The AISG Mission Statement

The AISG mission statement hopes “To nurture future-ready individuals to aspire, achieve, and contribute.” What exactly does this mean? How many people even know what the mission statement is?

Dr. Carmody from the school’s administrative staff had a hand in choosing the mission statement. She led a variety of people including teachers, staff, parents, and outside consultants. This committee met for over a year to determine the mission statement. Dr. Carmody says that the mission statement is not a goal necessarily, but “why this school exists.” The school exists to help students to aspire and achieve in a way that the school is “continuing to meet the needs of the students”. So why are we meant to “aspire, achieve, and contribute”? Dr. Carmody says that she and her committee drew up a list of traits. All of the traits seemed to fall into one of three categories: aspiring, achieving, and contributing.

Despite the incredible amount of work that went into developing a mission statement, not many students actually know about it or even seem to care about it. There are posters around the school advertising the mission statement, but not many students actually absorb the words. One junior stated that “[they] don’t have any qualms with the AISG mission statement itself” though “[they] do believe that the mission statement has not been implemented to its fullest extent in various areas of learning.” Another student said that they understand “the goal to get students to achieve and contribute” but they do not believe that the “aspire” part of the mission statement was accurate, as they have “seen kids being told to basically ‘stick with what they’re good at'”. Perhaps that is the greatest flaw with the mission statement: it has good intentions but has not been introduced in an efficient way.

Dr. Carmody says that the role of upholding the mission statement goes to the whole school community, from the students to the teachers to the rest of the staff. The mission statement is to prepare students for their futures, in university and beyond. While the mission statement is the reason why the school exists, the vision statement is the goal for the school.

The vision statement asks “What must our school become?” The answer is to become “a leader of dynamic, compassionate, and connected learning.” The dynamic learning references the need to adapt to each individual student’s needs. Being compassionate and connected refers to the need for students to remain connected with their peers, and remain compassionate while doing so.

While the mission and vision statements may seem insignificant to the students on a daily basis, we must recognize the effort that went into choosing the best possible goals for the school. Then why is it that so many people do not understand or care about the mission statement? One student suggested that the mission statement was not accurate for the school, citing CAS as an example. She says that she does not “see how the school is implementing it into the learning system in a way that doesn’t ANNOY and PRESSURE the students”, but that she believes that the teachers at AISG genuinely care about the students’ learning. Another student added to this, saying that “Students are not encouraged to nurtured to ‘aspire, achieve and contribute’, they do it out of necessity for achieving a high IB grade or a high GPA.” Perhaps the best solution to this would be to better advertise the mission statement; perhaps a start would be to have teachers bring it up for discussion in class.

The most important thing to remember is that school is meant to be a place for students to learn. Not only to learn academics but social interactions and other things that will prepare students later on in life. We must take this mission statement seriously, as AISG exists for the students to become the best version of themselves that they can be. We as students must uphold our end of the bargain. In order to become the best school we can possibly be, students; teachers; and other staff members must work together.

To learn more about the mission and vision statements, visit the AISG Website.