Journeys Spring 2018

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EARLY LEARNING CENTER QUIET WONDERINGS AND EXCITING DISCOVERIES

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On The Cover Whether it is watching kites soar in the wide blue sky, or building imaginary worlds with blocks, time and again parents talk about how the early learning center at Singapore American School is a home away from home for their little ones. Award-winning photographer and Nikon ambassador Scott A. Woodward captured the spirit of this incredible place where questions become adventures and students enjoy authentic learning experiences.

Online https://www.sas.edu.sg/journeys

Editorial team Kyle Aldous Kinjal Shah Vanessa Spier

Design team Haziq Hairoman Amos Ong

Communications interns Tanvi Dutta Gupta, Class of 2018 Rachel Kitzman, Class of 2018 Brian Kwon, Class of 2021 Sasha Quinlan, Class of 2018

Contact communications@sas.edu.sg

Connect

Š 2018 Singapore American School All rights reserved.

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CONTENTS 01

Possibilities: Making Changes for the Long Term

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TRi Time: Gearing Up for the Next Adventure

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Then and Now: Interim Semester

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Quest Career Speaker Series

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Five Minutes With Sarah Farris

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PTA International Fair

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Curtains and Canvas

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Alumni: A Well-Lit Path

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Word on the Street

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Alumni: An Object in Motion

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Captivating Classrooms: Climbing Wall

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Alumni: SAS Graduate Turned Disease Detective

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Huffin’ and Puffin’ in Kindergarten

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Notable Mentions

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Wondering, Wandering, and Learning on the Way

Featured 07

Interim Semester: Stronger Than Ever, 45 Years On

Interimr Semeste

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Possib Making changes for the long term S I N G A P O R E A M E R I C A N S C H O O L’ S SUPERINTENDENT REFLECTS ON HIS F I R S T S I X Y E A R S AT S A S , O U R S C H O O L’ S JOURNEY OF PERSONALIZING LEARNING, AND HOW HE THINKS ABOUT CHANGE FOR THE LONG TERM. B y D r. C H I P K I M B A L L S u p e r i n t e n d e n t

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bilities Ten years ago, I never would have believed that I’d be living in Singapore today. In fact, I’m not sure that I could have easily found Singapore on a map. I was serving as superintendent of Lake Washington School District, a high-performing, well-resourced district of 26,000 students, many of whose parents worked at Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and others. We were doing great things, our students were achieving much, and I was professionally fulfilled.

What made me consider exchanging a great situation for a new life on the other side of the world was the thought of what might be possible. While a fantastic district, we were constrained by state bureaucracy, labor issues, testing requirements, cuts in programs like athletics and the arts, and an environment that had great aspirations for innovation and change, but struggled with the ability to pull it off.

I wondered what might be possible if those constraints were minimized or eliminated. I wondered what it would look like if we could attract and retain the best teachers in the industry. I wondered what we could develop if innovation and student care were at the center of what we do. And I wondered what we could accomplish if we were given the opportunity to seriously contemplate the future, and how we would prepare students to thrive in that future. For most teachers in America, these wonderings remain distant dreams. But not in Singapore, and not at Singapore American School.

I came to SAS to see what is possible when the most important factors affecting education come together and are aligned. I came because I knew that while not perfect, we have a community that is aspirational and supportive alongside a staff that is visionary and incredibly talented. It has been an amazing journey, and it isn’t finished yet.

My first years at SAS were interesting but also very challenging. The board and groups of faculty were eager to think about changes that would better prepare students for their future, even though we were already a highachieving school with much to be proud of. It took time, effort, and selfreflection to fully understand where we needed to go, but after three years of faculty researching, visiting over a hundred schools, debating strategy, and considering our values and priorities, our strategic plan was born.

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Possib ossibil s Possib But change is hard, even if you are actively seeking new and innovative ways to improve your craft. We needed new thinking, new systems, new approaches to learning, and in some cases new people. We needed to take some risks, in an environment that was mostly risk-averse. We knew that we were headed into a time of change, which is necessary to thrive as a top performing international school. Now six years later, as I reflect on what we have accomplished, I am proud of our team who has faced huge challenges, and as a result, has experienced great success.

This has become the new normal at SAS. As a system, we have learned to challenge ourselves to be better, be more agile, more reflective, and increasingly exhibit a willingness to take personal risks to serve children.

