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How Oakridge raises resilient leaders of tomorrow!

7 March 2023

Nurturing Strength and Confidence in the Next Generation”

Leadership skills can be developed and nurtured in students at a young age. By providing opportunities to take on leadership roles and engage in activities that foster leadership qualities, students build confidence, communication skills, and decision-making abilities. Oakridge continuously strives to provide its students with various opportunities to develop and enhance their leadership skills. From student-led conferences to MUNs and leadership camps, Oakridge leaves no stone unturned to cultivate strong leadership skills in its students.

Codefest – 24 hours in the world of programming Oakridge Codefest is one of the largest student-led 24-hour hackathons in Bengaluru. The sixth edition, held in January, was an epiphany for many schools in integrating coding lessons into the curriculum, which is essential in building future-ready programmers. As an IB continuum premium school, Oakridge ensures students scale up to meet emerging industrial demands. The three-week rigorous boot camp was a student-led initiative to edify aspiring coders more about computers and coding and better prepare them for Codefest. The trainers in the bootcamp were all Oakridge students from grades MYP 5 to DP 2 who are proficient in computer science and coding. There were six to eight sessions covering the fundamentals of computer programming, OOPS, and debugging.

Student-Led Conference

The student-led conference is an occasion where each MYP student presents his/her portfolio of work and discusses progress with family members. It showcases the school culture of engagement and growth and enables students to play an active role in planning their own learning. In the recent Student Led Conference, learning stations were set up for students to show parents what they’ve learned, and parents could observe and ask questions. The teachers also guided students as facilitators and supported them during the presentations.

CAS trips

Oakridge students spent six days and five nights in Andamans as a part of the Creativity, Activity, Service (CAS) trip, an essential element of DP. The first day of the CAS activity was assisted by Reef watch, where the students went on an intertidal walk on the beaches of Chidya Tapu and understood the way of life of all the marine creatures and habitats along with a deep knowledge of the mangroves of the Island. Students took notes and photographs of the entire exercise and made a movie along with the other activities. This activity was followed by a trek into the forests of Chidya Tapu in the evening, where the students did a service by picking and clearing plastic from the forest. The trip to Havelock Islands was of great learning as the students learnt raft-making with the available resources and successfully sailed in the ocean on the rafts. Students also spent a day at Port Blair, where they learnt a lot about the Ross Islands and their habitat.

Oakridge Bengaluru Junior Model United Nations (JMUN) JMUN stands out among debating conferences in today’s time as it introduces students from Grades 6 to 9 to the world of diplomacy and debate. The latest edition of the conference consisted of WHO, UNHRC, and ECOSOC, which were beginner committees, DISEC, an intermediate committee, and UNSC, the advanced committee. The event witnessed excellent arguments and persuasion over the course of two days on issues such as illegal healthcare markets, the protection of minorities, rapid rates of inflation, cyber warfare, and modern-day imperialism. It also hosted press conferences where the young delegates were able to face some pressing questions raised by the press members. The event is entirely owned and conceptualised by the senior students at Oakridge Bengaluru school. The MYP and DP students chair each committee session under the guidance of the director general and secretary general, which gave them the opportunity to hone leadership and collaboration skills.

Adventurous leadership camps

A three-day camp held in Kanakpura, Bengaluru, included team-building activities, ziplining, obstacle races, and time management activities that helped students develop essential skills for leadership. The team-building activities included trust exercises, group problem-solving challenges, and communication exercises. These activities helped students build strong relationships with each other, learn to work effectively as a team and communicate more effectively. The ziplining and obstacle races were great for building confidence and overcoming fears. Students learned to take calculated risks, trust their abilities, and work through challenges to achieve their goals.