The Future of Universities - Graded is Hosting Ben Nelson of The Minerva Project

Photo from WN.com

We are pleased to invite you to a presentation by Ben Nelson, Founder, Chairman and CEO of Minerva Project, a reinvented university experience for the brightest and most motivated students in the world. In this presentation, Ben Nelson will discuss the current situation and the future of higher education and the way Minerva plans to help students be global leaders and innovators. Prior to founding the Minerva Project, Nelson spent ten years at Snapfish as President and CEO.  Ben Nelson holds a B.S. in Economics from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, where he graduated with honors.

Location:  Graded, The American School of Sao Paulo - Auditorium
Av. Presidente Giovanni Gronchi, 4710
Morumbi - São Paulo,  SP  05724-002
Date: Tuesday, April 29
3.30pm – 4:30pm
Coffee Break following the Presentation

PLEASE REGISTER HERE

The Next Steps with Challenge Success: Create a more balanced and academically fulfilling life for our students.

We had a lively discussion at yesterday's High School PTA Coffee about the culture and climate at Graded. We used what we have learned from our work with Challenge Success to frame the discussion and participants were asked to take a stance on several position statements. They had to decide where they felt the Graded parent community stood on the topics of homework, future university plans for their sons/daughters, extra-curricular activities, and posting of grades on Veracross. The group also developed statements about the school culture that faculty and students will respond to. This was our first meeting after releasing the data and we are clearly moving into an action phase. The next steps include:

• Begin the dialogue with faculty and students 
• Join the Challenge Success community and begin working with them on an action plan 
• Recruit Volunteers for a team of representatives from all stakeholder groups

Below is the presentation from yesterday's meeting. We'll be sharing the parents' views after sharing with the faculty. Please feel free to add comments and/or questions using the comment feature below. We look forward to getting input from a larger group of community members.

Senior Parent College Night: Live in-person or in the comfort of your home

Image from the Norfolk Public Library site

Next Thursday, September 12, the high school college counselors will have a presentation at 7:00 pm in the Black Box Theater. Topics to be covered include: 

• US application process and timeline, 
• common application, 
• reporting standardized test scores. 

They will also touch on certification of finances for international applicants, FAFSA for US citizens/residents, as well as UK/Ontario and European application timelines and processes. We hope that all seniors and their parents will attend this important event.

This meeting will be the first time that GradedLive will broadcast an evening meeting for parents and students. Participants can watch the meeting online and submit questions through a chat feature. The questions will be moderated and will either be addressed during the meeting or at a later date. Here is the link to the video stream and we will present more information on the chat feature next week. Thanks to the GradedLive students and the counselors for being risk-takers. We hope that this will be the first of many parent evening events that we can stream live.  

The juniors are already thinking about college applications

Several weeks ago Ms. Pfeiffer met with the juniors to share tips and ideas on writing their college application essays. This is just one of the services that students have access to in the Writing Center. The flex session was one of several related to college admissions that Ms. Miller and Mr. Daniel organize for juniors during second semester.

Graded College Essay Writing Session 1 from Blair Peterson

Class of 2013 Post Secondary Report

Ms. Miller recently presented the following presentation to Graded's Board of Directors. The presentation has comprehensive information on post-secondary applications and acceptances for the Class of 2013. It's important to note that this data is only one of the areas that we review when we look at student performance and academic achievement.We strive to help graduates find the right environment for them to continue their studies. As you can imagine, each year there are many success stories as our graduates successfully move on to their next stage in life. We are certainly proud of each and every member of the Class of 2013 and we wish them the best next year.

2013 college apps analysis for board mtg may 6 from Blair Peterson

Tackling Stress at Graded: HS PTA Coffee April 17th

If you're interested in learning more about our plans to partner with Challenge Success to study our culture then we hope that you will attend the April 17th HS PTA Coffee.

Challenge Success is a not-for-profit organization out of the Stanford University School of Education. Through a Graded Fund grant the middle and high schools will be surveying all students in the coming weeks. The organization is "Challenging this definition of success that starts with grades, GPA, and test scores..." and they assist community members with changing attitudes and behaviors that create unhealthy environments. The survey asks students about

• student engagement;
• teacher support and care; 
• academic integrity; 
• academic worry;
• parent goals and expectations; 
• homework and extra-curriculars; 
• health and well-being.

We are flipping the meeting and ask that parents who attend Wednesday's coffee preview the following videos. This will provide you with information on some of the Challenge Success ideas.

