THE PROTÉGÉS G2 – D11

In today’s session our students went deeper than usual. With the honor of our guest speaker Dr. Ghanim Al-Najjar, A human rights activist. Who came today to speak about the development of Today’s constitution and the stages it went through to reach what it is today. “Our constitution was not a gift. It went through many logical stages. Back then, it has been discussed for over a year before actually issuing the constitution of Kuwait”

Dr. Ghanim Al Najjar

Explaining the complexity of history Dr. Ghanim says “we can never really anticipate what would happen if something in history changed”

Afterwards, Dr. Al-Najjar started talking about Amnesity International and how it was created from one person’s thought, Peter Benenson, a syndicated writer who once read about a few students expressing their opinions peacefully and wrote a letter protesting on what happened to those students. Later on, he wrote an article “The forgotten prisoner”, that defended the rights of one’s own thoughts and opinion, inviting the public to stand for those who were arrested for such rights, prisoners of conscious.

Dr. Al-Najjar

Dr. Al-Najjar assured our proteges that a thought is very powerful when you have patience and a strong will to accept failure as a part of life. As well as the power of imagination to create anything. Einstein imagined Atoms and Peter imagined his organization, and this is how it was created.

Thank you Dr. Ghanim Al-Najjar 😉

THE PROTÉGÉS G2 – D10

July 3rd was an exciting session for the Proteges as they were assigned for a weekend homework by Mentor Alaa Al Omar to write a play’s script of any of the following concepts including law, technologies’ influence on people, educational standards, segregation, listening to opinions, and more in an indirect way as they are not supposed to approach the concepts directly.The session began and everyone was ready to bring it on, mentors were waiting not knowing what to expect. It started with several groups performing skits that dealt with the previously mentioned concepts. The groups wowed the mentors with their comedic abilities and some, with their brilliant writing. Without actually addressing the subject, the overall idea was evident in each skit. 

team 1 acting their play

Continued: team 1 acting their play

Team 2

Team 3

well done! 🙂

As the hours flew by, the Proteges were anticipating their trip to Nepal. Discussing what memories really are, and how can we actually built some. In the end, it was concluded that you can create your own memory if you just surround yourself with the people you desire at a place in which you know creating memories is possible. The day was filled with tips for the Proteges that included ways in which they could improve their trip.

our three muskiteers!

Mentor Shamlan Al Bahar wrapped the session up by sharing some of his very own heart-touching memories and assuring that small moments are what creates a strong memory advising our proteges to always seek those moments. It was an overall restful session for the Proteges.

Mentor Al Bahar

G2 – Day out 2

Today was surely an adrenaline-rushing day, It started early in the morning where The Proteges were split into five teams along with mentors and counselors with no clue on how exciting and tiring the rest of their day will be.
Thank you Dhari Al-Moawed for setting up and organizing “K-lue” ; a customized adventure and an adrenaline-rushing race between the teams to complete tasks and decipher clues around Kuwait hoping and aiming to be the first to reach the final clue, and win. All teams were very excited to start the game!
The game started off at the beach when the first clue was given to be solved.

Dhari Al-Moawed explaining the first k-lue

Selling pretzels

Our proteges did everything from running through the hot sands, making sense of a map, solving crossword puzzles, selling pretzels in the Avenues, to getting a clue from a box full of snakes!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The final clue was found in the Airport, where the previous clues led them to a specific car on the 3rd floor parking lot where Dhari handed the winning team their medals.
Congrats to the winners  ; Mentor Ahmad Al Majed, Protege Noura Al Hajri from Generation I, and Generation II Proteges: Reem Al Fahad, Nawal Al Kilani, Muneera Al Shaheen and Bashayir Ben-Salama.

winners! 😀

After running for hours, last destination was Fat Burger where our students had a nice lunch. Smiles and laughters were surely a perfect way to end the day!

THE PROTÉGÉS G2 – D9

A room full of spirit, blue jerseys everywhere, was the atmosphere you get when you first enter the class of today’s session. Mentor Shamlan started out the session with a brief introduction on the life of Jassem Yaqoub, a legendary Kuwaiti soccer player who was in his prime in the 1980′s. He started out by shortly explaining his journey throughout his career, and how he was paralyzed but through perseverance he was treated. Then, few videos were showcased, viewing his amazing scores and his athletics; he was perfect. Our proteges witnessed how he had the speed and the technique and the determination to carry out such a legacy.

