Author: Avenor College

Iarina and Teodora, students in Grade 9 and scholarship holders at Avenor College, wanted to raise awareness about the COVID-19 pandemic among their younger schoolmates. Organising attractive and interesting activities for children, the two scholarship students launched an awareness campaign very well received by colleagues and teachers, which helped them better understand working in a team and commiting to a long-term project.

Avenor College: Tell us about your project: what was your idea and how did you come up with it?

Iarina & Teodora: The purpose of our project this year is to inform primary school and 5th grade students about COVID-19 and the recommended precautions that need to be taken during a pandemic. We chose this project idea as we thought it would be an important subject in the current climate, especially considering how much it impacts us all.

We decided to mainly focus on younger children, as we knew that they can be easily taught new and important information with the help of fun games and activities. An art exposition and a Kahoot competition seemed the perfect way to do this.

A.C.: Where are you now with your project? What have you managed to do so far?

Iarina & Teodora: So far, we have introduced the idea of an art exposition with the theme “My life during the pandemic” to the pregatitoare students, asking all of them to draw anything they want related to the theme and send the drawing to us. Furthermore, we have visited all the primary school and 5th grade students during Form Time and invited them to take part in the first stage of a Kahoot competition. Kahoot is an interactive platform where players need to be both correct and fast, choosing the correct answer out of four different options and accumulating points. We created a Kahoot game for the 2nd and 3rd grade students, and a separate one for 4th and 5th grade students. The questions were based on COVID-19 fact that we believed everyone should be aware of, and precautions that should be taken. Every student participated, and the one who had the most points from each class qualified for the final.

A.C .: What are the next stages of the project?

Iarina & Teodora: The next thing that we are going to do is present the first graders the idea of the artwork exposition. For the smaller children, we decided not to organise a Kahoot because they are just starting to learn how to read and write, so we thought of something else, something that every child at this age loves to do – drawing. After we will have presented the exposition to the first graders as well, we will collect all the drawings from both years. Photos of their drawings will go into a Google Slides presentation which their parents, their teachers and themselves will be able to access anytime. 

For the upper classes, the next step is organising a new Kahoot. Since it is the final round, the questions need to be harder than in the first ones. The final will be organised in a joint Zoom meeting, where classmates will be able to root for the competitor from their class.

A.C .: What did you find most difficult about this project?

Iarina & Teodora: Our project was very well received by children and teachers as well. However, it was a bit difficult to plan all the meetings because all the teachers had a lot of other activities with the students and we had to find a common time schedule good for everyone. 

A.C .: What did you find surprising?

Iarina & Teodora: We were pleasantly surprised by the children’s joy and hospitality. As soon as they noticed they have “guests”, they paid attention to us and were curious about what we were going to tell them. We absolutely loved their enthusiasm when hearing they were going to play Kahoot, how focused they were on every question and how they congratulated the winner. They were very sweet and we realised we were right: children really do learn a lot of things through fun methods. 

A.C .: What did you discover about yourselves working as a team during this project?

Iarina & Teodora: We learnt how to work better together and share our tasks better. Even though we are classmates and have worked together in the past, the work for this project needed much more organisation and planning beforehand. It helped us discover things that we like doing and what we do best. 

A.C .: What are the main benefits of your project for the Avenor community?

Iarina & Teodora: First of all, we are happy that we managed to start such a beautiful project in the midst of a pandemic and online schooling. At the beginning of the school year, we didn’t know when and if we were going to have online classes, and then we didn’t know if we were going to come to school in person. As well as the other students, we managed to adapt and bring into the school an educational project for the primary school classes and the fifth graders from which they can learn important and interesting facts about the times we are going through. 

We resume the series of interviews through which we aim to discover together the passions and talents of the members of the Avenor College community. The initiative belongs to Ioana, a 12th grade student at Avenor International High School. Viorel Căpățînă is a professor of Geography and Global Perspectives at Avenor College, an incurable optimist, an enthusiastic storyteller and a collector of experiences and passions. We invite you to find out more about him from the next interview.

Ioana: Tell us a couple of words about Viorel Căpățînă. How would you describe yourself?

Viorel Căpățînă: I am an optimist, a person with a sense of humor, a simple man who really loves nature and his job: teaching. I come from a family of simple, modest people, from whom I have learned common sense and having a proper attitude.

Ioana: You were my Geography, Biology and Global Perspectives teacher. What is your specialty, what university did you graduate from?  

Viorel Căpățînă: I graduated from the Geography and Geology University from Iasi, specialising in Geography-English Language. I had my PhD in Geomorphology (the Science that studies the genesis and characteristics of landforms, their grouping and distribution on the Earth’s surface) in 2008. Next, I moved to Bucharest and I got a job at an international school, where I took IB (International Baccalaureate) courses in the subject of “Environmental Ecosystems in Societies” and I did an online Geography course also for IB. Then I went to Singapore, where I taught these subjects at school – Humanities and Environmental Systems. Later I returned to the country, teaching at Avenor College, where I currently follow the Cambridge curriculum and also where I studied online the subject of Global Perspectives and in particular Cambridge Geography.

