Our graduating class
Tomorrow, ISA will honour our graduating grade 12s: 35 students from 14 different nationalities on 6 continents. Next year, some will stay local, going to Aberdeen university or Robert Gordon’s; others to the four universities in or near Edinburgh; also Abertay, Strathclyde, Stirling and Glasgow. In England they have offers for Bristol, London, Leeds, Manchester, Warwick and York. Others are looking further afield - to Canada, the Netherlands, the United States - even China. Some are deferring entry or are taking gap years.
Some have been at ISA for just their IB course; others, their entire school career. Whatever the time, they have become part of our community. As ISA graduates we hope they leave us as active global citizens, well equipped to make the world a better place.
They started their final year of IB after two years of pandemic disruption. They had missed out on sports tournaments, trips abroad and social events. But they came back fully involved, volunteering at community centres, animal sanctuaries, homes for the old or disabled, food banks and ethical stores; at school, helping with younger peers.
They have kept going, not just completing one of the most rigorous pre-university courses around, but also contributing to the community around them and developing their personal interests.
They have achieved despite the challenges of the last few years. Tomorrow’s graduation will be an opportunity to celebrate both the achievements and the undoubted qualities of character that made them possible. However, we shouldn’t overlook that this has been a difficult time, and it is neither possible nor desirable for students to be relentlessly positive: it is also right for them to acknowledge a sense of loss.
This year’s graduates are diverse, each contributing something unique to the ISA community; I am sure they will continue to do so as they leave us into a world beyond.
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