Preparing Students of Today for the World of Tomorrow

Grades 8s Explore STEM Careers

On Tuesday, 15th of December, during the regularly scheduled Personal, Social, Health and Economic (PSHE) homeroom period, Grade 8 advisors lead students through a lesson focused on exploring STEM or STEAM careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, as well as the arts.

During the lesson, students were asked what they already knew about careers in STEM fields, questions they had about careers in general and were asked to take a simple career interests survey to find out a possible field they could consider studying. Following the lesson, 90% of the students expressed excitement to learn more about STEM careers. Notably one student shared “Today I have learnt that most universities and jobs want girls in STEM since there are fewer women in that area.”

Career education in middle school allows our students to view the wide array of career paths available to them as our families look to send their children abroad for university. Early career education can help to dispel stereotypes and self-limiting ideas about who can pursue what types of work, as well as increase student awareness of how learning at school relates to the future working world.

A big thank you to the teachers for sharing their own career profiles with classes so as to demonstrate the variety of careers, majors and universities our own faculty represent.

Grade 9-10 Join the BridgeU Platform Led by the Class of 2021

ISD uses BridgeU, an interactive college and career guidance tool. On Tuesday, 15 December students in grades 9 and 10 were introduced to the platform by the seniors in the class of 2021. Now all students in Grade 9 through 12 have access to this user-friendly platform which offers several tools allowing our students to identify interests, and the countries they plan to apply to, research different careers, explore universities, and allows counselors to submit documents to universities to complete student applications.

Parents interested in seeing the platform can check out this Video: How can I use BridgeU to support my child? – BridgeU which explains the features they can use to help students research university options. Parents interested in viewing their child’s account are encouraged to email Ms. Ellen Johnston. Discussed in the video are the following features:

The Profile Builder provides students with a list of universities that are specifically matched to individual students using projected scores, countries of interest, and SATs score if available, to suggest reach, match, and safety schools. Students can select from a list of countries, including Hong Kong, Singapore, Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, and the Netherlands.

Students can access the Shortlist feature once they review their university matches. The Shortlist is where students store preferred universities. From the shortlist students will decide on their final list of universities they wish to apply to during Grade 12.

The Writing Builder supports students with writing personal statements if applying to UK schools, and application essays for the United States. . Students can draft their personal statements, and share with College Counselors to provide guidance. Included are helpful exemplar essays written by students admitted to renowned institutions. These useful annotated ensure that students understand the reasoning behind the evaluation of each example essay.

The Applications section is used during the fall of the senior year. Students can view a snapshot of all the universities they have added to their final application list. Application deadlines and required documents are stored in this centralized location for students and counselors to view. Students can add and remove universities if they change their minds throughout the process. Applications are also tracked and students report acceptances and eventually schools of attendance, allowing counselors to track ISD student acceptances to better plan for future ISD graduating classes.

College Counselors use BridgeU to assign tasks to students to ensure they meet application deadlines, collect and store recommendation letters and references, and send necessary documents to universities. Overall, BridgeU is an outstanding tool that supports our students in the college planning process throughout high school.