On 23rd April 2020, Hanova’s Year 11 students hosted a virtual exhibition to present their finished Personal Projects. In the final year of the International Baccalaureate’s Middle Years Programme students develop their Personal Project. This endeavor is entirely student-directed. Students have to produce a product, host and exhibition and write a report evaluating their learning. This year our students have had to work more independently that ever, and our virtual exhibition last Thursday was a real tribute to their efforts! As one of our participating teachers said: “ The enthusiasm and commitment of the students was so clear, despite the challenges we are facing!”

Our sincere congratulations go to all our students who have done more than simply rise to the challenge of difficult circumstances, they have excelled!

The following information highlights each of the students and their projects:

Jack Kim (Kim, Youngha)

“My personal project is about ‘Sinking of Sewol’ which was the accident that happened in South Korea in 2014. In my personal project, I made a video that would raise the awareness of traumatic disaster and I explained the effects of this accident on Korean society and importance of remembering the history in connection with this accident in the exhibition.”

Esther Kim (Kim, Eunbi)

“My project is designed to help Chinese learners, who are struggling with Chinese to learn common mistakes that people often make in Chinese more easily. My product contains a series of stories related to mistakes in Chinese and cartoon images to show the situation in the story. The book I made is a story format that makes it easy for readers to understand problems that happen when they use Chinese in their daily lives.”

Kelly Lee (Lee, Haeun)

“My personal project is about a school uniform. I have mainly focused on materials of school uniform, in order to supplement the shortcomings of our school uniform. The aim of my project was to find out one of the most suitable materials for a school uniform in order to make it comfortable to wear.”

Lia Kim (Kim, Seoan)

“My topic of the personal project is abandoned dogs. I’m going to make a video for my personal project product. The aim of my project is to raise awareness toward abandoning the dogs and suggesting ways to help them.”

Xun Khang Tan

“My Personal Project is topic is about Racism in Asia. I had aimed to explore different ethnically-diverse Asian countries, their cultures, and their different ethnicities through studying their conflicts. In the hopes that I can broaden my perspectives and learn more about different examples of racial incidents, the people involved, the causes, and resolutions.

My product is a book that aims to teach and show the different sides and perspectives of several racial/ethnic issues in the multi-ethnic continent of Asia, all through different forms of literature (such as a short story). It is a book that is both fiction and non-fiction, for both education and entertainment. This book aims to teach and show the different sides and perspectives of both modern and historical racial issues that are not well known. It includes literature that is fiction, but is based on real-life facts, history and the experiences of the people involved.”

Katherine Chung (Chung, Juyoung)

“The topic of my personal project is ‘What is the relationship between the Korean War and the Geneva Convention’. The aim of my project is to raise awareness towards the Korean war to people around the world and provide the information about how the Korean war related globally and internationally. The global context of my project is ‘The orientation in space and time’. The product I have made is a website and it basically describes about the Korean War, Geneva Convention and their relationships.”

Pelin Kayacik

“My project is called “Saving Our Species” and the aim of the project was to raise awareness towards endangered species in the world. I have designed a brochure that explains the issue and guides the reader with the simple changes that can be made to one’s lifestyle in order to prevent the threatening of animal species. Along with the modeled polymer clay figurines of endangered species, the initial plan was to sell and donate the proceeds to charity. Unfortunately as a result of the pandemic, this will not be possible. Despite not being able to fully achieve my goal, I have acquired the skill of modeling polymer clay as well greater knowledge on endangered species.”