Our culture of excellence, extraordinary care, and possibilities is deeply embedded in our DNA, and increasingly a culture of innovation is becoming what SAS is known for around the world.

One of my biggest learnings as a leader was giving our faculty more voice in the direction of the school. Our educators are some of the most talented teachers anywhere in the world. At SAS when we agree to do something, it is done at the highest level possible. Initially, I underestimated both the talent and the deep dedication of educators here on our campus. I quickly learned that when given the direction and support they need, they will create remarkable experiences for our kids. I depend on our great teachers, administrators, and support staff every day to carry out our mission.

Today we are truly exceptional in our work. But importantly, we are also continuing to improve. Education in the next decade will become more personalized and more relevant as the work world becomes more integrated, automated, and competitive. At SAS we are responding to these changes to ensure that our students are ready no matter what they face.

No matter what the environment or how dedicated the team, change is always hard. And while we are making great progress and are seeing tremendous results in student learning, the SAS challenge is to implement our changes to scale, and with fidelity. Distinguished Harvard professor John Kotter found in his research that 70 percent of change efforts fail, primarily because the change is abandoned too early before it becomes part of the organization’s culture.

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bilities litiesPo bilitie To anchor change in the SAS culture, we’ve done some very intentional work. We identified the norms and values that support our changes. We’ve hired and based faculty reviews according to our new norms and values, what we call our institutional commitments. We’ve intentionally developed teams, what we call professional learning communities (PLC) because we believe that the PLC is the most effective leverage point for equity, quality, and ensuring that all students are served well. We’ve invested time and budget to professional development activities to include the skills and competencies associated with our goals and have identified and supported teacher leadership across the school. And increasingly we are making changes that are student and family centric, eliminating processes that don’t make sense, and whenever possible, personalizing the SAS experience. This is extraordinarily difficult in a large school, but we are committed to it, and are making progress each year.

I’ve seen our school transform. Singapore American School is not the same school we were six years ago. We are more agile and creative, we are investing in relationships with students, and investing in professional practice, and more students’ needs are met more of the time. I can say unequivocally that Singapore American School is fulfilling our mission of being a world leader in education, cultivating exceptional thinkers, prepared for the future.

Without a doubt, my first six years at Singapore American School have been the most rewarding years of my career. Yes, making substantive change in education can be challenging and the days are long; yet, I truly feel so blessed to have been a part of it.

This is a special community. Ours can truly be one of the best schools on the planet—of this I have no doubt. We have all the right pieces in place and the right team to ensure that our students are challenged and growing. This perfect convergence of factors has provided me a glimpse of what I believe is extraordinarily rare in today’s world: a school that will, at all costs, pursue what is best for student learning.

I look forward to each and every year ahead as we continue to personalize learning in meaningful ways so that students know more of themselves as learners and individuals, and are more than prepared for their futures. I can’t wait to see all that Singapore American School and its students will achieve. And I plan to be here to celebrate our achievements with you all.

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Then 1973

In 1973, the first Interim Semester trips were anywhere from five days to 15 days depending on the course. Options included around 35 courses such as Chinese calligraphy, introduction to Islam and Hinduism, intensive tennis, advanced puppet making, English grammar, math tutorial, and photo darkroom skills. Students traveled to destinations like Songkhla and Bangkok in Thailand; Malacca, Penang, Rawa, Kota Kinabalu, and Kuantan in Malaysia; and Java, Indonesia.

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This year we celebrate 45 years of Interim Semester, offering students 58 courses in 19 countries. Aligned with the SAS mission, vision, and focus on learning, courses are developed so that students can deepen their understanding through global issues, service learning, and eco-adventure. Since 1973, students have made over 36,000 Interim Semester trips to different parts of the world.

Photo by Anthony Lee (Class of 2021)

Now 2018 S P R I N G

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m i r e t In r e t s e m e S By C A R A D ' AVA N Z O Staff Writer

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r e v E n a h T r e g n o r St Years On The first Interim Semester included around 35 course options with trips to Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia. Over the years, course options ranged from the exotic to the strange—28 hours in a Malaysian jungle, Yoga for Beauty, For Dog Lovers Only, and even Psychic Sciences! Fortyfive years later, Interim Semester has come a long way, spanning 58 courses in 19 countries this year.

