the eagle review—summer 2014

A PUBLICATION OF SHANGHAI AMERICAN SCHOOLSUMMER 2014

Giving Our Time, Treasure & Talent

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EditorZachary Young

DesignersFredrik JönssonCindy Wang

Director of AdvancementLindsay Thierry

Communication ManagerAbby Torres

A PUBLICATION OF SHANGHAI AMERICAN SCHOOL SUMMER 2014

Cover photo: During a visit with the Animal Rescue Club, Pudong grade 10 student Hailey Bauer poses with a furry friend. Read more on page 34. Photo above: Dave Mention, a longtime supporter, friend, and inspiration to The Eagle Review, took this photo. Like the many graduating seniors, he is also leaving the school. To Dave, and everyone else leaving, we send our best wishes in your next adventure.

The Eagle Review© is published four times a year—fall, winter, spring, and summer—by the Shanghai American School Office of Advancement, Communications department. Information in the magazine is primarily about the SAS community. We encourage students, parents, teachers, and administrators to submit articles and photography for consideration to: [email protected]. All sub-missions will be edited for style, length, and tone.

Pudong Campus: Shanghai Links Executive Community, 1600 Lingbai Road, Sanjiagang, Pudong New Area, Shanghai 201201. Telephone: 6221-1445.

Puxi Campus: 258 Jinfeng Road, Huacao Town, Minghang District, Shanghai 201107. Telephone: 6221-1445.

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The Eagle Review | 3

Summer 2014

INSIDE SAS From the Superintendent

From the Desk Of...

News and Updates

Counselor’s Corner

IN EACH ISSUE

Edge for Excellence

A Closer Look

Student Voices

20 Questions

Off the Shelf

On the Scoreboards

From the Archives

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5 6

23

24

32

38

44

46

54

62

Giving Our Time, Treasure and Talent Whether we give by donating time, providing money, or sharing talent, we all have the power to make a difference. Look throughout this issue to see just how much our community is giv-ing back or paying it forward.

7

Beyond Beauty Rachel Leng shares her experiences as a beauty queen, a student at Harvard and Duke, and an SAS alumna.

14 Shoot for the MoonHundreds of students attempt Guinness World Record while raising money for solar panels.

36

Student TeachersTwo high school students travel to Bangkok to present at an important teachers’ conference.

28 Telling Tall Tales Middle school teacher Juanita McGarrigle returns from sailing adventure with advice on showering and fur seals.

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4 | The Eagle Review

I recently signed 346 high school diplomas for our 2013-14 graduates. As I signed I thought about each graduate and what she or he has likely learned during their time at Shanghai American School.

Each student is unique. Each will draw from the excellence of their learn-ing at Shanghai American School as each charts his or her own course in life. And no matter where they go they will be part of a community—or more likely, multiple communities.

What is required to create a genuine sense of community? What are your obliga-tions to that community? How do you keep it healthy and strong? How will you create trusting relationships? How will you apply your talents? This issue of The Eagle Review will give you much to think about in answering those questions.

At my high school alma mater in New England, in addition to a rigorous aca-demic program, we all participated in the daily work of the community. Some of us worked in the laundry; some prepared and served the meals; some cleaned, and some were student librarians. I was a laundry worker one year and a librarian the next. Learning how to iron shirts and appreciate good books came from those jobs, as did learning how to work with others and how to manage my time.

Today my alma mater still requires participation in the program several hours a week as an integral part of the overall educational experience. Valuable lessons are learned. Each person contributes in their own way.

In 1940, George, a prominent graduate of my alma mater, was sent by his Shanghai family to the school. For the first time in his life he engaged in practical contributions to his community. George told me years later it was the best thing that ever happened to him. He changed from a childhood in which someone else did everything for him to learning to take care of himself and the community in which he lived. Those lessons, he believed, were key to his successful business career and personal life.

What will I tell our graduates as they leave the school? I certainly won’t give them any more advice in how to live their lives. They’ve heard more than enough for now! Instead, I will make a three-word request:

Please take care.Take care of others who are less fortunate or need a helping hand or kind

word.Take care of the earth and all its creatures and inhabitants.Take care of yourself in this fast-paced, anxious, tempting, demanding

world. You may well live 120 years, on into the 22nd century. Work hard, but also be gentle with yourself every day and save some energy for later years!

As we near the end of another year of educating 3,300 young people at Shanghai American School, Claire and I wish each and ev-ery one of you all the best. It has been a privilege helping to educate our young people. If you are leaving us, I hope our paths will cross again. For those who are returning, I wish you a wonderful summer and hope you will find time to read a good book or two or three.

Warm regards,

Please Take CareBY RICHARD W. MUELLER, SUPERINTENDENT

INSIDE SAS

From

the

Supe

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ende

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INSIDE SAS

Schools by nature tend to be strong philanthropic communi-ties and at SAS we are no exception. As a school we are continually looking at ways to offer new, value-added programs and opportuni-ties for our students. But the cost of these programs is always above the cost of the core academic program. Therefore our annual giving program, Edge for Excellence, has an important place within our school. Over the past few years this initiative has raised funds for our artists in residence program, iPads in the libraries, LEGO robotics, new playgrounds, gardens and outdoor learning spaces, and many other unique and valuable additions to our school. The support this program receives annually reflects the commitment that our faculty, staff, parents, and alumni have for SAS.

Our goal at SAS is to guide and support students to live full and productive lives in a dynamic, ever-changing, complex world. Students must understand that acts of compassion and generos-ity of spirit, done without expectation, create a better world. And giving to others should not be seen as an obligation, but rather as something that comes from an internal desire and compassion for others.

For more information on how you can support our school with a major gift, how your corporation can support a school initiative or project, or how you and your family can support the development and enhancement of the culture of giving at SAS, you can contact me at [email protected].

In a recent interview, Jack Ma, the retired CEO of Alibaba, made an interesting comment. “Once your net worth exceeds a certain point, it’s not your money anymore,” he said. “It is society’s money. It is the money society has given to you,

and you should take responsibility to allocate the money in a good way.”

Mr. Ma’s statement focuses on the issue of social responsibility and action, it also raises the question of what exactly is the point when enough is enough? Is it up to society to establish this point? Or is it the moral responsibility of each of us to acknowledge social responsibility and financially support initiatives and those less for-tunate, no matter our net worth? These are two fundamental points when considering the issues of giving and philanthropy.

Over the past few years, the definitions of giving and philan-thropy—and what constitutes a giving and philanthropic action—have transformed. Through reductions in funding for many social programs, the rise of social media, crowdsourcing, and different types of social responsibility opportunities (such as giving at the checkout line), we have seen a huge growth in the awareness and need for giving back to society. Yet no matter how much social awareness is exerted, what ultimately leads to the action of giving is that of an individual’s intrinsic belief in supporting others or a specific cause. And this support is reflected through the act of giv-ing of one’s time, treasure, and/or talent.

In most cases, giving to a charity or through a philanthropic action is also seen as an investment in the future. However, there is a defined difference between giving to a charity and being philan-thropic.

An interesting distinction that I recently read outlined the difference between giving (charity) and that of long-term giving (philanthropy): “Charity tends to be a short-term, emotional, im-mediate response, focused primarily on rescue and relief, whereas philanthropy is much more long-term, more strategic, focused on rebuilding,” Steve Gunderson, former president of the Council on Foundations wrote. “There is charity, which is good, and then there is problem-solving charity, which is called philanthropy.”

Philanthropic support to education is a primary example of how society is strategically investing in the future. By investing in education we support and build the future—the future of our children, our schools, our country, and our world.

However, there are distinct differences between how philan-thropic support is applied in educational environments. In interna-tional schools, unlike North American schools, donations are not required to support general operating budgets, but rather support programs and projects that enable schools to continue to develop new and dynamic programs for students.

Schools, like Shanghai American School, focus on a value-cen-tered education. This style prepares our students for post-secondary education but also teaches them to respect those who think differ-ently while inspiring them to help those who have been given less. At SAS this is demonstrated through our involvement with Habitat for Humanity, Jacaranda, and the Giving Tree programs.

Giving and a Value-Centered Education BY LINDSAY THIERRY, DIRECTOR OF ADVANCEMENT

From the D

esk of...

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INSIDE SAS

Congratulations Class of 2014 To the class of 2014, we wish you all the best as you begin the next chapter in your life. We can’t wait to hear about your future accomplishments, visit www.saschina.org/alumni to keep in touch.

SAS receives WASC Commenda-tions for Educational Excellence In April SAS received commendations from Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) accreditation visiting team. The school welcomed the 14 team mem-bers that included administration and teachers from the United States and Asia. During the visit the team members complimented the school on the professionalism of the educators, the facilities and resources the school provides, the involved parent community, and, most notably, the outstanding student academic performance demonstrated in assessments and observed in classroom visits.

Final accreditation decisions will be available by the end of August. The full Shanghai American School WASC accreditation self-study document and visiting team presentation, which includes commenda-tions and areas for follow-up in all areas of the school operations, can both be found in PowerSchool and in the new Parent Portal online.

Educational ProgrammingIn August, Janet Claassen (Puxi campus) and Fay Leong (Pudong campus) begin their new roles as as-sociate directors of educational programs and student learning. Janet and Fay will work with the new deputy superintendent of educational programs and student learning, Jennifer Weyburn, to provide leadership in a broad range of our educational programs, including the design and implementation of curriculum and professional development.

School Board ChangesThree board members are stepping down after many years of service. We thank Raymond Chang (member from 2012-2014), Eric Pan (member from 2011-2014) and Cindy Qiu (member from 2007-2014) for their contributions and commitment to the school.

We also welcome new members to the board. Stephen Dyer was recently elected to the board. Two additional members will be appointed by the board at the May board meeting. We will introduce these indi-viduals in the next issue of The Eagle Review. All three new members will begin their terms on July 1, 2014.

Highlights of this year’s Summer Academy include:• Teton Science School• Manchester United Soccer

School• Pre-season sport packages• Elementary school literacy

and science

Now accepting enrollment for SUMMER PROGRAMSTo learn more, or to reserve your child’s spot, visit www.saschina.org/summerprograms. For more information email [email protected].

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FEATURE

As a community, Shanghai American School has a desire to make a difference. We instill our core values in each student: compassion, generosity, making positive

impacts, and caring for the earth and its inhabitants. Ways in which we give include large gestures like

travelling with Habitat for Humanity to build homes for families in need or smaller gestures like sharing a special skill to brighten someone’s day. It can be organizing a bake sale to raise money for typhoon victims or volunteering time at the local animal shel-

ter. But whether we give by donating time, making a financial gift, or sharing talent, we all have the power to make a difference.

Throughout this issue you will see the symbols above appear on each article where time, treasure, and talent are being used to improve the lives of others. We’re sure you’ll be as impressed as we were to see just how much giving is a part of our com-munity and the power we each have to make a difference.

TIMETREASURE& TALENT

SHARING OUR

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8 | The Eagle Review8 | The Eagle Review

PHOTO BY DAVE MENTION

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The Eagle Review | 9The Eagle Review | 9

FEATURE

Every student at The Jacaranda School for Orphans in Malawi has lost at least one parent to AIDS. The school is a sanctuary for the students to receive a quality education and the support to build a successful future. Through the vision of one SAS teacher, our community has rallied behind this school to raise money, donations, and awareness. Twice a year, groups of faculty and students travel to Malawi to bring supplies, visit the students, learn about the local culture, and further solidify our longstanding friendship.


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Coming to Jacaranda is a unique experience in each person’s eyes. The friends you make, conversations you have, and stories you hear have the potential to teach you lessons you never thought you had to learn. However, I did not understand this until halfway through the trip. In fact, I clearly remember grouching to myself that I didn’t see why I came halfway across the world to play with kids. Well, lucky for me, once in a while an experience will completely sweep you off your feet and show you the world in a different light.

Jacaranda reshaped the way I see the world. I learned that there are people my age with deep wounds. Kids have seen and been through far too much, but they continue to persevere. Fami-lies struggle to feed their children. I learned to be grateful when I saw kids coming home to ramshackle shelters along unpaved roads.

The students are beautifully vibrant—they have endured far more hardships than I may ever face, yet they are some of the hap-piest, most genuine people I have ever seen. I thought that I came to Jacaranda to help, but in the end they gave me much more than I could ever give back.

At Jacaranda, we made memories that I will never forget: we rode in the back of a pickup truck while rain clouds billowed over the mountains around us and the road unfolded like a map with every bump in the path. I played hide and seek tirelessly for over an hour with a tiny girl with eyes that shined and a broad, toothy smile. We sat on the steps of our house and watched the uncount-able stars travel across the sky.

I learned that there are unspeakable, terrible experiences that kids in Jacaranda have gone through. But for every tear there are a thousand acts of beauty: the smile on the face of a student who doesn’t need to walk barefoot to school anymore; the harmonies of an a cappella group with no microphones or musical instruments reverberating from the walls of a local Malawi church. There are people who give up their homes to give a child an education. And, of course, there is the ever-growing Jacaranda School with its hand-painted walls, libraries of dog-eared books, and a heart the size of a nation.

At the end of the trip, I finally understood what returning SAS kids have said over and over: Jacaranda is like home.

A Thousand Acts of BeautyBY TIFFANY THIO, GRADE 11, PUXI CAMPUS

FEATURE

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Can a fundraiser contribute to a great cause and be a lot of fun? For junior Esther Yao, the Splash and Dash biathlon was both—and a dream come true.

“I love the Jacaranda School,” Yao, who swam 300 meters and ran three kilometers for charity, remarked. “I just thought that this was a chance to push my limits and be better.”

Students, parents, and teachers came together at the Puxi cam-pus to run and swim in order to raise funds for Jacaranda. Blessed with a sunny day and a festive air, the Splash and Dash became a successful community event.

“For the first annual biathlon, it was great,” said Christine. Doleman, high school vice principal and co-organizer of the event.

Rather than the traditional “Jacaranda Fun Run,” Doleman and teachers Shanti Van Dijk and Sarah Bartlett decided to revamp the event into a biathlon.

The Splash and Dash differed from other fundraising activi-ties, like Relay for Life, since it focused not on the cause but rather the fun of the fundraising event itself.

“I feel the community spirit here,” said Yao. “It doesn’t have to be that you come just because you want to fundraise for Jaca-randa.”

But having fun didn’t mean that the cause was forgotten, either.

Splash and DashBY YVONNE YE, GRADE 11 PUXI CAMPUS

Mr. Eliya (pictured below left in plaid shirt) is the first counselor at Jacaranda. Dory Street, a Puxi cam-pus high school counselor, met Eliya during the spring trip to the school. “Mr. Eliya is a wonderful counselor and teacher,” Street said. “He has counseling responsibilities for more than 400 students ages 6 to 20 with issues that range from health and nutrition to abandonment to career counseling; and he has no tools for his job.”