Ioana: Where does the passion for the subjects you teach come from?

Viorel Căpățînă: I grew up near the mountains, close to Brasov. Almost every day I roamed the meadows there and I was desperate to know more about plants and nature. I remember having a book called “Romania’s Natural Resources,” something like that, a book that had a collection of medicinal herbs. With this little book in my hand, when I was in the fourth or fifth grade, I would walk on the grass and identify by myself the plants from the book.

Later on, in high school, I had a teacher, who was also my form tutor, named Popa Mariana. She was a teacher of Geography and English and had also finished the University in Iași, studying the same subject that I would eventually end up studying. She had a method of teaching that appealed to me; I think she was my role model. She was the kind of person who had a lesson plan, tested the students’ knowledge in front of the map, and had these open-ended questions that made you find an answer by yourself. Something we do today as well, known as “Critical Thinking”. She was very nonconformist for Communist times.

I remember as a child I really enjoyed pretending to be a teacher. I was making my own gradebook and I was testing and grading children from my neighbourhood. It looks like that’s where this madness came from. I knew that after I finished high school, I would become either a priest, a veterinarian, or a teacher. Later on, I wanted to become a comedy actor as well, but I gave that up and focused on Geography.

Ioana: I know you have taught in other countries also. What cultural challenges have you encountered there?

Viorel Căpățînă: It’s like another world in Asia. From the language, the behaviour towards people, towards the environment, cultural traditions and the celebration of the Chinese New Year, where there was chaos for a week. The noises woke you up in the morning and you didn’t know what was happening, or if the fire alarm went off. Actually, it was the person who announced – as we have ” Mascații” and “Plugușorul”- the arrival of the new year. The culinary variety bombarded me in terms of taste and digestion. I had just arrived in Singapore, and because I was very curious and wanted to taste the local cuisine at Hawker Centre, a place where all kinds of food were prepared, I said why not try a sauce with some rice. I remember that I had to go to school at noon – it was during the accommodation period for me when I was doing medical tests and I was looking for a house to live in – and I told the school secretary that I couldn’t come because I was currently in a very close relationship with the toilet. I couldn’t get too far, because I had to hurry back. In three days, I lost about two pounds.

On top of all these cultural influences, I had to deal with an unbearable climate. I was sitting at the bus stop, not moving, and I was sweating profusely. I was one of the few people there who wore linen and cotton clothes to allow the skin to breathe, but I was always soaking wet. I was traveling with the bus where it was 16 degrees inside, and people felt very good, and when I got off the bus, I was shocked by the 33 degrees Celsius and almost 100% humidity where I felt that I was suffocating, I couldn’t breathe.

The first Christmas in Singapore was very strange because my wife had cooked sarmale and we had wine, but looking out the window everything was crazy green, the birds were singing and I didn’t understand where winter was and where Christmas was.

But what I really appreciated in Singapore was the fairness of the people. There were situations when I would leave my camera on the tables where we ate and people came after me, shouting: “Sir, sir, you forgot your camera!”. I also really liked that in Southeast Asia it doesn’t matter how rich you are, it matters how you live in the moment. I noticed that in simple people, who had nothing to offer, ate maybe a portion of rice and two Pak-Choi leaves a day, a kind of salad or spinach, but who always had this power to smile. Something that we have lost. We are in this continuous chase and we no longer know how to enjoy what we have and to be grateful for the roof over our heads, for the healthy family, for the mother who loves us and so on. I think the kindness of the people there came from their religion or from the fact that nature provided them with a lot of fruits and vegetables, which have a taste incomparable to ours. For example, when I first ate mangoes there, I was dumbstruck. I ate eight or ten mangoes a day and I never got tired of them, they were so sweet and fragrant. 

I can say that I had cultural shocks of all kinds, but the most impressive were the culinary ones. We became addicted to spicy food, we often go to stores that sell Asian products, we buy and cook Thai and Indian.

Ioana: Tell us about a memorable experience from your international teaching career. 

Viorel Căpățînă: I had all kinds of cultural shocks with children in Japan. In Singapore I only taught high school students. I taught the 9th and 10th grades students Humanities, meaning History, Geography, Economics. In class I had a little girl named Maki, a hard worker, like all other Asians, especially those from the East. She told me that she had to do a lot of projects, and that she didn’t know how to say no. Due to her culture, she had to accept anything, and complete all of those projects. At one point, I talked to her and she told me that she feels a little overwhelmed by the many tasks she has to do and she doesn’t know how to proceed. After our discussion, in which I tried to resolve her situation, I saw her crying in the hallway, after which I quickly went to the school counselor who told me that I had done very well because in many cases, because they are not allowed to say no, students arrive on the brink of commiting suicide. For me, this situation was frightening.

Another thing about the children in South Korea: they were terribly noisy. I thought the Asians were all silent, and they told me very cheerfully that they were called the “Italians of Asia.” I loved this association so much!

But the most beautiful experience I had was when the whole class, all Asian children, entered the classroom. Everyone greeted me in a fantastically respectful way, and at the end of the lesson they thanked me for the class and for the things they were taught and learned in class. It seemed unbelievable to me.

