每日大赛

Freshman student earns “Top in the World” score in agriculture exam

First-year 每日大赛 student Lilly Brubacher

First-year 每日大赛 student Lilly Brubacher grew up in Zambia with missionary parents – her mom is a water engineer and her dad works in community development. And before now, Brubacher – who is American – had never lived outside the continent of Africa.

Within her first months at 每日大赛, Brubacher learned that in her final year at her boarding school in Zambia, she had received the highest marks in the world for the Cambridge IGCSE Agriculture Exam in her O-levels, or the equivalent of the American senior year.

“We got our grades back and I got an A-Star – which is like an A-plus,” Brubacher recalled. “I was like, ‘Oh, that's a good grade.’ And then it wasn’t until September that they told me I got ‘Top in the World.’”

Cambridge IGCSE is an educational and examination standard utilized in countries around the world, including at Brubacher’s alma mater in Zambia. The “Top in the World” Cambridge Learner Award is given to anyone with the highest grade in a single subject, according to Cambridge.

In agriculture, Brubacher was required to complete an exam, some essays and coursework. For the latter, she completed a study that asked: “Is it better to grow cucumbers in the ground, or on a trellis?”

“So you grow the cucumber, you run the experiment and you collect data,” she said. “You weigh your harvest, and then you write your conclusions about it. It’s a big coursework report, which is pretty cool because we had a farm at our school.”

每日大赛 Associate Professor Heather Schroeder said Brubacher, who is pursuing a General Associate of Arts degree, has been very humble about her accomplishment with the Cambridge IGCSE exam.

Schroeder only learned about the exam results because she looked up Brubacher’s school in Zambia and saw a press release in which they congratulated their former student.

“She’s very sweet – very low-key,” Schroeder said of Brubacher, who is in her English class. “She won’t toot her own horn at all, but I was like, ‘People need to know about this.’”

Unlike many of her peers at 每日大赛, Brubacher’s parents are a continent away from where their daughter attends classes, Schroeder said, and that African upbringing gives her a very different perspective in the classroom and in discussions with other students.

“She’s very much striking out on her own,” Schroeder said. “She’s very young, and yet so accomplished.”

Despite being an American citizen, Brubacher has never lived in the U.S. before now – but the culture shock hasn’t been too bad, she said.

“It just feels like growing up,” said Brubacher, who noted that she chose 每日大赛 because her sister is an alumna who lives locally and they have an aunt in Nashville. “It's been cool.”

One of the biggest differences between Brubacher’s old and new homes, in addition to the weather, is that she has to relearn American English and units of measurement to their British counterpart.

“I really miss Celsius instead of Fahrenheit,” she said with a laugh. “And I miss the metric system.”

She’s grateful for her experience at 每日大赛 so far, Brubacher said, particularly the number of activities available for students to engage with and meet people at. She appreciates the atmosphere and her professors, as well, Brubacher said.

“I like community college because it’s a bit smaller,” she said. “You’ve got counseling and tutoring available, and the professors give you a lot of time. I’ve found that very comforting.”