Education becomes alive when we are able to make connections between the classroom and what is going on in the real world. The IB promotes this through things like Community, Action and Service (CAS). We also try our best to bring real world experiences to the classroom by inviting in guest speakers or by having students gain experience in different companies or organizations.

Iya from Grade 12 gained some fantastic real world experience during his internship at L’Oréal Thailand. It's great to see our students doing something outside of their comfort zone, taking risks and learning how to apply knowledge from the classroom to the real world. Here, in his own words, is Iya's experience:

My Internship Experience with L’Oréal

During the summer of G11, I was presented an opportunity to intern at L’Oréal. It was the perfect opportunity for me as a teenager to experience the adult world before stepping into it. At 17 years old, I was the youngest intern in the history of L’Oréal, and needless to say, it was nerve-wracking.

Working a 9-5, attend regular meetings and scheduled project briefings; it was as close as I could get to being an adult. I literally skipped 7 years worth of experience and had to act like a 24 year old graduate in a matter of days. However, it wasn’t as bad as I had thought. Mark Twain once said he would never let schooling interfere with his education, and surely enough the lessons I’ve learned from being an intern were quite different from school. Being able to learn from real world experiences accelerated my learning process, and as a result matured my perspective.

I would recommend everyone to try intern at a company of their interest, you might be surprised by the results!

Here are some of the advertisements that Iya produced: