Preme | Class of 2023 Senior Highlight

Preme received offers from the following universities:

• University of Toronto with CAD 100,000 Scholarship

• UCL

• University of Edinburgh

• University of Glasgow with Academic Excellence Scholarship

What have you learned from Senior Studies?

I’ve learned so much I don’t even know where to start… I feel like IB experience allowed me to develop and enlarge my perspective in life. Everyone’s experiences will differ but for me, engaging in a variety of CAS projects really pushed me to engage in activities I’d never thought I’d do like theatre, starting an organisation with my friends and much more.

Eventually, through engaging in various activities, I obtained a significant amount of soft skills that enabled me to confidently speak in public, film and edit videos or posters, organise activities and fundraisers and be a better leader. The activities really spark my interest in other fields.

In addition to unique soft skills, the IB experience gave every student an opportunity to complete individual research projects and explore their interest within each subject area. We all encountered sleepless nights, heavy workload and a lot of obstacles; however, those hardships allowed us to foster tighter friendships. Through these struggles, we began helping and supporting each other, creating funny memories and long lasting friendships.

Despite the IB program being strenuous, to say the least, I don’t regret anything I did including all the mistakes I’ve made. One of the important lessons I’ve learned is that the limit is not the sky… it’s your body. Overconsumption of caffeine with sleep deprivation will eventually break you and hard work might not always reward you with your dreams, however, it will reward you with the contentment of no regret from knowing you did your best.

In a positive light, your dreams might not be met, but you would have obtained more than if you hadn't tried. Overall, looking back, I’ve definitely grown into a more mature and skilled person due to the challenges I overcame during my time in the IB program. I won’t change anything if I can go back in time except maybe learn how to make my own coffee instead of buying Starbucks so I can save more money…

Your plans for university or after graduation?

I have made a bucket list of things I want to accomplish before going to university, categorising it into short term and long term for example: continue learning mandarin, Korean and computer science, compose original songs, play badminton and volleyball etc.

I plan on pushing my hobbies to the most before going to university and continue doing similar activities in universities. In university, I’d like to engage in professional research projects and hopefully become a part of an impactful discovery as well as discovering my true passions and getting to know more friends and diverse cultures.

Favourite memory from STA?

There are so many but the one that stands out to me is lunch time volleyball. Every session, we all run from our class to the sports hall. During the session, something goofy always happen like the ball getting stuck in the roof, people pulling crazy tricks, the ball hitting people’s faces and so much more. I became really close with the people who came to play and greatly enjoyed the progress of improvement we all made. I also enjoy my chemistry class greatly. The chemistry between students and teachers are impeccable. We always make the craziest jokes and chemistry feels less hard when Mr.Ollie makes the class so interesting.

Any advice for students going into IB or Year 12s?

Finish your EEs in summer as well as some of your university essays. Ask your seniors for advice and tips since they’ve been through it. Use Reddit for resources and scihub to get free research papers. Remember you’re not struggling alone and eventually, things will get better. Don’t give up!