31 minute read
A stranger’s perfect life
By Mari Bernini Photos: Personal Archive
A STRANGER’S
PERFECT LIFE
Your family is not perfect. My family is not perfect either. And, honestly? I’m glad that is the case!
It is undeniable that technology has brought numerous advantages to present-day society, however, one of the toughest things brought on by the digital era is a propensity for comparison. When we were young, the people to whom we compared ourselves were real. It was a school friend, a neighbor, the cousin we ran into during family events. People to whom we had a connection, those who we saw overcome an obstacle and admired for their accomplishments, hence a more fair comparison. With social media, this became unhealthy, for we compare ourselves to realities distant from our own, and begin to believe that these are the patterns we should conform to. But that’s not it…
What we see in social media is just a clipping of real life. People tend to share their best moments and those who watch believe that that person’s life is only those moments. Then, come the frustrations. Not having the model’s perfect body, not having the famous actress’ dedicated husband, not having polite children like the bloggers, or even starting to think that you are failing your marriage or at forming a family because yours is not as incredible as those you see on social media. And so the comparisons become unfair!
When we watch a sad scene in a movie, we become emotional because our mind surrenders to the emotion the movie gives us… And the internet is the same. Sometimes we give in so much to this posted “reality” that we forget to evaluate our reality. Maybe the person who lives the perfect and envied life would like to be in our place, because we may be unaware of all that goes on behind the scenes in their lives. Everyone has fears, everyone has dreams that have not been fulfilled yet, everyone gets frustrated, sad, and everyone has been through challenges that are hard to believe… But sometimes the digital bubble makes us wonder if these struggles are exclusively ours. This is not the case.
Our life is important, our family is special. We need to stop and realize challenging moments make us grow, make us evolve, and take us to where we aspire to be. And so we realize that our life is perfectly wonderful just as we need it to be. We should know once and for all that we are good mothers to our children, just the way they need us to be. Who said the faults/mistakes we commit are only our own? We are all making mistakes, working, making an effort, paying bills, and trying not to freak out. After all, perfection is merely a projection.
Life needs to be focused on what really matters, being grateful for all we have. May this be our daily exercise: to thank and enjoy reality as we have it and suffer less with the reality that others post.
PORTFOLIO FAVORS STUDENT ENGAGEMENT IN OWN LEARNING
Adopted by Chapel as of second grade, the Student Learning Portfolio (SLP) is a document completed by students every semester, in which they record their academic growth in different content areas, as well as their social-emotional development. In the Elementary School grades, students reflect on their progress in three main content areas; Literacy, Math and CARES (an acronym for Cooperation, Assertion, Responsibility, Empathy, and Self-regulation). In High School, students make a document for each subject in the curriculum.
Step by Step
Students start their reflection by observing the content areas which they master, as well as skills developed, and then record what they do well. Then, students think about points to improve and establish goals to meet. From there, they outline strategies to meet the objectives they determined themselves. “It is very interesting because the portfolio allows a student reflection and brings autonomy for them to think about what they have learned, what they have accomplished, and for them to realize it is a process, what they intend to set as goals in their learning process, and what the plan is to reach them,” explains Stella Santos, second-grade teacher. She adds, “It is important for them to understand that to establish goals in life, we must go step by step, and think about what is attainable so they do not become frustrations.” For this, even though students complete their portfolios independently, teachers guide them to set realistic goals according to their grade level curriculum. “When a child sets a goal, they do everything to achieve it. Students get very excited and begin to work immediately,” comments Gabriela Pezoa, second-grade teacher. According to her, one of the most interesting aspects of this tool “is they first think about what they are already good at, and then reflect on what they want to improve.”
