Founder’s message

In 2015, I recommended American high schools to students and parents in the preface to the book "The Best High School - American TOP140 Boarding High School Study Abroad Guide". At that moment, I was feeling torn. On the one hand, I am pleased to recommend these excellent American high schools to readers. Still, on the other hand, I am a little sad because there are not enough international high schools in our country that can compete with these American high schools.

So I wrote: One day, I hope that I would no longer recommend everyone to go to another country to receive a high school education. I have a dream! I have a dream to establish a series of schools across China that focus on traditional Chinese culture, compatible with international education, and emphasize the importance of humanity in addition to test scores! I have been working hard and putting it into action. I wished to tell parents one day, 'Your child doesn't have to be a young international student. You can burn my book-The Best High School - American TOP140 Boarding High School Study Abroad Guide.'

Three years later, I took a crucial step towards my dream: the IC Curriculum system launched in 2018. IC Academy, an international school I run, has started to recruit students in some cities.

What is the IC curriculum system? IC is the acronym for the Individualized Cross-cultural Curriculum.The three core components of the IC curriculum system are "Individualized education, Chinese education, and International education."

Someone commented, "Why not adopt IB or A-Level courses directly? Or it is also possible to start an international school or an international class by introducing several AP courses. " Indeed, I can adopt IB or A-Level curriculum for my students. It takes so much less work to have foreign teachers teaching us AP courses also. Yet, I still want to develop our international curriculum system that specifically serves Chinese students, which is the IC.

During my 16-year career, I have met many students who want to study in the United States and other countries. Some of them are very talented, but they are not particularly good at test-taking. They have chosen international courses introduced from abroad. However, those international courses later proved to have brought them a profound negative impact on their academic and professional career. Since these international courses are taught in English, on top of being academically challenging, they essentially doubled the challenge for a Chinese student who is not good at test-taking. Moreover, they barely had time to develop their most outstanding talents. Unfortunately, they ended up with no strength to show in any aspect. In this way, a student who could have become a great candidate with their outstanding talents under my IC curriculum system would appear mediocre to international college admission officers. In particular, top US universities favor candidates with all-around talents. When top universities in the United States recruit students, diversity must be considered. Some of them are academic, some artistic, some leadership-oriented, some with unique backgrounds, and some play basketball exceptionally well. To get admitted to a top university, not everyone has to become a master of all academic subjects.

Ten years ago, I noticed that most Chinese students are not suitable for international courses introduced directly from foreign countries

Ten years ago, I thought about how to develop a set of Chinese-oriented international curriculum that fits the nature of Chinese students.

Ten years ago, I predicted that future China would be producing its own international courses, in addition to adopting an international curriculum from foreign countries.

I have been holding onto my plan to develop the IC curriculum for ten years!

When I developed such a curriculum and positioned the graduates as 'the world 's top universities, especially the top universities in the United States,' few people are more suitable than me to do that, because I have studied in the United States and my 16-year career has been one-on-one coaches of students who apply for top universities in the United States, so I am familiar with the criteria for the top universities in the United States when they are recruiting talents. In other words, I am familiar with the scale of judgments of referees. I helped many Chinese students without outstanding test scores to enter top universities in the United States, including Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Penn Wharton, etc., and repeatedly created miracles in my students’ eyes. None of those miracles were surprising to myself, though;the American way of thinking is the key to success, and my understanding of the admission officer's thought is the American way of thinking itself.

The admissions officer's thinking in American universities is a multidimensional examination, which includes GPA scores, SAT scores, and other areas such as social responsibility, leadership, teamwork, persistence, talents, hobbies, unique ideas, and distinctive backgrounds.Our IC curriculum aims to teach students to become such intellectuals with comprehensive knowledge and experience.Our high school students, with their robust fundamental competencies and their unique, outstanding talents, will receive far beyond acceptance letters from renowned universities in the US.They will grow into mature, independent adults that are capable of continuing further education in top graduate schools, as well as proceeding to a career path in business industries once they graduate from college.

In both China and the United States, I think high school education is more focused on exam-oriented. China's exam-oriented high school education is solely based on the college entrance examination, so it aims to cultivate 'high scores.' High school education in the United States encourages students to participate in extracurricular activities, community services, etc. Therefore, American students encouraged by their high schools to participate in extracurricular activities and social practices can also be considered as a form of test-taking. If you want to promote certain concepts or abilities in any society and country,the most effective way is always to put this requirement into their college entrance examination, high school entrance examination, and middle school entrance examination. The US college admission’s assessment of social responsibility, compassion, team spirit, courage, persistence, innovative thinking, and other aspects of intelligence and virtue will undoubtedly make students conscious of improving these essential aspects. Of course, such 'exam-oriented' standards will not be absent in our IC course.

There is no need for our IC curriculum to be taught by 100% foreign teachers,as China’s existing education with our uniquely-Chinese characteristics has advantages that are worth keeping and further developing. A team with 100% of foreign teachers will most likely improve students’ English language learning competence but usually accompanied by a decrease in mathematical and scientific understanding. Statistics have shown significant advantages of Chinese students under the traditional college entrance examination system when they take the SAT mathematics and physics subject tests, which require them to demonstrate strong scientific and logical reasoning. Our IC curriculum will enable students to maintain these advantages,in addition to offering them extensive training in innovative and critical thinking.As a result,our IC students will grow into a new generation of intellectuals that combine the advantages of China and the West.

Finally, I would like to say that the three cores of the IC Curriculum system are 'individualized education, Chinese education, and international education.' individualized education, Chinese education, and international education are equivalent to the bottom, the middle, and the top part of a pyramid. In our IC Curriculum system model, individualized education is the most important part; in other words, intellectuals are educated individually in a way that best fits them Also, since top universities in the US greatly value their applicants' Chinese background, the 'Chinese education' in our system is critical to our students.It does not contradict with the 'international education' they receive from us.

When we talk about 'international education ', we could be referring to either the internationalization of universities or the internationalization of students. We say universities are cross-culture as students from different countries, and the college admission office much value diverse cultural backgrounds. As an international student from China, you would not be considered as much of a strong applicant if you have little Chinese characteristics in yourself. The idea of 'getting rid of your Chinese - ness ' as you study abroad is particularly unwise; anything that belongs to the nation mostly belongs to the world. Because of this, our IC curriculum system will have a considerable amount of courses with Chinese characteristics.

Another level of “internationalization” refers to the internationalization of students. This is the function of the “tower” part of our pyramid. Whether you are from a big city or a small mountain village in China, you will have a global perspective.

so,

The IC curriculum system is an international curriculum suitable for Chinese students.

The IC curriculum system trains international Chinese talents.

The IC curriculum system helps to apply for top universities in the United States.

The IC curriculum system is China's international curriculum system that the Future of the Belt and Road Initiative wants to introduce.

Welcome to the various campuses of IC Academy