2021 Graduates & Classes | 星空传媒 (SAIS)

Class of 2021

Congratulations 星空传媒’s Class of 2021

Congratulations to our Class of 2021 students for achieving the school’s highest scores ever and our strongest performance yet on this year’s IB exams! 80 students from the Class of 2021 took the exams, and we achieved a 100% passing rate. This is a powerful testament to our belief in the ability of each student — and the support we provided to ensure that each achieved success.

Nineteen students — about 20 percent of total test-takers — scored 40 points or higher, and two scored a near-perfect score of 44. The maximum score is 45, with 40 points considered an outstanding achievement.

Stamford’s average IB score was 35, three points higher than a year ago, and the exam average of 5.6 (out of 7) were also higher than in any previous years. 29% of students achieved the rigorous bilingual IB diploma. Nearly 90% of our diploma students achieved at least a score of a 6 or above, universally accepted as a very strong exam score. In fact over 50% of the individual exam scores achieved by our students were a 6 or above.

Our Advanced Placement results were equally impressive. These exams are scored on a scale from 1 to 5, and universities around the world consider a score of 3 or above on one of these exams as evidence of high academic standing. The average score this year at Stamford was a 3.3, with over 70% of the exam scores being a 3 or above. An indication of the strength of the AP Program at Stamford is that in 90% of our AP subjects, over half the candidates scored a 3 or above.

Our BTEC students have also accomplished great results in the first year of the program, with two students earning a Distinction and a Merit respectively for BTEC Subsidiary Diploma in Performing Arts: Acting.

“This is a fantastic result,” said Superintendent Dr. Mark Wenzel. “As you can imagine, we’re super proud of these results. To me, they speak eloquently of our dual focus on inclusion and academic excellence. We accept all who want to take on the challenge, and we work diligently to ensure that they reach their full promise.A huge shout out goes to the high school faculty, Principal Ocki Fernandes and Diploma Program Coordinator Amit Khanna for their determined efforts to support our students throughout their learning journey. And, of course, a big “Hooray!” goes to the students themselves for grueling work in the DP the last two years. Such an impressive feat!”

To date, our Class of 2021 have received offers from Universities and Colleges in 18 different countries, with notable acceptances from Boston University, New York University, UC Los Angeles, UC Berkeley, Imperial College, University of Amsterdam, National University of Singapore, Nanyang Technological University amongst others.

Hear from Our Graduates

The college counseling support was just unreal. Mr. Fuller was so supportive throughout the whole process and especially because my plans were pretty fluid and I was unsure at the start, but he was always there for me. He quickly adapted to the different ideas I had, the different routes I had in mind. He’d sit down with me, helped me go through requirements; even just at the level of understanding – I was occasionally really overwhelmed with meeting grade requirements, and he’d give me a pep talk. And if I’m in tears, he’d just sit me down in his office and tell me “You can do this”. We’d plan for all the different essays and interviews I’d have to do. I couldn’t have done it without any of the support and help he gave me throughout these two years.

Stamford does quite well with cultural diversity. There’s lots of conversations going around and I’ve had conversations with friends, especially when you see what’s happening around the world, politically, socially with all these different race issues coming up. At the basic level of things such as festivals, celebrations, traditions, that’s well-implemented and very well-integrated at our school. And it’s integrated into a lot of our syllabus as well. We talked about it in my history class – what racial groups, for example, had privilege in English. A lot of our books are written by minorities, and that raises a lot of questions about race as well

Trisha Bhaya

One of the highlights at Stamford were the field trips; they were magical. My absolute favorite one was the one in Chiang Mai when we went in Grade 9 and that was just an incredible, unmatched experience, not only due to the amazing, astounding scenery that they kept us in, but also because we really got to know each other. We got to really push ourselves out of our comfort zone while taking in the natural beauty around us. We got to bond together as friends, classmates and as a grade. I’m seeing people out of their comfort zone and being there to encourage them. Whether it be the fear of heights, the fear of the insects around us in the forest, the fear of being lost, just helping each other through that. It was an atmosphere of collaboration and trust within each other and by the end of it, at every night during our debrief, we got to share our experiences.

I had the pleasure of being somebody’s buddy for about three years. Showing them around the school explaining to them what the school had to offer, leading them to the class, giving them a tour of all the room, explaining how A and B days worked, etc. In my experience we do try quite hard as a student body to make people who are new feel welcomed. I want every new student to feel as included as I have felt because it’s been amazing for me to be surrounded by this incredible community of diverse people who are willing to support me and to be my friends. Stamford does a good job of that because I feel that I have a lot of friends who share my sentiment.

Rohan Patil

When Stamford had a tree planting activity and an expert from the Botanic Gardens came, I was able to talk to him and ask him about why the Singapore River doesn’t have any aquatic plants and he told me that one of the reasons was how cleaning chemicals would get into the water through showering, and how damaging and destructive they were. This inspired me to write my Extended Essay in Biology on the effect of surfactants on the chlorophyll content of Egeria densa, an aquatic plant. I had to do my experiment during the circuit breaker and so I was bringing a lot of beakers, plants, materials, everything home in huge boxes but then since I had so much free time during circuit breaker, I really invested myself in my experiment. Mr. Macintosh was my advisor on this and he helped me a lot shaping my research question, and giving me harsh comments on my first draft and really holding me accountable on my deadlines.

There’s a lot of support poured into students having a deep sense of belonging at Stamford. My social emotional advisor was Mr. Lambert, and we became very close. He didn’t speak to me like he was a teacher, and I was a student; it was more as a friend, and he was there to help me. He knows a lot more than me and he could give me advice that helped me through a lot of situations, and he was someone I felt I could talk to about everything

Philippa Stevenson

I’d say for teachers, the most common characteristic between them would be the fact that they are all caring, whether it’s your advisors or your subject teachers, or even like the service coordinator or the class coordinator. All of them aim to establish bonds between the students to understand their work ethic and how they can do better, and to encourage students to strive for the best that they possibly can.

The teachers all come from such international cultures so they’re able to work with a diverse group of students and help us understand all our needs and how we understand our purpose and how the skills we learned in school can contribute towards making the world a better place. I think that’s something that students are quite aware of, and they’re striving towards this, and it gives students in Stamford a strong sense of purpose.