Interview with Bond Academy Alum, Jessica Ye

Bond Academy set up many resources to help me transition culturally from another country. When I first arrived in Canada to go to Bond Academy, it was very much a culture shock from the moment I got off the plane. I really appreciate the relationships made throughout my time there, not just the relationships with all my classmates and making some friends, but the teachers and the staff teams are also really helpful and resourceful. The relationships made it better to experience my first time in high school, in a new school in a new country.

Bond Academy offers a very close and small classroom that helps make better connections within the classroom itself, but also sets students up for success within the classroom academically. After graduating from Bond Academy and chatting with other students and friends from other schools I found that my classroom sizes of about 4 to 12 people were unusual. The teacher gets to know each student. Within the smaller environment, students are more active in classroom participation and we get to know each other better.

Bond Academy has been with me through different stages, personally and academically throughout my time there. Through every academic success, the teachers and staff teams are really supportive and encouraging.

Whenever I got into trouble or had questions, people in the school were really helpful to help me sort out the dilemma and support me in a way that made me feel confident and supported.

Bond Academy prepares students to achieve academic standards while helping students to grow personally and individually. From my experience, the school not only helps students increase their grades and prepare them for academic success and later on for better university applications, but also helps students to grow outside of the classroom with extracurricular activities, with all sorts of events that we get to participate in.

I found it surprising how up-to-date the teaching contents are in the school. From my previous experience in a different country’s educational system, content was taught over and over again and everything was textbook content. But at Bond the content is upgraded all the time and we get to learn with real-life case studies. And I found it very surprising how much work they actually prepared to do that. So, learning was not just from textbooks or theory, but actually learning applications to real-life scenarios helped me to grow as well.

From day one at Bond Academy I’ve been culturally connected to the local community. I got to participate in non-profit fundraising events, and Bond Academy helped me to know more about Canadian culture after coming from another culture. But also, Bond set me up for academic success. I wish I could have stayed longer and had more experience in the academic system and also more chances to participate in community events, which I tried my best to experience to the fullest, but I just think the time was too short.

During the academic term, people were really nice and very supportive within the staff team and the teachers. They helped me to grow a lot and helped me to figure things out. I feel I was supported throughout my time there. I would say the first time I stepped into the school I was scared. I was on my own and it was my first time in Canada in a school that I'd never been to. It was a little scary. Everything was so brand new, exciting in a way, but very scary.

After I graduated, I appreciated even more the relationship that I made there and all the connections that I made. I'm still friends with my classmates and visit the school very often. As time goes by, I feel like the experience is just getting better and better, even though I'm not in the school learning anymore. The friendship and community that I've connected with has been a great experience.

Since I was under age when I first came into Canada, Bond Academy offered different supports in locating accommodations prior to my arrival. This helped my family to have peace of mind, knowing that I had a place to stay and a school to go to and people who my parents could connect with.

The school doesn’t only help the students to complete a degree or certificate. It provides resources and the community around the school. It's in a good location and helps the students to get more involved in different activities. These opportunities are provided to students prior to entering into a university or college education, and they help the students to become more successful and more involved in the community and later on help out with the life goals down the road.

I totally understand it's hard to choose a school and invest all the time and stress and money. I work in an education system right now and see new students and families ask all these different questions and struggle to pick a school to put their kids into. It's definitely hard. But I trust that Bond takes care of everything. The students are encouraged to grow academically and personally in a very supportive environment, and parents can trust that Bond Academy will have the safety net and be the support.