Meet Bedri Parlar, a remarkable high school graduate, student-athlete, and now an incoming freshman at The Ohio State University. Bedri’s journey is a powerful example of balancing high-level academics with a demanding athletic schedule and highlights how personalized support from Global Town School helped him reach his goals.
As a senior in high school, Bedri managed an impressive workload, balancing the demands of football with rigorous academics. His hobbies include lifting weights, challenging himself physically, and competing in football, which he played all four years of high school.
His background is equally fascinating; born in Japan and fluent in four languages, Bedri’s multicultural experiences are just part of what makes him unique. His dedication to his studies shows through his academic achievements: “So far, I’ve taken, seven APs, and my GPA is a 4.92 as of this semester; cumulative, it’s a 4.6,” he shares proudly.
Despite his achievements, Bedri encountered unique obstacles as a student-athlete. Playing football meant three-hour practices five days a week, often followed by late-night games. Coupled with his responsibilities as President of various student organizations, he had little time for his studies, which forced him to be strategic with his time.
Bedri shares how he managed it: “By visualizing the time I had at my disposal, I was able to efficiently manage my time and keep myself from being overwhelmed.” One of his strategies was an “hour audit” each week to budget his time effectively. This diligence helped him succeed academically, even under intense pressure—like taking an ACT test the morning after a late-night football game, a test on which he scored his personal best.
During this demanding senior year, Bedri joined Global Town School (GTS) and began receiving personalized academic coaching, which made a world of difference in his life. Used to large student-to-counselor ratios at his public high school, Bedri often met with counselors with limited time to focus on his needs. “My counselor has 500 students to deal with, and she doesn’t really have time to know me personally as a person,” he reflects. But at Global Town School, Bedri encountered something completely different.
“When I was first introduced to my coach at Global Town, it was very interesting because I wasn’t used to it before,” he recalls. Over several weeks, his GTS coach made an effort to get to know every aspect of Bedri’s background, interests, and extracurricular activities. This relationship became transformative, especially in preparing him for the college application. “With my regular guidance counselor at school… they would only focus on grammar and flow and switching paragraphs, but Global Town School really helped build a solid foundation on writing an essay that truly showed how good of a candidate I was for that school,” he explains.
The coaching didn’t stop at college applications; Bedri’s coach also introduced him to scholarship opportunities he wasn’t aware of. Reflecting on his experience, Bedri says, “The coaching I received at Global Town was really world-class. It truly prepares you for college, builds a really strong portfolio, and sets you up really, really nicely.”
Looking back, Bedri feels that starting with GTS earlier in his high school years would have been even more beneficial: “I really wish I had started receiving coaching from Global Town earlier on, maybe in 9th grade, even earlier, because my coach was able to show me so many resources and opportunities that I had never known were available to me.”
Bedri’s journey with Global Town School showcases the power of mentorship and personalized guidance. From refining his college essays to receiving constructive feedback and discovering scholarships, GTS gave him the support he needed to pursue his dreams. Today, as Bedri embarks on his studies in neuroscience at Ohio State, he credits GTS with helping him reach this point and setting him on a path toward a bright future.
