Senior Spotlight: João Philippe (JP) Babin '22 Rice University

April 08, 2022

Over his 14 years as a member of the Léman community, João Philippe (JP) Babin has been involved in many clubs and activities including the National Honor Society, the UNICEF Club, Model UN, the Photography Club, the Boys Varsity Soccer Team, and the Duke of Edinburgh International Award. He’s also the Sports Editor of the Bullhorn, Léman’s student newspaper, and a full IB Diploma Candidate. He said, “I think the IB prepared me for what college-level assignments are going to look like, especially the papers I’ve written over the past two years.” 

With the IB under his belt, JP should be set up for success at Rice University where he hopes to major in Sports Management. He said, “starting in 10th grade, I started researching different schools in different areas, thinking I would either stay on the East Coast or possibly go somewhere in California. And then Rice caught my eye. I had never heard of it, but I did more research and found out that it has one of the best sports management programs in the country. When I visited the campus, I really loved it and it seems like a tight-knit community. The students seem to have good relationships with each other and the professors. A few weeks after I visited, I decided that I wanted to apply early decision.” 

JP partially credits his college counselor Lindsay Gottfried with helping him prepare for the college application process. He said, “In 10th grade, the first thing she did was help me pick my IB courses. She advised me on what to pick based on what would help me get into a top university. Then in 11th grade, she was helpful with my college essays. She was always super attentive. If I email her, I usually get a response within a few hours. When I returned for my senior year, I gave her my list of schools and she told me she thought Rice was a good fit and that, of all her students, she thought I had a good shot at getting in.” 

As a lifelong New Yorker, JP is interested to see what Texas will be like. “It’s definitely a big change because I’ve lived here for most of my life and there’s no place like New York. Part of why I really liked Rice is the campus is nice and there are a lot of resources like food and stores and rec centers. Anything I might need is right there on campus.” As much as he’s looking forward to university, there are some things about Léman that he will miss. “I feel like there’s a sense of community here that my friends from other schools don’t have. I’ve been here since PreK, and I feel like a lot of us grew up together here. There’s a tight-knit community. I have close relationships with my teachers, and I always have. That’s part of why I chose Rice because it felt like the same kind of close-knit community,” he said. 

When asked what advice he would give to an incoming High School student at Léman, he said, “If you know what you want to do early, strive for that and get yourself on that path so you can gear your extracurriculars in that direction. If you do the things that you really enjoy, colleges will see that you’re committed to something you like and not just filling out an application with what they want to hear. There’s a misconception that packing your application with a million different extracurriculars will get you into college. It’s more about finding things that you’re passionate about and spending time on that.” 

Congratulations, JP! We know you’ll be successful at Rice and beyond!