academic competence

ACADEMIC COMPETENCE
#2 Subject: Chemistry

When I attend year 11 for the first time, I attend a chemistry class, which is weird for me because in gr.10 we only had science for our subject. Science includes Physics, Chemistry and Biology. We are asked to make a project in Chemistry related to the environment. My group consists of Tia, Edgar and Jojo. Our group had this idea of encouraging people to use Lavender as mosquito repellant instead of the liquid mosquito repellant that consist of poison that could harm the environment. For this project, we as a group did a power point presentation that shows where to buy and how to use the lavender as a safer mosquito repellant. We made pictures using Photoshop and convert it into a jpeg form and copied it to power point. We present the power point at Indonesian week. For the people to recognize lavender we bought the plant and place it on a table next to our presentation. Our aim is to reduce the use of toxic mosquito repellant and use lavender instead for a better environment.
This evidence is unique for me because it isn’t a test or a forced project that a teacher assigns a specific task. We are only asked to make either a presentation or a lab project related to the environment. This project is not graded but we enjoy creating it. It is a different atmosphere of project for the national students, because we don’t usually ask to make presentation.
By being aware of the environment and encouraging others to make a difference is something I learnt during this process. It helps me think of alternative ways to preserve the earth’s environment better. By doing this project, I am more aware of the environment and my brain is more train to think various ways to avoid using toxic that is not helping in making the earth’s environment better.

information technology

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
My personal interest is somehow related to the use of computer technology. My interest is related to graphic designing. I really love to design pictures and manipulate photos using the computer technology. The technology I am using is Adobe Photoshop. This started when my cousin, and expert in IT was using this program. I get really interested and asked him to install it to my PC so I can learn more about this program. I become used to this program and learn about it so much more that I am advance in this program. Works that I have done using this program are posters that I made for a restaurant. The manager asked me to make a poster of the restaurant’s special menu and announcement of live music available at the restaurant. This is a community involvement because I didn’t ask any payment for it. I use Adobe Photoshop CS and create the design based on the features available in that program.
I learn this program by doing trial and error and try clicking icons. I tried to understand the use of each icon and what difference does it makes to the design. I bought books about it and research information from the internet. Sometimes I also asked my peers about this program and asked them to teach me any new techniques that I don’t know yet. I enjoy learning this program because it allows me to transfer my creativity into a visual media. I could definitely apply this skill to make other media that doesn’t always have to be posters or flyers. Using Adobe program there are other application such as making movie or mixing songs using the same company. I also tried to learn those other programs, but not as advance as Photoshop. And I prefer Adobe Photoshop.

community involvement

COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT

The national students are also required to do a CAS project for 50 hours in a year. For my project I decided to do something for this upcoming Christmas Event. My group project had this idea of distributing parcels to the school’s staff during the school’s Christmas celebration. We’ve calculated the total numbers of staff, and the result is that the school has a total number of 55 staffs. So, I and my group members design the parcels and decided what food and drink are going to be included in the parcel. The money to buy the products we borrow it from one of the member’s parents. At the end we decided to buy the cookies, food and drink from Makro store because it is proven that this store is cheaper than any other store.
We did a 4 hour shopping of the list needed to be included in the parcels. We bought a set of 60 parcels; we decided to make it more than we planned to avoid loss of parcel or if any damage is done to one of the parcels we have a spare. Once a week we gather at Tia’s house at Sentul and did our parcels there. We arrange the design by ourselves, and wrap 60 parcels by ourselves. It was really hard work but we were really enjoyed it because I get the chance to gather with my friends while doing the work. The goal is to finish 60 parcels before December so at the day of the celebration the parcels are ready to be distributed to the staffs. The student council has already added part of their program to spend an hour or so for the parcel distributing, so the whole student body can witness the event.
This event is unique because usually the former student council members just bought the parcels and then distribute it by the order of the school. But this project is volunteered by my group project and it is unique because we design and choose the list of food and did the shopping by ourselves. It is also a unique contribution to the staff as a sign of appreciation and thank for keeping our school run as smoothly as it is. In this experienced, I learn that making parcel is really hard work and now I really appreciate the people who makes parcel to earn money for their life, because it is really hard work and complicated. I also learned that we should appreciate the people around us more because without them we cannot be as we are now. I really appreciate the staff in school because they had helped the students to concentrate more in school by keeping the school clean and organized.

