AlphaMax Academy presents " Great Thoughts, Great Minds, Great Moments in Time on You Tube

Students from 2007 - 2012 from the AlphaMax Academy in Suriname have presented an outstanding DVD on YouTube. The DVD under the theme of A Portrait of Hope and Peace features a program called " Great Thoughts, Great Minds, Great Moments in Time". 

 Celebrating over two centuries of great oratorical statements – and at the same time grounded in classical values and traditions – “Great Thoughts, Great Minds, Great Moments in Time” includes excerpts of speeches from:

Haile Selassie 
Chief Seattle 
Winston Churchill 
Abraham Lincoln 
Patrick Henry, 
John F. Kennedy
 Malcolm X
 Martin Luther King
 Nelson Mandela
 Rabindranath Tagore
 and President Barack Obama. 



 AlphaMax hopes that this message from a tiny school in a small, relatively unknown country -Suriname will reach across time and space and enter into the hearts of many guiding them to honor and respect true enduring values. Please watch the video and pass on the link to others.

 AlphaMax hopes that the world will listen and be moved to spread the message of hope and peace. http://youtu.be/sY8Hvusg0PQ

SCAD Gives a Presentation at AlphaMax Academy

Savannah College of Art and Design,(SCAD) is a private university primarily based in the U.S state of Georgia.  Alphamax Academy was fortunate enough to a visit from a SCAD recruiter. Daniel Sanchez visited our school and gave a wonderful presentation about his former University on Monday 28 January . The presentation was a brief slide show about life in SCAD, with students and former students giving a short explanation of what they were studying and/or where they are working at this moment.

AlphaMax  students who attended  this presentation were specifically chosen because of their study interests. Many of these students were from the art class and others came mainly from the drama department and humanities. 

Bust of Tagore at AlphaMax Academy

After the presentation Daniel Sanchez asked the students for questions. It appeared that our students are more interested in building arts (architecture) than  other departments. Their interest in the school was heightened when Mr. Sanchez spoke about the many scholarships 
this university had to offer. There were even teachers who were intrigued by the wide variety of options such as following the online courses that were available. 

 Daniel Sanchez reached his goal in getting our students interested in the field of Art and Design. I think that people who never even considered studying something else are now thinking about applying to this university. We hope to get many other visitors from College 
recruiters to show people that there are so many different things in this world than just the science stream which so many of our students feel is the only significant study area. 

SCAD also has establishments in  Hong Kong and France. SCAD  opened in 1979 with only seven faculty members and  71 students. Three years later the student body grew to 500 students. Today there are more than 11,000.

Many people are interested in SCAD is because of its great programs  which are in the following main fields:Building Arts; Communication;Arts; Design; Fashion; Digital Media; Entertainment Arts; Fine Arts; Liberal Arts.

SCAD offers what many other schools cannot, a chance to let your creative side show and possibly make a living out of it.

Cherise Playfair

 
Cherise Playfair—Senior AlphaMax Academy

Note: Cherise’s brother Stephan Playfair was a leading person in several AlphaMax presentations. You can see him in ‘ Portrait of Hope and Peace—Great Thoughts, Great Minds, Great Moments in Time.’

The Obama-King-Lincoln Link

President Barack Obama 's inauguration on Monday is implicitly linked this year with the national holiday honoring Martin Luther King the assassinated  civil rights leader.  At the same time, this year a movie on Abraham Lincoln has been playing at movie theatres nationwide.  Both of these leaders are being consciously linked to the inauguration ceremony.

When US President Obama is sworn into office for the second time, he will use the same Bible that President Abraham Lincoln used during his inauguration in 1861.

A Bible owned by the civil rights leader, Martin Luther King Jr, will also be used at President Obama's inauguration.

In his speeches Obama has repeatedly referred to King.  Hence, it is not gratutitous that this weekend's  inaugural activities began  with a national day of service in King's honor last Saturday.  Obama and his family also helped spruce up an elementary school in southeast Washington.  On each King holiday during his Presidency, the Obama Family has done community service work.

Some time ago, when King's monument on the National wall was dedicated in Washington D.C., President Obama was the featured speaker.  King will most likely be spoken about in the President's inaugural address today.

The president has said King is one of two people he admires "more than anybody in American history." President Abraham Lincoln is the other. 

Former chief of staff to President Barack Obama and now Mayor of Chicago, Rahm Emanuel,  compared President Obama’s values and “ability to see a clear road where everybody just sees fog” to President Abraham Lincoln as depicted in the 2012 Steven Spielberg movie “Lincoln.”

