A Night Flight Around the World

There is probably not a day when OFS isn’t in some way international; but, the UN concert night tops them all of with its cultural diversity, maze of colourful displays, and the fun that comes with it.

OFS, you can guarantee, is buzzing with energy from excited students, stressed music teachers, worried organisers and anxious parents on the night of the much-anticipated UN concert. “Why do we do the UN concert every year? It’s very tiring, demanding, and the timings clash with classes. But, every year, it’s always worth it.” Ms Bentin explains. So what exactly ends up being worth it? Other than the shows themselves? “The first timers to the concert,” Ms Bentin smiles. “They will always tell you how they can’t believe how incredible the UN concert is and how they’ve never seen anything like it.”

Asking around, words used to describe the UN concert ranged from superb, flawless, professional, breath taking, diverse, exciting, and colourful. Those are pretty apt considering the first concert in itself included acts, among others of course, ranging from Korea to the US and Canada, India to France and Belgium, and the Philippines to Latin America – what’s not to like?

That was the first concert – the second concert consisted of another explosion of culture including a daring Japanese acrobatic act, an awe inducing teamwork act by Indonesia and the sing-a-long Don’t Stop Me Now by the Brit group, an ode to Queen, one of their national icons. Finlay Sim, the singer of the French-Belgian UN group recalled his experience as “nerve wrecking! There’s always so much going on right before the concert!”

The icing on the cake of the UN concert would have to be the closing ceremony: all the flag swaying left to right in unison. OFS achieved on stage what world leaders cannot: a beautiful sense of cooperation between a multitude of nations – OFS, the World takes its hat off to you.

Bérengère Sim

“They [first timers] will always tell you how they can’t believe how incredible the UN concert is and how they’ve never seen anything like it.”

Ms Bentin

Hot Off the Press1. UN Overdose? Never!

2. A Night to Remember

3. Around the World in 30 Days

4. The Wonderful World of CAS

5. Hobbies

6. MUN

UN Overdose? Never!All through the summer I had a glow about my

face when I thought of the coming school year and what it had in store for us… United Nations Night of course! The fun, emotion, drama, music, thrill, entertainment – it is akin to a movie potboiler. But that’s where the priceless, lifetime high school memories lie. Entering my third UN at OFS, I felt the same exhilarating experience. Trying to narrow down to a song is the hardest part of all - when twenty people work together to find a consensus, does it take long? You’d think not right? It actually does! We’re spoilt for choice and everyone has different ideas. Once that’s done, the real test begins. Creating the dance and making people attend the practices to actually learn it.

Our song is all ready and prepared – we’re waiting to stimulate explosions of cheers on the concert night. We’re a bunch of obedient high school students – coming to school every Saturday to practice for three hours and

staying back frequently after school, sometimes even giving up precious lunchtimes - with the leaders screaming their lungs out to make themselves heard over the shrills of laughter emitted from awed girls watching Mohnish and Sohrab doing hip-hop and dance stunts, as Gaurav tries to copy them, failing. We have to yell to be heard over the chatter and the constant arguments but its all in good heart.

But the Indian group does seem to get attention from everyone – practices are attended by strong supporters from 11th and 12th grade, keen to join in on the fun.

But in the meantime, come along to one of our practices and join in the fun. The Indian group welcomes you with open arms but don’t hold us responsible for any temporary injuries occurring mentally or physically (all in good heart). We can account however for a jolly, unforgettable experience.

