Hi I’m Magdalena and I’m a rising 11th grader from Poland. Being an international student is tough at the times, but since I came to Mercersburg as a 10th grader, I have never regretted this decision. There have been many reasons why I have chosen to come to a boarding school in the States, far away from home, and to study in a foreign language. However, the most important factor was the opportunity to break away from everything I knew, to challenge myself, to be immersed in a completely different culture, and eventually to become a true global citizen.
Recently, the question of the state of the education systems in America has been a rising topic in various political and educational arenas. The concentration of this topic has been the service to different genders, socio-economic backgrounds, and races yet the demographics of IQ’s and how the system is nurturing each child’s potential has been neglected. The purpose of schools and educators alike is to nurture children to their full potential, and not to average therefore the new mentality of cutting funding for gifted programs in order to fund special education programs is defeating the purpose of socialized education. For the first time in my life, I have questioned the American idea of egalitarianism, the objective in American public schools to spend billions of tax money a year on bringing low IQ and special education children to average is hurting the most intelligent young Americans, and ultimately the future of our country.
“If you meet someone who went to Mercersburg, you already have something in common; you share something special, you know?” Julia Wiedemann (‘98) was absolutely right as she thought out loud to the group of Mercersburg students - current and recently graduated - in the green room of Embassy Row in Manhattan. Seven of us were given the opportunity to represent Mercersburg in front of the cameras housed in the small studio on Hudson and Vandam. Mrs. Sullivan invited me on the trip to talk about Model UN and my plans for the coming years as we taped video for new admission materials.
copyright 2006 Mercersburg Academy 300 East Seminary Street, Mercersburg, PA 17236 Alumni 800-588-2550 | Admission 717-328-6173