How MICDS Prepared Me for Life’s Successes, Failures and More

On October 29, 2011, my mom, dad and I attended MICDS’ Open House. As a 6th grader at Rossman School, my family had been taking the Secondary School search very seriously as I imagine many do today. We knew very little about MICDS, other than it was across the street from where my grandparents used to live and had a beautiful campus. But by that afternoon, my family knew that MICDS was the perfect place for me. And six years later, as a 17 year old well into my senior year, I still feel the same way.

There are many adjectives that I could use to describe my time at MICDS, but “easy” is not one of them. Each day, I’m faced with a fabulous new challenge. This is because, in front of every single class I’ve taken at MICDS has stood a teacher who is completely dedicated to pushing their students to their maximum potential.

My teachers have been there for me to meet at 7 a.m. to help me analyze Henry Kissinger’s opinions of Wilsonian-era foreign policy and at 9 p.m. when I send a frantic email to confirm that, yes, Lead-Chloride is the solid that forms when Lead-Nitrate and Potassium-Chloride react. My teachers have celebrated my successes and leadership in classes, but more importantly, they never give up on me when I fail. And to all the young students out there, I want to assure you, it’s okay to fail. In fact, it’s expected. What’s not okay is accepting failure as defeat, and my teachers have emphasized that again and again. Last year, I got a D on an AP Biology test. I’m not exaggerating. It was a 68 percent, and I was mortified. But I didn’t give up, drop the class, try to expunge this bad grade from my memory; rather, I met with my teacher, I learned from my mistakes, I tried new study methods. And sure enough, when January rolled around, I got an A on the final. My teacher valued my pursuit of improvement so much more than a good test grade. And that’s the norm at MICDS. Students attack disappointment with “What can I do next? How can I improve?”

But the growth of MICDS students doesn’t end in the classroom. My extracurricular life has been an integral part of shaping me as a person and assisting me in discovering my passions. It’s with my all-girls robotics team where I’ve overcome society’s odds that a 15, 16, 17 year old girl can’t program a robot. Sorry society, because I have, because I do.

But I don’t have to chose between being a science kid or a history buff. I can do robotics and co-head Campus Democrats where we talk about politics, but also partner with Young Republicans to focus on how we can make MICDS a more cohesive community than the nation that surrounds us. While writing this piece, I began to think of all of the clubs I attended at least one meeting for. (Model UN, Debate, Jewish Student Union, Math Team, Cheerleading, Gender Equality Club, Student Government, and Pep Band come to mind along with many more). I didn’t choose to stick with all of them, but MICDS gave me the opportunity to try it all, to whet my appetite and discover what it is that really makes me tick. It’s because of these opportunities that I discovered my love for computer science, the field which I intend to study in college and later pursue as a career. And without MICDS, it’s a topic I probably would have never explored.

So, I’ve explained to you why and how this school helped me become who I am, but I also imagine some of you have a different perception of MICDS. I know my family did six years ago. But, when we visited here, we saw progress, we saw growth, we saw an institution dedicated to giving its students an unparalleled academic experience. What we saw completely changed our perception. My dad still reminds me that before he visited MICDS, he never would’ve imagined sending me here, but afterwards, he couldn’t have seen me anyplace else. So, I hope that, for those of you making choices soon about your education, you choose to see MICDS for yourself. Talk to students and teachers, and begin to imagine all the incredible things you could do at MICDS.