February 2022

The School had extended online learning until the end of February.

Victoria, a Year 13 student at MIS, logged on to the Teams at 8 o'clock in the morning as usual to start a normal school day. An inbox notification popped out - it was an email from the University of London (UCL). She couldn't judge by the email subject whether it be a rejection letter or an offer. Her heart began to beat faster but finally she opened the email and saw the word " congratulations” in the opening sentence.

She was surprised by the offer in that moment, but it was well deserved, as Victoria had worked hard. In the post-pandemic era, applications for universities in the UK surged and the competition was extremely fierce. Although she had excelled in her academic achievements, Victoria still could not vouch for the certainty of the offers she would eventually receive. Fortunately, all the hard work paid off. As for now, Victoria has received four offers from University College London, the University of Manchester, the University of Toronto (with C$3000 scholarship) and the University of British Columbia. To date she still awaits her offer from the London School of Economics and Political Science.

01.

 Economics 

Her passion in Economics starts from her exploration in Sociology

In the beginning, Business pathway was not her first choice. It was the knowledge in Sociology that attracted her interest. She was enthusiastic to discuss on topics such as "equal rights" and "plagiarism" in a society scope on social media. ‘When people talk about these issues, they no longer pursue mundane, material matters but start to pursue deep, spiritual values,’ Victoria said. Pure theoretical research is not her thing because she believes it is much more important to put the theory into practice. However, her subject combination was rather science-related, so it was not easy for her to apply for Sociology in universities.

During her first year of IGCSEs, Victoria watched the movie ‘Wall Street’ and was shocked by the illegal manipulation of stock trades by a market tycoon. Also, she read the book ‘What Money Can’t Buy’ by Michael J. Sandel that further provoked her thoughts about ‘the boundary between ethics and the market’. As in her personal statement, she wondered, ‘Is it worth taking a risk and compromising my principles for money? Why is numerical data so attractive in the economy?’

These questions inspired Victoria to study economics to find out. She realised that economics can provide her with a brand-new perspective, from which she can investigate and solve the social problems with analytical skills developed via Maths.

The teacher at EPQ at CCA time asked them to choose a research topic based on their personal experience and interests. Victoria kept updated herself with the news of global sustainability, so she decided to write an EPQ to study how sustainability is applied in Ethical Fashion and how it helps the rural economy from an economist point of view. That was also the time when she became more intrigued by the economics.

Victoria likes to put her interest in economic theories into practice to solve problems. In a second-hand clothes donation event, she designed an effective incentive scheme based on scarcity principle to reward donors with raffle tickets rather than gifts, which allowed the boarders to own the privilege of ordering take-away, which is usually prohibited in the boarding house.

They received positive feedback and collected 300kg of clothes over a few weeks. They made contact with Alipay’s second-hand clothes platform to recycle the clothes.

From writing a paper to practice the theory in real life, Victoria has demonstrated her drive and motives of learning economics – that is to push society to move forward, whether it be a small step or a big change.

MIS has always focused on promoting global citizens.  We aim to enlighten every MIS student to shoulder their responsibilities to make a difference in the world and continue their practice of goodwill in different fields throughout their life.

02.

 Confidence 

Her confidence has never been shaken

"I'll make a list of my learning tasks for the next day in advance," Victoria said, describing the timetable she sticks to day in and day out. "The next day, when I finish a paper or review a chapter, I will cross it off the lists and that sense of accomplishment motivates me to move on to the next task.”

Victoria is a founding student of MIS. When MIS opened in 2018, Victoria had just graduated from a public junior high school. Victoria, who received good grades in the senior high school entrance examination, decided to turn to the track of international education. Her parents chose MIS for her without hesitation. They believe that as the first authentic British boarding international school in Shenzhen, MIS can provides Victoria with a completely different learning experience from the previous public education system.

Faced with the extra time for independent study, Victoria is very calm. ‘Different from public school, in MIS I need to arrange a lot of time on my own, and everything is what I want to do, and the motivation is completely different.’ 

‘I self-study by researching texts and literature in the library.’ During the university application process, Victoria broke down the guidance team's instructions step by step, and prepared for various application documents and exam papers in an orderly manner. ‘MIS Library is vast, I found a book recommended by my dream university there.’ At the same time, she also read a lot of journals to enrich her academic research foundation.

