Pakistani Teacher Humaira Asif Awarded MY HERO Outstanding Educator Award

Teacher Humaira AsifHumaira Asif, with permission

In 2021 Asif was awarded the MY HERO Outstanding Educator Award for her service for promoting global learning and understanding. Humaira Asif has been a teacher of history and Urdu at Sultan Mahomed Shah Aga Khan Secondary School in Karachi, Pakistan since 2012. A 20-year veteran teacher, in 2020 she was approached by Laura Nietzer, MY HERO Education Outreach Coordinator, about using MY HERO resources in her classes. 

A teacher dedicated to the creation of global citizens, Asif jumped at the opportunity, along with 15 of her students. MY HERO provided help with lesson planning and how to use MY HERO learning resources and assisted Asif and her students in creating accounts and publishing student artwork on the MY HERO website. 

Asif’s students have been submitting artwork to MY HERO’s Coronavirus Art Contests since 2020. Of the 12-15 students who participated in 2020, the group produced two winners: 

Hoorain Amjad and Arfa Tariq won first and second place, respectively. 

Be a Hero During Coronavirus By: Erum Middle School student artist Erum from Karachi in PakistanSultan Mahomed Shah Aga Khan School, with permission

Sixty-nine of Asif’s students participated in the MY HERO Coronavirus Art Contest in 2021, producing five winners in the Middle School Category. Students also submitted hero essays. All of the students, Asif said, realized the real meaning of “being a hero.” “If you want to be a good hero, you need to recognize the heroes who are caring and make our success possible,” she said.

There were so many winners from Asif’s classes in 2020-21 that we have featured the students’ artwork here on the MY HERO website. 

Teacher Humaira and studentsSultan Mahomed Shah Aga Khan Secondary School

Asif's students have acquired new knowledge and learning skills; for example, they started doing research and they have become keen observers. They brought their own perspectives to art activities and discussion: “This is good for them,” she said.

Her teaching philosophy is that “Teachers have the responsibility to make our students good human beings.” 

Asif told MY HERO she wants to create good global citizens and appreciates MY HERO for helping her students realize and promote their heroes. She told MY HERO:

There’s big meaning in this work. MY HERO is a very unique idea and project…Heroes give us hope and inspiration, and through this we instill in our students the value of endurance, courage, kindness, and compassion through their examples. Positive role models help the students recognize their own ability to make a difference in the world. The MY HERO Project has motivated our students of all ages to study, create, and act in powerful, positive ways. 

Middle school student artist Syed Ibne Ali from Karachi in PakistanSultan Mahomed Shah Aga Khan School, with permission

Asif said she and her students couldn’t have done this project without the support of school management, which provided “great support and freedom” for her work with MY HERO.

Of Laura Nietzer, MY HERO Education Outreach Coordinator, she said, “She was always available to guide and help, even inviting our school principal to learn more about MY HERO."

Teachers from around the world, like Humaira Asif, appreciate the organization’s learning resources because they help to integrate global content, issues, and perspectives into a standards-based curriculum and sees teacher and student projects through from start to finish.

For more information, please visit MY HERO Teachers Room: /teachers