“Forms and assessments were all hand written,” she ex-plains “He had no file cabinet; copies were all made by hand. He needed tools and a way to keep student information in one place—and confidential”

After returning to Shanghai, Street met with the rest of the counseling team and together they were able to buy him a computer. But more than just a machine, all the counselors have loaded the computer with educational resources that he can use.

“I’m so so excited about giving this computer,” Street said. “And it gives us, the counseling team, a real connection to what is happening in Jacaranda and a way to share our resources.”

FEATURE

COUNSELOR TO COUNSELOR

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GRADUATION


Congratulations class of 2014!

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These 12 graduating seniors share the memories they’ll take with them as they continue their path in achieving their dreams. You can read more at www.saschina.org/classof2014.

From left:Liza Cahiz“SAS is what made my 5 years in Shanghai incredible and unforgettable and I am very thankful for the experi-ence.”

Anthony Certel“SAS has done a wonderful job allowing me to not only excel as a student but also be a part of something that I love as a student athlete.”

Royce Chen“I have been a part of this community for most of my life and it’s been amazing to see how much SAS Pudong has grown and evolved.”

Bryan Dickerson“SAS helped me a lot; I think I’ve grown as a person and as a student since I came here.”

Diana Guo“People here are diverse in their interests, and no matter what, they pursue their goals with so much commitment which really brings them to the next level.”

Jonathan Lau“I feel the best part about SAS is that we have really fostered a great community with all the extracurricular activi-ties and everyone really showing off what they love doing.”

Catherine Li“I will remember friendships with peers and teachers alike. I was rarely (if ever) obstructed from something if I had a good idea and was willing to do the legwork.”

Johnson Moon“The interactions and conversations I had with all the people I have met and befriended will be missed the most because these made me feel alive and made me feel this is where I belong.”

Kristine Romano“SAS is one of the best schools that I have ever attended. During my time here, I have been challenged in ways that have helped shape me as a student, as well as teach me things about myself.”

Yejin Yeoum“I'm truly glad that I get to call myself an SAS alumna—I could not have asked for a better high school experi-ence.”

Caroline Zhang“In the future when I think back to the time I spent here, I’ll remember all the great times I’ve had with truly wonderful people.”

Alex T. Zhao“Once an Eagle, always an Eagle! SAS, I will miss you dearly!”

GRADUATION

Congratulations class of 2014!

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You came to China while you were at Duke on a research fel-lowship. How important was it for you to get outside the walls of the university as part of your learning experience?

It was really important! I went abroad every year (across Eu-rope and East Asia) and every time I came back it helped me to see what kind of work environment I like to work in and what topics I wanted to study. I definitely recommend visiting and actually spending time in a different country. It opens people up to new experiences and new perspectives. It really does shape you to be a more open minded and well-rounded individual.

At Duke, how important were the relationships you developed with your professors. Was that an important part of your experience?

It was very, very, very important in so many ways. I’m so glad I went to Duke for this very reason, because Duke provided a strong support system. Students are provided with a lot of encouragement and support and given mentors, or at least strongly encouraged from day one to find their “board of directors” (i.e.: faculty or pro-fessional mentors) during their time on campus. At Duke, profes-sors made such a big difference in advising me in every thing from work to personal life decisions, and often welcomed me into their homes for meals and conversations.

Especially for someone who’s a first generation college student, it was so helpful to have professors around whom you could go to ask questions regarding courses or your future.

Often I hear people say that the brand of the university is the re-ally important thing and not the actual education or professor mentors you can get at schools outside the Ivies.

I was really lucky to be able to develop such close relationships with my professors and advisors. At Duke almost everyone practices an open door policy where the professors are always available, where you can just drop by to say hi or talk about your day. You’re encouraged to do that. Whereas at Harvard, especially for the star professors, you have to make an appointment, and you often don’t get to speak to them directly, but have to communicate through their assistants, and then have to wait a week or sometimes two weeks to finally see them.

Ultimately, I am a strong believer in the need for students to find a school where they can truly thrive in and grow, rather than just blindly chasing brand names. Choosing the right school, with the right academic and social environment for you, is so important in defining your college experience and the person you will become after these formative years.

You published many academic articles while still an undergradu-ate—in fact, I have you down for ten--which is extremely rare for an undergraduate. How did you go about accomplishing this?

In my very first writing class, which everyone has to take, I was not that interested in the subject. However my professor took an interest in me and put in a lot of effort to encourage me personally to try different styles of writing. She guided and encouraged me to submit to journals for publication. When I was successful I realized that this was something that maybe I wasn’t bad at.

The way I thought about it was that I should be writing things that should all be able to be published if I’m going to be spending so much time on it anyway. It’s a pity when you have been working on a paper, you turn it in, and then let it sit on your hard drive. In

I first met Rachel Leng when she was a sophomore in my English class. She was quiet, studious, and persistent. As she entered the International Baccalaureate (IB) program I was able to teach her for two more years. In that time I saw her

grow from someone who was tentative to someone who was push-ing herself academically without regard for grades but for the sheer learning. That attitude has taken her a long way.

She is a recent graduate of Duke University with highest honors in Asian and Middle Eastern Studies as well as Public Policy studies. While at Duke, she published 10 academic articles, including her IB Extended Essay written her senior year at SAS. She was first runner up in the Miss Singapore 2012 contest, and that same year was named by China Hands magazine as one of 25 young people under 25 most likely to influence American-Chinese relations. Now, she is pursuing her graduate degree at Harvard University. I caught up with her between classes for this interview.

MIKKELSON: At this point in your academic career, could you share the role SAS played in preparing you for your academic journey and how would you assess its value looking back?

RACHEL: The Taking IB and AP courses really had a sig-nificant impact in starting my university studies—freshman-year classes were a breeze. A lot of my peers had a difficult time adjust-ing to the difficulty of serious academics. Non-academically, the chance to interact with such a diverse student body along with the teachers at SAS really helped me in adjusting to a foreign country and a university where you have to interact cross culturally with so many people with alternative perspectives. That is the most important thing that SAS contributed to me.

A lot of students that I hear from during their first year away at college talk about the difficulty they encounter that first year, and it rarely has to do with academics, but seems to have to do with finding themselves. What difficulties if any did you have adjusting to your first year at Duke?

Most students at SAS are third culture and have the sense that they belong everywhere and don’t belong anywhere. It’s very easy to feel isolated and even feel that they can’t achieve the same depth of understanding that American students can. I had trouble communicating and establishing good relationships with many American students when I first arrived. It’s difficult for people who haven’t had an international school background to understand what the experience is like if they haven’t been through it them-selves.

When did you decide on a public policy major and why? I actually stumbled onto public policy by accident. I heard

a lot of talk about how Duke was one of the few institutions that offered public policy courses at the undergraduate level, and really got caught up with it once I started with my first few classes. I saw public policy as a less structured major, offering me a greater chance to explore.

Beauty with a Purpose BY JAMES MIKKELSON, HIGH SCHOOL ENGLISH TEACHER, PUXI CAMPUS

ALUMNI

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the end, it feels good to see your paper in print.You were recently the first runner up in the Miss Singapore

Beauty Pageant, the next step of which was the Miss Universe. You missed getting that by one place. That does not seem to be the thing most people would find on the CV of a graduate student at Harvard. Can you tell us how you got involved in that and what your take away from that contest was?

[laughs] It was so random, especially since I have lived out-side Singapore for so long. There is a stereotype about girls who compete in these pageants have nothing else going on in their lives. People think that you just go up there and act pretty and say things like you want world peace, help poor kids, and solve the hunger problem. But the truth is that you have to learn how to brand yourself, and how to develop a good narrative to introduce yourself to the public so that they will vote for you. Being in the limelight really toughened me up a lot more.

Being in the pageant also forced me to achieve a new level of self-acceptance: no matter how confident you may be, it is never easy to face a barrage of insults, and you really have to learn to be comfortable in your own skin. I guess ultimately, I realized even more strongly what it means to be a woman in the modern world.

In the magazine China Hands you were named one of the 25 people under 25 most likely to influence U.S.-China relations in the future. How did you find out about it and how did it make you feel?

I was surprised and felt it was amazing. I feel the weight of additional pressure on me to perform. Anytime you have these expectations it makes you a lot more careful about things you say and do and how you present yourself. A more important takeaway was learning even more from my time at SAS that your nationality doesn’t determine what you end up doing; I am the only Singaporean on the list working on US-China studies.

If you can say something to the parents of SAS, what advice would you give them?

I am the most grateful to my parents, even if they don’t necessarily agree or understand what I am doing. Having their support enabled me to deviate from the status quo, especially concerning the expectations that many Asian parents. I see a lot of my peers get so much pressure from their parents on their career path, who end up feeling like they have no choice except to go through the rite of passage of attending an Ivy League school and major in something like economics or premed. I would say that they should allow their children to explore deeply and not to commit to a merely conventional route.

From hindsight as a very successful university graduate what do you feel is the most important message students should hear?

Once you get into university, you will be bombarded with the idea that what you do in college doesn’t really matter much because so many people end up in careers that are entirely unre-lated to what they studied. College is the place to learn to develop the way you think. Get as much exposure to different perspectives as you can. My peers who are now out in the work force find that they are not doing what they studied and wish they had taken classes that they thought were genuinely interesting. Study what really interests you, and the rest will take care of itself.

ALUMNI

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HABITAT for HUMANITYNepalARCELIA SALADO AND STEPHANIE GANZEVELD, GRADE 11, PUDONG CAMPUS

“Nepal, Nepal, give us a call.” Or a shovel or a pick ax because our Habitat for Humanity team, composed of 17 Rosie the Riveter doppelgangers, knows how to work hard, play hard, and build houses.

This spring, our group traveled to Kathmandu and then Poh-kara, the third most populous city of Nepal, to commence a week of amazing experiences and diligent work. Of course, we were expecting to have a great time, but no words can even begin to de-scribe how rewarding the week proved to be. It all started with the opening ceremony on Monday, our first day at the worksite, when Sabina, our guide and translator, introduced us to Biba Nepali, the homeowner and her children. After receiving beautiful bouquets of flowers, homemade scarfs, and red bindis we listened to speeches made by female members of the local community, we rolled up our sleeves and started mixing cement, lifting bricks and forming assembly lines. In general, our days started at 7 a.m., but often one could find two or three girls on the roof of our hotel at around 6 a.m.

trying to catch a view of the Himalayas and breathing in sweet piney air that one would be hard-pressed to find anywhere else. We would have breakfast and head towards the worksite where, in the span of five days and with the aid of four masons, Biba and her three girls we carried, lifted and placed over 1000 cement blocks, mixed at least three bags of cement daily, and dug a two by one-fifty meter hole.

After the build we were exhausted and aching but that didn’t stop us from enjoying Pohkara’s nightlife, which was filled with mouthwatering food and vibrant colors. Afterwards, we would get some needed shut-eye.

All in all, after a week of brick lifting, cement spreading, team bonding, zip lining and sightseeing, none of us felt ready to leave Nepal and return back to the smog-clouded skies of Shanghai. Although we were reluctant to depart, our group found solace in the fact that there is always next year. Who knows, maybe we’ll give Nepal another call.

ShantytownSHELLY SUN, GRADE 12, PUDONG CAMPUS

In March, the Pudong campus high school hosted our annual Habitat for Humanity overnight event, Shantytown. This year, there were two teams: Nepal and Cambodia. The Habitat for Humanity executives spent weeks planning a variety of team-building activities. With approximately 40 students and seven chaperones, Shantytown turned out as a huge success.

“I didn't know what to expect when I first heard about Shantytown, said Gemma Sykes, grade 10. “However, Shantytown turned out to be a great experience that gave me insight into what my build would be like. The activities helped me bond with my teammates before the actual trip, and made my entire experience so much better.”

“Before shantytown, all trip members were all strangers from different grades,” Angella Liu, grade 12 added. “However, thanks to Shantytown and all its team building games, everyone really bonded and I can now actually call them my friends.”

COMMUNITY

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CambodiaSIT WAI PHONN, GRADE 12, PUDONG CAMPUS

This March, 14 SAS students and four chaperones traveled to Cambodia for Habitat for Humanity. We went to a suburb in Siem Reap to build a house that began construction in 2007. On the first day, before we began construction, we learned about Cambo-dian culture as well as introduced ourselves within the group. After a few icebreakers, we all quickly became friends. It is amazing when all of us put forth effort and cooperate efficiently, how productive we managed to be.

In just one day, we were able to plaster and paint at least three walls. From these efforts, we thank Jackson’s and CJ’s cement-mixing skills and Angella’s ability to make the cement mixing process interesting by telling us to hug each other’s shovels while mixing. We also had master plasterers, Cris, Yuri, Bea, Hugo, and Mr. Hevland. Through the many days of hard work, painting and plastering, we learnt that teamwork was what really matters. In the end, the family was very emotional and very thankful to all of us.

In the one-week experience in Cambodia, each individual showed uniqueness and contributed in making the trip more inter-esting. However, the times we spent at the night market and the hotel, eating mangoes, and pushing each other into the swimming pool were the highlights.


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“Come closer,” Anis Mojgani said to a rapt audience of high schoolers. “Come into this. Come closer.”

World-renowned slam poetry champion Anis Moj-gani went on to enthrall students with poems like “Direct

Orders,” “My Wife and Biscuits,” and “Shake the Dust.” Mojgani, a visiting author, attended over 20 classes in two weeks across both campuses to spread his love of poetry.

“I started writing poems in high school,” said Mojgani. “I took a creative writing class and I found that writing poetry was fun because I got to express my voice and my thoughts about something. From there it just became something important to me, and it made sense to keep on discovering new stuff about myself and my work.”

According to Mojgani, high school is simultaneously one of the best and most confusing times to start writing poetry, since many students often leap from Shel Silverstein to Shakespeare. Poetry used to be “something different when we were young,” Mojgani admitted, “but the scope and variety of poetry is so vast, so chances are there’s a poem somewhere out there that might speak to you.” In addition, Mojgani observed that high school is an age where “we’re sort of at a place where all this crazy new stuff is happening inside our heads. And at the same time you feel kind of like all eyes are looking at you. Sometimes the easiest thing to do is retreat from that.”

In his class sessions, Mojgani seeks to reverse that phenom-enon.

“Poetry should be remembered as a tool we can use to express ourselves,” Mojgani explained. “It can express the feelings inside that we’re trying to make sense of, to express our imagination and allow it to do all the things it thinks up inside all of us.”

For Mojgani, poetry also connects people. “We get to read and experience this poetry and learn about other people’s experiences, and from learning about other people’s experiences, learn more about ourselves and where our place is in the world around us,” Mojgani said.

A great deal of Mojgani’s poetry centers around communica-tion. He often finds themes in his poems of “wanting people to get a better understanding and realization that we are more alike than we are different.”

“We all experience those same feelings in regard to many ex-periences,” Mojgani said. “We all feel sorrow at some point. We all feel joy at some point. By recognizing those things in other people we can recognize them in ourselves a little bit more easily. I hear so many dark and sad, angst-ridden poems, and a lot of them I love, but at the end of the day, I want someone to walk away feeling happier with themselves as opposed to sadder with themselves.”

