When Cedar’s Class of 2019 started the two-year IB Diploma Programme, they knew they were in for a challenging and transformative period in their lives. Nobody could have anticipated that within just a few days of settling into their studies, Hurricane Irma would strike the territory, and call in to question the feasibility of completing the course on schedule.
When they were finally able to resume their studies, they would have just 18 months to complete what is a very demanding two-year programme. In consultation with faculty and staff, they committed to voluntarily extending their school day, and to forego participation in elective courses in order to complete the IB coursework in time to sit the IB exams in May 2019.
Their admirable determination and willingness to rise to the challenge has now borne fruit, with class members receiving more than 30 offers from universities in the UK, US, Canada and Caribbean. This includes the University of Manchester, University of Bristol, University of York, University of Exeter, University of Maryland, University of the West Indies, and Vancouver Film School, among many others.
In addition to fantastic University offers, many received merit-based scholarships, with total offerings for the Class of 2019 exceeding $500,000.
On top of the accredited high school diploma Cedar awards to all graduates, eight students earned the full International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma. Two graduates achieved 36 points and the school average for all those earning their diploma was 32, well above the global mean of 29.63. The remaining graduates earned a total of 15 IB Certificates in individual subjects by passing subject specific exams. To provide some context, this year 166,278 students from 2,926 schools in 144 countries took their IBDP exams. Of those, 77% earned the full diploma. The maximum 45 points were earned by just 213 students worldwide (0.1%).
Cedar Director Scott Crawford praised the students determination noting that “The IBDP is a huge undertaking under normal circumstances, but to do this in 18 months was particularly impressive, especially considering four of the students attempting the diploma were new to Cedar (and therefore the IB approach) in Grade 11. The secondary leadership team and I are very proud of the students and staff for their achievements.”
They are now headed to all corners of the world, including the UK, US, Canada, Grenada and Barbados. They will pursue studies to become veterinarians, doctors, aviation specialists, film directors and producers, chemists and literary professionals. We look forward to following their progress and wish them all the very best!