Shelly Finkelstein
The Warm summer melts away "ICE"
My year in the ICE programme has been filled with unexpected challenges and change. This has shaped my character in many ways. I am sad this experience had to come to an end with months in quarantine, but being apart of the ICE community truly never ends. Reflecting on this year as a whole, I realized how I have grown as a Canadian, student, and person. I am thankful to the teachers for teaching me the true meaning of Canadian identity, and to my classmates who made it a fun experience.
Photoshoot with Zane
Throughout ICE this year, I have learned about my national identity. ICE helped me discover that as a Canadian citizen I have many rights, but I also have certain responsibilities. According to the Canadian Rights and Responsibilities of Citizenship, it includes volunteer work and helping others in my community. One volunteer work encouraged through our Civic Action unit was "bigger buddies" at the York Junior School Campus. This program ran for one hour every Tuesday, where my friend Olivia Novac and I played and looked after students from kindergarten to grade 5. Whether indoors or outdoors, we loved this experience and enjoyed volunteering with the kids for months. Through "bigger buddies", Olivia and I learned more about friendship, mentorship, and responsibility. We were extremely sad upon discovering that we could no longer volunteer in the York Junior School after the march break.
As an IB learner at The York School student and a member of the ICE community, one of the key components to the IB learner profile is risk-takers. It's defined as: 'approach unfamiliar situations and uncertainty with courage and forethought, and have the independence of spirit to explore new roles, ideas and strategies. You are brave and articulate in defending your beliefs.' This is something I believe my classmates and I demonstrated on our ICE winter camping trip. On this trip, we were encouraged to build and sleep in quinzees in below freezing temperature. A quinzee is designed similar to an igloo, but constructed slightly different. Not only myself, but every single one of my classmates took a risk and slept an entire night in the quinzee. Everyone experienced some anxiety the evening prior, but we all survived the night. This was a once in a lifetime opportunity, which I will continually reflect on in coming years.
My Snug Quinzee
Another challenge presented this year is the global COVID -19 pandemic. However, unlike our winter camping challenges, this experience is non -elective nor fun. Yet, I found it has helped me develop who I am as a person by adapting and improving some of my character traits. For example, this experience has forced me to become more independent and organized. This became especially evident through my online school work and the final projects I did in different classes. Moving forward, I can use these skills to improve my lifestyle and mainly my work ethic. Therefore, I can say something good that came out of these difficult times.
For my ICE final project, I created a documentary (link) exploring the effect of COVID -19 across different work sectors. In order to create this piece, I participated in many interviews, ranging from the VP of Air Canada to an entrepreneur within the sports industry. These discussions helped me develop an understanding of how the CoronaVirus has impacted both small and large businesses, as well as how the Government has supported certain citizens and companies.