Have you ever wondered what our school name BSGE means? It stands for Baccalaureate School for Global Education and it refers to the IB (International Baccalaureate) program established in BSGE in 2005. The IB program has been applied to over 4,000 schools (public and private) in 147 countries, over one quarter of them in the United States and 24 in New York. Students of these schools are aged 3-19. Our school focuses on two of the four programs, the pre-diploma program and the diploma program. In this program students aged 16-19 follow a rigorous two-year curriculum leading to the final examinations. This program helps students to develop physically, emotionally, intellectually, and socially while studying over 5 subjects. The exams, if passed, give the students a diploma recognized and accepted in many universities, including ones abroad.
On Tuesday, May 20th, a presentation on the IB program was held in BSGE. Students of various grades with their parents sat on cafeteria benches and listened to Jennifer Dikes, IB Coordinator, speak in front of the white board. Seated behind her were successful BSGE graduates and current seniors. The emphasis of the presentation was that the IB program’s goal was to produce successful students not only in school but in life. The IB program consists of 6 exams. 5 of them are taken in 12th grade but one is taken during 11th grade. To pass these exams students must have an average of 4/7 on each. The highest percentage that BSGE students passed the IB exams in one year was about 66.6%.
The BSGE graduates said the IB program really helped them in college because it prepares “thinkers” rather than creates “skills” like AP classes. They said it really helped them in writing essays and research papers. They also noted, however, they were unprepared for most math courses such as Calculus and needed to take a physics course if they wanted to be an engineer, with there being no physics courses offered in BSGE.
The BACC Rag 