文 | Jessie 图 | 受访者提供
第一次和Yoran Beisher见面,发现这个男孩非常热情自信。互联网时代的社交,大部分人都躲在屏幕后,陌生人见面十分拘谨,Yoran却让人体会到一种久违的亲切感。
#历经多国教育#
从中式到美式再到英式
Yoran的爸爸是美国人,妈妈是上海人,跨国组合的家庭让他的教育经历与众不同。小时候Yoran在上海上公立小学,小学毕业后跟随家人搬去了夏威夷,在那里的一所蒙特梭利学校上完了初中。2018年,他又和家人搬回了上海,进入上海德威外籍人员子女学校(浦东)学习。刚刚高中毕业,Yoran就已经体验了中式、美式和英式三种不同的教育方式。
“上海的学校抓得比较紧,比较专注于语文、数学和英文这样的核心课程。初中到了夏威夷以后,完全是另外一种风格。”Yoran说,“那儿很自由,有大把的时间可以探索自己喜欢做的事情。”在夏威夷读书的时候,Yoran喜欢上了机器人俱乐部,课后就花了很多时间在上面。“回到上海,进入英式国际学校德威后,我发现同学们会更喜欢把时间花在课外课上。”在Yoran看来,英式教育就像美式和中式的中和,宽松的氛围下还是对学术保持着一份严谨。
中国教育的专注、美式教育的自由以及英式教育的严谨似乎在Yoran身上产生了一种化学反应,让他敢于不断尝试去寻找自己的最爱,并持续投入时间和精力。
#Dulwich TV#
从零开始创办
Yoran特别的一点是,很少在一件事情的后果和回报上纠结,在产生想做某件事情的想法之初,他更多考虑的是如何快速开始和解决困难,而不是犹豫不决。13年级时,Yoran在学校创立了Dulwich TV。那是IB的最后一年,课业压力繁重,大学申请的时间节点也一个紧接着一个,而他却能在极其忙碌的毕业年创设一个新的社团,并在半年内使团队从0发展到30人,实在让人惊叹。
“我萌生创立Dulwich TV的想法是因为有一次和一位老师聊天,他苦于无法让学校里的同学和老师知道他的活动。我发现这是一个大问题,学校有很多精彩的活动或信息,但没有合适的宣传和推广渠道,于是便想着做点什么。”这个校园里的“小困难”就这样成了Yoran开始的契机。创设新社团需要投入大量的时间和精力,Yoran没有想太多。他的想法很快得到了老师的支持,学校市场部还给了他不少参与报道的机会。
“我以前没有接触过媒体,媒体对我而言是个全新的领域,刚开始我连mp4、m4a这些文件格式都不知道,也不知道怎么用摄像机以及剪辑软件。”技术难题需要攻克,招不到合适的成员也是一大难题——初创团队除了毫无经验的他,还有三名毫无经验的7年级学生。但这些困难都没有阻止Yoran的脚步,从零开始,遇到问题解决问题。
“我大概每周要花10个小时在Dulwich TV上,做计划、剪辑,哪怕制作一段只有5分钟的视频,也需要花很多时间一遍一遍地过。因为白天要学习,时间很紧张,所以有时不得不牺牲睡眠时间。”
Yoran有超强的责任心和领导力,在他的带领下,团队不断壮大,最初的“小朋友”都磨炼得能独当一面了。现在的Dulwich TV已经有两三个小组可以分头报道不同的活动,就像一个初创企业那样稳扎稳打,良性发展着。
#GO FOR IT#
在不断试错中找到热情
Yoran是个实践派,很喜欢什么都去做一做、试一试。“没有人天生就知道自己热爱什么,只有去做了才会明白这是不是自己想要的。”
Yoran也有很多失败的经历,他曾参加过Dulwich Architect社团,该社团希望以工作坊的形式,让学生们学习如何使用电动工具来制作家具和其他装置,并在校园中展示。在这个过程中,他发现自己的时间和能力根本跟不上,于是放弃了。他在Student Government的经历也不是很愉快,因为那儿有很多规则要遵守,然而他喜欢更自由地表达和实现自己的想法,于是他也放弃了。
在这些失败的经历中,Yoran才慢慢找到自己真正热爱的是去交流沟通,并且学习去引领一个团队。这些经历让Yoran在创立Dulwich TV时有了自己的领导风格,他基本上不会拒绝每一位想加入的孩子,他认为只有给他们机会尝试,大家才能明白这是不是自己想要做的。
而至于团队人数激增所带来的管理上的挑战,Yoran表示慢慢解决就好。这样的特质让我们仿佛看到了一个创业领导者的格局,给自己机会,给“员工”机会,然后一起成长。
在课外,他的经历相当丰富,除了创立Dulwich TV,他还帮助学弟学妹创立了机器人社团,并利用空闲时间做了大量的实习,他做过数字营销、市场营销以及项目研究员,还在ACAMIS做特邀发言人。
学校之外,Yoran还参与了一些志愿者活动,比如在上海市儿童医院做志愿协调员、派发食物给贫困者、无偿为新教师培训英文,等等——一个高三毕业生拥有的经历,甚至胜过大部分大学生。Yoran从不浪费自己的时间,他把时间都用在了寻找自己热爱领域的过程中。
目前Yoran已经被不列颠哥伦比亚大学尚德商学院预录取,他很坚定自己未来的发展方向,就是将商业运用在更多领域,为人类繁荣发展创造更多条件。而为了实现这一目标,他想不断提升自己的适应力、勇气和沟通能力。
Yoran Beisher:
Experience Creates Passion
#2021 Graduate Stories#
Written by Jessie
Translated by Yoran
When you first meet Yoran Beisher, you will be immediately greeted by his enthusiasm and confidence. Most young adults during first impressions come off as quieter or reserved due to a lack of social interaction with strangers; Whereas Yoran, on the other hand, has no qualms of greeting new individuals warmly and intimately.
