Looking for inspiration? Here's advice from IB grads on school, university, and staying positive🌟
Monday, May 10th, 2021
Hey IB students!
We’ve got lots of upbeat content for you this week, coming from amazing IBlieve team members! Check out Priyasha’s series on acing college applications, Wangari and Sarvani’s insights into their unique IB experiences, and finally Nisa’s cheery tips about how to stay connected with people around you.💫
Here’s what you’ll find in today’s newsletter:
NEW Blog posts!
Community Spotlights: IB grads answer your questions
Instagram Highlight: How to choose an EE subject
Student Spotlight: Nisa, Outreach Co-Lead and IB grad
Cheers,
Imogen and Katie❤️
📚 Blog Posts!
Whenever you have a question about IB, check out our Blog! With over 180 posts, you’re sure to find super helpful advice from our amazing IB graduates and High School Ambassadors. Here are all our most recent articles!
📚 Study
5 Tips for Effective Note Making - Krishna
How can I stop procrastinating? - Yasmin
🗂 US College Supplements
Future Georgetown student and IBlieve Academic Lead Priyasha takes you through her insights into the US college application process.
🎙Community Spotlights
We’re super excited to be spotlighting IBlieve community members and friends! This week we’re highlighting some of our amazing IB graduates, answering your biggest questions.
Sarvani answers: Why choose IB?
HSA Maanyav had a conversation with Sarvani about her IB experiences. Sarvani is a freshman at the University of California San Diego. She did the IBDP in India and was a May 2020 graduate.
I chose IB because it allows you to do so many more things. I can say that throughout all of my IAs and my EE, I was always able to pursue what I was interested in. For example—if I did Math, I could study it under the lens of my interest, which is Art. The other thing about A-Levels and IB is that the IB has much more breadth. In the IB, you get to study so many subjects and you’re learning from so many different perspectives. In my Arts final exhibition, I had topics incorporated from all of my subjects. I can’t imagine another program, besides maybe AP classes, where you can combine all of these different interests. Anywhere else this would have been crazy! I was really, really excited to take IB.
Wangari answers: What’s IB like at a First Generation IB school?
Wangari is a November 2020 graduate from a First Generation IB school in South Africa. She will begin at UPenn next year. With this article, she hopes to give some insight into what her experience was like transitioning into the IBDP.
I chose to do the IB program because I was excited by the depth of the syllabus offered through Higher Level coursework. However, coming from the background of quite a different curriculum and being part of the first IB cohort at my school made the decision slightly intimidating, as I am sure it can be for others.
As a new IB school, there was a small range of subjects available, as well as timetabling limits on the subjects that could be taken together. We could only take French as our Group 2 Language, which we did online through Pamoja, and we couldn't take History and Chemistry at the same time. Another new change was that we had ‘free periods’ in our timetable, and I’ll admit we didn’t always use these productively.
📲Stay updated with IBlieve!
Find beautiful illustrations of our best advice on our Instagram and Facebook. Here’s Rohit, our HSA, and his tips for choosing an EE subject!
🌟 Student Spotlight
We’re inviting new High School Ambassadors or IB graduates to write messages every week, so we can hear more student voices and IB experiences around the world. Today, we’ll hear from Nisa, our Outreach Co-Lead, as well as Tutor and Mentor!
Heya friends!!!
I’m Nisa, an IB grad. I’ve been super duper fortunate to be a part of IBlieve’s Outreach team because I’ve met so many inspirational people. Despite being an introvert, I always leave the 243249th Zoom call inspired! It sounds a lil cheesy but I think it has highlighted just how important it is to stay connected with people. There’s only so much you can do on your own, just look at The Borg from Star Trek :D truly an epitome of working collectively.
Anyways, I know very well that socializing can also be tiring so NEVER push yourself but just know that isolation is just as bad or even worse. And NOPE just scrolling through social media does not equal staying connected, instead, reaching out to people, scheduling calls, meeting up (in a COVID-safe manner ofc!), etc., is a healthier way! Here’s a paper to “prove” it. Additionally, if you want to remember the 87498th IB biology fact here’s another paper that suggests “social support can improve mental performance” (stopping the bio references here, I’m sorry).
That’s all from me! TL;DR reach out to people, invite them to a Mario Kart game :)
The bestest wishes and please stay safe :D !!
Nisa
👋 Catch you next week!
Thanks so much for reading this week! We believe in you.
Sending virtual hugs,
Celine
High School Ambassador (HSA) from Canada🇨🇦
IBlieve is an open, positive community for IB students by IB students. We provide free resources, tips, and tutoring because we believe you can succeed too!
Website | Instagram | Join Our Community | Email: iblieve.contact@gmail.com