Ep 62 | What is the IB Program?

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Yeah, I think all of my siblings will agree. Like this program definitely like established us 100% and like our careers and just really getting us on the map.

SPEAKER_02 0:15

Welcome to the Voices United in Education podcast. Each week we showcase the teachers, administrators, and community members who go the extra mile to contribute to the success of every student in Escambi County. You'll meet the real people behind the titles and learn about the amazing resources to support every student's success. As a parent, you want the best for your kid. The ideal, and you worry, is what I'm doing enough? Is the school enough? My next guests are a student and faculty member who have unique stories to tell. The student is the youngest of 15 children and the daughter of Vietnamese immigrants. The faculty member is the IEB Diploma Program Coordinator at PHS and has taught all 14 of the students' siblings. Today they are going to share how the IEB program is not just academically rigorous, but accessible for motivated students, and that you don't have to have privilege to leverage it. Excelling in Gifted, PHS and Proud, Catherine Tron and Dr. Colleen Boyette, thanks for being here. Hi. Thanks for having us. So, Catherine, I read your the paper that you sent, and obviously we talked a little bit a few months back off mic. And the thing that stood out to me, I think, first was just how you seem to just stand alone as a person. Like you stand out as a person. And when I you're welcome. And I because I think about having there's 15 of you, right? You're the youngest of 15. And all of you went to had all this legacy around you. There's so many opportunities for you to get absorbed with your identity into those bigger picture things.

SPEAKER_00 1:58

For sure. I would say it was really hard growing up to understand like who I was as a person. But just being 18 now, graduated, I would say like I feel like I just grew into it and like this is what I was meant to do. What do you think people misunderstand the most about you? Oh, I don't know. I feel like they think I got it easy because they were like, oh, you had so many like people around you. It must have been awesome. Uh like teachers would have probably like made it easy on you. I was like, definitely not.

SPEAKER_02 2:29

That's interesting that that's what gets misunderstood because I would think like the thing I would think is like, oh, there's so much pressure on you.

SPEAKER_00 2:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:37

You know, uh as a a legacy torch holder. Do you feel pressure?

SPEAKER_00 2:43

Definitely, for sure. How do you handle that? Honestly, like putting myself into school and doing all these things, it was just like put a little risk and get a lot of reward out of it. Yeah. So you leverage it.

SPEAKER_02 2:55

Yeah. That's really interesting. So many people crumble under that. And you, your path is medical, correct? Yeah. Yeah. Tell me about that.

SPEAKER_00 3:04

Yeah, so all of my siblings, it was more of a typical Asian thing, I will say. Like my dad's like, come on, somebody be a doctor.

SPEAKER_02 3:13

Somebody I see him like at in the living room be like, family meeting, I'm gonna need someone to be a doctor.

SPEAKER_00 3:18

Yeah. And my oldest brother, he per like he tried to pursue it, but he really fell in love with engineering, and he's still in that field. And so like my oldest brother starting engineering, the rest of my brothers went into engineering. The girls in my family are a little different. Or like two of them are in the engineering. I have a sister that's English. One sister, though, she's like my mentor, she helped raise me and everything. She's currently a physician assistant. She works for the Florida Health Department in Orlando. And so I kind of want to follow in her footsteps a lot. So she became a PA, but I kind of want to go full Meg just to say, like, we did it instead of them.

SPEAKER_02 4:00

There's so many young people, and I think adults as well, who just struggle even knowing what they want. And I get the impression that you're very clear on what you want. How did you get to that place?

SPEAKER_00 4:12

Oh, I don't know. I grew up with a lot of STEM background just because all the brothers doing engineering. My dad used like when he came to the United States, he was a fisherman. Then he got like carpentry certifications and he did construction. So I really grew up seeing like my brothers fixed cars and me pretending to be helpful. Like I know where a screwdriver is. But yeah, so I grew up with my parents. Really, my dad just teaching me how to build stuff, and that just gave me like a I like STEM. And then towards middle school, I would say I really like science. And in high school, my biology teacher, I fell in love with her, and she really like stuck it for me of I want to do medicine for sure.

SPEAKER_02 4:55

I feel like we should give a shout-out to that biology teacher. Do you remember their name?

SPEAKER_00 4:58

Sheree Stevens, wherever you are. Oh I love that.

SPEAKER_02 5:02

That's my favorite thing, is how you hear about the faculty members and the teachers who are an inspiration to students. And you because you just never know how you're making a difference.

