Peace Summit 2019
This Thursday and Friday, the Humanities Department will be hosting our 7th annual PeaceSummit. In a two-day workshop facilitated by DP1 students, our year 9s and students from schools around Mombasa will learn and discuss topics related to "Conflicts over Resources."
Vasanthi Thandlam: Lifelong learning and giving
An active volunteer for Operation Smile, an international charity group that helps children with cleft palates around the world, Vasanthi trained at the Operation Smile head office in Norfolk, Virginia, USA and has been passionately promoting the cause for five years. She started an Operation Smile club at the American International School Chennai with a small group of high school students who went on to participate in various local and international medical missions.
Now, Vasanthi will be accompanying a team of Indian students to Vietnam to make presentations on various health modules. These not only teach prevention and basic health knowledge but also help reshape everyday habits of people with unhealthy lifestyles. Health education is an effective tool to improve health in developing nations. In the future, she hopes to bring Operation Smile to the Aga Khan Academy Hyderabad.
Student Leadership
The Academies’ programmes aim to develop students who are ethical, public-minded and who possess a pluralistic outlook. Both curricular and co-curricular activities work to educate effective home-grown leaders who are actively engaged in their local communities and are aware of the implications of their actions. Through their participation in co-curricular clubs, students are encouraged to take on leadership positions in a variety of different forms (e.g. house leaders, student council, team captains, dorm duties).
Not only do these opportunities provide an environment to explore and enhance skills such as cooperation and problem solving, they also enable students to set personal goals and challenge themselves.
Student leadership activities vary from community service opportunities to sports and expressive arts. Students have opportunities to participate in the Student Representative Council and other similar activities.
Leadership activities instil in participants a sense of community ownership, creativity and a collaborative spirit, and prepares them for a lifetime of active engagement and leadership.
"The conviction that home-grown intellectual leadership of exceptional calibre is the best driver of a society’s destiny, underpins the Ismaili Imamat’s endeavour to create catalytic centres of educational excellence."