Hi everyone! My name is Penelope Zaitsoff-Choy. I am currently 14 years old. I am a grade 9 student at Dr. Charles Best Secondary in Coquitlam, British Columbia. I am super excited to start this course. When I found out about this opportunity back in January of last year at my high school orientation, I automatically knew that it was a course that I wanted to take. I have always been interested in social responsibility and helping improve my community and the world around me. The thing that I am most excited about in this course is getting to connect with students from all around the world. I am very excited to learn new perspectives and hear stories from everyone involved in Butterfly Effect. This semester, I plan on doing an inquiry project about gender roles in society, and next semester, I am going to be doing an action project. I’m so excited to get this year started.
Here are some key things about me. My passion is dancing, and I am a competitive dancer. I do around fourteen to fifteen hours of dance a week and I train in various styles, such as ballet, acrobatics, hip hop, jazz and contemporary. My favorite styles are definitely hip hop and acro, because I find those two to be the most enjoyable. I find jazz and ballet to be the hardest styles because they require lots of technique and strength. Dancing has taught me so many important life lessons. I have learned about the importance of time management, how to work hard even when I am incredibly tired and the amount of control my mindset has over my life. I also really like to read, although now that the school year has started, I find that I don’t have as much time for it. Some of my favorite books are The Midnight Library by Matt Haig and All My Rage by Sabaa Tahir. I love both of those books because of their unique perspectives. Another thing that I love to do is listen to music. I listen to music pretty much whenever I can. Some of my favorite artists are Kendrick Lamar, Drake, SZA and the Weeknd. Those are my three main hobbies, and how I spend most of my free time.
My family is another huge part of my life. I live with my mom, dad and my two younger brothers. They are in grades six and four. My family is my primary source of comfort and joy, and I don’t know what I’d do without them. I am half Chinese and half white. My mom’s side of the family has Russian, Scottish and German origins. My dad’s side of the family comes from China. He is a first generation Canadian, since my grandparents immigrated from Hong-Kong when they were in their twenties. I am very proud of my ancestry on both sides of my family. I really like being a biracial person because I get to be connected to lots of different cultures.
My goal for this year is to create positive change and help my community, even if it is in small ways. I want to make the most of my time in this course and I hope that I will learn a lot about others and myself through it. I am very excited to start this year and I can’t wait for all of the experiences that it will bring. I am so grateful to be able to do this course and I am so excited about this opportunity. Thanks so much for reading this post!
Hey Penelope,
it is so cool that you do dance, and so many different styles. It is so cool that it has taught you so many things. I find it so interesting that you love to read, and I love your music taste.