SPEAKER_03 5:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:11

That's really amazing. And you said your dad was a fisherman. Tell me about how your parents came to the U.S. and how they got to Pensacola specifically.

SPEAKER_00 5:19

Yeah, so my dad, I want to say, was like closer towards like the central part of Vietnam. My mom was like from the south, like on the water. And so his parents, they died young. His dad died during the war, and then his mom died when he was around like 13, I want to say. Like it was like a massacre, everyone was brought up to the beach, that kind of thing. So he was raised by his uncle and his grandfather until around he met my mom, and then they moved together to where she lived. I want to say that they lived in I don't even know how to say it, I'm so sorry. But like my tall, which is like really close to the water. And so they had three kids in Vietnam, my oldest three siblings, and then my mom was pregnant with my brother when they eventually left. But a little background was that my dad spent a year building a boat. And so as a kid, we hear these stories, but we don't actually understand what it's like. So I've been talking to my siblings about this, and they were like, as a kid, it just felt like he built like Noah's art and it was taking so many people. In reality, it was probably a lot smaller of a boat. Um, but it held like 30 people. There were other pregnant women on there. I think there was like three of them, including my mom. And so it took like three nights to go from where they were in South Vietnam to go to this island in Malaysia, which is Bulabinong. They had a refugee camp set up there. I actually did a paper on it for IB, so we can talk about that later too. But yeah, they it was three nights. They stayed there for six months during that time. My brother was born, so the fourth oldest. Wow. And then after that, my dad and them, they had like a UN sanction bus kind of thing. And then they were staying in the Philippines near Manila for another six months, and then they were finally in like 1987, were placed right here in Pensacola.

SPEAKER_03 7:21

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 7:21

So they haven't been placed like anywhere else or relocated. They've been in here since 1987.

SPEAKER_02 7:26

That's incredible. Yeah. I mean, you're right about you know, you're trying to wrap your head around the idea of your dad building a boat because your mom was from South Vietnam, not your dad. Yeah. So he wasn't, we might assume, not like a waterman, but he is an engineer in his heart, it sounds like. So he's like, all right, I'm gonna figure this out. And then that's so cool that so many of you are like, okay, I'm gonna figure this out too.

SPEAKER_00 7:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 7:51

And so it's like that ingenuity, that spirit is carried on.

SPEAKER_00 7:56

Yeah, I really thought like he chopped down his own trees, like nailed and got a boat together, but it was just like he bolts a boat.

SPEAKER_02 8:04

He said, I mean, it's still pretty incredible. Growing up with fi being the youngest of 15 has a lot of pros and cons. What do you feel what has been your experience being the youngest of 15?

SPEAKER_00 8:18

I don't know. I think as a kid you realize like, I really want to be like my older siblings, they get so much attention. But I was completely spoiled. I will say that. I didn't go with my dad until I was around four years old. Just because of just circumstances. So I really I would say I was raised by my siblings. My mom, it's a very interesting thing because she's raised so many of us, and she's definitely given that like motherly care of you know, she was there. I like stayed in her room until I was four years old because I was just so attached. But yeah, we lived in a small house. My parents lived in like a government subsidized home when they first came here, and then in 1990, they got the house that I currently stay in. So for the past 30-something years, we've been in the same house. Four bedrooms, one for mom and dad, the other three were for the all the kids. Wow. And so up until freshman year, I hadn't had my own room. Like it was the first time it was just like there was one empty room in the house. It was me and my brother, and then the senior year, completely me by myself. And I will say I had like an existential crisis over it. I was like, I've never would never have had this house empty before. It was like so strange. I was like, I don't know what I'm gonna do with myself. Like, I don't have anyone to be like, hey, can I bother you?

SPEAKER_02 9:37

You're like, no one's taking my stuff. What do I do?

SPEAKER_00 9:39

Yeah, it was just like it was definitely quiet. My parents like they went to bed at like eight o'clock. Like they were like going to sleep right when sunset, and I'm up just like just like because I would take naps after school and I would wake up at eight. My parents' house is completely dark, and then I'm like, okay, I'll do a few hours of homework. But yeah, it was just like completely quiet.

SPEAKER_02 10:01

If I had 15 kids, I'd go to bed at 8 o'clock too.

SPEAKER_00 10:05

But they also wake up at like the crack of dawn because we have a garden in our backyard, and it's like it's not like a typical garden, like it's completely like farmed, like rows, like PVC pipes separating everything.

