Happy International Youth Day!

With over 930 students making us proud of their unique potential and everyday successes, on today’s International Youth Day, let’s celebrate what youth life means at ACS.

Committed to giving back, for the past year, our ACSers continued being involved in various social causes and charity events:

• ACS seniors initiated a tour visiting nursing homesю
• ACS Refugee Center Club helped collect gifts for displaced children
• ACS students supported the One in Eight Initiative to raise awareness about breast cancer
• A college student organized a charity run to help children with Down syndrome
• Another student launched an initiative in collaboration with different schools and agencies to show us that safe driving is the new cool
• ACSers were involved in the recent charity concert Art 4 the Heart to support children with heart conditions

ACS nurtures such social causes by fostering students' love for the humanities. No wonder ACSers participated in different international programs and 2024-2025 events, such as: The European Youth Parliament: Voices of Change, Deutsche Schule and various other Model UN conferences, included an ACS one, ACS Green Conference, the Philosophical Conference Man. World., ACS Debate Open, and many more.

We aim to equip children not only with love and passion for equality but also the practical skills needed to succeed. Thus, we helped ACSets get involved in practical events, including:

• Business Club Seminars to empower the next generation
• An engaging talk with established alumni in the fields of game development and design, book publishing, and community building
• Visits from renowned chefs to help those who want to explore the path of entrepreneurship
• One Step Ahead Internship Fair: Introducing Young Talents to the World of Work
• Financial Advisory Class presentations and discussions.

That's not all! We encourage students to embrace creativity in different practical fields such as science and art, and here are some achievements from the past school year:

• An ACS student ranked in the Top Tier of an International Geometry Olympiad 
• Another ACSer impressed with his Neural Networks in Image Recognition IT Project
• The DeLux Student Poetry Competition was a triumph for our school representatives
• ACS witnessed success at the Student Institute of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences
• Our Robotics Team shone at the FIRST Robotics Competition in Turkey
• The ACS-student-organized science festival FISSION was a blast (again!)
• An ACSer was published in an International Journal of Science
• Our team returned with Silver from the European Olympiad of Experimental Sciences 2
• ACS Arts Fest... well, there are no words to describe the spirit of community, imagination, and positivity we felt at our beloved annual event

Of course, we at ACS always support students in and outside the classroom, so we cherished our students' talents and interests across a wide range of areas, which for 2024-2025 included dancing, skiing and snowboarding, swimming, horse riding, ballet, bridge, chess, drawing, and more. It's impossible to list all the academic, international, and personal success ACSers and faculty and staff made us proud of.

Amid all this celebration, we pause now for a moment of bittersweet reflection: just a few months ago, the final bell rang for the Class of 2025. A sound we've heard so many times, yet at the end of each year, it resonates differently. However, that’s never an end - it’s a new beginning. We welcomed our newest graduates into the ACS alumni community, and at our annual summer alumni reunion we had fun while making sure we stayed connected.

It's not only Class 2025 that embarked on a new journey, 2024-2025 was a new chapter for ACS as well. The American College of Sofia completed its comprehensive IB Five-Year Evaluation for the 2020-2025 period, a vital process that ensures the continuous improvement and fidelity of the International Baccalaureate program. We move forward with enthusiasm and a clear vision, building upon the insights gained to further enhance the high-quality IB education we provide.

Thank you to everyone who played a part in the process - and thank you, ACSers, for making us feel young inside by witnessing your success in life.