Dear High School Community,

We want to thank our parents for being such an outstanding group of care and time givers. The past week has provided an insight into how much time our parent community gives to our students. Friday morning saw the majority of our Seniors gather at the 2022 building for a Senior photo shoot. It was a stellar event that required immense logistical management skills - not least in ensuring our Seniors were awake and prepared at 7:45 am on a weekend. There was also the 3X3 Basketball Tournament immediately afterwards supported by our parents, which was another huge success. We thank you for making our school a place that creates life-long memories.

COVID-19 Updates

No COVID-19 cases this week in the High School, which is always good news!

We reiterate our plea to parents not to send their children to school if they exhibit symptoms related to COVID-19. Please err on the side of caution and take them to be tested.

Weill Cornell Medicine - Qatar’s High School Medical Conference

On April 10, 2021 Weill Cornell Medicine - Qatar hosted a Research Competition in which 41 High School teams (6 from ASD) virtually presented their research poster on various topics in front of a panel of judges. 21 teams were then chosen to present at WCM-Q’s High School Medical Conference, including the following teams from ASD:

Team 9

Theme: Ensure Sustainable Production and Consumption Patterns

Topic: Sustainable Local Food Production

Team Leader: Anita Abrams

Team Members: Aditri Patil, Tara Tafreshi, and Mridula Sathyanarayanan

Team 11

Theme: Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages

Topic: A Potential Solution to the CAD Issue of Qatar

Team Leader: Clare Alexander

Team Members: Muhammed Numayr Khan, Kareem Kabbani, Lucas Schmidt, Anthony Makhlouf

Team 31

Theme: Understanding the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic

Topic: Effects Of Covid-19 On Mental Health of Adolescents

Team Leader: Maria Manacheril

Team Members: Omar Abdallah, Rami Ayeche, Ibrahim Al-Hassani, Bassam Almoli, & Mohamed AlThani

The WCM-Q High School Medical Conference was held over Zoom. Teams 9, 11, and 31 each presented their research posters three times to three different judges. Once all the presentations were concluded, the judges tallied the scores and selected the final three teams to present, which included two teams from DeBakey High School and Team 31 from ASD. Team 31 was exceptionally poised as they presented their research in front of over 200 participants and remained cool under pressure when faced with tough questions from the panel of expert judges. After careful deliberation, the winner of the competition was announced - Team 31 from ASD! Congratulations to Omar, Rami, Ibrahim, Bassam, & Mohamed for this outstanding accomplishment! We also offer congratulations to all the ASD participants, as well as the teachers who advised them.

Senior Surprise

This week saw another Senior Surprise - thanks to our magnificent Junior Senior Committee for their commitment to our Senior students. Here are some photos of the event. Enjoy.

Dress Code Update

We continue to enforce our dress code expectations. So far, our students should be commended for adhering to these expectations. No one has been sent home, yet.

Production Updates

The production is nearly here. Get your tickets for an artistic extravaganza!

Click HERE to purchase your tickets! Recommended for ages 8 and up.

AP Updates

With only three weeks until the school winter break, students in AP classes should be focused on demonstrating their learning on the important assessment tasks that remain this semester. The AP Coordinator has continued to meet with teachers, counselors, and students to have conversations about courses where student achievement indicates some struggle, with the goal of supporting and providing structures to support these students in their learning. We encourage parents and students to contact and meet with AP teachers if there are such concerns, including in the case where formative grades indicate that important foundational learning is not taking place. With multiple summative tasks still remaining in most courses, all AP students need to make efforts to reinforce and build on their learning to this point in preparation for Semester 2 and the eventual summative AP exams in May of 2022. If you have any questions about our AP Courses or the AP Capstone Diploma program, please contact our AP Coordinator at: joshua.giddens@asd.edu.qa

IBDP Diploma Updates

IBDP and University Admissions

This week at Counselor Coffee there was a session dedicated to the benefits of the IBDP and its support of University applications for our students. The IBDP focuses on enabling our students to “become creative problem-solvers and lifelong independent thinkers”(IBO,2021). The syllabus is built on inquiry-based learning. If parents are interested in learning more about the IBDP please use this link HERE, dedicated to supporting parents. If you have any questions or you would like additional information please do not hesitate to contact the IBDP Coordinator, Ms. Katrina Charles at katrina.charles@asd.edu.qa

Teaching and Learning Moment

The Business class just wrapped up presentations for their summative project, the 20 Riyal Challenge. Students were given seed funding of 20 QAR and were tasked with coming up with a business idea that they could plan and operate. Students worked for several weeks on a business plan where they learned about their target market, gathered primary research on their product/services, and delved into the global industry and the Qatari market. All of this work culminated with the 'business week' where students executed their businesses. As in the real world, some were successful and some were not. Overall, though, the experience of coming up with a business and putting it into action was the goal. They learned a lot and some are even considering continuing it through the rest of the year. In the end, the 3 classes combined earned close to 10,000QAR from their ventures.

