The personal project is an independent assignment that can be on any topic and take any form, as long as it has a strong connection to one global context. It is a way to demonstrate the skills students have acquired throughout the MYP and is a grade 10 requirement at ASF.

The personal project encourages students to practice and strengthen their approaches to learning skills, to consolidate prior and subject-specific learning, and to develop an area of personal interest. The personal project provides an excellent opportunity for students to produce a truly personal and often creative product/outcome and to demonstrate a consolidation of their learning in the MYP. The personal nature of the project is important; the project should revolve around a challenge that motivates and interests the individual student. Each student develops a personal project independently.

This year’s edition of the Personal Project Fair showcased a wide range of subjects reflecting our students’ unique personality, who were eager to discuss topics ranging from developing technology during World War II, to starting up your own restaurant, to fighting the gender wage gap, to creating an agricultural system on Mars!

Didier Serrano became interested in his personal project after learning about the 2008-09 financial crisis, and decided to use the Markov Process to study it further. “Markov processes are the natural stochastic analogs of the deterministic processes described by differential and difference equations. They form one of the most important classes of random processes, and can help us predict what happens in the future”, he expressed.

Surprisingly enough, Isabel Fernández became interested in the gender wage gap during a web design class at ASF, and is well aware that it is an issue that could affect her personally at some point in her life. She strongly believes “It is fundamental for us to change our perspective on gender, in order to create a fairer society, without stigmatizing mothers or stay at home dads.”

Alejandro Romo kept his expectations realistic and down-to-earth, “I know that I cannot eradicate poverty in a day, however, through my project Made in Mexico, I can give a voice to people from different social levels, hopefully raising awareness of the inequality that exists in our country, from a humble perspective.”