Written by: Skylah-Rose Stuurman, Year 10 student
When I began attending YCIS Pudong in August of 2015, I was open to many opportunities of developing leadership skills.
The first being student council. I ran for student council representative when I was in Year 6 and got the position. I found it exciting to work with my fellow classmates and teachers to contribute to better changes for our school.
I ran again in Year 7 and fortunately got the chance to work alongside the secondary students. It was a great chance to hear what these students had to say, their opinions, what their input was. I look up to these upper secondary students and value their opinions.
In Year 8, I decided to run once again as my class representative. Unfortunately, I didn’t get elected but I saw this in a positive light. I thought of running for something bigger, maybe student council president? As I was contemplating whether I wanted to go for something or not, the position for house captain was advertised.
By that time, I was starting Year 9 and House Captain sounded great. To help with house events, to motivate students to try their best and have fun, to work with the other house captains and contribute by supervising and helping house events and activities. It all sounded great to me. Luckily for me, many of these skills I had developed when I was a part of student council. Applying my experience in a new context was an advantage.
I wrote my speech to convince my peers and teachers as to why I would be a suitable fit for lower secondary house captain. I was ecstatic to find out I got the position! After hearing the news, I wanted to prove to my house that I was capable and that I wouldn’t let them down.
The first semester was full of meetings on what that year looked like in terms of events, although, sadly, the majority of those plans were canceled due to COVID-19. I was a bit disappointed that I didn’t have chances to collaborate with house leaders and captains.
Now that we are back in school and finished with online learning, I am looking forward to what this year has in store. Especially the new rules and health and safety conditions that we have to follow. This year is going to be different but I’m sure that we’ll find a way around it and have fun while doing so.