SPEAKER_02 10:16

I may need to visit this. I'm kind of obsessed with gardening. Yeah. And that sounds pretty incredible.

SPEAKER_00 10:22

Yeah, as a kid, I would definitely say like you had to wait your turn to sit at the table. And we had like three different dinner tables. So we had like two rooms, and like there's a kids' table and then older kids' table, and then you just wait till you're like big enough to be in the big kids' table, and I just like never made the cut.

SPEAKER_02 10:41

That's so interesting. There's so many people from like rural areas that would relate to that. I'm from Nebraska and a lot of farmer, basically everyone's a farmer there, or used to be in any way. And my dad is the youngest of um six kids. It would have been more, but his mom miscarried a few times. And yeah, there it was uh a pool table with a piece of plywood over it, and that was the the kitchen table, but there was always a kid's table. Yeah. So I relate to that so much. Dr. Boya, you have started teaching in the fall of 95, and you actually taught the oldest a Tron sibling his freshman year.

SPEAKER_01 11:15

Right. And just a quick correction, I haven't taught all of them. I I oversaw or instructed directly the first six or seven. Okay. And then after a long career overseas, I've come back and now I've got the the baby in the family. But there were a number of trons in the middle that I did not have the privilege of teaching.

SPEAKER_02 11:33

Ah, okay, okay.

SPEAKER_01 11:34

But I did teach Nan. And he was he's the eldest brother, and he's the one that's just moved to, I believe, Denmark. Denmark, and it's working. He's got a master's from MIT. Just and I just remember hearing, hearing about the boat building and everything from Nan's perspective because he actually was born in in Vietnam.

SPEAKER_00 11:50

Oh yeah, he was old enough to like see it in action.

SPEAKER_01 11:52

And I have since my own father is actually buried in Vietnam. It's a long story, but I've I've had a chance to visit Vietnam 20 times. I was living in Asia and working in South Korea for a number of years, so I had a chance to visit, and I've been all over the country. What a beautiful country, but also what a storied history and a tragic history in many ways. And so I I can only imagine what it would have been like, what it would have been like for Mr. and Mrs. Tron as they're making this, building a boat for goodness sake, and trying to figure out weighing their safety versus you know staying in the country. And I I just I think they need to write a book. I I would buy that book.

SPEAKER_00 12:32

We're working on it. I was talking with my oldest brother because my school, like the college I'm going to, is like an hour and a half from his house. It's not worth it anymore because he's moving to Denmark. I think he's there now. But yeah, he was I've never really heard it from somebody who was there at the time to be old enough to like talk about what it was like over there. Just dad's stories. But recently he told me about it and I just rem he said like the only part that he remembers about being on the boat was the dolphins. And he remembers seeing dolphins like while on the boat. But like it's interesting to know like that wasn't traumatic to him at all. It really was like, I'm young, I'm just like going on a trip kind of thing.

SPEAKER_01 13:09

And your parents provided that sense of comfort. I think they're just an amazing, amazing couple.

SPEAKER_02 13:13

Yeah. I think if you don't write a book, you could certainly have a podcast. And then you could interview all of your siblings and their respective experiences. Wouldn't that be cool?

SPEAKER_03 13:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:24

You know, because you don't have enough going on. You know, you're such a louse, you know, you know. Like you really need more stuff.

SPEAKER_00 13:29

I only have like bits and pieces, but it would be nice to have like everyone's like we sit down one day, everyone just tells their piece, rewrite a book, at least like 15 volumes of it, and we get it over. Yeah, that that would be good.

SPEAKER_01 13:43

Yeah. I'm actually curious about how your parents made the decision to place each one of you in IB because it's a it's a very rigorous program, and navigating all the other issues and starting over in a new country to be able to sort that out and the paperwork and the interviews. I I'm just curious whether they gave you a choice or whether you whether each individually chose to come into the program or if it's something your parents said this is what you must do.

SPEAKER_00 14:11

Yeah, so for all of us kind of went to the same schools growing up because it was like fall the leader. My parents didn't know anything else except for that. So yeah, when we first came in here, my brother, we went to like Jim Allen, the oldest ones for elementary school, and then we went to the rest of us, majority, like 11, I want to say of us, went to Lipscomb Elementary School. We all went to Brown Barge Middle School, which is a charter school. And that school is very structurally different in terms of education because it's more like personality building and more on the creative side of learning. And then all of us went through the IB program. So yeah. My brother was telling me, my oldest brother, he was telling me, because I asked him, I was like, so yeah, did our parents force you to do it? And he was like, no. He said he met a teacher at Brown Barge, and that teacher, the program was very new. I think that was like the first year we had like a pre-IV program.

