Residential Facilities
Our school culture is based on respect, integrity, honesty, fairness, empathy and good humour; and these values permeate the ethos of residential life.
The residential environment is warm and supportive, and this is reflected in the peaceful and inviting architecture of the residences. Boys and girls live in separate student residences, and all students are closely supervised by faculty and staff.
The adjustment to living away from home for the first time can be difficult for students. Our dorm parents are a carefully chosen group of teachers who live in faculty apartments in the residences. They ensure a safe, nurturing and fun-filled environment for students.
Dorm parents are trained in critical skills such as health and safety, community life and interpersonal relations. They possess a high level of energy to handle multiple tasks while offering guidance and support to the students.
We provide accommodation for members of the Academy community from both within the country and overseas, as well as those visiting or on exchange from another Aga Khan Academy. Additional teachers' quarters on campus house both resident and visiting faculty along with their families.
Vasanthi Thandlam: Lifelong learning and giving
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.
Anjum Budhwani - living her dream
Anjum has been teaching since the time she was an undergraduate student. She began as a volunteer at her community Religious Education Centre as part of the Institute for Ismaili studies’ Ta’lim programme, a course designed to introduce children to the faith, ethics, history and cultures of Muslim peoples and of the Ismaili community in particular. “Compassion builds a strong relationship between teacher and student,” she says. “If a teacher is caring and loving the student feels safe with her, and learning will happen successfully in turn.”
Anjum received her first bachelor’s degree in commerce from Hyderabad’s Osmania University, and went on to collect another bachelor’s in education followed by a master’s degree when she decided to become a teacher. Her aspiration was to join the Aga Khan Academy Hyderabad, and she realized this dream in 2012. “I feel elated when I hear people saying ‘She works at the Aga Khan Academy Hyderabad.' ” It was also her mother’s dream to see her daughter become a teacher.
Though she says every day at the Academy is special, some days have been more special than others. “I cherish the day when His Highness the Aga Khan was here on 15th April 2015,” beams Anjum, remembering some his words to our teachers. “He mentioned that there will be difficult times while you are teaching and learning and you will have failures during your journey of teaching. But remember the result and keep the goal in your mind that we are working towards creating future leaders and that it’s not going to be easy.” These words are a part of what inspire Anjum to teach at the Academy and to better herself as a facilitator to young students.
One of her favourite things about teaching at the AKA Hyderabad is discussing teaching practices with her colleagues. Anjum has imbibed the philosophy of being a lifelong learner; learning from her colleagues, she explains, has been key to her growth as a teacher. “We have regular and ongoing professional development, which has provided me with a lot of opportunities to improve myself,” shares Anjum. “Sharing best practices, professional development reading, action research and other platforms where we get to learn from each other gives us the chance to reflect on our learning and teaching process.”
These collaborative efforts have helped Anjum grow into the ideal PYP teacher who believes in giving her students voice, choice and ownership in their school work. “I design assessments and learning engagements with students in order to provide them with ownership and accountability in their learning.” Miss Anjum’s classroom is decorated with student input, with students also influencing their seating arrangement. In her class you will see the Innovation Corner, where students create new things from recycled material. Students of 3K have a duty list, where students are given charge of classroom resources like books and stationery. Giving students responsibility and ownership of their space this way helps allows them an early understanding of stewardship.
“She endeavors to exemplify stewardship through her actions,” says Academy Junior School Principal, Sreelatha Kumar. “Equanimity and her unquestionable commitment are her best qualities." Sreelatha adds that it is remarkable how Anjum deals with adults and children with the same grace and evenness.
It is very common that parents visiting the Aga Khan Academy Hyderabad Junior School, upon seeing students in the sand pit or in the art room, wish that they could have done their primary education here. Should they peep into Miss Anjum’s grade 3 classroom, they will understand that it is teachers like her whom they missed having in school, because they are the ones who help create the idyllic aura of a primary school.
Written by Ajay Sundaram
Coming Soon
PYP Graduation Ceremony 2018
Parent - Student -Teacher Conferences/Conferências Pais-Alunos e Professores
Friday June 8 2018.
