Bess Parnell
9th Grade Student’s Face Masks project, Honoring Autism
“I spent the last summer with my Grandmother, who is really into sowing. I learned to sow from her, and discovered that I have a passion for it,” said CAC 9th grade student, Bess Parnell.
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic restrictions, people were always looking for good quality face masks. It was at this point that Parnell...
Tia Fikry, CAC Student Wins Prestigious NESA Award
Tia Fikry, CAC HS student, won the prestigious Haas/ Hansen Award by NESA. This award is given to those students who model specific traits such as perseverance, willingness to take risks, commitment to the welfare of others etc.
Tia was nominated by her teachers, and when she was told that she had been nominated for the Haas/Hansen Award, she was ecstatic. Fikry is not the...
Abdullah Shamsi, CAC Senior, Speaks at UN IDP Observance
Every year the United Nations commemorates the International Day of Peace and this year is no different. CAC Senior, Abdullah Shamsi has been chosen by the United Nations Department of Global Communications to be one of eight youth speakers at the UN International Day of Peace. In light of the Covid-19 global pandemic, the conference was held virtually, where the...
ES Nests
In light of the Covid-19 coronavirus outbreak globally, schools around the world spent a great deal of time meeting, planning, brainstorming and looking for the safest means available to reopen schools. It has been a hard decision for schools, and parents alike, to decide whether it would be best to continue with E-learning or to go back to the much needed and anticipated...
Rising to the Challenge
The 2019-2020 school year has been nothing short of exceptional. The year 2020 started off with a big storm that hit Cairo, Egypt. The storm was so severe that it caused a great deal of road closures, and excess traffic. Accordingly, the Egyptian government urged everyone to stay home. It was during that storm that the coronavirus, known as COVID-19, began to appear in Egypt, and...
Thank you, White Army!
“Thank you to all the “white army” (doctors and nurses) for protecting the Egyptian people, for putting in so much effort, putting themselves at risk, and for caring about every Egyptian’s life. We wish you safety… May God bless you.
” - Hoda Abou Ghali - Grade 7
Last week, two CAC buses loaded with 300 hot meals & drinks were delivered to Abu el Reesh public children...
Well-being Expert Continues his Work with CAC
Well-being expert and positive education professional consultant, Dr. Ronald D. Lalonde, hosted a series of well-being sessions on CAC campus during February 2020. Dr. Lalonde is the founder of Riverspath Coaching and Consulting (riverspath.com) and formerly the Middle School Principal of the American School of Dubai and the American School Foundation of Monterrey, Mexico. ...
Peter Pan Performance
Eden U. Bowditch’s visit to CAC
Great 4 day visit with Eden U. Bowditch, author of #YoungInventorsGuild and former CAC parent. She met with the MS and HS, and provided lots of writing tips and catapult building inspiration!...
New Pool Mural by Arts Club Dedicated to the Swim Team
CAC Arts Club, mainly HS students, took on a very fun project last semester, of painting a beautiful mural for our swim team, in the pool area. The Arts Club, led by Ms. Anderson and Ms. Pietak, takes on a different art project every year. “This year we wanted to do something that was more focused and structured,” explained Ms. Anderson. With the facilitation of Ms. Anderson, the art...
NASA Astronaut Visits CAC
Through the second week of September, CAC had an incredibly interesting guest visit with NASA astronaut and international educator, Richard R. Arnold II (Ricky). The Maryland native began his professional life working in marine sciences and later on as a biology teacher in his home state, before moving on to international schools. Ricky taught in countries such as Morocco,...
Kira Goodwin Legacy Scholarship - Principal’s Leadership Award
CAC Alumna, Kira Goodwin of British Columbia and Alberta, Canada lived a vibrant but short 32 years. She was taken from this world by an avalanche while backcountry skiing in the West Kootenay mountains on December 31st, 2017. She had a lust for adventure, was an avid traveler, exceptional athlete and a lover of nature and wildlife. She was passionate about living and had a...
World Scholar's Cup Tournament of Champions at Yale
Congratulations to CAC's World Scholar's Cup teams who braved sub-zero temperatures last week as they represented Egypt at the WSC Tournament of Champions (ToC) at Yale University in the United States. The ToC is the culminating event of the World Scholar's Cup season, and students qualified to attend through their outstanding performance at the Global Round in Beijing in...
