Eighteen-year-old Debby has a certain serenity unusual for her age. She seems calm when talking about anything. Her peers might get excited about winning a sport match, taking an overseas study trip, or discussing a subject that they are passionate about. When reflecting on her experiences at YWIES Shanghai Lingang, Debby always evaluated the gains and losses with a detached attitude.

Her way of thinking is the result of  the subject she once loved—physics, a discipline that emphasises truth and pragmatism. All conclusions in physics come from meticulous observation of the real world, and careful, logical inference.

The way physicists think attracted Debby to the subject. In physics classes, Debby always felt the joy of this way of thinking. The teachers used the most perceptible ways to enable students intuitively to grasp the laws of physics, to understand the disciplinary thinking of physics, and to think like a physicist. The teachers also supplemented the lessons with experimental classes.

Interest is the best teacher. When discussing physics, Debby suddenly became talkative and enthusiastic, despite her calm demeanour. Because of this passion, Debby took or self-studied many physics and mathematics courses much more advanced than those at the high school level. She also participated in competitions such as the British Physics Olympiad (BPhO) and the Euclid Mathematics Contest, and attained multiple gold awards.

After demonstrating her talent in physics, Debby received personalised tutoring beyond the regular physics curriculum. The teachers would pose specific physics problems individually for Debby to study by herself and to research independently.

It's hard to imagine that Debby was a "late starter" when she arrived at YWIES. She had never attended any after-school classes, her English needed improvement, and she had fallen behind in many subjects.

"It was much later that I realised how lucky I was," Debby said. "I later learned that many schools only focus on students with academic potential, but that is not the case at YWIES Shanghai Lingang. The teachers care equally about every student and teach according to individual needs."

The academic atmosphere in the classrooms also made her feel relaxed. "Not attending extra classes didn’t make me anxious, because no one around me was really joining the rat race," Debby said. Only by becoming calm and not obsessing about grades can one have time to explore what one wants to do.

Back then, Debby was interested in drones, so she applied to establish a drone modelling and control club, mainly to study the kinematics modelling and dynamics modelling of drones. The objects of analysis in high school physics classes are often greatly simplified point masses. "But we still applied those physics laws for drone modelling, but it's much more complex. The challenge is not in writing down the derivation process of the modelling, but in understanding the derivation," Debby noted in explaining the achievements of the club.

In fact, determining the derivation is far beyond the knowledge of the vast majority of high school students. It requires the use of analytical mechanics and other more advanced physics that are usually studied in the later years of an undergraduate physics major. The analysis also requires the mathematics of calculus, linear algebra, and tensors. For this reason, Debby read pertinent textbooks in her spare time. She often encountered material she couldn't understand, so she asked her teachers or watched professional videos on Bilibili to deepen her understanding.

In the first semester, Debby's club had five members. By the second semester, however, only Debby and another member remained. Together, they eventually completed a 20-page paper analysing modelling.

This journey of exploration might sound lonely and challenging, but Debby enjoyed it. When she had previously read university physics textbooks, she sometimes felt that the theories were too distant from the real world. She didn’t know how and where they could be applied. The research process made her realise that this seemingly irrelevant knowledge had long penetrated various aspects of daily life. She also greatly enjoyed this self-learning process. She could decide what problems to explore and what questions to propose. This was very different from exams and competitions.

Nevertheless, the learning process can sometimes be painful. Debby would suddenly have doubts about, "Why am I doing this?". But she found that most robotics books start with establishing a coordinate system, and she realised that "physics knowledge is essential". The teacher did not provide her with the reasons for studying a subject—she discovered the reasons by herself.

Debby considers this as her biggest achievement at YWIES – she discovered that she had become independent, with the motivation and ability to learn by herself, and that she had mastered time management skills. Compared to specific knowledge, Debby feels that these are the characteristics which will be useful for life.

In this process, Debby discovered that controlling drones in the real world required her to consider many more factors than in the ideal environment of a computer simulation. In a computer simulation, all operations have immediate feedback, and are consistent with theoretical calculations. Because of the existence of sampling intervals in a real environment, however, the motion status of the drone is not reflected in real-time, and it also takes time to implement the instructions given to the drone. This results in deviations. In addition, the drone operator needs to consider situations where the instructions cannot be  delivered as planned, thus requiring additional thought and analysis.

This research helped Debby recognise the difference between the real world and the theoretical world. After physics, chemical engineering, and computer science, she became interested in electrical and electronic engineering, which she considers as a speciality that, " integrates theory and practice well".

This relatively new discipline has existed for only a few decades. Yet, the research results of this discipline have profoundly changed the world, and have become an indispensable part of modern human civilisation.

Debby feels that the learning process is gratifying, "Because what I'm learning is the essence of knowledge accumulated by humans in the last few decades". By proceeding in this direction, she can not only utilise her mathematical and physical knowledge to study very abstract theories, but also do very specific and actual applications. This would give Debby a broad range for future development.

Debby never thought she would study such advanced topics in high school. She is very grateful that YWIES gave her such a high degree of freedom. "Perhaps one was originally interested in certain directions, and then he or she changed direction. But I can always choose the direction I want to pursue as desired. The starting point of all choices is curiosity," Debby said.

After evaluating her interests and the schools’ strong disciplines, Debby finally decided to apply for an electrical and electronic engineering major, and eventually received offers from several universities, including Imperial College London.

