School

Previous Education

As you may know I was born in the Netherlands. Zaandam to be specific. Here I grew up for my entire life. So needless to say I also went to school here.
My elementary school was called "de Wormerwieken" I don't remeber too much from this school. But what I do remember are all positive experiences. After elementary school I went to Highschool here in the Netherlands. My school was called St. Michael College.

St. Michael College was a HAVO/VWo school. I did the HAVO track. My parents always say they believed I could have done VWO if I studied more, but the truth is: I didn't want to study. I have always preferred a much more hands on approach, even in my studies.
When I was in highschool I was very interested in science, this is the readon why most of the classes I took were science classes. In Dutch I had an NG profile. Which would translate into a nature and health profile. This meant I took biology, chemistry, physics, and math. As an elective I took economics. At the time this was a decision that was mainly made because my dad told me it would give me a more well rounded profile, but now I do appreciate the fact that I took that class. It has helped me a lot with my business classes here at IBIS.

After Highschool I wanted to go straight to college. But at an infromation night I learnded about a gap year. A highschool exchange year to be more exact. When I found out about this I immediatly took action. My parents and I went to an informational meeting. After that I had months of filling out applications, and getting vaccinations. Then on July 26th, 2014 I started my Highschool year in the United States. Here I made great friends, and memories that will last a lifetime.

Why IBIS?

When I was in the United States I had to choose a study to attend when I would return to the Netherlands. This was quite hard for me to do, because I am a serious person and I am specifically serious about my school, I wanted something serious. Something that had a promising future, but something that also kept my options open fro university. But when I was in the United States I discover that I really enjoyed being more creative as well. This was something that I wanted to incorporate as well, since going to artschool wasn't really something that I felt was right for me. My last requirement of sorts was that I wanted to keep up with my English. My year in the United States got me to a level of English that I wanted to maintain, and maybe even further my knowledge.
When I was looking into studies I found out about International Business Management through a friend. I thought this would be an intresting study, but I felt like something was missing. When I was digging even deeper, and did even more research I found IBIS. When I looked on the website I was sold, and I immediatly applied. When I went to the introduction days, and when we finished the kick-off week I knew that this was a place where I could grow. Somewhere where I could be creative in my ways of thinking, but also learn about the fundamental values of a business.

Sterre de Weerd