After school activities
will end on 12 April 2019.
PYP Moving up ceremony
Thursday, June 20.
Anzhela Mirzoeva: Taking Academy lessons learnt to college
“It was very cold outside,” she recalls. “I went straight to my mother’s workplace and handed her the letter. We were both too scared to open it. Finally, it was my uncle who opened it and told me I had been accepted at the Academy.”
“It was very exciting and scary,” she recollects. “I was not ready to leave my family and friends and go far away to Kenya.”
However, after spending six years at the Academy, Anzhela admits she has come a long way in terms of personal growth and professional development.
“I have been part of the Academy since 2013. Within these years I have been part of different activities and teams at the school. Each undertaking taught me something special,” she states appreciatively.
Now having graduated from the Academy, Anzhela is forging ahead to start a new phase in her life in the United States at the Connecticut College in New London, Connecticut. She will major in international relations and human development and has received a full scholarship from the College. She was also admitted to other colleges, including the University of Central Asia and a number of universities in Canada. The University of Central Asia also offered her a full scholarship. Expressing gratitude to the Academy counsellors, she says, “With assurance, I can claim that without my counsellors, I wouldn’t have been so successful in getting admission to all these universities. The counsellors in the Academy were very dedicated and organized in their work. They made the college application a very smooth process with their information presentations and untiring availability.”
Anzhela feels that her route to success has been due to the Academy’s International Baccalaureate (IB) curriculum. This, she feels, has given her a step ahead in critical thinking skills.
“The IB engages you in constructive learning,” she says with admiration. “It fills your mind with thinking skills that you will need all your life. The IB learner profile is also a guideline that teaches students what their expectations are.”
Anzhela says the Academy instilled in her many values such as pluralism, empathy, and leadership training. The public service requirement, she says, touched her to the core. After her education, she hopes to return to Tajikistan.
As she heads away from the Academy, Anzhela says she will always cherish her years at the school.
“I will miss the sense of belonging at the Academy, the Saturday night activities, the IB jokes, the late nights trying to finish assignments," Anzhela said. "What makes me miss all these moments are the people; my teachers, my classmates, my friends, the simple stuff. At the end of the day, I see the Academy as my home. It is where I spent all my teen years. I am truly grateful to be a graduate of the Academy. It taught me who I really am and what I really want from life.”
Clare McLaughlin: Encouraging growth at the Academy
Before we enter the 2019 – 2020 academic term, we would like to spotlight a few staff from AKA Mombasa who are going on to pursue new adventures in the upcoming academic year. Here, we take a look at Academy fellow Clare McLaughlin and her two years at the Academy.
Clare McLaughlin is from Warren, Vermont and was an Academy fellow at the Aga Khan Academy Mombasa. Clare was focused in the Service Learning programme
and involved in other programmes around the Academy.
During her time at the Academy, Clare said she is grateful for the various people she was able to work with.
“My time at AKA Mombasa has been an incredible opportunity to learn and grow,” Clare said. “Foremost I’ll miss the students who were immeasurably thoughtful, hilarious and motivating. Students were the center of everything I did and valued in my time at the Academy so I’ll miss them the most. I’ll also miss the friendships I’ve made with staff across the Academy - from the Administration block to the dorms - the Academy staff always kept me laughing and learning.”
Clare said she was able to recognise the value of pluralism at the Academy, which she believes will help her in her future.
“I feel fortunate that on each team I worked with, I heard different perspectives and had to challenge myself to see problems and solutions from every angle,” Clare said. “I value this immensely and will carry with me this standard of listening and collaboration.”
Throughout her fellowship, Clare said she enjoyed the opportunities she was given to work on various projects and programmes, while also improving the Service Learning programme for the years to come.
“The best part of the fellowship is its flexibility to try new things, work with an array of groups and interests in the Academy, and propose creative solutions to challenges,” Clare said. “I especially enjoyed serving as a mentor, working on the girls’ football programme, working on the Exchange Programme with the Academy in Hyderabad, and working to make Service Learning more community-centered, effective and sustainable.”
