The School Meet was held on 13th April 2019 in New Delhi. With the theme Connect, Collaborate & Co-create , AFS Member School Meet had successful participation of 28 Principals from the five different regions- North, South, East, West and Central regions of schools from all over India.
The meet aimed to connect, collaborate, and co-create for maximizing impact. The meet featured sessions, discussion, ice-breaking session to plan the Business Model that will help us in advancing our 3 impact goals: develop active global citizens, globalize schools & institutions and expand access to intercultural education.
The meet entailed the testimonial section, in which 4 Principals participated with the mandate to empower and have experience sharing with AFS and its programs. They talked on the theme of:
- Developing Competencies in The Classrooms
- AFS Sending Programs: A 360 Degree Development of Students
- School Relations and Activities: A Win-Win
- Hosting an AFS Student and Bringing Global Competencies in The School
During the mid-tea breaks, there were interesting ice-breaking sessions which created an environment of comfort between the participants. There was sharing of the presentation titled Empowering Global Citizens To Take Actions, comprising AFS impact goals, history, exchange programs- flagship programs and short-term programs, sending and hosting programs, opportunities for 18+ participants, AFS India vision 2020, the statistical numbers and educational goals.
With the day passing, some engrossing sessions with interesting activities were introduced to the participants. The sessions were as follows:
- AFS and Our Educational Goals: Sarita Badhwar facilitated this session where her focus was on the 16 Educational Goals. She described how the AFS Educational Goals are the backbone of the AFS Student Learning Journey & Curriculum. The objective of the session was the help the Principals understand how AFS Student Learning Journey & Curriculum supports students before, during and after their time abroad through group orientation sessions. The facilitator also shared about the innovative curriculum provided by AFS uses a variety of proven experiential learning formats and resources to engage students, help them process their everyday experiences, and learn from their reactions to new, and sometimes difficult, situations. By explaining the 4 areas of Educational Goals, Principals understood the AFS Programs and the goals.
- AFS Student Learning Journey: Aditya Chaudhary, Dean Academics and Innovations, Sunbeam Schools, Varanasi, shared the student learning journey which began with an Identity Iceberg activity. It made the participants put together all of their visible, less visible and invisible components. With the visible factor’s individual gets attracted and excited of what catches instant attention, less visible awareness comes little later in life and not visible factors are not easily seen and take time to frame an opinion. The session explained the cultural adjustment curve - the journey of the students while on the exchange program.
Jayant Lal, Co-Chair AFS India School Membership Committee took the session that entails activity of on self-assessment, strategies and future plan discussion. The session gave the principals the opportunity to share the expectations from AFS and how it could be worked to further strengthen the relationship between schools and AFS India in future.
The day ended with electing regional representatives from the 4 regions- North, South, Central and West with an expectation from the representatives to be active and able to communicate on a wide range of ideas, knowledge, and skills on behalf of the schools of their regions and built a better association with AFS. We look forward to strengthening our association with Schools in India and provide them with significant opportunities to globalize their schools.