The MYP Personal Project Exhibition

The MYP personal project exhibition was held in the afternoon of February 6, 2014 at the Aga Khan Academy, Mombasa. The personal project is a significant body of work which is produced over an extended period by each IB MYP student. On the final year of the project, students select a subject of their choice as a culmination of the MYP experience and on which they must write a research report (3500 words).  The aim of this exercise is to further develop the students’ research, collaboration, communication, reflection, transmission and problem solving skills.

All projects are embedded within the framework of the IB programme and, more specifically, within the context of one of the five Aga Khan Academy (AKA) Strands. This year, 61 projects were exhibited. Of these, 24 projects focused on Economics for Development, 18 on Governance for Civil Society, 8 on Cultures, 6 on Pluralism, and 5 on Ethics.

The event was attended by students, parents, faculty, and even members of the Academy community from abroad. Mr Salim Bhatia, Director of the Academies Unit based in France, was among the members of the audience.

The personal project at the Academy has grown beyond a mandatory requirement for the IB MYP Certificate and has become a true think-tank for even greater endeavours.  The ideas that begin as a personal project are nurtured and developed into major Creativity Action Service (CAS) Projects and Extended Essays during the Diploma Programme.

Notable among these, is Samara Visram’s personal project. In June 2012, Samara designed a Model School which she envisaged for the Kikambala area, Mombasa County. With her designs approved by the relevant government ministries, she is now fundraising to build this model school as part of her CAS Project.

Samara, together with her fellow students Caitlin Pierce-Thompson, Aika Patel, Srishti Gupta, Karishma Bhagani and Mahnoor Mistry, later presented their projects at the Global Issues Service Summit held in February 2013 at the International School of Kenya (ISK) in Nairobi. 

In April 2011, Fatema Mohamedali, Keshni Haria, Amira Sihag, George Pekeshe and Farhana Jiwa had presented their projects at the same summit in Maputo, Mozambique.

Currently in the DP cohort, 9 former personal project ideas are being implemented into CAS Program projects while 8 are being developed into Extended Essays.

In addition to the above, two of the MYP personal projects have been shortlisted for the Global Climate Projects Competition which will be held on February 25 and 26, 2014, at the Light Academy, Mombasa. Karishma Bhagani with her ‘Cost Effective Water Purifier’ project and Yasin Ghani’s ‘Solar powered R/C plane’ project of will be representing the Aga Khan Academy.