Mojgani shares his thoughts and experiences specifically through the medium of slam poetry, or poetry that focuses on the performance rather than the language. In cities like New York and Los Angeles, slam has come to the forefront of the youth move-ment.

“What’s great about slam is that it definitely has shown a lot of

younger folk the power and scope of what poetry can do, and that poetry doesn’t have to be something quiet and small,” says Mogani. “They are allowed to voice things inside of them and no one gets to say that they don’t get to—that’s the true power of the poetry slam. Here’s a place where no one gets to tell them what to do—not their teacher, not their parents, not their friends, not society—if they want to, they can say whatever they want. And that it’s also exciting; it’s filled with energy.”

A hurdle that many prospective poets don’t clear, Mojgani said, is the relation of the quality of their poetry to themselves. “If you’re unsuccessfully communicating your poem, that doesn’t change who you are as a person,” he emphasized. “That doesn’t suddenly make you a failure, doesn’t make you unsuccessful. It just means that you need to work more to get the poem where you want it to be. So don’t be afraid to reshape or edit, cut things, or change things in regards to your work.”

After a week of poetry workshops with the high school students, Mojgani left several pieces advice. The most important advice was simply to “just write and not worry if this is good. Is this bad? Should I be doing this? Why write this? If you have the urge to put something on a piece of paper, just do it.”

He also had words of encouragement. “I think anybody can move their art forward by sharing it with others—either giving it to someone to read, or sharing it at an open mic or a poetry slam,” Mojgani said. “Because there’s things one learns about oneself and one hears things differently about the words that you’re writing by hearing them out loud and seeing how they reach other people.”

Sharing the Power of PoetryBY YVONNE YE, GRADE 11, PUXI CAMPUS

COMMUNITY

PHOTO BY DAVE MENTION

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COMMUNITY

The creative spirit of SAS is once again making giving fashionable as 19 grade 2 fashionistas from the Puxi campus strutted their style onstage for the second For Kids by Kids Fashion Show held in January at the Per-

forming Arts Center (PAC).The fashion show provided a platform for the girls to self cre-

ate one-of-a-kind fashions and showcase them on the runway. The masterminds behind the project were Doug and Ruby Hudley, the Performing Arts Center director and Puxi middle school science teacher respectively. “What makes this particular fashion show significant,” explains Ruby, “is it enables our younger students to realize there is much more to a fashion show than just looking pretty. In this case, students are actually responsible for creating the clothes they’re modeling, so their focus is on the design process as it should be.”

Each creation came from the heart, with the pure intent of sharing a passion of the creative process in front of family and friends. The chance to design and model their own creation was a chance to shine in the spotlight and live their dreams. Sophia Johannesen, one of the young designers explained, “I really enjoyed the fashion show because all girls can let out their true talents and taste in fashion. They can also show their imagination and style.”

“Participating in the fashion show made me very happy be-cause I love fashion and being creative,” said Serena Boussa.

As for myself, it was a lasting moment to witness the spark of pride that gleamed in the eyes of all the girls as they braved the red carpet. It was truly an event that built courage and confidence. Their original designs and color combinations entertained me. It was the kind of creativity that only comes from the joy and magic of childhood.

Outfits ranged from sporty outfits and casual weekend wear to elegant party dresses and elaborate ballroom gowns. And many of the outfits were accompanied by unique accessories—siblings modeling coordinating fashions.

Mary Wang brought her younger sister Ariel down the cat-walk. “I designed the dress to make me feel like if I was in a party. With sequins and pink (for me) and silver colors (for Ariel) and a fur vest. When I walked down the runway I felt like dancing with Ariel. I hope I gave everyone a good time. It was a great experience for me.”

The final presentation of the night brought out a very special pair, Olivia Hundley and her handsome pug, Alfie. Both looked cool and collected as they went for a doggie stroll down the cat-walk.

The evening finished with the announcement that the event had raised 1,620 RMB to help with the purchase of playground equipment for the Jin Nui Migrant School.

These students have shown that giving is indeed fashionable.

Fashionable GivingBY CHRISTINE JOHANNESEN, PARENT, PUXI CAMPUS

PHOTOS BY DAVE MENTION

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The historical context of the iconic 1939 production of The Wizard of Oz helped make it one of the most loved films of all time; the world ached for hope and escape, and found it in the youthful heroism of Dorothy Gale and the black and white dichotomy of good versus evil.

75 years later, however, its relevance and immediacy lie not in the context of conflict, but in a larger universal truth; Dorothy’s adventure, her hero’s journey is analogous of our own. Finding herself upon an unknown road, she must bravely go forward into the unfamiliar. Along her path she receives unexpected mentorship and meets new friends who join in her quest. The companions teach and learn from one another, and ultimately Dorothy finds that she has the brains, the heart, and the courage to face even the most difficult obstacles.

This journey, this lesson of universal experience, has special relevance for our students living overseas. Living far away from what many of them consider home, our students experience a very real version of this journey, though perhaps in less fantastical ways. In the end Miss Gale helps us all, children and adults alike, to understand that “home” is found not in a single location, but in the hearts and the arms of the people we love.

ON STAGE

The Wizard of OzBY TODD SESSOMS, MIDDLE SCHOOL DRAMA TEACHER, PUDONG CAMPUS

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ON STAGE

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COMMUNITY

Splash! Our students and Old Qingpu students laughed together as a water balloon exploded in a student’s hand. At Old Qingpu, a school for children of migrant workers, students were immersed in an ice-breaker activity, challeng-

ing each other to throw water balloons from increasing distances. In April, during the first session of our Migrant School

Service Learning Project, an after-school activity, Puxi campus grade 3, 4, and 5 students shared reasons they signed up for the class. Vinod Rajakrishna said he “wanted to feel what it’s like to be in a migrant school and compare it to SAS.” Angela Shih thought, “it will be fun to learn with them.” All the students showed curios-ity, enthusiasm, and a willingness to share ideas with students they’d never met.

This year is the first time that elementary students from SAS have participated in the SAS service-learning project that has been in place for more than five years. Spearheaded by Chinese teacher JZ Jiang and student leaders, high school student volunteers lead weekly lessons in Old Qingpu classrooms, often containing more than 45 students. To pave the way for elementary participation, the two of us volunteered for the program. With the help of JZ, Chinese teachers, and student leaders, we got to know the princi-pal Mr. Yao Wei Liang, our liaison grade 3 teacher Hong Da Fen, and other members of the school community.

Old Qingpu School serves about 1,000 students (ages 5 to 13) whose families come from 21 different Chinese provinces. The school was founded by principal Liang 10 years ago when he saw the need and desire that farmworkers had for their children’s

schooling. Despite limited funding, he forged ahead to hire teach-ers willing to put up with a low salary and huge class loads. Like the principal, the teachers are proud of the students’ achievements.

The SAS elementary students are already thinking about migration in new ways. Vinod was surprised to see all the farm-land around the school, and this has spurred his thinking about how the school’s location is tied to family needs and occupations. Others wondered about the small factory and vendors by the street near the school. All SAS students noticed the old-fashioned chalk-boards, the absence of supplies, and the lack of books and comput-ers in the classrooms.

The activity planning and the trips have also led students to reflect on the importance of communication skills. SAS students at low proficiency levels of Chinese wished fervently that they could speak more Mandarin, and had to think of ways to communicate simply, clearly, and, in some cases, nonverbally. Those proficient in Chinese became leaders as they helped other SAS students (and teachers) explain activity objectives. As Lily Aronovitz wrote, com-municating the game rules “was equally fun and difficult.”

Our primary goal for the activity matches that of Mr. Liang. Like him, we want the students from both schools to build good relationships with each other, to be exposed to new ideas and people, and to learn together. So far, the activity is meeting those objectives.

Field Notes from Old QingpuBY ALLEN KOSHEWA, GRADE 3 TEACHER AND WESSIE MEKURIA, GRADE 4 TEACHER, PUXI CAMPUS

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INSIDE SAS

emotional maturity, confidence, and self-concept of chil-dren. At the same time it helps shape their character as they are able to apply important values such as fair play, team-work, honesty, and camaraderie. Findings from new studies reveal that sports have a positive effect on improv-ing the academic performance of children as it boosts their self-confidence academically, socially, and personally.

• Drama or theatre activities. Studies show that drama and theatre activities also contribute to the cognitive development of children. Dramatic plays enable children to be transported to a different time and place where they can have fun. In addition, theatre activities allow children to investigate play concepts and designs as well as study exciting roles which challenge their intellectual and creative competencies. Children involved in dramatic plays are also able to practice their reasoning skills as they immerse in a specific role that requires solving problems or facing a life dilemma.

Indeed, avoiding the summer slump and keeping the kids learning, active, and engaged can be done in countless possible ways. Nevertheless, what’s most important is maintaining the right balance between learning and leisurely activities. It is equally necessary for parents to ensure that their kids have sufficient time to relax, see their friends, and spend quality time with their family. Balance is paramount in making sure that nothing will take the fun out of the children’s summer experiences.

Avoiding the Summer Slump BY BENJAMEN A. FISHMAN, ELEMENTARY SCHOOL COUNSELOR, PUDONG CAMPUS

For most kids, the idea of summer is fun and exhilarating. Summer is the only time of the year where children get to spend a lot of time outside of school to do the things they love and enjoy. For many children, summer means

spending more time playing outdoors, hanging out with friends, participating in sports, going on vacations, and being able to enjoy numerous fun activities.

During the summer holiday there is a chance for kids to regress from “summer learning loss” or what educators termed as “summer academic slide.” This simply means that if children do not engage in learning activities (such as: socializing, reading, and other mental activies) they may have a loss in their academic learn-ings. Some parents express concern about their children suffering from learning loss within the several weeks off from school.

The positive side is that there are many practical ways to avoid the summer slump and keep kids learning, active, and at the same time, having fun throughout the summer break.

In preventing summer learning loss among children, it is important for parents to acknowledge the importance of striking the right balance between play and learning. Studies show that play has an essential role in developing the social, physical, emotional, and cognitive aspects of children. Hence, parents should not view it as a hindrance to the full learning development of their children; instead, they must see it as an effective tool to engage their children fully in the learning process. The right parental mindset should be focused on incorporating play into the learning development process of children.

Adopting a balanced view on the concepts of play and learning is also important so that kids are not only kept challenged and pro-ductive throughout summer, but are also given sufficient time to relax and unwind. The following are some suggestions to consider to keep our kids active and learning during the summer season:

• Summer reading sessions. Avoiding the summer slump entails involving children in enjoyable academic activities such as reading. Based on studies, setting aside a specific time or session per day will enhance the cognitive skills of children. It has been proven that reading non-academic materials not only helps stimulate the minds of children but also enables them to enjoy, relax, and develop a love for reading.

• Music involvement. Studies show that music educa-tion helps cultivate the fine motor skills and improves the memory, retention, and recall of children. Music also enhances the creativity of children which is key to developing their academic competencies and self-esteem as individuals. Most importantly, learning and participat-ing in music-related activities helps children enjoy and have fun.

• Sports particpation. It is important to encourage children to keep playing sports during summer as their participation in physical activities provides many practical learning opportunities. Playing sports helps develop the

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EDGE FOR EXCELLENCE


ABOVE, LEFT: "Well-designed outdoor learning spaces allow students to encounter physical tasks and take risks, as well as so-cialize and problem solve in groups,” Scott Hossack, elementary school PE teacher wrote. Our new playgrounds were funded, in part, through Edge for Excellence.

ABOVE, RIGHT: Grade 8 students immerse themselves in local culture and environ-ments at the Edge for Excellence funded Microcampus program. To date more than 120 students have participated in the life-changing experience.

RIGHT: “By living in nature, interviewing in Chinese, observing biodiversity, and re-searching hands on, a sense of being aware and thoughtful is inevitable. Because of my actual immersion in my learning, I am present,” Hannah Hayden, grade 9, wrote about the Lushan Experience, an Edge for Excellence funded project.

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Making possibilities a reality: Why we give BY CINDY EASTON, DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR

When you walk the halls at Shanghai American School and look at the students, buildings, classrooms, and outdoor facilities do you see a finished product or a work in progress? If you see a work in progress than you see possibilities—possibilities for even better programs, bet-ter opportunities, and better facilities for our students. You see the future of our school.

At Shanghai American School we build futures. To do so means our school is always a work in progress—changing as the world changes. That’s why it is so important that as a member of our school community you imagine with us the possibilities. Just envision the possibilities of new programs, new technology, new classroom spaces, new sports fields. Envision the transformation.

Over the last five years we have been able to transform our school in many ways. From the creation and funding of the Microcampus in Yunnan, the Lushan Experience on Mt. Lushan, the new pilot elementary music program to the technological enhancements in classrooms and libraries and the new playground equipment and outdoor learning spaces on both campuses. Transformation happens when we see an opportunity and make it happen.

These transformational opportunities cannot always be funded from our school fees. That is why our school leadership, staff, faculty, parents, and alumni help us raise the ad-ditional funds necessary to make these new programs and projects a reality.

“I believe in giving back to our community,” says Richard Mueller, SAS superintendent. “Each of us has an important responsibility of being a part of this school. Without these fundraising efforts our school would not be what it is today. These new programs and op-portunities for our students are helping define us.”

The Microcampus and the Lushan Experience, funded through the Edge for Excel-lence fund, are two such learning experiences that are helping us lead the way in innovative, inquiry-based learning. The aim of these programs is to integrate multiple perspectives, global issues, and problem based learning. Opportunities like these empower our students.

Empowering our students and allowing them opportunities to see what they are capable of is what author Dan Pink says will set these kids apart. “You show me a curious, intrinsi-cally motivated kid—and I’ll show you someone who’ll leave the kid who merely complies with the rules and studies for the SAT in the dust,” he wrote.

All of these initiatives, and the many others to come, are a part of Shanghai American School’s commitment to develop innovative programs to support the strategic objectives of SAS and to ensure that we continue to be an outstanding educational institution now and in the future. The funds raised from the Edge for Excellence campaign help us transform our already excellent programs and facilities into even greater ones that impact the lives and learning of our students.

And that’s what it’s all about—our students. Making a difference in their lives and their education. Preparing them for the future, building their futures. Because, at SAS, that’s what we do. We build futures.

The Edge for Excellence Annual Fund is our yearly appeal to raise money for ad-ditional programs and opportunities for our students that are not covered by the core operating budget. These supple-ments help keep SAS on the cutting edge of international education.

Projects that have received financing through the annual fund include the Yun-nan Microcampus, gardens and outdoor learning spaces, artists in residence, LEGO robotics, iPads in libraries and early child-hood classrooms, innovative technology, and more.

Giving to the annual fund is about making a conscious choice to invest in our com-munity. When you give to the Edge for Excellence Annual Fund your gift makes possible a variety of new programs and opportunities for your child—opportunities that would not otherwise be available. For more information, or to donate to the fund, visit www.saschina.org/giving/ or you can email [email protected].

