Abira Ananthakrishnan

My Story

Since her youth, Abira has been fortuitous enough to travel abroad many times, visiting countries such as Vietnam, Morocco, and Sri Lanka. However, what stood out to her the most was the realization of how many underprivileged children  there were across the globe unable to access education, being given no choice but to work. That’s when she began to feel guilty, thinking about how unfair it was that she got to live in extravagant Dubai and attend a private school while these children had to work with minimal education from a much younger age. This realization led her to conclude that education is not a privilege but a human right and necessity. The profound question, “Would this be me if my parents weren’t educated?” stayed with her. Since then, she has prioritized learning with the hope of making a larger-scale change, giving everyone a chance to shine on the world stage.
 

Currently, Abira is the student Head of Year at WSO, a school she feels extremely loyal to, having been there for 11 years. She runs many programs and clubs, including the MUN, Debate, and Basketball teams, all of which have competed nationally and globally. Outside of school, she is an avid equestrian. Additionally, and she is a part-time teacher for AES phonics, where she enjoys teaching kids of all backgrounds how to read and speak eloquently.

Abira dreams of attending an Ivy League school not for status reasons but because she harvests an awareness of the connections that would become available to her and courses to nurture her skills and foster deeper more altruistic thoughts. These tools would be the ones required to build up her foundation as a dignified diplomat in the UN specifically within a division such as UNDP working to eradicate poverty.