International Education

All throughout high school, it was drilled into our minds that every decision moving forward counts, with the ultimate goal of applying to universities. When the time came to finally apply, I chose the US because I still wanted room to grow and discover what I wanted to pursue. With the freedom of being able to change majors fluidly, I looked forward to the pursuit of education. To me, it’s a privilege to be in a place of my choice to simply indulge in as much education as I can, gaining insight whether it’s from classes I adore and leave me hungry for more, or from classes that I can’t seem to keep my eyes open in. My high school was highly competitive, although in a very motivational sense, the International Baccalaureate program was thus far the hardest program I’ll ever complete. Running on no sleep was a norm, and assignments were thrown at us with no instruction, making it our responsibility to figure it out. My expectations of university, therefore, were to just continue with that work flow in an upward trajectory, knowing that I got through high school, and particularly IB.

Just looking at the course catalog when I finally got to university took me aback from the endless options that had never even occurred to me. I was used to a set structure of classes I had to take, so I was beyond excited to delve into such specific subjects and finally just take classes that interested me. The first quarter passed, and I somehow felt I wasn’t challenged in the slightest, however I attributed it to the 12 unit cap for my first quarter, as well as giving myself the leverage of settling in. Throughout my whole first year this feeling didn’t really change, whether I took three or six classes. The key difference to high school I found was that no matter what class I was in, reading seemed to be a common denominator. Although it felt tedious, I understood the aim of having supplemental readings, until I realized it was for every single class, at which point it felt like I wasn’t actually putting my knowledge to use. Aside from this, I found majority of the information I was gaining seemed to be Westernized, differing from my politically-aware Middle Eastern upbringing. Statistically on a global ranking, the US continues to rank in the middle bracket of education in comparison to other advanced industrial nations (Pew Research). Despite the funding put into education, and the reputation I always knew growing up of the US being highly ranked in terms of higher education, I feared I was falling behind.

Although it seems obvious, I realized it was up to me to make my own university experience. When I felt I wasn’t being pushed as much as I knew I was capable of, I didn't just put more on my plate without reason. Rather, I looked more into the subjects that did interest me. I joined a Lebanese club to still hold on to the part of me that felt like home, alongside joining Model UN to learn more about the rest of the world and global conflicts. I let go of the expectations that movies built of what the social life would be like and I joined a sorority, meeting people that have pushed me farther than I knew I was capable of. Last, but definitely not least, joining ISAB gave me the involvement and leadership to use me international knowledge on a more local level and actually see my impact. These experiences sparked that same desire for knowledge that I had coming into university, and has pushed me to continue exploring my interests.