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Regents IB students prove themselves world beaters
Fern Maxwell (2nd from right)
scored 40 points and will study Psychology at University.
Dr Tim Eaton
The impact of Regents International School Pattaya’s enhanced focus on
academic attainment is clearly being felt, with this year’s International
Baccalaureate Diploma graduates on average achieving results more than three
points above the world average. Three Regents’ students achieved the coveted
40-point mark - recognised globally as the hallmark of an outstanding
performance.
The students will now go on to study an impressive range of courses at some
of the top universities in the world, including King’s College London,
London School of Economics and Political Science, The University of Hong
Kong, University College Zealand, University of York, University of
California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Korea University (Seoul) and The University
of Liverpool.
Yu Jin Ahn (left) scored 40
points. “I’ll miss everything about Regents.”
Fern Maxwell from the UK was one of those students who
achieved a world-beating score. “My 40-point score has definitely helped me
with my application to the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. It
has allowed me to be put into the category of ‘direct placement’, so I no
longer have to fulfil any additional requirements and I am guaranteed a
place on the Psychology course.”
Yu Jin Ahn from South Korea also scored 40 points. Yu Jin has spent her
entire school career at Regents. “I’ll miss everything about Regents: my
lifelong friends, the helpful teachers and all the extracurricular
activities. I would like to give some advice to the upcoming Year 13s: enjoy
your last year of high school! Take time to study and keep up with
coursework deadlines, but more importantly, enjoy your last year here at
Regents together with your friends and teachers because, no matter how hard
you find the IB, you’ll come to miss this school!”
Gor Gasparyan scored 41
points: “The London School of Economics will certainly be a richer place for
having Gor amongst their number.”
Gor Gasparyan from Armenia scored an outstanding 41 points. Deputy Head of
Secondary, Paul McConnell, who has watched Gor blossom academically over the
last few years, commented: “Gor is a very driven and focused young man. I
have no doubt that he will flourish in the unique environment for study that
university provides and the London School of Economics will certainly be a
richer place for having Gor amongst their number.”
Garry Russell, Head of Secondary, commented: “These are a fantastic set of
world-class results. They reflect the incredible dedication of our students
and their wonderful teachers. The school has raised the bar even higher and
our students will now move on to some of the world’s best universities,
armed not only with the positive attitude and skills for which Regents is
famous, but also with outstanding qualifications.”
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Busy Praichit steers active YWCA
Praichit Jetpai is nothing if not busy. In addition
to running her own business, serving as an advisor to the Pattaya Tourist Police
and sitting on the board of the Redemptorist School for the Blind, she oversees
nearly a dozen projects as chairwoman of the YWCA Bangkok-Pattaya Center.
Jetsada Homklin
Praichit Jetpai is nothing if not busy.
In addition to running her own business, serving as an advisor to the Pattaya
Tourist Police and sitting on the board of the Redemptorist School for the
Blind, the 44-year-old nursing and business graduate oversees nearly a dozen
projects as chairwoman of the YWCA Bangkok-Pattaya Center.
“We actually have more than 10 social projects, but are working mainly on four
or five,” Praichit told the Pattaya Mail in an interview.
The YWCA leads medical teams every
three months to check the health of orphans, street kids and those in day-care
centers.
From growing mushrooms to supplying eyeglasses and
scholarships, “the YWCA is an association to help society,” she explained. “Our
society will be so much more livable if all of us spare just a bit of kindness
and help to encourage one another.”
In that spirit, Praichit works with the Pattaya Sports Club to supply eyeglasses
to children, poor people and the elderly. Working with other foundations, she
and the YWCA also lead medical teams every three months to check the health of
orphans, street kids and those in day-care centers.
But it’s the YWCA’s school-agriculture program she seems proudest of. The
project supplies mushroom farms, complete with planters, crops and tools, to
schools across the eastern region, giving the facilities another way to spend
money on learning, not food, by growing their own vegetables.
The Mushroom Farming Project helps
students to earn income and utilize their time fruitfully.
“The mushroom project is an opportunity to raise funds and
the teachers will keep the project alive while teaching children to live
sufficiently, and learn to do accounts to be informed of their expenses and
income,” she said.
