Alumni Feature: Joshua Young
Class of 2014 graduate Joshua Young talks life after BISB in this alumni profile. Read on to learn about his studies and successes since graduating.
Class of 2014 graduate Joshua Young, who served as Head Boy during the 2013-2014 school year, took some time to share some of his college experiences since leaving BISB, including a summer research job studying galaxy morphology.
Q: How long did you attend BISB? What drew you to the school initially?
Joshua: I attended BISB from Y1 through Y13 and my parents were initially drawn by the school. I chose to stay through because I enjoyed the curriculum, especially IGCSE and IB.
Q: Where do you go to college? Did you know what you wanted to study when you first joined, or has your path of study change at all in college so far?
Joshua: I now attend Colby College. I chose Colby because of how excellent the professors are and the relationships they form with their students. I wanted the holistic approach of a liberal arts college, and Colby also has a smaller student body than other colleges, which I prefer. I did not know what I wanted to study when I first came to Colby, but I was able to explore many different areas and classes during my first two semesters.
Q: What has college been like for you? How was the transition from BISB to college?
Joshua: The transition for me from BISB to Colby was quite smooth, especially since Colby has smaller class sizes and close relationships with professors like at BISB. Living on a campus in a dorm was probably the hardest transition.
Q: How do you think your education at BISB prepared you for college?
Joshua: Colby is very academically challenging but I do think the IB program at BISB prepared me well and also helped me with advanced placement. One of the best parts of having done the IB is meeting another person who has done the IB, whether they're an international student or did it in the US, you really have a common experience. Even a year in its a really neat thing to learn about someone you meet and then use all your IB jargon.
Q: Can talk a bit about an interesting course you are taking, or interesting work you've done in college?
Joshua: My favorite class of fall semester 2015 was Modern Physics. You get to follow in the footsteps of Einstein and learn physics that really blows your mind.
This past summer I got a research position at Colby studying galaxy morphology. We used Hubble images from the CANDELS survey (the astronomy professors here were on the team that did CANDELS survey with the Hubble) and classified red and dead galaxies, which are high redshift and no longer forming stars. There were 240 red and dead galxies out of 41,000 in the batch of data that we were using. We found that there is a much higher than expected percentage of quenched disk galaxies in the early universe, which doesn't align with current galaxy evolution theory, and our results were backed up by other studies.
Q: What are your career goals going forward?
Joshua: I am still not certain on a career path but I hope to continue to take classes in the areas which I am interested in and hopefully find something from there.
Q: What skills did you learn at BISB that are most applicable to your life now?
Joshua: The organizational skills that I learned during BISB are helpful in college. Especially during the IB, when you have more freedom, it’s important to be self-motivated and organized like you have to be in college.
Q: What advice do you have for BISB students, as they're looking ahead to college and careers?
Joshua: Learn as much as you can during the IB, once you get into college it is really nice to bring with you all of the knowledge and skills you gained from the IB to apply in college courses and even to start beyond intro classes.