Mentor Alaa Al Omar

Few moments later, The proteges were graced with his presence. Mr. Yaqoub started by introducing himself and his achievements, talking about his journey from his admission to Al-Kazma Sports Club for volleyball, all the way to his World Cup Finals appearance, in 1982, with The Kuwaiti National Football Team. Mr. Yaqoub is considered one of the leading players in the Kuwait football sky, he was able to score more than 350 goals in his career.
Few questions from our proteges were asked and Mr. Yaqoub answered all joyfully. 

Mr. Jassem Yaqoub

Protege Abdullah Khajah

The second part of the session was a discussion on the proteges views about Kuwait and its society, comparing it with its past to its present state.
There were some brilliant points from all our twenty-five proteges who participated on how to create a change and what kind of change, the discussion was heating up, with a few laughs here and there. 

blue jerseys

group picture with Mr. Jassem Yaqoub

THE PROTÉGÉS G2 – D8

In today’s session The Proteges got right down to business. The session started with mentor Shamlan Al Bahar asking every protege what they would like to see happen in Kuwait or on an international level; “the sky is the limit” he said. It was time for our twenty-five proteges to brainstorm their project, Generation II’s project.

focused

Mentor Alaa and Protege Lozan Al Ashi

One by one, each person enlightened the room with a budding idea that had enough potential to make global impact. There was no such thing as “small scale” everyone was brilliantly thinking of all sorts of ideas. The entire white board was overflowing with ideas and soon enough they had to cross few in order to reach to their desired project.

Protege Abdulwahab Abouhaimed

Gradually, these ideas were narrowed down to the ideas that could be taken on as potential projects for the proteges. Each person was encouraged to write these ideas down, and let them sink in, so that by the next Brainstorming session a project will be decided upon. The entire concept of taking on such a large scale project is exciting, and left all proteges on the edge of their seats!

Mentor Abdullah Al Eisa

Last part of the days was a discussion of travel behaviors and the rules and regulations of their coming trip.
The session ended when all proteges were asked to wear a blue jersey for the next day!

THE PROTÉGÉS G2 – D7

June 27th was surely a day full of surprises for the Protégés. Monday afternoon, the proteges got on a bus and were headed to the unknown destination. In about twenty minutes, they had arrived to The Center for Child Evaluation and Teaching of Kuwait. CCET is a morning program designed to work with children who have learning disabilities and help them remediate their difficulties by teaching them specific learning strategies designed to ease their lives.Upon arrival to the center, the Proteges received a lecture from the many specialized individuals at the center. The lecture involved the different types of learning difficulties including Dyslexia, Dyscalculia, and Dysgraphia. Furthermore, they have also learned how to test their intelligence normality, they were able to understand the difficulties that came with Dysgraphia and Dyscalculia, and engaged in many more activities.

As the day progressed, The proteges were graced with the presence of a very special individual named Noha Al Roumi. Noha is a famous Kuwaiti fashion designer who told the Proteges of her life experiences with hearing difficulties. Thankfully, today, Noha Al Roumi’s fashion career is thriving and Noha has ultimately learned to strongly overcome her difficulties. Furthermore, the Proteges were extremely lucky to be spoken to by another individual named Ahmad Al Bahar, 13 years old. While Ahmad is blind, he has an incredible talent of playing the piano and speaking etiquette and is able to enunciate his words better than most teenagers of today. Ahmad shared his daily life experiences and told us of the advanced technology available for the seeing impaired. We prodigiously thank both Noha and Ahmad for sharing with us and we hope that they continue to further seek success in their lives yet to come.

Ms. Nuha Al Roumi

Mr. Ahmad Al Bahar

The Proteges engaged in a rather, tedious and enjoyable activity. The proteges were asked to communicate and discuss a certain matter with each other without speaking, sign language was all they’ve got.

After that, Everyone was ordered to cover their eyes with a blind-fold and one at a time, each person were to get up to two separate tables—upon one table, there was placed seven trays of mystery foods and upon the other, there was placed seven bowls of mystery dip. Each person had to pick a mystery food and dip it into one of the dippings. From celery with chocolate frosting to dates with hummus, let us just say this was quite an amusing activity indeed.

Overall, the Proteges experienced what it was like to lose a fundamental sense of theirs. In essence, it is safe to say that this was an all around educational, eye-opening, and enjoyable day for all the Protégés. We thank CCET for this unforgettable day.

THE PROTÉGÉS G2 – D6

For today’s session our proteges were asked to dress traditionally, they came in not knowing what today kept for them. Mentor Shamlan started the session with an introduction of what defines a culture from its many different aspects, one of the proteges answered with music and that was our introduction for the rest of our day.

