Mission and Values
Strategic Plan 2001-2005
Our Mission
Our new century needs and will be shaped by extraordinary individuals. Meeting the challenges and opportunities of an interdependent world will require versatile intellectual competence and uncompromising commitment. Those who thrive in and contribute to this world will have a solid sense of who they are and respect for who others are, as individuals, as members of a group, as citizens of their nation, and as members of a global community. They will have a rigorous academic preparation and a passion to become the best they can be and to help others achieve their best. The mission of Atlanta International School is to develop such individuals.
To fulfill this mission, we envision Atlanta International School:
- continuing to develop and deserve a worldwide reputation as an exemplary center of teaching and learning, a school that achieves and sets, within the framework of the International Baccalaureate, world-class standards in bilingual education, promotes international understanding, develops the whole child, and lives its core values of respect, diversity, effort and joy of learning.
- maintaining an optimal size and composition of faculty and students so that opportunities for individual learning, mutual understanding, and community feeling are maximized.
- connecting to the local and global community through the active participation of its multilingual students, alumni and staff, who, in their work and further education, help to shape and improve the world through their knowledge, understanding and hope.
Our Values
The joy of learning and hope
Just as a child experiences joy at the growth of his or her physical powers, we believe our students can experience the same joy in the growth of their intellectual powers. At AIS we strive to create an environment ideally suited to promote the growth of mind: rich in intellectual stimulation and promoting the same sense of wonder, curiosity, and motivation for exploration that we all had in our first years of life. We cultivate a spirited sense of hope in human potential and in our future.
A diverse community
We believe that a cohesive community of students and faculty from a variety of backgrounds — socioeconomic, ethnic, linguistic, national and religious — is a particularly rich culture for growing both the mind and the heart of each individual student. This diversity best prepares the student for lifelong learning in a diverse, interdependent world.
Committed to mutual understanding and respect
We believe that every human being is valuable and deserves respect. We further believe that understanding others promotes and solidifies respect, and that the best way to understand others is by learning to adopt different perspectives and to see the world from another’s point of view. Since each language reflects the values, history, and way of thinking for those who speak it, learning another language is a particularly effective means of understanding others, and speaking that language is a powerful statement of respect for them.
And to purposeful effort
We hold high expectations for every student to be successful and believe that achievement comes from sustained and purposeful effort. We believe that our potential is developed and value is added to our lives and the lives of others by pushing our limits. Ours is a community that rewards and celebrates the disciplined intelligence — in all the ways that intelligence can be defined.