Qiqi, Class of 2016, Century Park Campus

My name is Qiqi and I studied at YCIS for four years. Now that I have graduated, I am going to college in the US to study psychology.

Looking back on my time at YCIS, the teachers were amazing. They are so caring and really helped me recognise and develop my strengths. I like to talk to people and help them, and my teachers helped me realise that. They gave me the confidence and support to pursue my talents. That’s where my aspiration to study psychology came from.

I loved being part of the YCIS community. The students and teachers are so welcoming and I made a lot of friends from all around the world. Being in an international school was a really special experience for me because I got to know different groups of people with different backgrounds. As a result, I became more open minded and had the opportunity to discuss ideas and opinions with my classmates. Going to an international school prepared me for university where you also interact with many different types of people.

YCIS offers so many of different extracurricular activities and I participated in a lot of them. I especially enjoyed our EOTC trips and some fundraising efforts, including bake sales.

My favourite part of YCIS was Chinese class. Chinese is my favourite language and my teacher was amazing. She not only helped me recognise my strength in the subject, but also helped me to develop critical thinking skills.

In fact, all of the teachers at YCIS were great at stressing the importance of critical thinking skills. They encouraged me to see things from different points of view and to analyse situations and determine my own opinion, skills which I truly appreciate!

My advice to current and future YCIS students is to be confident in who you are and work hard. There will be challenges, especially during your time in the IB Diploma programme, but your hard work will definitely pay off in the end!