Pause for Reflection
Portfolios are revisited throughout the semesters for a new reflection phase. “Mid-semester students reread everything they wrote and autonomously evaluate if they understood their goals and their importance and if they are in fact working to achieve them and asking for help when needed,” explains Ms. Santos. She claims it is essential for students to know if they are on the right track to achieve their goals and in this phase, they can also add more strategies in case they are facing challenges. Teacher Maxine Rendtorff, who teaches High School English and Theater, considers the portfolio a great student reflection tool. “At the same time students realize where they need to improve, they also celebrate their accomplishments, boosting their learning confidence.” She remembers that the document’s learning objectives are described in a language for students, without technical terminology, making it extremely accessible.
Another important portfolio characteristic is that they are not standard, they adapt according to each subject’s specifications. “In Arts, for example, each student established learning goals according to the techniques that will be used. Learning becomes more meaningful because it is not the teacher telling students what to do, but rather students reflecting on their practices,” confirms Sylvia Almeida, High School Visual Arts teacher. This is a very important point, portfolios are student-centered, who in turn become more responsible for their learning.
Evidence and Feedback
At the end of the semester, students revisit their portfolios intending to check if they have met their goals or are still working towards achieving them. At this time, besides receiving feedback from teachers, learning evidence is attached to the document. “In case there is a social-emotional skill that was mastered, teacher comments serve as evidence. With others, evidence can be activities, tests, projects, amongst others,” confirms Ms. Pezoa. “In Arts, we usually annex pictures of works produced throughout the semester to show the technical progress,” explains Ms. Almeida.
During parent conferences, portfolios are shared with families. During these times, students themselves present it to parents and teachers, showing their development in each subject or content area. “This document is a great conversation starter with parents, it is a way for students to communicate and show their progress,” confirms Ms. Rendtorff. “More than a guide for parent meetings, the portfolio makes way for a positive and involving approach, for we first present the positive points then talk about the problem, and already set point to a solution,” concludes Ms. Almeida.
On October 8th, Elementary School students celebrated Children’s Day differently, creating and building their own projects using art and technology. It all started when ES Principal, Juliana Menezes, asked for ideas for students to celebrate the day in a more meaningful way. It was then that Karina Wenda, lead teacher in Maker Education, suggested activities for all grade levels, envisioning children’s developmental stages according to their age. The first step was to create a workshop in which teachers and assistants had the opportunity to experience each proposed project. By experiencing being the students, teachers could anticipate the joys and anxieties of being exposed to an unknown activity, to which they should problem-solve creatively.
“From the point of view of the event’s pioneer, and the one who brought Maker Education into practice for teachers, the experience was very deep because I could count on everyone’s collaboration, teachers and assistants, no exception, who were involved in an unconditional partnership to make an event that brought smiles and happiness that children felt for being at school,” comments Ms. Wenda. She said she saw children very happy and excited with the activities. “And they all proudly took their creations home. Together everyone made an unforgettable day,” she says emotionally. According to Art Teacher, Cristina El Dib, “it was a very intense day, and very productive. Everyone left happy. Teachers were pleased, students accomplished.” She says that in the groups she accompanied, students were collaborating with classmates who faced difficulties. “This is one of the focuses of Maker Education,” she points out. According to Technology Teacher, Otávio Garcia, teachers were instructed not to intervene, “for the Maker culture is based on the premise that students should find creative solutions for problems themselves,” he confirms, and adds, “The key to success, beyond the students’ collaboration, was not giving them the answers. With every problem not answered, their thought process was stimulated to find a creative solution.”
1st and 2nd Grades: Parachute
After reading “Jack and the Beanstalk”, first and second-grade students were challenged to help Jack, who was stuck in the giant’s castle, safely come down. For this, they had to build a working parachute to come down from the beanstalk and land safely. A big beanstalk was set up on the court, where the activities took place, and students would launch their parachutes off the beanstalk to test their creations.
Third and Fourth Grades: Pop-It
The famous silicon toy was reproduced by students using various materials: paper, cardboard, tape, and plastic sticky paper. The huge challenge here was for students to problemsolve to make the toy work, without ripping, for example. During the Pop-It’s construction, many fine-motor skills challenges arose, such as cutting the thick cardboard, gluing many layers of paper and cardboard, applying the sticky plastic paper without any air bubbles. Students had to think of creative solutions and work collaboratively.
