Student Connectedness

Another pivotal part of our vision is to “promote each student’s ability to reach a higher level of constructive thinking and to enhance students’ creativity, physical well-being, spirituality and leadership.” Despite its limited on-campus facilities, GAI has proven to be ranking among the best school in Doha in its students’ outstanding performance in extracurricular activities whether academic or nonacademic. This year for example, our football team for the elementary level won first prize among all school of Doha. Another evidence of our excellence is our tenth-grader winning first prize in the writing competition sponsored by Doha Bank during the exhibition of COP 18 that was held this year.

Even when not winning prizes our students constantly participate in a highly competitive level with many other prestigious schools in Qatar. The realm of their extra-curricular involvement is diversified; it is in the fields of sports, art, health, technology, volunteer work, and many others. Our counseling staff members along with teachers are sticklers for driving our students towards such character boosting activities because they them indispensible for urging self-improvement and creating an individual who is capable of contributing the best to the local and the international community.

This intense sense of the necessity of going beyond school’s curriculum is initiated in the lower grades and is sustained in the upper grades and emphasized as they approach graduation. Our high school students have received heartwarming appraisal from Qatar Charity for all the responsibility, seriousness, and commitment they have displayed when taking part in one of the organization’s charity campaign. The school administration received a certificate of appreciation for raising the biggest amount of fund among all other schools in Doha.

When applying to universities, our students approach it with ample confidence. Most of them would have already compiled a big portfolio filled with certificates testifying for their participation in varied extra-curricular activities and doing volunteer jobs. They also approach interviews with very high esteem that is a summative result of many drilling and activities held at school. In their quest to stress the importance of sustained personality development, some licensed trainers at Global Academy International have offered personal development and growth workshops such as “Strategic Personal Planning” to students in middle school and high school. In the same vein, over many years students are required to write and give speeches; write and act dramatic scenes and deliver them before big audience. More importantly, they are expected to master speaking and listening skills in the “Show and Tell” activity in the lower grade levels and use these skills proficiently when presenting their research finding as part of their speaking and listening assessment in the upper grade levels. Such training culminates in writing, rehearsing, delivering their speeches for the student council election campaign or for the graduation speeches which are similar to rites of passage to many of our students. To sum it all, we DO hold character development and involvement in extra-curricular activities very highly and we devotedly allocate big effort and disciplined follow-through to see it happening.