Overarching Reflection Collingwood

It seems hard to believe that I have been at this school for the past 13 years of my life. Yet as I am looking back on them now it has felt like it has gone by in a heartbeat. When I started Collingwood back in kindergarden I had no idea what lay ahead of me. I had no idea the amount of opportunities and experiences that this school would have in store for me. Only now as I am only a few weeks from graduating do I truly understand how the four strands of academics, service, arts, and athletics have truly helped shape who I am today as an individual. Despite them just being four common words that to anyone else in the world would probably mean nothing to if you put them all together; Collingwood has brought about a meaning behind each of those words that has stories that shape every student and teacher that passes through this school. The academic strand has taught me the ability to achieve academically and set goals for me to strive for and watch myself succeed in ways I did not even imagine possible. The service strand has allowed me to interact with not only my peers but with my community on a personal level that I would not of been able to reach otherwise. The arts strand has allowed me to explore my creative side and helped me discover new things such as I am an awful artist but I enjoy such a thing like photography, where I learned that a photo can be much more than a picture taken with an iPhone and adding some instagram edits. The area I have most excelled in, the athletics strand has allowed me to pursue my passion of sports in many different areas and allowed me to develop my skills and given me chances to display them in places all over the world. Needless to say, those four simple words have had a massive role in who and what I am today and for that I am very thankful. The achievement that I am most proud of, as cheesy as it may sound is honestly graduating. Graduating is something that you look forward too as a kid ever since you start school or see older siblings go through it, yet for some reason it is something that you feel is never going to come. Yet when it does it feels like it comes up incredibly unexpected and fast. I think that is because no one really wants to graduate they just enjoy the anticipation of it coming. Well that is not entirely true, I am excited to graduate. It is going to open up a whole new world to me that I have been waiting to enter for the past 13 years of my life. At the same time I am going to be leaving behind people and experiences that I will never get back when I walk out those doors, but I will never forget them. So with graduating, one thing I would change about high school would be to make people not look so forward to the future, but live in the present. While graduating is exciting and seems to be freedom, don't let your high school years go by wasted and not taking advantage of every opportunity that you have, because you will miss them when they are gone. The first 13 years of your life shape who you are and most likely who you will turn out to be in the future, so let them shape you the right way by doing everything you possibly can in those 13 years; im just thankful that I am lucky enough to say that Collingwood has given me the best 13 years of high school that I could ask for. So, as I leave I know that I have been well prepared to enter University life and beyond because of everything Collingwood has offered me. Yet, if I were to give you all one piece of advice it would be to do your grad transitions asap when they are due because it will come back and be a bitch (sorry for language) .... but yeah. Grad 2013 xoxo

Academic Highlight #2 and 3 Choice Highlights

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Academic Highlight #2

My second academic highlight was my acceptance into Huron University college. Although it is not my first choice I will be able to attend Western which is my first choice and I am very excited to commencing my next four years at Western next fall.

Choice Highlight #1

My first choice highlight was the Australian rugby tour over spring break. This was by far the most memorable school event in my grade 12 year as I got to travel with the rugby team to Australia for 3 amazing weeks. I met new friends and had plenty of new experiences that will better prepare me for life next year and created long lasting friendships with kids from across the globe.

Choice Highlight #2

My second choice highlight was getting 84% on my English provincial exam. While this is not an A it is one of my highlights because only about 10 people in my whole grade got above 80% and this was a big accomplishment for me. It has allowed me to drop English and given me more time to enjoy the last few weeks of school I have left.

Choice Highlight #3

My third choice highlight will be the BC rugby provincials. While we have not actually gone to Provnicials yet I know that it is going to be a ton of fun and I hope that we will come away with a gold medal at the end of it. Our team has worked very hard this year to work towards winning the gold medal.

Grade 12 Service

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Service Highlight

My grade 12 service highlight is my participation in the Encounter XIX and XXI program. I went as a leader on the XIX program and was fortunate to be given the great honour of being a rector for the Encounter XXI trip. It is a lot of work but I am looking forward to further being able to give back to the Encounter program.

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I chose to do my service refelction on my Encounter XXI experience as a Rector. As a Rector for Encounter it involves a lot of long hours and time out of your day after school planning for the 4 day weekend. While a lot of the work is long and focuses a lot on tiny details it was probably one of the best experiences seeing it all pay off as the weekend progressed. Seeing how all the hard work through the 4 months led to helping each and every person through the weekend and their personal experiences was absolutely life changing. It was truly one of the only times I have ever felt like I have really give back to people and have them notice and thank you for it. Even though the weekend is not about me and was about all the candidates, I feel like they taught me things that I could not have learned any other way. They taught me how to be a leader, be understanding, compassionate, and a friend. I felt as though I was watching them go through something that could change their lives forever, and many im sure it did. There are no words to describe the feeling that you have and even though I got maybe 4 hours of sleep the whole time up there it was worthy every single hour, minute, and second that got put into it. I really hope that the Encounter program continues to thrive for years to come and maybe if I am lucky I will one day get to come back as an adult sometime in the future.

