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Future leaders graduate from American School of Doha



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ENHANCE

YOUR MEMORY

Keeping memory sharp is key for life. Doodling, exercise, yoga and spending time in nature are found to make a difference.

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Future leaders graduate from American School of Doha

The American School of Doha (ASD), graduating Class of 2016 will be remembered for their energy, enthusiasm, hardworking attitude, contributions to their community, their diversity and their fun loving spirit.

On Friday afternoon at 4:00pm, the first notes of Pomp and Circumstance played and the 143 members of this class marched down the central aisle of the ASD gymnasium in front of 1,500 friends and family members. The two hour ceremony was a culmination of years of hard work for all of these incredible students. The salutatorian, Omar Elshaigi, graduated with a GPA of 4.339 was involved in the Student Tutoring Organization, Harvard Model Congress, and the Track and Field team.

In his speech to the audience he highlighted how the students in the graduating class had changed over the years. He emphasised the success that the students have had in meeting the challenges of the rigorous courses and the pressures to succeed. However his main message was the need for students to try new things, and sign up for opportunities outside of the classroom to learn about oneself throughout high school.

The valedictorian, Amara Aarif is graduating with a cumulative grade point average of 4.381. Over the four years of her high school career she ac-

cumulated 231 volunteer hours and was involved in a wide variety of service projects in Doha and throughout the world. In Amara's address to the graduates she celebrated survival in the face of challenges in high school. She reflected on the shared experiences that all the students experienced to get to where they are today. She also emphasised the need to remember their time together even when they have gone their separate ways.

The students in this class have had an immense impact on the school community. As well, many of the students initiated and contributed to service projects in different countries around the world.

The positive effects of the members of this class are far reaching and have benefitted many. As these students are finishing their senior year of high school 97 percent of them are looking forward to great adventures next year studying in colleges and universities around the world. 59 percent of the students will be attending post secondary institutions in the United States.

Many of these students have been accepted to some of the most competitive selective institutions in the world. 16 percent of the students will be heading to universities in Canada, while 14 percent have chosen to remain in Qatar and study right here in Doha. 4 percent will be attending university in the

United Kingdom. A few students plan on returning to colleges and universities in their home countries such as Argentina, Spain and the Netherlands.

The students have expressed a high level of satisfaction in the school that they are matriculating to next year. 3 percent of the students have chosen to take a gap year to work or travel before going on to university the following year.

At the end of the ceremony when the last diploma was awarded, the final student, Ingrid Zuijdgeest was asked to remain on the stage. Kevin Sage, a physics teacher and the "reader of the graduate's names" announced to the

crowd that Ingrid's diploma marked the last diploma that Principal Colin Bourdreau would hand out at the American School of Doha. After six years as the high school principal Colin Boudreau will be moving to the Benjamin Franklin International School in Barcelona Spain. Sage estimated that Boudreau has given out over 800 diplomas during his tenure as principal. The crowd erupted in a rousing standing ovation to express thanks to Boudreau for his many years of service. As the graduation caps were thrown into the air, the class came together dancing and celebrating and remembering all of their shared experiences.

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COVER STORY

A few tips to enhance your memory?

By Seth Porges Bloomberg

It's pretty amazing that the same brain that stores our favourite moments, the names and faces of our loved ones, and what our favourite foods taste like can also make room for cocktail chatter, PowerPoint presentations and whatever your boss's dog's name is. Keeping memory sharp is key for life. Recent studies have shed light on some surprisingly simple ways for ramping up your recall.

Hit the drawing board

If you were one of those students who was more likely to doodle in the margins of your notebooks than write words in them, you may have been onto something. Researchers at the University of Waterloo in Ontario asked participants to look at a list of simple words and either make drawings inspired by them or write them down repeatedly. Those who chose the drawing route remembered about twice as many words as those who wrote them down. The results of the study were published in the Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology.