Ioana: What do you think about the Avenor College experience as compared to the experiences from other countries?

Viorel Căpățînă: I must confess that when I first came to Avenor College in 2015, I was a little shocked. I went from the IB and Romanian systems, which were a kind of semi-chaos for me, to the Singapore system which was by the book, to return to Romania, where I couldn’t help but wonder “what am I going to do now?” and “where am I going?”. I ended up here at Avenor. Georgiana Socoliu, Middle School Coordinator, had told me to come because I will definitely like it, that the school is not very big, and the children are very nice and very well raised and in the end, I said why not give it a try. 

At first, I was afraid that it would not be the same as my last experience, but I must admit that I had a very beautiful transition, from an international school to a Romanian school that also follows the Cambridge system.

I remember intending to teach Geography, but the High School Coordinator at the time suggested that I should teach the high school students Global Perspectives as well. I had no idea about this subject, but it wasn’t the first time I would be teaching a new subject. She told me that as a Geography teacher, I have this ability to juggle with concepts in Global Perspectives. 

I went through this change very smoothly, without any setbacks, and the group of teachers helped me to integrate perfectly. It was an extension of the previous experience, only the characters changed. That is, from Asian children and teachers from all over the world, to children mostly from Romania, and Romanian teachers – at that time there were not so many foreign teachers. The transition was elegant and pleasant.
Ioana: What other passions do you have besides teaching?

Viorel Căpățînă: I have so many passions! I am deeply grateful to my wife who has shown fantastic patience with me. Before leaving for Singapore, because I was and am very close to nature, I really enjoyed watching birds in nature, a sport invented by the British called “Birdwatching”. In Singapore, I made her go through all the swamps and holes in the earth to see some birds, lizards, snakes, beetles, etc. In time, however, she became part of my team, and she also shows me from time-to-time birds in the trees or in flight. I had a backpack that weighed 10 kilograms, containing only cameras, tripod, telescope … By the time I got to the location I was already tired, I was returning home beat but happy that I had added to my list another 20 species of birds.

Coming from Singapore, and seeing different botanical gardens there, I fell in love with the world of orchids. I was struck primarily by the scents that these flowers can have, and their size. There are extraordinarily large plants, and some extraordinarily small ones. At the moment I think I have about 120 orchids, contained within a very small space, and their sizes range from a peppercorn to 60 cm leaves. Our place is a studio, and all my plants are lined up by the window, in the room. It’s a jungle.

In addition to the hundreds of orchids, I have an aquarium with fish for the simple reason that it relaxes me a lot. Orchids develop my patience, the aquarium helps me relax. And I also have a Labrador. My wife really wanted a dog 2 years ago, and all that was missing from our studio transformed into a jungle was our 40-kilogram „piglet” who became a member of the family, like our child. We do everything for him and we are grateful that thanks to him we get three hours of physical activity every day. 

Ioana: I know you are passionate about the culinary arts and you have stated that you like to try different cuisines. Could you make a top 3?

Viorel Căpățînă: I really like Indian Curries; they are extremely rich in spices and I find them fantastically good in combination, of course, with basmati rice or Paneer, which are some Indian sticks. I would say Seafood Curry is one of my favorites. Then I rediscovered in Indian cuisine, legumes, chickpeas and lentils. In second place I would put the Indian-style chickpeas, semi-stewed with a harsh sauce, a lot of coriander, pepper and ginger. Somewhere in third place I would put a terribly spicy Tom Yum Soup, Thai soup, which is based on coconut milk to which is added either chicken, sweet potato or seafood.This doesn’t mean I don’t eat Romanian food. I would always eat a lot of “piftie de curcan”, there is no Christmas without “piftie de curcan” with a lot of garlic and a little spice. And I would eat sarmale all the time.

21 students from Grades 9 and 10 went to the Adventurous Journey Camp at Cheia at the beginning of November. This trip was the final section for their Bronze Level of The Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award. And it turned out to be unexpectedly challenging and revealing, as Alexandra (Grade 10) depicts in the article below. 

My journey began in June 2019, when I started my Bronze Award for the Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award. I had no problem finding the activities for each section. I finished my physical activity in summer and was advancing quickly with my skills section. Yet, out of the whole programme, the part which I was looking forward to the most was the Adventurous Journey. A three-day trip where I would’ve been on my own with my colleagues. We had great plans for it. Yet, with the pandemic, we couldn’t see our wish come true. 

Change of plans

In early October, our award leaders came up with the idea of organising a safe trip to a place they were familiar with. We were supposed to stay at a hotel and have a hike of “a few hours” (or at least that’s what some of us thought). At first, we were not very eager to take part in this, as the whole point of the Adventurous Journey – being on our own – would dissipate. The whole “survival” mode would have been replaced by a comfortable bed, three meals a day etc. Awful! Yet, with all the exams coming in summer, we were running out of time and felt bound to take part in the journey. 

