His Highness the Aga Khan Visits the Aga Khan Academy, Hyderabad

His Highness interacting with students at the Academy

Click here to see a slideshow of photographs from the visit.

His Highness the Aga Khan, founder and Chairman of the Aga Khan Development Network, visited the Aga Khan Academy in Hyderabad earlier today on a working visit to review progress of the school.

The Aga Khan was accompanied by his son Prince Aly Muhammad, his daughter Princess Zahra and her children Sara and Iliyan. 

Today’s visit to the Academy allowed the Aga Khan to assess first-hand the progress made since his last visit in September 2013 when the school was formally inaugurated.

The Aga Khan interacts with the grade 1 students during a class on ForcesWhile at the Academy, the Aga Khan toured the campus including the Athletics Centre, the Junior and Senior Schools, as well as the student residences. Together with members of his family, he met and interacted with teachers, staff and students.

Kais, a grade 10 student who designed a prototype for a solar-powered car, was among the students who showcased their work to the Aga Khan and his family. Kais’s fascination with solar technology began when he was in grade 5. The organisers of a solar power exhibition had turned him away believing he was too young. “They felt I wouldn’t be able to understand solar power,” he said. “I was determined to prove them wrong.” The incident piqued his curiosity and led him to his career aspiration of designing solar-powered cars that take advantage of India’s climate.

A student presents her Personal Project about starting a library in a local girls schoolGrade 11 student Khushboo has focused on social change. After she started volunteering in a Telugu-medium girls school in grade 9, she realised students did not get adequate exposure to English outside a handful of lessons each week. She set out to build an English library and reading club in the school to help them improve their English and share her love of reading.

“There’s a lot that opens up to you when you read,” said Khushboo. “Books are like another teacher. They provide a stream of knowledge,” she said, adding that the students had improved their reading levels after the programme was established.

Through their dedication to social change, Kais and Khushboo, along with numerous other students who pursue projects like them, embody the Academy’s goal of bettering the society around it.

The Aga Khan is on a week-long official visit to India. On 8 April he received the Padma Vibushan Award, one of the country’s highest civilian decorations, for his contributions to social development in India. A day earlier, the Aga Khan and the Minister for Culture, Mahesh Sharma, presided over the foundation stone-laying ceremony for the new Site Museum at the Humayun’s Tomb complex in Delhi.

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