Principal’s Message
Dear Student, Parents, Staff and Friends of WIS,
My name is Hemangi Shah, a parent of two students at West Island School. I am an IT Professional who has lived in Hong Kong for the last 21 years and received my Masters in Information Technology Management from HKUST. It is with great pleasure and excitement that I write to you today about a great new initiative which is taking shape for our community.
In a number of conversations with fellow parents, it came to my attention that while many of our children seem to know which chosen fields they are interested in, they have very little knowledge of what it actually entails. I wanted my own children to get a real world experience, so when I started to ask around for opportunities that my own daughters could apply to, I made little progress. I then decided to offer my support for overseeing an internship scheme for WIS families.
WIIS, West Island Internship Scheme, aims to provide optional opportunities for Year 11, 12 and 13 students. It aspired to give upper school students some exposure or a “test drive” in a chosen field for deepening professional and workplace understanding. Aligning with our school aims, students will need to take ownership of their own learning as they would for a normal job listing.
Our first step is to build our database of opportunities and we are asking West Island community to identify connections and organisations that could offer opportunities to students that may be for a day, a week or longer. Information will be stored in a central accessible website which is regularly updated with internship openings.
If you own a business or know of companies or individuals who would be interested in this programme, please complete the Google Form located here. West Island students are budding artists, engineers, mathematicians, medica, caterers, neuroscientists, logistic experts, financiers, lawyers, geographers, dancers and much more – so we are looking to cover a vast number of opportunities to cater to all student interests.
We look forward to building connections and relationships with our West Island community to support what we hope will be a long and fruitful programme for our students now and in the years to come.
Many thanks,
Hemangi Shah and WIS Careers Counselling Team
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VIRTUAL WORK EXPERIENCES FOR WIS ENGINEERING STUDENTS
On 28 and 29 January, Year 12 and 13 Engineers were fortunate enough to have a series of virtual work experience tours and presentations from industry experts at Techtronic Industries Company Limited, a Hong Kong multinational manufacturing company, who design, manufacture, and market power tools, outdoor power equipment, accessories, hand tools, layout and measuring tools, floorcare and appliances.
It was impressive to see the application of the theory we learn in school applied on a professional scale, particularly CNC machining, a dominating process in the manufacturing world that we are lucky enough to learn about without our own machines. Using our Engineering knowledge gained from the WIS Engineering pathway, we were able to ask critical questions about the processes and understand how this applies to our Engineering course.
We would like to thank both TTI and West Island Engineering for this amazing opportunity to grow both our knowledge and Industry links, in preparation for the real world.
Eamonn Lacy
Year 13
Aditya Shrissankaraan admitted to Global Talent Mentorship Programme
Global Talent Mentorship connects top STEM students around the world with a mentor who is a scholar and achiever in a particular field of STEM. This is intended to be a long term mentorship.
The opportunity also provides members with an opportunity to connect and collaborate with top STEM academics across the globe.
All members of the HKAGE are eligible to apply. The application process to decide the Hong Kong finalists consisted of an initial submission of essays, transcripts, extra-curricular etc followed by 2 rounds of interviews.
I am honoured to be chosen for this prestigious opportunity.
Aditya Shrissankaraan
Aisha Lytherao at HK Outstanding Students Award
Congratulations to Aisha Lytherao who is to receive a certificate as Finalist of the HKOSA 2019-20 and the membership to the Hong Kong Outstanding Students’ Association in recognition of her outstanding performance.
The online ceremony will take place later in February.
Congratulations to Aisha!
Royal Geographical Society ‘Young Geographer of the Year’ competition
This is a new competition for all full-time students in Hong Kong. Students can participate in the competition by submitting a visual image accompanied by a brief written explanation that demonstrates their knowledge and application of geographical concepts that connect to competition themes.
Visuals can be submitted in the form of a photograph, map, sketch or infographic, and each student can enter a maximum of one submission for each theme.
The submissions have been requested by 20 February 2021 and the winners announcement will be during April 2021.
Click here for more details and to sign up
John Hopkins Center for Talented (CTY) – Testing pilot now open
Interested in enrolling in CTY programs but can’t schedule a qualifying test right now?
From February 1 – June 30, 2021, CTY is running a pilot program to conduct research on test identification methods. During this time, they will accept qualifying scores on a variety of tests students may have already taken for talent identification at their school.
