Page not found | Aga Khan Academies

Error message

The page you requested does not exist. For your convenience, a search was performed using the query file hyd 20180611 harshita devavarapu.

Academy Showcase Week 2018 Schedule

Please click the link below to see details of the schedule for Showcase Week 2018.

Academy Showcase Week Schedule


Students create weekly Portuguese newspaper

Atrações AKA

Students create weekly Portuguese newspaper at AKA Maputo

Atrações AKA

Students create weekly Portuguese newspaper at AKA Maputo

Atrações AKA

Test

Vasanthi Thandlam: Lifelong learning and giving

Vasanthi Thandlam, the Academy’s Senior School English as an additional language specialist, has been selected as an Operation Smile sponsor for the Vietnam Medical Mission, taking place in July 2016.

An active volunteer for Operation Smile, an international charity group that helps children with cleft palates around the world, Vasanthi trained at the Operation Smile head office in Norfolk, Virginia, USA and has been passionately promoting the cause for five years. She started an Operation Smile club at the American International School Chennai with a small group of high school students who went on to participate in various local and international medical missions.

Now, Vasanthi will be accompanying a team of Indian students to Vietnam to make presentations on various health modules. These not only teach prevention and basic health knowledge but also help reshape everyday habits of people with unhealthy lifestyles. Health education is an effective tool to improve health in developing nations. In the future, she hopes to bring Operation Smile to the Aga Khan Academy Hyderabad.

Advait Surana: Academy football champion represents Telangana state

“I always wanted to play, but I never got a chance to in my previous schools. One of the reasons I joined the Academy was its sports facilities.”

Advait Surana is a residential grade 10 student at the Aga Khan Academy in Hyderabad. He was selected as one of 18 students from different schools to represent Telangana state at the national U-15 football tournament in Delhi in early September 2016. This was the first time that Telangana reached the quarter finals, where they lost to Haryana who eventually went on to win the cup.

Advait, who started taking football seriously after he joined the Academy two years ago, underwent rigorous training and practice before the national tournament. He had first been observed while representing the Academy at a Rangareddy district football competition. 

“My goal is to participate in the U-18 in a few years,” said Advait. “I haven’t thought about playing football professionally after that, but it is an option.”

Advait aspires to become a software engineer. As part of his International Baccalaureate grade 10 personal project (an independent and practical exploration in which students connect classroom learning engagements with their own experiences and interests), he is building a mobile app that has riddles and puzzles for all age-groups.

However, sport is always on his periphery. When asked why he thinks he was selected, he declared with confidence: “I practiced a lot, and I think I deserved it. I think I was better than the other kids.”

The Academy is incredibly proud of Advait’s achievement, as testament to our commitment to holistic education and the development of student talent across the board, in both academic and extra-curricular activities.

 

 

Nanjiba Sayara: Teaching students in Bangladesh to recycle plastic

My name is Nanjiba Sayara and I’m currently studying in grade 10 at the Aga Khan Academy Hyderabad. I am from Dhaka, Bangladesh and this is my second year at the Academy. As a student here, I am able to access endless opportunities to explore myself, and have learnt the importance of being open-minded and caring towards all communities. I think it is our responsibility to support the less fortunate around us, and I aspire to be a social worker and establish my own NGO in the future. However, I didn’t want to wait until I was older to begin helping people. I wanted to start now.

My desire was realised through the grade 10 International Baccalaureate (IB) Middle Years Programme (MYP) personal project, a community project that focuses on service learning through practical exploration and a cycle of inquiry, action and reflection. As part of my personal project, I went to a village school in Bangladesh where I taught a group of about 20 students how to recycle plastic bottles, and the importance of such an activity. I chose to focus on this, because recycling plastic is needed to keep our environment safe and it’s a fun activity that would keep the students interested. Please click here to see a video of my experience at the village school.

I was privileged to work with those students, as they were very enthusiastic to learn and contribute. Spending one day with children from different backgrounds made me a better communicator. My parents and I have always believed that extracurricular activities are as important as academics because they contribute to being a balanced individual. I am happy to have done this activity at the village school because it made learning enjoyable and therefore memorable.

The IB MYP personal project was challenging, educational and exciting. My parents always ask me to share my happiness and knowledge with others because it might brighten up someone’s day. I believe my session at the village school accomplished this, so I wish to continue sharing my knowledge, what I have learned and will continue to learn, with my society.

 

Zviko Katsande: Zimbabwean educator embodies global-mindedness

“I wake up every morning and look forward to seeing my students in class.”

Although Zviko Katsande hails from Zimbabwe, he has taught in numerous countries. He has over a decade’s worth of experience teaching English, History, and Individuals & Societies in IB schools. 
 
“I was born in Zimbabwe during the time of Zimbabwe’s liberation war against the British colonization. I was so young when the war was going on,” said Mr. Katsande about his childhood. “It was a small town; we had to walk quite a long distance to school, and there weren’t many facilities around so we had to make do with what was available.” These challenges engendered in him a deep commitment to international development and an unshakeable personal resilience.
 
Since then, he has travelled and taught in several schools throughout Africa, including Zambia, Ethiopia and Tanzania. “I wanted to experience an international working life, be exposed to a totally different culture, and to expose my family to a new culture as well,” he commented. 
 
Mr. Katsande has been at the Aga Khan Academy in Hyderabad since 2016, where he is the Head of the Humanities Department. He is passionate about both his role as an educator and as a leader. Speaking of the Aga Khan strands that weave through the curriculum, he states, “Because the strands align so well with the IB Program, teaching and learning with them make the experience meaningful. It also makes our students globally-minded.” 
 
When asked what he enjoys most about teaching at the Academy, Mr. Katsande commented, “The students are so sincere and open-minded. I wake up every morning and look forward to seeing them in class. All members of the Academy community feel this way about the students.” 

Gitika Joganpally - aspiring journalist intent on service and action

“To me, being ethical and humble are the most important things.”
 
Gitika Joganpally of grade 10 represented the Academy at this year’s Times of India Newspaper in Education (TOINIE) school reporter competition held in October 2017. After passing a general knowledge test consisting of current events and a grammar test, she was nominated for the position of school reporter for the 2017-2018 academic session. 
 
Afterward, a discussion group was held in which the dangers of drug abuse were enumerated. “This event gave me the opportunity to analyse situations in a broad way, since there were so many perspectives in the room. It was enlightening.” Already an active member of the Academy's journalism club, Gitika has used this platform to develop her knowledge of local, regional, and national events, and critically respond to them through writing. Following her appointment as school reporter, Gitika has contributed numerous comments and opinion articles to the newspaper, starting with a recap of her experience at the competition. “Writing for the TOINIE has been fantastic,” she commented. “It’s been a great learning experience.” 
 
Gitika has also been heavily involved with service since she arrived at the Academy. Recently, she and other students have been volunteering at the Mamidpalli government school. She and her peers played sports with the students, made art, worked on maths, and did various other activities. Gitika served as translator as she speaks the local language.

She believes that the service and action course in the Middle Years Programme directly corresponds to the Academy's mission, which is to identify and nurture exceptional young people irrespective of ability to pay to become effective, homegrown and ethical leaders. "These values are similar to the values I wanted to share with the students at the government school. I wanted to take into consideration only their talents and skills, not their backgrounds. To me, being ethical and humble were the most important things." reflected Gitika. Her most important takeaway? “I learned to appreciate what I have.”
 
We look forward to reading about these experiences in the TOINIE!

Pages