A challenging academic program at Lakehead Public schools is giving students a leg up at university and college.
12 students recently received their diplomas in the International Baccalaureate Programme, after graduating the four-year program this past summer.
Lakehead Public Schools says it covers “an enriched and accelerated course of study which goes beyond The Ontario Curriculum” and includes a focus on leadership, community involvement and independent learning. It’s delivered in over 143 countries.
Laila Ikki is the Valedictorian for the most recent class, and is now studying Bioinformatics at Lakehead University. She says it taught her how to manage her time and a more intense work-load.
“I feel like because I had to do the extended essay and I had to research that, and I had to do so many different [science] labs, and I really had to take charge of my own learning for a month of exams in May,” she explains, “It wasn’t really that different going into university and accepting all of the content that I needed to know, and managing it on my own.”
Co-ordinator Clarke Loney is happy to have presented Laila Ikki and 11 other grads with their diplomas this past weekend. He notes there are usually between 25 and 35 students in each cohort. The program was originally hosted at Churchill, and he notes some students didn’t continue when it was relocated to Superior CVI.
“Thunder Bay was accredited with the program in 1999, so this is our 18th graduating class, so we’re super proud of that. And each and every year, we’ve exceeded the world average in terms of the results,”
Ikki says one moment that illustrates how I.B. helped her grow was when she and a friend in the program brainstormed ways to give back to the community. She notes it started off as a UNICEF club, “because we didn’t know where to start.”
“But then, because of the nature of I.B. students, and the nature of how they also want to give back and how they’re encouraged to give back, we were joined by many others, and this evolved into what became the Relay for Life at both Sir Winston Churchill and Superior Collegiate.”
I.B. Valedictorian Laila Ikki is in her first year of Bioinformatics at Lakehead University.
