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Tribune News Network
Doha
EIGHT Doha College students were recently recognised for their completion of the prestigious gold Duke of Edinburgh's International Award a globally recognised programme that helps to develop young people for life and work.
The programme allows students to experience new and different skills and opportunities, as well as providing challenges to build life skills and qualities such as confidence, teamwork, patience and commitment.
Achieving the gold award takes huge levels of dedication from students. They must complete over 1,200 hours of purposeful activity, including 400 hours of physical recreation, skill work and service, as well as 32 days of residential projects and a six-day expedition. Owing to the intense commitment of the scheme, many students continue their award after school, but eight illustrious students managed to succeed in completing this remarkable undertaking before graduating from Doha College.
Students completed their physical and skill components through a variety of activities that allowed them the experience of something new. For their service element, the local community benefited greatly with projects such as volunteering at Hamad Hospital, teaching drama in the Doha College Primary School, working as teaching assistants, volunteering with a local compound maintenance team and coaching with Evolution Sports.
To complete the residential project requirement, students participated in an array of fascinating activities including a sports skills development course in the UK, performing at the Edinburgh Fringe festival with a theatre group, visiting schools in Uganda with the Develop with Dignity project, and staying with a Spanish teacher and her family in Barcelona.
The value added to these students' life is indeed the determination, perseverance and resilience they developed, but also the enhanced employability deriving from such a distinction, as the award truly is a passport to a brighter future, highly valued by employers and universities.
