowers and faces to show the return of normal life after the pandemic and the actual coming of spring and blossoms.
Darkroom is definitely a life experience for me. If I don’t study film photography in the future, this will be my only and last chance to try out this complex, time-consuming, but very meaningful process of producing art pieces. I love thinking about my project topics and to make my productions connected to the world. When taking this class, I feel like I would care more about my surroundings, I would love to spend time researching a black artist during Black History Month and present it in front of my classmates. Photo connects me a bit more to the world, made me more curious, and more patient, and made me treasure my time in high school more.
Year Took: 2022
Unlike Chemistry and Biology, two other science courses I learned in high school, Environmental Science is a course that is much more related to my daily life. Although most of its concepts are easy to understand, such as erosion, water purification, environmental services, soil, pollution, and ecological footprint, they are very important in my life around me and helped remind me of their existence all the time. Throughout the course, Ms. Llewelyn, my teacher, took us to watch many documentaries on the topic such as traditional sustainable agriculture and carbon cycle, which are all very inspiring and made me want to learn more about becoming more sustainable and saving the environment.
I did two large group projects in this course, with lots of small projects. The first big project is the first semester’s final: a solar system construction on-campus project. My partner and I did thorough research on how solar energy and solar panel works, how much and the categories of energy consumption on our campus, and calculated the economic benefits of solar if bringing in on campus. This project truly opened my eyes to the world of renewable energy, especially by comparing different solar panels and learning about their materials and systems. My second big project was the Unity Day workshop project. The workshop focused on the various ways how FVS preserved our prairies from perspectives such as grazing practices, soil erosion prevention, underground water systems, etc. In the 70 mins session, my partner and I spent the first half of the session period sharing out research results, then we led students to the prairie and did the soil texture testing practice. This project is also very meaningful since it practiced my ability to reach out and interview our ranch/land manager, Mr.Tyson, for information and combined what I learned before in AES(advanced environmental science) about soil texture.
Taking AES is a unique experience for me to learn about the creature and landscape around me-- things that I took for granted for too long time. I gained a more deep understanding of how the world’s ecology works and what I should do to help make a better planet.