Celebrating 61 Magical Years

Global Family Members Share Their Experience

By Katy Maguire Lushman, Associate Director of Communications and Strategic Projects & 61st Celebration Coordinator

With over 1,000 Global Family members from over 50 countries in attendance for the four-day event, it’s safe to say this was the largest event in LAS history!

During the weekend, the entire community gathered together in a grand pavilion constructed specifically for the occasion (brought up the mountain by 14 trucks!) in front of the Lower Sports Center: first at a Welcome BBQ and later at a formal Celebration Banquet. Alumni and former faculty also had the opportunity to gather by era at Dinners by Decade which were held in beloved restaurants throughout the village and on the mountain. There were Global Family members in attendance from every single one of the 61 years since the school’s founding in 1961!

Throughout the 61st Celebration, Global Family members benefited from incredible meals served in both of our dining halls by Chef Fabrice and his team, childcare supported by our LAS Summer staff, dorm accommodations supported by our residential life and housekeeping teams, airport transfers facilitated by our transportation team, and over four dozen activities staffed by our LAS faculty. Alumni, former faculty, and their families hiked the Berneuse, completed ropes courses, paddle boarded on Lake Geneva, climbed the via ferrata, ziplined from the top of the Belle Époque, and so much more.

We’re so grateful for everyone whose efforts made the 61st Celebration possible and we were incredibly excited to welcome so many treasured Global Family members back to LAS. For those of you who weren’t able to make it back to Leysin for the event, we have a few alumni who can take you through what it was like to come home to the Magic Mountain!

Hyuk-Min Choung ’10

I only have great things to say about my experience at the 61st Celebration. The event itself was so well organized— each session highlighted and appreciated alumni and we got to learn about the plans for the future of the school. It was so helpful to think not only about the school’s past, but also the future.

On my way to the first dinner of the weekend, I sat next to alumni from the 80s and 90s and it was so interesting to hear about what experiences we shared from LAS despite being in Leysin in very different eras. There are so many commonalities across the generations at LAS and one that was highlighted for me was the diversity that LAS provides. It has always been a place where people from all over the world can come together to learn with and from each other.

The Dinner by Decade was my favorite event of the weekend since I had the chance to see the people with whom I shared my time at LAS and hear about their lives.

It was an incredible opportunity for people from different countries who haven’t been able to stay in close touch to come together in person and catch up.

Coming back to LAS reminded me that while the campus hasn’t changed much since my time in Leysin, there have been massive changes for other people. I was in the first class of students who lived and studied at the Belle Époque campus and while those improvements and additions aren’t something you think about when you’re a student, seeing the changes through the eyes of older alumni really makes you feel like you’re a part of something bigger. You can see the developments in photos but nothing compares to being on campus and seeing it for yourself. You can feel the history. As more distance has come between me and my time at LAS, I’ve realized that while you make a lot of friends throughout

Sergii Slepkan ’15

The 61st Celebration was absolutely amazing. From the very first moments of the weekend, you could feel the warmth from everyone as they greeted friends from across the years. Coming back to campus was an emotional experience because every single time you come back, it feels like you have come home. Leysin definitely is a Magic Mountain.

Even though I had been able to visit campus recently, at the 61st Celebration there was more time to sit down with teachers and reminisce. At LAS, the faculty are more than just teachers; they treat the students like their own kids and truly care about them. Mr. Padick was one of these teachers for me and we got to go on a bike ride together during the weekend. It was so cool to reunite with my former teachers, tell them about the business that I’m running, and see their genuine excitement for me, knowing that they contributed to my future in such a concrete way.

the different eras of your life, the connections I made to the people I met at LAS have really stayed with me. We came together from all over the world, stuck in a little village on the top of a mountain, surrounded by nature, having come to Leysin to study and share our cultures with one another. We had such pure motivation. We were so young and we grew up together. I don’t have that level of connectivity, that level of importance, in any of the relationships I have made with friends since.

Over the years I have been to some smaller regional LAS events, but coming back to Leysin, driving that same route up the mountain that I did for four years as a student, was so incredibly meaningful. I feel like I’ve returned back to the LAS community and can’t wait to continue that connection into the future.

Peggy Love ’66

I graduated from LAS in 1966, one of the earliest classes to graduate from the new little boarding school on top of a mountain in paradise. In those days, the students were mostly American expats living abroad because of our father’s jobs. We were the luckiest kids in the world but I don’t think we actually knew it at the time. Like all of the LAS alums, my experience was life changing in so many ways. After college I married a military officer and continued a life of travel and expat experiences with three children, moving every couple of years. Though I stayed in touch with a few of my LAS classmates, I never really connected with any alumni groups until 2020 when I joined the LAS US Advisory Board and the amazing experience of LAS was rekindled for me.

I had such a great moment with Mr. Hitchcock during the 61st Celebration. I hadn’t had a chance to say goodbye to him before he left LAS during the pandemic, but he was one of the first people I saw at the opening event of the weekend. We were chatting and catching up and I asked about his wife, Ms. Krause. When he mentioned that she was arriving at the Leysin Village train station a few minutes later, I suggested that we hop in my car to go pick her up. It felt so crazy to have Mr. Hitchcock in my car! I felt like a kid, excited to go on an adventure with my former teacher. I realized that the relationships that built with the LAS faculty will stay with me forever.

At one point during the weekend I was talking to an alum who graduated in 1969 and we shared a little bit about the comparison of our LAS experiences. Despite some of the obvious differences, we could see that the throughline of what is important at LAS hasn’t changed: we both cherish the community, openness, and learning about different cultures. Those values were true from both of our LAS experiences, his from the 1960s and mine some 50 years later. From our conversation I realized that I was so lucky to be a graduate of LAS, lucky to have this massive network around me. I can go anywhere in the world and meet up with fellow LAS alumni and we always have something to talk about.

Even amidst everything going on in the world, the 61st Celebration created a little spark in me: a reminder of my belief in humanity and in people from around the world. Being in Leysin that weekend really enhanced the feeling of being an LAS alumni and what that means: being part of a community of people from all over the world. Seeing the Global Family so connected was really cool and can’t wait for more opportunities to come together.

After two years of virtual meetings, we were all more than excited to attend the LAS 61st Celebration last summer in Leysin. I have visited Leysin only three times since 1966, but the memories are as fresh as they were the day I drove away with my parents after graduation. Little things like Sunday mornings at Orchidee’s to “study” and eat the delicious French toast, Madame Linden and her eagle eye on us for our safety and well being, Prafandaz and fondue…the list goes on and on. I relived those memories so many times in my head through the years, but the opportunity to do so in person with friends and former classmates was something I can’t describe.

I am so lucky to have LAS in my life all these years later. The school has changed in many ways, but the impact it has on young lives is as critical as it was in the early days of the school and the 61st Celebration gave all of us the chance to relive those memories. Walking up and down the hills, riding the cog, taking the lift up to the Berneuse, sleeping in a dorm, eating breakfast at Savoy in the same dining hall I ate every meal in so long ago. Many thanks to the LAS team for an experience that can never fully be put into words. I look forward to doing what I can to help others rekindle their LAS experiences.

Kim Oppenheim P’16, ‘20 English Teacher

After our truly unforgettable gathering last June, I have heard countless people—from past teachers to alumni from every decade going back to the 90s when LAS became my home—describe that event as one of the most memorable times of their lives, just like the experience at LAS had been.

I can only say that for me it was pure unfiltered joy to have been able to reconnect and celebrate this awesome place with past colleagues, past students, and current ones as well. Please come back, again and again…