San Jose, June 9, 2011 – The Global School of Silicon Valley (GSSV), the first campus established in the United States of the Singapore-based Global School Foundation, completed its first year of operations this week.
The event was marked by a unique graduation celebration where students performed songs and dances for their families, friends and well-wishers while several noted visionaries of the Valley shared their thoughts on creativity, team-building, innovation and cooperation.
The Global School, which set up the unique K-8 school in the region with the aim of instilling a sense of entrepreneurship among students from an early age, also announced the setting up of a prestigious award – the WOZ Award for Entrepreneurship. The award was instituted in the name of Steve Wozniak, Silicon Valley technology icon and co-founder of Apple Inc along with Steve Jobs.
The first of these awards was won by a seventh grader Joshua Allison. The tech wizard said that he was indeed honored to have an award instituted after him for school kids.
The Middle School Graduation ceremony also saw several other awards, both academic, and sporting, with the organizers and the School Management reaffirming their commitment to inspire future business innovators of the United States of America.
“In order to empower our youths, the school is taking bold initiatives, for example, a science lab is unheard of in an elementary school,” said Narpat Bhandari, CEO of Global School. “The use of the latest technological teaching tools will enable our students to communicate and learn with other children around all 21 campuses, making Walt Disney’s dream of 65 years ago It’s a Small World a reality.”
Other award winners included Ananya Narukar, Czarina Yip and Gurtaj Dhinsa for the Science Fair, the Mathematics Contest respectively. The school also presented awards for excellence in Mathematics, history, languages, arts and literature. Amidst all this recognition, there were also a few ‘raspberries or razzies’ like the ‘Where’s Waldo’ title for a student who was not always regular or the ‘Stuffed Closet’ award for the student whose desk and cupboard appeared to be a perpetual disaster area.
Gurtaj Dhinsa presented a perspective as the pioneering eighth grader of the school with remarks that made both the teachers and parents proud. “The teachers are just like parents who guide us on the path of success. They told us to take risks, always give our best effort and be patient with those who are not as good. They gave us these lessons in the way they treated us and we thank them for having faith in us and being patient,” Gurtaj said to thundering applause.
Guest speaker Pete Hartigan said he was attracted to the school through its unique platform that its global scale presented the children. “Their twenty-three schools across eight countries is the ideal setting for students who wish to expand their horizons and build a global perspective,” he said.