Cover Story
emerge in more trees that blossom beautifully for
years to come.
said, elaborating that her global understanding of
service is that, “There are always opportunities to
give, there are always opportunities to learn, and
When Cindy Liang of the Class of 2019 began
there is always an opportunity for reciprocity.”
to think about the possible ideas for her IB PP
(International Baccalaureate Personal Project) Martelly explains that this opportunity can be in
while in Grade 10, she never imagined that the the form of academic learning, and even learning to
endeavor she had tirelessly worked on outside of understanding new cultures. “One could be part of
the academic schedule would follow her well into planting drive assisting in reforesting a particular
her senior year and eventually turn into an IB CAS region, or even helping out a fellow classmate in
(International Baccalaureate Creativity, Action, need. There is always something to learn in service.”
Service) project.
Cindy has developed a strong sense of responsibil-
Beyond Fulfilling Academic Requirements
ity to her home country, China, and to a problem
that it is facing: a lack of proper education for Before Cindy began her project, she did a lot of
migrant children in disadvantaged provinces. And research into education of migrant children in
so throughout her time at Keystone as an active China and found out that many of these pupils
member of the Service Council, Cindy had wit- are deprived of quality education. “In 2017, many
nessed the struggles that migrant children were migrant children were forced to leave Beijing and
facing when it came to accessing quality education. return to their hometown,” she said, adding that
For her, all communities are, in some way, respon- due to China’s hukou (household registration)
sible for others, and this means that each citizen system, migrant children are not able to receive
has a civic responsibility to help their neighbor in public education provided by the Beijing govern-
need.
ment. As a result, these children enroll in migrant
schools with unofficial accreditations and teachers.
In 2017, she and her council peers organized rallies
and fundraisers to help a nearby local school in The Diploma Programme (DP) Core is a good
Shunyi build a library. Now, she is aspiring to rally example of a curriculum that introduces students
even more supporters for her personal project for to the higher levels of deep academic learning,
migrant children: a series of English lesson plans leadership skills, and improved understanding of
inspired by Khan Academy, an e-learning portal the complexities in the world. Teachers, faculty,
with free educational content and resources acces- and even staff guide students to help them blend
sible to millions of people anywhere around the the concepts of service and service learning into an
world. individualized curriculum.
Diana
and Cindy believes her personal project goes beyond
Co-Director of Keystone’s Service Council, was
Martelly,
Head
of
High
School
just fulfilling the many academic requirements
immediately captured by Cindy’s project and her of Keystone’s rigorous IB program. “I recognized
passion for helping local communities in Shunyi. this as my duty and role as a global citizen,” Cindy
“When we are engaged in service, we are helping said, “The PP is very much an independent project,
a community in some way. And the community and I became so overwhelmed and stressed when
that we help is also helping us in return,” Martelly working on it completely alone. However, I also
The Keystone Magazine 7