Qatar Leadership Academy: Doha, Qatar

Qatar Leadership Academy was formed in the spring and summer of 2005 under the leadership of chairperson H.E Sheikh Joaan Bin Hamad Al Thani with an innovative partnership between Qatar Foundation and the Qatar Armed Forces. The academy was designed to take a holistic approach to youth development, providing the highest standards of education to develop young men into future leaders. Advice was sought from many sources, with a special early partnership forming with St. John’s Northwest Military Academy in the U.S State of Wisconsin.

The Academy opened its doors in the town of Al Khor, North of Doha, on August 28, 2005, with 32 cadets being greeted by the Emir, the Heir apparent of the State of Qatar and HH Sheikha Mozah, Chairperson of the Qatar Foundation.

By the end of its second year in the summer of 2007, 81 students were enrolled and the school received authorization to offer the prestigious International Baccalaureate Diploma. In May 2008, the first graduates finished the academy, and in May 2009, the first IB Diplomas were awarded.

Today QLA enrolls just under 100 students in grades 6-12 from Qatar and other Gulf and Middle Eastern States. About one third of the students are 7 day boarders with local students boarding 5 days a week. This year QLA has been accepted as a candidate school for accreditation by the prestigious Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools in the United States and expects to be adding an internationally recognized high school diploma program in addition to the IB Diploma.  QLA continues to grow in students and in quality, building on the vision of its founders.

The boarding accommodations at QLA are separated into two wings connected by a reception area. Each wing is divided in the middle by a door creating four separate areas for each of the four companies at QLA (Al Wajbah – grade 7, Barzan – grades 8 and 9, Al Shaqab – grade 10, and Al Zubarah – grades 11 and 12). The layout provides enough unity for cadets to visit each other during free time but also enough privacy for each company to have its own bedtime.

Each company at QLA has a TV room with a large flat screen TV, and cadets often bring in their own gaming systems to use in this area during free time. The TV rooms also have a number of large couches providing a hang out spot or a meeting spot for the cadets to make use of. In addition to the TV rooms there is also a game room which is located in the Wajbah (youngest company) area but is open to all cadets. The game room includes two tables for table tennis, a pool table, a foosball table, and a number of arcade racing games. This room is open to all of the cadets every day during their free time. The Barzan and Wajbah companies also have computer labs with Internet capability where the cadets can play games online or watch videos during their free time.

In Wajbah and Barzan companies, cadets will generally live four to a room, while Shaqab and Zubarah cadets are normally in rooms of two or three cadets depending on circumstance. Older or more mature cadets are usually given more freedom to decide who their roommates are. Regardless of which company they are in, all of the rooms are identical except for the number of beds in them. In each room there is one bathroom which contains two private stalls with sinks in them, two private showers, and two sinks in the hall space between the stalls and showers. Each cadet is provided with a bed, bedding, night table, dresser, and desk with chair. In the back of the room there are two comfortable couches situated with a coffee table in between them for the cadets to share as common space. The beds are separated from each other with large dividers in the room to give each cadet additional privacy.

Study time in the barracks is run differently in each company, but for the younger two companies it is usually held in the computer room. There are enough computers for each cadet to have his own work station and having the younger cadets in the same location allows for maximal supervision during their study period. For older cadets, they are allowed to have their own laptops in their rooms and Al Zubarah cadets are also provided with a desktop computer from the school in case they don’t have a laptop. Al Shaqab and Al Zubarah both have wireless Internet connection which allows them to take their computers around to each other’s rooms during their free time and allows them to work in a common space with each other if they so choose. There are also a number of rooms set aside as study rooms throughout the barracks adding flexibility for cadets to work in groups at a table together if they so choose or to relocate themselves into a room that is quieter if they are trying to read and other students are working together in their room.