Meeting the needs of Highly Able students at CAC
At CAC, approaches to meeting the needs of highly able students follows a Talent Development philosophy. This means that while we work to provide appropriate levels of challenge to students who already demonstrate advanced achievement, we also provide opportunities to nurture and develop strengths and talents of every student. Finding creative ways to meet those needs,...
CAC moving into the green
CAC ended last year’s academic year with many students, faculty and parents asking why CAC could not move in a more meaningful “green” way? Go Clean was invited to present to Grade 7 students, some faculty members pushed for better recycling, a Girl Scout troop presented an idea for a recycling awareness campaign, and HS students were actively for most of the year collecting...
Harkness Method at CAC
“Harkness Method” at CAC and what is its impact on learning?
CAC is the first and only school in Egypt to have adopted the Harkness Method of teaching in several classes. The Harkness Method is a method of instruction where the classroom is designed where students sit at a circular table and are encouraged to participate and engage in dialog, rather than sitting at separate...
STUDENT DATA DRIVEN DIALOGUE AT CAC
International school classrooms are very busy places, with lots of opportunities to assess students, both formatively and summatively, throughout the year. Teachers gather a lot of learning information about each student, but often don’t have the time to systematically analyse the data that is collected. In order to resolve this discrepancy, Cairo American College has begun...
QNF: A BUSINESS MODEL THAT MAKES US PROUD
As part of world renowned INJAZ competition, a group of enthusiastic CAC students have started their own Plastic upcycling company, QNF. After a long journey of research and extensive study of the Egyptian market, Hesham Mohamed and Selim Hanter, decided that one of the most dominant issues that Egypt is facing is waste. We sat down with CEO, Hesham Mohamed and CFO, Selim...
CHILDREN, SPACES, RELATIONSHIPS
By: Samantha Wilson
Our school environment must lend itself to manipulation and transformation by adults and children alike. Together as a community, we initiated a conversation to discuss how to incorporate our newly installed WOODEN LOFT into our learning space, to give it a precise identity that suited our needs. As always, our aim was to offer further learning...
CAIRO AMERICAN COLLEGE CELEBRATES CACMUN’S 40TH ANNIVERSARY
This October, Cairo American College celebrated the 40th anniversary of CACMUN. First established in 1978, CACMUN began as a one-day conference whose purpose was to prepare the students for the Hague International Model United Nations (THIMUN) conference. After a successful start, it became an official THIMUN- affiliated conference that hosts local as well as international...
THE MYSTERY OF THE ENDANGERED TORTOISES ON CAMPUS
Members of the Tortoise Club feeding the Tortoises during After-school Activities
Have you ever wondered about the origins of the tortoises we have on campus? As exciting as they are to look at and play with, the history of how they got here remains a mystery!The story of how they came to be on campus goes back years ago, when there was a police raid on a Friday market in...
MICAH HUGHES VISITS CAC TO TALK TO THE STUDENTS ABOUT THE MANGO PROJECT
Who hasn’t heard of the Mango Project yet? If you haven’t, you are definitely missing out on a lot! Founded by none other than our very own alum, Micah Hughes, this project aims to combat malnutrition in Africa. Having always been an avid believer in being a part of something bigger, and in contributing to humanity, Micah had always been eager to learn about ways in which he...
Dayretna GSS: The Circle of Giving Back; A teaching Initiative Led by CAC Students
After having attended the Global Issues Service Summit (GISS) in Johannesburg, South Africa, Cairo American College students, Hana Ghazi and Zeina Azab were motivated to start their own project at CAC. The summit, which tackles global issues, featured different delegates from all over the world, discussing several topics including projects founded and led by those delegates....
AUTHOR, MARGRIET RUURS VISITS CAC
Author of 40 Children’s books, Margriet Ruurs’ latest work has been an inspiration to many children across the world. “Stepping Stones” which was inspired by the stone artwork of Syrian artist, Nizar Ali Badr, showcases the story of a refugee family. The book, which has already been translated to 10 languages, is now widely spread all over the world. We were honored to have...
IMMORTALITY
It’s hard to put into words my unexpected encounter yesterday. A few weeks ago I was asked, as the National Honor Society advisor, to host a speaker who was coming to my school to set up a scholarship for her daughter, an alum, who died in a skiing accident. I agreed and learned the details and set about planning the event. I anticipated that it would be a sad event: a mother...
