IB Carrer Programme
One of the biggest decisions I had to make my sophomore year was whether or not I wanted to go IB CP or DP. I knew I wanted to go IB, but I had a lot of different thoughts about whether CP or DP was the right choice for me. One major drawback of DP was the fact that I had to take an IB language. Foreign languages had never been a strength of mine, but I found a passion for ASL. ASL did not have an IB option, so I decided that giving up a class that I love was not worth becoming an IB DP student. I felt nervous that the decision to become a CP student was wrong because many of my friends had gone DP, but throughout my junior year, I slowly realized that CP was the right choice for me. I was able to focus on my career pathway of graphic design and obtain my Adobe certification, which I felt was extremely beneficial to my professional career. My pathway helped me decide what I wanted to do in the future and by gaining my certification I was able to boost my resume for college and future job opportunities.
Speaking of resumes, I also had time to create one of my own and get feedback from teachers and staff at the school. This truly helped me gain confidence for college applications and job interviews. Within the CP program, we are required to take a course called Personal and Professional Skills. You take the class second semester of junior year and the first semester of senior year. This class was exactly what you would expect. We learned skills that were going to help us in our professional futures. Skills such as interview prep, ethical decision-making, and professional communication as we prepare to become adults learning to make a living in the world. It is able to prepare us for what like is going to look like going into and after college. Within this class, we write only one essay compared to the two that the IBDP stu- dents have to write. You have to write a “Reflective Project” which is a 3000-word essay about an ethical dilemma within your career pathway. The teachers make it incredibly easy as we start it junior and have a rough draft done just to tweak during our senior year. The process seemed almost effortless which fueled my love for the CP program.
Just like the DP program, we also had to record community service. However, ours was called “Service Learning” in which we had to complete a minimum of 50 hours. We had to span across four categories of service: direct, indirect, advocacy, and research, without being allowed to count sports as service, CP students had to gout into the world and find a way to make a difference that would truly make an impact.
I felt like through the CP program there was less stress because we were able to focus on our career pathways and weren’t under as strict guidelines as DP students. CP students are only required to take two IB classes compared to the six classes, one of which is a language and the other an art or “individual and societies” course, allowing freedom in the decision of what classes students want to take. While I was only required to take two, I opted to take four classes that I felt would benefit me and give me the academic challenge that DP provides but still have personal preference in the classes that will benefit me the most. This also allowed me to focus on my career for college and post-college. While colleges do care about the rigor of the classes you are taking and DP does allow that, CP provides professional experiences that colleges love to see. I am extremely grateful that I chose to be a CP student and for all the benefits that I have received from the program.