The Jim Koerschen Award for Innovation in Schools was created by the ACAMIS Board of Directors in honour of Dr. Jim Koerschen. Dr. Koerschen was a former university President and an esteemed international educator during his five years as Head of School at Concordia International School Shanghai. He served on the ACAMIS Board for three years and in 2013, was appointed and served as the first Executive Director of ACAMIS until he passed away in 2014.
Dr. Koerschen became known within ACAMIS as an innovative educator and outside-the-box thinker. It is with this in mind that the Award for Innovation in International Schools was created. Participation in the Award is open to students enrolled in all ACAMIS full membership schools in China and Mongolia.
Submissions are closed
Criteria
The Koerschen Award is meant to provide a means of encouraging or stimulating innovation within schools as participants:
- Apply academic, social, and personal skills to create an innovative program, system, activity, or service for their school community;
- Work within groups to apply creativity to achieve authentic outcomes;
- Gain a deeper understanding of themselves, their community, and their school;
- Demonstrate leadership while guiding a team to solve problems and work collaboratively while helping others.
Award
Up to $2,500 USD may be awarded to the successful applicant team as determined by the ACAMIS Selection Committee named by the ACAMIS Board.
Who Should Apply?
The Koerschen Award is open to students who are enrolled in ACAMIS member schools in the full membership category and are supported by the Head of School and a faculty representative who provides guidance to the group carrying out the innovation.
Application Process
Schools that are planning to apply for a Koerschen Award Grant should first register their intent by completing the Preliminary Notice Form. When the students are ready to make full Application, they can click here to download the application form. The proposal should be no more than 750 words.
For this award, there may be multiple applicants within one school, in which case, the school should select the best entry and submit only one application per school.
All sections of Koerschen Award Application Form need to be completed and may include supplementary and supporting information.
When completing the Innovation Award Proposal, the applicant(s) should consider the following questions:
- What kind of innovation is being planned?
- Why is the innovation meaningful to the school?
- Why is this project important to the innovators?
- What outcomes has the innovation provided fellow students and/or the schools?
- How can success of the innovation be measured or described?
Application Deadline
The completed ACAMIS Koerschen Award for Innovation Application Form must be sent to operations@acamis.org no later than Friday, March 15, 2024 for the current school year. Late applications will not be accepted.
Recipients in Previous Years
Dalian Amerian International School
Sea Dragon Service Ambassador Leadship Team
The Sea Dragon Service Ambassadors (SDSA) proposes to coordinate service-based projects for school-wide participation and through raising awareness, fundraising and the performance of service. The plan involves developing four service projects per year which can involve the entire school. The SDSAs would be responsible for identifying communities in need, planning the service project and leading the school toward completing the project. Our ultimate goal is to raise awareness for the vulnerable part of the world and create a service mentality within our student bodies.
Shanghai Soong Ching Ling School International Division
Diverse Dialogue Workshop
The Diverse Dialogue (DD) Workshop aims to provide SCLS students with meaningful opportunities to learn about the disabled community through direct interaction and education on individual differences. Individuals with disabilities will be invited to campus to engage with students through a combination of speeches, interactive activities, and Q&A sessions. By communicating with them, listening to their experiences, and understanding how they navigate life differently, students will develop greater empathy and awareness. This project fosters inclusivity and kindness, preparing students to become global citizens who will carry these values of equality and the belief that disability means mismatched human interaction, into the wider world.
Hangzhou International School
Bryophyte Oasis @ HIS
HIS’ collaborative and unique environmental program, designed by eleven students, focused on monitoring and improving indoor air quality using terrariums. In their project, students used sensors to monitor IAQ, humidity and temperature. Robotics is a central component of this award-winning program as a means of automatic watering.
International School of Tianjin
The Literacy Lab Workshop @ IST
The Literacy Lab, established at IST, is student agency at its finest. This voluntary student-led program utilizes trained student mentors’ inquiry/questioning skills to help other students work through academic problems.
Beijing City International School
Development of Sustainable Urban Farms @ BCIS
Our sustainable urban farm is an innovative solution that will revolutionize the way we think about urban farming. The main hydroponic system will be set up in the school reception area with additional systems displayed in other public areas. This will make the upgrade the environment in the school and provide educational value to inform the community about food security and a more sustainable future.
Beijing City International School
Circularity Projects @ BCIS
We are exploring Circularity Projects in Aquaponics, Hydroponics, Carbon Capture and Spent Coffee Ground Products. The projects are based around the Design Thinking process developed by the Interaction Design Foundation. Our Garden Club will experiment with hydroponics to grow vegetables without soil and measure the results; with aquaponics the aim is to find a self-sustaining method to grow fruits and vegetables with a minimized system that embodies a nitrogen cycle cultures fish and vegetables side by side where the waste from fish is constantly reused; the Carbon Capture unit explores ways to build a small carbon capturing device for possible household use in automatically fertilizing household plants; the coffee ground portion is to create ways to recycle coffee grounds, 75% of which currently ends up wasted in landfills when it has many other productive uses that we will explore.