Graduate Stories | Never limit yourself, unleash your potential

Anna described the Pao School community as a “bubble” where the students develop themselves while collaborating with others. Anna still remembers that when she was in the middle school, students would independently edit, organise, and share revision notes. Before the final exams each year, everyone reviewed the key concepts together, sharing what they have learned with each other by giving 10-minute “crash courses”.

The support of the Pao School community is also evident in the relationship between teachers and students. Teachers are willing to devote extra time to answer students' questions and expand their horizons. For example, Anna's tutor at the high school, Jessica Cohen, sends positive quotes to her tutees every morning. Her warm support has helped the students to feel comfortable to discuss anything with her.

At Pao School, the teachers give full support and lead students to explore beyond the curriculum. Since 2019, the high school has regularly held Scholar Seminars for students who want to explore and gain an in-depth understanding of more complex topics. Over the past two years, based on the original teacher-led Scholar Programme, the seminars have also extended to include the students, with the Student Seminars Programme.

The teacher seminars take place once a week, covering diverse topics chosen by the teachers. Most of the classes are taught in a style similar to a university lecture, which can help students prepare for further studies abroad. Recently, the seminars have covered topics such as Chivalry and Benevolence in Chinese Culture, The Gothic and the Western Imagination, and Dive! The Life Blood of Mother Earth.

The Student Seminars first began two years ago and now take place each month, covering interdisciplinary topics including the environment, philosophy, psychology, gene editing, scoliosis, design, sense of humour, and colour. Anna, who organises the seminars alongside classmate Lily, requested that the student speakers plan interactive activities with the audience to enhance discussion during the activity.

During her 12 years at Pao School, Anna is most proud of her achievements in floorball. She started playing in Year 4 and has persisted despite various setbacks.

For example, in the middle school, there were two goalkeepers on the team – Anna and an older student. Initially, her teammates would ask for the older goalkeeper rather than Anna during training. But this did not discourage Anna and instead motivated her to continue honing her skills. Since goalkeepers do not have dedicated coaches, their improvements almost always rely on themselves. One way in which she improved comes from observing the performance of her opponents. Whenever she sees an outstanding save, she will humbly ask the opponent for advice on improving her performance. Over time, with her persistant effort Anna has made long-lasting friendships with both her peers and top national players.

Now, as the captain and the team's only goalie she has greater responsibilities. Her greatest challenge is to work with players from different age groups, skill levels, and backgrounds within a short time – all the while creating a sense of team and belonging. Her efforts paid off, as Pao School's floorball team recently achieved second place in the 2023 National Finals Shanghai Division. In addition, the women's floorball team formed by Anna won the 2022 High School Floorball Championship in the Shanghai Primary and Secondary School Ice-Sports Games. She says that when the game starts winning is no longer the only thing that matters, because everyone is united towards the same goal. The feeling of unity is far more meaningful than the result of the game itself. And, through their persistence in training and competition, Anna and the entire team have experienced true transformation and growth.

First stepping into the school in Year 7, Angela transferred to Pao School in the hope of finding a place where she could have a more well-rounded education and less academic pressure. In particular, she says that the smaller class sizes and greater attention from teachers, closer relationships with her teachers, and the more reasonable amount of homework have given her the chance to fulfil this wish by taking part in a wide variety of CCAs.

As a passionate musician – she can play the piano, guitar, bass, keyboard and yangqin – Angela has always been involved in choirs and school bands, including in her previous schools. During her time at Pao School, she has been involved in many different concerts and performances, including ISCMS. Due to the diversity of offerings, she explains that Pao School truly gave her the opportunity to branch out and not only try new instruments but also new genres of music. For example, she explains that as one of her teachers, Mr Incze, is very good at guitar she was able to learn it from him. Since then, she has used these skills playing bass in the school’s jazz band and is also a member of student led rock band Ultra 7.

Angela also enjoys how she can use her music skills in cross-subject projects at the school. When she was in Year 8, her music teacher Ms. Dongfang Song inspired the students with ancient Chinese poetry. For the project, the students wrote and recorded music for their poem, with Angela using a combination of piano, yangqing, and spoken word for her recording.

“Music is my biggest love, but I think because Pao School has so many opportunities, I'm more willing to try out things like drama and sports,” she states. Through this, Angela has explored a wide array of activities in her time at the school, including basketball, jazz band, Cantonese, and calligraphy. She has also been involved in various shows, including student-led drama A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Chinese drama Detective Di Renjie, which have given her a new appreciation for drama, curiosity for acting as another person, and expanded her skills for performing arts. Alongside being able to show her best self, she loves the emotional connections she builds with others through performance. She explains, “You could be spreading an important message or helping someone feel better about something.”

Angela recently combined her love for music and performance with charitable spirit by spending a summer supporting a local charity that offers musical programmes to migrant workers’ children in Shanghai. Angela, who supported the project as an assistant teacher and piano accompanist, took part in the activity as she wanted to help the children appreciate the beauty of music. Through the experience, Angela was also able to have a glimpse into the lives of others, which opened her eyes to different sides of Shanghai. She says, “It was really meaningful to me. Music is really powerful, it connects us. I feel like we made some really genuine connections with each other.”

One of the memories that has stuck with Angela is a piece of wisdom from her Year 10 English teacher, Joe McKee. During the period she was making her class choices for IB, she found herself questioning her abilities and was concerned that she wouldn’t be able to do well studying English Language and Literature, so was considering studying it as a second language. After she expressed these concerns to Mr. McKee, his response was simply that Angela shouldn’t ever try to limit herself, reality should do it for her. In other words, if you don’t try, you will never be able to find out what you are capable of. Now, these days, she not only surprises herself with how much she has learned in English but also surprises herself with her other achievements – particularly in the field of economics. 

Angela also recently competed in the National Economics Challenge as part of the High School’s team – going on to win great success with 1st in the international round for Critical Thinking and 6th for the overall team awards. She explains that they started preparing when she was in Year 11, as they first had to take part in the national round of the competition before proceeding to the international round. To prepare for the competition, the team worked on past questions and problems, with the invaluable support of their economics teacher, Carmen Song.