MS HOSTING ITS SECOND MAKER DAY
CAC Middle School (MS) is always committed to host every year three Maker Day events. The objective of this initiative is to expand on and complement the strong design technology culture among the MS students. Maker Education or Maker Movement was initially originated in the US, and it focuses on enhancing the students’ thinking and problem-solving skills through encouraging...
CAC Middle School Service Learning Program
Aligned with CAC’s Strategic Plan, the Middle School (MS) at Cairo American College has adopted a service learning program for all students; this service learning program was successfully launched in 2004. The MS works to provide a well-rounded educational program which focuses on CAC Core Values, and providing an academic program that challenges its students to learn and...
CAC Students Earn Major Awards at InJaz
Huge congratulations to CAC InJaz students Hashem Abdou (CEO), Shivani Pillai (sales), Fadi Tawfik (finance) and Riad Khawam (production). These CAC Eagles soared and snatched two awards in the INJAZ regional competition, hosted in Cairo this week. You can read more about the InJaz Competition and their successes in the Egyptian Enterprise blog. Representing Egypt in the...
ISSTs: Cairo Gold and More!
CAC Athletes traveled last weekend to ISST tournaments across Europe and from London to Vienna, the CAC Screaming Eagles proudly waved the CAC banner (and Egyptian flag). CAC, as is so often the case, ‘punched above its weight’. Of nine team medal opportunities, six CAC teams landed medals, including three GOLDS!!! Of four possible first place individual efforts, CAC had two...
COLLEGE FAIR - 80 COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES VISIT CAC
Thank you to the CAC Counseling department for the hard work that went into bringing 80 universities and colleges to CAC’s campus for the benefit of our college-bound students. Middle and High school students had the opportunity speak to university representatives from top universities from Canada and the US, as well as from the UK, Spain, Egypt and the UAE. Schools in...
Kenn Nesbitt’s Visit to CAC
This week poet, Kenn Nesbitt, from Spokane, Washington, visited with Pre-K - grade 8 students. Kenn’s dramatic readings of his poems were very entertaining for all. Please ask your ES and MS students about his visit.
TAKE YOUR SEAT IN CAC'S THEATRE
The CAC Theatre — a cornerstone of the CAC community experience—is a reminder of CAC's long tradition of excellence and innovation in education. It is a gathering place for our greater community, providing space for dramatic and musical performances, art exhibitions, student-led events, and thought-provoking lectures.
Our current theatre is well worn, well loved, and in need of...
PASS THE PARCEL
Give to Gain
Pass the Parcel is a “child-to-child” service initiative that seeks to empower children through giving. Founded by a group of CAC elementary students with a passion for kindness, Pass the Parcel is driven by CAC’s core values of integrity, creativity, perseverance, courage, respect, responsibility and compassion. Pass the Parcel is not about decluttering our rooms; it’s...
CAC KINDERGARTENERS LEARN RESPONSIBILITY BY CARING FOR BABY BIRDS
Visitors passing by room 42 in the CAC Elementary School in the next few days will notice something a bit out of the ordinary: 10 baby chicks happily hopping around in a wooden cage. For 21 days, CAC Kindergarten students diligently monitored, turned, and cared for an incubator full of eggs as part of an annual science unit on the life cycle of animals.
Kindergarten teacher Ana Chavez...
CAC ALUMNA AWARDED NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC YOUNG EXPLORER GRANT
Nora Shawki ‘08 discovered her passion for Egyptology two weeks after arriving at CAC in third grade. “We had to take an Egypt culture class, and my teacher Jailan Abbas showed us a movie reenactment of Howard Carter discovering King Tut’s tomb.” She explained, “it was one of the first times I saw anything that had to do with Egyptology, and this class made me more interested...
CAC ALUMNA SHARES HER LOVE OF READING WITH STUDENTS
CAC held its annual book fair on campus last week from December 4-7. This event is a fundraiser for CAC’s Parent-Teacher Organization (PTO) and focuses on “building excitement around reading,” explained elementary librarian Josianne Fitzgerald.
In pursuit of this goal, main organizers Rana Allouba and Sarah Salmawy worked to extend the hours of the fair and expand the...