Natasha Chainani

A NIGHT

TO RE-MEMBER

Easily one of the most exciting, worked on and best events of High School in OFS, UN Night is one experience that remains ingrained in the minds of all those taking part in it. The Footprint interviewed Mrs. Helen Owain, the HS Music

department head and in charge of the UN Concert to find out her thoughts…

What is the first word that comes to your mind when you hear "HS UN Night"?Colour - for me the lasting memory of all UN concerts is the colours on the stage - the beautiful costumes and the flags

How did you find the experience of the run-up to UN Night? e.g. the food days, rehearsals, meetings, hectic scheduling etc.The run-up to UN night was hectic and exciting - the same as every year. I never get to experience the

country days (or the fund-raising activities in past years) because I'm always rehearsing at lunch times. For me, the best thing is seeing how much effort some students are willing to put in to their performances. However much I don't want to be in school on Saturdays, once I am here and watching students rehearsing with so much passion and maturity, I always feel good by the time I leave.It is also a privilege for all the music teachers to have so many talented and enthusiastic musicians to work with. They make the rehearsals for the musical numbers a pleasure rather than a chore!

Was this year's UN better than last year? How was this concert different from the numerous concerts you oversee?Yes, I think this concert was better than last year's - but maybe I always think that! This concert was different from others in previous years because of the very large number of students we have now. We had bigger groups and more items. I

also think the performance that we did to the school on Friday afternoon was great because the audience were so well-behaved, supportive and enthusiastic.

How would you describe your experience of UN? I would say it was six weeks of school I will never forget. My experience of UN this year gave me a lot of great memories, allowed me to meet and get to know many students who I otherwise probably would never have met, and left me feeling very proud of all the students who performed in and helped with the concert. At least 10 students have come to see me in the past couple of days and said how much they enjoyed UN, and how they are missing it now it is over! Natasha Chainani

Around the World in 30 daysWho doesn’t love free food? At OFS, we’ve been having free food almost every day until September, courtesy of the UN Event Days. Who can resist a lunchtime with tempting delicacies, infused with cultural significance and not to forget - the chal-lenging games every week. Well, the results are in, and the answer is nobody. This past month in OFS we have been entertained by the huge variety of displays we have had. From Taiwanese Bubble Tea, to Norwegian Waffles to Japanese Rice Balls, from the Thai and Burmese Salads to pizza from Italy, no one failed to show the specialty of their own country.

The different UN groups also gave us a chance to play games native to their coun-try. The posters put up by the students were very col-ourful, informative and showed country spirit. One instance of such good coun-try spirit and teamwork was the Philippines UN group who not only gave an exem-plary delight to their fellow schoolmates, but also showed the love for their country with their black “pinoy” (Philippino) jackets, making them stand out. Most of these UN groups have worked very hard to actually pull their event day off with such magnificence. Daily meetings at lunch, weekly afterschool meetings, spending time and effort buying the food, cooking them and of course bringing the equipment for their games – everyone has been busy. Including the teachers, who worked to help the stu-dents with their prepara-tions.

Making a small link to our learner profile, I would defi-nitely say that the event days have helped us become open minded and brought out the intercultural awareness in us. The event days were such a huge success - there were huge crowds outside the canteen, near posters, and the basketball court.

Malavika Nair

The Wonderful World of C.A.S

Xspro-ject: Eco-friendly,

Eco-trendy

An average person trashes about 70 thousand pieces of paper each year. A person in a high usage environment

such as school probably throws away twice or even thrice that amount, even if the paper was only half used. But here in OFS, ef-forts are being made to re-duce this large expenditure of mostly unused paper. One such example is the Xsproject, a growing group of around 24 people lead by Ms. MaresManton and Sofie Sorgard who meet every Friday lunch to recycle discarded paper.

This unwanted paper is put to good use as notebooks and bookmarks, which are

then given to school staff and teachers for use. The unique thing is that these notebooks are not your av-erage lined book, but are made with little difficulty, out of a colorful selection of cardboard paper as a cover with reused blank paper neatly tucked into it and bound together. Once used up, the notebook can then be refilled by simply untying and replacing the contents of the book. There is plenty of room to get in touch with one's creative side while also playing a contributive part

both to the school and the environment.

