UAE: Homeschooled in Dubai, Three Sisters Shine at World’s Best Universities

These Dubai-based Thomas sisters are hardworking students who are majoring in different courses, holding Ivy League degrees and prestigious awards, and also boast numerous interesting hobbies. Perhaps surprisingly, they never had a formal school experience, although they were educated at home by their parents.

Recently, the second of the sisters, namely Dorothy Thomas, has been awarded the Richard J. Estes Global Citizenship Award of the University of Pennsylvania. This scholarship is offered to a non-profit leadership program student who has demonstrated high academic performance and passion for positively impacting the society.

Dorothy, who graduated with a perfect score of 4. 0 in her masters in non-profit leadership, testified that the homeschooling prepared her well for the academic challenges. “I personally homeschool my kids so it was easier to do so much more than should have been done in a normal school,” she said. “It was made in such a way that we could give our best. My parents especially monitored what time we rose from bed, the organization of the day, doing our home work and performance in school, taught us discipline. ”

Dorothy’s sisters are also students who are schooling at Ivy League institutions. Her elder sister is Stefanie Danielle who is an accomplished graduate holding two bachelors’ degrees and a master’s degree from Harvard University. Their youngest sister, Darianne, is still in college, in her last year to be exact at the University of Pennsylvania. The same year, 2021, she was honored with the US President’s Award for Academic Excellence.

Ashish Thomas, the father of the kids, explained that the main reason was to avoid the conventional system of education for his children. “They were not very much qualified as teachers,” he provided the impression. “This realization arose due to the fact that we observed that their school had no capacity to tap the best in our children. ”

The family initially used South African curriculum and in their middle of educational programs they adopted American system for their visions for higher education in USA. The flexibility enabled them to engage in different activities of their interests, and also to travel frequently which nurtured their education and personality development.

I present three homeschooling success stories of Danielle, Dorothy, and Darianne which demonstrate that homeschooling as an approach to children education can develop well-rounded and outstanding students when good support is provided.