WE’RE BACK! BIGGER, BETTER THAN EVER! October 2013 AISE’S OFFICIAL IB NEWSLETTER
Volume 2: Issue 1
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Sexual Harassment: HarrasMap As I grow, mentally and physically, I start to realize how sexual harassment can be nervewrecking. I believe in freedom, the freedom to walk in the streets confidently, or to ride a car with no fear. I shouldn’t have to text my mother the license number just in case I do not return home safely, or not have to sit in the right side of the backseat so that I do not make eye contact with the driver. Surely, he is checking me out using one of many mirrors he has hanging in his car for obscure reasons. I have to say “elsalam 3aleko” not only because I am polite, but to give him a right impression hoping he would not take my looks or not being veiled as “asking to be harassed.” Over time, I started improving a very special skill: to look the harasser in the eye. However, unfortunately, those tricks rarely work. But this is only sexual harassment inside of a taxicab. HarassMap is a project started in 2010 that works on abolishing sexual harassment in Egypt, as well as altering the social acceptability of the concept itself. This volunteer-based intiative campaigns via billboards, text messages, their active website, and twitter to help spread awareness. This project offers active help and advice, as well as the ability to report cases of sexual harassment and assault. This easy, quick, and anonymous way encourages people to report incidents, and informs everyone of the results of this ongoing crisis. The project also involves active research being made with annual reports about sexual harassment in Egypt. Check them out at: http://harassmap.org/ar/ or follow them on Twitter @harrassmap Nadine Rady
The Almighty Mocks It is that time of the year again, when October rolls around and all the IB seniors are sentenced to the severe testing of the mocks. While of course these predicted scores may affect some people more than others, mocks are at the end very important. With college applications due in late November, and in October for some, these predicted scores are all that universities will know about your IB careers for now. In fact, when it comes to the UK, where all they care about is your IB Diploma, your predicted score is the be all and end all of being accepted into a university. If you do get an offer, you still have to obtain that score again in your finals in May. In other countries, like Canada, your predicted score does determine your acceptance, however requirements are usually much lower since they understand how rigorous the IB program is. Furthermore, most universities in Canada will let you skip a year because of your IB diploma, and offer you a scholarship too. Unlike the UK, you are recommended to reach your offer with your finals, but even if you don’t you will probably still get accepted, just without the excused credits and/or a scholarship. On a completely different side, US universities do not care much about your predicted score, since to them IB is simply the most rigorous program offered at your school. GPA matters mostly to American universities, as well as standardized test scores like the SAT and the ACT. Of course, requirements differ depending on the major. For example, most law and medical schools in the UK require standardized tests before you even apply. Score requirements also vary from major to major.
Marina Milad
All in all, mocks are a huge deal, especially since they are only our first attempt at an IB exam. While it may seem unfair to some, the process has improved, since before predicted scores were obtained by asking teachers. After a long summer break and with a year’s worth of material, taking the mocks isn’t easy, but it’s our only choice. Yes it is stressful, but worrying about the mocks will probably do more harm than good. If you want to get an idea of what you may get on your mocks, converting your semester exam grades into IB grades using last year’s boundaries would be a good start. To study, looking over last year’s notes may not be enough, since there is a lot of material to take in. Everyone has their own method of studying, but it is universally helpful to solve past papers and make flashcards/notes of things you know you might forget. Remember, never set your expectations too high or too low; you don’t want to disappoint yourself, but you also don’t want to underachieve. As for the juniors, know from now that you should start studying for you October mocks from the summer before your senior year. Time goes by ridiculously fast, and it will be hard to review during that first month of school before mocks. We only have seven months to go and the smaller half of our IB careers, so spending all the time we can studying will surely be worth it. If twenty-three IB classes have graduated from AISE, then surely we can be the proud twenty-fourth, regardless of how hard it may seem now. IB BUSY!
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Class of 2014: October 29: EE Second Draft November 3: Copy of Passport to Counseling Office November 17: First CAS Deadline November 24: All US, UK, Canada, Europe and Middle East November 24: TOK Essay First Draft December 19: EE Final Draft Class of 2015: October 20: CAS Interviews Students: November 2: SAT November 8: December SAT Registration Deadline November 14: End of Term 1 November 21: Parent Conference Day December 7: SAT December 14: Christmas One Family Fun Day December 17: Christmas Bazaar December 27: January SAT Registration Deadline Days Off: November 5: Islamic New Year November 28: Thanksgiving Day Break 20 December - 7 January: Winter Break *College Board Deadlines expire at 11:59 pm Eastern Time, USA Dates and deadlines are subject to change. IB Busy! cannot be held liable for any changes.