EDGE FOR EXCELLENCE

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I laced up my ballet slippers and prepared to go on stage. My heart was pounding. Back stage, I traced the steps again in my mind. I peeked behind the curtains while a girl from Panama was performing. It seemed like there were a billion pairs of

eyes staring at her. This was my first international dance competi-tion. I thought about my teammates, family, and coaches. They believed in me, and I sure didn’t want to let them down.

The American Dance Competition (ADC) is a world-wide competitive dancing event. It is one of the most prestigious competitions around the globe, and this past March, nine of us from Shanghai, (Lilian L., Naomi T., Irena Y., Madeleine T., Katie L., Jessica Q., Jessica N., Maggie H., and I) traveled to Orlando, Florida to compete. Our team was trained by the Broadway Cen-ter, a ballet school owned by our head coaches, Ms. Paulina and Mr. Peterson. At ADC, we danced in two individual events, classi-cal ballet and contemporary dance, and a group lyrical dance to “I Have Nothing” by Whitney Houston.

Dancing is not easy. It takes a lot of dedication and is brutal on your body, but it is also a great learning experience. Before the competition, my teammates and I had to train everyday after school. During summer vacation we practiced eight hours a day. For each class, we wear a black leotard, pink tights, and our hair must be tied up in a neat bun. We put jelly on our hair so that we don’t have flyaways. This grueling schedule lasted for three weeks. While it was exhausting, it was also a wonderful way to become close with new friends. We learned to express ourselves through a variety of moves and to communicate in a new language, French.

But dancing can be dangerous too. When practicing our ara-besque on pointe, one leg rising to a right angle position, you can easily twist your ankle. There is also the unpleasant smell of your feet (like blue cheese) after all that sweating. But it’s worth it.

The stage was dark. I felt the nerves clenching in my body, but it was too late to back out now. The stage lit up again and the announcer read my name. After a few seconds my music burst out of the speakers. I took a deep breath and stepped onto the stage. Suddenly, all of my nervousness had gone away. In the end, I performed the best that I could have and was awarded an ADC Medallion score. My mom came crying backstage, but they weren’t tears of sadness, they were tears of joy. During the next day, I com-peted in my classical event. It was a wonderful time, and I received a gold score for both of my variations.

In the night, after everyone competed, it was time for the award ceremony. Just when I was about to give up hope, the speaker announced, “Isabelle Lee!” I had earned the bronze medal out of the top 15 dancers in the contemporary dancing category. I was shocked. I never could have guessed that I would have placed so well. For classical, I placed tenth in the competition. At that moment, I felt like I had achieved my dreams.

I really do have the passion for dancing. My first dance dream was to attend the American Dance Competition, and I did. But now that I have finished the competition, I am excited to move onwards and upwards into my life of dance, learning new things everyday. And who knows, I just might be a famous ballerina when I grow up, but if not, the experience is still so worth it.

On the Tips of My ToesBY ISABELLE LEE, GRADE 5, PUXI CAMPUS

ON STAGE

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The first Pudong campus dance concert in 2008 consisted of 11 dancers. This year’s concert included over 160 dancers from all school divisions.

With growing numbers every year, one might ask why the dance program is growing so large. The answer is because dance gives us so much. Dance is not easy—it demands physical strength, coordination, plenty of dedication, and hard work. One must be open with a positive mindset and steel yourself every time you put yourself out there for others to see. But we dancers realize that those demands are also gifts and that dance has so much more to give.

One of the most obvious gifts would be the plethora of valuable life skills it helps us develop. The dance program at the Pudong campus has been the platform for creative performers to share their ideas and art with others. “Dance gives me the motiva-tion to expand my creativity,” said Michelle Chen, a senior dancer.

“Dance gives me opportunities to learn about myself and explore the world of art,” Taite Chan, a sophomore dancer, adds.

In addition to creativity, dance has also gives us confidence, problem solving skills, perseverance, focus, and the ability to receive feedback. These are all critical skills that we will need not only in dance, but in life. These are the skills that ultimately deter-mine our success now and in the future.

Another gift that dance has given us is the opportunity to give back to the school. In preparation for our show, “School Through Dance,” high school students taught younger students. Cody Mes-sick, grade 10, is one of the many students that worked with the

younger students. “I was really glad I got to experience teaching all the little kids. I could see how much they really loved to dance, and that was really important to me. It felt good to give, because my reward was watching them get it in the end,” he said.

Last but not least, we love everything that dance gives us, in-cluding a continuously growing sense of community. Our passion and dedication breeds an infectious supportive spirit amongst an amazing community. We may grow as individuals while we learn to be collaborative, responsible, and self-disciplined, but irrefut-ably, our culture of dance plays an instrumental part in developing an even stronger, supportive, and caring community.

Why do we dance? Because we love what it give us. When we are totally immersed in our movement, there is the feeling of abandon as we rise above the daily dredges. Dance is an emotional outlet that draws power as it brings ideas to life. We get to chal-lenge ourselves to become better dancers and people. We get to be part of a dance family that learns and grows together while sharing our passion with others.

Sharing The Gift of DanceBY VANESSA STEPHENS, GRADE 11, AND EDNA LAU, DANCE DIRECTOR, PUDONG CAMPUS

ON STAGE

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COMMUNITY


PHOTOS (CLOCKWISE FROM TOP RIGHT): Ashley Chen, Marney Rosen, and Carrie Lin pose at their presentation at the 2014 EAR-COS Teachers’ Conference. The remaining photos are the student-teachers congratulating worker-students for their studies in the English Service Project.

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In a Class of their OwnBY ASHLEY CHEN, GRADE 11, PUDONG CAMPUS

In the article below, you will read of the experiences of two juniors from the Pudong campus, Ashley Chen and Carrie Lin, who presented at the East Asia Regional Council of Schools (EARCOS) Teachers’ Conference this spring. What they won’t tell you is the presentation of-fered jointly was the very first time in the history of this huge teachers’ conference that students were accepted as presenters. Nor will you hear that the presentation was hardly ‘joint’ as these accomplished, poised young ladies rightly stole the show. They made SAS proud that day! –M. Rosen

Have you ever felt that urge to share something about which you’re passionate with everyone you know? A movie? A book? A community service project? In March, we travelled to Bangkok to do just that. Along with high school teacher Marney Rosen, we had the unique opportunity to present at the annual EARCOS Teacher Conference about the English Service Project (ESP). This service-learning club is comprised of a group of students that teach the school’s support staff English. The times we’ve been nervous for class presentations paled in comparison to how we felt before we presented to a roomful of teachers. Five minutes before our presentation was about to begin, there were only about six people in the room, all of whom were sitting at the “proud parents’ table.” Carrie and I exchanged ner-vous glances as we fiddled with our notecards, hoping the hours of practice we put in with Mrs. Rosen would not go to waste. Luck-ily, just as the presentation was about to begin, teachers poured into the room from both doors, coffee and croissant in hand, and filled the room. It seems that teachers are just as bad with getting to “class” on time as we are. In hopes of spreading ESP to other international schools in Asia, we first showed a video compilation of our classes to dem-onstrate how much everyone involved in ESP values this club. Worker-students proudly introduced themselves in English, stu-dent-teachers boasted how ESP has helped them grow as people, and teacher-mentors spoke of how rewarding it was to work with such passionate and responsible students. Afterwards, we emphasized how we run ESP like a job, setting it apart from the numerous other service clubs at our school. This was the main focus of our workshop, and likely the reason our presentation was considered unique enough to be accepted at this reputable teachers’ conference. We explained how students must

fill out applications, receive training, set goals, utilize a substitute teacher system, receive performance evaluations, and so much more. What the workshop attendees were most surprised by was that instead of being intimidated by the level of responsibility mandated by the club, students actually become more eager to join because by treating them like professionals, we empower them with control and the opportunity to exercise their creativity. Next, to give a better understanding of what an ESP class is like, we created a mock lesson in Turkish to demonstrate our teaching skills to our workshop “students.” Teachers eagerly jumped out of their seats holding the correct picture of the Turk-ish word we called out to earn points for their teams. Participants commented that throughout the mock lesson, they could clearly see how ESP demanded we be prepared and highly responsible, which was the message we were trying to get across. We offered samples of our training sessions and talked more about the benefits of ESP for both the student-teacher and the worker-student. Over-all, the presentation proved to be a great success. Teachers asked us questions for more than half an hour after it ended and informed us that they will definitely start their own versions of ESP at their schools. We are very glad that we were able to share ESP with teachers from all over Asia. ESP is a club with the unique ability to not only benefit the student, but also the entire community. Many members to whom we’ve talked tell us that ESP has actually helped them learn more about themselves and that they cherish the friendships they have made with all levels of workers—from the guards, cafeteria work-ers, and bus monitors, to the maintenance workers, ayis, and receptionists.

We had many highlights this year beyond just EARCOS: watching 45 bus monitors eagerly flock up the stairs to attend our English class, saying ‘yes’ when Links receptionists wrote asking whether they could join our reputable program, hearing cafeteria workers announce they were working overtime just to attend class, and having the guard company offer to pay the guards a bonus for attending our classes regularly because how much it helps with their job efficiency.

We hope that ESP continues to spread to other schools so that more and more students will have access to this amazing op-portunity to grow and bring their communities closer together.

COMMUNITY

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The Flipped Classroom BY SHARRON WU AND EVELYN SHAO, GRADE 10, PUDONG CAMPUS

StudentsЯTeachers is a high school club dedicated to help-ing teachers and staff members adapt to living in Shanghai. By teaching fundamental basics of the Chinese language and introducing teachers to Chinese traditions, club mem-

bers aim to increase the faculty’s understanding of the Chinese culture. Topics relating to numbers, transportation, cooking, and cleaning, the club provides a basic but thorough knowledge of the Chinese language to the enrolled faculty.

“Learning Chinese as a student is an amazing experience. Having students teach gives them an insight on what being a teacher is like. I love the idea of reversed roles.” Ms. Leah Udin, a high school social studies teacher, said. It is surprising what a few basic phrases can do to make living in Shanghai easier.

The sponsor of StudentsЯTeachers, Chinese teacher Ms. Isabella Sun, has always wished to encourage students to apply the skills and knowledge obtained from classes in their daily lives. Every year, there are countless new faculty members who urgently need to learn Chinese in order to become familiar with the com-munity and city. Seeing as these demands can be fulfilled in a school roaming with bilingual and enthusiastic students, the club was created.

A fairly new club to Shanghai American School, StudentsЯTeachers has grown from a club with seven members and four enrolled student-teachers to a progressing program with more than 25 members and 25 student-teachers. It has obtained strong support from Dr. Wang Suyi, Chinese curriculum director, who has not only recommended the club to all the staff, but also supplied teaching materials and tips for all the members.

Currently, this club includes faculty from all the elementary, middle, and high school departments, as it gradually becoming an active schoolwide program. StudentsЯTeachers continues to estab-lish new curriculum and classes, while promoting a diverse range of teaching times and topics. The club offers many different class structures, ranging from two-on-one to two-on-five lessons, with the varying levels of beginning, intermediate, and advanced.

The unique structure of a flipped classroom atmosphere gives high school students a chance to experience learning from a dif-ferent perspective, as well as an opportunity to give back to the community.

According to Justin Lixie, a sophomore, “Many people do not understand the difficulties of being a teacher. Teaching is a job that requires a large amount of patience. It helps students appreci-ate all of the hard work teachers have put into teaching rebellious teenagers.”

High school students in this program learn to develop their leadership skills, while giving back to society by putting their language skills to use. Teaching not only shares their skills, but improves them at the same time. Practice and continuous use strengthens the foundation of their Chinese skills as they teach faculty members.

High school students from a wide range of Chinese levels are part of this program, including those from the intermediate levels to Chinese Language A. Throughout teaching a series of classes, students are able to develop their communication skills as teachers develop their appreciation and understanding of Chinese culture. Most importantly, it is a memorable and fun experience for high school students to enjoy the privileges of being a teacher, even if it is for a short period of time.

As Curtis Xuan, a sophomore, stated, “Teaching teachers is a pleasure, as it makes me feel superior.”

Furthermore, the sophomore Albert Xu declared that, “When a teacher understands something, student-teachers receive a power-ful feeling of success,” shortly after teaching Ms. Brenda Knowles, a high school science teacher, to use chopsticks for the first time.

The StudentsЯTeachers club embraces the school’s mission to inspires in students a lifelong passion for learning…but they also believe it applies to teachers as well. It is never too late to learn Chinese.

COMMUNITY

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Making ConnectionsGrade 6 students applied their knowledge of electricity to make connections with sculptural concepts in art by designing lamps for their middle school teachers. Students interviewed their clients to inspire the forms, textures, and motifs of these impressive lamps. This science and art collaboration depicts the innovative and cross-disciplinary learning that happens daily in the middle school.

The Ultimate ChallengeRecently, Amy Smith, a Pudong middle school math teacher, was accepted as a volunteer assistant coach for the Ultimate Peace team in Israel this summer. This organization promotes peaceful interactions between Arab Israeli, Israeli Jew, and Palestinian youth through the game of Ultimate Frisbee.

Passionate volunteers, like Smith, that donate time and money to support the program are what fuels Ultimate Peace. “This unique program is doing something truly special,” Smith said. “Ultimate Peace joins all of my loves: teaching, coaching, Ultimate, and humane education. Every player, coach, volunteer, and sup-porter of Ultimate Peace helps make the world a better place.”

In an effort to help raise money, Smith brought her two pas-sions together for a photography and Frisbee fundraising event. At Pudao Wines, Smith spent an afternoon auctioning some of her finest photos and was able to raise 16,250 RMB. Anyone interest-ed in donating can do so by visiting http://www.ultimatepeace.org/bio/amy-smith/. Other donations, such as travel miles, energy bars, shade tents, hats, cleats, discs, jerseys, etc., are also welcome.

COMMUNITY

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32 | The Eagle Review32 | The Eagle Review

A CLOSER LOOK

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A CLOSER LOOK


An old Japanese legend promises that anyone who folds a thousand origami cranes will be granted a wish. SAS parent, Yumi Amaya, shared this story with students at the Jacaranda School for Orphans in Malawi. Students from SAS and Jacaranda then worked together to construct this colorful display in the school’s library. Not only a stunning collaborative effort, the cranes represent SAS and Jacaranda’s shared wish for a more beautiful and peaceful future.PHOTO BY DAVE MENTION

Fly High & Dream Big

A CLOSER LOOK


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To the RescueMembers of the Animal Rescue Club from the Pudong campus spent a Saturday in April helping out at Jaiya’s Animal Rescue (JAR)’s fifth anniversary celebration party. The Animal Rescue Club has collaborated with JAR since its first year. Our missions are compatible; we love that they are “dedicated to rescuing and rehoming stray and abandoned animals off the streets of Shang-hai.” We also agree “every animal deserves a safe, secure, and loving home.”

