On another note, I’ll walk you through the highlights of the activities inside the HS College Counseling Office.
Transition points: Grade 10 students’ IB Subject Choices
In conjunction with the IGCSE and IB Coordinators, I am working very closely with parents and students to facilitate open discussions about the implications of choosing IB subjects in view of future university and career pathways.
The platform BridgeU was officially launched with our Grade 10 students, who by now have attempted two-career/ personality testing. The task supports students to reflect on their own aptitudes and preference, thus better informing their sense of ‘self’. Consideration of university study programmes, financing of tuition, accommodation and independent living – are among the salient discussion points.
The psychological dispositional shift required to becoming an IB student is being discussed at some depth – with parents and students coming together to work towards a focused engagement style of learning.
Grade 11 students: Crafting a University Application
Students are researching universities that best suit their aspirations and those programmes that best fire up their interests and passions. Personal achievements, strengths, experiences, and evidence of motivation to pursue a line of discipline – is being actively drafted into a document known as a students’ personal statement. This, along with academic results, is really what sets one apart from another applicant.
Grade 12 University Acceptances: Our VIS students are our pride!
Ever more our students are being accepted at Russell Group universities in the UK, top research universities in the Netherlands, others in the USA, Hong Kong, Malta, Sweden, and Russia. We are awaiting a reply from Princeton University, an Ivy League university - where one of our students was called for an interview. We received acceptances for a dentistry programme at two prestigious universities Dundee and Cardiff. A more detailed list of university acceptances for class 2020 will be shortly published; once acceptances from all universities will be received.
A concluding note: all my scheduled meetings with parents and students will continue through Zoom. Grade 10 parents, in line with my previous MB note, do schedule appointments using the link:
High School Counselor's Update
Ms.Rose Ann Trapani- College Counselor
Current climate:
The world climate – emotional, psychological, social, and physical– as well as resources of all types, is at the pinnacle of the test of time. We are driven to go back to basics, as propounded by Abraham Maslow – ensuring basic needs of survival are put in place before any other needs higher up in the hierarchy.
We are being challenged to use our adaptive function. Our focus has now turned to taking better care of ourselves (personal hygiene) and of others (civic responsibility); the current climate, with its definite strength, marks our global experience, touching our core being to rise through it in ever-developing skills of resiliency, empathy, and compassion (for self and others).