Out of the millions of unanswered questions and debates that humanity has faced, the one that probably intrigues people the most is whether humans are born good or evil. The debate is mainly attacked from two perspectives; the overly optimistic and the realistic – the former believing that humans are naturally good and the latter that they are born evil. It makes sense to accuse someone who believes that humans are born with pure, innocent hearts of being way too optimistic, since over the years, humans have shown the least degree of humanity possible. In fact, for as long as we have existed, we have not proven that we are worthy of being the namesake for the word humane. From the deadly fight of brothers Cane and Abel to every falsely justified war, humans have proved that they are inhumane. Heartless. Careless. Evil. If evil were to be defined, then I believe that in a nutshell, evil is death. Evil is the want to end life. Evil is even personified in the face of a devil who rules hell, hell being the ultimate death. Therefore, anything that has to do with killing is evil; even the thought of it makes one so. On the other side of the spectrum, whether you believe in evolution or not, the belief that humans are born with the instinct to survive is universal; humans thrive to live. In order to live, some aspects are vital. To live, one must avoid death at all costs, but one also needs people to survive with. Therefore, man strives to survive and help those around him do so as well, so there is no death and no evil.
A Flipped Society As the juniors embark on their own long and stressful journey and the seniors are more than half way through theirs, university is on everyone’s mind. May it be because you are still trying to pick the right classes or because your college applications are due in a few weeks, the future is right up in our faces, and it’s closer than any of us can imagine. The problem is that society as a whole has, for a long time, seen university and getting a career as the ultimate goal. If you think about it, all we ever focus on and discuss are the ends, but rarely the means. Why do you want to get accepted into a good university? Is it because you want to learn more? Is it to make your parents proud or so that you can make yourself proud by knowing that you have challenged yourself to learn? The whole point of school and university is to manifest in the knowledge of what makes up the world, from math to science to literature – we are just supposed to dive in and enjoy the world of knowing. Then, after you have obtained this skill of learning and these twelve years of wonderful knowledge, you are supposed to enter university where you’re lucky enough to choose the subject you want to learn the most. After that, you use all these facts
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IB BUSY!
Marina Milad The problem is that death is inevitable. It surprises us and hurts us. And that is why I believe that people are born with good inside them and not evil; because we cry, grief, think “why me?” and fear death and evil. If man were evil, he would be accustomed to the evil in the world. But the truth is, we see so much evil around us, yet we are still astonished when we are victims of it. Everywhere around us people starve or suffer or die, but when we personally are affected by evil we are shocked – we hate and fear evil. It’s like taking a fish out of water; if the fish were accustomed to breathing air, then it would survive. But, since the fish does not have lungs, the air would kill it. Then comes the ultimate question: “why do good people do bad things?” Although humans are not born with evil, the world is filled with it. Therefore, evil attacks us. Because of our instinct to survive, we try to fight back; when life plays dirty so do we. And thus, it is the love that we are born with that makes us so evil. We are so innocent and so focused on one goal, to survive, that we become inhumane. We become as vicious as the world, because we probably wouldn’t survive otherwise. Man is not evil, he is just weak.
NLshop
IB Dates & Deadlines
And Love is Evil, Spell it Backwards
Marina Milad and ways of thinking and ideas to try to pay back to the world. But instead, what we do is focus on one day getting a job that will earn us money and make our parents proud, so we don’t learn, we lose sight of all that is around us and focus on the ends and not the means. We’re like lost travelers in a big world – instead of looking around and trying to see what there is to enjoy and love, we simply ask for directions and then settle in when we reach our destination. May it be because of our culture, school or curriculum, most of us have not realized how amazing it is to learn and experience. More importantly, what it is like to learn from failure, and then never repeat these mistakes again. We have sadly flipped around the process: instead of enjoying the miracle of learning and then paying back to the world, we try to get by in school so that we can become “successful” at the end. But another flipped definition messes up our whole world, because success is not measured by the amount of degrees or certificates you hold, but it is what you have personally learned along the way. If we actually saw school as a place to listen to what the world is saying, then we would finally enjoy it, and then worry about our careers and jobs.