Fifth and Sixth Grades: Artbot
The project for the upper grades in Elementary School was to build a robot that moved while drawing on paper, thus the markers attached to it. The robot’s body was made from cardboard and relied on DC engines which ran on batteries for its electrical part. Besides the challenges of building a circuit board for the first time, students had to problem-solve many technical issues to see their machines working.
HIGH SCHOOLS STUDENTS’ ART WORK ARE
ASSEMBLED ON A WEBSITE
After its creative production, the artistic process is only enhanced with the aesthetic appreciation that follows. This is the reason why Chapel has always displayed its students’ artistic productions at the end of each semester in exhibitions open to the community. With the COVID-19 pandemic, art classes, along with all other subjects, were remote, and these expositions were suspended. “During this time, only the artistic production was in place, the appreciation was lost since I could only show the work during class to their respective classmates by sharing my computer screen. Which was very limited,” says Ms. Sylvia, High School Arts teacher. Ms. Almeida was inspired upon receiving an invitation to a virtual art exhibition. “I thought it was incredible and I spent the first semester of 2021 searching for a solution to fit our needs,” she says. For this, she immersed herself in the study of Google Sites, which intuitively allow website creation.
Through extensive research, the teacher gathered and photographed all High School students’ work and fed the website, organizing them by grade, and within that by techniques used, accompanied by captions and descriptive texts. With this, Ms. Almeida was able to resume art expositions. “I released the website to families in June 2021, for the art appreciation to come back. The repercussions were so good that even though we are back on campus, we have not abandoned our online exhibitions,” celebrates Ms. Almeida, while recalling that in-person expositions are back and will be assembled.
The art website will also work as an archive, which will include current and past expositions, now photographed by the teacher. “All the artwork in my digital archive is being added. Therefore, students and former students can find their work there, it is a live website,” she says. In it, you can find complete expositions for 7th to 12th-grade students, the 2020-2021 IB Arts exhibition, as well as all artwork produced during the first semester of the 2021-2022 school year. IB Arts and High School artistic productions can be appreciated in:
PASSIONS TALENTS &
From this issue onwards, the section on Talents & Passions will bring news. Now, besides students’ abilities and predilections, this section will include teachers’ hobbies beyond the classroom.
In the next pages, meet a teacher who dedicates herself to the rescue and care of abandoned animals and a couple whose aim is to get to know the South American nature reserves.
Get to know the seven students from 6th to 12th grade who have stood out for their athletic ability, their artistic development - like painting, music, singing and dancing - and dedicate themselves to clubs, volunteering outreach and entrepreneurship.
ELIZABETH NOEL-MORGAN
UNCONDITIONAL LOVE
Having spent her childhood on a farm, Elizabeth Noel-Morgan developed a very loving relationship with the most varied of animals. “On the veranda at home, parrots and toucans would fly freely,” reminisces the Kindergarten teacher, who has taught at Chapel for over twenty years.
Everyone at the ECEC knew Cupcake, the small rabbit, who under the teacher and her student’s care achieved the incredible feat of living for over nine years, and remains alive in the memory of students long gone. At the time it was usual for there to be a few pets at school so that a sense of responsibility and care for animals might be fostered in children. Once a small cat was found by chance between the roots of a tree close to the school. It was noticeably weak and was also adopted and is now dear to its current owner.
These two stories illustrate the loving relationship between Ms. Noel-Morgan and nature well. The teacher spends her weekends in the company of her brother Edward and her sister in law who live on the shores of a reservoir. Their house is a sanctuary of sorts because it is getting constant visits from birds like toucans, parrots, Pipile Jacutinga, and other wild animals.
