Duke of Edinburgh's International Award Recognizes ACS and Six ACS Students

Six ACS students were honored at the official ceremony of the Duke of Edinburgh's International Award - Bulgaria held on 9 October. Tenth graders Natalia Tchileva, Marina Simeonova, Stefani Lozanova, Victoria Marinova,  and Paola Paskova and ninth grader Yanitsa Pregyova received their badges and certificates from the President of the Republic of Bulgaria Mr. Rumen Radev, from the Ambassador of Great Britain H.E. Ambassador Nathaniel Copsey, as well as from the members of the Honorary Trust of the Prize, celebrating ten years since its introduction to Bulgaria. Congratulations! 

The College was also honored as a school with a special award in the "Most Adventurous Journeys Conducted and Reported Correctly" category. An adventurous journey is an experience in nature during which, working in a small group, participants plan, learn, and undertake a journey with a purpose, in an unfamiliar environment. Often, an adventurous journey involves hiking in nature, setting up and staying overnight in a tent camp or hut, cooking outdoors, and navigating with a map and compass. Sometimes young people choose to do an exploration journey, by researching either the nature around them or ethnographic, historical, or other features of the area.

The Duke of Edinburgh's International Award programme has a strong tradition at the College where it was introduced 9 years ago. The students of the Duke of Edinburgh's International Award Club, whose presidents are Natalia Tchileva and Marina Simеonova, along with the club advisor Tim Ward, have been instrumental in making this happen. This program challenges young people to dream big, recognize their accomplishments, and take action to effect change in their communities. It encourages personal growth, leadership, and teamwork—qualities that we strive to instill in every student. Knowing our students, it comes as no surprise that they do good in setting and achieving goals, in showing persistence and engaging in self-reflexion.

From club advisor Mr. Ward we learned that "most of the Bronze journeys (bronze meaning minimum of 2 days, 1 night duration of the journey) ACS students go for take place on Vitosha, often making use of Hizha Planinska Pesen. The Silver Journeys (lasting minimum of 3 days, 2 nights) go a bit further afield: some students going to Hizha Rai and Mt Botev, while this year another group is exploring the Stara Planina between Bunovo and Zlatitsa. The Gold journeys, that last a minimum of 4 days, 3 nights, have been the most daunting: last year's intrepid students had four long days in Rila with a total ascent of over 5,000 meters between Malyovitsa and Panichishte. Though the students are allowed to sleep in huts everything else about these trips is self-supported. They are real opportunities to learn about the beautiful Bulgarian environment and about oneself."

Grateful to the Programme for the recognition and proud of the efforts put in by the participants, we hope and wish that together we can continue to create opportunities and support te next generation of leaders!