Reflecting on the application season, this humble young woman felt she didn't perform ideally. Her grades weren't particularly excellent. She didn't participate in any background-enhancing projects during school holidays. She even answered a primary math question wrong in the interview, and couldn't answer a question related to her drone project.

"There is no standard template for admission," Debby suggested. In addition to the quantifiable indicators, what truly impressed the admission officers was probably her undisguised passion for physics and her quest for the truth.

For Jasmine, studying as an art major was like an unexpected turn of events, but it also seemed to be her destiny.

Unlike many of her classmates who had studied at international schools since middle school or even primary school, Jasmine was in the public education system until high school. Her grades were not bad, but after entering high school, she was exhausted by the endless homework and exams. After discussing the situation with her parents, they decided to enrol her in an international school to experience a different educational model.

During the school tour, an experiential class at the YWIES Shanghai Gubei immediately captivated Jasmine. The teacher guided the students to experience various fabric dyeing techniques and inspired them to design clothing using their own dyed fabrics. Jasmine had never imagined that plants and fashion design could be combined in this way. She began to recall many distant but deeply rooted memories.

Jasmine’s mother, who worked at a television station, had taken Jasmine to watch plays and musicals since she was very young. In addition, Jasmine also took various classes that interested her, such as ballet, Latin dance, and painting. During summer vacations, she often accompanied her mother to the recording sites for programmes, and witnessed the vast stage and studio, where people “danced and jumped” happily. "That was the place where dreams become reality." These experiences formed Jasmine's initial understanding of art, and made her decide to become a dream weaver who brings joy to others.

Jasmine chose theatre design as her direction. In simple terms, the scope of theatre design is everything the audience hears and sees during a performance, from the stage sets, the lighting, and the sound effects to the props and the costumes of the actors. This is a niche major, which only a few art colleges and universities offer, and the number of students recruited and enrolled is small. For example, the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, the school that admitted Jasmine, only admits four to five students worldwide each year.

After entering YWIES, Jasmine quickly felt the charm of this "hodgepodge" major. Because of the interdisciplinary nature of theatre design, she learned painting skills required for all art majors, such as sketching, drawing, and watercolour painting. She also learned model and prop production (including the use of materials such as PVC boards, clay, and paper), 3D modelling, and animation production. She even studied fabric weaving and dyeing, carpentry, etc.

These are just a few of the art courses offered at YWIES Shanghai Gubei. The courses prepared for art students at the school fascinated Jasmine – almost every imaginable direction was available here. Many practical skills are not even taught at art universities, but will only be encountered in actual work.

While rushing between the different professional classrooms on campus, Jasmine sometimes wanted to stay here a few additional years to learn even more about the content she is interested in.

A few courses, including art fundamentals and fashion, were mandatory for all students. Although some of the course content might seem unrelated to the professional direction of students of different majors, Jasmine liked this training model, including the basic skills, as well as the training in aesthetics and cross-disciplinary thinking. The training she received enabled her to be both down-to-earth and visionary.

She was deeply impressed by the fashion course. The teacher, Mr David Leung, who formerly worked as a designer for Versace, asked the students to incorporate architectural shapes into fashion design. After practicing several times, Jasmine felt that her imagination had been greatly cultivated. She also tried hands-on techniques like batik, tea dyeing, and rose dyeing during the course. Mr Leung later had everyone use the fabrics they had dyed to experiment with the three-dimensional cutting techniques commonly used in the fashion industry.

Previously, Jasmine had never thought that art majors could have so many interdisciplinary possibilities. "This was the philosophy that the teachers conveyed to us. They always said that anything could be made interdisciplinary. Later, I gradually realised that this way of thinking will become a powerful weapon for art students."

University applications for art majors require students to submit several portfolios. Under the guidance of her teachers, Jasmine completed a project that she was very satisfied with – a theatre design project based on the theme of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. The project showcased what Jasmine had learned at YWIES. Along with a few other works, it helped Jasmine to obtain offers from several programmes with admission rates as low as five percent.

Compared to traditional theatre, this immersive environmental theatre used many innovative cross-media elements, such as projection and interaction, paying tribute to the Bregenz Festival (a seaside theatre festival) and the works of David Hockney. The entire stage was a giant wooden stump. The actors performed on it, and giant books stood above it. In her project based on the theme of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Jasmine also designed the audience's seats to be shaped like mushrooms in order to enhance the audience’s sense of immersion.

"Not many people would use actual materials like wood in the model; they might use more paintings instead," Jasmine explained. "But I did, and it was a great experience."

When it comes to Alice, people often think of her blue dress, but Jasmine boldly designed the costumes in pink, and incorporated many plant elements to match the forest theme.

This work was ultimately presented as a 1:25 scale physical model, along with the animation, projections, and other multimedia content used in the performance. Jasmine is very grateful to her teachers for allowing her to bring all her wild ideas to life; for guiding her in learning to use various equipment for carpentry and multimedia; and for providing a lot of help with photography and portfolio design.

Jasmine designed all the items on the assumption that they would be used for an authentic stage design. As a result, Jasmine had to carefully consider each installation's stability, safety, and actual production difficulty and cost.

Jasmine is confident that one day, she can turn this design into reality. In this work, Jasmine has expressed the original intention of her art education. She hopes the audience can experience something different from the usual theatre or other performance venues. She wants to create a "dream" that the audience themselves might not dare to dream.