Ms. Noel-Morgan claims to be highly satisfied with her work with the children and animals, because, according to her, it is a talent and a gift that brings her much joy. “I really take pride in the love I have to give and for the care I have for all of nature in general,” she concludes. Inspired by having witnessed this rich harmony with nature, her classroom’s symbol is the beehive, for she encourages discipline, mutual help, cooperation, and teamwork.
KAHLIE GRAVES AND ÉRICO PADILHA
ADVENTURES IN NATURE
Getting to know the national and state parks in Brazil and traveling South America discovering their natural beauty are some of the many objectives that teachers Kahlie Graves and Érico Padilha have already begun to achieve over the past nine years. Ever since they met each other at Chapel they discovered they had much more in common than just their profession. “As well as all things related to our profession, we are both passionate for traveling and we love exploring Brazil,” says Mr. Padilha, the Brazilian Social Studies teacher. He is Ms. Graves’ partner, a 1st grade teacher, and they have gone on around 40 nature trips in and out of the country. “I have always enjoyed traveling. It is one of the reasons I moved to Brazil and besides being able to have the experience of teaching at an international school I also am able to explore South America,” explains Ms. Graves, a New York native.
Avoiding the traditional tourist routes, the couple chooses destinations that have a path to be explored. For these trips, they have a four-by-four pickup truck modified to fit their adventurous needs, as well as having tents for camping and other accessories. Their first long trip in the pick-up truck was also their longest ever and took 23 days. They left São Paulo and went to Rio Grande do Sul, crossed Argentina, the Andes, and went to Santiago, Chile and from there carried on to the Atacama. One of their greatest challenges was, according to them, to avoid leaving any trash or waste behind them.
Here in Brazil they have visited the Chapada (plateau) Diamantina (BA), Guimarães (MT), Veadeiros (GO), the Jalapão (TO) state park, the Lençóis Maranhenses (MA), Serra dos Órgãos, and Itatiaia National Parks (RJ). They have already explored the caves at PETAR (Alto Ribeira State and Tourist Park) in São Paulo, and discovered the beauty of the Terra Ronca state park in Goias. “There are a set of underground tunnels that are gorgeous,” says Mr. Padilha appreciatively. One of their prefered destinations is Serra da Canastra national park (MG): “It is a striking place because of all the natural beauty; it is where the São Francisco river starts and since it is in Minas, besides being close by, there are many bucolic towns that have marvelous food to offer,” he points out.
The couple’s trips aren’t limited to their holidays. “We also are used to traveling to closer destinations in São Paulo, which we are able to do in two or three days,” says Ms. Graves, mentioning the waterfalls in Bueno Brandão (MG), the Pedra do Baú, and Pico dos Marins in Piquete (SP). The couple doesn’t normally revisit places and they intend on getting to know the Chapada das Mesas national park, in the south of Maranhão. They have documented their adventures on Instagram and can be followed at #brazilyouresopretty.
DAVI CHOO
EVERYDAY IS SPORTS DAY
Enthusiastic about sports, Davi Choo who is only 12 already plays a variety of them. At Chapel through the Young Trojans program he plays soccer, basketball and volleyball, and outside of school he takes tennis classes. Furthermore, the 6th grader enjoys swimming and other aquatic activities, like surfing and stand-up paddleboarding. His favorite sport is soccer and has played it since he was 6 years old. “I started playing at my condo’s indoor court and then started practicing at Chapel too,” explains the midfielder and Corinthians fan. Watching soccer games is something Davi also appreciates. He happily recounts the time when he had the opportunity to watch the Brazilian soccer team beat the Chileans in the 2018 World Cup finals match at Allianz Parque stadium in São Paulo. It is no coincidence that Davi’s favorite part of Chapel is the soccer field. He also adds, “I really like the food, which is great and I also love the teachers who are kind and caring.” On the topic of food, cooking is also one of his interests, and from a young age he has followed his mom in the kitchen, while she prepared cakes and other treats. During the pandemic, Davi participated in some virtual cooking classes given by the school and learnt a lot. “I prefer to make sweets, cakes and puddings, mainly ones with condensed milk and tapioca,” he explains. To eat, his favorite dish is a Korean speciality called bibimpah, which is made of rice, vegetables, meat,eggs and finished off with a spicy sauce which combines all the flavors. But this dish he does not prepare, his mother, an excellent cook, is the one who does.
