国产成人综合久久免费导航

Over the past decade, Keystone Academy has developed young people to become a force that promotes world development and progress. Keystone’s educational ethos is consistent with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) because of its resonating belief that the ultimate goal of education is developing students who use knowledge to lead the world to a better future.

Keystone was one of the select schools that participated in the historic Summit of the Future at the United Nations Headquarters in New York in late September 2024. Executive Head of School Dr. Emily McCarren and Assistant Head of School for School Affairs Dr. Rae Yang joined the leaders and representatives of governments, organizations, educational institutions, the private sector, and civic society and youth groups around the world in the discussions about responding to urgent global challenges and shaping the common future of humanity.

Participants at the summit adopted the Pact of the Future and its annexes, the Global Digital Compact and the Declaration on Future Generations. According to the UN, the Pact of the Future is the “most wide-ranging agreement in many years, covering both new areas and issues on which agreement has not been possible in decades”.

Keystone’s participation and presence at the Summit of the Future gives recognition to its educational philosophy and methods. At the same time, Keystone became an exemplar of the excellence of schools rooted in local perspectives and values but with a global outlook.

“To address worldwide issues in peace, environmental protection, technological advancement, and sustainable development, we must harness the power of inheritance. Education is the most effective means to achieve this,” Dr. Rae Yang said.

“As a new world school, Keystone integrates these universal human concerns into its daily curriculum. We aim to nurture students who can embrace their roots while developing a global perspective, enabling them to think critically about worldwide development. Only when individuals possess a global mindset can they make meaningful and selfless contributions to the advancement of our world.”

Throughout the Keystone campus, many students transform the knowledge they have learned in different classroom activities and personal initiatives to address humanity’s pressing issues. In so doing, these young forces of change become a bridge for a more sustainable and hopeful future.

By Design: How sustainable development concepts are woven into Keystone class topics

For Moreen Zhang, academic stress is not just the only issue that weighs down on many students: she and some friends have experienced back problems because of using the computer every day. To deal with this, she has tried several kinds of bèi bèi jiā, or products that promise to correct posture or treat scoliosis. However, she saw each product’s issues in material, elasticity, and comfort.

To find a more personalized solution, Moreen launched a project during her eleventh-grade Design Technology class in the Diploma Programme (DP), resulting in her own bèi bèi jiā intended to help prevent kyphosis or hunchback for teenagers.

The year-long project requires students to create a product addressing a practical problem and assess its viability through research, design, modeling, production, and testing. For her creation, Moreen studied the features of back braces and posture correctors in the market. She improved their issues by finding more comfortable cotton-based fabrics and adjusting how her brace could be worn so the users would feel less restrained. After several modifications, which led to five possible models, Moreen chose the most promising designs, 3D-printed the parts, and sewed them with breathable cotton fabric.

Such a project emphasizes that student works can be useful outside the classroom, and that these young people are also capable designers with social responsibilities. At the same time, courses like Design Technology encourage students to see that design skills can help solve social issues, promote progress, and benefit many humans.

“In Design Technology, while the SDGs are not explicitly taught, the curriculum naturally incorporates key theoretical topics that align with these goals,” Design Technology teacher Paul Pienaar said.

“For instance, subjects such as Resource Management, Sustainable Production, the journey from Raw Material to Final Product, Sustainability, Innovation and Markets, and Commercial Production provide ample opportunities for students to explore the objectives of the SDGs.”

Mr. Pienaar highlighted that the inquiry and study of these topics help students gain “a practical understanding of how to achieve the SDGs by selecting sustainable and eco-friendly materials, employing manufacturing processes that reduce carbon emissions, and considering environmental impacts in their commercial production practices.”

Aside from the DP Design Technology class, every course at Keystone encourages students to apply knowledge to offer solutions to practical problems and broader social issues. This subtle guidance happens throughout Primary and Secondary classrooms. For instance, Grade 2 teachers organize morning meetings to help students develop their understanding of the SDGs. In Grade 4 classrooms, teachers facilitate discussions on refugees’ situations and problems and encourage students to give speeches about the climate issue.

Meanwhile, English Language and Literature teacher Brittany Stewart challenged her sixth-grade students to discuss two semi-specific subtopics from their chosen SDG and research countries with projects implementing that goal. In this summative assessment, students created a presentation and speech with a call to action regarding that goal.

Her students Acacia Whitney and Esme Bathgate focused on different SDGs. Acacia chose Japan as an example of a country that promotes sustainable consumption and production.

“The world should be more like Japan, where it is clean,” Acacia explained. “It is important to have sustainable consumption and production because it is linked to global warming. The less we do it, the more trash we produce, which ends up in oceans.