We were thrilled to be invited to this gathering and to cel-ebrate JAR’s amazing work. Even though it was raining cats and dogs it didn’t matter.

Through selling homemade dog biscuits, baked goods, par-ticipation in a fun collar-toss game, and Jars for JAR (cups stuffed with candy and other treats), we raised over 2,000 RMB and shared in the experience of educating the public and working with other animal lovers at the same time.

This year, we also raised funds for JAR through events such as participating in the Fall Carnival, holding a cake walk, and selling dog and cat toys at Santa’s Workshop. We also conduct weekly vis-its to a locally run animal shelter. Though we are different organi-zations, we all share the same goals: to improve the lives of animals around our community and to raise awareness for animal rights.

— By Yvette Foo, grade 11, Pudong campus

Hungry for ChangeEvery year, 30 Hour Famine sets out a bold goal: ending world hunger. While this is challenging to say the least, it’s only one of the many goals set out by World Vision, the organization behind the event. Through 30 Hour Famine, the organization hopes to not only raise money to attain this goal, but bring awareness about hunger to communities all over the world.

This year, 175 Pudong campus students embraced the chal-lenge: prior to participation of the event, participants went out to fundraise for the event and amassed a total more than 138,000 RMB, which is equivalent to providing a small village (60 people) a year’s worth of food. Afterwards, they willingly surrendered food for 30 hours to experience a glimpse of true hunger in solidarity.

For these 175 students, they stopped eating at 6 p.m. and con-tinued fasting throughout the school day (especially painful during lunch time). After school ended and everyone else went home, the students began participating in activities organized for them by the 30 Hour Famine committee and leaders. From creative activities to dodgeball and from group relays to individuals dueling in sumo suits, each activity was related to some facet of hunger.

While it may not seem to make sense for students to compete while they were tired and hungry, the winners of the event would be given access to the beautiful banquet first. As the activities came to an end, students were shown a video provided by World Vision to further reinforce the importance of what they have just accom-plished.

Of course, it would be hard to get participants if not for the amazing meals that come at the end of the event. At midnight,

COMMUNITY

everyone broke their fast and received generously donated meals from sponsors—Pistolera, Sproutworks, and The COOK. In the morning, students were treated to breakfast from Starbucks, which they enjoyed while watching a video about the evening.

I’ve been absolutely blessed to be part of 30 Hour Famine for the past four years and it truly has become an integral part of my high school experience. It has done so much more than educate me about the pressing issue of famine. It’s shown me passion in form of the leaders and teachers who organize it and find sponsors every single year; it’s also shown me compassion in the form of strangers and sponsors who donate without anything in return.

— By Deric Chan and Ivory Loh, grade 12, Pudong Campus

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There are many events throughout the year that are supported and run by the Parent Teacher Student Association (PTSA). These events, celebrations, and ceremonies are just pieces that fit together to complete the whole SAS school year puzzle. The completed picture at the end of the school year may look different for each person…but it is a picture that draws you in and make you want to come back and look again.

Parents contribute their piece of the puzzle in different ways. Some parents want to be in the background, putting makeup on our kids before a play. By giving their time, they get to witness a moment in their child’s life. Some speak at the high school wellness series for parents, or take photos at a track meet. We all bake…a lot. The volunteers who coordinate the Quiz Nite with 150 parents and staff may have met working a game booth at our school-wide carnival, the parents with questions who come to the counselor coffees may find they can utilize their expertise for Career Day, or Mygnite. The booster mom popping corn at Friday Night Lights can meet her children’s friends and thank the coaches in person. At the Spring Social, parents helped raise 20,000 RMB in raffle sales for solar panels for our school.

Teachers also contribute their piece. Teachers utilize Eagle Funds, revenue created by all parents who visit the Eagle Shop that is manned by volunteers. For example, grade 8 science teacher

Come Together

Having a Care in the WorldIn November, the world watched as Super Typhoon Haiyan destroyed communities and took the lives of thousands along the coast of the Philippines.

As a school we inspire our students to act with integrity and compassion and this was an ideal time to be put our mission into action. Students, faculty and staff responded in force with numer-ous ways to support the victims. The Advancement team also wanted to support.

To get started we contacted two well known organizations that were already established in the Philippines—UNICEF Philip-pines and the ABS-CBN Foundation and pledged our support. All money collected would be divided equally between these two organizations.

We quickly organized donation boxes and placed them in all division offices as well as administrative offices throughout both campuses. We sent emails to students, parents, faculty and staff encouraging everyone to put the SAS mission into action and act with integrity and compassion for the victims of Super Typhoon Haiyan by making financial donations. These donations came in a number of ways, through individual donations, by providing support to a student initiated classroom fundraiser or perhaps even pledging a family matching donation.

We also encouraged parents and faculty to speak to their stu-dents or children about this tragedy and to support them in ways that they wanted to help so that we could show the people of the Philippines that SAS cares.

The Filipino community from the Pudong campus organized a special treat day to boost the fund raising efforts. “It was heart-

warming to see the entire Pudong school willingly rising to the charity challenge: from young preprimary kids all the way up to our high school students, faculty and administrative staff, and many SAS parent volunteers,” said Brigitte Hentschel, a Pudong campus parent. “There were even a few Filipino moms from Con-cordia and Dulwich who were present to lend a hand in selling the seemingly unending mounds of yummy treats that were donated by our SAS families.”

The treat day alone was a huge hit and raised over 13,000 RMB for the day—that’s more than 3,600 treats sold at 5 kuai each. Also on the same day, the grade 7 band held a beautiful mov-ing and emotional concert in front of the cafeteria, collecting over RMB 2,000.

A benefit concert in Puxi was also organized. “Who could forget the extremely fun and musical night we had? The SAS com-munity came together, danced, sang, and donated over $2000 US. Events like these remind us how fortunate we are to have a roof over our heads and that together we can make a difference.” said Len Desales, a Puxi campus teacher assistant.

After a total of five weeks, SAS collected over $22,600 US. The final tally of efforts taken to collect this money is unknown, but we do know that there were bake sales, benefit concerts, t-shirt sales, children giving from their own piggybanks and individual classrooms giving up holiday celebrations to give the money they would have spent on snacks to the victims of the typhoon. There is no doubt that the money collected has made a difference in the lives of those impacted by Super Typhoon Haiyan.

— Abby Torres, communications manager

COMMUNITY

Stephen Carozza used Eagle Funds to purchase a GoPro Hero III camera. He says, “The camera has greatly changed the way we capture events. It took the stage at Robotics where a student had it on an extended boom where video was being streamed live to an iPad and then to a screen for the audience to peer in on the events. Again, during the Solar Engineering day, live images and video captured the event to screen above the students. It opens students’ creative abilities to a whole new level.”

The reciprocity of giving continues. All students get fund-ing from PTSA. Student Council has class bonding days, middle school students meet four times a year for Mygnite, they eat pizza at the counselor-led transition workshops, elementary school kids look for treasure at Santa’s Workshop. In return, the students give us the best reason of all to contribute—the ability to watch them grow.

The best days are the ones when we can connect people whether though their children of past experiences. This kind of giving cannot be measured or planned. It happens when you care. Through giving, you get to meet other people who like to give. We need all parents, teachers, and students to contribute snapshots for the big picture that is our SAS community. Come join us!

— Melissa Juszynski, PTSA Co-President, Pudong campus

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It’s safe to say the Pudong campus shattered the world record for the “Most People Moonwalking Simultaneously” with 823 backsliders. Evidence was submitted to Guinness World Records and SAS should hear official word in the coming weeks. The world record attempt spread awareness about Million Solar Stars—a Roots & Shoots project designed to bring clean energy and 21st century science, technology, engineering, art, and math lessons to schools. So far, Million Solar Stars has raised more than 100,000 RMB for solar power at SAS.

Shoot for the Moon

HEAL THE WORLD

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HEAL THE WORLD

PHOTO BY ZACHARY YOUNG

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Ale

x R

ein

STUDENT VOICESB

aron

Yan CAS provided a huge incentive

for me to go out and partici-pate in various activities. As the year flew by that incentive soon

developed into a genuine per-sonal interest to participate and

engage more in the com-

munity.

CAS allowed me to broaden my horizons, engaging in ac-tivities I otherwise wouldn't,

specifically with my

creativity.

STUDENT VOICES

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In addition to academic studies, all students in the International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma program build a portfolio of their participation in three required activities—creativity, action, and service (CAS). But is CAS just another hurdle students must tackle on the road to earning their diploma? As our graduating IB students on the Pudong campus finish the program, we asked some of them what was most valuable about the CAS requirement.

Mel

issa

Ng

Mad

elei

ne Ju

szyn

ski

Over the past year and a half, I have done things I would never

have done before. CAS made me explore new things and

take on new responsibilities. I truly believe that it has made

me a well-rounded person.

CAS is a way to establish habits of service, helps us get involved in our own community. Being

involved and seeing firsthand the effects of our work is important

for establishing lifelong habits of service in all of us.

STUDENT VOICES

STUDENT VOICES

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Defining FreedomIn April, 43 students—23 from the Pudong campus and 20 from the Puxi campus—embarked upon a journey to Kuala Lumpur for the annual Malaysian Model United Nations Conference at Mont’ Kiara International School. Delegates engaged in three days of hardcore debate on the main theme of defining freedom. Pudong campus students represented the United Kingdom and Pakistan while Puxi students were delegates of Israel and Chile.

This conference proved to be a very diverse conference, with delegates gathering from 11 cities and 18 schools. The difficulty level was also varied, as it was comprised of completely new delegates participating in the General Assembly and seasoned veterans in the Advisory Panel.

“Overall, SAS did wonderfully in pulling in a large number of main submitters recognitions and several most diplomatic awards. I really enjoyed seeing the new delegates’ confidence develop over the course of the conference,” Andrea Niu, a Pudong campus delegate, said.

David Fang said, “I think this conference really inspired me to open my eyes to the world and to look deeper into society’s current problems.”

“We all worked together to make a difference in our world, but more importantly, we all discovered our own definition of freedom on a global scale,” expressed Puxi campus student Cas-sandra Chong.

Middle school teacher Lisa FunKeeFung stated after the conference that she believes that “our delegates realized the value of their hard-work and preparation, and consequently played valuable and key roles in the debates. I was definitely proud to see them soar, but they should be proud of themselves.”

— By Ally Zhu, grade 8, Pudong campus

Diplomatic CommunityOne of the most distinguished Model United Nations confer-ences was held on the SAS Puxi campus. The Shanghai Model United Nations (SHAMUN) started with Secretary General, Su Min Park’s brief introductory speech, then delegates quickly settled into their respective committees.

This year’s theme was “The protection of people and culture in areas of conflict.” Each committee debated corresponding, yet unique, topics.

This year, SHAMUN increased its scale significantly com-pared to prior conferences. With over 300 delegates from 10 different schools attending, the conference was able to increase its size and number of committees. One of the new schools that par-ticipated in SHAMUN this year was Shanghai United Interna-tional School, a team that was supervised by SAS alumna Ms. Ku.

SHAMUN’s independently developed committee, the Crisis Panel, was newly launched in this year’s conference. The Crisis Panel, unlike other typical committees, discussed very urgent issues and had a “News Flash” session in which delegates had to come up with a resolution to a hypothetical situation such as North Korea attacking South Korea. Even though the committee was a little rough, the delegates enjoyed the committee’s original-ity and uniqueness.

After a long day of merging diplomatic process and enthu-siastic debate, everyone gathered in the Performing Arts Center for the closing ceremony. As always, the closing ceremony was the most bittersweet time of the conference, as it was many of our senior’s last MUN conference.

The conference ended with Secretary SuMin Park and Deputy Secretaries Jennifer Gu and Yoyo Chen’s speech.

— By Min Hyeok Kang, grade 11, Puxi campus

The Road We are On—A teacher’s perspectiveI usually hate riding busses. Countless long bus rides to baseball tournaments, a couple of cross-Canada Greyhound marathons. 15 hours a week to and from school on a bus full of teachers grading essays or students sleeping or killing aliens on their computers.

But there is one type of bus ride that I have always enjoyed: bus rides with Model United Nations delegates. The energy is always high, the conversation intelligent. I sit back, grinning, as I hear the students addressing each other as “delegate” and speaking about empowerment of women or human rights or environmental solutions. They work on their speeches and fine-tune their resolu-tions, and none of it is for a grade.

It reminds me of why I have always loved Model United Nations, and why those bus rides are always the best part of any conference for me.

This year, the delegations of the Australian International School of Hong Kong and Taipei American School shared a bus on Friday afternoon, and there was a near crash involving their bus. No harm was done, but hearing of that made me think of busses in another way.

COMMUNITY

It may be a cliché, but I think it is an appropriate metaphor to say that we are all on the same bus, no matter our geographical or financial background, our race, or gender. There is no getting off the bus, no way of stopping it. The bus is on a path guided by the destruction of non-renewable resources, amped on the adrenalin of acquisition, wired on greed. We MUST find some way of getting the bus to stop accelerating—there are some very dangerous curves ahead.

So as I listen to the delegates on busses polishing their speeches and resolutions, I am thankful that they are becoming aware of the dangers of the road we are on. I hope they have the courage and the will, honed through their Model United Nations conferences, to help apply the brakes before it is too late.

— By Douglas Parker, high school English teacher, Pudong campus

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COMMUNITY

Making a Global, and Local, FootprintNo, we are not tree-huggers. We are a group of only girls (by ac-cident) dedicated to thinking global and acting local.” That is the slogan of the Global Issues Network (GIN), a club in the high school and middle school that is committed to starting projects that will help this world become a better place.

Hold on, before you stop reading this just listen to what we’ve done. This was the first year of GIN in the middle school so we had a rocky start. However, after six of us attended the GIN conference in Jakarta, Indonesia, we were overwhelmed by the passionate speakers, committed students, and the opportunities we had waiting for us in Shanghai.

During the conference we learned how to inspire our student body and also how to start sustainable projects at our school. When we got back to Shanghai opportunities were everywhere we looked. For example, we organized a day without shoes to raise awareness for all of the people around the world who are stricken with poverty and cannot afford shoes to protect their feet and are susceptible to soil-transmitted diseases.

Another project we did was a movie night showing the film, “A Little Red Wagon.” We chose this movie because it is about how one little boy helped many people after Hurricane Katrina.

Sustainable Resolutions at Global Issues SummitIn March, grade 8 students indulged in debates, showcasing their knowledge after weeks of research on their respective topics. This was the final assessment of what was known as the Global Issues Summit—a project involving the science and social studies depart-ments targeting the most important environmental and social issues concerning the world today.

“This year, instead of holding the Great Grade 9 Debate, and having a winner or loser in the process, we wanted to move toward collaboratively finding solutions,” grade 8 social studies teacher Linda Wegener explained.

In addition to finding solutions to global issues, students ex-plored how nations can (or cannot) work together toward finding sustainable solutions. Through this project, students also learned that the political, social, and economic aspects of an issue often have a direct relationship to the science of the same issue.