We reached our accommodation in Cheia, where we were assigned to our rooms and discussed the programme. First, a warm-up trip and then the planning for the next day’s hike. Yet, who (or better said “what”) was waiting for us was very much of a surprise. Me and my roommates were greeted by a whole legion of ladybugs right in our room. We had numerous attempts to defeat them, all of them unsuccessful, therefore we raised the white flag.

The preparation hike was, more or less, a pleasant walk into the woods, whilst for others was more difficult. I can say that this is when my view on the whole trip had started to change. We discussed a little bit about the following day and learned some first-aid techniques. Afterwards, we went on with a detailed planning of the trip, in smaller teams. I was chosen as the team leader and I was very proud of my team and with the way we managed to organise ourselves. That night we had a lot of fun and were very excited for the trip. 

The hiking day

The next day started mildly. Although our schedule was delayed (something which annoyed a little me and my teammates ☺), we went on. The first part was as entertaining as it could have been. Who doesn’t want to take a walk with their friends on a sunny day? We listened to music and laughed… Still, when we entered the forest, things started to change. We started to get tired and had to stop sometimes. I tried to cheer up my colleagues. Halfway through the hike, unfortunately my team had to break-up because some of us couldn’t keep up. I felt worried and guilty about leaving them behind, but they insisted I should go on. Still, I got to spend time with people I didn’t know until then. 

The final part of the hike was the most difficult. We had to climb a hill for fifteen minutes straight. On the one hand, I tried not to think about how steep the slope was, on the other, I was very worried about my friends, not knowing whether they would reach the top or not. I spent thirty minutes waiting for them until they finally arrived and had our lunch together, on the top of the mountain. Although it was not the most physically exhausting hike I ever did, I never experienced so many emotions in a few hours. After lunch, we headed back to our accommodation and, of course, we bought some Kürtőskalács on the way. 

At the end of the day, my whole view on the trip turned upside-down. Although we thought we would not have the same experience once staying in a hotel, the “four hours” hike turned into a nine-hour journey and we even simulated the experience of camping in a tent, right in our room. Although I was not with all of my friends all the time, I got the chance to meet new people and also discover new things about myself. 

To be continued?

It was an experience which I would repeat anytime. I will continue with my Silver Award, although times are uncertain. The programme helped me to do things which I probably wouldn’t  have bothered to find time for, although I was hoping to do them. The whole trip was amazing for escaping the whole chaos of the pandemic and forget about it for a few days. I learned that, even if hiking may not be for everybody, everyone should try it at least once, because it may turn into one of the best memories you’ll ever have. 

You can watch a short video about this trip here.

After completing the Adventurous Journey, our students successfully finalised their Bronze level of the Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award. They were awarded the official certificate and received the Bronze Holder Pin. We proudly congratulate them!

Mirela M. is a Grade 12 student with a great passion for biochemistry. She found inspiration in the global pandemic and has been working for the last eight months on a research project related to COVID-19. We invite you to read below the fascinating story of her endeavour.

HOW IT ALL STARTED

I study A level Chemistry, Biology, Mathematics and Statistics, and I had long wished to start a research project of my own, including all of these subjects, that would mark my debut in the scientific domain.

When the global pandemic struck, I got highly invested in virology and into the process of deciphering COVID-19. That’s when I had some ideas cross my mind: everybody is surrounded by all kinds of sanitizers in this period. There has been a highly significant increase in hospitalizations due to voluntary or accidental ingestion of disinfectants since the virus outbreak. From pulling out lots of medical case studies, I came to the conclusion that the ingestion of very small amounts of disinfectants like bleach or isopropyl alcohol actually causes no damage to the human body. The blood cells don’t hemolyze, the small amount of acetone produced in the liver is insignificant, and no metabolic pathway is damaged.

Intrigued, I spent two weeks in my bedroom brainstorming, researching, and planning: could I find a very small concentration of disinfectant that does minimal damage to blood cells, but is strong enough to potentially destroy bacteria or viruses?

HOW LONG DID IT TAKE?

Since I couldn’t find evidence that anyone else has ever done what I planned to do, it was like working in the dark. I have worked on this research for 7 months now, and I am not nearly finished. My wish is to bring my research to big, highly equipped laboratories (perhaps from next year, in a University laboratory) in order to have more accurate results that I could interpret in many ways, and help other scientists by supplying them with my data.

During spring and summer, I spent many hours per week doing online research and strategizing my approach. From the end of August until now, I have spent time in the lab performing numerous trials.

WHAT WERE THE CHALLENGES?

First of all, I needed to get the most important part of the research experiment- blood samples. After having numerous weird conversations with owners of abattoirs (“yes, I only want the blood, not the meat”, “yes, I want 2 liters, and I need it to be very fresh.”, “It’s for an experiment, I promise”) I finally managed to get some pig blood from a village slaughterhouse. The most difficult part of the blood handling stage (apart from the disgusting smell) was its quick coagulation – I spent a lot of time researching and asking biomedical scientists and doctors about how human blood is stored for testing. My concern was that my chosen anticoagulant solution (sodium citrate) would alter the pH too much and cause the red blood cells to denature, stopping me from getting any data. I wasn’t able to know if that would happen or not until I actually tried the experiment, but thankfully it turned out fine.

