IB graduate profile - Nils Razmilovic

Graduated from American Community School, United Kingdom in 1991.

I earned my International Baccalaureate diploma from American Community School in Hillingdon, United Kingdom, in 1991. My passion is sailing. I first went sailing when I was only two weeks old, and I now compete in major sailing events, such as the 2002 Etchells European Championships on Lake Garda, Italy.

When my crew and I decided to compete in the Etchells, we all knew that we would have to dedicate most of our free time to preparing for it. It can be very difficult to keep yourself motivated when you turn up for your practice session in early February and have to scrape the frost off the deck of your boat before you go out sailing, but you must keep focused on your goals and make sure that there is structure to your programme so that you can at all times see why you are doing what you are doing. I had learned these skills in the IB programme, and took on the role of keeping my crew motivated and focused.

Later we had to deal with the logistics problems of moving our boat to Italy. My IB experience again helped me through the organizational skills and discipline it emphasized and which served me well at university, in my work, and in sailing. In Lake Garda, we found that the Italian idea of organization was not what we were used to, but again I found that my IB experience helped me cope with other cultures and enhanced my communications skills.

We eventually won the Etchells championships. Much of what we had achieved we had done before the event had even started through our meticulous preparation, training, and planning. This phase was a platform from which we set our goals. The IB programme helped me create my own platform from which I have been able to set my goals in life very high."