HIGH SCHOOL

June 10th, 2021

Dear Families,

This week we were fortunate to celebrate the hard work and resilience of our seniors with not one, but three graduation ceremonies. Three ceremonies, each one just as special, for our students, for our parents, and for our faculty who have nurtured, guided and inspired students throughout their formative years. We celebrated our seniors who have called DAA home since KG1 and some even from further back to Pre-KG. In total this year, we had 21 students who have spent their entire educational journey from kindergarten with us at DAA.

Just a few sentiments we wanted to share from a few of our “lifers” on their experience at DAA:

DAA was a second home where I was able to grow and find myself through the support of my teachers and creating long-lasting friendships. More to say, the school had a significant impact on my life. I remember every single one of my teachers from elementary through high school. They allowed me to find my own character and identity through their guidance. However, I am excited to start a new chapter of my life and apply their advice both to my personal and academic life. Deniz Mohajeri

I’m excited to move forward with everything I’ve learned but I will miss the school very much. This has been my home since 2006 and not coming in everyday will definitely be out of the ordinary. I can’t wait to look back at my experiences at the school with a huge smile on my face :) Sofía Mercedes Sahdala Abad

My first day at DAA was in September 2007, walking in late to my first day in KG1, and it became my home for the next 14 years. I have made the most incredible lifelong friendships, learned and experienced a multitude of cultures in this melting pot of diversity, and most important of all, developed into a driven individual who is prepared for my next journey. I am not leaving DAA, but rather moving towards a new, exciting journey in my life while DAA's community will continue to remain a part of me. Tanya Nanda

I’m extremely sad to be leaving the DAA community after 15 years as I’ve grown, learned, and experienced the most amazing things within my time here. I am tremendously grateful for the friends I’ve made, the knowledge I’ve gained and the adventures I got to experience during my time at DAA. However, at the same time after so many years, I am also excited to start the new chapter of university that lies ahead. Emily Ann Hildebrandt

These reflections are a true testament to our DAA culture, to our stellar faculty and to our academic and co-curricular activities that help to create a lifetime of memories for our students. We hope that they take with them their leopard pride wherever they go as they leave the walls of Dubai American Academy.

With gratitude,

Tammy Jochinke

High School Principal

DAA Senior Photos and Walk 2021This video is about Senior Photo Shoot 2021

Graduation Ceremony Livestream Links

LAST NAMES ( A – G ) : 11.00 AM https://youtu.be/nlufXp74tGk

LAST NAMES ( H – N ) : 02.30 PM https://youtu.be/P1q0J2oAr1U

LAST NAMES ( O – Z ) : 06.00 PM https://youtu.be/kyQqRpcXG60

Every year, during our graduation ceremony, we celebrate our graduates who have called Dubai American Academy home for all of their educational journey, having joined us since KG1 and some even from Pre-KG!

Enjoy this original song written and performed by our senior music students - Class of 2021.

Summer Learning

In order to prepare our students for their upcoming academic year, teachers have prepared summer learning for each course that will build a strong foundation on which to build upon in August. Students will be introduced to the Summer Learning website during the last three days of the school year. Students will be encouraged to develop an individualized structured learning plan that will work for them and their summer plans.

End of Year Program

As you know, the academic year finishes on June 30th. Even though exams have wrapped up, we still have much work to do. Students in Grades 9 and 10 as well as Grade 11s who are on a Blended AP/IB Pathway or American Diploma Pathway will attend a series of webinars and workshops as well as some activities more focused on supporting their wellbeing.

A detailed schedule of the last three days of school (June 28th, June 29th and June 30th -early release at 12 noon) will be shared with students and parents soon.

End of Year Exams

We are in the middle of grade 11 exams and our grade 9 and 10 exams will start next Tuesday. These exams give our students the chance to show what they have learnt over the past year. Please find the schedules below:

Grade 9 and 10 exam schedules

Grade 11 exam schedule

Best of luck to all students in their end of year assessments

Student Spotlight

Class Maker Application - A collaboration between an IB Computer Science student and a counselor

Dany Kattouf came into IB Computer Science with a breadth and depth of knowledge and skill set rare in a high schooler. He has been a stellar student and has looked to challenge himself at every turn. For his Internal Assessment, a culminating project that has students building an application for a real world client, he chose to work with Mrs. Mira Nasr, a counselor in Middle School.

His goal was to identify a problem; Mrs. Nasr had one. Placing students in classes as they transition. Dany set off to solve this problem.

Before sharing the results, it must be said that scheduling is not for the faint of heart. Algorithmically, it requires a great deal of logic to solve and or a breadth of knowledge in algorithms that one can draw upon.

After doing some research he found the adjacency matrix. Yup. It is just as complicated to execute in code as it sounds. Not only was he able to understand it on a theoretical level but he also applied it in code. So he used graph theory to pair up students based on various parameters given to him by Mrs. Nasr.

He finished and presented it to her with dummy data, and to her surprise, it worked and worked well. But he had to sit with the school’s IT team to get the right software installed on Mrs. Nasr’s school laptop which took a while. Now Dany was done. He had finished his IA, turned it in to his teacher and was now no longer in school as the seniors had left. Mrs. Nasr proceeded to plug in her data but alas, the bugs began to appear. It should be stated that bugs are part and parcel of any development cycle. The problem is that professional developers have teams to debug and are getting paid to provide a bug free product. Dany was not. He already got a grade, a very good grade for his project. However, he took responsibility for his work and ended up exchanging numerous emails with Mrs. Nasr and assured her he will fix it. He even drove to school on his own accord to come and debug the application which he eventually got to work.

Mrs. Nasr had this to say: “I am so impressed with Dany's dedication and professionalism as we met and he developed the software to my exact specifications. His follow up support is also admirable, considering he was technically on summer vacation when I called upon him to help.”

Normally, she would manually pair students up, but now has a functional application that can create a class list that serves as a jumping off point for her scheduling needs; literally saving her dozens of hours. Dany’s work was impressive as it was not an easy task to code. The complexity of the code was well beyond the IB curriculum taught in class. As his IB Computer Science teacher, I would love to take credit for teaching him this, but he did it all on his own. He was ahead of his class so what I did try to do was allow him to explore topics and pursue online courses that challenged him. I am so proud of his work, one of the best student produced coding projects I have ever seen, and am very excited to see what he will do in his future endeavors. I have very high hopes for him. Congratulations Dany!

Our new 2021-2022 Lead Student Ambassadors

Farah Lahiani

I believe in the Ambassador's program because it is an enthusiastically growing initiative meant to support new students, families, and staff by immersing them into the DAA Community and its "Culture of Kindness".

Saeed Khoory

“I’ve been a student at DAA for years now and each year the student ambassador involvements keep on growing. Even at difficult times such as COVID-19 did not stop their involvement in the DAA’s culture of kindness. This is why I believe that the student ambassador program is capable of accomplishing great feats in the near future.”

High School Counseling

6.9.21 SPOTS HS Counseling .pdf

GEMS Alumni APP

Seniors! Have you registered for the alumni APP? Remember to stay connected beyond DAA using the app. Here's a link to register for an upcoming session. Register for the alumni webinar HERE.