Timeline

Liger’s second cohort of 53 students celebrated their graduation ceremony after seven years of hard work, leadership development and growing as a community of change agents.

The two students who won will now be supported for life. They were also both awarded US scholarships through the Liger admissions process, one studying at Northwestern University and one at Dartmouth.

Four Liger students were selected as Top 500 RISE Global Finalists, submitting project ideas including a template for the Cambodia Youth Climate Change Conference, and a workshop outline to introduce youth to electrical engineering via experimentation with Arduino devices.

Liger hosts “Action Hope,” a full-day event organized and hosted by students, including speeches from H.E. Wathana Sam, and showcasing the unveiling of a full-sized chainsaw tree erected in Mondulkiri’s Keo Seima nature preserve.

Liger’s third cohort of 60 students, representing 24 provinces,  begin full-time on campus with a focus on English immersion, tech skills, and developing the Liger culture.

In collaboration and cooperation with the MoEYS at Central, Provincial and District levels, the recruitment of Cohort Three begins.

Six Liger students are accepted to the Generation Future project, funded by UNICEF Cambodia, to work on developing unique programming on topics including oral health, protecting the native Cambodian bee population, and integrating more females into the engineering field.

The RISE Top 500 Global Finalists are announced, and among them are 13 Liger students, who submitted ideas ranging from developing a mental health platform and tackling proper battery disposal, to raising awareness about colorism and decreasing single use plastic.

Liger student Samnang is invited by the US Embassy to attend the Indo-Pacific Youth Dialogue Virtual Conference 2020, representing Cambodia alongside 15 other countries in a discussion of policy writing related to entrepreneurship and economics.

Education Director, Jeff Holte, and one student invited to attend and present separately at the WISE Conference in Doha.

In 2019, Liger returned to the BMC with two teams of students competing against 68 other teams. Both Liger teams place in the top 10 and one Liger team wins the competition.  The winning Liger team received $5,000 to develop its business and gained entry to the Asia-regional competition – the Mekong Challenge. The Mekong Challenge pitted our Liger team against even tougher competition – business challenge winners from across South East Asia including a mix of university and graduate students from internationally acclaimed universities as well as young and established professionals. Our Liger students held their own and placed third while competing against people twice their age.

A Liger team earns a place in the Global Finals, traveling to San Francisco, USA, to present their app concept.

A team of Liger students take home First Prize for STEAM Action in the First Ocean Park International Conference and Competition, hosted in Hong Kong.

Liger’s Country Director Dominic Sharpe, and two students, are flown to the UK to be interviewed by various press organizations. Liger founder Trevor Gile and one Liger female student are interviewed on BBC World News.

Members of Liger’s Marine Research Team travel to the Philippines to participate in the PEMSEA Youth Conference for Marine Conservation.

A team of Liger students is awarded the First Place Champion in the VEX Robotics Competition held in Bangkok, Thailand.

In 2018 Liger received special permission to become the first high school in the history of the competition. Out of 111 teams, our Liger students came in third place!

Liger Leadership Academy is selected as part of HundrED’s 100 Global list of inspiring innovations. Director of Education, Jeff Holte, is asked to speak as an expert on education at the HundrED conference in Helsinki, Finland and the World Forum for a Responsible Economy in Lille, France.

Liger Leadership Academy Country Director, Dominic Sharpe, and Director of Education, Jeff Holte, are invited to the CEE Enterprising Minds Conference in Melbourne, Australia, to sit on the panel on “Disruptive Schooling” with co-panelists Professor Richard Elmore, Professor Philippa Pattison and David Price OBE.

At the request of the Minister of Education, Liger hosted 50 Cambodian Ministry of Education officials and school directors for a workshop led by Liger students. This workshop was held to share the Liger education model and to explore ways to incorporate curricular into Cambodia's government schools.

Following our MOU from November 2015, the Cambodian government declares in an official government edict that Liger diplomas are now recognized not only in our MOU but embedded in Cambodian law.

LLA worked in collaboration with a New York based non-profit organization “Art in a Box” to create a book on Cambodian Wildlife, depicting some 87 different Cambodian species and 7 ecosystems. Students worked with experts from around the world.

On November 10, a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Ministry of Education Youth and Sport (MoEYS) is signed. This MOU exempts Liger students from national university qualifying tests and allows Liger International and National Diploma holders direct access to Cambodian University.

In preparation for the arrival of the second cohort of students, The Liger Charitable Foundation invests further and purchases a plot of adjacent land for expansion and construction begins.

Inspired by H.E Dr Hang Chuon Naron, Minister of Education Youth and Sports, Liger students research, design and write a book on the Cambodian Economy. 

Liger students learn robotics and attend the first Lego League Robotics Competition in Singapore.

50 students from 10 provinces begin learning at Liger. This is year one!