The Xsproject allows for lots of socializing as well, where people get to work in their own chosen groups. Mem-bers have spoken of the ac-tivity to be "fun" and "pro-ductive" while also "doing one's part for the environ-ment". Great for both envi-ronmentalists and socialites alike, there is no doubt that the Xsproject will become an inherent part of the school's variety of activities.

David Sim

And All That Jazz

Quantity doesn’t always equate to quality, and the Jazz Group proved this right. Meeting every Wednesday lunch time is a small, but talented group of musicians. Members of the group play a variety of in-struments - electric guitar, bass, saxophone, clarinet, piano and brass instruments – these musicians range from 9th grade to 12th grade and, in a true OFS fashion, the jazz group has an inter-national line-up of musi-cians – all of them united by their love for Jazz music. The group is now concen-trating on practicing and rehearsing songs for the OFS high school musical, Fame.

When asked of his impres-sion of the group, Daran

Suthiwan-Tadmor, one of the three guitarists of the Jazz Group, answered: “Think of it as a newly as-sembled class.”

The teacher of this ‘newly assembled class’ is Mr. Goss, who just took over as the supervisor of the Jazz group this year. “Mr. Goss is a lot more about training us all as musicians,” Daran Suthiwan-Tadmor said. “For example, those of us who can't really read music that well, he would give us the sheet music and make us practice reading so that we'd improve. Overall, it’s a much better learning envi-ronment this year.”

The Jazz Group is sure not to disappoint this year, so when you go watch Fame this year, remember to also pay attention to these amazing musicians!

Jessica Iskandarsjah

Ultimate Sport

It was just like any other Monday evening after school, but at one of the basketball courts was a group of students who had stayed back especially for a newly made club. "Ultimate Frisbee," said Mr. Glover, one of the coaches of this club, as he looked at the fresh new faces gathered round him, "Is an active sport. There is barely time for you to react, so you need to have a constant awareness of your surroundings and act fast."

"It requires you to be physi-cally fit," he continued be-fore adding with a hint of glee, "There is a lot of run-ning involved in Ultimate Frisbee, which means you will need a lot of stamina too." Most of the students present were new to com-

petitive ultimate frisbee (or ultimate in short), so it was unknown to them what was install for them on their first day of training. There was little technical talk and no running around the track involved. What did happen was a series of game-like activities that had students pair up or compete with each other. While this may not sound like much, Mr. Glover ensured that it was, but kept it fun with the re-freshing changes in pace. Many of the students admit-ted that it had been an "un-expected amount of physi-cal exertion", but "exhaust-ingly fun".

Ultimate is not just any cas-ual sport - catching and throwing are simply the tip of the iceberg. There are even Ultimate teams and competitions held in several countries. America alone has more than 600 college teams and Singapore has its very own association. While

the OFS Ultimate Frisbee team is newly made under the supervision of Mr. Glover and Mr. Bergeron, members are looking for-ward to being able to take part in the competitive scene. What lays ahead may be a mystery, but hopes re-main high for this unique sport - after all Ultimate Frisbee is more than meets the eye.

David Sim

What the... ?Math is FUN! STOP! Don’t skip this article because you, yes you, will appreciate more about math after reading this.

For those who are not famil-iar with calculus, it is a branch of Mathematics that deals mostly with finding the gradient of a curve in a given point or to find the rate of change in a variable.

Maths Club is not where you do your math home-work or get extra help. But it is where students gather and have practices doing the math challenge or math competition questions. The students in the math club gather every Wednesday lunch time in M105. Stu-dents will be divided into groups of four of the same grade (9 and 10, 11 and 12) and in these groups, they are given a question set taken from past mathematics chal-lenges, and in these groups, students are to discuss amongst themselves. Only when they’re really hitting walls they’re supposed to ask the teacher in charge. This club not only trains the way students think, their logic, but also helps train them

with their arithmetic, as calculators are not permit-ted in the competition and practices.

