Category: My Personal Learning

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Liger Marine Research Team – Certified Divers

A few months ago, I have been chosen to be in a research team, focusing on the marine field. A group of eight students, four boys and girls were very excited to be the chosen and we all are very passionate in studying marine researching study. This will be the first Cambodian team of research divers in the country. On our summer holiday, we’ve been working really hard to study the dive course because we need to know how to dive in order to do research underwater. But, in order to do our research study, we need to have the budget to go to our research site, buying scuba dive gears and equipment to do our research. So we have submitted a grant to a foundation, requested a budget of $15, 610 for our project. And so they have accepted the grant, that means we can do three years of research field in our project. This opportunity was created from the enthusiasm of all of us to protect our marine ecosystems, which will also allow us to follow our passion of science and experience the rigor of a long-term research project.

On the 28th of September, we went to Koh Seh, where our research location is, and we were experienced our first dive. We spent over 5 nights on the island, learning all the skills of scuba diving. Before I went there, I felt really nervous because I thought I’m not going to passed the exam in order to be a certified diver, but I was wrong. My first dive underwater was so tense and excitable and it was very challenging and new but also fun. At the end of our trip, I realize how challenging it was to do skills underwater than taking the exam on paper on things we’ve already know because we have spent our times studying. Breathing underwater is really weird for the first time, and I felt way nervous than I ever felt on anything. Those challenges didn’t stop me from what I want to do so I kept pushing myself and always be reminded that I can do it. However, I am now officially a certified diver and I’m very excited to my research soon. We will be going on the island every month for one weekend for this next three years.

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To My Beloved Father – Snapshots Film

Description: The reason I chose this topic is my love because I find it a very emotional thing for me and difficult to express. All I’m trying to show in this video is, even though I’m not close to my father like I’m close to my mother, he will always be a part of me and I will always care for him. My actions might not show that on the outside, but I truly love him deep in my heart.

Technique: In this video, I used a different and a rare technique. What I did was take a series of still pictures and then laced them together to create a stop-motion effect. So technically, it’s all individual photos (over 2,000) in this video. I used black and white to make it look like an old film by putting an overlay of “old film” effect. I took the photos this year and the baby in my father’s arms is my little cousin. It took quite a long time to edit because I’ve never tried to do this kind of video before. When I took all of these photos, I did not let my father know because I wanted him to be completely natural.

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Youth With Impact – Event

On the 12th of September, 2017, I attended an event with my fellow students at Impact Hub. We went there and listened to speakers who shared insight about their dreams, goals and career paths.

Speakers:
SievPhin – independent filmmaker and founder of PEACE Films –
Passion and Film Career
Cheav Vitak – Public Relations head of Humanity Helping Hands- Dream to Reality
Thon Thavry – Author of “A Proper Woman” – Behind the Scenes of a Dream
Rithy LomorKesor – Smallworld Smallband ក្រុមតូច Vocalist – Ban Te
Prumsodun Ok – Founding Artistic Director, Prumsodun Ok & NATYARASA & TED

Those speakers inspired me a lot. It got me thinking about my future and my dreams of who I want to be. I think those people are really making positive impacts to our country and it is a great model for our new generation.

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MAD Scholarship Competition to Australia

Last summer, I have applied for an art scholarship to Australia. The competition was asked to do four pieces of art; two of the art piece has to be drawing and painting and the other two could be anything including multi-media and sculpture. 

Art is very important to me because it’s one of the ways that I can express my creativity, my originality, and innovation. Art has always been something I always wanted to explore and be better at it. I remembered my first time to hold brushes and paints, it was very nerve-racking because every single time, I consistently thought I was going to ruin everything and make mistakes and I hate making mistakes. But I realize that arts are not something I should worry about making errors because I can get very creative with it very easily and I will always value it even though it’s not the profession. The more I experience arts, the more I get used to love doing it and the more I can demonstrate my creativity. I love to visualize things in a different perspective from others and arts is one of those unique ways that allowed an idea or stories to indicate. I want to tell stories and that’s what I love the most in life. My creativity and imagination have always been something I’ve kept to myself and I really want to communicate those ideas to other people beyond just myself.  “Having ideas is not just having it in your mind, you want your idea to reach to other people. Show them so they can enjoy it too!” My influences are everything I see, all of my experiences and emotions and I formed all those things into one big picture or intention and then create something fascinating with my imagination and ability. Despite the fact that my dream isn’t exactly about arts but at least it is a part of it and a part of me. I will always have the creative commitment.

