Diana B. was a long time student of ISOZ, The Riverside School and ISZL before moving to California to study at Stanford University. When this article was originally written, she was working for a venture capital firm in Silicon Valley. As of mid-2016, Diana works for a real estate fund. While she loves her career, she still misses the carefree time she enjoyed as a student. Diana is looking forward to refocusing on her hobbies such as traveling to exotic places to photograph – she's been to Iceland, Argentina, Indonesia, New Zealand and more. Did we mention she’s also working on getting her solo skydiving certification and learning how to manage real estate in Germany? How’s that for adventure!

Diana is the kind of person who considers the world her home. Traveling and exploring the world are two of her favourite pastimes. She feels her time at our school has taught her to appreciate diverse cultures. “At an international school your fellow classmates are not only from a multitude of different countries, but they are all well-travelled and been exposed to a variety of cultures beyond their own,” Diana shares. “This kind of environment prepares you for living and working in our globally networked world. I’d like to think that people who are raised in an international environment are at a substantial advantage to their peers.”

Memories from The Riverside School, ISOZ and ISZL

According to Diana, it was also the faculty that made attending an international school a memorable experience. “I remember that in my Grade 8 history class one of the students (you know who you are!) was habitually late to class. One day the teacher, Mr Loesche, and us students conspired to give her the most absurd punishment imaginable - to write a 2,000 word essay about life inside of a table tennis ball due before the next class. Needless to say she was perplexed, but after some arguing she resigned herself to her fate. If Mr Loesche hadn’t told her it was a joke before class ended, I bet she would have written the essay!”

Another fond memory that Diana shares is when Mr Stride taught a whole Grade 4 math lesson in Spanish just for the fun of it! “Mr Stride was probably one of the best teachers I’ve ever had. He had an amazing way of communicating with students, always engaging them in the subject matter, and making sure everyone had a good time, while keeping the class 100% under control.

Her most formative experience however was working as the yearbook Editor-in-Chief for three years with Ms Price. “Ms Price was a great coach and mentor. Because she trusted me and allowed me to take charge of the team, I was able to hone my management and leadership skills, both of which are critical to life beyond the classroom.”

Graduating to new adventures

After graduating from ISZL in 2010, Diana began studying Educational Systems Engineering at Stanford University, but her education was more than just books! She took some time off to do the Snowman Trek through the Bhutanese Himalayas, worked with the Stanford Institute of Design, led an initiative to develop an online component for one of their classes, and taught a Photoshop class for a short time.

Diana graduated from Stanford in December 2014 and began working as an Entrepreneur in Residence (EIR) for Reach Capital, an early stage education technology venture fund. “As an EIR you have this kick-ass temporary position where a venture fund basically pays you for hanging out with them while you develop your own business idea… more or less. Neil Kane defined it better than me here.” Less than a year later, Diana joined the team full-time as Director of Investor Relations. “I’m in charge of keeping the funders of our fund happy. It’s an awesome job with an awesome team and I’m very excited to see where it will lead me!”

Facing the truth to reach your own goals

Diana is enjoying her job and looking forward to becoming more familiar with the venture industry and money management as a whole, but she also dreams of spending her time travelling the world. “My perfect job would be mobile and enable me to spend a good amount of my time traveling.” And we believe that that dream is bound to come true for her! Why? When we asked Diana to share a quote and what it meant to her, she referenced a Winston Churchill quote that explained her philosophy.

“Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened.” – Sir Winston Churchill

According to Diana "this is probably one of the greatest things Churchill has ever said, and he’s said a lot of great things. I believe that this statement isn’t just true in the context of politics, but in life in general. Most people go through life lying to themselves. They lie to themselves about their strengths, their weaknesses, and especially about why they do what they do. The majority of people never really set their own goals, instead they do what society expects them to do and few people are willing to honestly take a step back and assess what it is that they really want. Why? Because the truth may be difficult, or uncertain, or because it may not correspond to what others would like to see. However, it’s always best to seek out, and accept the truth – otherwise you might wake up at 50 and ask yourself ‘How did I get here? Is this really it?’”

We wish Diana well with all her projects, goals and adventures and look forward to hearing more about where they take her.