Victoria Eddy

Circus Arith-metic

What better way to learn a new skill than to be taught by a veteran? While it is obvious to anyone what Jug-gling Club is about, it is not an activity to be underesti-mated for its difficulty and depth. It was not till the third week of the club that one of the beginners in jug-gling had successfully passed the 'test' for juggling three balls. Lead and instructed by Mr. Love, it is held after school every Tuesday, whereby students gather to practice juggling - and occa-sionally other tricks as well. Known for bearing skills in other aspects such as dia-bolo tricks and even the yo-yo, one could get tips and advice from him on such subjects as well. That is, of course, without forgetting that learning to juggle is the purpose of the club.

The members of Juggling Club are of a wide skill range - from those who could easily skip forwards to intermediate juggling tech-niques, to those who have no experience at all. Both beginners and experienced jugglers get to be exposed to a large variety of juggling techniques. While practice makes perfect, it is also a skill that, as Mr. Love pointed out, should be prac-ticed "in short periods of time". Juggling is not simply about repeated movement,

but also learning to perfect one's coordination, control and ability to react. As like any other hobby, Juggling also requires a large amount of personal interest and to above all, have fun.

David Sim

A bowl was not a bowl in Writing Club last Thursday – it was a princess, said one student, while another called it an endless ocean. The two sessions the Writing Club had so far had consisted of simple exercises. First, the students were given the task of describing a stranger on the bus, in the second, they were told to describe a bowl. Despite the simplicity of these challenges, members of the club truly let their minds soar.

The OFS Writing Club is bigger than ever now, with 23 students, a massive in-crease from last year; back then it had less than 10 stu-dents. When asked about what she wanted out of the Club Ms. Helen Stewart, supervisor, had said that she simply wanted the students to enjoy the club, and learn a little bit about themselves and others through writing. She had also said that she also wanted these students to appreciate language.

“From a teacher’s point of view, it’s a challenge,” she said. “Students want differ-ent things out of the club. There are those who need help with grammar, and those who don’t even know why they’re here. This makes it very challenging to get them to, in the end, ap-preciate writing”

Pieces by members of the Writing Club will appear in Meta4, OFS’ very own quarterly creative writing magazine.

Jessica Iskandarsjah

Can you feel the beat?It is hard to resist dancing along with the hip hop club! The genre - break dancing. In this group everybody is transported into a new world, where they’re one family. Everybody helps one another to get the new move taught by B-boy Loki (Thortan Teow), a student from our school taking the role of teaching hip hop. This club was established by Mohnish Singh and Thorton Teow.The group meets every Tuesday and Thursday at lunch time. Everybody is welcome - no experience necessary. Thorton and Mohnish individually give attention to every member of the group and to each moves’ slightest detail. They teach the steps together, and then split up and teach everybody to focus on the choreography of each member.

“Chair freeze” and “Indian Steps” are only a few examples of the steps they teach. Here, everybody is in a world of creativity and social fun. This club helps to enhance fitness, build confidence, and character of the dancers. That is why Mohnish and Thorton decided to create this club, to benefit everybody that is involved.

So what are you waiting for? Come and feel the beat!

Victoria Eddy

Hobbies

Clone Wars Critics mock "The Clones Wars", but may be "far, far away" from the truth.Star Wars! A phrase that has long produced enormous expectations and high profit since its debut movie, its series of six movies have undergone all sorts of re-sponses from people all over the world. Starting from its first movie in 1977, the Star Wars universe has since grown to a massive fran-chise, with products ranging from TV shows to numerous games such as "Force Un-leashed" that is about to be released for the XBOX360 and the PS3.

One of the more recent movies release on August 28th, is the "Star Wars: Clone Wars", which is sup-posed to introduce us to the clone wars universe. Ex-pected to be released on Cartoon Network this year, it is an animated full length movie, designed in Singa-pore. Reviews were killing the movie, laughing at the animation, and talking about George Lucas was getting old. But, after watch-ing it, I was actually sur-prised at how wrong the critics were.