Students tackled their assigned problem using a Problem Based Learning (PBL) format, which encourages independent research. Already accustomed to such a learning style from a previ-ous activity in their social studies classes, students dove straight into research in their assigned groups. They gathered facts, asked appropriate questions, and assessed the reliability of sources and hoping to find a solution to their problems.

When asked about the benefits of the PBL format, grade 8 participant Yichin Tsai said, “Because we were familiar with the PBL process, we were able, and much more willing, to contribute and collaborate with each other towards a solution.”

“The PBL process really required collaboration, individual responsibility, and timeliness among students; everything counts more when it’s about a community, as opposed to an individual,”

added Wegener.After spending a couple of weeks doing research on their

respective topics, students developed their “problem statements,” in which they identified the problem, how it affected their assigned country, and a brief summary of their solution to the problem. Their statements served as a conclusion to all the research done in this unit, and helped them transition into developing resolutions for their debates.

Grade 8 core classes were dedicated to the final activity of the Global Issues Summit. The first of the two days served as time for students to come together and merge their resolutions with other ones that held similar views. Merged resolutions were put through an “approval panel,” which was made up of teachers who made sure they were ready to put up for debate.

“Merging allowed us to bring our ideas together to create big-ger, better ideas,” Kevin Tu, another grade 8 participant remarked. “It served as a polishing process that finalized our views and solu-tions to the problems.”

On the second day, students came to school formally dressed and ready for debate. The procedure and the students grasp of their topics made it easy for all students to make their voices known, whether it meant passing notes, asking questions, or making speeches. Although not all resolutions were debated, students were able to advocate their opinions, and saw themselves as important individuals able to make a difference.

“The final debates were hugely successful, especially in a way that it became a community builder. We bonded, and it changed our views both as teachers and students,” Wegener said.

— Kendrick Tan, grade 9, Puxi campus

At the conference, we learned how fundraising, although a popular choice for serving the commu-nity, is not always the best one. So in GIN we try to steer clear of “bake-sale” projects and use more creative techniques. How-ever, we have done two fundraising projects this year: selling project love T-shirts, and raising charity money for the Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines.

Until a recent assembly, nobody really knew who we were or what GIN is, but now I believe we have made a footprint. The cur-rent GIN group consists of all eighth graders. So next year we’ll all be in high school, and some of us not at SAS.

Whenever you are given an opportunity to serve, remem-ber this: helping someone always ends up helping you. It’s like a boomerang.

— Rylie Evans, grade 8, Puxi campus

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Disney’s High School Musical went from a film into a Broadway musical and has entertained many people since—regardless of age. It embodies the high school reality; characters experience romance, struggle with risk taking, and deal with peer pressure. It has a classic story line involving the ever-present struggle between being who you really are versus who others think you should be. Besides being fun to see live on stage, it has a great message for all.

ON STAGE

RAISING THE CURTAIN

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ON STAGE

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Are you reading anything good right now?Nien Cheng’s Life & Death in Shanghai, Xu Lei’s The Grave Robber Chronicles, and Stephen King’s Doctor Sleep.

What music did you last listen to?Beyonce

Most interesting place you have travelled?Shanghai, China

Country you would most like to live in?Italy

If you could be any fictional character, who would you be?Misty Knight or Storm

What makes you laugh?Funny jokes, comments, snide remarks, stupid videos, people fall-ing. I’m a goofball.

20 Questions with Kiyra HoltYou can call her a Georgia peach, the queen of Legos, or a mad scientist. But one thing is certain, Dr. Kiyra Holt, a Pudong campus high school science teacher, never leaves home without her sense of humor and strict obedience to the laws of thermodynamics.

What are three things you could not live without?My imagination, junk food, and access to some kind of writing instrument

Who do you most admire?Stephen King

On the weekends you like to... ?Write

What is your biggest pet peeve?When things in my designated space are misplaced.

What word or phrase do you most overuse?“Ain’t nobody got time for that,” “The devil is a lie,” and “Google is your sister in Christ.”

What quality do you most admire in a student?Persistence

What quality do you most admire in a teacher?Creativity

At what age did you become an adult?23

What is your most memorable gift from a student?When two of my former students got married and thanked me for pointing out that they would make a good couple.

The biggest change you would make to the educational system?Eliminate 90 percent of standardized testing and restructure the merit pay paradigm.

If you were not a teacher, what would you have done instead?I was born to be an educator and an author. There is nothing else.

What is the biggest lesson you’ve learned at SAS?How to plan 80-minute lessons.

Ben Affleck or Matt Damon?Neither. Tom Hardy, Rick Yune, Morris Chestnut, Jay Tavare, Idris Elba, and Leonard Roberts. I could go on…

What should we ask the next person who will take this quiz?What is the most important characteristic you need in an ideal mate?

20 QUESTIONS

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International Protective and Assistive Technologies (IPAT) is a team of five SAS sophomores. These students (Siddharth Chandra, Russell Pecka, Anna Serbent, Max Wagner from the Pudong cam-pus and Tiger Lu from the Puxi campus) aim to improve the lives of millions of autistic kids worldwide. And, as their performance in the Conrad Spirit of Innovation Challenge shows, they are well on their way.

In September, the team was assembled by challenge veteran Siddharth Chandra and under the guidance of coach Min Lu, professor at Jiao Tong University and father to one of the students. The team submitted their idea and advanced into the semi-finals of the challenge. They elaborated on their idea in a technical concept report and created a full-fledged business plan. Impressing the judges with their work, they continued on to the finals.

In April, Team IPAT traveled to the NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston to compete in an international entrepreneurial challenge where they were among the five finalist teams selected from more than 300 other groups in the health and nutrition category.

VIBe, the first product developed by IPAT, is a wristband designed to alleviate the day-to-day stresses of millions of autistic children between pre-kindergarten through grade 12 using distrac-tion based vibration therapy. VIBe is technologically innovative and functionally effective by integrating various technologies into an entirely new product. It is team IPAT’s primary goal to ease the integration of millions of autistic children into mainstream education programs.

Team IPAT has tested their device and have applied for four patents to protect their idea. The team also plans to continue to refine their prototype and release VIBe to the market within the next two years.

— Swati Chandra, parent, Pudong campus

Good Vibrations

Fatbusters Place First in National Science CompetitionA group of Pudong campus grade 7 students (Sumit Chandra, Rena Jiang, Max Siu, and Isaac Xu), also know as Team Fatbusters, recently competed in the eCYBERMISSION competition. The competition, offered by the Army Educational Outreach Pro-gram (AEOP), is part of the United States Army’s commitment to answering the nation’s need for increased science, technology, engineering, and mathematic literacy and education opportunities. Students compete by attempting to solve real world problems that their community faces through research and conducting experi-ments to test their ideas.

Team Fatbusters was the state winner of this competition that led them to be a regional finalist for the southeast region. Each member of team received $1,000 US Savings Bond as state win-ners.

Team Fatbusters observed the growing obesity problem believed they could apply their knowledge into helping solve the is-sue. After brainstorming ideas for many weeks under the guidance of their coach, Mrs. Xiaorong Lu, the team based their project on a 5,000-year-old myth that pu-erh tea can reduce fat levels in the body, and they wanted to confirm or bust this myth.

They designed an experiment that mimicked the stomach, and tested the direct affect of pu-erh tea on oil. After analyzing the data, they concluded that the teas did not significantly reduce the original amount of oil. This disproved their hypothesis causing them to dig deeper into their research. This led them to a pos-sible reaction that occurs in the stomach where enzymes might be triggered by pu-erh tea. They hope to conduct further experiments and apply it to their next project.

Even though they did not make it to the national finals, the team learned a lot of how to design experiments, manage a project, and work as a team.

Team Fatbusters realize that they could not have done this without the guidance and support of their coach, Mrs. Lu, and their mentors, friends, and family. They are grateful to their grade 6 science teachers, Lisa Fung-Kee-Fung and Alfred Olivas, for creating an environment of enthusiasm for learning, appreciation for growing, and room for making mistakes along the way. Team also appreciates the support and guidance of high school science teachers James Happer and Kim Hoffman.

— Swati Chandra, parent, Pudong campus

MATH + SCIENCE

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One for the BooksBY THE EAGLE REVIEW STAFF

Stilwell Road: Sights and Sounds of Guizhouby George Wang and Betty Barr (SAS alumna)

Wenchuan Revisitedby George Wang and Betty Barr (SAS alumna)

Ricksha Daysby Leta Tucker Hodge (SAS alumna)

Reclaiming Writing: Compos-ing Spaces for Identities, Relationships, and Action“Learning to Respond in Writers’ Workshop” con-tributed by Allen Koshewa (grade 3 teacher)

The Plum in the Golden Vase or, Chin P’ing Mei (volumes 1 to 5)Translated by David Tod Roy (SAS alum)

In addition to our already impressive list of published writers, like Bridge to Terabithia author Katherine Paterson (some call that name dropping—we call it Eagle Pride), this school year, members of our community published a variety of books and we couldn’t be more proud. The list includes a rhythmic children’s book, a novel about an expat family, memoirs about life in China, and a translation of a 16th century Chinese novel…write on!

OFF THE SHELF

The Pirate and the Kazooby Erika Levesque (middle school teacher)

The Temporary Typistby Timothy Merrill (former editor of SAS magazine, The Eagle)

Letter from Vladivostok, 1894-1930by Eleanor L. Pray (former SAS staff). Edited by Birgitta Ingemanson. Biographical sketch by Patricia D. Silver (SAS alumna)

Home Leave: A Novelby Brittani Sonnenberg (SAS alumna)

In the Valley of the Yangtze: Stories from an American Childhood in China

by Helen Roberts Thomas (SAS alumna)

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Covered in CharacterBY KIMBRA POWER, THE BAREFOOT LIBRARIAN, PUDONG CAMPUS

A few years ago, after entering the Singapore American School library, I was drawn to their colorful sofa covers, which I learned had been hand-painted by their high school students.

On becoming the elementary school librarian, I immediately started recruiting students through our International Baccalaureate (IB) program. The IB program requires the high school students to complete work in creativity, action, and service (CAS) projects. Together with these students we began a long and rewarding work-in-progress to fulfill the CAS requirement and to create the same artistic excellence in our already incredible library.

The CAS Sofa Project was the project of five then juniors, Lisa Liu, HangYi Low, Marcus Tan, David Zhao, and Emma Armstrong (all now about to graduate). In February 2013, they began by going to the elementary school art teachers and asking for student input regarding their favorite book characters, books, and authors.

From this, they collected hand drawn designs from students

who wanted to enter a competition to see which characters would win the coveted space on our our sofas. Quickly surfacing at the top of the pile was work by Dr. Seuss, Eric Carle, and Roger Har-greaves (The Lorax, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, and the Mr. Men and Little Miss series of books).

During 2012 and 2013, our juniors recruited other students to help with the project, tailors to come and measure for purchase of canvas fabric, and began preliminary illustrations. Through-out the spring of 2013, the project really started taking shape as students were regularly seen in the library drawing and painting, much to the delight of the students who saw their original ideas being implemented. As we head towards the end of the second year of this project, it is fantastic to know that it will continue to grow as future students continue the challenge of completing the project.

This project has been an example of empowering students to take risks through a community project, while creating something beautiful for others to enjoy.

COMMUNITY

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Mathematicians on a MissionMath anxiety is a phenomenon that you often find among students and adults all over the world…but not in the Pudong campus elementary school.

Instead of shying away from high stress, competitive math environments, over 70 grade 4 and 5 students stayed after school one April afternoon to participate in the Shanghai Virtual Math Competition. Students gave up after school classes, swim practices, playtime, and music lessons to do math.

Our young mathematicians gathered in the middle school library, filling the air with nervous anticipation as they prepared to answer 20 problems in 30 short minutes in four-person teams.

These students competed against crosstown rivals (8 other local international schools). Not only did they compete, but they had four teams in the top five spots. SMIC, as it turns out, is our toughest competition. We’ll get them next time.

Our students very quickly discovered that the math competi-tion was not simply about doing math. It required teamwork, strat-egy, problem solving, communication, cooperation, humility, grit, determination, and a willingness to take a risk. Most importantly, students were encouraged to have a good time.

“My team was wonderful and the strategies we used were to do five questions each and if someone needed help, we helped him,” Chris Shen shared.

“Overall, I was really proud of my team and the work we did. I knew that everyone tried their best and we worked efficiently,” Terry Qi said.

Since the last competition, these mathematicians have been practicing honing their math skills, and rethinking strategies so that the teams can complete all of the questions quickly.

Han Rae Chow summed it up the best. “I really liked the competition because it was challenging when we only had 30 min-utes. I thought it was impossible to solve more than 10 questions. When the teachers told us we only had four minutes left, I didn’t even hear. It was so fun. Our team worked awesome together. We checked each other’s work to make sure it was correct. I would love

Our Changing EarthHave you ever seen a mudslide? Do you know what causes a mud-slide? Do you know what happens when water freezes inside a rock? Well, we fourth graders have wondered the same thing.

We are in the process of studying water and erosion by doing a project with various stations that study the changing earth. The fourth grade has a lot to say about these science stations. The grade four team is trying to decide if we should keep these stations in the future. We have learned a lot from the experiments.

The four stations were designed to help us go to the next level of science. The four stations were based on the topic of erosion and relations between ice and rocks.

Instead of reading the books and experimenting, we can actual-ly experience with a mini version of the way things happens in real life. When we apply what we are learning there’s a higher chance that we will remember it in the future. Students can also go at their own pace and not have to wait for others or the teacher. For some

to come here next time.”Fortunately for our mathematicians, there was a next time.

Even more students signed up for the next competition in May.“The math competition today was a huge success,” said grade

5 teacher Dolleen Wiltgen. “Telling them they could enter this competition one more time this year was the best news they’ve ever heard. They are all saying they can’t wait to do it again.”

Wiltgen, who coordinated the SVMC, and Ms. Rose Frazier, grade 4 teacher, were so excited by the turnout and response that they offered to host the next competition.

“The competition was quite fun how there was tension and being able to push my brain was a great experience,” said William Wang.

More than anything, we love hearing students like Zara Nevill say, “I liked taking a challenge.”

Results: With 85 teams competing—over 300 students at international schools around Shanghai—the SAS grade 4 and 5 teams rocked. Teams grade 4 and 5 placed second and two teams from grade 5 placed fourth.

— By Anna Chan Rekate and Dolleen Wiltgen, grade 5 teachers, Pudong campus

kids it will be nice to have a different types of method and creativ-ity. As the fourth grade teacher said, “I felt it was a good way for students to have a hands on experience with real life science. This is why we are doing science a new and different way.”

Fourth graders also think that we can improve on these sta-tions. Due to the fact that the fourth station (the water versus moving landscape) is really messy we think that we should place paper towels to make it cleaner. Another downside of these projects is the fact that the classes should have their own time to do it, because sometimes the classes come and some students are already there.

