Alliance Breakfast, Students Call for Eggxperties!

Island School held its first Alliance* breakfast, on the 20 March 2019, where guests were encouraged to donate their time and expertise to support students.

The breakfast at the Hong Kong Club was made possible thanks to club member and parent Mr Ayaz Ebrahim. Guests, including parents, alumni and friends of the school heard from three Year 12 students and special guest speaker, alumna Mohammed Abdoolcarim, a tech entrepreneur and developer of “Siri” for the iphone.

Daanyal Ebrahim (12D), welcomed guests, introduced the Spirit Fund and explained what it means to be an Islander. Anya Saunders (12 W) spoke on behalf of the Plastic Retaskit project. A team of students, from Years 9-12, who are building four machines that will allow Island School to recycle waste plastic. She explained that with their machines they will be able to produce new products – which could be just about anything, cups, stationery or even office chairs. She called on guests to offer their advice and expertise to the project team.

Priscilla Lee (12F) talked about, a pitch winning idea, to develop a platform that turns calories burnt through exercise into video game credits. The concept for the platform was generated at a Nissan Infiniti workshop. At the workshop Nissan invited ESF student teams to think creatively, research, collaborate and develop pitches. Priscilla’s team pitch impressed the Nissan judges and won! Priscilla explained that she wants to make the platform a reality and ask the Alliance breakfast guests for help.

Mohammed Abdoolcarim, Einstein House Class of 1999, talked to guests about the changing world in terms of transport, stem cell growth and freedom of speech.

He said the problems of the future can be solved but, “They require the ability to organise a lot of different people at scale. They require breaking down of the old systems with bold ideas. They require strong leaders who care more about making a difference than making a dollar. It so happens that our future generations have all of these qualities and more in spades.”

“And as parents, teachers and friends we have a chance to provide this generation with support and skills to succeed in this new kind of world.”

Click here to read Mohammed speech in full.

Principal, Stephen Loggie in his closing remarks talked about the changing face of education and learning and explained more about the Alliance and what it strives to achieve.

Notes*, The Alliance together with The Island School Trust supports the following projects, Baiwan, Katja House, Nicola Myers and Kenneth McBride Fund, Spirit Fund, Island Academy and Community Outreach programmes.