One other great issue was the available apparatus. For my investigations, the equipment in the school lab wouldn’t suffice – I needed to get my hands on devices found at universities in Bucharest. Since everything was closed due to the lockdown, I had to find a way to work with my limited supplies, or drop my project altogether. Since the latter wasn’t an option, I spent a long time coming up with a setup that would help me find the oxygen saturation level in blood samples. The process was as terrifying as it was exciting – I had to rely on my physics knowledge and improvise in order to figure out an accurate way to get data. Ultimately, my creation was finished.

The only device that could measure oxygen percentages I could get my hands on was a normal pulse oximeter that’s used in hospitals. The issue was that the blood needed to flow through a finger in order to show a reading on the pulse oximeter, and the blood I had was drawn.

I decided to try doing a model of a finger: I suctioned the blood (because blood is dynamic in the human finger) through the tube of a potometer (device that is used for photosynthesis, because I had no other tube I could use). I inserted that tube into a hollow chicken sausage, because it was the best representation of meat in a finger. I wrapped that sausage in the finger of a nitrile glove (not latex, because I was relying on light absorption of the blood).

I was prepared for it not to work, because the method I came up with was sort of ridiculous. But it did!! I got accurate results even from the first trials. You can read an abstract of my projecthere.

WHAT’S NEXT?

Last week I performed tests on the bacteria E. coli, and I’m still interpreting the results. I am going to keep working on this project as I’ve loved every minute of it, even the times when I thought I had reached a dead end, or that it was impossible. Through this project, I have gained a sneak peek of the life I want to have in the future – the life of a scientist.

Interested in Avenor High School?

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Our high school students coordinating the traditional Avenor Charity Fair are inviting you to discover how they have reinvented this event and how you can also contribute to their cause.

Hello everybody,

I am Ana-Caterina, from Grade 11, and I have been coordinating the Avenor Christmas Charity Fair for the past three years. I now feel that this project has become a part of my heart and soul. I strive to make our initiative visible because I believe in our charitable cause and I believe that each of us has a charitable spirit. Help us spread this spirit and make a difference!  

And I am Tiberiu, also from Grade 11, helping Ana-Caterina this year to carry on this beautiful tradition.

Although this is my first year at Avenor, I decided to volunteer and get involved in this project as soon as I heard about it. I believe in our message and in our charitable cause because I think we should take care of our elders and offer them a happy and peaceful Christmas, especially in these challenging times. I am sure that people will help us and donate because everyone feels the spirit of Christmas and wants to make it full of joy for everyone.

We are happy to tell you the story of this year’s version of the Avenor Christmas Charity Fair and to invite you to be part of it.

As you know and probably remember from the past years, the Avenor Christmas Charity Fair has become a tradition at Avenor College. We created our community and we value greatly this magical event which brings back the charity spirit every Christmas.

Do you remember that time last December when the children were excited about getting the ‘spiridoni’ and all the tempting sweets at the Christmas Fair? Well, last year was amazing and meaningful for us all. It was a privilege for the organising team formed of high school students, and a joy for the whole Avenor Community to contribute to a wonderful cause: Dăruiește Viață. Last year, with your help we raised almost 45 000 RON for the first Children’s Hospital for Pediatric Oncology built in Romania.

However, this year we had to reinvent ourselves. We didn’t want to lose the Christmas spirit and the opportunity to be kind and generous. So, the new concept, adapted to the situation is: Avenor Charity Advent Calendar – a new Avenor Christmas online event.

Every day until Christmas Eve we are offering on our Facebook and Instagram pages Christmas-themed virtual surprises in exchange for donations to one of the projects from Melania Medeleanu’s foundation „Zi de Bine”, which aims to help poor elderly people in remote villages.

We are dedicated to helping grandparents around Romania, who are alone during this holiday season. This is the reason why we have organised a Charity Advent Calendar, asking for your generosity and support for Asociația Zi de Bine’s project „Perna cu Tihnă”.

In the first week of the project we have raised 5.000 lei. Our goal is to collect 12.000 lei and with your help we are confident we can do it. 

The event is 100% student led, the highschool students are the ones to coordinate the making, filming and planning of the 24 videos. 

But there’s more. The Christmas videos can be made by anybody who wishes to get involved from our community – you can sing a Christmas song along with your family or friends for our Charity Advent Calendar!

We, the Avenor Christmas Charity Fair community, would truly appreciate your contribution for this event and process by sharing our initiative with your family and friends. Your support and generosity towards our charitable cause would be our present for this Christmas. 

Thank you in advance for your positivity and support! Happy Holidays!

Help us spread the joy of giving and donate to our cause!

You can see all of the daily videos on our online Advent Calendar.

Feel free to contact me or my colleague anytime.

Ana-Caterina Ciușcă

Avenor Christmas Charity Fair – Coordinator

e: ana-caterina.ciusca@avenor.ro

Tiberiu Frățilă – Project Manager

e: tiberiu.fratila@avenor.ro

Avenor Christmas Charity Fair

e: avenorcharityfair@gmail.com 

Students in Grade 11 went with their form tutor on a tent trip during the autumn break. Tiberiu, one of the participants, says that the experience at the top of the mountain took him out of his comfort zone and taught him how to survive in nature, giving him a relaxing break from daily worries.