The movie may not use the most up to date animation technology, but the voice acting and the movements of the characters are more realistic than the previous Star Wars animated TV series. If you like Star Wars or sci-fi movies, I strongly recommend this movie for its epic storyline and quality.

Markus Sekse

Light-ning- Down But Not

OutWhen we first stepped onto the field for training, our opinions about the intensity of training and our thoughts about the football team’s seriousness was a rather unstable affair. Where on one side they seemed to be unbothered, on the other side, you could see that they were determined to win.

So what exactly do you do before a game? Do you sit on the benches and listen to your coach drone on and on about how the other team is as strong as the Greek gods to walk the earth and how we need to focus on win-ning? It seems not.

When we spoke to the team members about their feel-ings about the match after training, we got answers ranging from, “I think our team’s pretty strong this time around, we can win.” to “Yeah... maybe. They’re pretty strong, but we just might.”

When the UWC team came on, though, the air blew out of our lungs - hefty, muscu-lar men, not boys. The game began - we were whooshed apart by the speed at which the opposing team rammed into us. Over and over again, their offense put us under pressure. I say offense because…well, their

defense needed work. Our strikers,running at the speed of light as compared to theirs, tried to score goal after frustrating goal; to no avail.

But we didn’t back down. Nay, The Lightning fought on with all they had. Not once did you see a player stop and ask to be taken off the field. Every single player on the bench wanted to be up and out there on the

field.

And a close score it was. It went 1-0 to UWC, and you could just tell by the looks on their faces, how disap-pointed the The Lightning were.It was as close a game as it gets; and for the fourth game of the new season, it was a warning for what is to come.

Dipanjali Roy

Are you ready for FAME?

For the first time ever, OFS High School is put-ting together a MUSI-CAL! Based on the famous Broadway musical, FAME, preparations have began since the start of the school year. We will have to wait with baited breath to see how participants are going to present this evergreen musical with their own twist to it, but here is an interview with Ms. O'Hara, one of the drama teachers, providing some insight to this ac-claimed musical:

How did the idea of 'FAME' come about?After the success of our M.A.D.D. concert last year where all the arts groups (Music, Art, Dance and Drama) collaborated to-gether, the students have been asking when can we do something like this again. We (the arts teachers) felt that a musical would be a great opportunity for many to work creatively together and to learn the value of hard work.

How were the auditions?We had over 60 students auditioning for 14 parts so its been a tough choice, but we are happy to say that all 60 students have been cast in the show between various roles. Our Arts Service group too will have a huge part to play backstage so it is going to involve a huge team effort.

What is ‘FAME’ about?It is set in the last years of New York City's celebrated High School for the Per-forming Arts on 46th Street (1980-1984), and is a bitter-

sweet but inspiring story of a diverse group of students as they commit to four years of grueling artistic and aca-demic work. 'FAME' also explores the issues that young people face, such as prejudice, identity, self-worth, literacy, and perse-verance.

How have the rehearsals been so far?We are just in the initial stages of rehearsals, but once the UN Concert has ended, rehearsals will be in full swing so be prepared to hear lots of "I'm gonna live forever" in the hallways next quarter!

Malavika Unnithan

Runway to Hall-

waySo now that school’s back and in full swing, everyone’s hopefully settled down to adjust to new teachers, class-rooms and timetables. More focus can be put on the smaller details. No uniform is a privilege the seniors have but it doesn’t stop the juniors from getting creative with their uniforms.

A trend that has recently surfaced is wearing colourful tank tops underneath the white school shirts. It doesn’t stop there though; now oversized hoodies, colourful hoodies, bright shoes, big belts and funky accessories have also been integrated with the juniors’ whites and greys. As long as it doesn’t break any rules, guys!