Mentor Shamlan Al-Bahar

Our proteges

Bin Hussain band began to introduce the different kinds of Kuwaiti cultural music and arts to the students. What is it, Where did it come from, How is it played….etc

From Samri to Khammari, our proteges were very into the details of each kind, as it all sounded familiar to them but never knew how complicated each kind was. Next, Bin Hussain introduced the different instruments used in each kind in details to our proteges.

Bin Hussain band

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Later on, Mutrif Al-Mutrif went up the stage with his Oud explaining the history of Adani and how it can be mixed with Kuwaiti cultural music/art, proving it live to the students with different songs. He kept on explaining the people of this field who not only created this kind of music but excelled in it too.

Mutrif Al-Mutrif

G2 – Day out 1

Saturdays are considered an optional day out for the proteges. Today our twenty five proteges gathered at Life with Cacoa early morning for breakfast. Laughs and talks everywhere. By now we can definitely say our proteges have gotten closer to one another in a matter of a week 

Mentor Yarub Burhama

After the breakfast, our proteges were seated in a circle and Mentor Shamlan spoke “You have all seen this movie before but today I want you to see it with a whole different eye, an eye of a critic”, he went on explaining that in every movie there are 5 main scenes that creates the story of any movie asking our proteges to keep their eyes open and look for them.
Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone was the movie our proteges saw, they were excited as it was one of the favorite movies to most of our students and today they got to see it differently.

An enjoyable day indeed 

THE PROTÉGÉS G2 – D5

Each day that passes by in the program starts a new page in the lives of the twenty five Proteges of Generation II. The fifth day of their six-weeks journey started with a short, interactive lecture by Mentor Shamlan Al Bahar. The mentor, and one of the program’s founders, started his lecture by a simple question “ What is innovation?”. Mentor Shamlan then started explaining inventions that have changed the world we live in.

Mentor Shamlan Al-Bahar and Protege Fatma Murad

For the mentor to impact the minds of his proteges and deliver his message swiftly, he thought of making the proteges come up with an innovative, original idea. Within an hour they hypothetically brainstormed a business. The process Mentor Shamlan led them through was how successful innovators started their career.

Protege Yaqoub Al-Nafisi

After the five minute break, the counselors of the program divided the 25 proteges into five even groups. Counselor Fay Al Omran, then, proposed the Innovation Challenge. The objective of the challenge was for each team to create its own invention that has to be useful, creative, original, good-looking, and within the given budget. The teams were given 20 minutes to brainstorm, 30 minutes to gather their needed materials, and an hour to assemble their object. In the end, each team was to present their idea to the fifteen judges.

Discussions

Every challenge has its rules and regulations. Cheating in the challenge is not tolerated. The teams had to be punctual and arrive on time. If they exceeded the given time limit, points would have been deducted from their score. The team, too, could not spend more than KD 10 on their purchases and had to give their receipts to one of the counselors as soon as they arrived. Teams cannot take materials from other teams; however, they can trade with other teams.The teams were judged by 15 guest judges. Each judge had to grade the teams and then the final score would be the average of all judges. The rubric was divided into six categories: Time management 15 points; Organization 15 points; creativity 15 points; functionality 10 points; presentation 15 points; and a hidden category worth 25 points.

Team Jamaica with their dust defender umbrella

Judges

In the end, all fifteen judges were amazed by the efforts and innovative minds the proteges had. Yet only one team won. That team was team International for their Beach hat!

Team International and their multi purposed beach hat

At the end of this day The Proteges have certainly gained from this experience the importance of time management, how to work under a budget, and the importance of teamwork and communication.

THE PROTÉGÉS G2 – D4

Today’s session was different. Mentor Yarub Burhama enlightened our proteges with an eye opening interactive lecture about the media and how everything is not always what it seems.

Mentor Yarub Burhama

He first asked the proteges about their perceptions of certain things; They were encouraged to find the root of their perceptions and if their assumptions come from stereotypes. The session proceeded with Mentor Yarub displaying a series of advertisements and a discussion of how the Media manipulates its images to appeal to the public. Techniques for photo manipulation were also discussed and practiced, what makes something look bigger? What makes it look brighter?  More intimidating? More desired?

Activity: Proteges Abdulwahab Abouhaimed & Rawan Al-Rashed

As part of the session, Mentor Burhama engaged our proteges in different activities for them to realize that even though they sometimes see what happens, they are not always sure if what they saw is the truth, same applies on many other things in life.

The main purpose of the session was to alarm our proteges to be aware of all surroundings, and to research everything as knowledge is what a person can depend on, and not in necessary ones own eyes.
This left the proteges in a daze, and they left the session with their eyes more open realizing that they’ve been living their entire lives blindly.