We got to do these great experiments thanks to our teachers and especially the science guru Mr. Stefan Fisher. Most students enjoyed doing these stations and are excited for what is going to happen in the next science unit. Hopefully other SAS students will get to experience the method of science that we used.

— By Abby Nellis and Leena Kwak, grade 4, Puxi campus

MATH + SCIENCE

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Frog Leaps Ahead“Ewww, gross!” I exclaimed as I touched the slimy mucus of the frog’s belly. “Do I have to peel off all of the mucus?” “Yes, you do,” said Sandra Chang, my sixth grade mentor. The Girl Scout Juniors and I had just started dissecting the frogs with Ms. Fung-Kee-Fung’s sixth grade “Rock Stars.” It was a relief to have an expert guide me through the steps of dissecting a gross, fat frog. The afternoon was fun and gross at the same time. It was really cool wearing the lab coats because I felt like Albert Einstein. “What are these jiggly things here?” I asked curiously. Sandra furrowed her eyebrows and then quickly exclaimed, “Oh, those are fat bodies. We have to take them out before we can ‘blow up’ the lungs,” she said making air quotes with her fingers. “Blow up the lungs?” Sandra noticed my confused look and then quickly said, “Oh no. We’re going to blow it up to see how big the lung is.” She ex-plained that you blow into a straw, which is pierced into the lung. Poor froggy, I thought. It was really cool and really strange. I’ve never seen lungs get that big. When Sandra was telling me about the organs, I looked at them with disgust. I have to take those out, I mused in my head.

Even though something is gross, that’s just part of science. You need to get dirty. That’s why you wear the lab coats.

— By Lizzy Rekate, Grade 4, Pudong campus

The ExperienceBy Sandra Chang, grade 6, Pudong campus

Nauseating smell rushing through my noseTrying to calm my rapid heartbeat

Acting brave and strongConvincing my partner that it’s not terrifying

Giving out instructionsSlicing up the stomach-churning frog

Assisting herStaring at the splattered blood

Stopping my partner from screamingPulling out the slimy organs without hesitationAnswering endless questions like real scientists

Proud of myselfI’m loving it

MATH + SCIENCE

While many students around the world study genetics with textbooks, animations, fast grow-ing pre-packaged seeds, or fruit flies, our students are using live mice to see genetics first hand. This semester our International Baccalaureate Biology Year 1 classes had the opportunity to think like mouse breeders as they explored genetics.

These students, with an interactive, in-house, mouse lab, are learning in real-time about genotypes, expressed and recessive genetic traits, epistasis, and how coat color is determined in warm-blooded, lactating, furry animals.

But this real-world learning experience is offering more than we bargain for. Students are observing respiration and quantifying volumes of oxygen consumed. They are understanding the menstrual cycle of a mouse and observing the altruistic nature of mice (they offer care and milk to the pups of an another mouse).

Future projects include the construction of an artificial tunnel to model emigration and leaving the population to breed at random to create a living, breathing model to study the Hardy-Weinberg Law.

The mice have starred in many of our online lessons on YouTube and TED-Ed and our online class activities are open to students anywhere in the world. We’ve also had students from the elementary school visit.

Our mice are treated humanely and we have no plans to dissect them, but we might be giving some away as pets soon. Mice have a gestation period of 18 to 21 days and typical litters consist of 6 to 10 pups so it doesn’t take long for the population to move into the exponential phase.

— By Dan Dubay, high school science teacher, Puxi campus

If You Give a Mouse a Classroom

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Four-meter waves crashing into the side of her ship could not deter Juanita McGarrigle from sailing through the slim passage that is Cape Horn.

But the stench of more than 50 wet boots, socks and clothes piled into an airtight space for weeks was another story, she says.

In late October, this Puxi middle school teacher went on a four-month journey, sailing from New Zealand to South America and into Antarctic waters on the tall ship Europa.

The highlight of her trip was her six-week journey through Cape Horn—one of the roughest seas known to sailors, she says.

“Going around Cape Horn is similar to climbing Mount Ever-est for sailors,” she says. “Not many people do it. It’s the pinnacle for sailors … the only more dangerous passage of waters is the North Sea.”

Part of the crewBorn in Ireland, McGarrigle immigrated to Canada with her fam-ily in 1981. They settled in St. Albert, where she went to school and later studied at the University of Alberta before taking a teach-ing position for theatre and music at Elmer S. Gish School.

She later moved her career abroad — to South America, the Middle East, Turkey and Indonesia. Eventually she landed a job at Shanghai American School, which granted her the leave as part of its mission to encourage living your dreams.

McGarrigle says she met the captain of the Europa and his crew of 14 on a trip to Ireland in 2005. That summer she got her-self hired on the tall ship and has sailed with the crew ever since—teaching schedule permitting—as a guide and purser for the guests.

That job includes everything from helping more than 40 crew members get settled on board, serving as a conduit between the crew and guests, and looking after their hydration and hygiene, she says.

“There were a few occasions where I had to be very polite with the guests and bring up the whole idea of ‘have you run out of shampoo or soap,’” she laughs.

But after weeks on rough seas, with no laundry facilities other than a sink and nowhere but indoors to hang clothes, the stench is expected, she says.

Cape Horn SocietyIt took the crew five weeks to pass through the narrow passage at the southern tip of Chile, she says. Afterwards, they all went out and got their ears pierced with a golden ring.

“The rule in sailor lore is that I have my gold earring and I have it in the ear of the direction I faced as a passed Cape Horn,” she says.

Telling Tall TalesBY VIOLA PRUSS, REPORTER, ST. ALBERT GAZETTE

COMMUNITY

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The ring is part of becoming a member of the International Association of Cape Horners, she explains. Becoming a member required her to sail for 3,000 nautical miles on wind power with-out anchoring, be actively involved in sailing the ship, and to go from 50 degrees latitude west to 50 degrees latitude east.

Now that the task is complete, she’s allowed to eat with one foot on the table, get a tattoo of a fully rigged ship and spit into the wind, she says.

“I don’t know why anyone would do that,” she says of the latter.

Screaming at sealsWhile McGarrigle went on this journey mainly to sail around Cape Horn, it was not her only adventure on the trip, she says. She also visited Antarctica, where she saw numerous species of seals, whales and penguins.

That often led to unusual encounters.“My job was to guide the guests through the different areas (of

Antarctica),” she says. “And the fur seals were in mating season and so they are kind of aggressive. So you have to be bigger and louder and more aggressive than them.”

As a guide for the International Association of Antarctic Tour Operators, McGarrigle had to be very careful about interacting with wildlife. But in the case of fur seals, the rules were to scare them away.

That meant leaning over them, screaming at them and—if all else failed—tapping them on the nose. She did this about 20 times per landing, with the seal’s head only inches from her own, she says.

“That’s a steep learning curve.”

Future plansBy the end of her journey, McGarrigle had spent more than 100 days on the Europa, with a few breaks on dry land to explore the countries and landscapes.

Much of her fascination with travelling on a tall ship is the ex-posure to the elements and the sense of adventure, she says. But it’s also the conversation and connection that forms with other people that draws her back every year.

Now that she has returned to Shanghai, she doesn’t feel sad that her journey is over, she says. Rather, it inspired her to take on new and other dreams that she didn’t have time for before.

And one day, she’ll return to the Europa for a year, she says.“After four months, there were times where I was absolutely

exhausted,” she says. “But at the same time, I am seeing things, do-ing things and learning things and being constantly amazed by the sunsets and amazed by the stars and the sea.”

COMMUNITY

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MUSIC

Seven lads from the high school on the Pudong campus repre-sented our school at The Association for Music in International Schools (AMIS) 2014 High School Honor Band and Mixed Choir in March at the American School in London. Participating in the 90-piece Honor Band were William Chung, clarinetist and Ben Zhou on tenor saxophone who earned chairs for the second year in a row. First-time performers were: Hongbeom Kim, clarinet; Michael Shen, clarinet; Jimmy Park, clarient; Issa Takada, trum-pet. Dave Kim, sang baritone/bass in the 120-voice Honor Mixed Choir. Over 40 schools were represented in the prestigious blind audition Honor Band and Choir.

These students premiered Finale for Band and Choir, a work by Mr. Paul Hopkins, a highly respected composer living in Dubai.

London, United Kingdom

Dusseldorf, GermanyThe sound of over 80 string instruments blended into one uplift-ing, heartwarming tune, and an indescribable feeling touched the hearts of every young musician on stage. Right then, we knew this was different, this was no ordinary concert. This was music; this was AMIS.

Dusseldorf, Germany, served as the host of two AMIS en-sembles held under one festival: The High School Honor Orchestra (HSHO) and the High School Honor Women’s Choir (HSHWC). In March, The International School of Dusseldorf hosted 140 stu-dents representing 29 international schools from all over the world. Students from both SAS campuses (10 orchestral and 5 choral candidates) were selected.

Students were granted the opportunity to work with two

renowned guest conductors. The orchestra and choir were led by Peter Stark, a reputable British youth orchestra conductor, and Gary Weidenaar, an experienced University Director in the United States.

“Aside from being able to travel to a foreign country, the best part about AMIS is being able to spend time with other talented musicians and making new friends,” said Jinglin Duan, grade 10.

During the 5-day festival, students spent three days perfecting their repertoire. Students were required to practice the music and be fully prepared prior to the festival, but for AMIS, the expecta-tions were a whole new level. Under the guidance of these expe-rienced conductors, students piled in their talents, working over six hours a day. Hours of industrious, concentrated work allowed students to put together a mind-blowing final product,

Mr. Phillip Green, the orchestra director from the Puxi cam-pus, was very impressed with the concert. “It was some of the best playing I have ever heard from a young group. There was a certain level of chemistry between the players and the conductors, and that helped create an extravagant finish to the festival.”

“The biggest benefit of an AMIS festival is that students get to spend a couple of days with like-minded musicians,” said Green. “Students leave their respective schools and realize there are kids out there who are as passionate, and as eager to make music, if not more. Yes, AMIS is fun, but it was the intensity and enthusiasm that students displayed that I enjoyed most, because the musicians harnessed that intensity, and made wonderful music.”

— Kendrick Tan, grade 9, Puxi Campus

Playing Their PartThe Association of Music in International Schools (AMIS) is a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting music among international students who have a passion for playing difficult repertoire with only the best musicians.

AMIS sponsors annual music festivals for international schools in Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, in hopes of developing more understanding, knowledge, and appreciation of music in students and teachers. Over 60 schools are connected to AMIS, which was founded by Richard Bassett, an Oberlin Conservatory graduate who currently teaches at the American School in London.

The audition process was held in the fall, where audition material was posted online. Students who wished to participate recorded themselves and with the help of their school directors, posted their recordings online. Judges selected AMIS participants, and results were posted online early winter.

Retiring AMIS executive consultants, Mr. and Mrs. Richard Bas-sett, commissioned this stirring work that is based on the Longfel-low poem, “I shot an arrow…”

These talented students were also able to squeeze in some time to do some London sightseeing. They were able to visit the British Museum, Eucharist services at St. Paul’s Cathedral, Hyde Park, Greenwich Observatory, Buckingham Palace, Victoria and Albert Museum. They also were able to experience Harrod’s, Camden Town Stables, and attend a West End musical, The Lion King, and a West End play, 39 Steps. The trip made for a terrific musical, social, and cultural experience for all.

— John Leonard, high school band and IB music teacher, Pudong campus

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COMMUNITY

This spring hundreds of grade 6 to 10 students travelled to all corners of China as part of the SAS China Alive program. Some trips are more ad-venturous while others are more cultural, but each trip is designed to help students connect with various parts of China through non-classroom environments. We particularly love this picture (by Puxi middle school teacher Alison Hoeman) that embodies the spirit of the program and our students.

China Comes AliveBY RUBY XU, ELEMENTARY SCHOOL CHINESE TEACHER, PUDONG CAMPUS

Chinese teachers kicked off China Alive in April with drumming and dolls with big traditional Chinese faces marching down the hallways. The procession marked the beginning of the first six-day China Alive experi-

ence. Chinese teachers planned and organized activities months

ahead in preparation in a collaborative project involving all elementary school Chinese teachers and assistants along with specialist teachers; everyone contributed to make this event a great learning experience for our students.

The China Alive experience consisted of Chinese Board Games Day, Chinese Movie Day, Carnival Day, Field Trip Day, Chinese Outdoor Games Day and Performance Day.

On the first day, students were exposed to various traditional board games such as Gomoku and Flight Chess, which were child-hood pastimes in China during the old days; students had loads of fun.

On Chinese Movie Day, three activities along with the movies were on for different grade levels. Grade 4 and 5 students designed double-bubble maps comparing Chinese animals from the movie Beautiful China. Grade 2 and 3 students practiced the making of Chinese noodles after drooling over the film A Bite of China. And

pre-K and kindergarten classes made their own ponds with frogs after watching Little Tadpoles Looking for Mom.

We were lucky to hold the Carnival Day in our wonderful elementary library. Pre-K to grade 2 students rotated through six stations: Chinese costumes, ring toss, tangram, origami, dragon eye catching, and candy pick-up with chopsticks.

The weather cooperated with us for our field trip day. Chong-ming Island, Shanghai Film Park, Guyi Ancient Garden, and Nan Xiang Old Town were selected as the destinations for upper elementary students. These visits gave students the opportunity to explore the “real China.”

Chinese Outdoor Game Day remained the favorite for many students as they enjoyed Chinese rubber band, Chinese tag, battledore, shuttlecock, Chinese yoyo, and rope jumping. What impressed teachers was that some of our students mastered the skills of these games, even Chinese yoyo.

China Alive ended with Performance Day with folk danc-ing and kong fu performers that showcased and demonstrated to students the cultural identity of China. There was enormous participation from students with everyone agreeing this was the most successful China Alive event yet.

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BOYS SOCCERHighlights: For the first time in four years, this team ended their championship drought by winning both the Shanghai Cup and Tri-Cities Tournament. Read more about their season on page 59.

GIRLS SOCCERHighlights: It was a season for the history books. The team claimed championships at the Shanghai Cup, Tri-Cities, and Super APAC. The overall record was 18-1-2. Read more about their season on page 58.

TRACK AND FIELDHighlights: The boys and girls teams pull off unprecedented dou-ble APAC team championships. This feat marks the third straight APAC championship for the girls and put the boys back into the winner’s circle. The boys’ title marks their third team champion-ship, making tack and field the most successful sport in the history of Pudong athletics. Read more about their accomplishments on page 59.

Scoreboard: Pudong Campus

ON THE SCOREBOARD

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ON THE SCOREBOARD

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BOYS BADMINTON Highlights: This varsity boys team claimed the Shanghai Cup title at the beginning of the season. They also won China Cup. At APAC, they placed fourth. Sophomore Keegan Sim, played his way to the boys singles finals and lost to his opponent 1-2 for a silver medal.