Service Updates

In our desire to ensure our parent community has more access to Learning Service information, we have provided access for parents on the “Learning Service” tab on the HS Office Teneen page. The same information is available on the HS Student Teneen Page for students. Supplementary information can also be accessed on our Learning Service Libguide. This page is now updated and live.

Last week, we concluded Water Week with a virtual visit by Evan Wesley from the Thirst Project. Even spoke at length about how SDG #6 Clean Water and Sanitation is intricately linked to and supports other SDGs. You can find his talk and Q&A session here.The activities also concluded with a cupcake sale to build wells in Ghana over the 2021-2022 year through Ryan’s Wells. This will see the construction of five additional deep wells in the Ashanti region. These new wells will benefit one community (Amudurase Village), two health centers (Abosamso CH and Tebeso I CHP) and two schools (Ahweam School and Amponya Krofrom School). Altogether, this project will provide clean water to over 10,699 people.

This week, in our Service Speaker Series, we welcomed Dr. Ben Muller from South Africa who spoke to the Conservation and EFFECT Clubs about the use of anesthesia in the transport of large cats. This is a key part of predator management in conservation. You can find his session here.

We would like to remind you about the Social Entrepreneurship course that ASD has partnered with Schoolyard Ventures and the University of Pennsylvania. Please see the link for details. Students who successfully complete this course will earn a certificate from the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Social Policy and Practice. The deadline to commit is Wed, December 1.

By now, all Grade 9 and 10 students should have formally joined a service club and have met. If your child has not heard from a club that they have signed up for, please have them email the contacts on the club’s slide on the Virtual Service Job Fair. If they have done this and have not yet heard back, please have them email Mr. Shang (cshang@asd.edu.qa) who will help them get in touch with the teacher sponsor of the group.

Also by this point in time, all Grade 9 and 10 students should have loaded their service commitments into Managebac. Please check with your child. In most cases, students should have done this through their service club at one of the meetings. In case they were not able to, the detailed instructions for this are here. Students should have completed Part A and B ONLY (Part C will be done at the end of the year)

For questions about service or IBDP CAS at ASD, please contact Mr. Shang at cshang@asd.edu.qa.

Counseling

Overseas School Project

Overseas School Project works in conjunction with the U.S. Department of State's Office of Overseas Schools and the College Board's Overseas Schools Project, an initiative aimed at helping American families (and their international friends) navigate the admission and financial aid process in the United States. On Wednesday, December 1 at 6:00 pm we will be virtually hosting our OSP Representative as he covers the following topics:

1. Holistic admission through the lens of highly selective universities

2. Extracurricular involvement in a pandemic

3. Test-Optional, Test Flexible, Test Blind

4. Hits and Misses in the personal statement

5. Need vs. Merit aid

We look forward to seeing everyone at our virtual event and you can join the Zoom session here

Counselor Coffee

Thank you to everyone that joined us both in person and virtually for our counselor coffee this month. You can find the recording here as well as all resources from the presentation on our teneen page here.

Counselor Course

Our Grade 9 Counselor Course started this week! All Grade 9 students went on scavenger hunts during the counselor course to learn where to find important people and information within the High School!

Book Study

Are you interested in participating in our first book study? If so, please register your interest by completing the enclosed form. The form will be open for the entirety of next week and more information will be communicated out after that. If you have any questions, please get in touch with Dr. Jones at aaron.jones@asd.edu.qa.

University Visits

Please check out our teneen page for virtual university visits and fairs that are happening around the world!

Resources

We encourage students and parents to check out the HS Counseling Teneen page within the Main HS Office as it has lots of resources available for students and parents.

Thank you.

Michael Roberts

High School Principal

American School of Doha

Hot Dog Lunch Sign Up

A link will be sent directly to students and staff to pre-order hot dogs; hot dogs can also be ordered by scanning the barcode in the flyer.