Grade 12 Academics

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Academic Highlight

My grade 12 academic highlight is my acceptance into the University of Calgary. This was a big accomplishment for me and I was accepted into the Business School which was very exciting considering that was my number one choice if I were to attend University of Calgary.

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My grade 12 academic highlight was on my acceptance into the University of Calgary. I chose this because it was the first University acceptance I received and it was a big relief to see the hard work that I had put into the first term of school really pay off. To make it even more rewarding I got into my first choice of the Business school. However since my acceptance into the University of Calgary, a lot has changed. My first choice as of now is the University of Western Ontario where I hope to attend the Richard Ivey School of business. Calgary was an appealing option at the beginning of my Univdersity search yet as time went on my interest were a lot greater in Western University. Particularly because for the first two years of your degree  you can study any subject you want and then transfer into the Richard Ivey School of Business which is what I plan to do. Going through grade 12, waiting for university acceptance is on of the most stressful times of highschool. I am happy to say that I have been accepted into all of my top choice schools and all the hard work at the beginning of the year allowed me to have many options in deciding where I would like to spend the next 4 years of my life at post secondary.

Grade 12 Athletics

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Athletic Highlight

My grade 12 athletic highlight is from the senior soccer team. Our senior soccer team has been a blast this year and we are currently in the process on attempting to qualify for the first ever provincial birth that Collingwood has ever had with senior soccer. I cannot wait to try and make it to provincials and possibly end my senior year as provincial champs.

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Athletics Reflection:

My athletics reflection was on being a part of the Senior School soccer team. When I wrote my highlight our team was in the process of competing in the North Shore playoffs for a chance to win a birth in the Provincials. Sadly, our quest for Provincials was cut short by a hard loss to Sentinel. Yet I would consider my last season as a high school soccer player to be a big success. For the first time in a long time we had students come out to support us at games and there was a buzz around the school about our team. One that had been long lost through the years of constant disappointment. I wish I could come back one more year to help the team finally qualify for a Provincial birth yet I believe that we have enough skill upcoming that we will have no trouble in further building on our success for the years to come. Being on the team as a senior also gave me major leadership experience and allowed me to become more confident in asserting myself in front of large groups of people. I may try to continue my soccer playing career as I attend University next year but if not, Collingwood was a great place to end my career of playing soccer competitively.

Grade 11 Service

Service Highlight

My service highlight in grade 11 is when I did habitat for humanity. It was on a Saturday and we helped to start the process in building a new house. It was a great experience and I look forward to doing it again this year.

Reflection 

I chose Habitat for Humanity as my service reflection because it was a major service event for me in my grade 11 year. Habitat for Humanity is a organization in greater Vancouver that goes around and builds low cost housing for families that cannot afford the to live in the growing wealth of Vancouver. They are usually small complexes with one to two stories that are big enough to fit a whole family and have all the necessary appliances and accommodations for everyday life. While we do not supply any of the appliances or equipment we do play a major part in the building of the actual houses. When I went on it we had to clear away what was probably a 10 meter long and 2 meter wide area of brush that was condensed with prickle bushes and other shrubs. While this was hard labour and not truly that exciting, it was good experience because it gave me an opportunity to see what kind of effort it takes some people 24/7 to get through their daily lives. It also showed me how lucky I am to be living in an area where I do not need to worry about where i’m going to sleep and whether or not i’m going to have a roof over my head. It really opened my eyes to the struggles that people can go through in their lives. Thats why as we were clearing the brush and putting in soil it gave me a great sense of accomplishment when I could look at the open space after and know that I personally contributed to a family being able to move into a nice home with a roof and essentials and know that every night they can be warm and comfortable in a place they can truly call home.

Grade 11 Art

Art Highlight

My art highlight in grade 11 is me taking photo 11. Photo 11 is a very interesting course because it is a way for me to express myself artistically with really no boundaries being put on me. I would recommend this class to any aspiring photographers.

Grade 11 Academic

Academic Highlight

My grade 11 academic highlight is getting grade colours in the first term of the school year. Getting grade colours gave me a sense of accomplishment to continue to improve my academic ability. Hopefully going into term 2 and three I will be able to continue to improve my grade.