visual and fine arts

VISUAL AND FINE ARTS This year I attended a very huge celebration held by the Javanese monarchy. This event is special because it is a once in a 250 years celebration, which means a once in a lifetime opportunity of a celebration. Mangkunegaran is the name of one of the biggest monarchy in Java. People who are invited are people that have either blood relation to the monarchy or really close family. My grandmother is part of the family so I am also invited to attend this once in a lifetime opportunity event. It is a three days celebration, but I only attend the last day, which is the climax of the event. It is held at the monarchy’s palace. The program for that day is traditional dances with musical drama. The event was really extravagance; there were about 300 dancers involved in the event at that day. There were musical dramas combined with traditional dances. They were using horses and elephants. There is also a part of the play that I really liked, which is at a fighting-dancing scene on water. From far, it looks like they were walking on water, but it turns out there were a glass beneath it so it looks like they were walking on top of the water’s surface. There were also very old traditional dances, and the dancers were also old. I think by experiencing this event the artists have one goal, to bring back the memories of the monarchy. Part of the dances and dramas are about the previous kings of Mangkunegaran. There are different dramas and different dances, which explains the different life of the kings. The traditional dance and musical performances also remind us to the traditional Javanese arts. There was Wayang performance which brings back the old culture so they are not lost. I think it is important for our countries to keep up these kinds of events to prevent culture lost. I really like the overall performance, and it ended with release of balloons. I and my cousins were really busy taking pictures of ourselves during that night. We were using traditional Javanese costumes, and we really enjoyed the night because we are able to take picture with the king and participate a once in a lifetime event.

personal interest

PERSONAL INTEREST




Even though I am not a creative person, my personal interest is to do graphic designs. I really like the program Adobe Photoshop and edit photos using this program. I learnt this program by myself and now I am kinda expert at it. I like to do photo editing so much because I can express my emotions through my art work. I also like to design posters and flyers. I’ve create some posters that are posted in a restaurant. The manager asked me to create a poster to promote their new menu. The result is satisfactory and I think he likes it.
I also like photography but not talented at it. I think I am better in editing photos better. Sometimes my art work’s result is unique and original if I am in a very emotive mood. My signature art work is dark and has lots of blood. Sometimes I like to make it sadistic, but sometimes I can also make an artwork very heavenly and pretty. Either way my art work really depends on my mood. If I am in love, I could make my pictures very warmth and calming with lots of loving quotes, if I am in a bad mood I make my pictures very sadistic with lots of blood. But I am very flexible with my designs.
The skills need for this hobby is the skill of technology to use the program, art, creativity and communication. These are the things needed to be able to create a good, communicative picture. I also need to be highly inspired to be able to create an emotive picture so people can understand the message that is given in the picture. It is important to have good taste of art and uniqueness, because this determines the originality of the art work.

By having this hobby I feel that I appreciate life more because I am able to express my emotions through my art work. I feel that it is important that we find a way that we like to express our emotions. I also appreciate life more because now I can see things more differently by looking things at their originality, for example, I used to not really appreciate posters and flyers, but now I can see that every posters has their own uniqueness. This really improve how I see art works in my surroundings.
for more of my work of arts visit www.mbahmetal.deviantart.com

education and vocation

EDUCATION AND VOCATION

Recently I don’t know why I am very attracted in books. A friend of mine suggests a good book and from there I started to almost buy a new book each week. I realized that I am attracted to books that talk most about metaphor in life. I am a person who really likes to learn about how the world works, one of the ideas that I am interested recently is about people’s perspective to life. This action is educational because I am educating myself by reading books.
I have changed the way I see things in life because I had read books that influenced my mind to see the world in different ways. The books that I read, for example, Veronika Decides to Die and The Alchemist talks about a certain perspective of life. These books use metaphor structure for the writing style. I realize that by reading books I could also improve my writing and reading skills, because I learnt new writing style, new literatures, and new vocabularies.
So far I’ve read books about leadership and thinking techniques, books such as 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, and Blink. These kinds of book help me improved my knowledge about the way human mind works in making decisions. I decided to keep on reading books, learn it and apply it into my life. Steps that I want to take to build on more knowledge is to read many types of books, not only novels but also educational books, books about histories, health, religions, designs and others.