SPEAKER_01 15:09

Probably we graduated our first class in 1990 and non graduated in 99.

SPEAKER_00 15:16

So he told me that there was a teacher that was like, hey, there's this new program, you would be really good at it. And at the time my brother was doing really well at Brown Barge, like he was winning art con all art competitions, he was doing like writing, and he was in the newspaper a few times, he showed me. But yeah, he was like, this teacher really like put me out there and was like, you should go to the school, you'd be really good at it. Like academics, like he'd just do amazing. And then he actually had you as his world history teacher.

SPEAKER_01 15:45

World history teacher in ninth grade, yes, my very first year teaching and his very first year in IB. Oh my gosh, that's so special. It was amazing. It was amazing. And to be able to have, and I remember as a new teacher, my concern was IB had such an important reputation to uphold, and I thought at the time I didn't have my PhD, I I I I hadn't even had my completed my master's yet at that point. And I was very intimidated. I thought, what if these students ask me questions I don't know the answer to? And then I realized, as we all did, we came to the realization that IB is about inquiry, it's about critical thinking, about exploring together and collaborating together, students and teachers with each other. And it's just an amazing journey. The whole, the whole history of international baccalaureate. But I think how precisely situated, you know, immigrant students as as Non and his siblings have been, being able to come in into this educational environment and contribute, and then looking at what they're now going to be contributing, you know, as United States citizens. I'm looking at how very successful every single individual Tron child has been. I I just think that that needs applause somewhere. Someone needs to acknowledge that. I know that we're extremely proud of the entire family in international baccalaureate, Penn Schola High School.

SPEAKER_00 17:05

Yeah. Uh I think all of my siblings will agree. Like this program definitely like established us 100% and like our careers and just really getting us on the map. Um funny that you said like that was your first year, I think, ever teaching.

SPEAKER_01 17:20

I I taught at UWF for a couple years as a teaching assistant at that point, but that was my first year in public education.

SPEAKER_00 17:25

Yes. My brother was telling me, he was like, I give that woman so much credit because it felt like it was a journey together. Because that was like the first time we had like that structural education. And yeah, just having you as a world history teacher, he was like, it feels like we're doing it together.

SPEAKER_01 17:40

Well, it was a real pleasure because I I left after 11 years. I left Pensacola High School in IB and I went, I went, I went to work in in IB programs across the globe. I was in South Korea for four years. I was in Mumbai, India for really the last three years.

SPEAKER_03 17:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:58

And when I was getting ready to retire and came back last summer and they offered me my old job back, I thought, sure, I'll try it again for a few more years. And lo and behold, who do I have to have? I have one of the trons. So it's like bookending my career that began with non. And, you know, as I'm winding down now to be able to have the privilege of having the youngest tron, it's been full circle for me.

SPEAKER_02 18:21

It's beyond special. The word special doesn't really encapsulate what it is. I felt full circle. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:28

I didn't even know who you were at the time. Because we had been through, I think, two different IV coordinators since like my freshman year, we had one, and then we had a new one. And then we were just hearing, oh, our next IV coordinator, she used to do this, but we had no idea who she was. I remember talking like texting my siblings, and they were like, Yeah, I saw like a Facebook post, like I think talk to Yet's coming. I was like, Oh, that's cool, don't know who that is. And then they were telling me stories. They were like, You should like really meet this woman. Like, and like she used to give us rides home in high school because she lived like really close to the house that we lived in.

SPEAKER_02 19:08

That's so good.

SPEAKER_00 19:09

Yeah. And so I was like, Wow, that's like special to me. And my biology teacher, Miss Stevens, she lives also in the same area. And so for me, that felt like the same kind of thing. Like, oh, I understand what it's like to have that teacher that's close by that's willing to do that. And so yeah. To invest in your life.

SPEAKER_02 19:28

Can you describe the program for people that are maybe pretend, you know, an alien just landed in right here with us, and you had to explain what the program is and why it matters. How would you describe it?

