Round Square and Community Service

Two to three students from each grade are selected to serve on the Round Square Student Committee (RSSC). The committee’s role is to plan, implement and encourage other students to participate in various Round Square activities, such as winter drives, bake sales, cancer awareness campaigns, storytelling sessions for children and gratitude initiatives.

Students organize fun and educational activities for children at the King’s Academy daycare such as cupcake decorating and arts and crafts.

King’s students spend an hour each week with younger children from around Jordan online via Zoom to tutor them in English and math, in addition to reading stories with them to enhance their English vocabulary and skills, as well as to help them gain confidence using the language.

Each spring, the Round Square Office organizes a community service fair, inviting NGOs and social service organizations around Jordan that provide volunteer opportunities to introduce them to students who can apply to volunteer with them in the summer.  Some of the organizations students have volunteered with over the years include: Tkiyet Um Ali, Collateral Repair Project, Reclaim Childhood and The Orenda Tribe.

Students initiated the Code Connect tutoring program to teach public school students computer science skills such as how to code. In collaboration with the Jordan Hashemite Organization for Human Development (JOHUD), 9th and 10th grade students spend two hours on the weekend with King’s students at the Madaba Municipality Technology Center where they are introduced to computer languages, conduct Java exercises, and learn to write simple lines of code.

Fikra 3al Mashi (meaning ‘ideas on the go’) is an award-winning community outreach program established in 2015 by three King’s Academy students: Rami Rustom ’16, Sari Samakie ’17 and William Close ’16. The aim of the program is to introduce students to critical thinking skills and to teach basic English, computer skills and internet research skills. The program targets refugee youth from Syria, Iraq and Palestine who are seeking refuge in Jordan’s urban areas, with limited access to formal education. Disadvantaged Jordanian youth in urban areas also participate.

Fikra 3al Mashi aims to help students develop skills to learn by themselves. The program is based on research by Sugatra Mitra that by creating self-organized learning environments, groups of children, no matter what their situation, with access to the internet, can learn almost anything by themselves. The program helps to empower and inspire youth to research problems within their communities and offer solutions to them.

In October 2016, the global Round Square organization awarded Rustom, Samakie and Close the prestigious Kurt Hahn award. Named after the founder of Round Square, the prize is awarded to students from one of the 162 Round Square schools worldwide “in recognition of an exceptional act of service to others.”

Read more about Fikra 3al Mashi:

• Three King’s students earn prestigious Kurt Hahn Award
• MIT students volunteer with Fikra 3al Mashi

King’s Academy joined hands with a local branch of the international organization Habitat for Humanity which aims to “mobilize and support communities to implement projects that help people champion decent housing as a human right.” The mission of Habitat for Humanity is to make poverty and homelessness a matter of conscience and action so that it becomes unacceptable in every nation on earth.

Because King’s Academy believes that the home is a key catalyst in helping to permanently break the cycle of poverty and help people own a safe and decent place to live in Jordan and worldwide, students, faculty and staff participate in six to eight Habitat for Humanity building projects per annum. Students work hand in hand with local residents to build homes for less privileged families in Madaba, Taybeh, Mukhaybeh, Ghor Safi and Ajloun. An average of 15 students participate in each build, which often involves an overnight stay in the villages and the added experience of getting to know the area and the community better. As of 2021, King’s students and staff have helped build almost 30 homes.

In 2012, King’s Academy launched Kursi wa Kitab (meaning ‘chair and book’), a Round Square pilot project aimed at raising awareness about the needs of children with cerebral palsy (CP) in Jordan.

Jordan currently has only one school for children with CP, and the number of challenges they face concerning physical therapy and education are many. Students at this particular school, which starts at the KG level, are required to transfer to a different institution once they complete grade 10 as it is then deemed the family’s responsibility towards the child’s welfare. Kursi wa Kitab students regularly meet with these families to learn about their struggle – due to physical status – with social integration in the community.

In accordance with King’s Guiding Principles, students took on the shared responsibility to help build a bridge between international CP programs and the people in Jordan. After much research and effort, King’s Academy joined forces with Hungary’s Peto Institute, which focuses on comprehensive physical therapy, to establish a conductive education program throughout the Kingdom.