During his leisure time, besides playing sports he also likes to play Fifa on his video game. Davi likes playing with his brother, who is ten and is currently in the 4th grade at Chapel. “We get along very well. When we have a fight, we usually resolve things quickly and go back to playing,” he says proudly.
BIANCA DARIPA
DEDICATION TO THE ARTS AND VOLLEYBALL
Bianca Daripa’s interest in the visual arts began so early on and so genuinely that at the age of 7 she started having classes with a private tutor with whom she learnt many techniques. “I particularly like to make art with ceramics and realistic drawing. Although sometimes, I do like to paint abstract squares and geometric forms,” explains the young 14-year-old. She has been at Chapel since Kindergarten and is an avid reader who appreciates all fictional genres especially fantastical realism and thrillers. However, she wasn’t always like this. Bianca tells us that up to the third grade she didn’t like reading because her English wasn’t that good, only her Portuguese was. However, from fourth grade onwards, that changed “Chapel always encouraged reading and when I started understanding English better I let loose and began reading a lot and nowadays I love it,” says the 8th grader.
When she was 11 she joined the Brazilian CISV (Children’s International Summer Villages) delegation, an international organization that promotes education for peace and intercultural friendship. After a long application process, she spent one week in Japan interacting with children from other countries and learning about new cultures.
Another of Bianca’s passions is volleyball, which she started to play at school as an extracurricular activity, and for around two years she has now begun training at Pinheiros Sports Club, where she is a member. As she got closer to joining the main team her training routine got more intense, making her time to invest in other activities scarce. Dancing is one of those other activities. After having danced classical ballet for nine years, the young girl is excited to begin contemporary dance, but struggles to have all her appointments fit in her agenda. “Doing what I like makes me happy and I value that a lot. But facing all I have to do and what I still want to do, there is not much time left,” she confesses. For this reason, she has her mother’s support who helps her organize her routine and also gives her French lessons to get her ready for her High School elective.
PAULA LINS
ENGAGED IN PROJECTS
Having been at Chapel for a little over two years, Paula Lins was born in Brazil, but at the age of 5 moved with her family to England and then three years later went to Spain, only to come back to Brazil in 2019. What she most enjoys at school are the people and the sports. “Besides my friends, I like the people at Chapel in general and I love sports. Recently I started volleyball,” she tells us. From a young age, she has done swimming and participated in many championships.
She is a creative 7th-grade student and enjoys arts and hands-on work, she also loves experimenting in the kitchen. “Once I wanted to make a cupcake but I didn’t have the recipe’s ingredients. I substituted them using my imagination and it worked out,” she recalls. When she is making art she also likes to innovate: “I prefer to make creative art and paint objects instead of a canvas. On one occasion on holiday at the beach, I drew and painted on some sea shells,” she remembered.
Paula really appreciates being able to participate in projects and this is one of the reasons that ledher to enroll in StuCo, the Student Council here at Chapel, at the beginning of the school year. One of her first activities at Chapel was to help organize the Pep Rally, the celebration that aims at inspiring the school’s athletes at the beginning of the sporting season. “I like the moment we organize the material and love being part of something,” she explains. When the school took part in the “Mi Casa, Tu Casa” project, in which they would donate books and writing materials to the young Venezuelan refugees and those sheltered in Roraima, Paula was very involved, she collaborated by donating books and writing letters to the refugees. Whenever she can, she participates with her dad in the events organized by the Assistance Without Borders Association (Associação Assistência sem Fronteiras), a charity founded at the start of the covid-19 pandemic to distribute food to people in vulnerable situations. Her father works weekly with food distribution, but she can’t go along yet because of her age. “But there are always donation events and I go to those. I am very proud of my dad because he helps others,” affirms the young girl.
