July 1, 2016 Dog My Cats Official OISS WeChat account: liuxuetong6
At Pao School’s recent ‘2016 Founder’s Challenge’ swim competition, we see a fair-skinned young man with brown hair and intense eyes. Carrying a two-way radio and wearing a t-shirt from the event, he continuously travelled back and forth from the pool, where the event was held. He was not only responsible for the event’s acoustics, but also served as the contact person and announcer for event updates. He also organised the event, designing the competition’s promotional posters, t-shirts and bracelets. He is also a student with his own story.
Jonas Vogt, Year 11 IB student
Native Chinese speaker
German and Chinese descent
Member of Pao School’s first cohort of students
Enjoys: Design and sports, fusing Chinese and Western cultures, change and challenges
Playing all the time
Jonas speaks very quickly. He’s also outgoing and very friendly. When accepting our interview, he said jokingly: ‘Our teachers often tell us to play a little when have smaller exams and play lots when we have big exams – that way we’ll be totally relaxed before our exams. The truth is we just play all the time!’ So how exactly does a Year 11 IB student relax when he has a course load so heavy that he carries a backpack full of books home every week?
Design
Jonas has set up a design studio at the school for 28 of his schoolmates in Years 8 to 11. In their spare time, the team would work on projects of their own interest as well as design tasks for the school, from smaller assignments (posters, roll up banners), to special, larger-scale projects, including a treehouse covering several square metres as well as the Founder’s Challenge competition.
Treehouse, designed by Jonas together with 70 Pao students
On the day of the interview, he and his teammates were in the midst of completing a 144-page yearbook. In order to keep the publication fresh and new, its style and artistic direction are changed each year. There is no template – everything is done from scratch. As a result, during yearbook season, each Friday, for 10 straight weeks, Jonas would work at the studio until 9:30pm.
2015 Yearbook
Sports
Jonas is not only the organiser for this year’s Founder Challenge, whose theme this year is ‘Swim for Love’ – he’s also one of its participants. Having enjoyed athletic sports from a young age, he spent some time on the swim team before moving onto the football court, where he remained for several years, as part of a team that progressed from 0-14 losing streaks to effortless 2-1 victories. After his stint in football, he’s now returned to the pool. A modest Jonas, who has already participated in several international competitions, jokingly added: ‘I’m currently the only Year 11 student on the team, the oldest and the slowest.’
Swim for Love
Sports is an integral part of Pao School’s whole person education. Sports activities are rich and varied and include swimming, football, basketball, rowing, fencing and martial arts. Swimming is the school’s most representative sport, requiring the participation of every student. Pao School’s swim team also participates in a number of local and international competitions each year.
Speaking for Pao School
Jonas is a Pao School veteran – he was part of the school’s first cohort of Year 1 students in 2007. During our conversation, he unintentionally revealed the faith and trust he’s placed in the school he’s attended for a decade. In his pursuit of what he believes to be meaningful, Jonas has had many incredible experiences. The following can be considered Jonas' recommendations:
This place is like a huge experimental factory
Pao School’s PE curriculum is extensive. Each semester, students have the option to choose from variety of sports, including swimming, football, basketball, rowing, fencing and martial arts activities. Between 3:45-6:15pm, students engage in afternoon activities such as traditional Chinese painting, calligraphy, debate, photography, baking and other community activities. Every year, the school offers new and interesting courses, and has recently recruited renowned scientists and resident artists to enrich its programmes.
Interestingly, the school is constantly trying to make a variety of changes in an effort to help students dive deeper into their studies. Jonas takes calligraphy as an example: ‘A lot of students don’t know how to write calligraphy, or aren’t even interested in it. Many of us felt calligraphy class was a waste of an hour, so teachers met to discuss and design a more suitable class for us. For example, they had everyone begin by imitating the works of master calligraphers, and by doing this, we started to get a feel for it. They also exposed us to different styles of calligraphy. Eventually, many of us soon found ourselves falling in love with it.’ Modifications to the curriculum much like this one can be found everywhere at the school: ‘Every two days, teachers will organise a meeting at noon to discuss strange questions. They may not be able to come to a conclusion, but this “creative collision” of ideas often produces interesting results.’