SPEAKER_01 19:40

Well, what I would say first off, it's the the most highly rigorous academic curriculum out there for secondary education. Its origins are rooted in World War II and the aftermath, and the Marshall Plan is coming and sorting problems out in Europe. And there's a rise in in commercial engagement, a rise in diplomacy. And the children of CEOs and the children of military officers and diplomats found themselves going for their freshman year in London, perhaps, and their sophomore year in Tokyo, and their junior year in Nairobi. And when they went to university, the universities didn't know what to do with those different national curricula. And so IB was created in 1968 to address that need to create this highly rigorous academic program that would be universally accepted. And started out at the International School of Geneva, was the first one. We are actually school 442. It's our our IB code. That means we've we have the 442nd school created in around the globe.

unknown 20:44

I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 20:45

Um here at Penn School High School. Now they're up to like 4,000, I think, now. But what it provides, you know, it it was originally meant to address the needs of these highly mobile families and their children, but now it's used in in schools all over the world, public and private, because it's recognized as being of this rigorous content, developing critical thinking skills, which is oftentimes lacking in a traditional classroom. So but it's more than just the academics. It's there are other components that we have a theory of knowledge class we call T O K, it's epistemology class. How do we know what we know? Do we determine truth in science the same way we determine truth in religious faith, in social studies, you know, you know, interpreting history, you know, the different ways of knowing. And so that's what that class shepherds the students through. They have to write a 4,000 word extended essay. They have to complete cast projects, creativity, action, and service, which is our volunteer component. So we're really trying to develop the the whole child and prepare them for life, not just academically. We we don't want just smart students. We want students who who understand the global connection and understand their need to give back to their community and and interpreting. community in a very broad way.

SPEAKER_02 22:02

That sounds like it would benefit a wide variety of students. Who is the program for specifically? Who's eligible to participate?

SPEAKER_01 22:10

Well IB would say it's for the average student who's extraordinarily motivated. Sometimes students think that our parents think that we're just for gifted students. Well we certainly can enhance the education of gifted students, it's not designed particularly or or exclusively for gifted students, although gifted students benefit. But it's any student who's willing to work hard and wanting to expand the horizons and take the most rigorous math and science. We offer the most rigorous math and science in this area.

SPEAKER_00 22:39

Yeah I would just say the same thing. So we have a pre-IV program and then the official IB program so for your ninth and tenth grade year, it's like pre-IB. So that kind of just prepares you for the structure that you're going to need. So you're taking what we call pre-IB classes. I think you take one AP class that year. It's just getting you used to the ropes and then you do your 10th grade year you take two more AP classes that are required which is like AP Lang and AP US history. And you can have optional electives as well to take more AP classes if you want. But yeah in 11th and 12th grade year that's the actual official IB program. So I would say that there definitely is room for diverse students there because like again I came from Brown Barge and we actually I if for my class of 2023 we had like the largest group come in like we had other schools our students come from like CLA and EDS some from like ransom smaller schools like Beul Academy those kind of schools but like I think there was like 14 of us from Brown Barge at the very end and we had even more from that. So like for us because it was such a creative school and more playing to I want to say like those gifted kind of assets we all felt like ground zero freshman year. And yeah most of us stuck out to the end. And it really is for just anybody that's just wants to learn.

SPEAKER_01 24:12

And I want to tune our horn just a little bit we had and it's pretty typical not exclusively each year but for this past year for sure we had the only national merit finalist in the entire public school system in Escambia County right from our PHSIB program. So we're extremely proud of that. There were also some at Catholic but in terms of the of the high school public high schools in the area we were the ones that had the only ones that's incredible usually for national merits we send like the most students for at least like semi-finalist many years were the only ones that but nearly every year we have we have the majority of them.

SPEAKER_02 24:48

Yeah and Catherine you had choices for where you wanted to go to high school why did you decide physical high?

SPEAKER_00 24:53

Yeah I mean all of my siblings like they did IB so I felt like I just had to but if I didn't like I could have gone to Westwood High School but that was like a really popular school when I was in eighth grade like everyone wanted to go there. A large group of my friends went to Washington and my zone school was Tate. So when I did the rankings it was like it's IB and if I don't get in I just have to go to Tate. And Tate to me just didn't seem like I just you know you hear stories about Tate or like zone schools and you're like I don't know if that's for me. And I don't know I just love school and I knew I was going to be good at it. So and I saw like all the careers that my siblings were going into because there's a 25 year age gap between me and my brother. And then all of my siblings successful careers like my oldest brother like I said he he went to FIT in Florida and Melbourne. And then he now recently just graduated from MIT. He got his master's in business and so that's just incredible. I've had two other brothers go to MIT that gone through their undergrad and also did their master's and they did chemical engineering and computer science and math. They're doing great my brother that one of them that just went to MIT just started his own company based in San Francisco. So you're like hey this formula works. Yeah plug me into this formula true and tried I like it and yeah I even have one brother that works for NASA right now and like I said one of my sisters is a physician assistant. So like we've really we've grown from the IB program for sure.

