My experience as a Wellington IB scholar

Rebecca is one of Wellington’s scholarship pupils currently preparing for the IB examinations with her year 13 peers. She is also waiting to hear back from various universities regarding her applications for acceptance. Rebecca shares her thoughts about how Wellington’s scholarship programme has helped her prepare to finish this stage of her education and begin the new one that will quickly follow.

I joined Wellington almost two years ago as I was starting my IB studies. Beginning the course as an IB scholar was a privilege and also a great help in terms of keeping me motivated and dedicated to achieving my personal best efforts across all the subjects that I’ve studied throughout the course. As well as the IB scholarship, I also applied and was accepted to become a musical theatre scholar last year. Both scholarships have been a great help to me throughout my time at Wellington in a variety of different ways. Firstly, being a scholar has helped me set and maintain the right kind of attitude to my school work. As I’ve said, it’s a powerful motivator to know that you’re regarded as being capable of achieving consistently high grades and contributing to your scholarship subject. I'm currently predicted a 41 at IB, which is what I'm striving to achieve as I wholeheartedly believe that I can do it. Given that my teachers have believed in me and shown me such support during my time here, I think it’s only right that I set very high expectations for myself. Having that measure of trust and responsibility placed in me has helped remind me that being a scholar is not a status symbol or simply something that looks good on a personal statement; it’s an ongoing commitment to represent the College and yourself as best you can. While that has added a little extra element of pressure, it’s been invaluable preparation for the kind of responsibilities that will no doubt come during higher education and then in later life. As well as motivating me, being a musical theatre scholar has also helped me enjoy new interests and educational experiences that I might not have otherwise considered. I was quite shy before I arrived at Wellington, but I’d always been drawn to the idea of getting involved in theatre, musicals in particular. That’s what led me to apply for the scholarship and to audition for last year’s musical, Annie. After securing a minor role and discovering that I loved performing, I decided to seize more opportunities to do so. I’ve recently played a role in The Sound of Music production and a major highlight for me was last year’s Remembrance Sunday service where I performed a song that I wrote. More specifically, the process of applying for scholarships and then maintaining them was all a considerable help in terms of getting me ready for university applications. In all areas of the application, I had to make the choices myself. It wasn’t just a case of figuring out the answer to a set question; I had to decide for myself how best to demonstrate what interests me, what speaks to me and what drives me to perform. Also, I had to present my ideas and my performing skills in a way that was coherent, succinct and immediately engaging, in order to help me stand out. This is exactly what universities are looking for, as they have hundreds if not thousands of applications to process, so your time to impress them is extremely limited! I would highly recommend that anyone who feels strongly enough about becoming a scholar should go for it. Even though it’s a lot of work, the payoff is more than worth it, as you gain practical experience of determining your own educational path while opening yourself up to new opportunities at the same time.  The whole process has shown me that our education – everything we do and learn during our school years – it’s not just a means to an end. I’m not planning to stop performing after I leave Wellington and hopefully go to the university of my choice. I want to keep doing it because I truly enjoy it, and perhaps I’ll continue to do so for the rest of my life. Regardless of how much longer I chose to perform, I’m grateful that I discovered what’s possible early on.

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