By Meg Partington
Driven by a desire to challenge themselves, three recent Richwoods High School graduates are heading to the East Coast to begin Ivy League educations.
Kevin Liao is bound for Princeton University in New Jersey; Matthew Seshul will attend Dartmouth College in New Hampshire; and Johnny Thai is heading to University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. All were part of the International Baccalaureate program at Richwoods, the only Illinois school south of Chicago to offer it.
Kevin and Johnny were awarded funds covering tuition, room, board, and academic expenses through QuestBridge, which helps high-achieving students from low-income backgrounds earn full four-year scholarships from some of the nation's 55 best colleges.
The IB program is known for its rigorous academic standards; acceptance rates to Ivy League and other top-ranked colleges and universities higher than those of other academic programs; and focus on holistic development, including critical thinking, writing, discussion, debate, research, collaboration, leadership, and community volunteerism.
“IB is truly regarded as one of the elite academic programs globally,” said Thomas Hayes, IB coordinator at Richwoods.
Hayes said that, in the past three years, Richwoods IB students have been accepted to noteworthy institutions including Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Stanford, Northwestern and New York universities; Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT); University of Chicago; and the United States Military Academy at West Point.
Word has spread about the benefits of the program. Hayes said that in the past decade, 100 to 120 freshmen have been accepted into the IB program and, in the fall, 116 pre-IB students in grades nine and 10 will join. When he started teaching at Richwoods in 2011, there were only eight seniors in the IB program, but this year, 70 IB seniors graduated, a dramatic boost.
Kevin, Matthew and Johnny took full schedules of IB classes for the last two years, a path that began before high school.
“I thought regular classes were too boring and I wanted to challenge myself,” said Kevin, 17. “I think I came in trying to take the hardest classes I could.”
“I wanted to get into a good college and be a better student,” said Matthew, 18. “I was really focused on the future and I wanted to get into the program and do well in it to set myself up for college.”
Johnny, 17, was particularly interested in attending West Point in New York, so he started pushing himself toward a higher level of physical fitness through wrestling and cross-country at Richwoods, plus training in Muay Thai outside of school. He also participated in the Jr. ROTC program, chess and recycling clubs and Model UN, and co-founded the mock trial team at Richwoods his senior year. Outside of school, Johnny was a summer camp counselor and is a member of the Peoria Chinese Association.
Involvement in school and extracurricular activities is a common thread among the three Ivy Leaguers.
Kevin was a member of the Richwoods tennis team, ran cross-country and was on the swim team. He was on the student council, a member of the chess and science clubs and, as a senior, co-founded a group that travels to primary and middle schools in the area to teach students how to play chess. Like Johnny, he is a member of the Peoria Chinese Association.
Matthew played tennis; participated in student council; wrote for The Shield, Richwoods’ student news site; and started the investment club at Richwoods, all while running his own pet-sitting business.
The trio of Knights continues to have high expectations.
Kevin plans to major in physics and minor in computer science or robotics. He aspires to study particle physics, adding that he has a fascination with the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland, the world’s largest particle accelerator. This summer, he is enrolled in the online component of Princeton’s Freshman Scholars Institute, through which he will take a humanities course that provides an introduction to scholarly reading and writing. He also will be a squad leader at the Young Leaders Summit (YLS), a free, college empowerment program for high-achieving, low-income high school juniors that he participated in last summer.
Matthew intends to double major in economics and math and work in the finance industry. This summer, he plans to be part of a quantitative finance introduction program that will guide his route in the financial realm.
Johnny wants to major in neuroscience or biochemistry and minor in a foreign language (he’s debating between Mandarin, Russian, Arabic and Japanese). He hopes to go to medical school after completing his undergraduate work and focus on studying vascular health.
The IB program is a worthy endeavor for students with high aspirations, according to these recent graduates.
“I think more people should apply and really go for it,” Matthew said. “It will shock you how much you can grow if you make an unrealistic goal and try. I had the goal of getting into an Ivy in middle school and I didn’t think it would actually happen, but if you put in consistent effort and put in the work, great things happen.”
“It’s very good preparation for college,” Kevin added.
They also want those considering applying to know that all of the IB classes place a heavy emphasis on writing.
Kevin and Johnny said IB is a major time commitment that requires students to juggle their school and extracurricular schedules well. But all three young men said the results make the demands worthwhile.
“I have really grown as a student as I have gone through the program,” Matthew said. “I have taken the most difficult IB classes offered and they have taught me how to work through difficult problems and how to write papers well. I also gained a lot of tenacity and time management while dealing with struggles and conflicting project timelines.”
Dates of note for those interested in applying for the IB program at Richwoods:
● September 30: parent informational meeting, 6 p.m. in the Richwoods auditorium
● November 2: deadline for applications to be completed, 4 p.m.
● November 20 and 21: IB interviews, 4 to 8 p.m. in the Richwoods library
● December 1: acceptance letters sent to parents
For more information, contact Hayes at THOMAS.HAYES@PSD150.ORG.