Becoming an alumnus is the start of a brand new life. Everything around you would change, including the environment, work, lifestyle, and especially your life entirely. Alumni are entering adulthood and will start to take more responsibility in their university life. The following questions are asked to the alumni who just graduated from DIS S.Y. 2019-2020, and hopefully, these questions will help the current high school students and future high school graduates to have a better understanding of university life.
- What is challenging about university?
Among all the alumni interviewed, the majority said university is much more stressful since they have to take responsibility for everything. In high school, they could have fun studying and preparing for school, but they had to manage their time very well in university. Learning to be independent is also a skill they had to learn. Unlike high school, their schedule will change constantly and they would have to remind themselves about their work.
- How has COVID-19 affected their university life?
COVID-19 has deeply affected their life in university. Not only could they not leave Taiwan, but they also had to take online classes. Some alumni were lucky enough to have the opportunity to study in Taiwan universities as visiting students for their Covid program. Although some alumni thought online classes were convenient (since all they had to do was turn on the laptop), the majority said they wish to experience full university life, leaving Taiwan.
- How did DIS prepare them for University?
“A great thing about Dominican International School is that instead of writing exams and remembering textbooks repeatedly, DIS took a project-based learning approach”. According to this alumni, project-based learning has helped them throughout university. They said that a project-based learning approach is a skill that high school students must know since projects are quite common in universities.
- Some advice for high school students and future alumni?
The most frequent advice that the alumni gave is “Don’t stress out”. They believe that high school students should discover their interests since grades are not the only thing to focus on in life. Focus on what you learned and are interested in, and perhaps it could open a new career path.
