DUBAI // The chairman of Emaar has urged students leaving high school to act as ambassadors for the UAE when they travel abroad to universities this year.
Mohammed bin Ali Alabbar told 105 students leaving Dubai International Academy not to forget the lessons of cultural tolerance that they had learned in Dubai.
He was speaking at a graduation ceremony yesterday for Year 13 students, who will say goodbye their families and friends and go to study at universities in Europe and North America this year.
"I know a lot of people have told you what to expect as you go into the world," he said. "Whatever you find, I think it's very important that you should not forget you came from Dubai."
He said it was rare to find 200 nationalities with different cultures and religious beliefs living in harmony anywhere else in the world.
"Please take this example of this positive, mixed environment of Dubai wherever you go, and be our ambassador," said Mr Alabbar, who studied at Seattle University.
"So, please carry this city wherever you go, I beg you."
Poonam Bhojani, the chief executive of the school's operator, Innoventures Education, said the graduation marked the end of one stage in the youngsters' lives.
"It's a farewell for the students," she said. "While it's closing one chapter, it's starting a new one. I'll be sad to see them go, but the next batch is ready, and then the batch after that. Life is like that."
Deputy head boy, Naman Jain, 17, from India, has an offer from Princeton University in the US state of New Jersey. He said he feels sad to leave his friends.
"Over the past two or three years, you become very close to your school friends," he said. "I've heard it's harder to bond as closely with your college friends. We'll all try to keep in touch. It's easier these days with social media."
Deputy head girl, Annushka Shivnani, also 17 and from India, said she would study psychology and law at Claremont McKenna College in California.
"The longest I've lived away from my parents is a week or two weeks, so four years in a row is going to be a tough experience," she said.
Her mother, Devayani Shivnani, said: "She needs to get away to university, because Dubai is a very protected environment. They need to get away to be on their own and identify with reality."
Another Indian student, Sana Rizvi, 18, said she would miss her family when she goes to study medicine at Birmingham University in the UK.
"I'm not used to living away from my parents," she said. "It's scary but exciting at the same time."
Keshav Tahilramani, whose daughter, Vaishnavi, was graduating, said it worked both ways.
"It will be scary in the beginning, for us as much as her," he said.