We came almost instantly and unanimously to the decision of picking the theme of this edition of the World Magazine:

Courage and Agility

and that right there, started impressing upon me about how many of us feel about navigating through these challenging times. And this is not just about what we have  to do to lead our businesses, jobs in our organizations but also about how we are doing it in this whole new dimension. 

The entirety of our human relations, from our family dynamics, to friendships and colleagues, and not just that – our involvement with our hobbies, our passions, our interactions with others – all of these things went through an inevitable process of change and redimensioning. Why Courage and Agility? Humanity had shifted, in the past several decades, into the comfort of the medium to long term planning, the strategising of life events and activities, and many did not even have the “muscle” of on-the-spot live gigs. Courage because it is just not one thing that we are doing differently. It is the whole game.

Courage because we are learning to abandon long-term plans, forced by circumstances to function on short term planning, and at times, no time at all to plan. Courage and agility because we did not pick wether or not to go down this road, and yet we are all dealing with being there for ourselves and our tribe each and every day. I started to approach the alumni community for stories for this edition of the World Magazine, and as they came in, I was immersed in snippets of human stories, human struggles that were reflecting the courage and agility to pull together, to show up and function every day, pursue plans, strategies, dreams and for some of these young alumni – make big decisions for the next phases of their lives. 

Of course, our AISB alumni have applied the “think outside the box”, “risk taking” and “critical thinking” approach that their years of IB education have taught them. Recently I have found myself wondering if they were slightly better prepared for these times than others, given the way they have been coached. Two of these alumni are my own children, so of course I asked for their input. I loved what I heard!

Reality today requires way more compassion, way more heart and care for oneself and for others, a lot of understanding, grit and resilience at the same time. Courage to accept what we know and how we feel at any given time, a lot of agility to be ready to change a plan or idea. It is requiring us to compassionately allow the self awareness feelings that this new reality generates in u, while at the same time feeling homesick, missing our parents and our relatives in other countries that we cannot yet visit.

I am so proud of our alumni, of my friends, family members and colleagues. The courage, resilience and agility everyone of them displays
and shares with our communities is a true source of inspiration!

Fabiana Papastefani
AISB Alumni Coordinator

Read here the entire World Magazine Spring 2021 edition