The ISHCMC Advantage: Going Beyond Grades to Prepare Future-Ready Graduates

Leadership isn’t just taught, it’s lived at International School Ho Chi Minh City (ISHCMC). With a legacy spanning more than 30 years, ISHCMC has helped generations of students gain entry into top global universities and thrive as leaders in their fields while contributing to their communities. As it continues to elevate its academic vision, new Head of School, Marco Longmore, is providing the ISHCMC community with fresh guidance.

Confidence to Lead With Purpose

When discussing the character traits that ISHCMC cultivates in its students, Longmore used the phrase “confidence without arrogance.” He explained that students have “confidence in their sense of self and sense of place within their community,” which is essential for them to thrive personally and professionally after graduating. Equally important is their ability to contribute with humility. They know that “their success is built around a willingness to lead when required, but most often being willing to be a real contributor through the leadership of others,” he said.

Longmore also stressed that the school’s diversity is a core strength of its identity and educational approach. Students are individuals who cannot be contained within any specific demographic. They have unique backgrounds, perspectives, and needs. ISHCMC understands that fostering each student’s passions is essential for developing an appreciation for lifelong learning. A broad and flexible curriculum wherein students take a leadership role while also receiving the support and guidance of veteran teachers and peers nurtures their sense of determination. Formal and informal opportunities to explore areas of interest provide every child with “a sense of fun and enjoyment,” he says before noting “but that doesn’t mean it’s going to be easy.”

A Legacy of Success

Brown, Cornell, Oxford, the London School of Economics, the University of Toronto, Seoul National University, and Waseda are amongst recent placements for ISHCMC graduates. The school’s legacy also includes individuals who matriculated to Harvard, Yale, the University of Pennsylvania, University of California campuses, and the University of Chicago, with an emphasis on destinations that are the right fit for students, regardless of rankings. Such accomplishments help prove the school’s holistic approach to student-led, inquiry-based learning truly readies them to take the next step, as assessed by some of the most strict admissions offices in the world.

While these universities represent doors to incredible opportunities, Longmore cautions that an open door is only useful if students have the means to step through it. Thus, ISHCMC places great care and attention on helping students receive scholarship support. A robust university counselor program combined with decades of experience helped the 84-student graduating class of 2024 receive more than US$56 million in scholarships across 1,100 offers in 22 countries.

More than just the ability to thrive at some of the world’s greatest universities, students have critical thinking skills, inquisitive mindsets, and collaborative abilities reflective of deep and meaningful learning that will ultimately take them much further than a test result or university. They will be able to adapt to and lead in the uncertain decades ahead. Confident in themselves, the students are excited for what’s ahead. Longmore says, “They are sad to leave ISHCMC, but there is a sense that they are ready to move on.”

An Ambitious Curriculum with Measurable Success

ISHCMC’s holistic approaches to education result in clear and identifiable learning objectives that can be measured against international standards. For example, the class of 2024 averaged 34 points on the IBDP (International Baccalaureate Degree Program), which is well above the global average of 30 points. This is consistent with the school's performance over the last 30 years.

ISHCMC is Saigon’s first continuum International Baccalaureate (IB) school in the city, meaning students begin the globally recognized program that assesses university-preparedness from age three. Such consistency helps students best orient themselves to inquiry-based, creative approaches to problems that rarely have a single solution. Moreover, the school’s longstanding traditions and legacy of over 30 years of operation provide students with proven methods for the IB program and learning in general.

A key element of the IBDP is the Creativity, Activity, Service or CAS project. Emblematic of ISHCMC’s belief in the value of contributing, it requires students to lead or support an undertaking that embraces their creative and critical thinking for the benefit of a community within or outside the school. Recent examples include establishing a Library of Joy to introduce a culture of reading to students at a remote school in Đắk Lắk; working with Heartbeat Vietnam, which provides lifesaving surgeries to Vietnamese children in need; and helping conservation efforts for Vietnam’s threatened biodiversity with Wildlife at Risk. One current CAS project involves launching a social impact club at ISHCMC, which will join the school’s more than 60 organized events that have welcomed over 14,000 participants.

In order to develop graduates who are confident individuals driven by unique interests and united by core values of compassion and resilience, the school must be able to observe, evaluate, and understand skill development. One essential tool for this is the MAP (Measure of Academic Progress) Test, administered twice a year from Grade 3 to Grade 10. The individual results allow teachers, students, and families to collaborate on goals, learning plans, supplemental materials, and strategies for improvement. Here, ISHCMC excels as well, with Primary School students ranking in the top 1% globally for growth in MAP Math and Reading, underscoring how strong academic performance begins at a young age and continues throughout a student’s development.

Another important means for showcasing academic growth occurs during formal meetings between students, parents, and teachers. These student-led events allow children to not only show off what they’ve learned but also reveal how they confidently take ownership of their education with enthusiasm. The meetings also allow parents to better know the teachers. These highly qualified professionals, 60% of whom have Master’s degrees and 100% have teaching certifications, are essential for the school to reach their academic goals. As Longmore puts it, “to eat a great meal, you must have the best ingredients.”

In the same way a single score or university offer cannot serve as proof for a complete education, no single student could epitomize an ISHCMC graduate. The young adults are simply too unique in their backgrounds, passions, and individual talents to be reduced to an archetype. They do, however, share many skills and traits. They are humble, purposeful leaders eager to build a better tomorrow for themselves and their communities. To sum these traits up, Longmore turned to another Scotsman, the poet Sir Walter Scott, to describe what this means: “The will to do, the soul to dare.” He says ISHCMC grads have the lifelong will to start important tasks every morning and the soul to continue them until completed well.