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| 10 May 08 (00:11 EAT) |
| 13 April 2007 Dear Parents, I wanted to welcome you back to Term 3 at International School Moshi. Although this is a relatively short term, it is packed with events throughout which will keep us all very busy. On Tuesday teachers from both our campuses came together for an in-service day which focussed on our PYP authorization report guidelines and on the comprehensive MYP Personal Project. All our teachers returned to ISM refreshed and ready for the final stretch of the school year. The Heads of Campus are so refreshed that one of them is leading a level one OP trip up to Mandara on Kili this weekend. There will also be Level 2,3,4 and 6 trips happening this term. Our IB2 and S5 students will be studying for their terminal exams and I know they will make the most of their final weeks of study. IB2 students have received several college acceptances already and many more are expected in the next few months. During the holidays, I travelled with the Heads of Campus to visit the Waterford United World College in Swaziland. ISM is gathering information about UWC to try to determine if there could be a net benefit for ISM to develop a closer relationship with that organization. We learned a lot about how UWC raises funds for scholarship places for children from all over the world. ISM currently has scholarship graduates studying on full scholarships at Harvard, Amherst, Duke and Washington State universities. This week we also received the excellent news that Leonard John (’06), our ISM scholarship student from Kahama, was awarded a full scholarship to attend the University of British Columbia in Canada next year. Leonard graduated from IB in 2006, but was unable to secure full funding for his tertiary education and had to take a gap year here in Moshi. I want to congratulate both Leonard and Mrs. Beth Beveridge, our college counsellor, who never gave up and continued to write long applications to so many schools. Leornard’s life is going to change and I am very proud that ISM has helped make this opportunity happen. As soon as we returned from Swaziland, Mr. White, Mr. Folland and myself interviewed thirteen Tanzanian boys and girls for two ISM scholarship places starting in 07/08. The students were with us for three days and after an intensive round of interviews, the selection committee offered the places to Erica Kafwimi from Mbeya and Desmond Mushi from Moshi. Both students intend to study medicine and eventually return to practice in Tanzania. I want to thank Mr. White and Mr. Folland for volunteering their time during the holiday to assist with the selection. We strongly believe in the ISM scholarship programme as a vehicle for ISM to assist with the concept of “African solutions to African problems.” We have established an ISM Charitable Trust in the UK to support the scholarship programme and we are awaiting our final level of approval from the US government for an ISM charitable foundation in the United States which provides tax incentives for US-based individuals and companies to support our efforts. These two initiatives have been more than two years in the making and are important infrastructure components for ISM. Our Development Office is also working on an ISM scholarship DVD, which we hope to launch at the ISM alumni reunion in August. Supporting scholarships at ISM for Tanzanian students helps us all. Our students clearly benefit from working alongside these motivated students and everyone who supports the scholarship programme benefits from doing their part to help Tanzania in the best way possible. Every ISM scholarship success story has a ripple effect that our scholarship students tell us permeates their entire communities. Relatives and neighbours respect and admire these students and are inspired by their work ethic to study harder themselves. The final paragraph of ISM’s Philosophy and Objectives states that we are “striving to accept responsibility to take action towards making a positive impact in our local community.” We believe the ISM scholarship programme demonstrates our commitment to Tanzania. I want to thank our staff, alumni, Board members and parents who have made a direct or indirect contribution to the ISM Scholarship programme. You have changed several Tanzanian lives in five short years. If you are interested in becoming more involved in fundraising for the ISM Scholarship fund, I encourage you to contact Anne Wilshin, our Development Officer, the Heads of Campus or myself. Best Regards, Barry Sutherland Chief Executive Officer | |
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