The Grade 10 IB MYP Ceremony took place on May 1 to celebrate and showcase the completion of the IB Middle Years Program (MYP). The recently completed Personal Project was one of the final—and definitely the hardest—requirements to completing the MYP journey. As Ms. Simpson said during the ceremony, “The Personal Project is meant to be a milestone in students’ learning.”
The assembly started off with a nostalgic video recalling memories and photos from Grade 7 Greek Day, Grade 8 Gallery of Fame, Grade 9 Science Fair, and of course, the Grade 10 Personal Project. The close-up portraits from Gallery of Fame brought many laughs and embarrassed chuckles from this year’s Grade 10 class.
Every Grade 10 student was then invited to the stage, one at a time, to receive their official certificate and red IB pin presented by Ms. Green, Mr. Carlson and Ms. Simpson. Following the individual recognition of each Grade 10 student, Ms. Elbert then presented the Personal Project awards for categories such as Most Principled and Most Inspiring, as well as for the students who were invited to the BCAIBWS Personal Project Showcase. Carina Carvello, Owen Nozick, Kate Marriette, Noah MacAulay and Sophie Lucas were all selected by GNS judges during the Personal Project Exhibition to represent GNS at the BCAIBWS Personal Project Showcase in Vancouver among other IB schools.
“I enjoyed the opportunity to see other people’s hard work, and to learn about the experience they went through to end up at the showcase,” shared Owen Nozick. “I learned 20 minutes before the event started I had to do a speech which made me very concerned. THIS IS ADVICE FOR FUTURE GRADE 10s: BE PREPARED.”
Owen said, “I would definitely encourage students to reach out and meet other people. At the showcase, I related a lot with the students from other schools and overall, life is better with friends so the more people you meet, the better, as it’s a small world and you may bump into them in the future.”
Noah MacAulay added, “The showcase was very fun. Not only did we get to show our projects to another unique audience who asked different and varied questions but more importantly we got to see how other schools approached personal projects. It was very enjoyable to see similar learning goals to some of our fellow GNS students but vastly different products. There were also projects which I had never ever seen suggested at GNS such as a personal trainer project where the student found and trained clients in the gym.”
“This event was not primarily learning based per se but more to interact with other IB schools and see interesting takes on personal projects. We got to see many different takes on the Personal Project and meet/interact with other IB school students. I would highly recommend this experience to next year’s Grade 9s as it is a great opportunity to interact with fellow IB students, see very interesting projects, and spend a day in Vancouver (and the Tsawwassen Mills mall)!”
Congratulations to everyone who completed the MYP journey, because you all deserve it! Next step: Grade 11!