Next week, we are excited to welcome Hussain Aga Khan ’92 back to Deerfield! By now, you have seen his beautiful images around campus, and we are delighted to have him back on campus in person in honor of Earth Week!
In advance of his visit, we encourage you to watch one or both of the following speeches Clarion Call and/or The Seas of My Youth.
At School Meeting on April 19th, Hussain Aga Khan ’92 will participate in a Q&A facilitated by Megan Ng ’23. Please submit any questions you have for Mr. Aga Khan in advance using the form below. There will also be an opportunity for a select group of students to eat lunch with Mr. Aga Khan on Wednesday, April 19, from 12:30-1:30. Please submit any questions or interest in lunch with Mr. Aga Khan by noon on Friday, April 14.
HUSSAIN AGA KHAN ’92
Hussain Aga Khan was born on 10 April 1974 in Geneva, Switzerland. He received his secondary education at Deerfield Academy, Massachusetts, and graduated from Williams College, Massachusetts, with a dual degree in theatre and French literature. In 2004, he received a Master of International Affairs degree from Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs. At Columbia, Mr. Aga Khan’s main area of study was Economic and Political Development with a regional focus on the Middle East and North Africa.
He is Chair of the Board of the Aga Khan Agency for Habitat, focusing mainly on disaster risk reduction and emergency management in Central Asia, Pakistan, and India. He also serves on the board of the Aga Khan Trust for Culture (AKTC), and sits on the AKDN Committee, the oversight body of the Aga Khan Development Network. Involvement with the Aga Khan Foundation (AKF) has centered on managing the Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan Fund for the Environment. More recently, Hussain joined his brother, Prince Rahim, and key directors of AKDN agencies as a member of the Environment and Climate Committee (ECC) in order to work on environmental issues and the impact of climate change in some of AKDN’s priority countries.
His photographic exhibitions, shown internationally, aim to raise awareness, and inspire admiration for wildlife and, therefore, the desire to protect it.
Collections of Mr. Aga Khan’s photographs have also been published in four books, Animal Voyage (2004), Diving into Wildlife (2015), Fragile Beauty, and The Living Sea (2022).
All proceeds from the sale of these books are donated, via Focused on Nature, to shark, cetacean, or sea turtle conservation.
Hussain Aga Khan is a member of the Jane Goodall Legacy Foundation’s Council for Hope and of Mission Blue’s Board.
From Passion to Commitment
Hussain Aga Khan’s passion for wildlife conservation started from a young age, and he began taking photographs of flora and fauna on a trip to the Brazilian Amazon in 1996.
Multiple photographic expeditions, organized jointly with scientists and professional photographers, have led him to constitute extraordinary archives of marine and terrestrial species, covering various geographical areas and ecosystems.
From his first exhibition at Columbia University in 2004, showcasing the splendour of rainforests, conservation photography became his principal medium of raising awareness and educating audiences about protecting species and ecosystems. Through these exhibitions, depicting hundreds of hours of Mr. Aga Khan’s most enthralling and surprising encounters with wildlife, the beauty and magic of these experiences come to life.
The exhibitions also demonstrate his extraordinary commitment to showcasing the grandeur and diversity of the natural world, and its extreme fragility. They have evolved into global platforms to inspire, educate and illustrate the necessity and urgency to protect and conserve the most threatened places and species on our planet.
Focused on Nature (FON) was born out of the idea that raising awareness and engaging the public with some environmental education might not suffice, leading to the creation of a fund to finance some of the most impactful wildlife charities in the world for particular species and ecosystems of interest. FON’s mission is to assist in the conservation and protection of threatened and endangered species and habitat conservation efforts when and where possible.
Handpicked and vetted through a process of consultation with FON’s expert advisors and contacts, regular funding is directed towards organizations that have immediate impact projects in wildlife conservation, protection, preservation, and education. Key ecosystems include rainforests and oceans, focusing on sharks, cetaceans, turtles, mobulid rays, African elephants, rhinoceroses and great apes.
Grantees include the Shark Conservation Fund, the Manta Trust, Whale and Dolphin Conservation, the Wild Dolphin Project, Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, Rhino Pride Foundation, and Oceana, the Jane Goodall Institute, Wildlife Conservation Society, Re:wild, and the Jocotoco Conservation Foundation.
To date, FON has granted over $3.9 million.