MARTA FONTES DE CASTRO
PASSION FOR KNOWLEDGE
As the interview begins, Marta Fontes de Castro tells us that her hobbies and interests may appear weird and specific, like for example, her fascination with the late 19th Century artistic-intellectual movement of which Oscar Wilde was one of its main representatives. What she is talking about is Aestheticism, whose followers championed the idea that Art should not be judged by morality, believing its role to be the elevation of Aesthetics and beauty and not political or social values. “This is a topic I love, but I don’t ask myself why,” notes the 10th grader who has been in Brazil - and at Chapel - for almost two years.
Born in Brussels because her parents used to work there, she spent a few weeks in Belgium before returning to Portugal, her family’s homeland. After seven years the family went to France where they stayed for five years, and then to Switzerland where they lived for another two years before coming to Brazil. This is one of the reasons that this young 15-year-old girl is able to speak four languages - Portuguese, English, French and Spanish - or “three and a half”, according to her, since she doesn’t write resourcefully in Spanish. She takes pleasure in reading and begins multiple books at the same time. “I have read many Sherlock Holmes books but I also like variety, I read detective stories in comic books and even some horror stories. I love graphic novels,” she says.
Her incursion into the arts also includes drawing - which she began to try out three years ago when a family friend taught her some techniques - singing and theater. “I always sang and recently I have started having private lessons. I also like acting and consequently besides being part of the Drama Club I am also going to theater class,” she tells us.
The sports are also among her preferred activities, she practices volleyball at Chapel and outside school, she usually goes skateboarding and wake surfing, as well as bouldering - a climbing sport done on smaller rock formations or indoor walls without any equipment. “I did a lot of bouldering in Switzerland and Portugal. Here in Brazil I still haven’t found an interesting place to try it out,” she concludes.
LORETA DELEUSE
CARE AND AFFECTION FOR ANIMALS
Encouraged by her grandmother and gifted with a lot of creativity, Loreta Deleuze has always appreciated art and design. “My grandmother paints very well and every time we can, we paint together; it is something that we love to do. I also like design, and ever since I was young I would constantly change the furniture around in my room and I love transforming environments,” explains the 15-year-old. With her parents’ help, who trust her abilities, she takes part in the decisions made when decorating the house. “It’s a stroke of luck that I have very similar taste to my mom, who ends up agreeing with me when I state my opinion about interior design,” she explains.
Loreta has been at Chapel from the age of 3 and played volleyball for some time, but for the past three years, she has been playing soccer, having become a member of the girls’ Junior Varsity team. “It is a sport I love to play and I made many friendships because of it, which is something really important to me,” affirms the midfielder - and at times striker - who has improved her performance in the same measure that she has spent practicing. Outside school she has done swimming for four years. Similar physical activities too, she likes riding bikes and meeting friends around her neighborhood. Another activity, which she has dedicated herself to is to help find new adoptive homes for abandoned dogs. Loreta says that she was encouraged by her mother, who is a member of the neighborhood collective at Alto da Boa Vista that rescues, feeds and takes care of abandoned dogs or ones that have been made victims by mistreatment. “Having lived with dogs that spend a period of time here at my home, I realized that it is something that really interests me, and I think that is because I have always have had dogs at home,” she elucidates. Currently she has three of them with whom she loves to go on strolls with: Moana, Pink and Aisha.
At Chapel what has most impacted her was the reception she first experienced when she joined the school: “I am very shy, but I soon made many friends on the first day of school, and people comment up to today that I was able to become part of the group quickly,” says the young girl, who enjoys spending time with dear ones, besides enjoying time spent with family and her dogs.