Photo by Regina Elise Bernardo (Class of 2020)

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Forty-five years ago, SAS students in seventh through twelfth grade were offered a new kind of school program.

Small groups of students and teachers explored a challenge, theme, or place during an “Interim Semester” between the first and second terms. Some explored Singapore, others went on trips to Malaysia or Indonesia, while others attended intensive classes on the SAS King’s Road campus. A post-course survey revealed that while some students were unimpressed (one moaned “I don’t want I. S. ever again!”), most responses were positive. “It was very interesting and educational,” wrote one student, while another called it “the best idea this school has ever come up with.” “Too short, but it was as long as the teacher could endure us,” noted one empathetic participant. In the language of the time, one comment sums up the overall student response: “It was far out.”

Interim Semester was born of a sense among the faculty that SAS students were increasingly isolated from “real life” in Singapore and Southeast Asia. Earlier, SAS families had lived among Singaporean families, employed locals in their households, and made friends from various communities through neighborhood, church, school, or work ties. By the 1970s, many Singaporeans had moved into new HDB housing estates and Singaporean students were no longer allowed to attend SAS. Expatriates increasingly clustered in certain neighborhoods, socialized at private clubs, and hired other foreigners as domestic help. The gap between locals and foreign residents seemed to have widened perceptibly.

“The last time the 16 of us were together was at Paya Lebar Airport after getting our luggage…Will something like this trip ever happen again?”

—Student Irene Kazanis (Class of 1975), writing about a two-week student trip through Malaysia and Thailand in the student newspaper The King’s Road Review, March/ April 1972.

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f o e n o f o n io t ip r c es D s ip r t er t es em S im th e first Inter

Photo by Bill Doenecke (former faculty)

“I recall a heady degree of excitement and nervousness in the air. Most on the faculty had never offered "short courses," and many had not done field trips of any kind. But a high level of thoughtful creativity was driving ideas and suggestions.”

—Larry Crouch, writing about the first Interim Semester in Journeys, Spring 2013.

Other changes added to the cultural distance between SAS students and their host country. In the late 1960s, American oil companies made Singapore their regional headquarters for exploration and refining. Large numbers of “oil patch” workers from Texas, Louisiana, and Oklahoma arrived, and many of these families had never lived outside the US. The proportion of SAS students with American passports rose to over 70 percent, the highest level in the school’s history. In addition, the school switched from a trimesterly schedule with month-long breaks to the standard US school calendar with one long summer break. With air travel more accessible, many families now flew back to the United States for vacation, rather than taking leisurely trips to Malaysian, Indonesian, or Thai holiday destinations. Students had more opportunity to absorb American culture but seemed much less in touch with the cultures of Southeast Asia.

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JOURNEYS 10

The school had already started to strengthen its Asian studies offerings. Teacher (later principal) Larry Crouch, who was instrumental in developing Interim Semester, recalled that when Superintendent Dr. Harry Barteau (1967-69) hired him in 1968, he “made it clear that SAS needed an active Southeast Asian studies program with field trips that would help students learn from and appreciate living in a foreign country. Unrest and disturbances in Singapore, Malaysia, and southern Thailand were subsiding, and it was a good time to expand opportunities for SAS students.” In that year, students in social studies and Malay language classes began taking field trips within Singapore and across the border into Malaysia. In the next few years, some traveled further afield to Thailand, Cambodia, and Bali, Indonesia.

At the end of the 1971–72 school year, Superintendent Dr. Jack McLeod (1969-73), inspired by an article about an Oregon school’s program, proposed that the school add a short-course program to the next year’s schedule. Teachers liked the idea and suggested that around 10 days be allotted between the first and second semesters. Throughout the fall, a committee of students, teachers, and administrators developed the goals and structure of this new program. With impressive speed, the committee secured approval from the board’s academic committee, polled students twice for their suggestions, prepared an Interim Semester handbook and schedule, developed and implemented sign-up procedures, and assisted with planning and logistics. Teachers developed their own courses, sometimes with student involvement, and from January 26 to February 5, 1973, the first Interim Semester took place. Afterward, the busy committee held a post-course event for parents, conducted another student survey, and solicited teacher feedback.

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Thfe irst years

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g n i h t e e T oblems pr 13 JOURNEYS

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Over the next few years, the program was repeated, challenged, and refined. Duration, scope, timing, and offerings were varied.