GIRLS BADMINTONHighlights: This varsity girls teams claimed the Shanghai Cup title at the beginning of the season. They also were listed second with a two-win deficit to ISB and they brought back a silver medal after a three-day tournament at the Canadian Academy. With a clean record, junior Rachael Chew and sophomore Nicole Tan won first place in girls’ doubles division. Senior Jia Ye Tuang placed third in the girls’ singles division and ended her four-year high school badminton career with two gold medals, one silver medal, and one bronze medal.

SOFTBALLHighlights: With a number of near wins this team knew they were good. They beat the champs (ISB) two of the four times they competed and only lost by one run the two times they played sec-ond place finishing Hong Kong International School. Although an overall fifth place finish, the clear highlight of the season was beat-ing SAS Pudong at APAC—the girls rushed on to the field after the win as though they’d won the championship. They will savor that win and the satisfying season for both players and coaches.

SOCCERHighlights: At APAC Super Soccer championship, the girls soccer team placed fourth and the boys placed sixth.

TRACK AND FIELD Highlights: At APAC, the boys team placed third and the girls team placed fifth.

Scoreboard: Puxi Campus

ON THE SCOREBOARD

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ON THE SCOREBOARD

PHOTO BY JERRY KOONTZ

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SPORTS

A Super Season BY DAVID BENE, VARSITY SOCCER COACH, PUDONG CAMPUS

Building on an impressive history, the Pudong girls’ soccer team had another super year. The season began with only eight return-ing players who wanted to maintain the magic of the previous year. However with 11 new players it would take some time to become a team.

Sophie Groeneveld, Rachel Kim, Huan Yi Low, and Colleena Peng were selected to be the captains and provide team leader-ship. Expectations for the season were high but team chemistry and cohesion takes time. Our first game of the season was at the Shanghai Cup against Concordia. Although the team was down, eventually Amanda Wisbeck scored the tying goal and the game ended 2-2. The same teams met in the finals and played to a 0-0 tie in regulations before SAS prevailed on the sixth penalty kick by Kasey Ciarletta after Emma Schilp stopped three kicks during the shootout.

The only loss of the season happened when we played Concor-dia for the third time in the first five games by a score of 3-1. The team was soundly defeated but this provided the inspiration to get better quickly. After victories against SAS Puxi and BISS Puxi, and games with TK Pao, the team was ready for the rematch at Friday Night Lights. This game against Concordia was a different story with Kasey and Yuval providing firepower to a 3-1 victory. The de-fense seemed to be coming together at the right time of the season after giving up seven goals in the first nine games.

At the Tri-Cities Tournament the team not only won the tour-

nament for the first time but did not allow a goal in four games. International School of Beijing was undefeated prior to the tourna-ment, but SAS prevailed in both contests by scores of 3-0 and 2-0 in the championship game.

Players from 12 schools competed in the Super APAC event that only happens every three years. SAS was randomly selected in the “Group of Death,” but still made it to the final round. In the finals the opponent was Canadian Academy. The first half score was 0-0 as both teams tried to get the goal that might be the dif-ference. Finally Lydia “Bend It Like Beckham” Strumlauf curled in a corner kick for a 1-0 lead. Shortly afterward Rachel Kim hit a low shot past the keeper for a 2-0 lead that ultimately was the final score.

Lydia, Rachel, Yuval, and Clarisse “The Wall” Pierre were selected to the All-Tournament Team. However 17 players all contributed to the success. Some highlights include only one goal allowed in six games, the first goal of the year for Madison Nicolai and Isabelle Lao scoring five goals in the tournament. As Phil Jack-son stated so well, “the team is not the same without the individual and the individual is not the same without the team.”

This was a season of many new first accomplishments with the Shanghai Cup, Tri-Cities, and Super APAC championships. The overall record was 18-1-2. It truly was a super season for Pudong girls’ soccer team—and one for the history books.

Skating to VictoryA group of Puxi campus elementary school hockey players recently won the Ice Hockey Winners Awards in the first ever Shanghai Youth Ice Hockey League with their team, the Shanghai Snipers.

Members of the team include grade 3 students Bryan Tang (cap-tain), Li Fan Evan Sun (assistant captain), Jonathan Chen, Joshua Chen, and grade 5 student Oliver Cai.

The most valuable player was also awarded to Bryan Tang. The Shanghai Youth Ice Hockey League is the first citywide

ice hockey league in Shanghai. The league has more than 13 teams participating in weekly matches.

“We want to express our heartfelt thanks to SAS for offering an open, dynamic culture to empower and encourage students to develop an all rounded Skill Inquiring mindset at school and at sports,” parents of the team members wrote. “We truly feel proud of our boys, and proud of being SAS Eagles.”

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Track & Field ChampionsThe Girls and Boys pulled off an unprecedented double APAC team championship. This feat marks the third straight Asia Pacific Activities Conference (APAC) championship for the girls and put the boys back into the winner’s circle after three years of being runner ups. The boy’s title marks their third team championship making track and field the most successful sport in the history of SAS Pudong athletics with a total of six APAC championships.

Isaac Hing: 100 champion; 200 champion, APAC and school record; 400 champion, APAC and school record; 400 relay cham-pion, APAC and school record; 1600 relay champion, APAC and school record; sprint medley relay champion, APAC and school record.Cleet Wrzesinski: 110 HH champion; 400ih champion and school record; 400 relay champion, APAC and school record; 1600 relay champion, APAC and school record; sprint medley relay champion, APAC and school record.Julia Cherry: 100H champion, APAC and school record; 400 relay champion; 1600 relay champion, APAC and school record; 400ih school record.Haley Beebe: Javelin champion, school record; shot champion, school record.Stratt Schock: Shot champion.Alec Roig: School records in 800, 1500, 3000.Anna Serbent: Distance medley champion, APAC and school record; school record 1500m.Dani Hartshorn: 1600 relay school record; 400 relay champion.Chandler Cooper: 400 relay champion.Alejandro Pumarajo: 1600 relay champion; APAC and school record.Brandon Lau: 1600 relay champions, APAC and school record.Elle Hartshorn: 400 relay champion.Kelvin Chung: Sprint medley relay champion, APAC and school record; 400 relay champion, APAC and school record.Ocean Huang: 400 relay champion, APAC and school record; Sprint Medley Relay champion, APAC and school record.Gaby Parsons: 1600 relay school record.Ivory Loh: Distance medley champion, APAC and school record.Victoria Chen: Distance medley champion, APAC and school record; 1600 relay school record.Vanessa Smiley: School record 3000.

— By Jon Wrzesinski, coach, Pudong campus

SPORTS

Fancy FootworkWith the attainment of two championships and a third place

trophy, the SAS Pudong boys’ varsity soccer team enjoyed a suc-cessful season. At the start of the year only half of the team were returning members.; however, the new and returning players this year were fantastic. For the first time in four years we were able to end our championship drought by winning both Shanghai Cup as well as the Tri-Cities Tournament.

At Shanghai Cup, our team that had barely a week of practice together went undefeated and clinched the cup with dominant 2-0 display over British International School (BISS) Puxi. Shanghai International Schools Athletic Conference (SISAC) league fixtures soon followed by a satisfying 5-0 victory over BISS Pudong and a scintillating performance at home in front of a wonderful crowd during Friday Night Lights defeating Concordia 5-0.

The week after we travelled to Beijing, and after finishing first in round robin play, we managed to defeat Asia Pacific Activities Conference (APAC) champs Western Academy of Beijing in a thrilling penalty shoot-out. APACE competitions at Hong Kong did not go as expected, but we were able to close out the season with another trophy from SISAC, winning the third place game.

Over the course of the season some members suffered unfor-tunate injuries and suspensions, however we were able to overcome them and grow even stronger as a team. By the end of the season, we had won 17 matches, tied 3, and lost 4 with 48 goals scored in 23 matches.

And although most of this year’s team will be gone next year, rest assured that the team has been left in very capable and skilled feet.

— By Royce Chen, grade 12, Pudong campus

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COMMUNITY

Strengthening SpiritsBY RYANE LIAO, GRADE 8, PUXI CAMPUS

It was bright outside. So I could see. Despite the fact that the entire house, the size of my current bedroom, was to be lit at night by a single lightbulb suspended precariously by knotted rope.I watched my feet as I walked, desperately afraid that the

worn floor beneath me would fall through. My aunt was dabbing at her eyes with tissues as the boy who lived here stared at her, his face deadpan. He couldn’t have been more than three years my senior, yet already toiling in the fields to keep his family alive.

My godfather’s face was as wooden as the ground, he had seen much of this before, but his eyes showed sympathy and I recog-nized it. Much like the godfather in Mario Puzo’s illustrious mafia novel (I adored it), mine was a wealthy man of a wonderfully philanthropic heart, hell-bent on preserving out-dated traditions.

Women can’t wear colors…my foot!That summer, I was brought to Guangzhou along with my

aunt, uncle, godfather, godmother, their daughter, and another family who’s daughter’s name I no longer remember. I had known ever since I could remember what my godfather does, he uses his positively massive fortune to build schools all around China for unprivileged children to attend. He makes trips around the coun-try visiting unfortunate families to discuss whether or not they’d be interested in sending their (most likely very studious) child to a school in order to complete their education and perhaps go to university.

We visited one of my godfather’s schools and were showered in bouquets of flowers and enveloped in welcoming voices. Every-one seemed so overjoyed to see us. Thinking back now, they were probably only fourteen or fifteen years old, the age I am now.

I don’t completely remember whether the prospect of this journey was initially an exciting thing for me or a sort-of-vacation I was grudgingly allowing myself to be dragged on. But I know that I am so incredibly grateful and happy I went on that trip.

I was very much a pampered city girl then, and I gained cour-age and maturity that week.

A couple months ago, I embarked on my own journey to Xizhou, joining our eighth grade program, Microcampus, where I’d be calling a village similar to the one I’d visited so many years ago my home.

I was slightly neurotic before my departure for Yunnan, but I steeled myself with constant reminders that I had done this before and that I could do it again. My 28 days in Xizhou were the best days of my life so far.

You see, not only does giving back and voluntary work benefit others, it strengthens your own spirit. It’s a beautiful thing you get to share with someone very different from you that is bound to you by something you are working to accomplish as a team.

It was a defining moment in my life. Now go find yours.

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During spring break, a group of 13 enthusiastic Puxi campus stu-dents and three teachers spent a wonderful week being amazed by the beautiful city of Barcelona, Spain.

Highlights of the trip included a guided tour of Antoni Gaudí’s La Sagrada Familia cathedral, a visit to the Picasso Mu-seum, a tour of Salvador Dali’s house, an afternoon in the fishing village of Cadaqués, a visit to the Joan Miró Foundation, shopping on Las Ramblas, exploring la Boquería market, a paella dinner and flamenco dance evening (¡olé!), a trip to the monastery of Montser-rat, several feasts, an afternoon on la playa Barceloneta, touring el Poble Espanyol, Parc Güell, Spanish language classes, and a tapas cooking class.

It was truly a week well spent and one that will be remem-bered by all for many years to come.

— By Susan Dubay, high school Spanish and French teacher, Puxi campus

Beautiful Barcelona

COMMUNITY

SAS Students Bag Most Wins In Short Story CompetitionA historical moment was achieved when SAS students had the most wins as national champions for their composition skills, walking away as winners in the LittleStar YCIS Short Story Com-petition. SAS students Joshua Ng won 1st and 2nd prize, Macrina Wang and Grace Lu achieved wins two years in a row.

The highlight of the award ceremony was when LittleStar magazine awarded a grand prize—one Apple iPad 2 and an intern-ship opportunity at LittleStar magazine for the student writer of their choice. Another historical moment was made when Claire Lu won the overall award, following the footsteps of last year’s winner, SAS student Valerie Chai.

The competition received a total of 302 entrants from 26 international schools all across China. A special anthology of win-ning short stories was printed and distributed during the Awards Ceremony.

Winners List

9 years and under1st Prize—The Invaders by Joshua Ng, Puxi campus2nd Prize—The Day You Grew Up by Joshua Ng, Puxi campus

10 to 12 years1st Prize—Water by Claire Lu, Pudong campus2nd Prize—No Rules Apply by Kristen Lee, Pudong campus3rd Prize—The Funny Thing by Abbie Leung, Puxi campus; War Survivor by Nikki Dutt, Pudong campusComplementary Prize—Still With Me by Averi Clarke Pudong campus; What a Gray-T Day by Alice Chen, Pudong campus

13 to 15 years2nd Prize—Let Me In by Maggie He, Puxi campus3rd Prize—A Photograph by Macrina Wang, Puxi campusComplementary Prize—One Confession by Kristen Fu, Pudong campus

16 to 18 years2nd Prize—Promises of One Day by Grace Lu, Pudong campus3rd Prize—The Deck by Emmeline Pearson, Pudong campus

— By Jennifer Tan, parent, Puxi campus

The International History Bee and Bowl came to Shanghai for the first time in February, when five international schools visited the Pudong campus to pit their knowledge of the Roman Empire and Asian geography against each other. In History Bowl—the team event—SAS Puxi’s varsity team placed first and nearly broke the world record for points scored during a round. SAS Puxi’s junior varsity also won the JV division, and Lycée Francais de Shanghai brought home first place for the middle school division.

In History Bee, up to 10 individuals in a room waited on hair-trigger sensors to buzz in to answer questions. Junior Blaze Li of SAS Puxi’s varsity team came through with the championship title, as well as Rocan Hsing of SAS Puxi’s JV team in the JV divi-sion. Ianis Tamoud of Lycée Francais won first place in the middle school division. The top 50 percent of scorers in the International History Bowl are eligible to compete in Hong Kong for the Asian Championships in May.

— YvonneYe, grade 11, Puxi campus

For the History Books

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From The Archives

Home is where the heart isTeddy Heinrichsohn and Ed Winter from the class of 1949 were inseparable. Their friendship and lasting connection to the school reminds us that whether you are graduating, transitioning to a new school, or returning in the fall, SAS is a place you can always call home.

A FINAL LOOK

PHOTO COURTESY OF TEDDY HEINRICHSOHN

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IN THE NEXT ISSUE

Photo by Tom Horton from the Splash and Dash fundraiser for Jacaranda.

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Pudong CampusShanghai Links Executive Community, 1600 Lingbai Road, Sanjiagang,

Pudong New Area, Shanghai, China 201201 Tel: 6221-1445, Fax: 5897-0011

Puxi Campus258 Jinfeng Road, Huacao Town, Minhang District, Shanghai, China 201107

Tel: 6221-1445, Fax: 6221-1269

www.saschina.org [email protected]

Shanghai American School inspires in all students:上海美国学校激励并培养所有的学生:

A lifelong passion for learning终身学习的热情

A commitment to act with integrity and compassion 诚信与仁爱的信念

The courage to live their dreams. 追求梦想的勇气。

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the eagle review—summer 2014

Documents

high school diplomas

sas community

pmthe eagle review

eagle reviewi

pudong campus

student hailey bauer

genuine sense of community

closer look student