The Aditya Birla World Academy Alumni Association (AAA) offers Diploma Programme (DP) students at Aditya Birla World Academy (ABWA) to gain advice from alumni mentors on important topics such as balancing studies, university applications and more. See how the AAA continues to bring value to their IB community long after graduation.
The Aditya Birla Alumni Association (AAA) is the alumni representative body of Aditya Birla World Academy (ABWA), a school that offers the IB Diploma Programme (DP), and is located in the heart of Mumbai, India. It is one of the top schools in the country that thrives on the motto of ‘Learn, Achieve, Inspire’.
Through the schooling years, ABWA was a place which felt like home to all of us because we always had someone to reach out to and found a support system in our peers and faculty members. To complement that, we were fortunate to receive guidance from the alumni and always reached out to them for any specific tips. It was then, that we decided to further strengthen the alumni-student bond and derive value from their past experiences.
To take the spirit (Learn, Achieve, Inspire) of the school forward, as a part of the AAA, we decided to launch a mentorship programme for students pursuing the DP. Since its inception in 2014, our goal has been to support, guide and be a “go-to” resource for students in the DP. Through this programme, we hope to tap into the reservoir of knowledge and experiences that alumni of ABWA have accumulated, to create significant and lasting impact on current students.
Mentoring students
The mentorship programme consists of a young alumni panel (who graduated within the past two years) and a senior alumni panel. The young alumni panel actively works with students (one-on-one pairing done based on common interests) throughout the year to advise them on time management skills, subject-specific choices, DP core components, study smart strategies, university applications and profile building tools. The incoming students are inducted into the programme through a formal process during their pre-IB week in school, where they have the opportunity to interact with their mentors and engage with the senior alumni who are invited as industry speakers, workshop hosts, etc.
The feedback we receive from our mentors and mentees is invaluable and helps us to build a holistic and value adding community. As we build our family, we hope to create a strong professional network that carries forward the philosophy of the school and makes each of us lifelong learners.
Here’s what students and alumni have to say about the initiative:
“Initially, DP seemed challenging for all its different components. However, my mentor was approachable and provided support to develop time management skills that allowed me to get a lead and be able to ace my assignments and exams. My mentors were always willing to go the extra mile to provide feedback with IA topic selection or university applications despite being in a different time zone”—Pritika Nayak, mentee from the class of 2018
“Having a mentor is good when you have similar passions. Everyone tells you what you should do. However, our mentors also tell us what we should not do—how not to waste time—how to identify challenges beforehand and work towards turning them into opportunities.”—Mansa Shroff, mentor from the class of 2013
“I had an opportunity to bond with someone not over academics, not over college admissions but the similarities of our CAS projects and the depth of our commitment towards activities outside the classroom”—Arsh Malhotra mentee from the class of 2015
The Aditya Birla World Academy Alumni Association (AAA) was launched in 2012 by the first group of Diploma Programme (DP) students at Aditya Birla World Academy (ABWA). The AAA has grown to include over 400 students and help support alumni mentorship of current students as well as alumni reunion events. You can learn more about the AAA from their website here.
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