My goal for my artwork is to inspire and motivate those people who see it and I want them to discover their own beauty and appreciation. In the future, my artwork should be seen as an allegory so that people can pay attention more to what they’re seeing.

By joining this opportunity, I have learned so much and experience so many new things that I have thought it was very challenging. For examples, learning how to use photoshop, a new style of film and amazing arts techniques from artists on online. This opportunity is truly phenomenal for me to fulfill my future, revamp my art skills to another level and especially being able to communicate my stories to those professional artists. Lastly, I can’t express how much I love arts and how much I admire the beauty of it but I’m still self-taught and my dream is to experience it with the reality artists. 

These are my four pieces with a little statement to it. 

Soliday Yon,

My Bucket List,

acrylics painting,

80 cm × 58 cm, canvas,
Link to my painting video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5nBkyjRSm0

Description: My bucket list shows not the possibilities of today, but what I want my future to look like. This is a painting of a bucket list as my dream career of being a filmmaker, and a bucket list as a dream of me as that person. This was an interesting painting to look at because what I painted on the canvas can be seen in a different meaning from what I expected, and that’s why I love art because people can see a painting from a completely different perspective than the artist. The girl in floating hair represents me dreaming about things I want to do before I die and the camera on the left represents my future. This theme is very spiritual for me because it’s about a girl who has big dreams and desperately wants them to come true before she dies.

Soliday Yon,

Living in Internal,

Mixed media,

Description:  What I meant to show in this picture is about being myself internally. Half of my face with colorful paints and stars represents what people see on the outside of me. The other is half black and white with stars represents what I see in myself that other people can’t see.  Those stars represent my dreams. It’s such an important thing for me because what people think or see about me isn’t always the same of what I see in myself. What I am like isn’t always shown in my actions. Some ideas people have of me are because of my talents, but for the dreams I’ve dreamed of, I need to reach it and it doesn’t come to me easily. Another word to describe this is “secrets”. Sooner or later, secrets will be revealed, but I really hate being judged when my secrets are exposed and it hurts a lot because my emotions and feelings are very easily to outburst. That’s why this is an important theme for me to mentioned, “What you see in yourself is YOU. You understand yourself, you know yourself. What they see in you isn’t always true.” – Soliday

Soliday Yon,

The Beauty of Passion,

Photography,

Photoshop Adobe,

Description: Every person has a passion that they appreciate the most. Growing up, I’m starting to understand who I really am and what I really like. It’s so amazing and beautiful when you’re starting to know your true passionate because it helps to define who you really are. I have many passions that I discovered throughout my lifetime. So this picture describes my passion for photography and how much I appreciate and in love with it. But it’s not just about photography, it’s about the bright colorful beauty of all my passion and photography represented it. I love what I do because it’s a true passion and it is something I really believe in.

Soliday Yon,

To My Beloved Father,

Video,

Premiere Pro CC 2017,

Link to the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=paYc3sd_WaM

 

Description: The reason I chose this topic is my love because I find it a very emotional thing for me and difficult to express. All I’m trying to show in this video is, even though I’m not close to my father like I’m close to my mother, he will always be a part of me and I will always care for him. My actions might not show that on the outside, but I truly love him deep in my heart.

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This i Believe

 

I come from a pretty simple background family. I grew up in a big family with five siblings including myself and my parents. My siblings are all married and have family which left only me and I feel like I’m left alone. Now it’s been 15 years that I’ve continuosly growing and things are starting to change. Some changes are hard to take in and some changes are easy to accept. I’m 15 years old, I’m not a child anymore. I believe: in opportunity to make the most important decision to become who I am.

