在哥斯大黎加UWC就讀的Sophie在第一學期結束後對於校內風氣與活動的評論與自己的反思。

This is a reflection on the four months I spent in UWCCR. I am going to start with the good parts.

My favorite thing about UWCCR is the field trips. I’ve been on ten big and small field trips sponsored by the school this semester. They ranged from planting trees in mountains, to visiting a nearby animal sanctuary, to exploring cultural markets in downtown San Jose. The field trips were not only entertaining, they also served as an opportunity for students to explore different parts of Costa Rica from different angles and to try out different activities. I am not going to dive into what we did on the trips, but UWCCR really put a lot of effort into organizing the trips and they were all very fulfilling as well. I tried to join as many trips as possible because one of the biggest thing about studying abroad for me is the opportunity to explore a different culture thoroughly, the field trips did that!

Another cool thing about UWCCR is the biodiversity on campus. You can spot so many different creatures on campus, from the cats and raccoons that are kind of everywhere to leafcutter ants, iguanas, armadillos, humming birds and all sorts of other birds and plants. The biology teachers of our school are very into the ecosystem so they organize bird watching tours around the campus from time to time, which I found really interesting

Now the parts I don’t like.

I don’t recommend UWCCR to students who prioritize the academics.

A lot of classes are very heavily based on class discussions and student-led presentations. Having class discussions FROM TIME TO TIME is enriching. It is fulfilling to learn what is happening in different parts of the world. But when class discussions are done in so many classes and subjects, the “textbook knowledge” gets neglected. I feel like a discussion based class is kind of an ideology at this school. The first problem with it is that a lot of the students and teachers are very very liberal, so the discussions are very one-sided. More conservative ideas don’t feel welcomed. The discussions are usually biased and not very open. I believe to have productive and un-biased discussions there need to be people with diverse standpoints and the teachers especially should take the middle stand and guide the discussion with as little bias as possible. I really value knowledge, and love pursuing new knowledge. However, most of the time from class discussions students learn the opinions of their classmates, what they think, how they feel, but those are not actual, practical “knowledge”. It is also difficult to learn the actual “subject” or class content from class discussions or presentations of classmates because they are also students who are trying to study the same subject you are studying. This brings us to our next point, some classes are also heavily based on class presentations. Presentation skills could be useful but learning from classmates’ presentations is very ineffective. Because students are not very familiar with the subject itself, class presentations sometimes contain misinformation and are not clear and easy to understand (sometimes it’s due to students’ accent and pronunciation). Most of the time when students are presenting on stage the classmates below are distracted and working on their own devices. I love learning but class discussions and presentations are not the best approach. In some classes, students also complain about the lessons being “disorganized”. Sometimes the teachers would teach one chapter and skip the other or ask students to study on their own in class. I prefer it when the teachers “teach” because I want to learn from the teachers. I want to learn not just the IB curriculum but also the field works they did, the knowledge they learned from their past teachers, and their own studies. I feel like I am spending a lot of time studying on my own after school because I am not learning very effectively in class, and because of that the classes feel like a waste of time sometimes. However, there are still plenty of students who like the teaching style here, so it really depends on the individual. I personally value learning the academic knowledge a lot so the UWC or IB style of teaching is not for me.

There are also some other aspects of my UWCCR life that I thought I should mention.

The first part is stress. I personally didn’t experience much stress until the last few weeks of school, around the time of midterms and finals. A lot of class projects and essays were due around the time of midterms and finals, and the IB exams were not the easiest. To do well on the science and math exams you really have to understand and be familiar with the concepts you learn in class because a lot of the problems on the exam require you to combine different concepts or apply the concepts in various ways. You really have to think creatively to solve those problems. There are no standard question types, so practicing a certain types of questions and memorizing the solutions don’t work. I spent a lot of time reviewing for my exams. The business was what brought me the most stress but it’s temporary, so just had to get it over with I believe not having a language barrier makes UWC a lot easier for me. I also did AP in my sophomore year so the workload didn’t catch me too off guard.

This is probably a UWCCR thing because it’s the school with the most Latin American population. Some people have complained about how the Latinos tend to stick together and exclude non-Latinos. The Latin Americans do indeed stick together but so do other ethnic groups and I have encountered some Latin Americans that are friendly and welcoming. The Latin Americans mostly speak Spanish among each other so to people that don’t understand Spanish it’s impossible to follow the conversations. However some of them do switch to English when there are non-Spanish speakers around or some translate for the non-Spanish speaker when the group is having a conversation in Spanish. I think the main thing is about finding the right people that are willing to speak English and include the non-Spanish speaker in the conversation.

In terms of social life, I am not a people-person. Real long lasting friendships are not my priority at the moment. I don’t want to have a conversation just for fun, I want to learn about different cultures or broaden my horizons from the conversations I have with others. But most of the time people would still rather have “normal” and “fun” conversations about their day, and gossip. There are also a lot of very talented and extraordinary people who’ve done really cool things. In fact, I believe everyone on campus has something very special about them, like everyone has their own secret super power. Yet on campus they all look like “normal” and “average” people. They don’t really talk about the projects they are working on or the cool things they are doing, so you can’t have this talent exchange or knowledge exchange conversation with many students. It’s just not what people usually talk about in conversations. People do share about their cultures from time to time though, so throughout this one semester I’ve still learned plenty about different cultures.

I’ve still yet to have this big confrontation of self doubt or an enlightenment on my values and goals like many UWC students have had. I am still pretty lost on what I want to do in the future career wise, but I have some idea on what I value and what I want for myself so I just hope I am heading in the right direction and making the right decisions, taking everything step by step.