As February soon comes to an end, the high school students of SHSID return to school after a long break of relaxation. Refreshed and energized, students are ready for their brand new semester.

Grades 9-10 Opening Ceremony

On February 17th, Grade 9 and 10 students started their brand new semester with the Opening Ceremony. Vice Principal Ms. Liu Min began the ceremony with her wonderful speech. She led the students in reviewing the important activities and wonderful moments of last semester. She encouraged them to be active and reflective learners, and to keep a healthy and happy mood. As the Beijing Winter Olympic Games are in full swing, Ms. Liu also suggested that everyone keep up with the Olympic spirit --- go forward bravely and challenge themselves, but also face difficulties head on and remain humble.

Next, the Grade 9 director, Ms. Zhang Yueyue, introduced the exciting activities and tasks of the new term. She also shared the importance of proper time management and dealing with work accordingly. Following her speech, a student representative from Grade 9, Seazen, shared her story of winning the Bronze award in the Duke of Edinburgh International Award. It was "very hard, not a very nice story," but she learned about perseverance and independence. What an inspiring talk!

The Grade 10 director, Ms. Gu Ying, gave a motivational speech to all the students on starting the new school year. She taught them of the importance of proper time management and how impactful it can be to their future goals. In order to inspire students, she gave an example of the successful Gu Ailing, a Chinese skier who has recently shaken up the world with her Olympic gold medal-winning performance. A student representative from 10th grade, Ryan Ge, also shared his experiences with students on how to improve themselves for their future. He introduced the idea of using creativity to release stress.

Afterwards, teacher advisor Ms. Chen Lin gave a speech on the importance of students’ future careers. She gave them wise advice on keeping their bodies healthy and happy in order to thrive in this new semester. She also assured all the students that the TA teachers will always be there to help with any problems or questions they might have.

An ASB representative then spoke to all of the students about all the fun activities that the ASB will prepare for the new semester, such as the Knowledge Knockout and Summer Bash events. She also reminded that mental support and help will always be there at SHSID should students require it.

Lastly, subject teacher representatives came to the stage one by one and brought new semester blessings to students with Spring Festival couplets, composed of different subject knowledge. In the Year of the Tiger, we all here at SHSID wish everyone a wonderful new year!

Grades 11-12 Opening Ceremony

On February 17, the Grade 11 and 12 students and teachers of SHSID gathered in the auditorium to welcome the new semester of the Year of the Tiger with a grand opening ceremony.

First, Ms. Wu Chen, the Director of Grade 11, reiterated the five requirements of cellphone management, homework management, sleep management, physical management, and reading- material management for the beginning of the 2021 school year, and encouraged students to further strengthen their self-management skills. At the same time, Ms. Wu also hoped that students would strengthen their thinking ability, just like physical exercise to enhance muscle memory, and expand the scope of reflection and polish the depth of thinking through constant thinking. Two students from Grade 11 then spoke, sharing their experiences of finding study goals and participating in volunteer activities.

Ms. Yu Zhen, Director of Grade 12, gave a speech in which she also emphasized the importance of following school rules, especially regarding the use of cellphones. Ms. Yu, as the director of the highest grade in the school, also encouraged the students to remember that learning is a lifelong journey and it does not end with the end of senior year or any year for that matter. On the contrary, the end of high school is the beginning of more independent learning. After this speech, two student representatives from Grade 12 also shared their thoughts on the motivation and meaning of learning.

Finally, Ms. Liu Qin, Director of the School Affairs Office, gave a speech. Starting with the Winter Olympics athletes who are now attracting national attention such as Gu Ailing, Xu Mengtao, and Su Yiming, Ms. Liu urged the students to become self-motivated and self-confident people, to persist in their dreams, and to be grateful to their parents, and wished the students to carry forward the spirit of the Winter Olympics and have more and better harvests in their upcoming adult life.

Representatives from each of the Grade 11 and 12 classes also came on stage one by one to offer motivational and congratulatory messages. One senior closed the assembly by saying this to the graduating class of 2022: “It's a new year, and the last colorful stroke of our secondary school years. We wish that students live up to their full potential!”

Welcome Back

A month of free time meant that SHSIDers could release their stress, pursue their hobbies, and prepare for the next semester.

With the Beijing Winter Olympics running smoothly over the winter break, many students not only gained a lot of insight from watching the games, but also actively participated in winter sports such as short-track speed skating, ice hockey, and figure skating. One of them in particular, Victoria from grade 11, has been a short-track speed skater for ten years. Although her school studies and extracurricular activities take up a lot of her time and energy, she still is training diligently on the ice and keeps up her physical training at home on days when she is not training at the ice rink. The Winter Olympics gave her, like many other students, a deeper sense of the development of winter sports in China and the power that sportsmanship brings to the world.

At the same time, the students also contributed to social activities during the winter break. In early February, the 12th graders organized and planned the “Unity" event at Hong Kong Plaza. The student artists hoped to draw attention to mental health through the power of artistic creativity and provoke thought amongst the participants. The event featured not only an exhibition of students' artwork, but also a variety of activities and performances, as well as lectures by psychological counseling experts. Even near graduation, students were using their power to influence others around them and bring love together. Meanwhile, some students interested in law seized the opportunity to enter the 2022 Winter Law Enrichment Program in which students become an intern at an actual law firm and learn about what it is like working as a lawyer or working closely with law. There were ongoing competitions during the holiday, too. Students spared no effort to prepare for these activities and enrich their holiday life.

For SHSID High School students, the upcoming second semester is colorful, full of various activities such as talent shows, course day, MIX Day, knowledge knockout, career days, etc. Let’s all have one great semester together!

(Written by 9(6) Norah Cen, 9(11) Rebecca Cao, 10(6) Tony Kim, 10(6) Brandon Guan, 10(2) Jason Zhang, 10(8) Garrison Xu, 11(1) Winnie Xiong, 12(2）Anita Lo, 12(2) Amy Wang Pictures by 9(7) Coco Chen, 10(11) Ray Zhou, 10(8) Maya Zheng, 11(10) Elaine Zhang, Wenqian Wu Supervised by Meijun Shi, Hazel Gu, Menglei Wang, Sijia He Reviewed by Qian Zuo)