Behavioral problems plaguing young expatriates at the time, including drug and alcohol use, were reflected in disciplinary problems and even a few arrests. In one case, six students on an excursion to Thailand climbed onto a statue of the Buddha to pose for photos. Their arrest, detention, and trial for sacrilege caused a minor diplomatic incident (happily, the judge released them on six-months probation). Jim Baker, author of Singapore’s Eagles: Singapore American School 1956–2006, wrote that these “teething problems…reflected the insular nature of the school”; ironically, they almost ended the very program intended to address this insularity.

“Interim Semester, a program unique to the Singapore American School, is now up for debate, its fate to be decided at the next board meeting.

Many of the long-time veterans at SAS observe that Interim Semester has been one of the most positive and beneficial aspects of their Singapore high school career. Now it seems that some board members have deemed this program worthless.

Have we bade the Interim Semester program a last farewell?”

—From the student newspaper Tuesday Forum, May 4, 1976

Although some teachers and board members thought Interim Semester should be discontinued, those who saw its worth labored to improve procedures and guidelines. By the end of the 1970s, the SAS student body had become less transient and more disciplined, and Interim had become an accepted and valued part of the high school curriculum. The school settled on a one-week program for high school students with a wide variety of courses, locations, and fees. Goals for the program included challenging oneself, working with others, getting to know a teacher, exploring new places, skills, and subjects, and helping others. Today, these remain the basic parameters of Interim Semester.

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Boom!

Photo by Bill Doenecke (former faculty)

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While some course offerings remained fairly constant— exploring neighboring countries, learning photography in Singapore, trying new sports and hobbies—other offerings now seem quaint, outdated, or simply bizarre.

Through the 70s and 80s, some courses were clearly aimed at girls, such as “Yoga for Beauty,” “Silk Flower Making and Needlepoint,” and “Modelling and Grooming.”

Other courses, such as “Exploring History through Scale Modeling,” “Improving Chess Skills,” and “Group Survival and Simulations” appear from class lists to have attracted mostly boys. The latter course, which included 28 hours in a Malaysian jungle with survival instruction by a US Colonel and an ANZUK Jungle Warfare Captain, apparently included the chance to fire a bazooka!

Other courses that may seem strange to us today include “Exploring Inner Space,” “Speedreading,” “Choices, Choices, Choices,” “For Dog Lovers Only,” “Western Italic Calligraphy,” and “Psychic Sciences.” Courses in the 70s and 80s also provided a range of vocational experiences.

These were intended, in the words of an administrator, “to help students moving back to the US at a disadvantage due to lack of job experience.” Courses in this area included woodworking, working in a hospital, computer programming, working on an oil rig, sewing, and “Exploring the Unknown in Automobiles.”

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t u o b a s t c a f s u o i r u C s r a e y y l r a e e th Superintendent McLeod originally envisioned a month-long Interim Semester.

The first Interim Semester’s courses varied from five days (Chinese Cooking) to 15 days (Trip to Lake Toba). Course options included around 10 local or regional field trips and 20 courses teaching hobbies, skills, or sports at the King’s Road campus.

The first Interim Semester included “Making a Movie,” and one of the three films produced was “an animated film about a greedy pea.”

The Mountain Safari trip, which included climbing Mt. Kinabalu, was the most expensive, at S$350 per student. The sponsor noted that “we returned with…S$37 for whole group.”

The first Synchronized Swimming students were each refunded fifty cents as the program was cheaper than expected.

The “purpose or objectives” for the early course Slimnastics included to “improve the figure and slim down defective areas of the body.”

The Total Immersion French course teacher had a few problems, including a van not turning up (“we walked to Farrer Road”), a secretary losing the class handouts, and, on the final day of her course, “no clerical staff at school…everything locked, supplies not available, toilets locked.”

The Group Survival and Simulations course instructor gave out “free jungle boots, insect repellent, cooking fuel, water sterilization tablets.”

A 15-day trip to India and Kashmir in 1974, which would have included the first Interim skiing experience, had to be canceled due to an airline strike.

Early Interim trips included travel by local bus, third-class train, rubber plantation jeeps, and cargo liners.

Course offerings requested by students in the first post-Interim survey included billiards, model railroading, coin collecting, making stuffed toys, ice skating, gardening, sky diving, shooting, flying, space-travel, witchcraft, “batik dying,” “beginning brain surgery,” “working with babies,” “making go-carts,” “trampoline for not so good people,” “demolition school,” “how to appear in front of boys,” and “wild bore hunting.”