Five years ago, my life was drastically different than it is today. Every single thing that’s happened to me has since impacted who I am and where I am now. That life-changing decisions I was trying to make, I should have go with my gut. Never should have ignore my instinct again because, it won’t fail myself now. Sometimes it’s really hard to either follow my heart or follow my brain. It’s hard for my mind to explain it self. Knowing that sometime things that I do isn’t always right but I just did it because I was lose in myself. I didn’t know the right path and I couldn’t see a light to follow. This reminds me of something that I used to say before, “Pay more attention to your thoughts, what you’re thinking is what you’re attracting to doing it.”

When it comes to making decisions, I couldn’t stay focused because the negativity will always try to drag me down. For example, some best friend forever aren’t really forever but I will never forget or regret the time I’ve spend with them. They’ve all impacted my life no matter how long they were with me for, eventhough they’re not a true friend now.

This was when I was 10 years old. My sister had to leave me. She is the greatest sister and I always called her “Mom” because she has been taking care of me since I was a baby. She decied to leave us in a happy way so she could find a family of her own. She had to go very far away. I was crying so hard for a week before she leaved. I don’t want her to go because I love her so much. I always thought she’s not going to come back and she don’t love me anymore. At that time she explained to me, “This is for the best of me and for the best of you too. You’re going to be a great daughter and I trusted you for taking care of yourself and the family. This was a hard decisions for me but you’ll understand why I make this decisions when you’re older. I love you so much Soliday! I promise I’ll visit you and maybe one day, I’ll take you with me.” I was hugging her so tightly I don’t want to let go but then I realize, I need to understand her happiness too. I respect her decision and I should be happy for her. So I decided to learn to accept it. This was my sister life changing decisions and she was right, it has changed her now. It was my first lesson.  

Some decisions are really hurt in the end. It’s like the end of the world when I’ve regreted it. Like when I experince heartbreak, I’ve told myself to not wasting so much time on emotions and energy just to think about him because he’s not worth it anymore.

Each decisions that I’ve made, it at least teaches me something afterward. So far I’m still happy with what I’m doing. Life making decisions isn’t always easy and in fact it will get a lot harder, it’s going to try and break me but I will get through it. Don’t pause or it will be a lot more painful.  

 

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ASEAN Astronomy Camp 2017

On the 24th of January 2017, I got the greatest opportunity ever to attend the ASEAN Astronomy Camp 2017 that was held in Chiang Mai, Thailand. I got this opportunity because in November, I enter this competition in order to get this amazing experience. Unfortunately, I have to travel abroad alone for the first time without any of my friend nor teacher and I was the only one represent Liger. But there were also some of the other Cambodian students who came from different schools and so I have to travel with them and it was really fun and I feel more comfortable knowing that there’s other people I can travel with.

So ASEAN Astronomy Camp is an event organize by NARIT (National Astronomical Research Institute of Thailand) public organization. The Camp welcomed 37 high-school students and 9 teachers from a wide range of schools across Southeast Asia. It comprises of 7 national representatives from Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, The Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam respectively. I represent Cambodia, obviously and there were 10 other Cambodian students too. So the idea of this camp was to introduce students to the science of Astronomy, technology and also give the students the greatest opportunity to experience with the reality.

This camp was held for 4 days, each and everyday is always busy. There were always loads of fun activities and loads of exciting presentation from scientist, astronomers and telescope experts. We were divided into 5 groups and we were always worked with the group for the rest of the camp. There are 5 big activities which were:

1. Make a sextant – We got to listen to a scientist and he talk about the stars attitude and directions of stars. And then he instructed us on how to make a handmade sextant so that we can use our sextant to measure stars attitude at night when we go star gazing.

2. Planet Walk – We have another talk from another scientist to present us about our solar system. Then we start our activity by calculating the distance between each planet (example from Earth to the sun) with a demonstration model.

3. Making a comet – This is my personal favorite activity because we got to make our own model comet using real equipment and ingredient.

