GJ: How do you feel that OYIS prepared you for life after high school?

Aeon: They taught me a lot about problem solving in different scenarios, social life or school life or otherwise. To put in enough effort and that everything will turn out right in the end. I didn’t graduate with the IB diploma, but with the WASC one instead, and I’ll be graduating from university this year. 

Mutsuha: I definitely learned a lot about how to study and how to schedule my life. I also learned a lot about time management and how to handle when things don’t go as planned.

I actually took a gap year after graduation and during that time, I worked for OYIS. They prepared me even more by giving me job opportunities that helped me schedule my life giving me experience on how to work in a professional environment.

I worked at the OYIS Saturday School as a teaching assistant, also during the Intensive Programs. In the Summer program, I worked as a swim instructor.

During the regular school year, I worked in the school’s science lab as a lab tech where I organized supplies and kept track of inventory.

I also did an internship with the Marketing Coordinator, where I wrote for social and worked on the school’s weekly newsletter. I photographed a lot of school events also, which sparked an interest in photography. 

GJ: How would you look back on your experiences from this school?

Aeon: I enjoyed my time for the most part. I’ve been around and I figured out that at OYIS, I had a lot more freedom to find things I liked compared to where I attended high school before. I had a lot of fun and my friends really helped me build real connections. 

Mutsuha: I would say I can look back at it with a good lens. I feel like I’ve improved as a person from my time there. I built a lot of better habits. My social life improved a lot as well and I learned to be more in touch with what it means to be human instead of being closed off. 

Malena: We had a lot of friends with all kinds of people. It was one of the only places I could go to and socialize with people in-person every day. Socializing in person every day does wonders for the brain, which is great. I mean, that’s one big positive thing about being in school, because I still have a lot of friends during that time. ∎

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.