The recent transition in the stewardship of the school through Nord Anglia Education Group brings an immense connectivity throughout the world with some 80+ sister schools and the enormous capacity of the organization to support the school in enriched teaching and learning resources such as Global Campus, Collaborations with Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Juliard School of Performing Arts, UNESCO, DNA (Digital Nord Anglia) and the significant engagement with our Social Learning program – Share a Dream.
In the Social and Environmental Impact Report 2021-22 prepared by the DAIS/DHS team of social activity managers (Lubaina Essack, Matthew Macinnes, Carrie Sun, Logan Bryant, Stephen Cairns) and Nord Anglia Education platform, we featured 46 different activities that took place through the efforts of our students with 1620 hours of volunteering. Our projects focused on these top 3 sustainable development goals:
Share A Dream was designed to engage Nord Anglia Education schools, students and teachers in outreach activities. As an intuitive solution for social responsibility engagement, Share A Dream helps facilitate the good work happening in every Nord Anglia school community, and gives students and teachers the power to effect positive, lasting change around the world. Today we will introduce you to some of the community service programs running at our school.
The volunteer activities organized by our students not only serve the elderly and children in the local community, but also actively help disadvantaged groups. This summer, our school launched the Star Lighters program, led by DAIS Grade 11 student Mandy, to help children with autism.
Star Lighters cooperate with the famous Dalian Wanli Charity and aim to bring attention to autistic children. In the last few months, a few other schools from Dalian, Shenyang, Xiamen, and Hong Kong joined the initiative, Autism Awareness student-led After School Activity (ASA) was launched, and a local MUN conference was held as part of Star Lighters fundraising campaign. With this expansion, they hope to reach out to more children and young adults in need.
Mother’s English is a China focused English learning support program of DMECC (Dalian Mother Education Consulting Co., Ltd.), currently led by Myungha Kim, a DAIS Junior. Founded in 2016 with the goal to provide adequate English language support to primary age, Mother’s English helps Chinese village students residing in Dalian area. Mother’s English strives to teach these children English through a friendly, engaging, and collaborative method. At present, there are around 50 youth volunteers and around 100 Chinese students that are receiving support from Mother’s English.
Over the years, Mother's English expanded and started offering STEM classes through the Curious Kids program and donating furniture to low-income families through Our Home program led by Ein Sel, DAIS Grade 11. Recently, they collaborated with Volkswagen and GROB to refurbish slightly used laptops for village children.
Every year, the National Honor Society students run Haunted House as a part of Halloween's series of activities for fund raising to run this organization. This event is also for culture promotion and interchange as we are an international school.
Last year, the National Honor Society organized a book and clothing drive at DAIS to donate materials to a rural elementary school in Guizhou where many students are orphans, left-behind children, or are struggling from poverty. They accepted clothing, books, toys, study materials, etc. Labeled boxes for donations were placed around the school buildings. After students came back from the Chinese New Year break, the donated items were carefully sorted, packed, and sent to Guizhou.
We have a long-lasting friendship with a local elderly home here in Jinshitan. In Aunty Wang’s Service ASA, students support the residents who have different medical and physical needs. The residents at the home often do not have family members who could visit them, and students come to have insightful conversations, make origami, and write positive messages to these elderly people. DAIS students organized two fundraising campaigns to help the nursing home meet its daily material needs. Last year, they ran a clothing drive to provide suitable winter clothes for the residents. The kitchen in the nursing home needed repair, and DAIS helped with renovation. Students also used some recycled materials to make small table plants to help improve the living environment.
In March 2022, the DAIS/DHS Middle School choir visited the nursing home to share music with the residents. The choir performed eight songs - three from the girls' choir, three from the boys and two combined. Students then visited the residents and spoke with them. The choir also delivered the goods that had been collected from the movie night held the week before.
This is a global initiative under the umbrella of Project Aware. A local diving-instruction center and friend of the school collaborated with the local government to coordinate dives in the local area. In June 2022, the school partnered with the launch of the summer Dive Against Debris. One of the PADI certified students attended the ceremony and school representatives spoke in the opening ceremony on the importance of monitoring and looking after our local environment.
Each year our students are engaged by and committed to service learning and making a positive difference in the world around them. Understanding the value of how powerful a single act of kindness can be, how essential a gesture of goodwill can lead to the intensification of positive thinking and hope for many impacted by challenges they cannot resolve on their own, and for the environment we serve in protecting our cultural heritage and legacy.
