我们非常自豪且很高兴得跟大家宣布，我们已经完成了对第一批攻读AP Capston文凭的学生选拔工作。来自10年级的最优秀的15名学生将首先开始他们的AP Seminar 课程，这是获得AP Capstone文凭的第一步。在选拔的过程中，学生们除了需要递交老师的推荐信，和他们手上觉得最满意的作业案例外，同时他们还需要面试。在面试的过程中，他们要有足够的理由来说服面试官他们迄今所取得的成绩以及他们对于未来的愿望和计划。由此可见，申请的过程是艰难的， 如果你想了解是什么促使这些学生来努力申请这门课程，那么请一定要接着往下看。
We are very proud and pleased to announce that we have completed the selection process for our first cohort of AP Capstone Diploma students. Fifteen of our most ambitious and high-achieving Grade 10 students have won a place in our AP Seminar course, the first step towards earning the AP Capstone Diploma. Students’ applications were supported by letters of recommendation from their teachers and samples of their strongest work, and applicants had to make a convincing case for inclusion in interviews that challenged them to discuss not just what they have achieved so far, but their plans and ambitions for the future. The application process was certainly not easy, and if you are wondering what motivated students to go through all this effort, then please do read on.
大学理事会（College Board），除了提供大家熟知的 AP和SAT考试，AP Capstone则是由它几年前才刚刚开始进行的一个新项目。然而，在短短的几年内，AP Capstone文凭已经得到许多学校和大学的高度评价和认可，并且被耶鲁大学，哈佛大学和麻省理工学院等世界名校官方认可。在中国，AP Capstone更是一个崭新的项目。协和万源校区是上海被批准提供AP Capstone文凭第4所学校，全中国的第14所学校。跟我们的学生一样，我们也需要用一系列的事实来向College Board证明我们是一所杰出的学校，拥有一批杰出的学生来开展像AP Capstone这样具有挑战和学术严谨性的课程。
AP Capstone is a young program, introduced only a few years ago by the College Board, the people who administer AP and SAT examinations. However, in just a few short years, the AP Capstone Diploma has quickly become highly-recognized and valued by schools and universities alike, and formally and fully endorsed by illustrious institutions such as Yale, Harvard and MIT. AP Capstone is a particularly young program in a Chinese context; we here at SUIS Wanyuan are only the 4th school in Shanghai, and the 14th school in all of China, to be approved to offer the AP Capstone Diploma. Like our students, we needed to go through a careful process in order to demonstrate to the College Board that we were the right type of school, with the right type of students, for a challenging and academically rigorous program such as this one.
所以，我们的学生，将通过他们自身的勤奋和努力去获得额外的AP Capstone文凭，向大学和世界来展示他们的才华和全面发展的综合能力。获得AP Capstone文凭并不是一件容易的事情，但是我们相信他们在这个课程里的收获将远远超乎他们的付出。那些被我们选拔出来的学生，将在课程里习得各种宝贵的软硬技能，来帮助他们在学校，大学以及其他地方获得更大的成功。
As a result, our students will now, with hard work and dedication, be able to obtain an additional diploma that clearly demonstrates to universities and the world how talented and well-rounded they are. Obtaining the AP Capstone Diploma is not easy, but the potential rewards are more than worth the effort. Our students who have been admitted to the program will acquire a wide range of valuable soft and hard skills that will prepare them for great success in school, university and beyond.
著名的教育家，领导者和总统自由勋章获得者Peter Drucker说，“最重要的能力是习得新技能的能力’’。我们的毕业生将来要面对的是一个不断发展和充满活力的世界。AP Capstone专注于培养学生成为一个有思想、独立、有韧劲，能自我激励且自主的有抱负的研究者。学生们将会自行选择项目主题，通过团队合作和个人研究的形式，进行真正的独立项目研究，制作大学水平的研究论文，并在专家小组面前对他们的论文进行口头答辩。我们的AP Seminar课程老师，Sarah Wun女士是一个非常有才华的老师，她将会对我们的学生提供全面的支持。不仅如此，我们的全体教师也将会对我们的学生提供来自各个学科的专家建议。
As the famed educator, leader and Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient Peter Drucker put it, “the most important skill is the skill of learning new skills”. Our graduates will enter a world that is fast-changing, evolving and dynamic. AP Capstone prepares students for this world by focusing on developing students’ capacity as thoughtful, independent, resilient, self-motivated, self-directed and ambitious researchers. Students will work together and individually on projects and topics of their own choosing, conducting genuinely independent research and producing college-level research papers, along with oral defenses of their theses in front of a panel of experts. They will be supported in this not only by their AP Seminar teacher, the talented and endlessly committed Ms. Sarah Wun, but by our entire faculty, ensuring that they got expert advice no matter what area they choose to conduct research in.
在不远的将来，我们会看到，当我们的学生从协和万源校区毕业时，他们将会拥有这些重要的学术能力。不管将来他们选择什么专业进行继续深造，这些能力都将会帮助他们更好地完成大学课程。AP Capstone文凭预示着这个学生可以从事复杂的项目，无论是作为独立一员或者项目成员，他们都可以顺利的开展数据分析和评估、调查、编译、综合处理来支持他们自己独特的论点和观点以接受新的挑战。获得AP Capstone文凭将向所有人表明，从大学招生官到教授再到未来的雇主，你已经学会了21世纪工作和生活的正确技能。
The result will be that, by the time these students leave SUIS Wanyuan’s US High School, they will have truly mastered the key academic skills required to do well on any university course, and that these universal skills will give them the foundation they need to master whatever specific course they choose to study. The AP Capstone Diploma indicates that a student can work on complex projects, analyze and critically evaluate information, research, compile and synthesize information to support unique arguments and perspectives, take on new challenges, and do all of this both independently and as part of a team. Securing the AP Capstone Diploma will send a signal to everyone, from university admissions officers to professors to future employers, that these students have learned the right way, the 21st century way.
协和万源美式高中非常高兴能成为中国最早开始AP Capstone文凭之旅的学校之一，我们知道我们的AP Capstone学生也非常兴奋，即使他们知道他们需要在这个项目中投入大量的精力。我们的老师也将会和我们得学生一起努力，以确保这些学生获得他们应得的成功。我们会持续来更新以保持我们的学生和家长来同步了解这些学生的进步和孩子们将要进行的精彩研究，以及AP Capstone文凭项目的发展和成长。
We here at SUIS Wanyuan’s US High School are beyond excited to be one of the very first schools in China to be starting on the AP Capstone Diploma journey, and we know our AP Capstone students are tremendously excited too, even though they know that they will need to invest great amounts of thought and energy into this program. Our teachers will work with an equal amount of effort and dedication in order to ensure that these students obtain the success they deserve, and we look forward to keeping our school community updated on these students’ progress and the fantastic research they will be conducting, as well as on the future expansion and growth of our AP Capstone Diploma Program.