SPEAKER_02 26:31

That's incredible. Do you want to talk about Questbridge?

SPEAKER_00 26:34

Yeah. So Questbridge is basically this organization in the college application process. It's more of like a facilitator to support low low income students. So it's like specifically for low income students. So I don't even know how to go about this.

SPEAKER_01 26:52

Well let's start by saying that you've had siblings that won them as well as rare as they are you have one and then you had what three siblings two siblings that won siblings that also got cross voice bridge so yeah my oldest brother he went to MIT just recently I think they all graduated together I want to say in 2021 I want to say so their names were all together like on their grad wall.

SPEAKER_00 27:14

But yeah the other two siblings that I had one of them was valedictory and they were both like top two in their class. Actually all three of the MIT brothers were top in their class which just goes to show. But yeah the two other ones that went they both did Questbridge the program was definitely different. I didn't even know that the college application process for all of my siblings was completely you're on your own kid. That's what a lot of things felt like to us. Well like when we got into IB it wasn't like oh we're going to help our younger kid get through the classes it's more like we're all in our own zone. So we if we're able to figure it out on ourselves we need to let the younger one figure it out by themselves. So that's how the college application process was for me. Crossbridge was just like it's just like a little whisper. This is how you do this this is like the SAT this is like a book you should be looking at it was not like that. It was like your school is telling you hey it's time to apply time to look into things it was like your version of time to build the boat. Yeah it was time to build a boat. Yeah and yeah Questburge a little whisper in hindsight I do remember hearing like oh my brother saying oh yeah I did Questburge it didn't always work out for everybody yeah but I didn't even know that they did Questburge until like they told me oh you're doing it I was like yeah they were like I was actually like a match I was like I don't know what that means yet but yeah sure so what did it provide you? So like as a junior sorry so our IB is she our CAS coordinator Miss Leahio. Yeah she's our CAS coordinator and college counselor college counselor and she came into our theory of knowledge class my junior year and was like hey these are some scholarship things she talked about bright futures which is something we should definitely dive into and how much IB benefits you and she mentioned Questbridge and she was like low income students and normally that's not something I would like broadcast to people but I actually just sat there while she was talking and I was like I'll do it for fun. I was like she's talking about it might work. So they had a junior application round they call it their college prep scholar program and I applied and then this application was due around March every year and then you find out like a month later at the end of April. And so I had like no idea how well it was going to work. We had a college prep scholar and match go to Princeton the year before me. So in my head I was like I'm totally going to get into Princeton right I didn't but I was like yeah this could definitely work. And then I also talked to another friend from the previous year class of 2020 and was also a course college match and so I was like how did it work for you? And she talked to me about like the college match program which is what you do your senior year. So your junior year it's mainly just like helping you understand college and understanding your financial aid it's a basic it's just the same as a college application. You submit your essays your parents like tax information and like SET scores and your family income is what they really focus on too. So yeah my parents don't work they haven't worked since I was born basically my mom never worked my dad used to own a mechanic shop with our my uncle but he passed that on so basically my income was like zero and so I was like okay this should this should work. It should qualify. Yeah and then they also ask for your SAT scores and most of the are ACT as well and I think it's like 80% of the people that apply have like a 1280 SAT above and above a 28 ACT I want to say and so I met both of those requirements and then you submit your like transcript and everything. And then I got that I actually opened it like a you know you see those college reaction videos. I did it at an FBLA meeting after school which is a club by the way at a meeting like a club meeting with my friends in the video and I was like let's see it and I got it my brother was there with me we were hugging I was crying it was great. And so I was really like feeling really good about myself. And so the benefits of Questbridge is they have a college match program and so you actually have to reapply your senior year. And so this gets you to qualify to actually participate in the match and the match is very similar to like the med school residency type thing. At the time of a junior they only had 12 ranking spots. So they have like four they had 48 college partners when I did it now they have 50. And so you pick from 48 schools most of the Ivies on there. I know Harvard's not on there but all the Ivies are on there. A lot of top top 10 schools private public just really good schools and by the summertime they had 15 slots open. And in my head I was like 15's my lucky number so this is totally going to work and yeah I applied again my senior year. I found out in October that I qualified to do the match and you actually rank your schools I want to say before you even know that you've done like you've gotten it. And so all the schools that I did were in the Northeast area I had a few in like Chicago area so I was really going from like Florida all the way up there. I was like I'm gonna go for it. And yeah. Geographically you absolutely did yeah just oh and it's very crazy because you find out if you like qualified for the match like October 19th that's when I found out at least and then all of the it's like an early decision like to the max. All of my applications would do like November 1st. So I remember like from that two week range I was just sitting down doing college applications like crazy. I like randomly here I was like I actually need my first first quarter transcript like right now and this this and I was she was like really good at getting that done. Tell us where you ended up yeah so now on December 1st is when you find out I matched to Bowdoin College that's in Brunswick Maine which is awesome and it's completely a full ride so it's I think on the website it says like up to a 2000 something like scholarship for full like four years everything. Me personally like I can say like my housing's paid for my food is paid for even my healthcare is paid for wow everything. And then my school is also generous and depending like if the scholarship is more than what the actual like tuition and fees are going to be they'll give you like that extra money. So I also get paid like an extra like $700 each semester just to so you get paid to go to college.

