Clone of Academy Fellows
With the aim of bringing diverse perspectives and fresh energy to the Aga Khan Academies, a small number of carefully selected recent graduates from well-respected universities are recruited each year to serve as Aga Khan Academy Fellows.
How can I become part of the Academy Fellow's Programme?
To find out more and submit your application, please visit the AKDN Career Centre
Applications are now open for opportunities in Kenya, India and Mozambique for 2020
What is the Fellows Programme at the Aga Khan Academies?
Academy Fellows have the opportunity to work with gifted and talented students from diverse ethnic, religious and socioeconomic backgrounds. Each Academy Fellow will live on campus and serve the student residential programme as a Dorm Parent promoting community life.
Academy Fellows have a demanding and important role in our community and may be responsible for any of the following, depending on the Fellow’s interests and experiences and the Academy’s needs:
- Key role as a Dorm Parent in the residential programme, which includes weekday duties and weekend duties.
- Assistance in a specific curricular area under the mentorship of an experienced master teacher.
- Tutoring individual students or study groups.
- Involvement in the administrative work of departments such as Admissions, Communications or University Counselling.
- Coaching sports and athletic teams, providing music lessons, SAT prep, artistic pursuits.
An integral part of the residential programme at the Academy, the Fellows participate actively in and chaperone off campus field trips, engage in the enrichment programmes (sports, arts, ...) and are closely involved in the student leadership development programme, including activities such as Model MUN, TedX etc.
These opportunities are offered at all our Academy campuses: Mombasa, Kenya, Hyderabad, India and Maputo, Mozambique - Future Academies are planned across Africa, South and Central Asia, and the Middle East.,In which parts of the world can I hope to serve as a Fellow?
Fellows can indicate a preference when applying.
Is this a permanent role or can I come just for a few months or a year?
These will be two-year appointments, overlapping so as to assure continuity. Some Academies will consider one year appointments but prefer a longer commitment.
What are we looking for in our Fellows?
- Genuine interest and commitment to the mission of the Aga Khan Academies and to the development of young people.
- A record of excellent academic achievement at a highly respected college or university.
- A record of significant involvement in residential life, student leadership programming, music, athletic and/or community service during college or university.
The Fellow's programme also provides onsite mentoring and coaching by experienced faculty and staff and an opportunity to experience life in a lively and dynamic school environment.
Some Fellows may come from the AK Academies’ alumni body and others may decide to pursue a career in teaching or education in general.
Do you want to hear more about the programme?
Click here to read what some of our former Fellow have to say about their experience and see them in action.
To find out more and submit your application, please visit the AKDN Career Centre
Student Leadership
The Academies’ programmes aim to develop students who are ethical, public-minded and who possess a pluralistic outlook. Both curricular and enrichment 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 enrichment programmes, 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 (SRC) and other similar activities.
"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." 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.
Student leadership in action:
Student Representative Council: The SRC is made up of students from all year levels, year 6 to second year Diploma Programme (DP2). Two DP2 presidents oversee the entire body, while first year Diploma Programme executive members oversee various subcommittees. These subcommittees include: academics, action, expression, citizenship, houses, finance, and residential. Click here to read news from the SRC.
Year 10: As part of the leadership programme, the year 10 students participated in a very successful Zawadi Bazaar by running eight socially responsible business stalls. Read the full story here.
Year 9: Students engaged in an exciting project to improve cohesion between the Junior and Senior Schools, as well as to raise house spirit. Read the full story here.
Photography Workshop at AKA, Hyderabad
Award-winning photographer Fredric Roberts led a week-long workshop at AKA, Hyderabad for 20 students selected from the Academy and a local Aga Khan Foundation education programme. The students, and some of their teachers, learned professional techniques which they used to take pictures at the Academy and at nearby AKDN projects. See some of their pictures here.
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Majuto Omary reports on Sara Alidina's victory at the Mombasa County Games as she heads to the Regionals in Malindi.
TZ girl shines in Mombasa's table tennis
Sara Alidina (year 9) talks to Majuto Omary from Tanzania about qualifying for the Mombasa county championships and her goals for the tournament.
Anzhela Mirzoeva: Taking Academy lessons learnt to college
“It was very cold outside,” she recalls. “I went straight to my mother’s workplace and handed her the letter. We were both too scared to open it. Finally, it was my uncle who opened it and told me I had been accepted at the Academy.”
“It was very exciting and scary,” she recollects. “I was not ready to leave my family and friends and go far away to Kenya.”
However, after spending six years at the Academy, Anzhela admits she has come a long way in terms of personal growth and professional development.
“I have been part of the Academy since 2013. Within these years I have been part of different activities and teams at the school. Each undertaking taught me something special,” she states appreciatively.
Now having graduated from the Academy, Anzhela is forging ahead to start a new phase in her life in the United States at the Connecticut College in New London, Connecticut. She will major in international relations and human development and has received a full scholarship from the College. She was also admitted to other colleges, including the University of Central Asia and a number of universities in Canada. The University of Central Asia also offered her a full scholarship. Expressing gratitude to the Academy counsellors, she says, “With assurance, I can claim that without my counsellors, I wouldn’t have been so successful in getting admission to all these universities. The counsellors in the Academy were very dedicated and organized in their work. They made the college application a very smooth process with their information presentations and untiring availability.”
Anzhela feels that her route to success has been due to the Academy’s International Baccalaureate (IB) curriculum. This, she feels, has given her a step ahead in critical thinking skills.
“The IB engages you in constructive learning,” she says with admiration. “It fills your mind with thinking skills that you will need all your life. The IB learner profile is also a guideline that teaches students what their expectations are.”
Anzhela says the Academy instilled in her many values such as pluralism, empathy, and leadership training. The public service requirement, she says, touched her to the core. After her education, she hopes to return to Tajikistan.
As she heads away from the Academy, Anzhela says she will always cherish her years at the school.
“I will miss the sense of belonging at the Academy, the Saturday night activities, the IB jokes, the late nights trying to finish assignments," Anzhela said. "What makes me miss all these moments are the people; my teachers, my classmates, my friends, the simple stuff. At the end of the day, I see the Academy as my home. It is where I spent all my teen years. I am truly grateful to be a graduate of the Academy. It taught me who I really am and what I really want from life.”
Grade 9s take the Getty Challenge
In one of the last few exercises of this academic year, students from Grade 9 took up the Getty Challenge and produced frames that paid homage to great works of art like Mona Lisa and The Son of Man.