"What we think is happening is you are bringing online a set of diverse networks or brain regions, which helps build a strong memory for that one item," said Jeff Wammes, a PhD candidate in cognitive neuroscience and one of the study's authors.

"Drawing requires you to see a word, then bring to mind visual imagery of what that thing looks like, then generate some characteristics of it, then translate that mental image to paper using coordinated action."

Wammes suggested making drawings about important items you want to remember. Of course, the same principle that may make drawing effective -- namely, using a diverse range of coordinated brain processes -- can also be applied in other ways. For example, Wammes points to previous studies that have found that physical movement can help with verbal memory.

The paper-averse -- and the artistically challenged -- should take solace: People who drew on a tablet got the same memory-boosting effect as those who used pen and paper, and researchers found no correlation between the quality of the drawings and the quality of the recall.

Roll out the yoga mat

According to a study published in

the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, yoga may be an effective memory-booster, with the added benefit of making us feel better. In the study, 25 people older than 55 were assigned to weekly, hour-long classes in Kundalini yoga, which involves breathing, meditation and chanting, or memory-enhancement exercises such as mnemonics. Both groups were also given 15 to 20 minutes of homework per night.

The results: Both groups showed statistically similar improvement in verbal memory, but the yoga group also showed an improvement in visual-spatial memory (where you left your keys, for example) as well as in signs of depression and anxiety.

"Yoga is not thought of as a cognitive exercise, but if you try to memorise a sequence of movements or breathe in a sequence, you are exercising the brain and invoking a type of memory," said Helen Lavretsky, a professor of psychiatry at UCLA's Geffen School of Medicine and one of the study's authors. And while the study focused on older individuals, who may be more susceptible to conditions such as Alzheimer's, Lavretsky says she believes that yoga-based interventions can help just about anybody improve memory. "This yoga practice exercises brain regions that are responsible for cognitive functions," Lavretsky says. "It doesn't matter at what age you do it; it's the same."

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Run barefoot

We've long known that exercise works out your brain as well as your body. But it turns out that slipping off your shoes -- or at least paying attention to where you put your feet -- may improve your memory.

In a study published in the journal Perceptual and Motor Skills, researchers at the University of North Florida tested the working memory -- that is, memory that goes beyond rote memorisation and requires you to connect disparate pieces of knowledge -- of 72 participants before and after a run. Some ran with their shoes on while others were told to remove them.

A subset of participants was given further instructions to hit tiny targets

spaced throughout the track, effectively forcing them to pay careful attention to where their soles struck.

The researchers found that barefoot runners who were told to hit these targets showed a roughly 16 percent improvement in working memory. This brain boost was not present in their shod peers nor in those who were barefoot but not asked to tap the targets. According to Tracy Packiam Alloway, a psychology professor at the university and one of the study's authors, this effect may result from the combination of the increased blood flow that running produces and the forced focus that comes from hitting targets.

"A lot of people say they run to shut down or tune out, which is actually not helping your working memory," Alloway

says. "Barefoot running forces you to pay attention or focus on something so you don't hurt yourself. It's like a mini brain workout. You can't not pay attention." Practically speaking, common sense and safety make it unlikely that many people will be able to completely kick their kicks. But if this hypothesis holds through further research, it's not a huge leap to imagine that any activity that mixes cardiovascular training with deep focus and attention could help improve your memory.

Get outside

In a 2008 study in the journal Psychological Science, researchers at the University of Michigan found that people who stepped outside into a natu-

ral or parklike environment showed improvement across a host of cognitive functions -- including memory -- compared with those who were stuck in a city. The researchers theorised that this effect comes from the attention required to navigate an urban environment in a safe manner (you'll want to watch out for passing cars, for example), which makes it difficult for your brain to relax and replenish.

The paper's most head-turning finding: This restorative effect doesn't even require stepping outside, and it was also found after simply showing people pictures of nature as opposed to urban environments -- giving you one more argument for decorating your office or desktop wallpaper with pictures from your last vacation.

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