4. Solar observation – For this activity, we use the reflecting telescope to see the sun. If we put a paper through the reflecting telescope, it will actually burn the paper because the sunlight is really strong. In order to observe the sun, we need to put a paper, not too close to the telescope, and then we will see some dotting point on it.

5. Using Dobsonian Telescope – The most challenging activity. We got to listen to a real telescope experts and he told us how the telescope works and different function of it. We then learn how to use the telescope with help from experts but at night, we were using the telescope at night to see the stars without helps from experts at all. It was challenging because the function of the telescope is complicated.

Talking about stargazing at night and in the morning was fabulously. First time in my life that I got to identify stars by naked eyes and also looking at different planets, stars, constellation, galaxies through strong telescope. And first time I got to experience with telescope too. It was so cold up on the mountain but I still make it through because I was curious and I want to talk and learn from the astronomers, scientists and everyone who’s there with me.

My first impression for this event was getting to exchange culture with other people from Asia that participate in the event. I’m so delightful to make friends with them and there’s nothing better than creating a new friendly relationship with other people. These students that join the event are talented and smart and very interesting to communicate with because of their cultures. The food in Thailand are so spicy but so delicious. I miss the food there a lot because whenever I think of it, it makes me hungry.

Talking about the other 10 Cambodian students that went with me, they’re very intelligent too. At first I was scared traveling with them because they all know each other and I’m left alone knowing no one. But it turn out that they’re very pleasure to be with, very kind, generous and funny for sure. I’m so pleased to be friends with them and I hope we will still be connected in the future or maybe we will go back to the camp next year together.

What I notice from this camp was, most of the people that join the ACC events are very passionate about astronomy and now I can see why they like to learn and explore the topic of astronomy because the idea of astronomy is very fascinating. It makes people wonder and want to discover more and more about it and it’ll never end.

This has been one of the best experience that I’ve got in life so far.

ASEAN Astronomy Camp Website

NARIT ASEAN Astronomy Camp 2017 Video

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What Does It Means To Be A Person?

WHO AM I? That is always the first question I ask myself before I decide to do something. And this should be the first question that you should ask yourself before you make any decisions. WHO AM I?

What does it means to be a person? This question comes up into my mind when I was so stressed and I thought I was going to give up on myself. What does it mean though?
Here is my perspective on what I think the meaning of a person is.

Everyone in the world have one life. You born and then you die, without knowing when or where. Every human-being in the world have different personality, and only yourself can describe who you are and your own characteristic. Everyone has their own identity, external and internal.

First of all, to be a person, you have to know who you are. And trust me, everyone knows who they are. And don’t ever say “I don’t know myself! I don’t know how to describe myself.” because you know what, that can be the biggest lie to yourself. Every person have a talent, and it doesn’t matter whether it unique or not. Believe it or not, your talent is what makes you stands out.

In life, you need to take risk and go for it, try it and experience it! Take opportunities! Opportunities don’t come for you. You need to take initiative to find it by yourself in order to reach success. Everyone makes mistakes and gives up. Don’t make your mistakes bordered you. Your mistake is the path to reach your goals. I have experience giving up on myself but at the end, I feel regret and I never wanted to give up again because I learn from my mistake. That’s why I always be very careful with my decisions because some decisions can affect you in the end. And I’m sure everyone feels that when they choose the wrong decisions because in the end they would feel regret. You don’t want it to happen, but who knows, sometimes it’s a miracle and sometimes it’s like going to hell. Everything happens for a reasons.

There’s also one big thing that you can never forgotten to talk about it. LOVE! Gives out loves to people around you. Your family, is your biggest support. Support each other and gives respects. Appreciate the environment you’re in. Value yours and other people work. Everyone has the power to change things. Speak UP! Stands UP! Be brave! Tell yourself, You Can Do It and there’s nothing that’s going to stop you. Do something that helps your country or the world. Don’t destroy yourself or the other because everything is valuable.

I just wanted to say that, I learn from myself a lot. And now, I think I know the direction that I’m going to be heading to. Sometimes people don’t appreciate my works, but I don’t care because all I know is that I did it and I will continue until the end point comes. Appreciate yourself and follow the path that is given or create your own path and go for it!

