Ellen Xu, Class of 2016, Gubei Campus

My name is Ellen and I moved to Shanghai at the age of three from Canada. I attended YCIS since I was in Year 4 and I found the school community to be very positive. Everyone is rooting for one another and as students we brought out the best in one another by always providing encouragement and by being genuinely happy about other’s achievements. 

The most memorable experience I had at YCIS was during my IB Thailand trip in Year 12. Our whole class traveled to the country for two weeks. It was such a fun event because it really brought us together as a year group and we were being extremely active all day and learning new things. We felt very bonded after that experience.

I think that the Creativity, Action, and Service (CAS) programme helped to bring more of a balance to my academics. Even if there wouldn’t have been the CAS programme, I probably would have still been very active in a lot of things but CAS helped encourage me to do even more than what I was prepared to do.

I decided to study journalism in university because ever since I chose to pursue English Language and Literature in the IB programme it opened my mind to how powerful the media can be. Journalists have a huge responsibility to report the news accurately and my English teacher at YCIS, Ms Scotti, opened my eyes to this and helped me to see things from multiple points-of-view. 

Overall, I feel like the international school environment helped prepare me for university. There was so much culture in each of my classes and that’s what university is also like. You have to be accepting of others cultures and values to be successful in life and the open-mindedness I’ve gained at YCIS will surely benefit me in my future.