Together with my colleagues and our form tutor, we organised a 3-day camping trip at the end of the autumn break. We went to the Iezer campsite, near the Voinea chalet, just 15 kilometers from Câmpulung. It is of the “off-camping” type, without any facilities, which meant that we had to bring with us absolutely everything we needed, from water bottles and food, to tents and sleeping bags.

The road from Bucharest to there takes about five hours. The campsite was a few meters away next to a cobbled road that continues to climb even higher, on top of the mountain. Along the road, the river Bătrâna flows, which springs from further on, from the Iezer-Păpușa mountains.

From the moment we arrived, we started unpacking our things and setting up our tents. It didn’t take long for us to finish arranging the tents and sleeping bags, after which we started gathering firewood. Although it seems easy, it is quite difficult to find the right wood for the fire and cut them, especially if most of them are wet. I had never done such a thing before, but I learned along the way and managed.

Eventually, we managed to make a big fire, even before it got dark. Due to the mountain that blocks the sunlight and the late autumn, it gets dark very early, from 5, so we had to start making the fire early. We heated the food we had brought to the fire and even cooked soups and other dishes. After that, we all stayed to warm ourselves around the fire, tell stories, and eat marshmallows.

The next day, we went on a hike in the mountains, towards Cabana Voina, the only place with a telephone signal in the area. I was absolutely amazed by the beauty of the autumn mountain landscape – the yellow-leafed trees, the river that flowed along the road and the few cottages in the area. I felt a feeling of peace and calm in that place that you can only have in the middle of nature, surrounded by forest.

I really enjoyed our trip and I’m sure we will repeat it in the future. I think it is very important for all of us to get out, at least for a few days, of the tiring daily routine, to be able to relax and unwind, without pressure. It is also a very practical experience, which helps you learn how to survive and manage in nature. So, I can recommend it to anyone who wants to enjoy the peace and get rid of worries for a few days, in a magical atmosphere.

Ilinca, a 10th grade student at Avenor College, has created an online reading club open to any high school student who wants to discover new books, meet new people, and participate in thematic discussions that can take them out of their comfort zone by exposure to opinions different from his own. Find out more from Ilinca about the book club that already has members from other schools .

Novel Bunch is an online reading club organised by high school students for high school students. It all started as a joke. In October we already had our first meeting (the book of the month being “Portrait of Dorian Gray”, written by Oscar Wilde), with members from 4 different schools in Romania. The club meets online at the end of each month, but is also active on the Goodreads platform, where we often have short discussions between meetings.

Why attend a reading club?

• You read new books;
• You have the chance to express your opinions in an open and friendly environment;
• You meet different opinions from yours;
• You meet other people your age;
• You enrich your general culture;
• You learn to express ideas about characters, themes, literary motives, intrigue, etc.

The Novel Bunch Reading Club opens you to books you might not read on your own. Even if you don’t like the book you are reading and find it difficult to finish, you discover new things about yourself and the other participants. The role of such a club is to take you out of your comfort zone, in a pleasant and fun way. Learning new opinions can open a new world of thinking.

Novel Bunch is not just about reading a book followed by a discussion about characters and literary motives. It is about the opinion that each of us has about the book, about the emotions and feelings it created for us, about how the themes encountered there are applied in everyday life. You create connections with other members. Sometimes you will agree with their opinions, other times you will try to convince them that your perspective is better. You may even be confused – but you won’t get bored.

If you would like to participate, fill in the registration form here. You can also find us on Instagram at novel.bunch.

And don’t forget: Novel Bunch is mainly for fun and expression in a free and friendly space. The November book is “The Perks of Being a Wallflower,” by Stephen Chbosky. We talk in Romanian, but you can read the book in any language you want 🙂

Andrei Mitoiu (Grade 11) is a screenwriter, director and even actor in almost all 30 short films he has created so far. He discovered his passion for film 4 years ago, when he realised that he can use images to create magic. His films have recently been in festival selections and he enjoyed the interaction with an audience that shares his passion. We invite you to access his YouTube channel and find out more about his characters and the hundreds of hours of work “behind the scene” in his own words, below.

I discovered my passion for film 4 years ago, because I really liked to fool my friends with magic tricks. But when I searched the internet, I realised that I can create much more impressive tricks by manipulating moving pictures. Gradually, my interest in filmmaking grew, and I started creating my first films. In some of them I filmed myself, in others I filmed my brother and cousin, in superhero roles – it was not an easy mission to coordinate them, but the truth is that we had a great time.

Working on the 30 films I have made so far, I have learned a lot about storytelling, editing, filming and acting. As time went on, my passion for bringing stories to life motivated me to continue making films, despite limited resources or not always favourable circumstances.

This summer, I decided to submit my most recent four shorts to international film festivals, and I was happy to find out that three of them were selected by 7 festivals.