Life is a gift, and you should treasure it! – Soliday

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Impact Stroll – Event

On the 20th of November, 2016, I get to attend an event organize by Impact Hub called Impact Stroll. Impact Stroll event purpose is tour students around Phnom Penh to see different Entrepreneurship and study from them. Eight of the Liger students attend the event. We start the event around 9 a.m in the morning until 5 p.m in the evening. We walk around Phnom Penh to see five different business. I forget the names of their business already. Most of the business that we went to are Eco-friendly business.
Anyway, the event was really fun. As usual, I learn a lot from those business man and got a lot of good advice.

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Eco-prenuer on Climate Change in Cambodia Events

On Saturday, 29th of October, 8 students including me and a teacher went to this event in Phnom Penh. This event was organized by Impact Hub. This event was held for 4 hours total.

In this event, we went to listen to eight amazing presentation/company, talking about their product that can change Climate Change in Cambodia. But before that, we did a lot of networking. We also divided into groups to discuss ideas and the problem of climate change in Cambodia. 

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Kampot Writers Readers Festival – 2016

On the 3rd of November 2016, twelve of our Liger students including me, attend an event in Kampot called Kampot Writers and Readers Festival.

Overview
Kampot Writers & Readers Festival (KWRF) is held annually in November in Kampot, Cambodia. The KWRF takes place in over 36 venues around Kampot, Kep and Phnom Penh, featuring a mixture of ticketed and free events, all upholding the festival’s objectives.
Literacy & Education
Culture & History
Global Issues
Community The KWRF is a major project of the not-for-profit foundation Kampot Arts & Music Association (KAMA). The idea for a Kampot Writers Festival was conceived of by Julien Poulson in consultation with Ubud Writers & Readers Festival founder Janet de Neefe, and in Kampot with Wayne McCallum as co founder, as a vision to bring good will, promote literacy and share stories in Cambodia.Kampot Writers & Readers Festival has quickly become Cambodia’s largest and most renowned cultural and literary event. The mission of Kampot Writers & Readers Festival is to create a well-programmed international festival that acts locally, thinks globally, explores extraordinary stories, promotes literacy, emerging writers, brave voices, bold ideas and global issues.The successful launch of our 2015 debut amply demonstrated the concept of bringing together Cambodian and international writers on a shared stage in a vibrant and celebrated way – creating a space for conversation and connection across cultural divides, vastly different backgrounds and experience levels.
KWRF 2016
The 2016 Kampot Writers & Readers Festival explores themes of ‘Peace, Freedom, and Prosperity’ (Santiphap, Seripheap, Pheap Roungrueng) and marks the 25th anniversary of the Paris Peace Accords. The Paris Peace Accords were signed on October 23, 1991 and marked the official end of the Cambodian–Vietnamese War.
This year’s festival take place in Kampot, Cambodia, from 3-6 November with a final closing event in Phnom Penh on Monday 7 at The Exchange.

After going to the event, I’ve learn and experience a lot of things. I obviously didn’t go to all the venues but at least most of the venues that I went to are really educated. Some of the themes that I went to were also related to what I learn currently and I thought that was really helpful. My favorite theme out of the event was the Fairy Tales. The theme was about imagining about the one of the fairy tales and we get to change the story of the fairy tales by writing and drawing. At the end we get to share our story and it was quite funny at the end. At the end of our last day, we get to go on a boat cruise along the Kampot river side and listening to a book presentation from Laura Jean McKay, the author of the book call Holiday In Cambodia. We also get to see fireflies and it was really beautiful. At that point, some of our Liger students got an opportunity to presents to all the people on the cruise about their book, Wildlife In Cambodia.

Basically, in this event I get to network with a lot of people. I’m proud of myself and all the people that went with me because I feel like we take a lot of opportunity in this event, we ask questions we answers questions and it was really amazed. I hope to join this event again next year.

I also took some pictures and videos in the event and I’ve created a short video about it.
Have a look at the video.

Visit the Kampot Writers Website.