This student from Apeejay School International is writing an LGBTQ-themed fiction book

Nia Meghan Lobo joined Apeejay School International, Delhi, two years back, in the eighth grade. Since then, she has been actively involved in school clubs, sports as well as scholastic competitions; she has also handled leadership positions. Nia believes the school curriculum has not only motivated independent thinking but also helped attain maturity. She tells us about her endeavours at school in an interview. Edited excerpts:

What kind of exposure has Apeejay International School provided you, both in academics and co-curricular activities?

In the two years that I have been at Apeejay International School, I have had a lot of exposure through competitions, talks by guest speakers, and so on. In addition to this, we have collaborated with people from not only our age group but with ones who are younger or older than us, which taught us how to deal with different types of people. We also had activity clubs where we had insightful discussions and collaborative talks. Since students from our batch were in charge of these clubs, we learned how to work with our juniors in such a manner that we could extract their maximum potential. This helped develop our communication skills. Recently we also made a field trip to Qutub Minar which was very helpful in understanding more about the monument.

How have these experiences impacted your personal growth?

I think all of this helped me mature a lot more and taught me ways to improve to become the best version of myself. The friendly competition within the class is really important for you to keep striving to be better.

Tell us about some of your personal achievements.

I won the essay writing competition held by the school around Republic Day. I participated in ‘Resurgence’ to learn more about business. Last year, I was the house captain. I even headed the ‘Discussion Café Club’ at school. Besides, I am part of the school basketball team and have been winning matches. I can also swim pretty well.

We have a one-hour sports practice session at school where we play different sports and are trained by the respective coaches.

How long have you been playing basketball?

A couple of years. Earlier, I was in Bengaluru where I participated in a lot of basketball competitions. We had Decathlon competitions along with local basketball club tournaments.

Do you ever think of pursuing a career in basketball or will it just be an interest/hobby?

As of now, I think basketball would continue to be an interest or a hobby. In India, women’s basketball is not really big so it would require me to go abroad and train there. It does not seem to be a feasible career option.

How have the research-based assignments at school developed your critical thinking abilities?

The approach is such that while teachers are there to guide students, you have to study independently. Hence, whatever you do or succeed in is majorly a reflection of your own work. In turn, it helps you become a lot more self-reliant. It can be challenging initially but once you get the hang of it, you are able to convert the stress into something meaningful.

Is there any particular project of yours that you consider the most successful?

It would be my investigation cycle and research paper in ‘Individuals and Societies’. We worked as a group to come up with research questions related to the topic “social group”, based on which we wrote the paper. To make it an effective research paper, we had to work on a lot of primary and secondary sources-we did interviews as well as a lot of in-depth research. It was a really challenging task but we finished it in the right amount of time. Our teacher appreciated our paper a lot.

Your curriculum includes personal projects too. Are you working on any?

I am writing a book. It is a fiction based on spreading awareness about the LGBTQ community in a subtle way. My protagonist is part of the community. In order to do this, I have been doing a lot of reading. Of the books I am reading, the series “Heaven’s Official Blessing” by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu is the one that moved me deeply. So, you will see a bit of inspiration taken from it in my book.