Kathy Zhang

Looking back at my ICE year!!!

ICE program is actually really surprising to me, I wasn’t sure about what this whole program would mean. I was sure excited about a totally new experience in the upcoming grade 9 year. Obviously, I ended up loving all the things I had been through. I loved the winter camping trip which made me stepped out of my comfort zone. I loved all the community walks we had at the beginning of the year. Moreover, I thank Ms. Gardner for leading me through the program and the year.

This year is been a magical year for me. I stepped into my high school year with a brand new school and brand new friends. With the combination of History, Geography, Civics and English, I actually understood all the contents better. It is like putting different favours of candy in the mouth, it actually creates a harmony. Integrated Canadian Experience(ICE), is actually really descriptive as to what I have learned this year. I feel like I am more like a Canadian. As I moved to Canada when I was in the fifth grade, there is some difficulty in blending with the Canadian students. There is a lot of time I didn’t catch up with the news, and I actually receive information about things from people’s mouths. Throughout civics this year, I understood Canada’s government system and all sorts of systems made up of our communities and Canada. I got a habit of reading the news. When my friends have civics conversations, I now can join easily. I really appreciate all the civics content I had in the ICE program.

Obviously, not only civics, I appreciate all the subjects and all the learning I had through the ICE program. I found myself being more willing to interact with new people, the people in the community even they may be total strangers. I looked forward to the challenge week this year, but it is cancelled. That is the only part of the ICE journey I found sad about. Anyways, the ICE programme is a great and unique experience for me, but we should all look forward to the upcoming Grade 10 year!

For my ICE Final Project, I made an podcast about the pandemic and the economy. Link is down below!