Jay Jung：Theory about self-cultivation of “Xue Ba”

Jay Jung

Weihai IVY graduate 2015

University of St Andrews

Theory about self-cultivation of “Xue Ba”

Know yourself and find yourself

Hello, everyone, I am Jay! I have stayed in Weihai IVY for two years, before this I studied in Singapore for six years, and finally I came to China and chose here. The academic ideas of a school will decide what kind of students it will cultivate, what I feel most keenly in IVY over the past two years is that the school let me really know myself and find myself, and this is never seen before elsewhere.

In the past, I might just be in the thought of getting good grades, and applying for most prestigious university in the world. Due to this idea, I was too focused on myself. Later, I found that this is not the appearance I want to be, even though I still want to attend a top university, but I can also play very open in private.

What impressed me most is an experience to prepare the Gala Day (Campus Carnival). Each year, this carnival event will be designed and arranged by the students independently. I served as the student president at that time, and I wanted to try my best to do it well, but the burden on my shoulder was not light and everyone was working very hard to prepare the event for several weeks. Although the process was very difficult, but it’s a good experience, and the results were also greatly praised. Everyone got together and tried their best to achieve the common goals. During this period, we have more chances to contact with each other and we also established a deeper friendship. What’s more, this kind of satisfaction and happiness is difficult to describable. What I still remember clearly is that, in the school auditorium, a dozen people blew the balloons together, and even blew to the breath. Some people even ran outside to breathe fresh air for a while and then came back to continue fighting. At that time, I felt, so funny, although very tired, but very meaningful.

Jay played roles in the stage play "Toy Story"

Explore the learning style suitable for yourself  

   “Xue Ba”? I admit that I’m not right now, but I am willing to share my study methods with you. I have did a lot of questions, and I grasp the concept of knowledge through the way of solving lots of problems. On the other hand, I would explain the same questions to others to test whether I really grasped the concept. If I taught the other students, it means that I’m successful. Therefore, I think there are two important points of effective learning, one is solving problems widely, the other is be able to teach others. However, learning methods vary form person to person. Everyone should learn to explore the learning ways suitable for yourself, of course, paying enough efforts is also necessary. How to work hard，how to learn, it depends on yourself eventually.

Of course, in the process of learning, the teacher's role is very crucial. The important point I like IVY is that the teachers here have diverse backgrounds, and they come from the United States, Britain, New Zealand, Australia, the Philippines and China etc. This gives me a good opportunity to learn not just subject knowledge, the cultural differences they embodied also can produce very pleasantly surprised learning experience.

The teachers in IVY let me understand a truth: whatever you do should be responsible for yourself. The teachers give us more responsibilities in learning, so we become more independent, more free, and we can independently plan how to study and how to achieve goals. I enjoy this freedom, because I have enough space to decide what I want to do, and how to do it. In this process, the teachers will provide assistance to us, but thy will not take us to the destination directly. Everything you do should be responsible for yourself.

Guided by the one to one

Interest is the best motivator.

My biggest interest is watching movies and I have this hobby since I was a child. As long as I have time and energy, I will have been watching  movies at home. The film industry is a very wonderful industry. In  different countries and different continents, the forms of films, the world outlook and the values behind the films are different. For a long time, Hollywood has dominated the film industry, so I have watched a lot of Hollywood movies.

What is the effect of this for me? Through watching movies, I have understood the culture of other countries, and I am eager to know more. If  you look carefully you will find that in these movies in addition to the story, there are a lot of things are worth for us to learn and to think, for example, a country's culture, tradition and convention. Therefore, in my future plan, I will give more consideration to the country which I am interested in, and query which university is suitable for me in this country. In fact, there is also anther reason why I want to go to study abroad, these before feelings are form films, rather than the experience by myself. I hope very much to be able to place myself among them, to see what will be happened if living with them, to feel the foreign culture truly.

Words given to the juniors. Study hard, and learn to develop your own goals independently. As I mentioned before, you have enough freedom to do what you want to do, then don't waste these opportunities, take full advantage of this to ensure that it becomes a springboard for your goals. As long as you are diligent enough, have enough sense of responsibility, and willing to accept the challenges, no matter where you go you will be successful! IVY has a lot of good teachers to help you, so you should make full use of this. Study hard, come on!

Experience sharing