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What we're learning about this new normal

Sejal Rahman and Mabrur Abrazul Haque

This year, humanity was forced to face an unseen enemy, the likes of which were not seen in the last hundred years. We have been locked in our homes, met with a phenomenon we never thought to encounter, and surrounded by a thick cloud of uncertainty -- about the future, and whatever solutions it may bring.

In keeping with what seems to be the trend for the year, even returning to school has been a drastically new experience. Students at our school - and schools all over the world -- are now attempting to adapt to a new normal. We must -- for the time being -- accept a school lifestyle where we cannot physically interact with our teachers or joke around with our friends; all learning has shifted online. This sometimes inspiring, sometimes messy reality has been a bittersweet treat to experience, especially with our friends and teachers. We stumble and fall, but most of the time we get back on track.

But as optimistic as I may seem, I am not naive. The changes that we are slowly becoming accustomed to have come at a cost. Everyday, we become disheartened when we learn of someone new we lose to the coronavirus, or when a cure seems improbable; and everyday at school, we all feel the absence of the largest change of this new school year. The one we may never become used to.

It goes without saying, there would be no Sunbeams without Mrs. Manzur, and therefore there is nobody more deserving of gratitude than her. Everything we know, everything we have learnt and will want to learn, we owe to her. The loss of our matriarch is incalculable. It is the single-most devastating blow to our spirit as beamers.

She remains the most influential person we know. On the 26th of May, we saw hundreds of tributes pop up on our timelines today, all from students, alumni and well-wishers. They all say the same, true things: that there is nobody like Mrs Manzur, and there may never be. She is the heart of Sunbeams, the pillar of our community. She helped us when we tripped, guiding us back onto the right path. There was no hesitation or doubt in her voice when she told us how proud she was of us, how she believed in our potential. Her unwavering faith in us has always left us in awe: how could someone trust our ability to do good in the world with so much conviction? It was surreal. She was surreal.

Mrs. Manzur is, in every sense of the word, a role model. We aspire to be like her. To be as fearless as she was when she founded the premier institution that is Sunbeams. We aspire to be as kind as she was, how she beat everybody she met to a greeting and in lending a hand. We aspire to her level of dignity and elegance. Mrs. Manzur has carried generations of global citizens. She carried us. We are not only better to have known her, we are unbelievably lucky and blessed to have learnt from her. Rest in peace, miss. As “The Great Gatsby” concludes: “So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.”

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Online eca classes

After-school extra-curricular activities have always been a big part of our weekly school lives. This year, the senior school online ECA clubs are being run by students of class XI and XII and here's what has been happening in the different clubs throughout the past month and a half.

🇫🇷 French Club

Areeba Sarwar and Shemariah Quasem

Easily the most popular ECA club this year, the French club by far has the largest group, with over 60 members. The club has tried to make the language easier and more approachable for the members. After spending one class on introductions, we started out with the French alphabet which is very different from English. As expected, it took many students a long time to grasp the alphabet itself. Once everyone had familiarised themselves with the alphabet we moved on to relatively complex topics such as common phrases used in the French language in daily life and numbers. Once the students have learnt these, we plan to teach them the emphasis on gender in the
French language, verb conjugation, tenses etc.

🎸 Guitar Club

Mabrur Abrazul Haque and Mashroor Mukitur Rahman

🧠 Current Affairs and General Knowledge

Tashfia Bari, Avita Farhanaz, Tasmiya Chowdhury and Zahra Zillur

The topic explored in the current affairs club last week was the Rohingya Refugee Crisis. Along with discussions and an open q/a session, members were required to make infographics to spread awareness.

🌱 Environment Club

Fayizah Rahman and Lamisa Hossain

Written by Ariza Hossain
Class XI

The Sunbeams Environmental club commenced its journey at the beginning of July with a mission to create a greener and a more sustainable community. It strives to raise awareness in people about the different ongoing global and local environmental issues that currently threaten our very existence. The club consists of nineteen members who are working diligently and passionately to conserve our environment and are determined to bring a change in people’s attitude regarding this otherwise ‘not so important’ issue.

The very first initiative that has been taken by this club is to launch its own website. This website serves as the main platform to educate people about these various environmental challenges that we face today by disseminating information through interactive and engaging methods. One such way is by implementing infographics and videos on the numerous environmental problems on the website to capture the readers’ attention making it easier to deliver the message to them. Another very interesting way that this club has adopted to spread the word is by publishing monthly short satirical comics commenting on the environmental concerns in a humorous context to make this process more enjoyable, yet effective. The ‘Tell Your Story’ section is an attempt to involve the students by encouraging them to share their experiences/stories about the current environmental crises and their thoughts on how to overcome such challenges. Lastly, the articles written by the members aim to help readers stay more informed about the ongoing environmental issues and accomplishments. The two major broad themes covered this month were river pollution and deforestation along with a few other issues

Along with raising awareness, the club has undertaken two very important projects which are the Donation Program and the Book Program. Through the Book Program, the members are collecting old and used books from the students for the library so that they can be reused by the younger students. The Donation Program in an initiative to collect copies that students no longer need at the end of each term and binding the unused pages into copies that will be donated through ‘Ekhoni’. This helps to reduce the waste of paper and money, saving many trees in the process.

🖊️ Graphic Designing Club

Sumaita Mahnur and Tahmid Hoq

To start off our first week of the graphic designing club, our members were given an introduction to what graphic designing really is and how it’s very important to understand the concept of colours, spaces, typographies and bringing them all together in one design. We showed the importance of a logo, and how it represents recognition for clients and is an important foundation for the branding of a company or club.
We gave our members a simple task to make a logo for our club, the ‘Sunbeams Graphic Designing Club’ by using ‘canva’, or any app they wanted to. We also wanted them to include the sunbeams logo into our Club’s logo and make it a part of that. These are some of their works, and I must say they all did an amazing job and brought their own creative twists to it.

Farzana Tabassum, Zayn Shafique and Tafriha Binte Huda