MADAGASCAR EXPERIENCE Interview with Mihoby Rabeharison ('97)
Where are you from and do you remember how you came to attend AISB? I’m originally from Madagascar. I came to AISB by way of Senegal, Cameroon and the United States as the child of a diplomat.
Which one of your teachers at AISB made the biggest impression on your life and why? There were so many amazing teachers at AISB. But a few still stand out. Teachers like Mr. Newman cultivated a standard of excellence. I remember completing my first assignment for his class on the bus ride to school. It must’ve reeked of lacklusterness because it was returned with, “Are you kidding?” scribbled at the top! I kept that assignment. It reminded me that crappy work - just like good work - speaks for itself.
I also appreciated that he assigned works like Jane Eyre and its anti-colonial response, The Wide The Sargasso Sea . Reading these books sequentially emphasized that canonical works are in constant conversation with each other. These conversations highlighted how societies often revisit and then re-vision their perceptions. It reflected this idea that culture, and our understanding of history, is not static - but fluid and malleable thing.
Mr. Wilkinson expanded my horizons. He brought students to Stratford-Upon-Avon where we participated in workshops with the Royal Shakespeare Company. Taking my first Cuban folkloric dance class there, I began ruminating about the “theater of the everyday.”
