10th grader wins ‘distinguished student award’

Mariecar Jara-Puyod, Senior Reporter

A 15-year-old who envisions herself to be immersed in Social Service and who believes that perfection or being perfect is both an “illusion” and a “myth” has bagged the Distinguished Student Category Award at the 22nd Cycle (2019-2020) of the prestigious region-wide “Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Foundation for Distinguished Academic Performance Award.”

Grade 10 student Sana Feroz virtually received recently the recognition, her second in a row. She was one of the 24 from the UAE and among 85 “inspirational children and teens from around the world” of “The Diana Award 2019.”

The “Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Foundation for Distinguished Academic Performance Award” is under the patronage of Sheikh Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, UAE Minister of Finance and Deputy Ruler of Dubai. Chaired by UAE Minister of Education Hussain Bin Ibrahim Al Hammadi, it advances the basic/secondary/university education alongside scientific research not only across the seven emirates but also across the seven-country Gulf Region.

The 22nd Cycle received 420 entries with 336 applicants from the local awards covering Dec. 2019 to Feb. 2020. They were all screened and evaluated by 53 judging committees. Feroz was among the 114 winners; the other categories being Distinguished Teacher, Highly Distinguished Teacher, Distinguished School, Distinguished Family, Distinguished Educator, Best Scientific Innovation, and Best Implemented Project and Education Supporting Institution.

“The Diana Award” is an annual tribute to the late Princess of Wales and her humanitarian causes.

In 2019, the UK-based awards body determined that Feroz be among the young changemakers in the world, having allocated her time in reaching out to people and children with disabilities/special needs particularly at the Manzil Centre in Sharjah. By that time, she had been donating her hair for the wigs of breast cancer survivors from 2016.

On Sunday, The GEMS Millennium School in Dubai student said: “I am extremely thankful for the (Sheikh Hamdan Awards). It is an added motivation for me to live up to my ambitions. The process I went through is a journey of self-discovery.”

Her eligibility to qualify for the awards was her academic performance as well as her commitment to all co-curricular and extra-curricular activities she had set her mind on.