Shine: Celebrating IB Student Projects at the Lycée's Community and Personal Project Night

★ Shine: The Lycée IB Celebration Night

📅 MAY 11, 2026

🕐 5:00 – 6:30 PM

📍 Venue: Ortega Campus 

On MAY 11, we invite IB families to an evening that is entirely theirs — a celebration of curiosity, initiative, and growth, led by the students themselves.

★ Shine: The Lycée IB Celebration Night

The event brings together two of the most meaningful projects in the IB Middle Years Program: the Grade 8 Community Project and the Grade 10 Personal Project. From 5 to 6pm, families are invited to explore student exhibits and enjoy light refreshments. From 6 to 6:30pm, individual student-led conferences give each student the opportunity to walk their family through their work, their process, and what they discovered along the way.

The Community Project — Grade 8

The IB MYP Community Project asks Grade 8 students to look outward. Working in groups of up to three, students investigate real needs — both in their local communities and around the world — and design a project that takes meaningful action in response. The inquiry begins with questions that matter: What communities do I belong to? What do people around me need? What issues do I care about most?

This year's projects reflect the depth and diversity of our students' engagement with the world around them. Students explored the needs of children in the foster care system and organized a donation drive to support them. Others investigated the issue of stray animals and volunteered at local adoption events to make a difference. A third group researched online bullying and became advocates for youth mental health and safer digital spaces.

What connects these projects is not just their subject matter — it is the sustained, self-directed effort behind each one, and the genuine desire to contribute.

The Personal Project — Grade 10

The IB MYP Personal Project invites Grade 10 students to turn the lens inward. What do I want to learn that school has not yet given me the space to explore? What do I want to create, develop, or understand more deeply? How will I grow through the process?

Students choose their own focus, set their own goals, and see their project through from first idea to finished product — guided by a supervisor, but driven entirely by their own motivation. The Personal Project is externally moderated by the International Baccalaureate as part of the requirements for the MYP certificate, reflecting its rigor and significance.

This year, a student immersed herself in the complexity of the juvenile justice system, researching court procedures and developing resources to better support and educate young people navigating it. Another set out to reach A2 proficiency in Portuguese and created a series of conversational videos to share the language with others. A third explored her Peruvian heritage and family history — and brought it to life in a published family cookbook.

Each project is unique. Each one is entirely, unmistakably the student's own.