A Look into the Process of Personal Projects

By Tiara Shafa Sudijono 10E

“What are you doing for PP?”

The question every year 10 IB student has heard.

The PP, or Personal Project, is a project we complete in our last year of MYP. It’s comprised of four parts: research, planning, creating the product, and evaluating. In GJS, the process starts as soon as you want it to; even before year 10, students are encouraged to brainstorm and look for inspiration as soon as possible. Although this would seem like an effective way for students to plan ahead, changes of the mind are always prone to happen.

Even I had a last-minute change of plans with my PP. Originally planning to write a collection of original songs, I ended up running to my supervisor in the second week of term one, saying “Ibu, I’m changing my topic…”

I decided to focus on the topic of sustainable fashion. Although my previous and current topic were both connected to self-expression, I felt more drawn to sustainable fashion because not only did I want to promote self-expression through clothing, I also wanted to promote sustainability in a world where most things are single-use.

As for my product? I needed a challenge: an educational workshop. Speaking and communicating with organisations was something I had done before, but not quite in an educational way. So I decided to collaborate with a sustainable clothing brand to host a workshop, titled Y[our] Clothes, held on October 31st, 2019, 3:00-4:30 PM, in the school multi-purpose hall.

Although the event was not as grand as I hoped it would be, it gave me the opportunity to do things on my own that I would never have had the guts to do otherwise. Things such as learning to manage and regularly post on promotional Instagram accounts in less than a months’ time, promoting the event at every opportunity through assemblies, announcements and posters, contacting countless organisations for interviews and invitations, as well as planning the event rundown and setting up the venue.

These activities were a part of a new, stressful, yet extremely valuable process. I had to create timelines and plan them around my plans outside of school, coordinating them with trips, extracurriculars, and more. I had to interview my primary sources the week before the year 10 Malang trip and host my workshop a month before the official deadline because of an extracurricular trip I had in the next few weeks. For that, I had to use a large part of my term break to prepare for the workshop and promote it as much as I could. In retrospect, the process I had to go through to research my topic and plan my product was squeezed into a barely doable amount of time, and what resulted was a smaller-than-expected event.

One thing I would change was my time management. There was never a lot of time for me to plan event promotions or research beforehand, but what I could have done was plan ahead and get to know my abilities so that I wouldn’t have to rush or cram everything into a small period of time - most of my planning was put aside because I was underestimating the tasks and their level of effort.

Global Jaya’s Personal Project program asks students to plan way ahead of time, and quickly, too; something that most of us students aren’t exactly ready for. Many students get stuck with creating their product, starting their reports and process journals, or even choosing their product. The timelines move fast, and before you know it, the year is almost over. Still, PP is a process every year 10 student in the MYP goes through. It may seem scary, but don’t be afraid to look to your teachers and supervisor for help!

The Personal Project was a chance for me to take risks and create what I’ve always wanted to create - for me, that was a voice towards sustainability.

To all rising year 10 students: make mistakes. Laugh-cry about PP. Ask questions. And when you’ve put in the effort to challenge yourself or persevere no matter the end quality of your product; be proud. The Personal Project is not about your product nor an end result, it’s about the reflection, the skills, and the process.