Reflection 

My academic reflection is on me getting grade colours in the first term of grade 11. I chose this as my highlight because of many reasons. Firstly, throughout my whole collingwood school career I have gotten by getting athletics and service awards. Yet throughout the years there was always one or two courses holding me back from getting that academic mention. At the start of this year I made it my goal to really pull through academically and start improving my grades. Thats why when the grade colours meeting rolled around I was incredibly happy to hear academics after my name was called. I feel like I really turned up my work habitats and was starting to achieve my goals that I had set out at the beginning of the year. This showed me that through hard work and dedication it is possible to achieve anything. I hope that with this accomplishment that I will be able to carry that through to the rest of my grade 11 year and onto my all important last grade 12 year. 

Grade 11 Athletics

Athletic Highlight

My athletic highlight is about the senior boys soccer team. This year is the first year that the Colllingwood senior boys soccer team has made it to the North Shore playoffs in around 12 years. It has been a great year so far and I cant wait to see how we do in the upcoming playoffs.

Athletic Reflection

My athletic reflection is on the senior boys soccer team. The senior boys soccer team was an even greater success this year as it was the first time ever that we made it to the North Shore Playoffs. Tragically we lost in a devastating shootout and our run for provincials was cut short. Despite this outcome everyone on the team could look back and see how well we preformed during the season. We put up a record setting season in our overall record, goals for, and goals against. Being on the senior school soccer team has provide me with dedication, perseverance, and hard work. Playing on the soccer team was also a great way for me to begin my fitness training at the early start of the school year. It improved my running and my stamina dramatically. It was a riveting year with our team going on many winning streaks and scoring lots of goals from many different people. The core grade 12’s had an amazing year and were a huge contribution to the teams ongoing success throughout the year. Going into grade 12 I hope that I can bring leadership and confidence to the team while hopefully helping lead them to a second consecutive North Shore playoff birth. Without a doubt this upcoming season will be full of exciting and new opportunities and I cannot wait to take them on.

Grade 10 Arts

My grade 10 arts highlight is being in Drama 10. Drama 10 is an elective that I signed up for during my course selections and it greatly benefited me throughout the year. It is teaching me to get over nervousness of being on stage and in large groups. It is a awesome class and I would definitely recommend it to all upcoming grade 10 students.

My highlight of Drama 10 has helped me improve many of my skills this year. It has improved my confidence in speaking out in large groups. Drama 10 has opened my eyes to a more creative and care-free side of life, that can take you away form all the stress and nervousness associated with school life. It is one of the few blocks at this school where you can almost run the whole class yourself based on your own ideas and creativity. Drama 10 has showed me that it can benefit you to speak out in large groups to give your idea and not just sit back and watch. This highlight will help me in the future for whatever job I encounter because I will have the confidence and knowledge to speak out at staff meetings or events. This will prove to be a valuable asset to have not only now as a teenager, but as a grow up and become an adult. The creativity involved in Drama 10 has changed my outlook on so many things in life. I no longer “judge a book by its cover” and now look beyond the outside to try and find what is hidden behind. Drama 10 is a truly valuable course to have and will benefit everyone that signs up for it.

Grade 10 Athletics

Athletics Highlight #2

My second grade 10 choice highlight is when I managed the grade 10 basketball team. It was a good experience for me as it helped me improve my focus and organization as well as my basketball skills. It was a good year as we won our Cavs Classic.

Athletics Highlight

My grade 10 athletics highlight is making and being on the senior soccer team. I had to go through 2 tryouts to make the team and compete against other talented grade 10,11, AND 12’s. I worked hard though and my perseverance paid off as i ended up making the team and enjoyed a fun season.

Reflection

My grade 10 athletics reflection is on making the Senior soccer team. Being a part of the grade 10 soccer team helped me gain a lot of new skills that will benefit me in the future. It taught me key things like dedication, hard work, perseverance, commitment, and mental toughness. While I was on the grade 10 soccer team my best accomplishment was scoring a goal in the tournament in Victoria. Even though it was only one of the few goals I would score it was the FIRST goal anyone on the team had scored which made it pretty special. Being on the soccer team meant that I would be in a lot of group situations. After being in those group situations so often, it has improved my confidence in speaking in front of large audiences and in my confidence to speak out my opinion on the subject at hand. Hopefully the grade 10 soccer team will continue in my next and final 2 years at collingwood in grade 11 and 12. However after high school I will probably be dropping soccer competitively. I will still however play it as a recreational sport for the rest of my life. Being a part of the senior soccer team has allowed me to become more athletic and has improved my strength and conditioning. As I stated before it helps improve many things like dedication and mental toughness. You need very sound nutrition to be able to play on the soccer team as well as keep up with them physically. Nutrition can play a huge part in the matter of whether you make the team or not. You HAVE to have the energy to be able to run up and down the field constantly. I personally do not have any emotional or mental stress in my life but soccer would have definitely been a time to just be there and enjoy playing soccer while not having to think about any upcoming test or anything school related. If you did want to have a stress reliever, than soccer would be a good choice as it can focus your mind on something else and make your mind stronger to resisting stress. Overall, despite having a somewhat disappointing season not winning many games and personally not getting a whole lot of playing time I still had fun every time I went out to a game or a practice. I think that our team will continue to improve going into next year and hopefully we will go far in the playoffs as well. I learned a lot of valuable skills not only about soccer but also skills that can help me towards life. I can not wait to see what my future has in store for me.

