Top grad credits IB program

Diana Brosten, an alumna from Flathead High School’s 2006 graduating class, calls herself lucky.

However, a look at her many achievements throughout her educational career suggests it is more than just luck that allowed Brosten to land a full ride to her dream college, graduate summa cum laude from its nursing school, and become one of the only two nursing students at the University of Washington in Seattle to ever receive the school’s distinguished President’s Medal.

Brosten graduated from UW’s School of Nursing on June 11 with a Bachelor of Science in nursing, with honors from the University College Honors Program and the School of Nursing honors program.

The President’s Medal is awarded annually by the UW president to two graduating seniors who have achieved the most distinguished academic records in their class. One medal is given to a student who has completed at least three-fourths of his or her degree requirements at UW, and the other is given to a student who entered UW with at least 60 transfer credits from a Washington community college.

 Diana and her parents say they believe her success in college speaks highly of the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IBDP), a rigorous two-year educational program that students between the ages of 16 and 19 years may choose to follow during their junior and senior years of high school in lieu of the regular high school curriculum, provided their high school offers it.

It differs from the advanced placement program, which allows students to pick individual college-level courses and combine them with regular courses.

The IBDP is one of three educational programs offered by the International Baccalaureate (IB), an education foundation designed to help better prepare students for college. The IB also offers a Primary Years Programme (for students ages 3 to 11) and a Middle Years Programme (for students ages 12 to 16).

Flathead High School’s IB Diploma Programme, which began in February 2004, is one of 719 in the nation and the only one in the state of Montana. Brosten was in the first group of seven FHS students to graduate from the program.

“I think [IB] really prepared me for college,” Brosten said. “I think it opened a lot of doors for me.”

She said the program’s emphasis on critical analysis through numerous writing assignments, including the extended essay (a graduation prerequisite which may be called the IB equivalent of a Master’s Thesis of Dissertation), allowed her to develop strong writing skills.

She also said the many group projects and presentations involved in the IBDP curriculum gave her good practice working in a team and helped her shed her shyness and become comfortable speaking and presenting in front of an audience — both of which were important skills emphasized by UW’s nursing program.

“It definitely paid off in college,” Brosten said, explaining that after forging through the extremely challenging college-level IB curriculum, her liberal arts courses at UW were “pretty much a review.”

The college credits she earned from her IB classes also allowed her to enter many of her university classes with sophomore standing, meaning she was given a higher priority to snag seats in the classes she needed. This was particularly advantageous when it came to picking her honors classes.  

Brosten also noted that Flathead’s small IB class sizes, which enabled frequent interaction between students and professors, taught her the importance of establishing relationships with professors. So, when she made the transition from interactive IB courses with seven to 10 students to college lecture courses with hundreds of students, she sought help from her professors as frequently as possible and made sure they knew her name. 

The community service and volunteer work incorporated into the IB program helped Brosten gain experience working with the public, which prepared her for the hands-on experience as a Certified Nursing Assistant at Heritage Place nursing home in Kalispell and Kalispell Regional Medical Center during her summers home from college.

“IB required quite a bit of time,” said her father, Dennis Brosten, adding that the program entailed classes that began as early as 7:30 a.m. “She stuck it out.” 

Brosten was a member of Flathead’s speech and debate team during all four years of high school and was involved with the school’s television news program, “The Flathead Report,” from her sophomore through senior years.

She also attributes her success in high school to the help and support she received from her teachers and guidance counselors. She particularly remembers the support offered by guidance counselor Tricia Williamson, who helped her resolve a scheduling conflict between the PSAT and an out-of-town school event by arranging for her to take the exam elsewhere. Brosten’s PSAT scores earned her a National Merit Scholarship.

“She went out of her way to help me achieve my goals,” Brosten recalled.

“We were really impressed by the quality of the teachers in the IB program here,” her father noted. “I appreciate all the work that the teachers did here and I think that it’s good for any student that can take part in that program.

“I’m just hopeful that IB will catch on in other parts of the state,” he added.

Perhaps the biggest payoff from Brosten’s participation in the IBDP was the scholarship that made her attendance to UW possible. She had dreamed for years of entering the field of health care, and had her eye on UW because of its ranking as the country’s top nursing school. Its tuition cost, however, was a major obstacle — until she received a scholarship from the Thomas A. and Mildred E. Horsman Foundation, which offered her a full ride to a school of her choice anywhere in the country.

Four years, a bachelor’s degree and one UW President’s Medal later, it is obvious that Brosten has taken full advantage of the opportunities presented to her.

“It’s amazing that she accomplished all that,” said her mother, Brenda Brosten.

Brosten plans to take the National Council Licensure Examination-Registered Nurse  at the end of July, and will start a job as an obstetric nurse in the postpartum care unit of a Seattle-area hospital at the beginning of August.