Maged Hassan
As students of a rigorous 2-year school curriculum, we are often inclined to drift off our set path to success in the program – the IB Learner Profile. Now, here are the actions that will guarantee you a hard time as a student as well as an IB Learner. 1) Procrastination Every student has done this at least a few times but it still doesn’t mean it is right. Whether it’s on a small assignment or a larger one like the extended essay, procrastination will get you in a lot of trouble especially in IB. Not only do you begin to stress around the deadlines to get the work done, you also don’t give yourself enough time to do your best. 2) Cheating Cheating is a serious offence in school and especially in IB. As a result, the consequences of cheating in IB are very severe as you might possibly get kicked out of the program. Cheating includes copying homework assignments, discussing information on a test, or even plagiarism by not citing sources properly. 3) Disorganization In IB, you are studying 2 years worth of information in every subject. If you’re a senior then you know how those worksheets, notes and papers could pile up. How useful are your notes if you can’t find them when its time to study for that test you have the next day? Or more than a year later when its time to take the official IB exam in May? Keeping track of your notes in a binder or notebook, organizing your time, and keeping track of all your classes and assignments is the best way to get through IB smoothly. 4) Inattentiveness There’s always that one class where we’d rather do anything but pay attention. Over time, we may justify not paying attention by relying on the book. However, what we fail to realize is that our teachers provide us with the key information that we might not understand from the book in a pace that will allow all the new information to sink in. Reading 70 pages of new material the day before each test is not the way to go. Instead, use this time to review and practice the material you’ve already covered and paid attention to in class. 5) Disrespect When it comes to IB, the courses you take, your teachers and your classmates are likely
Hagar Salama to stay the same for the whole two years. Learning to get along with everyone is crucial to staying comfortable and learning to engage with others in class. Disrespecting others, on the other hand, will disrupt yourself and others’ learning experiences. Try to avoid disrespecting others even if you don’t agree with their ideas or actions. After all, being an IB student is all about being open-minded. 6) Laziness Laziness often kicks in during those long breaks and weekends that conveniently come in right after those stressful workloads we get every once in a while. After working extensively for a while we must remember that breaks are a good time to relax but also reserve some time for CAS activities and assignments. Don’t let the time pass by without being somewhat productive, or you’ll regret it the second you’re back.
The annual AISMUN Selection Conference was held Thursday and Friday September 26th and 27th. The entire conference was organized in two weeks as Organizers and the Secretariat rushed to compensate for the time lost by the school’s late start. The late start meant that Presidents only had a week to prepare delegates and in turn, delegates only had a couple of days to produce resolutions, policy statements, article summaries, and country reports. Yet, despite the late start, many agree that it was a success as Tamara Seif El Nasr, CoHead Organizer reflected, “It was hectic, but we made it at the end.” The Selection Conference also saw a revolutionary newsletter and a stunning video for the closing ceremony. The creation of MUNster and a creative video showing the different responsibilities of Organizers and Presidents had more than one delegate laughing at the closing ceremony. You can read over both the newsletter and watch the video on Facebook under the group AISMUN 2014.
7) Inconsistent Studying Last but not least, being in IB requires consistent studying. Being in a two-year course means there is a lot of material that must be covered and reviewed regularly so that you are prepared when you take the test a year or so later. Always remember to make sure you have learned each topic thoroughly and understand the details well. The IB syllabus for each subject available online is an important resource to have at hand. Don’t create gaps in your understanding, it will come back to haunt to later on!
The main AISMUN 2014 conference will take place in the Spring, specifically in April. Foreign delegates and other international schools will hopefully be in attendance. Delegate sign-up sheets will be up a month or two before, watch the MUN board for any details. Yasmine Dessouky
THE CREW Karim G. El-Eita Marina Milad Rebecca Tenna Hagar Salama & Malak Sekaly With contributions from Nadine Rady & illulstrations by Maged Hassan Under the Supervision of Dr. Dina Taher, Ms. Susan Nour & Mr. Khalid Dinnawi Cover picture courtesy of the Class of 2014’s CAS Photography Team
Maged Hassan
The 7 Deadly Sins of IB
AISMUN Selection Conference
IB Busy! is grateful for permission to reproduce any copyright material used in this publication. Acknowledgments are included, where appropriate, and, if notified, IB Busy! will be pleased to rectify any errors or omissions at the earliest opportunity. Copyright © 2012-13 IB BUSY!. All rights reserved.
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7 PM, Really?! We all felt it, that annoying, itching tug reminding us that no, we can’t go anywhere, we can’t do anything.