SPEAKER_02 34:03

Yeah. That's incredible. Wow that's so amazing I think it'll be fun to do a follow-up in a couple of years and see how you're doing and sure and uh and talk more about you know what you you know can connecting the dots because hindsight's usually 2020 right and so as you were talking I was like oh my gosh if she wasn't in this program she wouldn't have you know learned about Questbridge and if she didn't learn about Questbridge she wouldn't you know and and so it'll be neat to hear from your perspective down the road how those dots connect for you personally. But as we wrap up I wanted to ask you is there anything else that you want people to know about the program or any final thoughts?

SPEAKER_01 34:43

Yes thank you for giving me that that floor for that so you know September is a big month for recruitment for the following academic year. I'll be going into all the middle schools public and private this fall recruiting for the freshman class for the 2024-25 school year and it's culminating in an open house on Saturday morning September 30th. So look out for that information that will be sent home with your eighth grader. And even if your child is not in eighth grade yet middle school age sixth grade seventh grade and you're trying to look ahead and plan, do consider exploring the International Baccalaureate program. You can call us in the office there 5951500 into the extension for IB. So we'd be happy to sit down and talk about how it might meet your child's needs.

SPEAKER_00 35:33

Yeah and I will say a lot of my friends they ended up with full bright futures because they had the testing skills to get the scores they needed they had the GPA and the hours from the IV program. And also if you get your IV diploma and you let's say you didn't have the scores you needed it is also like full bright futures 100% automatically there's it's a whole separate path for for IB students for futures. And depending on when you go you can get a lot of credit hours from because you don't just take in the IB program you don't just take the IB classes you also take AP classes on the side and you can take a full range. So I personally I took only four or five AP classes but I have classmates that have taken like 10 to 12 on top of IB classes. Wow we had two students get into Brown this year two also get into Johns Hopkins and yeah we've got a full range of things.

SPEAKER_01 36:28

It is amazing yeah and and keep in mind you know with IB we have a separate curricula than the traditional program. So our students are not required to take PE they're not required to take certain courses because they have other IB courses that fill those needs so it's it's something that if you're you're even thinking about it, we'd really like to have the opportunity to work with your child beginning in ninth grade to prepare them for the rigor that will be the full IB that begins the beginning of the junior year. You can wait till the beginning of the junior year to start, but it's much more difficult because often students aren't prepared mathematically STEM-wise, as well as with foreign language.

SPEAKER_02 37:08

Wow, there's so many benefits and I love that you kind of laid out the spectrum that is available like it's a buffet and you can do a little or you can do a lot but the benefits seem to be very plentiful as far as your future options and having choices and having support and resources and the fact that Questbridge although it is rare to get that full ride scholarship that it also provides support for the decision making process itself. I mean that's really incredible. I'm so glad that both of y'all came here today and that you shared your story. And I'm so glad to meet you and I'm so glad that I feel like fate Dr. Boyette has brought you back to Pensacola back into our community because it sounds like it's meant to be meant to be and I'm very pleased to be back and we appreciate this opportunity mered thanks for listening be sure to subscribe and share Voices United in Education is a production of Scambia County Public Schools