For her report, Esme compared gender equality between Yemen and Iceland, strengthening her stance against sexism.

“People should be treated equally, no matter what their race and gender. I want people to be comfortable about whoever they are and feel safe wherever they go,” Esme shared.

Ms. Stewart felt inspired to see her students connect these issues to their lives and communities. She also observed a “remarkable shift in awareness and enthusiasm” after the assessment.

“Many students expressed a newfound understanding of their roles in creating a sustainable future,” Ms. Stewart added. “By exploring the efforts and achievements of other countries, they began to see tangible ways in which large goals, such as ‘responsible consumption and production’ and ‘gender equality’, are attainable.”

More than this, Ms. Stewart felt accomplished integrating the SDGs into her classes, especially with the “tremendous support and encouragement” from the English Department Leader, Christina Myrisi.

“Her leadership fosters a sense of confidence in me to explore innovative ways to blend my subject with such globally significant topics such as the SDGs. I believe that, as teachers, we are learning as much if not more than we are teaching, and this collaboration with Christina enriches the teaching practices of the entire secondary English department while simultaneously aiding us in engaging students in meaningful ways.”

In other Keystone classes, tenth graders are preparing for the Keystone Model United Nations interdisciplinary unit, brainstorming topics for seven forums on world peace and progress. At the same time, they are working on their Personal Project products, which challenge them to explore and combine different SDGs with personal initiatives that celebrate human diversity and culture or promote human and social development.

These student works are not just examples but ideas put into action, facilitated by Keystone teachers and the school’s curriculum. As a result, students expand their sense of responsibility and global vision.

“The SDGs represent ideals that we can all embrace and work towards,” Mr. Pienaar said, adding that Keystone’s commitment to integrating the SDGs into its curriculum is “commendable [and] also essential for preparing our students for the future”.

“This approach places our students at the forefront of global initiatives that will shape tomorrow’s world.”

Breaking Barriers: The power of collective action for equality

Many organizations worldwide have been outspoken about the gender disparity in the workplace. For instance, women account for less than 30 percent of the workforce in the science, technology, engineering, mathematics (STEM), and medicine (STEMM) companies. The job aggregator platform LinkedIn also noted that only one-third of women who graduated with STEM subjects enter the industry.

Although the statistics seems concerning despite rapid developments in society today, many students like Anna Xiang still aim to smash the glass ceiling. The current eleventh grader is a member of Girls in STEMM, a Keystone Activities Program (KAP) club that encourages students to explore the field. This Keystone club is patterned after an initiative of the same name, organized by the Women’s Development Association.

The initiative has brought Xiaoqing and her peers from other schools in Beijing to different companies to learn about their history and opportunities for development, especially those that can be led by women. On a visit to Hewlett Packard’s office in the capital, the Keystone junior and other students joined an activity that challenged them to disassemble and restore a router. This mini-project made Anna feel that there’s a lot in store for her and many other girls in an industry dominated by men.

Even before joining the club two years ago, Anna already had a strong interest in medicine. However, the corporate visits made her realize the importance of hands-on practice for STEMM learning.

“The companies gave us opportunities to experience their operation, which was much more inspiring than reading papers, searching information online, or learning only in class,” Anna shared. “Many of my eighth- and ninth-grade schoolmates who joined the activities with me became interested in science subjects during those visits.”

Aside from the Girls in STEMM clubs, there are many subjects and other extracurricular activities at Keystone that encourage the community to discuss views and act on gender equality issues, which are in line with SDG 5 on achieving gender equality and empowering all women and girls.

For example, the student-initiated Smile Action KAP and Girls LEAD club extend the focus on gender equality to the entire community. Many students also share observations, reflections, and creations related to this issue in their Personal Project products, CAS (Creativity, Activity and Service) projects, and other initiatives.

In one of her CAS projects, Anna investigates traditional Chinese medicine and Western medicine for new treatments for depression in patients. She has also co-led a lecture series that brought STEMM experts to Keystone, sharing their insights into this industry and inspiring students to develop their own projects related to the field. So far, Anna has invited Dr. Wenqi Li, Head of the Life Science Department Protein Research Center at Tsinghua University Medical School and Professor Xuehua Liu, associate researcher of the Institute of Environmental Ecology at Tsinghua University.

Anna hopes to cooperate with the interschool Girls in STEMM organization to expand this lecture series so more girls from other schools can participate. Through this, she hopes that more girls will join in and realize their power in this field.

Doors to Opportunity: Keystone’s service learning project that uplifts the youth

The recent week-long trips of Keystone eighth-grade students to Sishui, a county in Jining City in Shandong, have gone beyond usual learning excursions to immerse themselves in rural life. They visited the primary schools in Shengshuiyu, Xiangchang, and Yingli villages to study and share knowledge with hundreds of local students. In this experience, the visiting Keystone students realized that service learning required not just commitment but also an interdependent relationship built on equality.