Being extremely self-disciplined is what Victoria impressed her form tutor Ms Elsa most. Ms Elsa is also the university counsellor here at MIS. ‘She has strict requirements on herself, and the tasks I assign to her are always quickly responded to.’ Ms Elsa has many years of experience in university guidance and she thinks the forward-looking approach and down-to-earth practice abilities are the key to success.

When she first joined MIS, Victoria was not clear on which business pathway she would explore in the future.  The School has offered her university guidance since she started her MIS journey. After a series of consultations and activities based on academic achievements, activity performance, personal interests and university induction, Victoria and her parents decided to choose Economics as her future pathway. ‘I originally wanted to study political economy, but I don't seem to be very good at public speaking and debating. I'm more suitable for research," Victoria said. ‘Nevertheless, I am still willing to take part in activities that I am not good at in school and push my own boundaries, such as the Model United Nations event.’

In the process of applying for university, Victoria followed the arrangement of MIS university guidance team, regularly reported her progress with Ms Marion, the Director of University Education Guidance in the UK and attended mock interviews. Each step she took was purposeful and carefully planned - in fact, she started to prepare for her personal statement in Term 3 when she was Year 12.

Victoria is a typical example of ‘MIS-style success in university application’ – as long as you make full use of the opportunities provided by the School and apply what the professional guidance team offer, you will be most likely achieve the offer from your dream university.

03.

Unexpected 

Embrace what comes unexpected

Victoria doesn't have too many prerequisites for her future. ‘I don't think too much about it. I don’t have to be working in a security company or the financial industry. Tech companies are also good choices.” Just like before she joined MIS, she also had the idea of taking the path of art – as she had a very good foundation in painting.

Embrace what comes unexpected, keep wild in imagination for the future, and at the same time make the best of the present. This builds up the greatest confidence in facing the future – being resilient, positive, and adaptable, which also demonstrates the MIS values.

Well done Victoria, and we sincerely hope that every MIS student can be successful.

2月底的一天，疫情下的网课还在继续。

曼校13年级的学生Victoria和往常一样，8点准时登录teams，开始一天的课业学习。一条不起眼的系统更新提示出现在屏幕上——是发自伦敦大学（UCL）的一封信，看标题依然无法判断是拒信还是录取，她开始心跳加速，点开邮件，赫然看到了“congratulations”。 

这份offer既在意料之外，又在意料之中。疫情后，英国方向申请激增，竞争异常激烈。虽然有着不错的学术成绩和专业建树，但Victoria对自己最终能拿到哪些offer心里没底。但终归，所有的付出都得到了回报。截至发稿，Victoria已经收获来自伦敦大学学院、曼彻斯特大学、多伦多大学（3000加币奖学金）主校区、英属哥伦比亚大学主校区的录取。 

01.

 经济 

经济，对社会学的另一条解题思路

Victoria并不是一早就认定自己会选择商科专业方向。她日常在社交媒体上格外关注”环境保护“、”知识产权保护“等社会话题的讨论，“当人们开始关注这些问题的时候，他们不再追求物质层面的东西，开始追求精神层面的价值观。” Victoria不喜欢纯理论研究，希望把理论应用到社会实践中。但她的选课偏理科方向，转向社会学专业的申请并不容易。

在IGCSE第一年的学习过程中，Victoria偶尔间接触了电影《华尔街》。电影中资本大亨非法操纵股票交易的故事和她正在读的迈克尔·桑德尔（Michael J. Sandel）的一本书《金钱买不到什么》（What Money Can’t Buy）相互映衬，引发了她对 “道德与经济效益之间的关系” 的思考。后来，她在个人文书中提及，正是这部电影萌发了她探索经济学的兴趣：“为了钱而冒险牺牲自己的原则值得吗?” 、 “为什么数据在经济领域如此有吸引力?”…… 

于是Victoria选修了经济学，随着学习的深入，她发现，经济学提供了看待和解决社会学问题的一个崭新视角：用数学的方法、经济学的思维解构社会学问题。 

更深入的探究来自于一门CCA课。EPQ课上，老师希望他们从自己感兴趣的话题和自己的专业方向相结合，选一个研究话题。Victoria一直对“全球可持续发展”保持关注，当她利用经济学的思维再次审视这个话题时，很快找到了自己研究方向——“服装行业对农村经济的影响”。 

