Liger founders Trevor and Agnieszka Gile first visited Cambodia in 2002 and fell in love with the country and its people. Coming from humble beginnings in the Seattle area, Trevor recognized that the opportunities he had did not exist for those in the developing world. He believed that the big equalizer would be to provide opportunities for those who could take advantage of them. For Agnieszka, Cambodia reminded her of her home country of Poland with so many years of oppression and World War II genocide. She was determined to give the children of Cambodia this new opportunity.
Encouraged by the idea that the most effective form of aid is a hand up rather than a hand out, The Liger Charitable Foundation was formed with Liger Leadership Academy Cambodia as its pilot project. In 2009, Trevor and Agnieszka began extensive research and planning to develop the concept of Liger Leadership Academy Cambodia. Attracting a top-notch team of specialists from all areas of education and non-profit development, they created a new type of organization providing resources and guidance for promising children as a long-term investment to help the entire Cambodian society. Liger Leadership Academy Cambodia was opened in 2012 and today hosts 60 students.
The Liger Timeline
Liger’s second graduating cohort of 52 students celebrates their graduation ceremony after seven years of hard work, leadership development and growing as a community of change agents
Four Liger students selected as Top 500 RISE Global Finalists, submitting project ideas including a template for the Cambodia Youth Climate Change Conference, and a workshop outline to introduce youth to electrical engineering via experimentation with Arduino devices.
Liger hosts “Action Hope,” a full-day event organized and hosted by students, including speeches from H.E. Wathana Sam, and showcasing the unveiling of a full-sized chainsaw tree erected in Mondulkiri’s Keo Seima nature preserve
Liger’s third cohort of 60 students begin full-time on campus with a focus on English immersion, tech skills, and developing the Liger culture.
In collaboration and cooperation with the MoEYS at Central, Provincial and District levels, the recruitment of Cohort Three begins
Six Liger students are accepted to the Generation Future project, funded by UNICEF Cambodia, to work on developing unique programming on topics including oral health, protecting the native Cambodian bee population, and integrating more females into the engineering field.
The RISE Top 500 Global Finalists are announced, and among them are 13 Liger students, who submitted ideas ranging from developing a mental health platform and tackling proper battery disposal, to raising awareness about colorism and decreasing single use plastic.
Liger student Samnang is invited by the US Embassy to attend the Indo-Pacific Youth Dialogue Virtual Conference 2020, representing Cambodia alongside 15 other countries in a discussion of policy writing related to entrepreneurship and economics.
Education Director, Jeff Holte, and one student invited to attend and present separately at the WISE Conference in Doha.
The Technovation Finalists are announced, and one Liger team earns a place in the Global Finals, traveling to San Francisco, USA to present their app concept.
A team of Liger students take home First Prize for STEAM Action in the First Ocean Park International Conference and Competition, hosted in Hong Kong.
Liger’s Director and two students are flown to the UK to be interviewed by various press organizations. Liger founder Trevor Gile and one Liger female student are interviewed on BBC World News
Members of Liger’s Marine Research Team travel to the Philippines to participate in the PEMSEA Youth Conference for Marine Conservation
A team of Liger students is awarded the First Place Champion in the VEX Robotics Competition held in Bangkok, Thailand.
Liger Leadership Academy is selected as part of HundrED’s 100 Global list of inspiring innovations. Our Director of Education, Jeff Holte, is asked to speak as an expert on education at the HundrED conference in Helsinki, Finland and the World Forum for a Responsible Economy in Lille, France.
Liger Leadership Academy Country Director, Dominic Sharpe, and Director of Education, Jeff Holte, are invited to the CEE Enterprising Minds Conference in Melbourne, Australia, to sit on the panel on “Disruptive Schooling” with co-panelists Professor Richard Elmore, Professor Philippa Pattison and David Price OBE.
The Liger Learning Center is renamed the Liger Leadership Academy. The Liger Charitable Foundation is reclassified as a public charity and begins operating as the Liger Leadership Academy Foundation
At the request of the Minister of Education, Liger hosts 50 Cambodian Ministry of Education officials and school directors for a workshop lead by Liger students. This workshop was held to share the Liger Learning Model and to explore ways to incorporate aspects into Cambodia government schools.
Liger adopts Measure of Academic Progress (MAP) international standardized testing for Language Usage, Reading and Math. MAP is a key tool used by international schools as a trusted indicator of student achievement and growth.
Following our MOU from November 2015, the Cambodian government declares in an official government edict that Liger diplomas are now recognized not only in our MOU but embedded in Cambodian law.
In August, 60 new students arrive to start their first of six years at Liger.
On November 10, a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Ministry of Education Youth and Sport (MoEYS) is signed. This MOU exempts Liger students from national university qualifying tests and allows Liger International and National Diploma holders direct access to Cambodian University.
In preparation for the arrival of the second cohort of students, The Liger Charitable Foundation purchases a plot of adjacent land for expansion and construction begins.
Liger becomes a member of the International School Consortium for World-class Instructional Design Assessment (WIDA) and begins implementing WIDA as its overall system for measuring English proficiency.
The first cohort of 50 students arrives on campus. These students were chosen not only on academic accomplishments but also because they exhibited the characteristics of future change agents and embodied the core values of Liger.
The Liger recruitment team travels to 203 primary schools across Cambodia to interview 12,000 students, test 4,000 students, and select 50 students to receive a full residential scholarship.
The Liger Charitable Foundation purchases land on the outskirts of Cambodia`s capital, Phnom Penh. Construction on the state of the art Liger campus begins.
The Liger Charitable Foundation is established with its first and founding project as the Liger Learning Center. The organization’s mission is to invest in the education of a promising few who can become impactful change agents. The sustainable education model is built to be able to be replicated anywhere in the world.
Trevor and Agnieszka decide to invest in the youth of developing countries as a method to creating positive and lasting change. Cambodia is selected as the first investment.
Our founders, Trevor and Agnieszka Gile, first visit and fall in love with the country and its people.
The Liger Charitable Foundation was founded in July 2009 as a private foundation under 501(c)(3). In May 2017, it received approval from the IRS to be treated as a public charity looking back to January 2012. In August, it applied for a D/B/A as Liger Leadership Academy Foundation.