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Over the years, philosophical questions about the scope and intent of Interim Semester have continued to provoke community discussion and sometimes disagreement. Two of the most contentious are how far field trips should take students and how luxurious trips should be. Originally intended to help students understand “real life” in the region, by the 1990s Interim was taking groups to Europe, Africa, and Oceania, and including activities like skiing, yachting, horseback riding, and whitewater rafting. A 2007 article in the student newspaper The Eye called Interim “a vacation for rich kids.” In the same paper, however, student Casey DeFord (Class of 2007) noted that her experience with an after-school program in Soweto, South Africa, was “even more amazing than I had imagined,” and helped the future educator realize she wanted to work in “a profession where I can help people who are less fortunate.”

Another perennial question is how expensive should trips be, and how should these costs be assessed. From the beginning, Interim courses were offered on a separately billed, pay-asyou-go basis, with fees ranging from free to several hundred dollars. While prices have increased since the 1970s, this fee structure has remained constant. An “average” fee included in tuition would certainly simplify the school’s billing, but this has repeatedly been judged unfair to those who leave SAS part-way through high school, as well as to those preferring less expensive options. Most families want to make their own choices about trips and costs, which is also consistent with the model followed by other international schools.

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Another area of discussion has been what constitutes an appropriate focus for an Interim Semester course. Should courses improve students’ skills, expand their knowledge, offer them work experience, or allow them to interact with people they wouldn’t usually encounter? From the beginning, students who opted to work in the SAS elementary school, in local hospitals, or in the Vietnamese refugee camp in Sembawang participated in what we now call community service. In time, many trips also incorporated hands-on community service activities; some, like those partnering with Habitat for Humanity, were based entirely on helping those in need. Other courses were more adventure-based, like trekking in Nepal or biking in Australia. In this century, the rise of environmental concerns has led to courses that include ecological studies and require students to engage with the natural world.

Individuals and committees have considered these questions over the years, and Interim Semester has evolved in response. Most recently, a 2012 a committee of parents, students, teachers, and administrators worked to align Interim Semester with the school’s mission, vision, and focus on learning. A new mission statement for the program was developed that defines the program’s focus as “deepening students’ understanding of the world around them; inspiring students to contribute to the global community; encouraging students to challenge themselves; and building a sense of community.” Courses are now offered in the three categories of global issues, service learning, and eco-adventure; over their four high school years all students must sign up for at least one service learning Interim course.

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“Coming back to Singapore was like waking up after a dream. This entire trip seemed pretty surreal to me. I didn’t think I’d be able to do it.

This trip gave me the confidence to believe in myself, and for that, I am extremely grateful.”

—Rebecca Dai (Class of 2017)

These guidelines ensure that each course is challenging, enriching, and worthwhile, while allowing students a huge variety of options, destinations, and experiences. The 2018 Interim Semester catalog lists 58 courses, including 26 eco-adventure courses, 16 global studies courses, and 16 service learning courses. Thirteen courses are Singapore-based, and 64 percent take place in Asia. Australia and New Zealand account for 12 courses, while five take place in Africa, one in the Middle East, and three in Europe. Costs range from S$85 for the teacher apprentice course to S$4,400 for courses in Bhutan, Japan, and New Zealand.

Today, 45 years after the first Interim Semester, students continue to fret over their choices, stress over their packing, dive into their Interim Semester experiences, and return to school with new knowledge, new skills, new friends, and new insights into themselves and the world around them. “Who knew that traveling away from home would lead me closer to myself?” reads one student’s post-Interim reflection. Writing in 1975 about her trip to Malaysia’s east coast, a student journalist wrote, “We thought that the trip was a great experience, and besides that, it was a blast!” Generations of SAS students would agree.

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f o n o i t u l o v E e Th r e t s e m e S m i r e t n I

Photo by Bill Doenecke (former faculty)

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1956

Singapore American School opens with around 100 students. Just over half are American citizens and Singaporeans make up a significant minority.

1967

Dr. Harry Barteau, high school principal, becomes SAS superintendent; he expands the school’s Southeast Asian studies program, including excursions.

