Dubai, United Arab Emirates – May 28, 2017: Dubai International Academy, an International Baccalaureate school run by Innoventures Education, hosted global International Baccalaureate (IB) Director General, Dr. Siva Kumari as the keynote speaker at its 9th annual graduation ceremony on May 24th at American University in Dubai (AUD). 

The participation of Dr. Kumari demonstrates the growing importance and reputation of the IB curriculum for international students studying at DIA.  She joined the IB in April 2009 as Regional Director for Asia-Pacific before being promoted to Chief Operating Officer in May 2010. In January 2014, she became the first ever woman Director General of the International Baccalaureate (IB). 

She addressed the DIA graduating class of 2017 that comprised of 138 high-achieving students, the ninth graduating cohort of Dubai’s first and only “outstanding” IB school in Dubai. 

Dr. Siva Kumari, IB Director General commented, “I would like to offer my congratulations to all the students who are graduating from Dubai International Academy. I believe that International Baccalaureate graduates are uniquely equipped to make a real difference in the world, and I hope that each of them will excel in the fields they choose to develop. They have worked hard, and have learned much that will help them throughout what I hope will be happy, successful, fulfilling lives, benefiting them, their families and their communities. We are proud of them all, and we hope they remember their school days with pride.”

Poonam Bhojani, CEO of Innoventures Education, added, “This has been another outstanding year for our IB students who have all worked so hard and with so much dedication to achieve their academic goals through the IB programme.  These young people are truly inspirational and the staff at DIA have been proud to help them to succeed and prosper.

“At DIA, it is our mission to provide a holistic, international and rigorous education to prepare students for success in an ever-changing world. Each one of our graduating students has demonstrated substantial personal and academic growth, and we are delighted with their development and success.”

As a front-runner in ensuring consistency in excellent student performance, Dubai International Academy has successfully developed a programme for students geared towards developing enhanced skill sets. For instance, this graduating cohort also included 17-year-old Dhruv Karthik who was recently announced as the youngest finalist in the history of the ‘Drones for Good’ competition held in Dubai. The Indian student’s drone called ‘FIREFLY’ was designed to autonomously enter buildings and search for stranded people.

As of now, the Class of 2017 has received letters of acceptance from over 600 universities in 14 countries. 

Among the top 20 world-ranking universities, 63 students have received acceptances from schools such as: University of Cambridge, UCL (University College London), Imperial College London, London School of Economics, University of Edinburgh, King’s College London, University of Bristol, University of Pennsylvania, Cornell University, Carnegie Melon University, University of Michigan Ann Arbor, Georgia Tech, University of California, Berkeley, University of California, Los Angeles, Duke University, New York University, McGill University, University of Toronto, University of British Columbia,  University of Melbourne and The University of Hong Kong.

Due to the exceptional academic performance of the 2017 graduates, the class collectively received a total of AED 2.47 million in scholarship endowments to top universities all over the world.