In the latest edition of IB World, a magazine published by International Baccalaureate, an IB Diploma graduate from Florida talks about how the rigors of IB prepared her for getting and working at a job she loves.
NOTE: Notre Dame Preparatory School and Marist Academy is an International Baccalaureate World School.
(From the September 2015 IB World – The magazine of the International Baccalaureate)
Everything connected
From academic to librarian to writer—one International Baccalaureate graduate explains how her interests have taken her full circle.
"The seven-year-old me would be beside herself," said Jessica Misener, as she considers her current role as deputy editorial director at news and entertainment website BuzzFeed.
"I wanted to be a writer from the age of six or seven," she said. "I would spend hours furiously writing short stories in notebooks and making my mom read them. I was a voracious reader and loved everything about words, and I'm so lucky now to get to edit and write for a living."
Her love of learning also inspired Misener to enroll in the IB Diploma Program at Fort Myers High School, Florida, where she studied art history, Spanish and English.
"There's a special camaraderie that comes with the pressure cooker environment of the IB," she recalled. "My favorite part was watching classic movies in theory of knowledge (TOK) and discussing them afterwards—and then that blissful feeling after graduation when you're actually clutching your diploma in your hands.”
But she walked away with more than a certificate. Misener's IB studies also provided her with valuable lifelong skills. "The IB taught me to think critically and how to tackle deadlines and colossal workloads under pressure," she said.
Before settling into journalism, Misener explored a few other professional avenues. While studying journalism at college, she took a religious studies class to fulfill an academic requirement. She found herself "falling in love" with the study of the Bible, which eventually resulted in her receiving a master’s degree in religion and classical antiquity from Yale University.
"My plan after finishing my master’s was to do a PhD and become a professor," she said. "I applied to some programs, but I didn't get into Yale, which was my number-one choice. That was a crossroads for me—did I love academic study enough to move to a new school and devote the next decade, and the rest of my life, to its pursuit?"
Ultimately, Misener decided to begin writing again. She took a position at Yale's rare book library and spent her evenings and weekends as a freelance writer, before securing a full-time media role in New York.
Her journalism career has proved equally diverse, and she's covered an eclectic range of topics, including contributions to Rolling Stone and Cosmopolitan magazines. For the last two years, Misener has worked at BuzzFeed, known for its irreverent mix of humorous lists, celebrity gossip, picture stories and breaking news. She has experienced first-hand how technology shapes our world.
"We're undeniably more connected than ever, to the extent that social media is real-life communication: it's not a cottage industry, nor in my view is it diminished in some way by the fact that we are communicating behind screens," she said. "Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram: these things are the future of interpersonal interaction, so I see no need to decry them as modern scourges."
However, she's wary that it can go too far: "I don't think social media is a bad thing at all, but I do push back against the constant pressure to 'share' every detail of your life with a virtual audience. It turns relationships into performances, and intimate social settings into 'see how cool my life is!' placards," she said.
In her fast-changing environment, Misener is unsure what the next 10 years holds. But as long as she can have a daily positive impact on someone's life, she knows she's heading in the right direction: "Whether it's by volunteering, listening or just writing something that makes people smile, I'll feel satisfied," she said.
Join Misener and fellow alumni in the IB alumni network. Visit its blog at blogs.ibo.org/alumni to learn more about this growing community.
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About Notre Dame Preparatory School and Marist Academy
Notre Dame Preparatory School and Marist Academy is a private, Catholic, independent, coeducational day school located in Oakland County. The school's upper division enrolls students in grades nine through twelve and has been named one of the nation's best 50 Catholic high schools (Acton Institute) four times since 2005. Notre Dame's middle and lower divisions enroll students in jr. kindergarten through grade eight. All three divisions are International Baccalaureate "World Schools." NDPMA is conducted by the Marist Fathers and Brothers and is accredited by the Independent Schools Association of the Central States and the North Central Association Commission on Accreditation and School Improvement. For more on Notre Dame Preparatory School and Marist Academy, visit the school's home page at www.ndpma.org.