Alumni Story – Hearing from Jeeyeoun, Class of 2019

Jeeyeoun Chae is one of our graduates from Class of 2019, who is now majoring in Robotics Engineering and minoring in Artificial Intelligence at the University of Toronto.

Recently, we had a remote online conversation with Jeeyeoun, through which she shared her university life with us.

 

Q: What are your thoughts on how to “survive” the IB Diploma Program?

Hello, my name is Jeeyeoun and I’m a first graduate of Boston International School. Currently I finished my third year at the University of Toronto.

I think taking IB Diploma at BIS prepared me well for my university life. Because IB is a very challenging program that requires you to take six subjects from a wide breadth of fields. It helped me to cope with demanding workloads and to develop essential self-management skills.

Q: What are your thoughts on the student life in university?

Studying at university is different from high school in the sense that you’re no longer closely guided by teachers or parents, and you have to plan work and manage your time independently. Experiences like extended essay where I had to take the initiative, the whole way through the research from the very beginning of choosing the topic I am curious about, helped me to develop autonomy and perseverance as well as to enjoy the very process of learning.

 

Q: What are your thoughts on extra-academic activities?

Aside from academic aspects a university is also a place where you can try various things and meet new people. So participating in many extracurricular activities in BIS helped me with my student life in Toronto. For instance, my experience as the captain of the girls’ basketball team at BIS motivated me to pursue playing basketball on the university intramural team. In addition, I joined a design team called “Unmanned Aerial Systems” where we build drones and compete in an annual student competition across Canada so participating in many extracurriculars activities BIS has provided has definitely opened up more opportunities to explore a wider variety of communities in the university.

Jeeyeoun as the captain of BIS girls’ basketball team in high school.

Jeeyeoun in university basketball team.

“Unmanned Aerial Systems”