From Chinese to American to British
Experiencing education across borders
Yoran’s father is American and his mother is from Shanghai. His multinational family allowed him to experience a very unique education. When he was a child, Yoran attended a public elementary school in Shanghai. After graduating from elementary school, he moved with his family to Hawaii, where he studied in a private Montessori middle school.
Finally, in 2018, he moved back with his family to Shanghai and studied at Dulwich College Shanghai (Pudong). Upon graduating from high school, Yoran has already experienced three different education systems: Chinese, American, and British.
“Shanghai schools emphasize the importance of core subjects such as Mandarin, Mathematics, and English. However, this all changed when I moved to Hawaii for Middle School.” Yoran commented. “Students have a lot more free time and are encouraged to use that free time to explore their hobbies and passion.” While studying in Hawaii, Yoran discovered his interest in the school’s robot club and invested a significant number of hours into fostering that interest.
“Once I returned to Shanghai and entered the British International School Dulwich College Shanghai, I found that students continued to pursue co-curricular activities despite the challenging curriculum.” In Yoran’s view, British education is a balance between the American and Chinese educations. It maintains a rigorous academic approach while also encouraging students to pursue co-curricular activities.
The focused approach of the Chinese education, the laissez-faire approach of the American education, and the balanced approach of the British education created a spark in Yoran, daring him to continue discovering new avenues and projects that’ll challenge him and benefit his community.
Founding Dulwich TV from scratch
Something outstanding about Yoran is that he does not dwell on thoughts of failure or the amount of energy that is required to complete a project. Instead, he focuses on the steps or procedures needed to overcome the next hurdle and challenge.
When Yoran was a year 13 student at Dulwich, he founded Dulwich TV – a student news that produces weekly segments promoting school activities. Back then it was the last year of IB for him, with heavy academic pressure and time constraints from university applications. But he decided to press forward and created a student news organization that grew from nothing to over 30 students within half a year.
“The idea to start Dulwich TV originated from a conversation I had with a teacher, who was complaining about the lack of suitable outlets to advertise student activities and achievements. In my time at Dulwich, I have also noticed the same problem. Many students were involved in a wealth of different activities and projects, but nobody knew about them!”
This “communication difficulty” on campus thus became an opportunity for Yoran to launch his newest endeavor – Dulwich TV. While the investment of time and energy would have been significant for Yoran to start a student news channel, he did not mind the undertaking. His proposal quickly gained traction as it received the support of both teachers and the school’s marketing department.
“I have never worked in the media field before, and it was a completely new experience to me. In the beginning, I lacked many of the basic skills needed to run a news outlet. I didn’t know the difference between mp4 and m4a computer files, nor did I know how to operate a camera or use a video editing software.” While many technical problems needed to be overcome, getting the right team together was also a challenge. Initially, only three inexperienced 7th grade students were interested in joining the organization. However, none of these difficulties stopped Yoran from achieving his aim and building his dream organization.
“I spend about 10 hours a week on Dulwich TV, planning, recording, and editing each segment. Even if each segment was only 5 minutes, it takes a significant amount of time to perfect each second, and because I have to study during the day and there are only so many hours in a day, often this would mean losing sleep.”
Yoran has a strong sense of responsibility and leadership, and under his leadership, Dulwich TV continues to grow, and the original members are trained to be independent. Now Dulwich TV has over 30 students reporting on different activities in groups, and it continues to grow steadily.
GO FOR IT
Discover your passion
Through relentless trial and error
Yoran is practical, he prefers to experience every task firsthand. “No one is born knowing what they love. Instead, it is only through trial and error do they begin to understand slowly what they wish to gain from in life.”
Yoran’s past has not been all success and glory, instead, is also littered with countless failures. One of the many projects Yoran has tried to start – Dulwich Architect – sought to promote hands-on learning through woodworking and other workshop skills. However, in the process, Yoran found that his ability could not keep up with the complex nature of the skills needed to navigate a workshop, so he gave it up. His experience in Student Government was not pleasant either. His style of freely expressing and realizing his ideas did not fit well with the many rules and regulations within student government.
Within each failure though, Yoran slowly discovered that what he truly loves is to learn through leading. These experiences helped Yoran shape his own leadership style when he founded Dulwich TV, and with that, he accepted every student that wanted to join the organization, no matter the number. He believes that the only way to foster a productive and enriching atmosphere is by giving everyone an equal chance at proving their worth.
As for the logistical challenges that come with the surge in members, Yoran will solve it like he does every other challenge, by taking things one step at a time. This characteristic of his is reminiscent of an entrepreneurial leader, giving “employees” an equal opportunity to grow together.
Yoran’s wealth of experience also extends well beyond the classroom. In addition to creating Dulwich TV, he also founded a robotics team in junior school to help promote STEM. He is also involved in many professional development experiences, having worked as a digital marketing intern at a multinational corporation; a project researcher at a tech start-up; and a regular speaker at the annual ACAMIS Technology Conference.
Yoran also doesn’t slack off when it comes to volunteering: Having worked as a volunteer coordinator at Shanghai Children’s Hospital; participated in poverty alleviation events; and also train English teachers at migrant school. Yoran tries his best to invest every minute of his day into discovering new passions and areas to challenge himself.
Presently, Yoran plans to pursue his higher education at Sauder School of Business at The University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. He plans on studying commerce while continuing to make a positive impact wherever he goes, using business and commerce as a platform to contribute to the prosperity and development of mankind. To achieve this goal, he believes that adaptability, communication, and the courage to dive head-first into industries are essential.
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