The little gems rising through Circle Academy

The Circle Academy by Ugail Foundation has been facilitating children of middle school age to develop and enhance skills extraordinary from their normal curriculum. During a recent interview with Professor Ugail, he highlighted some of the outstanding students in his programs, who are now excelling in the coding world. MFR sat with the Dean of The Circle Academy, Mariyam Shazna, to learn about some of the student's journeys and their stories. 

Izkaan Ahmed Shareef

Age: 10

Izkaan is a student of the Coding and Critical thinking program by Ugail foundation. He joined the program earlier this year, due to his keen interests in computer coding and to engage in activities during his time staying home. According to Izkaan, he was able to learn the programming language and basics of coding during the few months of his education in the program. He uses Python, HTML, CSS, and JAVA script languages in his coding. Coding is something Izkaan really enjoys, and he utilizes the techniques he learns from the program very well. 

Professor Ugail personally tweeted praising Izkaan for his talents. Izkaan stood out in an assignment of the program where students were asked to write an HTML based blog about themselves. Izkaan is currently working on a high-level coding project along with his fellow students in the program. He wishes to exceed his skills in the field and continue learning as he grows. 

Minha Mahjoob Shujau

Age: 12

Minha is an extremely talented student for her age, in terms of speaking and presenting herself confidently. She was given the chance of conducting a presentation on the “Leaders of Tomorrow” program by Ugail Foundation and HDC. Through her engagement in the Circle Academy, Minha was able to face challenges and build a lot of self confidence. According to Minha, she is able to learn many new things through the programs, things she is not taught at school such as proper ways of conducting research before writing articles, how to capture the interest of the audience when writing, as well as techniques of writing and speaking. Most importantly, she is able to express her own opinions while speaking during programs. 

Minha is amongst the few handpicked students for the Leaders of Tomorrow program, where she learns how to write journal articles, and create YouTube videos. Minha’s “The City of Rome” article written for a project of the program has gained much praise and popularity amongst the Academy. She joined the Academy in the year 2020 and is currently engaged in the Leaders of Tomorrow program. She loves reading books and, posts reviews of her books on her Instagram page @foi_ha. She was also given the opportunity to host a book club by the Gaadiya Community. Minha is also an extraordinary table tennis player currently training with the National Table Tennis Team squad. 

Mohmed Areen Arif

Age: 12

Areen is a student of the Circle Kids’ program by Ugail foundation in the year 2020. Besides his formal education from Addu City Sharafudheen School, he is currently engaged in the Leaders of Tomorrow program by the Circle, among the few students handpicked by Professor Ugail. Within the program, Areen is working on a special book of technology, and has completed 25 percent of work at the moment. He is also working with the administrative team of the You tube video project as well as the Circle Composition project's administrative works. During his learning within the program, Areen was able to improve his grammar skills, and build self-confidence. Before participating in this program, Areen mentioned that he was very shy to speak and present himself to a greater audience. Through this program, he was able to face and overcome this fear, while learning how to give a presentation confidently. 

According to Areen, a good presentation must include less animations and texts, and include more pictures relevant to the topics. To capture the interest of an audience, the presentation must include fact-based information, and for a 5-minute presentation, a maximum of 3 slides is necessary. Areen also mentioned that it is important to have short notes that is self-explanatory during the presentation, and to learn the audience beforehand and identify ways to comprehend the audience so they will understand better.

The potential for growth

The Circle Academy by Ugail Foundation, has created extra-ordinary students through their programs. The stories of Izkaan, Minha and Areen show that a lot more can still be learned outside of the formal education context, and that there are more students excelling in such programs. For self-development and exploration, young children must engage in different learning experiences and activities. Such programs as the Circle Academy's are bringing out more talented youth as future leaders, inspiring more students to achieve the same through their paths.