Artificial intelligence and machine learning are becoming more familiar in our life right now, which promises groundbreaking, game-changing potential. It commands attention and focus, and even though thrilling and impactful, can also disrupt society in painful, even generational ways.
Education plays a vital role in transitioning sustainably and peacefully into this new realm, which we cannot reverse at this stage, as the pace of technology is accelerating so profoundly.
As an educational institution, ACS Athens makes it its responsibility to assure that our youth who will become our future workforce and thought leaders in every industry, instill their creativity and innovations as conscious citizens. It is important that we elevate standards in building codes and future possibilities. We need to think about systems at the neighborhood, community, city, county, regional and global scales. We must address education to be part of this fast and transformative social change.
ACS Athens has prioritized Conscious CitizenshipTM as a strategic goal to become a schoolwide K-12 initiative as of January 2020. We aim to create a unique educational experience focusing on IQ, EQ, and RQ (Resilience Quotient). A licensed program that will enrich school programs with a framework for students, parents, and educators.
Since then, the Institute of ACS Athens led this idea into a tangible goal through the development of a task force, which was made up of various stakeholders driven mostly by faculty and staff members, defined the identity of a conscious citizen, and provided and executed a school-wide framework to be able to enrich the school’s curriculum through with every faculty member actively participating.
A conscious citizen is one who places value on being fully human while connecting with a higher purpose; one who values human life and the relationship with all living things, and takes responsibility for transforming skill into action, through ethical decision making, to ultimately improve life and living on the planet.
Conscious citizenship is developed by creating the conditions to expand awareness of social, global, and environmental conditions while being empowered to assume personal responsibility, by engaging in, committing to, and initiating positive impact, to ultimately improve life and living on the planet. A conscious citizen is one who understands the interconnection of his/her actions and the consequences of these and strives towards a higher purpose of creating a harmonious and optimal living.
Currently, we are continuing to grow our Conscious Citizenship strategic plan by helping our students understand Global Goals and by creating opportunities for students to contribute toward sustainability. We are continually enforcing the importance of bridging Conscious Citizenship with every academic subject in order to understand the link and the ways in which Conscious Citizenship can enhance each field of study.
A new Conscious Citizenship library is in its creation to support the framework.
Additionally, we are bringing in new opportunities for personal development not only for our K-12 students but also for our faculty as well as for our parents. The Institute at ACS Athens is working on developing new learning initiatives by collaborating with outside organizations as well as experts in different fields in order to organize developmental programs, expert talks, as well as workshops aimed at better educating and enriching our ACS community.
If you’re interested to learn more about this program, please contact us.