‘I’ve been here for nine years. I’ve seen many of my classmates leave for other countries because of their parents work situation, but I still like it here, because I don't know what will happen next year. It’s like an experiment. I think we can definitely call this experiment a success.’
Strong cohesion among the houses
Pao School has a house system in which each of its student is assigned into one of the school’s houses. Each house competes in the school’s various competitions. Primary Division has four houses: Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter, while Secondary Division has eight, each given the name of a type of tree.
The 8 house symbols of Pao School Secondary Division
Pao School had recently organised a large outdoor track and field competition in Shanghai, which saw participation from students in Years 6 to 11: ‘Each year, we would be assigned to a different team. Usually, none of the students in the group know one another. There might not even be a House Captain on the team, but as a team, we are able to get to know each other, select an interim captain and work together, all rather quickly. There aren’t many competitions throughout the year, but everyone works hard, and for the most part, everyone turns in their best results (even though being randomly assigned to a house sometimes results in some unbalanced groups – some have a disproportionate amount of teachers, some have more girls than boys or vice-versa, etc.). Despite this, it’s still a very happy feeling to see our colours on the field during a relay!’
Jonas with his classmates
Chinese Culture & Change & Me
Jonas is not one to rest on his laurels – he enjoys change and challenges, but he also shares his own interesting take on Chinese culture, thanks to the influence of his parents' affection for Chinese culture, as well as the school's advocacy of Chinese culture.
We have a responsibility to uphold Chinese virtues
As a bilingual school, Pao School understands the importance of passing on traditions of Chinese language and culture. In the recent Founder’s Challenge, the focus of the event was not only to swim and challenge oneself, but to show support for those less fortunate and raise funds charity. All proceeds from the event will be donated to two organisations for children with autism: the Starwalker Swim Team and Rainbow Mama Workshop. This type of charity event also embodies the school’s core values of ‘compassion,’ ‘integrity’ and ‘balance’ – a willingness to help others, treating others with kindness as well as showing care, compassion and generosity to others by contributing one’s own time and effort.
‘We don’t have as many opportunities (to run these kinds of charity events), but we continue to demonstrate our core values in our everyday conduct as well as our volunteer work. For the Founder’s Challenge, we wanted even more people to come together, so we designed a t-shirt that shows two hands joining together in the shape of a heart. We hope this spirit will continue to live on.’ In addition, influenced by his German father’s love of the tea ceremony, Jonas has a general understanding of the abacus, Chinese painting, calligraphy as well as the Guqin.
‘Time Passing’ statue at Pao School Secondary Division
Life without change is boring
In the IB art programme, students are often asked to include cultural elements in their compositions as well as and examine the relationship between the work and the cultural background it reflects. ‘We’ve had several themes this year, including natural environment, self-perception, cultural perception. As someone who is half-German, half-Chinese, I need to somehow incorporate my roots into my work.’
Worthy of mention is the nine-metre tall bamboo forest situated Secondary Division cafeteria. Designed by Jonas and made of recycled bamboo as well as nuts and bolts from construction sites, the work is also his personal favourite and speaks to his unique understanding of Chinese culture. The entire undertaking took him two weeks and required the assistance of the school’s general service staff: ‘When I first came to Songjiang, it was practically deserted. Now, there are apartments everywhere. I grew up here and witnessed this frenzied pace of development. So out of this came the inspiration for this piece. Standing on the first floor, you see a bamboo forest, but from the top looking down, with a little light against the background, it’s like you’re staring at the city's tallest buildings.’ In speaking about this already very mature work, Jonas joked: ‘This was installed here last September-October. I’m surprised it hasn’t collapsed yet!’
‘Change in China is enormous, but I enjoy change. Many people fear change, and that’s normal, but life without change would be pretty boring.’ This is an era filled with the unknown, but the world can also be fresh and fascinating, like Jonas’ work. He can truly change the world.
Work by Jonas
Handsome and confident, Jonas enjoys works with statues, endorses Pao School for its many strengths and loves discovering new understandings of Chinese culture through this thing called change.
This is Jonas: spokesperson for Pao School, spokesperson for himself.
