2013 GAC Group Starts

The Global Assessment Certificate (GAC) 2013 group began on September 3rd, 2012 with 10 students.  This is the largest group since the GAC course started in 2007.  The Global Assessment Certificate program is run from Australia by ACT Education Solutions Limited, a subsidiary of the a major US testing service, ACT.   It is a post high school grade 13 course designed to prepare students for college/university work in the English speaking and other universities worldwide.  The GAC program has been accepted by 150 English speaking universities worldwide.

This year courses are in 3 modules:

• Module one runs from September 3rd to November 9th, 2012.
• Module 2 from November 12th, 2012 to February 22nd, 2013.
• Module 3 from February 25th to May 31st, 2013.

This group hopes to match or even better the outstanding performance of the 2012 group!

GAC 2012 successfully completed

Students in the 2012 GAC class successfully completed their course last Monday, June 11.


Six students were in the course--Yamil Baptisa, Gabriel Grauwde, Timothy Naarendorp,  Vinantia Nandlal, Ruth Saman and Kristina Taylor.


Four of the group have already chosen their next step in the academic world. Grabriel Grauwde will be going to the University of West Virginia to Study Engineering. He was also accepted by Dalhousie University in Canada for the same field of study. .Vinantia Nandlal will be going to the Medical University of Dalian in China to study medicine. She represented AlphaMax and Suriname at the GLYC conference in Beijing last year.

Timothy Naarendorp plans to do IT at UTT in Trinidad and Tobago.Ruth Saman plans to do dentistry at UWI in Trinidad and Tobago.She also represented AlphaMax and Suriname at the GYLC conference in Beijing last year.

Kristina Taylor and Yamil Baptisa are still considering their options but plan to start University studies in September this year.

Gabriel Grauwde launches his personal website

Gabriel Grauwde ,GAC class of 2012 has created a personal biographical website. Its URL is

http://gabrielgrauwde.weebly.com/. He is inviting his classmates and friends to visit his site and make comments on how he can improve it. He wants to give a picture of his academic and non academic achievements.

Gabriel is an outstanding Surinamese youth swimmer. He is in his final year at AlphaMax Academy and is a member of the GAC class.

Last summer he represented Suriname at the International Triathlon Games in Lausanne, Switzerland. Gabriel came to AlphaMax after spending twelve years in Barbados. His dream is to represent Suriname at the 2016 Olympics.Gabriel’s current plan is to study in the US in the fall of 2012.

Shafeek Nazir--Future Moviemaker

                                                                           By Vinantia Nandlal GAC 2012 Class

Shafeek is a graduate of the AlphaMax Academy (2011 Class).  He was Valedictorian for his class and on graduation night he made a very moving and personal speech about the impact on his life of the unique AlphaMax program of studies and activity.

 For his work during the Academic year he received the Gandhi King Award, the Humanity Award, Art Excellence Award, and a Tagore Art award. During his student year at the Academy, he also made an excellent video about Gandhi’s life.

Shafeek found the experience at the Academy quite intriguing, because the AlphaMax seeks to bring out the talents and the gifts of each student.  He hopes to come back and teach in the near future. He is looking forward to earn a degree in Bachelor of Science as a starting point for his career.

Currently, he is working at the AlphaMax Academy as computer administrator. He has worked

On many projects for school and also outside school through AlphaMax Academy. He has also done a

Brochure for the President’s office.  Someone mentioned that Shafeek will soon release two spectacular videos –Msiba, My Love and Many Faces of Love

Shafeek has had extensive experience with major graphics software.  He has demonstrated significant creative skills in the multimedia industry.

I asked: How did you find out what your skills were? “

Shafeek replied, “It all started when I got interested in finding out how movies, cartoons, games, and all other TV programs were made. That’s when I really started seeking knowledge on these items and it helped me creating a starting point building up my skills.” 

One of my tutors told us recently that someone said to him that one day we might see Shafeek on stage in Hollywood receiving an Academy Award for a movie he made. I am looking forward to that day when he places Suriname on the world movie map.

Tagore Awards Ceremony

The Suriname Rabindranath Tagore Creative Arts Awards Ceremony was held on Tuesday, November 22^nd at 5:00 p.m. at the University Guesthouse on Leysweg.