“After two years of operating this project, we have received amazing responses
from various schools where the project was implemented. All schools are
interested and want to learn more about mushrooms and to expand the project,”
Praichit said.
The chairwoman takes pains to note no one at the YWCA is a “mushroom expert.”
Instead, the group brings in city workers and academics from Chandrakasem
Rajabhat University to provide schools with advice on mushroom growing,
including organizing monthly seminars.
The YWCA’s “Sight First Project”
provides glasses to poor students and elderly who are in need.
While many of the YWCA’s project serve both sexes, the
association’s mission of “developing the leadership of and empowering women,
young and underprivileged girls to affirm their human rights, justice, freedom,
peace, human dignity, and good health” plays out at the group’s women’s shelter
on Soi Town in Town.
At the three-story building, women in need of refuge get care, security and even
vocational education to get them back on their feet independently, she said.
While these projects are ongoing, Praichit said the YWCA is working on more for
the rest of the year, including organizing an environmental activity for youths.
Kids from outlying communities will plant trees at Khao Sichan.
The association also will present scholarships to 55 schools, totaling between
350 and 400 stipends. Funds are given to teachers, not the kids directly, she
noted.
“Children make withdrawals when they need supplies by writing a withdrawal slip
to the teacher. The association is quite focused on making sure that the funds
really do bring benefits and are of value to the children,” she said. “Our
association keeps track of all children under the supervision of teachers. We
also closely watch the children’s education and spending.”
All of the association’s work, she said, tries to level the playing field for
the disadvantaged.
“I believe that all lives are equal,” she said, “but all opportunities are not.”
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Yet another woeful story among the poor
Jesters Care For Kids 2014, sponsored by Glencore International
and Canadian Jackalope Open
Duangjai, Siripatrara and her 4-year-old daughter
sit on the bike Jesters gave her with the modified side car.
Lewis Underwood
Poverty puts a strain on relationships, family harmony and the ability
to make ends meet. Strength and determination are needed to survive. Both
parents have to work long hours each day, often away from their living
situation. If they cannot take their children with them, then they might have to
stay behind and fend for themselves. Without adult supervision the slums can be
a risky endeavor for children.
Poverty also causes break-ups when one parent decides to move on for something
better. For the parent left alone with the children, the day-to-day ordeal
increases exponentially. When this happens the single parent tends to look for
new alliances even if one of the ulterior motives is to get another breadwinner
back in the family. But then as far as fitting in with the rest of the family,
the new step parent it is not always amicable.
Additionally, these new unions usually mean more offspring and when that
happens, in the near future, the economics will be exacerbated anew.
Erle, Duangjai and her daughter
with Down syndrome, Siripatrara during Jesters’ rice distribution.
Teen pregnancies are yet another problem among the poor. It
might be something you relate to as a problem upcountry, but it is also becoming
a reality here in the urban environments. In fact, we see young mothers on a
regular basis when we make home visits for the monthly rice distribution and
also with PILC and the Ban Chang Hospital outreach program during their food
drops.
Case in point is Duangjai, a 40-something female, single parent, looking after 5
children and, to say the least, she is struggling. She is a mobile food vendor
and typically earns 300 baht a day, which is her break-even figure to care for
her family.
From her first husband, she has two daughters, who are now 17 and 15 years, but
then the husband/father got up and left. Duangjai remarried and eventually had
two more girls, one who is now 8 years old with Down syndrome and another, who
is 4 years old.
Last year, the 17-year old daughter became pregnant and now has a 6-month old
baby. Husband #2, exasperated with the addition, said he was not going to stick
around to raise another child, especially one that is not of his blood. So he
too exited the scene and Duangjai is now alone again to take care of her 4
daughters, one with special needs, and her new grand daughter.
The Jesters heard about her plight and decided to assist. The first thing she
requested was to modify her side car, so she could expand her menu to include
som tam and barbecue chicken to earn more money. With that done, we then heard
that her motorbike was repossessed. So, we canvassed the ex-pat community for a
cheap second-hand motorbike and in no time at all, three friends came forward
and donated their bikes for free. We gave one to Duangjai and the other two to
needy recipients in our rice distribution program under the banner of ‘Share
Love with Friends’.
We also decided to assist further by supplying powdered milk to her
granddaughter for the interim and thought she was good to go now.