At least in January of 2011 you could break the curfew, walk around the quiet streets with the excuse of patrolling with your parents (if you had the nerve that is). Oh, but you can’t do that now. Hey, at least we’re all feeling safe and secure now that the military is back in charge. At least its only every Friday at 7PM that you’re stuck killing time. You can imagine that IB students are the best at entertaining themselves during curfew hours. There’s the ‘IB sucks, I hate my life’ scenario (lasts for about an hour and a half ). This is when IB students mull over their work, looking at it but never actually doing anything. Instead they spend their time on various social networks or FML and 9gag, cursing that they’re stuck on a Friday night at home and forced to start their work before Saturday. Then there’s the ‘I am so going to kill my work’ scenario. This is when IB students get super psyched and think that they’ll finish all their work tonight and sleep all day tomorrow. This usually lasts for about half an hour or an hour if they’re lucky, before they give up and catch up on television shows online.There’s the I will catch up on sleep scenario. And, my personal favorite ‘I will get back at my parents for hogging the TV by maxing my cell bill.’ Here’s a list of of the top 9 things IB students do during curfew hours according to a Facebook poll: 1. Stay at home (courtesy of Salma El Derawi, blame her for this answer) 2. Stare awkwardly at the TV with my ENTIRE family 3. Eat dinner five times 4. Drinking semi-skimmed milk and watching Gossip Girl (courtesy of Mahmoud Mandour) 5. Read 6. Watch movies 7. Sleep 8.Think about homework 9. Do homework Yasmine Dessouky
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IB BUSY!
Mr Michael Glavanis
The curfew bore. Egyptians are all only too familiar with this.
Class of 2015: CAS Retreat It is rare that you are promised a trip of adventure, challenges, experiences, and a completely new perspective on everything. AIS’s IB class of 2015 left their hometown Cairo on the evening of October 3 not knowing they were on their way to a life changing journey. Whisked off to Marsa Allam as part of their CAS expedition, the IB juniors were welcomed to the rigorous IB program with a wonderful retreat planned by Dayma, an organization specialized in organizing adventurous and educational trips. and that is exactly what the IB juniors received. As the eleventh graders hurried up the stairs to the plane, monotone voices were transformed to shrieks and screams as the anticipation and fear kicked in. They had no idea what to expect as the plane full of worried and excited teenagers landed at Marsa Allam. Collecting their bags and hopping on to a bus they were immediately welcomed by Dayma representatives. The entire bus went silent as their airplanebothered ears heard the marvelous Dayma colleagues, Sara, Betty, and Nour sing a Disney song. It was simply the perfect way to embark on this expedition. Arriving at beautiful Nakarri, the juniors were escorted to their bungalows, followed by a brief tour of the place. The group then immediately gathered and began the process of getting to know each other; playing interactive games; an introduction to their CAS expedition. At this point the juniors were presented to the magnificent science of biomimichry. The next day they were up and early, ready for their first activity, yoga. Starting their first morning with stretches at the shores of the sea was a simple kick start to their day. A while later the juniors were off snorkeling, observing the magnificent coral reefs, the variety of fish, and the warm water of the Red Sea. Fighting panic attacks, the teams were able to power through their first activity. The day after was one of the most exciting as the juniors planned a community service day with a group of children from the Ababda tribe. The main objective behind this day was to teach the children basic agriculture
Malak Sekaly systems that do not require numerous amounts of water, as water in most of Marsa Allam is very scarce. The juniors hoped that the children would apply such agricultural systems at their homes, as well as have a lovely day. The day started off with a couple of activities to get to know the children, and then the agricultural games began! There were three agricultural teams, each responsible for growing a different plant using different methods. As the teams rapped up their teachings they presented their plants and procedure in an exciting manner to the other groups. Being the focus of the entire day, the agriculture teams did a wonderful job. Also, the media team did an exceptional job recording every event as well as taking as many pictures and videos as possible. Additionally, the logistics team were great at keeping everything under control. The following day the juniors set out to the sea on a boat to visit a dolphin home. Snorkeling their way through the Red Sea, they were able to see dolphins, as the wonderful mammals swam underneath them. After that, the juniors set out to the desert, on a two hour hike to reach their campsite where they would spend the night. Battling the desert heat, they reached the site to a warm welcome by a group of the Ababda tribe. They spent the night under a million bright stars, huddled around a warm fire, watching the Ababda preform their cultural dance. A few moments in, a few juniors as well as teachers decided they would also join on the fun. After roasting marshmallows, the juniors huddled inside their sleeping bags and tents, enjoying the desert’s silence. The last day arrived as everyone awoke to the desert sunshine. It was time to leave Marsa Allam, but a few more hours hiking in the desert awaited them. As they boarded the plane back home, the juniors looked back at this journey and knew it was one to remember. They got to do things they never thought they would ever do, and experience an adventure they would have never thought they would embark on. It was truly a journey where they accepted new challenges, learned new skills, and developed new characteristics.