It may only be January, but there is certainly a spirit of pomp and circumstance in the air at Dallas International School (DIS). From 4-8 January, DIS will welcome recent graduates back for the First Annual Alumni Week. They will meet with current students to recount their smooth transition from high school to college scholars, many having entered university with the credentials of a college sophomore. Alumni are usually nostalgic upon their return and tout Dallas International School’s unique and rigorous pre-collegiate curriculum as the foundation of their academic accomplishments.
However, the groundwork of such sound scholastic infrastructure could not have been laid overnight. In fact, Dallas International School parents are decidedly proactive. They understand that, in order to integrate into this globally-minded economy, their children need access to the elements that will give them an edge: a strong multilingual and multicultural education starting as early as possible. Regardless of mother tongue, enrolling at DIS during the preschool years and persevering until senior graduation positions students with a leg up over their monolingual counterparts.
Dallas International School is the only private school in the Dallas area to offer the French Baccalaureate (FB) Program accredited by the French Ministry of National Education. There are students who are not native French speakers with parents that don't speak a word of French who have excelled in the FB program. The first student to successfully complete pre-K through 12th grade at DIS graduated in 2009 with an FB diploma and had never even traveled to France before! Conversely, international students who are non-native speakers of English have successfully received their International Baccalaureate (IB) diplomas.
Notably, the Baccalaureate Diplomas open doors to top-tier universities in Europe, Canada and America. DIS alum Daniel Guinan (’15- FB) was accepted unconditionally to St. Andrews in Scotland. DIS alumni have been accepted to SciencesPo in Rheims, McGill University, University of Texas at Dallas and have even been awarded Presidential Scholarships to Southern Methodist University. Victoria Huang (’15-FB), currently attending the University of Pennsylvania, was presented with the 2015 Excellence Scholarship EZA Award from Mission Laique Française (Mlf), a distinction only bestowed upon four students in the Mlf America network of 20 schools. Students graduate from Dallas International School with a strong sense of identity, able to communicate in two or more languages and poised for success no matter which Baccalaureate track they choose to pursue.