However, when we saw her earlier this month, we found out that she had borrowed
money from a loan shark and was looking to us to pay it off. Unfortunately, for
this request, we had to say, “sorry, but no.”
Sometimes it can be frustrating trying to do the right thing, but then it is
something you have to get inured to as well. Most of the people we help
understand that we do not indiscriminately hand over cash. We also do not want
people to think that they will be getting hand-outs indefinitely. In fact, we
expect our recipients to work together with us to make their situations better
too. And as far as these unsavory types go, who profess to loan money, when
their actual business is extortion, our policy is to stay away from them.
Getting education for the children of poor families is not easy given their
austere circumstances, but if they ever want to break out of the cycle of
generational poverty, it has to be a priority. It is certainly a priority for
us, as it is for our target charity, the Fountain of Life Center. Not only do
they offer day care for children when both parents work, but also prepare them
for school and in due course, scholarships so they are indeed able to get an
education.
If you would like to learn more about such special cases and helping the poor,
please go to www.care4kids .info, www.facebook.com/jesterscare.kids and/or
https://twitter.com/JestersCare4Kid
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S. Koreans donate goods to Banglamung boys home
After donating bedding and
sporting goods to the Banglamung Home for Boys, members of the South Korean Thai
Aridang Association help change bed sheets and clean the fans in the dormitory.
Surasak Huasoon
A group of South Korean expats donated bedding and sporting goods to the
Banglamung Home for Boys to thank Thailand for its hospitality.
About 20 members of the Thai Aridang Association, led by President Sung Je Lee,
presented the 160 mattresses, badminton sets and footballs to boys home
administrators July 12. Following the presentation, members went into the
dormitory to change bedsheets and clean fans the group had donated last year.
Thai Aridang is an association of the South Koreans working in Thailand as
entrepreneurs or factory workers. Sung said that, as an expression of gratitude
to the kingdom of Thailand for giving them a place to make a living, the members
wanted help the less fortunate.
Sung said he has been living in Thailand for 15 years and that the association
has more than 100 expatriate members. Another donation is planned for November,
he said.
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Phothisamphan Phitthayakhan School marks 54 year
Suan Phanomwattanakul, president
of the Office of Basic Education Commission, lights candles and incense to pay
homage to the school’s founder, the late Bunmee Akhapunyo.
Surasak Huasoon
Phothisamphan Phitthayakhan School earlier this month celebrated its
54th anniversary in Naklua. The ceremony was also held to pay homage to the late
founder of the school, Bunmee Akhapunyo, aka Provost Luangpo.
Former Culture Minister Sonthaya Kunplome and Suan Phanomwattanakul, chairman of
the Office of Basic Education Commission, participated in the July 10
festivities for the school started on the grounds of Phothisamphan Temple.
Suan lit candles and incense to worship Provost Luangpo while Sonthaya sounded
the war drum to begin the ceremony. Students performed, monks prayed and
everyone had lunch.
Prasert Sopharak, a first-year alumnus of Phothisamphan Phitthayakhan School,
then read the biography of the late school founder Bunmee Akhapunyo.
Prasert Sopharak, the first
alumnus of the school, reads the biography of school founder Bunmee Akhapunyo.
Bunmee Akhapunyo, the revered monk was born in 1913 in
Nongket Yai and at age 11, was left by his parents with an old monk at Nongket
Yai Temple, where he learned to read and write both Thai and Khmer.
Having impressed the monk with his language skills, Bunmee was given 12 prayer
books, which he memorized.
After 8 years, Bunmee left his mentor behind to help his parents farm, but, at
age 21, was ordained at Chonglom Temple in Naklua. In 1935, he started the
recitation of 227 precepts for a Buddhist monk.
Sonthaya Kunplome, former minster
of culture, plays the Thai war drum to signal the opening of the event.
In 1956, Naklua locals Prong and Yin Phansamniang donated
five rai to Bunmee to build a temple. He had only 40 baht to spend, but built
the temple with donations from the community.
In 1960, he applied to the government to open a Prathom-level school at the
temple and, a year later, opened the Mattayom-level classrooms and the school
took the name Phothisamphan Phitthayakhan School.
Students perform a traditional
Thai dance.
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