Aga Khan Academy Hyderabad - Student Voices

2021 will be my last year at the Aga Khan Academy. The Academy has given me a lifetime of memories and it has allowed for me to become who I am today, needless to say this experience will remain with me, forever. My very identity has been defined by my education at AKAH.  If I would have another chance to relive my childhood and go through my secondary education again, I would certainly choose this safe shelter. I would pick this campus, my home, and the educational system of the Academy.

I am Aftikhar, from Afghanistan and joined the Academy in July 2015. How do I remember the date? Well, it is the password to my Wi-Fi account. Don’t tell anyone!

Like the date of my arrival and my laundry tag-number (AKA-87), I cherish the memories that I have created while being here. A few years ago, if you would have asked the younger Aftikhar about the basic political, social, or economical aspects of Afghanistan, you would have received unsatisfactory answers.

Engaging in rigorous and character-building lessons by my teachers and mentors have given me the opportunity to broaden my horizon. I had never expected to realize my potential and learn new skills, had it not been for the Academy that provided these exceptional opportunities – I wouldn’t be who I am.

As I am writing this introduction, two of my dearest friends from Tajikistan are preparing to go jogging around the campus.

Yes, you guessed right!

Unlike many others, across the world, experiencing the COVID 19 from their own homes and in the shelter of their families, few of us are inside the AKAH campus and didn’t go back to our home-countries. Outside of the boundaries, there is a whole different world, inside the campus we are not worried about our safety and well-being because it is one of the safest places. Safest at times of a pandemic and also otherwise! This is home. This is our home.

An event that I would like to talk about as it illustrates our campus’s diversity and sense of life, is the cultural evenings the students organize. These cultural gatherings bring us all together – over music, food and conversation! Being an Afghan and wearing Indian traditional clothes is joyful and a symbol of acceptance and fellowship. Personally I believe that the cultural festival is another form of un-manifested learning that the academy facilitates. The cultural festival, like other events, is a heritage that has been given by our seniors, who are now alumni, and will be passed on to the next generation of students. Every time these events are more creative than the last, more interesting and more diverse.

Every occasion on the campus is a learning experience and every experience is a memory. Being in my last year, I know for a fact that along with academic excellence that the Academy has been advocating, for a student in the Aga Khan Academy, these “un-manifested learnings” are as important as academics.

The education I have received in this Academy made me realize that the way jogging maintains a person’s mental and physical health, the same way learning experiences in the academy built the students’ character and career.

I have come to realize that both the academic and non-academic activities are equally important and prerequisites for shaping a young life. I am proud to be at AKAH.