Graduation of Class of 2011

The Aga Khan Academy honoured its senior students at the annual Graduation ceremony last Saturday. The 29 students have just completed their International Baccalaureate Diploma examinations and were farewelled at a formal ceremony attended by nearly 500 people.

Guest speaker, Mr Salim Bhatia, Director of the Aga Khan Academies Unit and based in France, reminded the audience that graduation is a turning point when you can look back at and feel proud of your scholastic and extra-curricular accomplishments, while looking forward to the unlimited and often unimaginable opportunities that lie ahead.

Mr Bhatia focused his discourse on the importance of networks and networking, referring to the Facebook phenomenon now used by one tenth of the world’s population as a means of communication and connection, and as a catalyst for action. Mr Bhatia then made an association with the network of Aga Khan Academies, of which Mombasa is the first of 18 Academies to be built in Africa, South and Central Asia, the Middle East. A new Academy is opening in Hyderabad, India, in two months’ time and the next in Maputo, Mozambique, within two years. He also discussed the students’ own experiences through internships and community service with the programmes of the Aga Khan Development Network. He affirmed that there is tremendous strength and potential energy that the network of Aga Khan Academies will be able to exert across the developing world and the globe. Mr Bhatia then challenged the graduates to remain actively involved in the Academies network. He also gave examples of leadership; Aga Khan Academy alumni were demonstrating at top tier Universities encouraging graduates to fulfill their destiny as ethical leaders who have a positive impact on society.

The Aga Khan Academy graduates are dispersing to universities around the world. Many are heading to Canada and the United Kingdom, with others moving to the United States, Australia, South Africa and Nairobi. Areas of study are wide ranging, including medicine, engineering, architecture, law, management, finance, marketing and political science.

A number of the students have gained full tuition scholarships in the face of strong competition and are the result of very strong academic performance combined with extensive service and or sporting involvement. These include Zilna Shavdia and Stephen Kimanzi University of British Columbia; Rishad Kabar: Trent University, Canada; Joan Nyangena York University, Canada; Hrishikesh Nair University of Waterloo Canada; Nafisa Abdulhamid University of Alberta, Canada; and Sarrah Sheikh, the University of Reading, United Kingdom.