Tag Archives: African Leadership Academy

Introducing our Summer 2014 City Bridge Scholars

City Bridge partnerships connect inner city students to The Island School. We find that providing transformative growth opportunities to these deserving students, we expand their worlds while immeasurably enriching our own. The City Bridge program continues to inspire young people to make a difference and emerge as leaders within their home communities. This year, 67% of our total financial aid budget was allocated to support our City Bridge program. This summer, we welcome 10 City Bridge Scholars to our campus.

Sahara Lewis: Horizons

Sahara LewisSahara is a passionate break dancer from Connecticut. Her dedication and discipline to overcome challenges has lead Sahara to The Island School. The Tourism and Development course includes traveling around the island and several adventurous activities, such as jumping from a cliff into a Bahamian ocean hole and descending far into a limestone cave system. Her teachers have noted an amazing flash of emotions that passes over Sahara’s face – from a moment of stepping out of her comfort zone, to her grinning and bearing the challenge, and then to her enthusiastic “jumping in” – all in an instant. Sahara has been fearless at The Island School.

 

Abraham Martey: African Leadership Academy

Abraham MarteyAbraham joins us at The Island School from Ghana. This trilingual student is currently enrolled in the African Leadership Academy and was nationally recognized as the “Most Innovative Student in Ghana”. He has already established himself as a leader at home by founding and managing a self-sustaining student-run poultry and rabbit farm in Ghana. Abraham’s farm helps fund a NGO he founded, “Reach the Children”, which provides school infrastructure and supplies to underprivileged students near his home. At The Island School, Abraham hopes to gain more skills on how to establish environmental protection policies in his home country. His teachers have all noted his ability to step up as a leader on campus and have been impressed with his dedication to learn to swim while taking detailed his field notes in Marine Ecology class.

Adrian Gutierrez: College Track

Monster R-S-40Adrian’s first trip in an airplane was from his home in San Francisco to Eleuthera for our Summer Term program. In San Francisco, Adrian’s life is centered around basketball, school and church. He is strongly committed to community service and has helped build a prenatal center, works at his local food back, and even started a petition for Darfur. Adrian has carried his ability to care for others with him to Eleuthera. All of his teachers have expressed that he is perfect example of how to be a community member at The Island School.

Celeste Adderley: Long Island Scholar

Celeste AdderlyCeleste is a native Bahamian from Long Island. As a role model in Long Island, she received the Governor General’s Youth Award for her outstanding talents in science and desire to understand the world around her. Her current teachers at The Island School describe Celeste as a future marine biologist who helps provide a strong local perspective in class. She is continuing to learn more about her world underwater as she dives for the first time ever!

Elijah Banks: Eagle Academy Foundation

Elijah BanksComing from New York City, Elijah was eager to jump right into things that were completely unknown to him. As an aspiring marine biologist, Elijah was especially excited to scuba dive and learn more about the world underwater. At home, Elijah is a dedicated community member. He tutors middle school students and provides entertainment and activities for residents at a senior home. At The Island School, Elijah redesigned a plot of land on campus to include edible plants and a Hibiscus arrangement spelling “Summer 14″.

Rebecca Stratchen: BREEF

Rebecca StratchenRebecca is an exemplary Bahamian student from Abaco who has earned a government sponsored academic scholarship to attend Acadia University in Canada. When in high school, Rebecca developed her passion for the science and hopes to contribute to current research on alternative energy sources. At The Island School, Rebecca brought a unique local perspective to discussions on fishing and marine conservation. She is especially excited to bring her permaculture site design back home to her mom. Rebecca left The Island School a few days early to compete in a Judo Championship in Florida. We wish her the best of luck!

Kaven Marte: Quest for Excellence NYC

DCIM100GOPROKaven’s journey to The Island School began when he left his small hometown in the Dominican Republic to pursue better educational opportunities in NYC. Kaven’s curiosity in his academics have led him to want to pursue a career in engineering.  At The Island School, Kaven is the most enthusiastic student during early morning circle and greets everyone with a warm welcoming each day.