Mayor Emanuel also stated, “And I think that’s essential because, in the Oval Office, at the end of the day, all you have are your values, your judgment, and your ability to see a clear road where everybody just sees fog."

Barack Obama has demonstrated strong leadership qualities which are comparable with those of other great U.S. leaders including the sixteenth president, Abaraham Lincoln.

One area of comparison is the two leaders' oratorical skills. Obama is an inspirational speaker who has focused on creating a feeling of national unity while setting out the tough issues.  Many say this is similar to the manner in which Lincoln approached the listeners of his time.

Another area where people see similiarities is in the political circumstance.  Like Lincoln, Obama is President in the middle of a crisis.  Right now, the US is struggling to deal with the most testing economic decisions of its history.  The country is deeply divided on the way forward.  The current anger and hostilty over the proposed changes to the gun laws reflect this sharp division.  In  Lincoln's time, the nation was bitterly split over slavery and a war was about to take place.  Both Presidents have had to face off directly and squarely with the huge challenges of their times.  Lincoln’s were overcome. We await history's verdict on Obama's.

 
See AlphaMax Students present this and other excerpts from great speeches in Portrait of Hope and Peace: 'Great Thoughts, Great Minds, Great Moments in Time'.
http://youtu.be/HJK0LVsm_ho
Milton Drepaul

Hope and Peace: a message of love from Suriname

On the Inauguration day of President Barrack Obama's second term as well as on Martin Luther King's birthday AlphaMax Academy re-releases a unique DVD under the theme, “A Portrait of Hope & Peace”.








This DVD presentation features the remarkable skills and talents of young students and scholars from Suriname at the AlphaMax Academy. Their aim is to inspire other young adults and people worldwide with a renewed vision of idealism for a peaceful and better world.






Celebrating over two centuries of great oratorical statements – and at the same time grounded in classical values and traditions – “Great Thoughts, Great Minds, Great Moments in Time” includes excerpts of speeches from Haile Selassie, Chief Seattle, Winston Churchill, Abraham Lincoln, Patrick Henry, John F. Kennedy, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, Rabindranath Tagore, and President Barack Obama.
The Presenters are 18 English-speaking scholars (ages 16 – 19) who have attended the AlphaMax Academy in Paramaribo, Suriname.

Interstingly, President Obama will focus people's minds on the lives of two great visionary leaders by swearing the Presidential oath on bibles owned by President Abraham Lincoln and Dr. Martin Luther King.

See AlphaMax Students present excerpts from great speeches in the "Portrait of Hope and Peace: 'Great Thoughts, Great Minds, Great Moments in Time" on YouTube

Kennedy and the AlphaMax's "Portrait of Hope and Peace"

In an article by Robert Schlesinger in US News and World Report on Friday 1 Jan 2013 some of the key points in John F. Kennedy's 1961 inaugural address were highlighted.

Schlesinger mentions that Ted Sorensen, historian, aide and chief speechwriter, advised Kennedy to make it one of the shortest inauguration speeches.  So brevity was one of the virtues of this stirring address.  The speech was less than 1400 words.

 "The inaugural was a special occasion, and there was a special tone in that speech," Sorensen later recalled.

So tone and language structure made that speech one against which all other inauguration speeches are measured.

One line in that address - "ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country" — has echoed across time for generations since 1961.  It was a call for service.  It has inspired many across the world to search for ways to change society for the better.

For my generation Kennedy represented a new direction in political thinking. He was  the youngest elected president,the first Roman Catholic and when he spoke of "the torch [having] been passed to a new generation of Americans—born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace…" I believed he was appealing to those who wanted a fresh start in the way world politics and diplomacy were conducted.

Kennedy's statement "we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe" makes us sad today when we reflect on the lengthy and terrible Vietnam War.

Many,like me, however, focused on his vision of a new paradigm for peace.  He proposed  a "new endeavor, not a new balance of power, but a new world of law, where the strong are just and the weak secure and the peace preserved." 

One of the most memorable lines in the speech is: "Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate."  It is an ideal that I believe leaders today should seek.

AlphaMax Academy in its DVD 'Great Thoughts, Great Minds, Great moments in Time'-A Portrait of Hope and Peace features excerpts from Kennedy's inaugural address done by Gabrielle Goedhart.  You can view it on YouTube-Portrait of Hope and Peace.  The script of the DVD urges all to seek clarity about the highest goals we can set to achieve Peace.

At the AlphaMax Academy, a unique and leading international school in Suriname, timeless leadership values are treasured and held loft before each generation of students.  In a subtle way, the school is training leaders to take their place in the world of business, politics, the environment, and global affairs, in a rapidly changing world.

Milton Drepaul