随着对问题研究的深入，她开始思考，除了研究之外，她可以切实地为这个社会问题做点什么。作为曼校生态委员会的成员，一次会上他们正好讨论近期的活动安排，Victoria和大家一起提出了二手衣服回收项目。活动得到了大家的支持，很快，她和几个十三年级的同学策划了活动，“我在设置激励方式上，用到了经济学的一个基本原理——稀缺性”，Victoira介绍说，“用抽奖券代替礼物，让他们拥有点外卖的权利，这对寄宿生来说是莫大的激励。”

活动开展得十分顺利，短短几周时间，Victoria他们收到了超过300公斤的旧衣物，他们随后联系支付宝的二手衣物平台做了回收和处理。

从一篇论文出发，到切实为研究课题做社会实践，逐步诠释了Victoria学习经济学的源动力：切实推动社会问题的解决，哪怕是一小步。 

在曼校的价值体系里，我们一直强调要培养“世界公民”。这并不是一个仅仅挂在墙上的美好词汇，而是最终落实到每个曼校学子思维和血液里的改变世界的责任感，这种精神将推动他们在不同的领域探索和实践。

02.

 自律 

自律，一个学霸的底色

“我会提前一天把第二天的学习清单列好，” Victoria介绍自己日复一日恪守的时间表时提到，“第二天等我完成一张paper或者复习完一个章节时，从清单里划掉这一项带来的成就感会激励我继续进行下一项任务。”

Victoria是曼校的创校学生。2018年曼校开校的时候，Victoria刚好从公立初中毕业，拿到还不错中考成绩的Victoria决定进入国际升学赛道，她的父母毫不犹豫地为她选择了曼校。作为深圳首间纯英式寄宿制国际学校，为Victoria提供了和过往公立体系教育中完全不同的学习体验。 

面对一下子多出来的自主学习时间，Victoria显得十分从容。“不同于普通高中，在曼校需要我自主安排很多时间，很多时候都是我主动想做的，动力会更足。”  

“我会在图书馆里上自习和查阅资料，” 在申请大学阶段，Victoria步步分解老师的要求，把各项资料准备、备考安排得井井有条，“曼校图书馆里有很多宝贵的资料，一次我翻到了目标大学专业网上推荐的书。”与此同时，她还大量阅读期刊，充实专业背景的研究。 

自律，是Victoria的班主任、曼校升学指导顾问Elsa老师对她的最深刻的印象。“她对自己的要求比较严格，老师下达的任务都会很快反馈。”在拥有多年升学指导经验的Elsa老师看来，拥有前瞻性的认知加上脚踏实地的超强执行能力是成功的关键。 

刚加入曼校的时候，Victoria对于自己在商科的什么方向探索还没有明确。升学指导工作从她加入曼校的第一年便开始了，学术成绩、活动表现、个人志趣、大学推介会、家庭一对一沟通……一系列的安排和咨询后，Victoria和父母一起确定了自己的方向：经济学。“我本来想学政治经济学，但我似乎不太擅长公共演讲和辩论”，Victoria说，“虽然如此，但我依然愿意在学校挑战各种我不擅长的领域，探索下自己的边界，比如说学校组织的模拟联合国的活动。”

在申请大学的过程中，Victoria全程跟随曼校升学指导团队的安排，定期和远在英国的升学指导总监Marion沟通进展，做模拟面试，和深圳本土的升学指导确定申请的系列安排，所有的工作都是有的放矢、提前规划的——事实上，她的个人文书早在12年级第三学期已经着手准备了。 

Victoria便是“曼校式升学”的一个典型样本——充分努力，利用好学校提供的教学资源，跟随升学指导的安排，便有最大的几率获得梦校offer。

03.

不确定性

未来，拥抱不确定性、保留想象

对于未来，Victoria没有过多的预设。对于职业，“目前还没想太多，不一定是券商等金融行业，能在互联网大厂工作也不错”。就如同她加入曼校前，还曾抱有走艺术升学通道的想法——她从小学绘画，已经有相当不错的基础。 

拥抱不确定性，保留对未来的各种想象，与此同时脚踏实地做好眼前事，这便是面对未来的最大底气——韧性、积极、适应性，这是曼校价值观的一个很好的诠释。 

非常恭喜Victoria，同时我们真切希望，每位曼校学子都可以在申请季收获这般喜悦！ 

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