(Leamington, Ontario, Wednesday, Nov. 21, 2018) – There’s a heightened sense of anticipation here and next September can’t come soon enough for some people now that Cardinal Carter Catholic Secondary School has been approved to offer a world renowned academic program.

“I was very excited,” parent Leisa Semaan said when she heard that Cardinal Carter has been approved to offer the International Baccalaureate Diploma Program for Grade 11 and 12 students beginning in the fall of 2019. Semaan’s daughter Hailey is a Grade 10 student who plans to go in to the program next year.

“Cardinal Carter is going to be able to offer so many programs now,” she said. “My daughter will be able to get French Immersion as well as an IB diploma, all within a Catholic setting, which is very important for our family. This is really going to give her the foundation to succeed in university.”

Established in 1968, International Baccalaureate programs aim to develop inquiring, knowledgeable, and caring young people who are motivated to succeed by offering specific programs geared to students in certain stages of their development. Schools must be authorized to deliver IB programs and currently, more than 4,000 schools around the world are established as IB schools.

For the last two years, Cardinal Carter has been in the candidacy phase while it waited for final approval to be recognized as an IB World School. Grade 10 student Massimo Maiuri has been eagerly awaiting that approval so that he could apply for entry.

“I want to push myself to become a more well-rounded individual, and become better than I was previously,” said Maiuri, who hopes to go to medical school at Montreal’s McGill University.

“Universities like to see you challenging yourself with a rigorous program, and they want to see that you pushed yourself to do something that probably wouldn’t do, and step outside your comfort zone.” 

During the candidacy phase, teachers were being trained by IB program consultants on all aspects of the program in preparation for delivering the curriculum to the inaugural class.

Besides being a great program for her students, math teacher Denise Sauve believes being involved with it will make her a better educator by challenging her to learn new curriculum and new teaching strategies.

“I’ve already had the opportunity to go away for training, which I found to be a very enriching experience,” she said. “It gave lots me to learn, and new things to try.”

Check out this video on the new IB program at Cardinal Carter.