Elise Paramore

In 2018,  HIIK  observed a total of 372 conflicts worldwide-- 57% being violent, and 43% non-violent. It is confounding that so much conflict occurs over our world, but I want to focus on the re-telling of these stories and what we can learn from them. Below are three re-tellings of stories from conflicts and their importance. 1. Hamilton: An American Musical Hamilton about the life of Alexander Hamilton, one of America's Founding Fathers. It highlights his rise out of poverty set within the American War of Independence. (Read more  here ) The musical demonstrates the importance of re-telling the story of the war, and helps to educate people about the founding of the USA. Admittedly, I had no idea what the story was prior to seeing it, and I was blown away by both the music and the brilliant storytelling of an event that I normally wouldn't take an interest in. The finale of the show 'Who Lives, Wh...

One of my interests is fashion. I enjoy browsing through different styles, trying on clothes and admittedly buying a fair few items. However, the fashion industry has a fair way to go in terms of environmental impact. I recently placed an order through an online-only retailer. I ordered three items, and received my packet. Sounds good so far?  Well, to my surprise, I not only receive three items, but also four plastic bags. I received more plastic than product. Now, I can understand that in terms of warehousing logistics, having every item individually packaged is fairly effective and reduces order times however, it is excessive. However, not only does the packaging of clothing lead to a large amount of waste, the discarding of clothes is equally as damaging to the environment. Research conducted presents that 68 pounds of clothing is thrown away per person per year in America (Read more here ). Therefore, it is important that we move ahead as individuals a...

We are due to leave the European Union at some point in the coming months. It is easy to tell that Brexit will have a large impact on all UK business, regardless of the final result. However, I want to specifically focus on the NHS, as a large part of the 'Leave' Campaign's manifesto (found here ) was to 'save £350m a week' in order to spend on priorities such as the NHS. One of the greatest concerns the NHS is their workforce. The Withdrawal Agreement secures the position of EU nationals in the UK, however there is a large amount of uncertainty surrounding their position, and this is expected to grow. Read more about this here . It's also quite important to understand that 39.9% of doctors registered with GMC gained their qualifications abroad (Read more here ). Whilst this does not directly correlate that all of these doctors are immigrants who have moved to the UK to work, it does support the idea that a large proportion of the NHS' workforce is from...

'Too many facts, too little conceptualising, too much memorising and too little thinking' -- Paul Hurd Arguably, critical thinking is one of the most important skills a person can learn. Being able to 'sift through the noise' (From this  article)  in order to conclude concisely is highly valuable. My time in education has spanned the majority of my life. From learning the basics in primary school, to honing my knowledge in college, I've been exposed to many ideas and skills. However, it was only at the end of college that I was exposed critical thinking, why? One could argue that the education system is concerned with broadening horizons, teaching culture, history and a basic level of literacy/numeracy. However, you could also argue that the education system is not encapsulating the advanced skills needed in the workplace, making it challenging to learn these when its the most vital. I personally feel that these skills would have been so valuable to have le...