FRANCISCO PRADO
BORN AN ENTREPRENEUR
Francisco Prado is only 19 years old, but is already doing business like a professional with years of experience. He is about to finish High School and is engaged in projects in and out of Chapel. At school, where he has been since 2019, he is a member of StuCo (Student Council) and NHS (National Honor Society), where he holds the office of secretary. Besides these activities, he also is in charge of four other projects: a production company, an online store for male accessories and a video editing platform, all focused on making products and services more accessible to the market. He also develops and produces music that he considers a hobby. “I always liked interacting at school, developing ideas and collaborating with others. This is reflected in the work that I do outside,” explains the student.
At this moment his main project is an app called Edink, a digital platform that connects video and photo editors to companies interested in such services. Idealized two years ago he is about to launch the project officially. “It is my biggest project and it is the one I have enjoyed the most. At the pre-launch, we registered more than one hundred editors and at sometime this year it should already be operational. It is going to be very intuitive and easy to use,” he says. His interest for film production has been present since the age of 13 when he and a friend enrolled in a holiday course at the São Paulo International Academy of Cinema (Academia Internacional de Cinema de São Paulo). Not long afterwards they founded Light Films and began producing for family events. As time went on they started producing corporate and commercial and short films. “The production company opened many doors, one project led to another and in the end, all of them are interconnected,” he states.
Francisco tells us that his knowledge of Music, Art, and Design, acquired throughout his school life, and his effort to master video editing software and programming, including websites, helps him have new ideas, propelling other projects. “My understanding of digital design for example has allowed me to create a logo for StuCo and all its visual identity for the council,” the young musician who experiments with the cello, piano, drum kit and guitar. He confesses that it is not easy to balance his studies - mainly the IB – with his projects and social life, but it is very rewarding. With such aptitude to learn and to do business, it is no accident that his goal is to study Business with a focus on innovation, the subject that concerns most of his applications to colleges in the United States.
TONI SERRES
AN INTEREST IN INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
Born is Barcelona, Catalonia (Spain), where he lived until the age of 9, Toni Serres become interested in politics and economics because of the separatist conflict established for years in the region. “We Catalans have our own language and culture and that is why we want independence and all this is very present in my family, who is supportive of the separatist cause,” explains the 16-year-old, 11th grader. Having followed the discussion of such topics with his family created in him a genuine interest for politics in general, notably that which concerns conflicts and their resolution. “I began to follow international politics on the internet and nowadays this is just natural to me,” he remarks.
For three years Toni, who has been at Chapel since the 6th grade joined the MUN (Model United Nations), which encourages students to engage in the elaboration of global agendas and conflict and international dispute resolutions, taking part in mock UN assemblies. “When I enrolled in this club, besides having to follow the politics of large world nations, I also had to begin researching about the smaller countries, without a lot media coverage, but still go through interesting political conflict,” he says, further explaining that he enjoys doing research in order to find out what exactly is going on in these territories beyond our reach.
In the six MUN conferences that he participated in, the ECOSOC (Economic and Social Council) is where he was most active, although his preferred committee was the Security Council, which are much more interesting discussion topics in his opinion. Currently, Toni holds office as the vice president of the club, a role which demands much administrative responsibility, which he shares with two other students - president and secretary general - and with the lead teacher, Donald Campbell. “Being the vice president of the MUN means to be the leader of a group where everyone shares the same passion which is to debate. However, a big responsibility is to establish and facilitate connections between the students and the conferences,” he says.
Beyond the political topics, he has played the drum kit for three years and enjoys playing soccer - he is part of the Varsity team at Chapel - and often plays pádel, a common Spanish sport, played as doubles with rackets and a ball.
GALLERY
The special mass that celebrated First Communion for Elementary School students, games and activities to celebrate Children’s Day, and fun costumes for Halloween and Spirit Week were some of the events that marked the past semester at Chapel. Check in the next pages photos from these moments of union and friendship that brought together the school community.