For her next adventure, Clare said she plans to go back to school for her Master’s degree.
“I am attending Stanford University to pursue a Master’s degree looking at education for sustainable development,” Clare said.
George Kamau Gachoya, an Environmental Systems and Societies teacher at the Academy who Clare worked with as a teacher’s assistant, said he admired Clare’s work ethic and the various new ideas she introduced to his class.
“Clare is a diligent and an outspoken person with whom I have had an opportunity to work with in the last two years as my protégé in the ESS class,” George said. “She is meticulous in planning; the resources she prepared for the lessons she helped deliver were always enriching and promoted deeper understanding of concepts. She introduced Freakonomics radio to the class and organised for class discussions initiated by students on hot environment topics of the week that they could pick from the media. She is friendly, but also very firm when dealing with students. Her keen eye could quickly pick students who were not using their lesson time productively.”
Alqaim Lalani: Graduating from the Academy to write a new chapter
For Alqaim Lalani, his recent graduation from the Aga Khan Academy in Mombasa brings him one step closer to furthering his dream of attaining a deeper understanding of how economics and politics affect a society and the daily life of its inhabitants. Alqaim will attend New York’s Columbia University in the Fall as a prestigious Kluge Scholar, where he plans to major in these subjects.
“I have much appreciation for the interdisciplinary study of economics and politics. These two areas of knowledge really dictate the decisions made by leaders, whether that be on the global stage or an institutional platform,” he states.
Even at this young age, Alqaim has engaged in thoughtful and careful consideration of how economics can help leaders plan to avert an uncertain future in their countries.
“In the world we live in, where natural resources and commodities are increasingly scarce, coupled with a rising population growth, economics to me really seems like a subject that is instrumental in planning ahead for the turbulent times to come,” he states with confidence.
Alqaim says he was accepted in the Columbia Undergraduate Scholars Programme for “his intellectual pursuits, extracurricular achievements, and promise for future.” He says being in a residential programme at the Academy helped him follow a routine and helped him navigate his rigorous workload more effectively. He also relished being a “big brother” to the younger students in the dorm.
Extracurricular activities and public service undertakings are an integral part of the International Baccalaureate Programme (IB) curriculum at the Academies. As part of his public service requirement, Alqaim pioneered a cancer initiative called Tumaini La Maisha (Hope For Life). He started this in 2015 for children battling cancers at the Muhimbili National Hospital in Tanzania. Under this initiative, Alqaim engaged young cancer patients and their parents in arts and crafts activities as part of a healing process and also to raise money for their medical treatment. This initiative is ongoing and has expanded to Kenya and Uganda. The parents and patients make bags and other crafts which are sold to the public.
“My personal involvement with the project is distributing the bags once they are made, marketing the products, making orders for the materials that are used in their production and raising awareness about the severity of pediatric cancer in East Africa.”
Another tenet that the Academy places immense importance on is pluralism. What is Alqaim’s takeaway from this?
“In the first year of the diploma programme at the Academy, I travelled to Rwanda with other history students to learn about the Rwandan Genocide. This is perhaps one of the most memorable experiences I had. At the Academy, we are taught about the importance of pluralism and understanding. Yet, when I went to Rwanda and saw the atrocities of the genocide, it reminded me that everyone does not share these values. It also reminded me how significant my Academy education was in allowing me to become an individual that recognizes the wrongful nature of fear-mongering, propaganda and hate speech that are so pervasive today.”
Alqaim holds dear the many lessons learned at the school. He says they have opened his eyes and transformed his old way of thinking.
“Theory of Knowledge taught me to ask the deeper questions, share my opinion fervently while appreciating and respecting views that may be diametrically opposed from my own. Governance and Civil Society provided a nurturing environment for community service projects such as monetary and marketing support.
Projecting an aura of congeniality, Alqaim says, “At the Academy, I have acquired a greater understanding on the importance of ethical leadership and an enduring commitment to whatever project I undertake.”
Related article: AKA Mombasa Student Builds Social Entrepreneurship Initiative