Service learning is one of the crucial aspects of Keystone’s curriculum. In 2017, the school initiated a partnership with Shengshuiyu Primary School through the Rural Education Action Project (REAP) of Stanford University to build a sustainable relationship that could help bridge gaps in rural education across China through small yet meaningful actions.

Since then, Keystone has supported Shengshuiyu Primary School in numerous ways, from donations to creating facilities. In 2020, Keystone constructed a library with over 700 books and other facilities. Keystone teachers and students have also made regular visits that brought new learning experiences and creative teaching methods to the rural school. For instance, the Half Door KAP is among the student-led teams that have made a significant impact there. In 2022, it donated more than 900 books to Shengshuiyu’s library, collected from a successful donation drive within the Keystone community.

Founded in 2022 by Katie Lan from the Keystone Class of 2024, Half Door highlights the disparities between urban and rural education. Named after a school in Sichuan that Katie once supported, Half Door symbolizes the vision of opening doors to bridge educational gaps. Through engagement, its members aspire to raise awareness about the realities of rural education in China.

Then tenth-grader Jo Chi joined the initiative and dedicated herself to supporting the Keystone Sishui Project. “Because Keystone has established a long-term partnership with Shengshuiyu, we can implement more effective ways to support the children,” she shared.

Jo Chi and Feifei Chen, who became the Half Door KAP student leaders after Katie’s graduation, organized book donations and led trips to Shengshuiyu twice a year. On these visits, Jo and her peers realized that the children needed companionship and mentorship beyond material support. Many Shengshuiyu students are “left-behind” children, cared for by grandparents, with little exposure to the world beyond Sishui. Keystone’s presence brought fresh excitement, encouraging the students to dream of a world beyond their own.

Jo believed sharing knowledge could expand the horizons of Shengshuiyu schoolchildren. To offer long-term support, she and other Half Door members designed online courses such as Beijing’s Forbidden City culture, hutong heritage, calligraphy, and traditional Chinese medicine—topics the Shengshuiyu students wouldn’t typically find in books. Jo also collaborated with a Keystone teacher to create a course on basic programming, hoping to equip the children with practical skills and inspire them to imagine new possibilities.

“In building a deep connection with the Sishui Project, I learned that service is a two-way process and not just about helping others,” Jo shared. “We have gained while giving. The Shengshuiyu children are pure, optimistic, and kind. Their strong sense of responsibility for their families has deeply moved me. We don’t want this connection with Sishui to be temporary. We want it to be sustainable because this is what we hope to do from the bottom of our hearts.”

Jo and her Half Door club peers recently hosted a themed exhibition on campus about Shengshuiyu Primary School and the stark differences between urban and rural education. They plan to expand this exhibition with documentary-style elements to inspire others to support rural education initiatives.

Education inequality is a critical issue highlighted by the UN Summit of the Future, as many countries seek solutions to balance educational resources. Achieving this requires collective effort.

“‘Leaving no one behind’ is central to the SDGs, and ensuring everyone has equal access to opportunities means we all need to contribute,” Half Door’s advisor Hope Che explained. “Keystone’s educational philosophy emphasizes a global vision and social responsibility. Every small attempt we make is a force to promote world progress.”

Since 2017, Keystone has laid the groundwork for a learning base in Shengshuiyu to provide students with a space for hands-on learning and community engagement. Although delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the learning base was finally completed in 2022.

This year, Keystone expanded its service program to include the primary schools in Xiangchang and Yingli. During their week-long stay, Keystone students introduced classes on martial arts, drama, conversational English, art, and science, exposing the rural students to a broader range of educational experiences. These interactions transformed the Keystone students, with teachers observing a newfound maturity in them as they taught and guided their younger “students”.

“As a world school, Keystone develops students who are world citizens with a sense of social responsibility rather than self-serving elitists,” Keystone Head of Middle School Houming Jiang said. “This educational vision is embedded in our courses, various activities, and students’ lives. It also drives us to constantly explore sustainable learning methods. This is what Keystone has always practiced."

In the past ten years, Keystone has committed to its educational philosophy of developing socially responsible world citizens. Throughout that decade, Keystone students explored and acted on different social issues.

At the beginning of this school year, the Keystone leadership team formulated the school’s development goals, one of which is to lead its vision of “China and the World”—with a dedication to establishing a safe, peaceful, and sustainable relationship between people and the environment. We all have an obligation to participate in this new era, and Keystone is taking the lead as a bridge for the future today.