“Super” is a film festival for teenagers in Romania, a festival that selected the film “The Red Bowtie” and also invited me to the screening of my film on September 1st at Mercato Kultur. At the event I was extremely excited, because for the first time one of my movies was watched by teenagers with whom I shared the same passion.

After the screening I was invited to talk about the source of inspiration behind the film, the time it took to complete it – more than 150 hours of work – and my motivation to spend so many hours in front of the computer to express ideas and feelings through images.

The experience was unexpectedly pleasant, because the community of film people proved to be interesting and welcoming, eager to provide support to passionate teenagers.

In the midst of preparations for a new school year, one full of challenges that requires creative solutions, a lot of care and attention, we are inspired by the examples of other countries that have already opened their schools. But much closer to us is the practical experience that our school and nursery children had during the summer school programme.

A brave team created a Summer School programme that brought a lot of joy to the children and helped us verify the implementation of many safety and health rules. Cristina Farcaș coordinated this team and has many practical tips for the beginning of the school year.

Avenor College: What did we learn from the summer programme?

Cristina Farcaș: We really wanted to offer children the opportunity to meet their friends and engage in summer-specific activities, safely. For the educational team it was a constant learning process, in which the collaboration between departments had a significant importance – administrative, medical, educational, legislative – communication with parents and the community of international schools, with whom we are in constant contact.

One of the main conclusions is that outdoor activities must become a part of the daily approach to educational activities, assumed even by parents who need to encourage children and provide the right equipment for any type of weather. We like to say that there is no bad weather, there is only inappropriate equipment.

A.C. : What worked and what didn’t work?

C.F.: Dividing the children into cohorts (bubbles) and limiting the number of adults they interact with from one week to the next one was essential in the disease prevention process.

Separate routes for movement around the campus are essential, as are clear schedules with long breaks between sessions.

Parents have always helped us to implement the children’s routines, but now more than ever, we appreciated the punctuality and the constant dialogue about what was going to happen in the nursery or school.

A.C.: How does the Summer School experience help us in planning the new school year?

C.F.: It helped us a lot, because we now have a successful model that we can scale to the size of the whole school.

We know the key points:

• Intensifying communication with employees who come into direct contact with children, as well as providing support for their physical and mental health.
• Detailed planning of the movement routes of each cohort, including for space disinfection sessions.
• Making the most of outdoor learning spaces with rainy weather equipment solutions.
• Carrying out several types of learning scenarios in order to be able to respond as soon as possible to changes that will occur during the year related to the evolution of the pandemic.

A.C.: What were the unexpected issues that came to light during the Summer School?

C.F.: Constant communication with the authorised medical staff had the effect of reassuring everyone, from children to teachers and the rest of the staff, and also the parents. We were prepared to manage a tense atmosphere, but the effect of correct and consistent information delivered in a format easy to understand pleasantly surprised us. Unfortunately, there is no perfect protection. But as long as we inform and support each other, we can rely on the responsibility of those around us and stay away from danger, even working in the forefront, in education.

Before saying farewell to the Avenor High School Class of 2020, we challenged them to a discussion about their school experience, lessons learned, and also about the principles with which they continue their journey through life. Some answers surprised us and made us think, others delighted us and gave us confidence that the future is in good hands. We invite you to discover how 13 teenagers with “big souls and open minds” see the world from a text written by the one who interviewed them, Raluca Mihăilă, Marketing strategist • Writer • Photographer. 

I have to admit that, in general, I don’t particularly miss the school years, because I feel that I have lived each stage of my life intensely enough to not have nostalgia or the need to return to the past.

But on June 15th this year, when Avenor High School Class of 2020 had the graduation ceremony, I felt nostalgic. Longing for it. For the naivety, the feeling that the world is yours, the moment you are in the first academic quarter of life, for dreams, for the lack of pressure from the consequences of all everyday decisions. I missed the early youth for which the age of 25 is still far away and desirable.

This emotion of returning to the experiences of adolescence was activated by the discussions with Grade 12 graduates from Avenor College – 13 wonderful, beautiful children, with big souls and open minds, with end-of-high-school nostalgia, but also with enthusiasm and energy to face the rest of their lives.

I had the opportunity to ask Oren, Vlad, Matei, Ana, Leon, Seif, Daniel, the two Tudors, Vanessa, Maria, Horia and Damian a series of questions about various life aspects of teenagers in transition to the admirable but sometimes uncomfortable adult status.

I talked to these wonderful young people about education, democracy, teachers and colleagues, humanity and teamwork, but also about the future and tolerance.

I believe that together with the team involved in the visual archiving of the graduates’ perspective on the school they were educated in, we enriched ourselves with some words of wisdom to be stored and passed on. I will share them with you here, because they should not remain closed in a small circle, but deserve to be transmitted, ventilated, debated, assumed and, why not, improved.

I was happy to see that the world has changed in the last 22 years since I finished high school in Brasov, but that the essential and deeply human things have remained the same.

I talked to these wonderful young people about education, democracy, teachers and colleagues, humanity and teamwork, but also about the future and tolerance.