As for the seniors, getting creative is not a problem with the almost limitless boundaries of what we can wear to school. Fall’s hottest

trends range from curvy 1940s inspired silhouettes to minimalistic, understated garments as well as the country look full of plaid and gingham. This, all ac-companied by high waisted pants, skirts, shorts, you name it; bright colours, dresses and statement acces-sories.

It doesn’t take a genius to notice all the runway in-spired fashion taking form in our very own hallways. Worked to a more casual environment; a slew of high waisted skirts, pants and shorts accompanied by bil-lowy tops and gladiators have all popped up in OFS high school.

Winter’s trends include more structured garments, ‘peek-a-boo’ detailing, more gingham and the conven-tional black with a twist. Keep working those state-ments guys; the year is young!

Letitia Tandean

MUNMUN CON-FERENCES

THE HAGUE MODEL UNITED NATIONS SINGA-PORE

THE HAGUE MODEL UNITED NATIONS

BEIJING MODEL UNITED NATIONS

SINGAPORE INTERNA-

TIONAL MODEL UNITED NATIONS

What is MUN?

Do you want to make a dif-ference to the world? Do you want to get involved in solving international issues? Do you want to get a chance to improve your public speaking skills? If your an-swers to these questions are yes, then Model United Na-tions is the activity you are looking for!

MUN is a simulation wherein high school students at OFS get together every Thursday afternoon to de-bate on world issues. This is the perfect key to remaining in touch with current events. Debating also improves stu-

dents’ level of confidence with public speaking, thereby helping them at school as well as in later life. Besides being a very effec-tive activity in developing various skills, it is also one that students find very inter-esting and enjoyable.

Harini Padmanabhan

Why MUN?“The most convincing speakers aren’t the ones who know the most. They are the ones who sound the best” - “ Be funny, it gets the audi-ence on your side” Bad ad-vice for people who are sup-posed to be representatives of nations? We certainly think so.

This is the scene of most after school MUN meetings. We file in minds open and packed with facts, treaties, and dates. The debate be-gins and speakers get up and take the floor. Teenagers wielding words like weapons and brandishing ideas like axes. Then once we are done fighting for first blood each of the senior delegates takes on the newer ones and teaches them the – ahem – procedures and techniques of proper debate. Transla-tion: We teach them how to be the meanest, smartest, most ruthless delegates on this side of Geneva. Sure we are creating aggressive, fired up young men and women. But they are angry and fired up about world issues. Cli-mate change, war, genocide … you name it and my fel-

low MUNers are ready to fight tooth and nail for the best solution.

Next week the topic is ex-ploitation of Africa’s nations by industrialised nations; the week after who knows? MUN is for the politically charged person, the debate person, the popular person, the intellectual person or the people who just like arguing. Take your pick: because out on the floor you can be whoever you want to be. As Yo-Yo Ma said, “When we enlarge our view of the world, we deepen our understanding of our own lives.”

Prashant Reddy

MUN Mud Pie Anyone? A little sugar, a little spice. So what exactly is the recipe for the perfect MUNer?

¾ table spoon good research skills – MUN delegates must be able to research in depth into current affairs, countries’ stances on issues and how the UN ap-proaches solving problems

¼ packet good oratory skills – This comes with prac-tice, but MUNers must be keen to voice their thoughts aloud

1 cup confidence – This plays a big role in the life of a MUNer – without the confidence to stand up and speak, it’s pointless to be a part of MUN

1 cup hard work – MUN is very demanding in all as-pects and in fact, may even be considered another subject all together. Those who enjoy it, however, consider it fun and the ‘work’ angle is lost.

1 ½ cups dedication – All MUNers as well as our direc-

tor are very attached to their work and that’s why they succeed at it.

A dash of improvisation skills – When you’re up on stage and faced with a difficult question improvisation always comes in handy. Background knowledge is very useful, but being able to synthesise it all is not an easy task.

A pinch of force – Heated debate is always fun, but never for the timid delegate. Having said that, being arrogant and overly pushy can land you with an unde-sired epithet.