This important event celebraedthe work of more than 30 Surinamese student- and adult-artists.

The wife of Ambassador Harvey Naarendorp  (Suriname Ambassador to the EU based in Paris)  handed out awards to over 30 creative artists from Suriname who won school and national competitions in creative art and writing (prose and poetry) competitions.

The competition, which was launched in May 2011 by the Suriname Tagore Celebrations Committee, attracted more than 135 entries from students and adults in Suriname. Judges for the national competitions included members of the Schrijvers Group'77, Art Vibes United, and the University of Suriname. There were more than 75 creative writing and art entries from students attending schools in Paramaribo, Wanica, and Commewijne.

The prestigious Tagore Art Competition was launched to mark the 150^`" Birth Anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore, the first non-European and person of color to win a Nobel Prize (1912). Born in 1861, Tagore was a prolific writer, dramatist, poet, artist, philosopher, and international humanist. Across the world, national and international competitions are being held to uphold values in creative excellence in celebration of Tagore.

Ten AlphaMax students were among the 40 prize winners in the first Tagore Creative Arts competition in Suriname.

AMA tutor Sylvana Dankerlui guided the packed audience through an enchanting program that celebrated Rabindranath Tagore’s influence on the world and in this special case on Surinamese young people. Mrs Dankerlui  gave a passionate and delightful account of Tagore and how his ideas influenced others.

This was followed by a song done by the ICC singing teacher. She sang one of Tagore’s compositions. Her performance held the audience’s rapt  and they gave her an enthusiastic round of applause.

The highlight of the evening was the reading presentation   of the winning entries in the writing competition. The audience was thoroughly impressed not only with the ideas and style of writing but with the confidence and poise of all the winners as they delivered their pieces. Many commented later on the kaleidoscope of Surinamese faces of all races and the range of artistic expressions.

Parents and friends commended the organizing committee for an unusually delightful evening which placed the creative work of young Surinamese at the center of national interest. All the winning art entries were placed along the walls of the auditorium and in front of the audience.

 See pictures posted on Facebook  by Indian Embassy

My Trip to Switzerland

On Monday 15^th August 2011, I started my journey to Lausanne, Switzerland where I represented Suriname at the 2011 World Triathlon Championships. I was part of a mixed relay team which consisted of two boys and two girls. The four of us along with our coach left Suriname Monday night and arrived in the Netherlands, the next day around midday. We stayed in the Netherlands for two days and left for Switzerland Thursday afternoon. 

Our team arrived in the Geneva late in the evening and took the train to Lausanne. When we arrived at the hotel we met with some of the teams that were also staying there. They had never heard of Suriname and were fascinated to meet us. The next day we went to the venue of the competition which was along  Lake  Geneva in downtown Lausanne.

             The world championship race  was on Saturday and featured elite athletes. We went to watch the race and were amazed by the  extremely high level of performance.  On the next day ,Sunday 21^st August 2011, we competed in the ITU Team Triathlon World Championships race against thirty-two other teams from around the world.We were the only team from South America. Great Britain won the race. Ou The Suriname team ,however, did not finish race because we were disqualified.

Although I was upset after the race I did not let that spoil the rest of my trip. I had an amazing time on the trip and learned that if I wanted to reach the top, I would have to work really hard to get there. The trip to Switzerland gave me the opportunity to meet and compete against top professional athletes from around the world. These elite athletes were paid for racing by their sponsors.  Most of them were between the ages of twenty-one and twenty-nine and had given up their education to become professionals. They had been training for many years while our team had only trained for the last four months. We spoke to them about their training  schedule and also become friends with some of them. We realized that first we would have to be outstanding in Caribbean competition before we could go back to compete at the world level of competition. The trip was an experience that opened my eyes and helped me understand the level of performance I would have to attain.

The Suriname team left Lausanne  on Sunday evening and went to Geneva where we slept for the night. The next morning we were on the flight to the Netherlands. We arrived in the Netherlands but were delayed there for the whole day. We left the Netherlands12.30 a.m. to make our way to Suriname and arrived home around 3’o clock in the morning.

Written by: Gabriel Grauwde GAC 2012