How AISA Turns Our Mission Impact into a Recruitment and Retention Advantage
At Dux Studio, we’re tracking a clear shift in international-school recruitment: educators are choosing schools that live their values. To see how this plays out on the ground, we asked Dr. Andrew Torris, Director at the American International School in Abu Dhabi, to share how AISA’s deep commitment to sustainability and community impact has become a true recruitment advantage.
Leading with Purpose: How AISA Turns Our Mission Impact into a Recruitment and Retention Advantage
Schools typically focus on academic results, facilities, and extracurricular activities to attract students to seats in international schools. However, at the American International School in Abu Dhabi (AISA), a different approach is emerging to support our mission of “Developing resilient learners and compassionate leaders for a dynamic world.” Here, sustainability and community impact aren't just extras—they're at the heart of what the school stands for. This focus helps the school attract and retain passionate, mission-driven educators and families who share these values.
AISA's leadership has discovered that when a school actively demonstrates its values through transparent visibility and heartfelt community engagement, it becomes a warm and inviting place where teachers love to teach and students are excited to learn. Building upon this foundation, AISA families begin to understand the deep sense of pride developing within the community.
This isn't about greenwashing or checking compliance boxes. It's about creating a school culture where values genuinely manifest in actions, reflected in the AISA Lion Way—being Responsible, Safe, Respectful, and Kind. In a region where schools often compete fiercely for talented students and enrollment, embracing this approach has become a genuine strength for AISA.
Initiatives That Shaped AISA's Culture
While AISA has had multiple initiatives over the years aimed at improving school culture and student performance, none has been more transformative than the strategic pillars of "Positive School Culture and Student Well-being" and "Future Ready Learning." These pillars, part of the 2025–2029 school development plan, set a pathway for projects that encourage a mindset shift by integrating sustainability with social responsibility. This enables students and staff alike to see themselves as global citizens with a commitment to act locally, targeting growth toward the precepts outlined in AISA's global citizenship and intercultural learning definition.
Several initiatives have emerged, including a student and teacher-led sustainability team and the establishment of a school Roots and Shoots club. AISA students are not passive recipients. Instead, they are active participants and contributors. Initiatives such as bottletop artwork and sustainable fashion showcases reinforce that action matters more than slogans. This action extends to the curriculum level as well. The focus across middle school in the first term this year has been on sustainability, specifically waste, Consumer Choices, and the Circular Economy. This was initiated and developed by teacher leaders working with our students in our classrooms.
AISA has tied sustainability to its community partnerships—whether with local organizations, governmental agencies, or global partners like Jane Goodall's Roots and Shoots Organization. With these global and local partnerships, the work extends beyond the school gates.
Taken together, these efforts created a visible cultural marker: at AISA, responsibility, kindness, safety, and respect—"The Lion Way"—are not abstractions. They shape how the community treats the planet and each other.
How These Values Show Up in Hiring and Retention
The power of AISA's sustainability and community impact agenda lies not only in its projects but also in how it attracts and retains its people.
Recruitment
During hiring, AISA explicitly frames these values as part of the mission. When interviewing teachers, leaders ask questions such as:
"Tell me about a time you connected your classroom learning to global citizenship."
"In what ways have you connected to the school community outside your classroom and contributed beyond academics?"
These questions, along with others, highlight the professional qualities truly valued at the school. Candidates quickly realize that AISA is a place where values and mission guide everything. For the teachers who find success at the school, they are inspired by the opportunity to connect their personal beliefs while also creating a meaningful teaching experience. For many candidates, this alignment resonates deeply. We have found that teachers are seeking schools that combine academic excellence with a heartfelt commitment to higher values. By emphasizing our mission-driven impact, AISA demonstrates its core values to those eager to find careers filled with purpose and meaning.
Teacher Retention
Retention is where the cultural payoff is most evident. Teachers who feel they are part of something larger than their classroom tend to stay longer and engage more deeply. At AISA, staff consistently report that the school's values give meaning and purpose to their work. This supports not only school goals but also career goals, giving teachers opportunities to build meaningful career paths.
Several retention drivers stand out:
Shared Ownership: Teachers are invited to lead initiatives, mentor student groups, or connect curriculum units to topics important to both students and teachers. This fosters ownership of both the mission and the impact.
Professional Identity: Staff who engage in this work feel they are part of a progressive, forward-thinking institution. This strengthens professional pride and reduces the allure of moving to another school.
Cultural Belonging: The sense of being part of a school that lives its values makes staff feel not just employed but genuinely aligned. Over time, families, too, will cite these values as reasons for staying at AISA even when other international schools might offer different perks.
A Leadership Move to Consider
If you're looking to inspire your teams and make a real difference, consider establishing key mission-driven pillars that will galvanize the community and create long-term impact. By making these qualities essential rather than optional, you can truly strengthen a school's mission and unity.
This requires three deliberate actions:
Integrate, Don't Isolate
Mission-driven pillars cannot live in a single committee or a handful of student projects. They must be visible in strategic plans, hiring practices, budget decisions, and parent communications. When they become part of the DNA, they survive leadership transitions and staffing changes.
Signal in Recruitment
Make it explicit from the first recruitment conversation that your school is mission-driven. Utilize interview questions, job descriptions, and recruitment marketing to demonstrate that values truly matter. The right people will lean in; the wrong people will self-select out. Both outcomes are wins.
Empower Ownership
Invite staff and students to design and lead initiatives. Leadership here is not about creating one grand program but about empowering many small acts that add up to cultural momentum. A teacher who leads a zero-waste classroom project or a student who organizes a tree-planting campaign both reinforce the message: this school lives its values.
The real leadership move is consistency. A single sustainability week or community service drive may impress for a moment. But embedding sustainability in daily practice, in hiring, in professional learning, and in how the community celebrates wins—that builds the culture that attracts and retains mission-aligned people.
Looking Forward
As AISA celebrates its 30th year, it's inspiring to see how staying true to core values in today's competitive education landscape can help a school stand out. Most certainly, our facilities have aged and our curricula have evolved. Indeed, the markets can and will shift. That being said, it is our reputation built on authentic, meaningful, and lasting goals that makes a real difference in the community.
Families are increasingly seeking schools that prepare students to be compassionate leaders in our ever-changing world. Teachers also want their work to align with their personal beliefs. By embracing sustainability as a core value, AISA has become more than just a place to learn—it's a vibrant community united by shared purpose.
For schools seeking to stand out, the message is simple: lead with impact, and the right people will find you—and stay.