1000% practice – practice makes perfect!

Mixing them all together and baking at the right tem-perature will produce the most sumptuous, perfect MUNer!

Diya Malhotra

The THIMUN theorem

6 weeks. Time is ticking and we’re done with picking. THIMUN Singapore is edg-ing closer.

The fourth annual confer-ence of The Hague Interna-tional Model United Na-tions Singapore, THIMUN Singapore 2008 is steadily gaining momentum and all our keen MUNers are ea-gerly anticipating its arrival.

Only last Thursday, at the weekly meeting was the sus-pense finally broken and positions allocated. After more than a month of re-search and practice debates on real issues and resolu-tions, were the positions awarded and this only goes to show the amount of tal-

ent present. Difficult choices were made and now the delegates must live up to the expectations.

Experience plays a big role in MUN and all of our sen-ior positions have been awarded to hardworking and deserving participants. Says Maxim Martchenko, advocate at the Interna-tional Court of Justice (ICJ), “I expect the microphones to work and of course an even higher level of profes-sional debate. Furthermore, I seek to develop new friend-ships with many people from all over the world and try out in another new committee - which should be a fantastic experience.”

With this new academic year has come an influx of fresh talent and interest and, with this in mind, several positions have been reserved

for those new to the playing field. These, of course, have been decided according to several aspects – academic capability, responsibility, interest etc. Asking one of the ‘new recruits’ how they felt about being selected for the world’s second largest MUN conference, Jaya Malhotra replied “This is my first conference and I am honoured to have been cho-sen to participate in the Youth Assembly. I hope to make many useful contribu-tions and make friends with people from other coun-tries.”

After school practices. Sat-urday practices. The lives of MUNers will get hectic very soon and hopefully, the newcomers will embrace this experience with as much vigour. Several seniors have been nominated to guide the new fish.

Already observing the ex-citement, I have no doubt that as the days go by and THIMUN comes nearer, the sensation will surge. The Footprint will bring you more on THIMUN next quarter.

Diya Malhotra

Note from the Student Voice

More than just a Pick-Up LineI walk in. Prepared. Ready (yes, pun intended). Eager. “How do you plan to organ-ize Student Council this year ?”

Now I’ll admit my initial response was “orgawho-sama?” If I’m being honest here, then I’ll admit that I

didn’t spend my summer thinking of how to organize Student Council... I sort of had the expectation that it would be organized - set up, divided into committees, and ready to go, and all we would have to do is lead it in the right direction. Not so.

We, that is Jessica and I, got into it before school started. Committees, responsibilities, new things, old things to get rid of or merge - I have lost count of the number of times we redid our entire plan and rewrote an entire structure for the year. But somewhere of these past few months I realized just

how important that was. Whoever is lucky (or un-lucky) enough to take our place next year shouldn’t have to do all that. It’s un-fair, time-consuming, and redundant. But more than that, every year the Presi-dents should be able to be on the ball from D-Day. They shouldn’t have to worry about the ground under their feet, but rather, looking to the sky to fly.

You are not voting over whose college resume to enhance. You’re voting over which person you want to stand up and represent your issues to the staff and listen

to their feedback. So if there’s one thing we did achieve then, it’s the fact that suddenly Student Voice has become so much bigger than just the two of us. It is now a self-sustaining organi-zation that will survive be-yond these next 8 months. So it’s one legacy that got created, but not mine. Yours. Ours. Here’s hoping every successive president will use it to take it further in a way that pleases every-one for the betterment of the school community as a whole.

Prashant Reddy

Editor: Bérengère Sim

Designer: Letitia Tandean

Sub-Editors: Natasha Chainani, Malavika Unnithan, Diya Malhotra, Jessica Iskandarsjah

IT Design: David Sim

Journalists: Dipanjali Roy, Harini Padmanabhan, Malavika Nair, Markus Sekse, Prashant Reddy, Victoria Eddy