In 2015, Kursi wa Kitab also partnered with the Vienna-based Zero Project. Established by the Essl Foundation, the Project’s focus is on the rights of persons with disabilities, providing a platform where innovative and effective solutions to problems faced by persons with disabilities around the world can be shared. Its mission is to support implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and to work for “a world without barriers.” Each year, King’s Academy students work on a project under that year’s Zero Project theme, and share the outcome at the annual Zero Project conference at the United Nations in Vienna.

Goals:

• To develop awareness and better understanding about the needs of persons with disabilities
• To develop a community of caring individuals committed to working towards three of the United Nations’ Global Goals: Goal 4 Quality Education, Goal 16 Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions, and Goal 17 Partnerships for the Goals
• To provide King’s students with leadership experiences by offering them opportunities to create unique service project plans to support children and adults with physical disabilities
• To create a network between local and international organizations for professional development purposes
• To develop partnerships between Kursi wa Kitab and local educational institutions, and offer to host vocational training for adults with physical disabilities on campus

Achievements:

• Organized “Independent Life through Conductive Education” international conference (March 24-28, 2013) at the Royal Medical Services in collaboration with Peto Institute in Hungary and Rainbow Center in the UK
• Organized social events on campus to provide adults with physical disabilities opportunities to interact with the King’s community
• Distributed 120 wheelchairs donated to Kursi wa Kitab by the Heart of Merci Organization to people with motor difficulties in Karak, Shobak and east Amman (May 2014) in cooperation with the Military Defense Department which delivered the wheelchairs
• Organized fundraising dinner to help cover expenses for the conductive education pilot program (September 2014)
• Launched the Conductive Education Program as a pilot program (August-September 2014) in collaboration with Queen Rania Children’s Hospital. Twenty-six underprivileged children with cerebral palsy participated in the program. After seven weeks of intensive therapy, the children took their first steps to walk.
• Implemented workshop promoting inclusive education entitled “The voice of change: creating a positive image about effective engagement with people of special needs within their communities” (May 2015)
• King’s invited adults with disabilities to participate in the 2015 Jordan Model Parliament Conference to learn how to find their voices in order to be heard by decision makers
• Researched and built, using recycled old bicycles at school, a tricycle for a child with motor disabilities to help them face the challenges in their environment and become an active member in the community
• Built accessibility ramps at King Hussein Business Park (October 2016)
• Distributed 25 special scooters to underprivileged people with spinal cord injuries (May 2016)
• Built accessibility ramps at King’s Academy (September 2017, 2021)
• Led sign language course as co-curricular to help King’s community become more inclusive
• Collaborated with American University in Madaba to offer fashion design course for Kursi wa Kitab disabled members with King’s students as facilitators
• Implemented second pilot Conductive Education Program (January 2020) with Moira Center in Budapest and Queen Rania Hospital for Children, and trained specialists on how to use conductive education methods in their sessions
• Participated in and presented at Zero Project annual conference in Vienna (February 2020)

Read more about Kursi wa Kitab:

• King’s Academy Participates in Zero Project Conference Youth Forum
• Kursi wa Kitab Builds Accessibility Ramp
• King’s Wheelchair Initiative Brings Hope to CP Patients
• King’s Organizes Conductive Education Program for Children with Physical Disabilities

King's Academy seeks to instill confidence, hope, ambition and a sense of community in its students, who in turn offer the same to the displaced girls of the refugee communities outside of Amman.

Through Reclaim Childhood, an organization founded by two female student-athletes from Williams College in the United States, King's Academy students take part in organizing and hosting team-oriented sporting games. This takes place on several Saturdays throughout the school year. Basketball, biking, relay-races, swimming, dance and soccer are among the activities designed to empower a new generation of young Arab refugee girls and women ages 8-18. 

King's Academy helps with finding student and teacher volunteers who work hand in hand with Reclaim Childhood personnel and the girls. We provide our facilities and transportation to and from the Amman area. Some King’s students also volunteer with Reclaim Childhood during the summer holidays, and help run sports workshops in their free time.

The Round Square Office coordinates with the school’s Weekend Teams to incorporate service projects within weekend activities organized throughout the school year. Activities include running a fun day for underprivileged local children from Madaba, trash clean-ups, and tree planting.