A group of educators, community leaders and professionals recently sat down with Qatar Academy Grade 10 students as part of their Middle Years Programme (MYP) interview. The exit interview is conducted after the students complete the five-year International Baccalaureate programme.
MYP Coordinator Chad Schwaberow has witnessed the growth of the practice. “The MYP exit interviews started as the culmination of the Community and Service programme and were designed to give students the opportunity to reflect on the type of difference they had made in the world. The expansion of the process now includes questions about the type of person they are and want to become, what skills they have developed, and gives a chance to share major victories and challenges from all areas of their life. This includes aspects that might not necessarily be included on a school report card”.
Over 40 professionals were invited and, according to Schwaberow, they will “connect students to the world that the Academy is preparing them for”. He added: “This year has seen a tremendous response with interviewers from other centres of Qatar Foundation, several of the universities and multinational companies donating their time. These individuals are put together with QA teachers, staff, and administration to bring the entire community together to celebrate the end of a five-year programme”.
Questions that focus on the targets of the programme help guide the interviewers, but the sessions ultimately enabled the students to share their accomplishments and discuss future aspirations. Interviews were conducted in the student’s preferred language – English, Arabic and even French – and at least four students answered questions online via Skype with an educator based outside Qatar.
Student Ben Newton-McGrath prepared well for the interview and shared his portfolio and photography website to showcase some of his accomplishments while in QA. Some of his greatest achievements, he said, were the experiences, challenges languages and places he was able to visit in the relatively short time he was in MYP. “My exit interview was very interesting,” he related. “It was nice for somebody to ask me in-depth questions that made me think. I think this would greatly benefit me down the road when I go to university or job interviews”.
“The interviews are helping students to take inventory of what they have accomplished at this point in high school and to figure out what community and service activities and leadership roles they would like to add to their portfolios before applying to universities,” Schwaberow said. “But, it is more than that. This is also an opportunity to take inventory of what type of person you have become, to feel what all of that work and energy have accomplished, and to see the big picture of what an IB education is designed to create”.