I don’t know if I actually learned anything new, but I know for sure that I started looking in a different way at some of the things I had categorised as known. For example, when Leon defined democracy as “simultaneously the most equal and cruelest government structure because, although the majority benefits, the minority is discriminated against,” the word “cruel” got stuck in my head as I was thinking that his opinion may be too harsh. But then I thought a little about the status of many of us, the privileged ones, all the current controversies about the introduction of certain subjects in schools, about disadvantaged children, about gender discrimination, ethnicity, financial opportunities… and I considered that indeed, there is a cruelty behind the most desirable system of government. And if in such a context the majority adds intolerance, the minority is practically annulled.

Speaking also about democracy, Seif believes that without our opinions we are worthless, so the right to free speech must not be threatened. And only extending this fundamental right through a thorough education can bring us personal and social elevation, representing “the basis that helps us move forward on our own path” (Daniel).

Most students interpreted tolerance through resilience and acceptance of differences, which made me think a bit, because I did not see it as an endurance test, but rather as a proof of serenity, necessarily based on patience. But these young people don’t see it that way. They interpret it either by resistance (“how much you can endure pain, boredom, suffering” – Seif), by concession (“accepting that there is nothing you can do in a situation you would like to change” – Maria) or by accepting those who are different from us (“through empathy for the people in front of you that you shouldn’t judge” – Vanessa).

I found very interesting Tudor G.’s definition of tolerance: “the limits of respect we set between ourselves and others”. Wonderful, absolutely wonderful expression that relates very well to Leon’s favorite quote about differences: “You’re different, just like everybody else”. On the other hand, however, as Oren told us, “people must be different in order to be able to bring themselves completely at the table of any discussion, otherwise we would all be the same.”

Just as important as being successful is how you build valuable human relationships – Daniel.

So where do we draw the line between the same and different? It’s relative. And it is a good thing, as it’s good that we are different, a celebration to which Ana invites us with confidence and optimism. If it’s still hard for us to do that, Vlad has the wisest advice: “if you can’t fight it, join it”.

Vlad also offers us perhaps the most beautiful lesson about altruism when he tells us about the life lessons he takes with him from school: “it is good to be relaxed in general, but if something starts to destroy you, to hurt you, you should step back and reset.”

I found in these young people an almost unanimous belief in technology, biosciences, medicine and IT as fields from which will emerge the inventions that will make the world a better place. Daniel is the one who raised the stakes and said that we can expect a black swan effect from the future domains that will come to life and of which we are not even aware now.

From 18-year-olds you would expect to hear almost exclusively about the desire for success, for ascension, for conquering the world … and of course there are such dreams in their souls, but they come seasoned with the awareness that “just as important as being successful is how you build valuable human relationships” (Daniel). This formula about the essence of life fits perfectly with how Tudor G. sees democracy as the “power of choice”. Building valuable human relationships is definitely a choice. Are we willing to make it?

Just as “education defines a person, good education defines a good person” (Vanessa), the life principles learned during the school years are extremely important for how we develop into adults.

Maria tells us that she learned how the journey is more important than the destination and that the role of mistakes is to learn from them, Horia believes that it is important to look at a subject from several perspectives, Leon believes that details and attention to them are essential, and Tudor F. believes that you should never give up and that it is essential to offer your friends trust when they need it.

Everyone has realised that without school they would not have gotten where they are today, and they have found useful the routine of daily rigour and the diversity of subjects offering them the opportunity to better decipher the world they are preparing to fly to at full speed.

The perspectives on life gained during the school years were at least as different as the way these young people described their school: from rest, relaxation, challenging, productive (Oren), to professionalism, memorable (Vlad), dynamic ( Matei), colour (Leon), fun (Seif), a community of friends for the future (Damian), responsibility and loyalty (Horia) or even in the most pragmatic style through textbooks and teachers (Tudor F.).

One thing is certain: everyone has realised that without school they would not have gotten where they are today, and they have found useful the routine of daily rigour and the diversity of subjects offering them the opportunity to better decipher the world they are preparing to fly to at full speed.

To explain the need for school, Damian made a beautiful analogy with the summer holidays desired by all children, but in which a lot of time is lost and knowledge is not accumulated in the rhythm of what happens in class. If you just keep going that way, you inevitably end up “in a deadlock and you don’t know what to do with your life. I don’t know what I would have done without school”, he tells us.

What is more important: WHAT or HOW you learn? A question that would probably intimidate many adults. These young people, however, did not feel that way, even if they saw things differently. From “What is just a choice, how affects each person” (Tudor G.) to “no matter how good the technique, if you learn what you don’t like, it’s equal to zero” (Vlad), it’s clear that “if you learn what is not right, is not good ”(Horia).

Through Seif’s words, Avenor College teachers receive the following message: “We sometimes make mistakes, but don’t be so angry with us. Have fun, it’s part of being at school. ”

The future looks good. This is clear and we can only enjoy this discovery from the mature discussions with the 13 young people.

Coincidentally or not, this future appears in their vision under the reunited collection of 9 colors held together by the non-colors black (which starts the sequence) and white (invisibly linking the shades together).

What if we were to add another circle at the end of the color sequence? A more comprehensive one that can hold together, in one bundle, the individual visions about the future?