In this short video, Denise Pope, Co-Founder of Challenge Success discusses the mission of the organization. One of her key quotes is, "Reflect on a broader definition of success."



Denise Pope speaking to parents about homework, sleep, stress, extracurricular activities.


Challenge Success: Student Interviews on:

• Late start and collaboration days
• Block Scheduling
• Dialogue Nights and the Culture of Stress

Career Day

This year Career Day will feature both guest speakers and a Brazilian college fair. Students will have the opportunity to meet with professionals in breakout sessions from 1:30 - 3:10 pm. Thanks to Ms. Andrade and Ms. Maggie for organizing this year's event.

Barnard Young Women's Leadership Workshops

Graded hosted the Barnard College Young Women's Leadership workshops on Wednesday and 65 girls from the area worked with Barnard students. This was a fantastic opportunity for 18 of our students. Kathryn Kolbert, Director of the Athena Center for Leadership Studies and Professor of Leadership Studies at Barnard College, opened the event with ideas on leadership and women in leadership roles. In the breakout sessions the girls conducted simulation job interviews where they studied gender issues in hiring. 

Below are tweets from Monday's  "Women Changing Brazil" Global Symposium. 

Lee Fertig on Leadership Development at Graded

Cross posted in the Graded Gazette

Leadership Development
Many Graded students, teachers, and parents had the opportunity to participate in this week’s Global Symposium, Women Changing Brazil, sponsored by Barnard College. On Wednesday, we were fortunate to have Barnard students and administrators on campus conducting a series of workshops with high school students from Graded and several other international schools in the São Paulo area. I had the opportunity to meet with these Barnard College officials and we ended up talking a lot about leadership and how educational institutions empower young adults to become effective leaders. And this prompted my thinking about how we do this here at Graded…

What does leadership development look like at Graded? Does the school have one concrete model that includes a curricular focus on leadership, different leadership opportunities for students, special age-appropriate resources, and multiple assessments of leadership activity? No, not really. We do not utilize anything so formal and structured. Nevertheless, people from outside of the school community are constantly telling me how impressed they are with the manner in which Graded students have a leadership presence in a wide variety of activities. Our students were recently commended for being some of the best delegates at the HACIA Democracy and Model United Nations events. A school administrator from an international school in the mid-East commented on how impressed he was with Graded students at the recent AMIS music festival in Dubai. Graded students were the ones who organized the recent Fashion for Community event. Even the Barnard College representatives noticed how astute and active Graded students were in the dialogue at this week’sWomen Changing Brazil symposium. And leadership is not just about individuals speaking and performing in front of others. To empower others with more of a “behind-the-scenes” approach is equally effective: teaching skills to others for their own advancement, implementing organizational structures that enhance the work of others, and giving constructive feedback to peers and colleagues are a few other ways in which authentic leadership manifests itself.

Where does this come from? How do Graded students acquire these characteristics, especially if there is no formal training program? The Graded Experience is filled with numerous opportunities to engage in different types of leadership behavior, activities that encourage students to take some risks and learn along the way. This happens in so many extracurricular activities, but it also takes place within classrooms on a daily basis. Students are constantly being asked to engage in tasks that contribute to effective leadership. So, even though we would probably benefit from being even more intentional about developing strong leadership in our children, it is obvious that much of this is already happening organically. In some respects, this should not come as a surprise to anyone… Graded’s mission does challenge us to empower students to become “engaged, ethical citizens in a dynamic world.” The Graded Experience, by its very nature, is doing just that.

The Road to College Presentation

There was a full house last night at the Road to College presentation that was given by Cory Miller and Todd Daniel. This is such an exciting time for the juniors and their parents. The presentation from last night is below.

Feb 20 Junior Parent Meeting by Blair Peterson

Seniors and Early Applications

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bundesstrasse_44_Oesterreich.png

44 of Graded's 91 seniors have applied early to 45 different overseas universities. Even for Graded this is an extremely high percentage of early applications. This means that for those 44 students, along with the support of their counselors, teacher and parents have been extremely busy these past months preparing their applications. This is in addition to their rigorous coursework. This also means that they will have decisions from the Universities in December or early January.

There are basically three types of early applications.
Early Decision - Applicants apply early and if accepted, they are contractually obligated to attend the school.
Early Restrictive Action - Applicants apply early and, if accepted, they have an earlier deadline to make a decision on whether or not to attend.
Early Action - Applicants apply early and, if accepted, they can still consider other options.

The Wordle shows the schools that the students applied to (the larger the name, the more applications)