A World of Opportunities

In the early 1900s, the phrase “a world of opportunities” portrayed an idea of a vast amount of something desirable yet almost unreachable. A century later, the same phrase can be used literally, literally. But I believe that the key that unlocks the literal meaning is education. But not just any. I mean global or international education. 

Some may argue that global education is where people of different nationalities are attending the same school, but I think that the main factors that make education global or international are:

• learning other languages, particularly an internationally widely used one;
• taking geographical limits, different economic, social and cultural systems as tools for mutual understanding and not as barriers or constraints;
• approaching subjects from multiple dimensions and perspectives; and,
• having access to all the world – physically and virtually.

Although having a mix of nationalities in a school enrichens the experience, this type of education is more of a mindset than anything else. Just the one that we have at BDS! This is why bilingualism and English are at the core of our curriculum. We could argue why not Chinese, but for the moment English keeps us tied to our roots, where our “Fac Recte” motto was born and is embedded.

The Cambridge examinations our students sit for are known around the world for their academic level, their rigorous evaluation process and their research based curricula. Students sit for these examinations all around the world bringing our students intellectually closer and providing a basis for comparison. As we are used to already, our students did great in their 2018 examinations with some really outstanding results: Victoria Mezquita got the top mark in Argentina in IGCSE Spanish; Stefanía Lojk got the top mark in Argentina in IGCSE English, Combined Science and ICT; Morena La Vecchia Galán obtained a high achievement recognition in AS Literature in English and Mijal Cannizzaro Azubel was best across the AICE diploma in Argentina. Special congratulations to them!

But at BDS we go further and offer the Dual Diploma programme that not only opens the minds of our students to North American education, but provides an excellent training for autonomous learning in a digital environment. In 2018 twenty percent of M&S School students were enrolled in the Dual Diploma. Ten of them successfully finished the programme and sixteen of our graduates obtained the diploma.

In 2018 we introduced the online College Credits programme for S5 and S6 students who wish to earn credits for North American colleges before graduating from BDS. Yet another opportunity for students who wish to jump into the world without leaving BDS for the sake of personal growth. An opportunity the first brave student has taken advantage of!

Some of our curricular and extracurricular activities have also catapulted our students abroad to international competitions. Florencia Gadea Granade and Camila Liuzzo have had outstanding performances in the national debating competitions, earning their way to the international instances. In 2018, Florencia made the six member national team that represented Argentina in Croatia. Nicole Kohan, in turn, after winning the BDS Public Speaking Competition, won the ESU National Public Speaking Competition and made it to the International PSC in London also representing Argentina.

Our exchange programmes provide excellent immersion experiences where our students can spend their summer holidays in another country, attending school there and living with a host family. What better way of mutual understanding than being there? And many may be forging lifelong friends also. In the summer of 2017/2018, eighteen students participated in exchange programmes in the USA, Germany, Holland, UK and Australia. In turn, we received thirteen students at BDS.

Every year, BDS send M&S School students to Round Square´s regional and international conferences, where students from around the world gather to live adventure and cultural experiences together. Present relevant issues that need to be addressed and tackled together to make the world a better place for everybody are discussed. In 2018, BDS sent four delegates to Charlotte, NC, USA, for the regional conference and five of them to the international conference held in Montreal, Canada.

Finally, our Senior Europe Sports and Cultural Tour every two years, in which our students travel to Great Britain and another destination in Europe (usually Italy or Spain) and visit iconic historical, social and cultural places. They also play rugby, hockey and volleyball matches against local schools in bare winter conditions. In the 2018 edition, 146 students in two separate groups of 72 boys and 74 girls travelled to England, Wales and Italy.

There´s no doubt that at BDS our students have lots of opportunities and choices. But it is for post graduation that we are preparing them for a world of opportunities!