At the Aga Khan Academy Mombasa, Ham Serunjogi – CEO and co-founder of African fintech giant Chipper Cash – realised the importance of staying connected to something larger than himself. The Forbes 30 Under 30 honouree is now serving as an advisor to the US President on African diaspora engagement.
The Aga Khan Academy Mombasa's Class of 2022 achieve exceptional IB results
AKA Mombasa Class of 2021 carries on with DoMore fundraiser for the Talent Identification Programme
Ananya Raju - making waves in the junior gymnastics circuit
Ananya Raju, currently in grade 3 of the Aga Khan Academy Hyderabad Junior School, is already making waves in the local gymnastics scene in Hyderabad. In the last two years, she has collected medals at two city competitions. The first took place in September 2017 at Green Gables School in Madhapur, where about 30 children under the age of seven participated. Ananya won a bronze medal for the balancing beam routine. In October 2018, at an inter-school competition hosted at LB Stadium, Ananya was awarded three gold medals for the balancing beam, bars and vault exercises, and a bronze for the “on-floor” movements. She was one of about 35 participants, all under the age of eight years old.
Ananya undergoes professional training at the Pullala Gopichand Academy in Gachibowli, three times a week in group sessions and for personal classes on the weekend. “I was never inclined towards her getting into gymnastics,” says her mother, Padmini Raju. “One day, she learnt how to do a cartwheel from her friend and there was no turning back. Her inspiration was Simone Biles. Seeing the passion she has for gymnastics, our family and her coach started supporting her. Like Dipa Karmakar and Aruna Reddy, she dreams of representing India internationally and plans to compete at a national level in 2020.”
Her achievements have been lauded amongst other students in the Junior School, some of whom have approached her to teach them some skills. She also performed some routines at the annual Junior School musical, Change Makers, which her mother believes has further increased her confidence.
Apart from gymnastics, Ananya enjoys playing basketball, swimming, horse riding and playing the violin. She is an ardent animal lover and spends her free time at the Blue Cross animal rescue centre with her father. Whenever she sees street dogs, she feeds them and plays with them, and one day dreams of building an animal orphanage for strays. Hand in hand with this is her predilection for environmental sustainability. She actively avoids using things that are harmful to the environment and talks to people about not using plastic, not burning firecrackers and segregating garbage.
Ananya, who joined the Academy in August 2018, is an inspirational child with a profoundly promising future. AKA Hyderabad is proud to have her and hopes to always be a part of her successes and joys.Welcome back!
Classes will resume on 6 January 2020 for AKA Hyderabad.
Taxonomy family:
Graduation
We bid farewell to the Class of 2016 at the graduation ceremony on 21 May
Taxonomy family:
History
In 2000, His Highness the Aga Khan initiated the establishment of the Aga Khan Academies, an integrated network of schools dedicated to expanding access to the highest standard of education.
The Aga Khan Academies is an agency of the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN), which is chaired by His Highness the Aga Khan. The AKDN has a long history of involvement in education in countries of the developing world, with the first schools now under the AKDN umbrella having been founded in 1905 in India and Zanzibar. Currently, AKDN agencies operate more than 240 schools and educational programmes ranging from early childhood through to post-graduate education.
Establishment of the academies
In 2003, the first of Aga Khan Academy opened in Kenya on an 18-acre site in the Kizingo area of Mombasa. The Aga Khan Academy (AKA) Mombasa has already established a highly successful track record, with its students placing among the top tier worldwide in academic performance.
The Aga Khan Academy Hyderabad is the second to be established and opened with its first intake of students in August 2011. As with all the Aga Khan Academies, AKA Hyderabad selects students of all socio-economic backgrounds who show promise in academic and other areas, and who demonstrate good character and serious intent.
A third Aga Khan Academy, in Maputo, Mozambique, opened in August 2013 with its lower primary school. In 2022, the Aga Khan Academy Dhaka in Bangladesh opened.
Future academies
The other Academies are at different stages in the planning and development process.
The vision for Aga Khan Academy graduates
Students at an Academy pursue a well-balanced education combining intellectual inquiry, academic excellence, sporting and cultural activities, and a grounding in ethics and moral reasoning.
They are committed to rigour and self-discipline in their studies and subscribe to the principles of intellectual honesty in the preparation of their work.
They respect their teachers and fellow students. They extend their respect to the cultural, religious and political convictions of others in school and in society. They dedicate themselves to debate issues honestly and fairly. They aim to understand and recognise the value of other views even as they value their own.
They are self-aware and socially conscious. They are committed to the development of their communities, their nation and civil society in the world at large. They are motivated to help others less fortunate than themselves.
They strive to acquire knowledge as part of a balanced, lifelong process of inquiry that leads to intellectual and personal growth, as well as a means to fulfil material goals.
The mastery of a particular discipline is balanced by a broad knowledge of several subjects, including science, art, literature and music.
They are also citizens of the world and at ease in environments and settings other than their own. They are generous and tolerant towards other cultures and traditions.
They are bilingual or multilingual.
They embrace the rich diversity of the world while valuing their own identity.
Interested to know more about our graduates? See spotlights on our alumni
Sporting Successes