Loth Oltukai: Hidden Hearts

Loth OltukaiLoth has made the long journey to The Island School from his home in Tanzania. In the wake of his father’s passing, Loth has stepped up to assume family responsibilities for his 8 siblings. While caring for his family, Loth also serves as an African Leadership Academy Global Scholar Ambassador with an avid passion for aviation engineering. At The Island School, he continues to push his curiosity and challenges himself to do things he has never done. His teachers use swimming as an example of his determination: having never been in clear water, Loth continues to push himself to learn to swim, snorkel, and enjoy the marine environment around him.

Marquis Rolle: BREEF

Marquis RolleMarquis is a local student from the island of Inagua. He has grown up working on his grandfather’s farm and volunteering with the Bahamian National Trust. At The Island School, Marquis is learning more about these skills and how to care for the environment around him. He has been an invaluable voice in his class discussions with his personal knowledge of the Bahamian culture and local plants. His comfort with classroom materials and topics allows Marquis to take the lead and guide his peers to dive further into the local Bahamian environment.

Malik Simon: KIPP Houston

Malik SimonMalik is a student who is constantly pushing himself. As a young boy, he would steal his mom’s friend’s law school books which has giving him his own desire to become a lawyer. He has challenged himself to play basketball at a higher level, plays chess against himself, and is teaching himself guitar! He carries this dedication with him at The Island School. He was the first leader of the day to be chosen by his classmates. He has been noted to be one of the most welcoming students and makes an effort to explore every person within community.

If you are interested to learn more about the City Bridge program, please contact Mary Assini at maryassini@islandschool.org. If you would like to support our City Bridge program, please visit our giving page here.

Dr. Joanna Paul’s Trip to South Africa with EdVillage

Joanna working with Vuleka staffThis past March, Dr. Joanna Paul (Director of Education) travelled to South Africa with EdVillage and a team of international educators to conduct some teacher training workshops and school reviews. “This has been a wonderful professional development opportunity for me,” said Dr. Paul. “Our focus on conducting school reviews, training teachers and principals and delivering school improvement workshops provided me with the opportunity to learn new skills and hone familiar skills in a new context with a new team. My learning was supplemented with school visits and stimulated by working side by side with a team of international educators who each brought different perspectives to our school improvement work. It has  been interesting to compare the work that Deep Creek Middle School is doing in The Bahamas with that of low-fee schools developing in South Africa and share different ways that the two models could inform each other.“

Joanna and FernandoDr. Paul worked in and visited several schools in the Johannesburg and Cape Town areas, including African Leadership Academy (ALA). “ALA is a sending school for The Island School and it was wonderful to see the students in class and in the field in Johannesburg.” During the visit, Jean Fernando Randriamiajason (Summer ’13) showed off the new permaculture farm that he has designed on campus. While he is busy making a profit on the organically grown vegetables for his entrepreneurship project, he is also finding time to lobby the school to install a rainwater catchment system on campus.

Alumni Spotlight: Jean Fernando (Su’13)

Last summer, the African Leadership Academy (ALA) sent a student to The Island School Summer Term, Jean Fernando. ALA is a member of our City Bride Program, which connects inner city schools to The Island School and gives them the chance to step out into a whole new world. City Bridge was born out of The Island School’s dedication to expanding our program’s reach and making it available to anyone who wants to apply. Our partnership with the African Leadership Academy is particularly special because it is our first City Bridge connection outside of the US or Bahamas.

We recently received an update from Jean who is so inspired by his learnings and experiences at The Island School, that collaborated with four ALA peers to create a fully functioning organic farm that produces vegetables for the community. Check out the video on their project:

Maxeys Visit African Leadership Academy

Issac gives Maxeys tour of library
Maxeys at lunch with students from ALA

The Island School is building a bridge to Africa through a partnership with African Leadership Academy (ALA). The Academy, located outside of Johannesburg South Africa, is a world-class, pan-African secondary institution that aims to educate and develop outstanding students into principled, ethical leaders for Africa.

Chris and Pam and daughters, Tyler and Tegan, visited ALA on Saturday, toured the campus and gave a presentation for students and faculty. ALA students played a major role in our Leadership in Education conference back in Spring 2011 and our first ALA student joined us this past summer from Ethiopia. There is a shared Island School-ALA mission that focuses on giving students space to solve real-world problems and learn how to be successful agents for positive change in the world.

We have to thank our friends at Noble and Greenough, Ben and Sarah Snyder, Ernie and Kim Parizeau and Michael Denning for making this introduction.