Alumni Reflection – Gabrielle
August 22, 2019
Alumni Reflection – Virginia
August 22, 2019
Alumni Reflection
Isabella Watson
I am Isabella Watson and I attended middle school at IDEAL for three years, graduating in 2017, before moving onto high school. I was fortunate enough to get in to Oxbridge Academy of the Palm Beaches. I believe this was greatly due to the way IDEAL worked at preparing me for high school life.
IDEAL is truthfully a unique school that teaches in a way that accommodates to your learning style. At previous schools, I often struggled keeping up with how the majority of the class was learning, at IDEAL, however, I was never afraid to ask for help.
I transferred to IDEAL for an environmental change. I remember when my mom picked me up after I shadowed a day there, my mom said that it was the first time she had ever seen me smile after school. IDEAL made me feel confident in who I was, with teachers and friends supporting me while being in a comfortable environment. Through this school, I discovered new passions, such as art.
At Oxbridge Academy, I entered as many art classes that I possibly could and was confident in applying myself in new opportunities that would have shied away before. Oxbridge held an art contest for Florida is Nature to create awareness to endangered species in Florida. The contest was open to the whole school and students had to submit a drawing for a mural that would be painted on a wall at Oxbridge. Artist, Xavier Cortada, had the honor to choose the winner of the contest. At the last minute, I decided to enter the contest and school announced that I had won! I had the privilege to design and paint the mural with lots of help from the art department and the students from the art classes. I am thrilled that I got to leave a legacy at Oxbridge that will last forever. The mural was such a great success that more murals at Oxbridge will be filling the halls with color in the future.
The old me would never have entered the contest, but with the confidence I gained thanks to IDEAL, I did! I am very grateful for the teachers and my peers that helped me learn new skills at IDEAL. IDEAL made me a self-reliant person. It gave me assurance to continue my big dreams for the future, to become an Olympic Equestrian.
