Alumni Story: Sophie Romans
High School Attended: Sacred Heart Preparatory, Atherton
College Attended: University of California, Los Angeles
“I loved that Bowman was very creative in the teaching of concepts. We were always encouraged to explore subjects more deeply.”
Foundation for a changing world: Bowman’s globally-minded subject integration develops leaders
Sophie Romans, now Senior Associate Consultant at a leading worldwide management consulting firm, Bain & Company, is confident that Bowman provided the foundation for her successful school to career journey. She expresses appreciation for Bowman’s Montessori approach, which empowered her to set her own goals—and reach them. Learning to be self-motivated, organizing her day, and seeking out the next steps were critical for smooth transitions to ever-higher challenges. Sophie claims, “When I got to high school I felt very comfortable with my ability to self-motivate and organize my time.”
One of Sophie’s favorite subjects at Bowman was poetry and creative writing. These skills especially galvanized her confidence to succeed. As Sophie will tell you, “I thought poems were fun! Many of the poems I wrote—I used them!” As an example, in the seventh grade, Sophie took the SAT exam and submitted her poems as writing samples to an educational organization in Los Angeles. Her efforts resulted in being recognized as a Caroline D. Bradley Scholar by the Institute for Educational Advancement.
Sophie found challenge even beyond her areas of academic strength through Bowman’s creative, integrative teaching that led her to explore a broad range of subjects. “For one Science Fair, I was making batteries out of citrus fruits and kept registering zero volts - no power - from my fruit,” she explains. “My teacher, seeing my frustration, suggested I write a poem about my experience. And the next day, I was able to get my lemon battery to work!”
Bowman teachers cultivated an intrinsic sense of determination and motivation, which catalyzed Sophie to major at UCLA in Mathematics / Economics. “The interesting method about doing math at Bowman was that you completed problems on graph paper that had three columns: One for your answer, the second for corrections, and the last where you re-worked the problem—resolving it. This structure was really key for me learning math.”
At Bowman, students study more than poetry, science, and math though—they learn to become global citizens through an internationally-focused curriculum. “The international trips, where you were fairly young to be thrown into an unfamiliar environment, were truly formative experiences for me,” Sophie declares. “In 7th grade, we went to Japan. I was prepared after taking several years of Japanese language classes.” We stayed at traditional Japanese hotels, ryokans, with the traditional bath houses. We slept on tatami mats and ate a lot of fish!” Experiencing the world beyond the classroom in her early years at Bowman shaped how she began to understand global issues—an essential awareness for helping companies around the world to make better decisions and achieve sustainable success.