GEMS Education honoured 41 female students in the UAE with the prestigious Sheikha Fatima Bint Mubarak Award for Excellence. Each of these young achievers represents an inspiring story about academic success and overcoming the odds through sheer determination to surpass all expectations and set new benchmarks.
GEMS Education celebrated the achievements of this year’s winners virtually in an online tribute, honouring its annual commitment to recognise its top-performing female students despite the COVID-19 lockdown. The award includes a scholarship covering a year’s tuition fee for a winner at each GEMS school. (Click here for videos of the winners.)
Dino Varkey, Chief Executive Officer at GEMS Education, said: “We are delighted to proceed with the 2020 Sheikha Fatima Awards for Excellence. It is important that we continue to acknowledge and honour our winners across GEMS Education for their exceptional academic achievements. It is critical that we carry on as normal through these unprecedented times. This year it is more important than ever that we showcase our young and empowering female students who will provide a beacon of light for others over the next 12 months, and into the future.
“This year there are 41 female students who have been identified for showing exemplary dedication to learning. They are students who inspire others through their self-discipline, creativity and commitment. These young people are the trailblazers of tomorrow, and as educators, we need to inspire them to help unlock their full potential to think and collaborate to make the world a better place for all.”
The Sheikha Fatima Award for Excellence was established by GEMS Education, in 2005 and highlights Her Highness Sheikha Fatima Bint Mubarak’s role as Mother of the Nation, and her vision to celebrate and support women’s achievements and self-determination.
The Award is held under the patronage of His Excellency Sheikh Nahayan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan, UAE Minister of Tolerance, to honour Her Highness Sheikha Fatima Bint Mubarak, wife of the late Founding President Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, for her contributions to the empowerment of women in the UAE and her support for excellence in all areas.
Tallulah Van Wyk, winner of this year’s award at GEMS World Academy, Dubai, said: “Winning the Sheikha Fatima Award has been quite an experience. In the beginning, I never really expected that I would be able to achieve such a thing, but now looking back on it, I’m really proud of myself and of what I have accomplished to get where I am today.”
Commenting on her award, Alafiyah Shabbir Husain, a student at The Westminster School, Dubai, said: “Winning the Sheikha Fatima Award is like a dream come true, because I watched a lot of my seniors win this and I always wanted to be someone who makes my teachers and my parents proud. And also achieve and be a part of the movement of female empowerment in the country.”
The award celebrates female students at GEMS Education who have proven themselves as global citizens, exhibited outstanding leadership qualities, demonstrated exceptional academic achievements and shown a genuine commitment to the communities in which they live. The individual award winners become ambassadors for both their schools and GEMS Education.