Grade 10 Service

Service Highlight #2

My 2nd grade 10 service highlight is when I worked at the Spring Fair. I worked at the candy walk and taking down tables for service. This was a great opportunity to get service while having fun at the same time. I hope the Spring Fair runs again next year.

Service Highlight

My grade 10 service highlight is when I was a Camp Counsellor for the grade 4 Camp. It was a sign up bases opportunity and it taught me a lot about leadership and responsibility.

I chose my camp counseling for my service highlight because it was a good way to give back to the school. It is important to give back to the community and school because you should show respect to everyone. Putting service into my life time goals will be a good thing. Having service in your life can open you up to many different opportunities and new people. I will definitely integrate service opportunities into my life as I grow up and encounter new situations. Being a camp counsellor helped me enhance all the students experience at camp and make them feel more comfortable being away from home for a long period of time (to them). I remember my first grade camp and know the difficulties that are associated with those grueling 3 days. I witnessed first hand what a difference a nice counsellor can make. As a camp counsellor we had many new responsibilities to tend to. I was in charge on 5 hyper active grade 4’s. Despite the clear difficulties you have, it was a rewarding experience leading activities like campfire’s, activities, and your own cabin. Counseling gives you a real sense of responsibility. It was good to expand my abilities in working with other people and will benefit me in the future. This highlight shows that I have drive, focus, organization, and enough responsibility to take on any task that is given to me. Next year I hope to go on a service trip with the school to further give back to the world. Service should be provided at every school so kids can have the opportunity to give back. Service provides kids with new responsibility and focus.

Grade 10 Academics

Academic Highlight #3

My third grade 10 academic highlight is my 2nd term report card. After improving from last year on my first term report card, I saw a even more significant improvement on my second report card. I hope this improvement will continue to my year end report card.

Academic #2 Highlight

My second grade 10 academic highlight is my grade 10 speech. My speech topic was “What Do You Want To Do Before You Die”? It was a very original and creative speech and i got a solid 42/50 on it. (despite having to overcome some nervousness)

Academic #1 Highlight

My first grade 10 academic highlight is my first term report card of 2010-2011. It that first term report card I had 6 B’s and 2 A’s. It was a very good improvement from my last year’s first term report card. I look forward to improving those grades even more as the year progresses.

My academic reflection is on my first term report card. My first term report card was a successful one. My first term report card has shown me that if I put 100% effort into anything I will succeed. It has made me want to complete my grad transitions with hard work and focus. I chose my first term report card because it is an example of how I am trying my best to continue to improve my marks after having a fairly disappointing year, last year academically. This highlight has shown me that if I treat homework with hard work, patience, and focus then my marks will continue to improve even more. This report card really made me want to push even harder so that on my next future report card I can achieve even greater success and hopefully end up with close to straight A’s. This report card has giving me the strength to know that I have the capability and knowledge to push and keep improve myself academically. I do not have to get by in school anymore with settling for mid-low B’s anymore. It has given me the skills and confidence to have higher expectations of myself and not even settle for mid B’s anymore. Soon enough only A’s on everything will be acceptable to myself. After viewing the results of my first term report card which were 6 B’s and 2 A’s including honors in DPA and a pass in service I do not procrastinate on homework or studying for tests/quizzes anymore. I look forward to having my grades improve so that I do not have to worry about going into tests extremely nervous or having last minute cramming sessions because I forgot an assignment. I not only improved my work in school but also improved my attitude. You could be the smartest person in your grade but if you do not give the effort or have no care for getting work done then you will end up having to watch your grade fall lower and lower. With my newly combined skills of no longer procrastinating, completing homework assignments ahead of time, and going into school with a good attitude; I believe that it will show in my grades how I am improving and I cannot wait to see my next term report card. It should be a good one.