1968 –71

SAS social studies and Malay language classes take field trips into Malaysia, as well as visiting Singapore’s Chinese burial grounds, Malay villages, Indian temples, and Chinatown.

1970 1972

A summer semester is offered for middle and high school students, focused on Singapore's history and culture.

1973

First Interim Semester takes place in January-February with 35 course options.

At the end of the 1971-72 school year, Superintendent Dr. Jack McLeod suggests a special short-course program. During the 1972-73 faculty orientation week, teachers propose that an “Interim Semester” take place between first and second semesters. A faculty committee develops plans for this program.

1974

Following recommendations from the 1973 Interim Semester, Interim Semester courses run up to two weeks.

1975

First Interim trip to Europe (London, England) offered; also first trip to the Philippines.

1975 –76

High school faculty senate votes to end the program, after embarrassing and potentially dangerous incidents involving drugs, alcohol, and ignorance of local culture. Board is split, with some members feeling the program is not worth the disruption and potential trouble. Teachers improve procedures and guidelines, and Interim Semester survives.

1976

Future IASAS partner schools Joint Embassy School (now JIS) in Jakarta and International School Bangkok (ISB) express interest in starting similar programs.

Late 1970s

School population stabilizes and behavioral problems decline. Interim Semester becomes an accepted part of the school year.

1980s

Program offerings expand to include the Maldives, New Guinea, upriver Sarawak, Taman Negara, India, Nepal, and China. Service to the community becomes more of a priority at SAS through the Social Services Club, and Interim experiences increasingly include a service component.

1990s

Interim Semester expands further to include destinations in Europe and Africa. Separate Habitat for Humanity projects organized in Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, and Fiji.

1997

Strategic Planning Committee adds community service component to its vision for the school.

Photo by Tanya Van Den Heuvel (Class of 2020)

Photo by Anjali Mehta (Class of 2018)

2001

First Habitat for Humanity Interim Semester course. Since then, house-building service trips to the Philippines, Indonesia, Fiji, and Thailand with Habitat have resulted in hundreds of houses being built by SAS students and teachers.

2007 2012

Interim advisory teachers’ committee formed to assess course offerings, costs, locations, and parent night logistics.

Interim Semester is aligned with the SAS mission, vision, and focus on learning, with the goal to “improve Interim without killing the magic.” A new mission statement is developed and the three categories of global issues, service learning, and eco-adventure are defined.

2018 Now in its 45th year, Interim Semester

offers students 58 courses in 19 countries.

Photo by Hannah Bradshaw (Class of 2018) S P R I N G

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Interim Semester 2018

Student Reflections One of the top favorites when it comes to experiences in high school, Interim Semester offers a variety of perspectives, life-changing moments, and skills, as students soak up different cultures, people, and places.

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Photo by Callie Elms (Class of 2020)

Morocco: The Peace, Wonder, and Understanding of Islam

By ALEXIS BUECHEL (CLASS OF 2020) A week in Morocco completely altered my perspective on how I view Islam as a religion.The experience broke down the negative stigma around a religion that was foremost founded upon the ideas of peace and coexistence.

Not only did we learned the basics of the faith, but we also had the opportunity to talk to educators and scholars who shared their interpretation of the religious texts as well as their personal opinion on how the religion should be practiced.

Our time in Morocco led us to the beautiful cities of Casablanca, Marrakech, and Sbiti Village. Each of these locations reflects the astounding beauty of Morocco through the local way of life. The idea that Islam is a religion of terrorism and extremism is a crude misconception. As we interacted with the people and had a quick glimpse into their daily lives, we understood the misguided and blatant untruth of the generalization.

The Quran—a religious text with the teachings of the Islamic god Allah—states that Islam is a religion that prohibits violence and stresses justice and peace. Furthermore, the Quran is a guide for Muslims on how to live a life as a better person and stay away from the bad aspects of human nature.

In my conversations with Moroccan Muslims, they said that terrorist groups who claim to be acting in the name of Allah, are not really practicing Islam. The horrendous crimes go against everything Islam stands for.

The claim that these religion-based terror groups only arise in Islam because of its teachings is an entirely false assumption. The truth is, this kind of extremism can arise in other religions and has throughout history. It's not the principles of the belief that leads to the formation of these groups; it's the people who take something of love, beauty, and faith and alter it to the extent that it becomes different.

I am so grateful to have had the chance to experience the wonder that is Morocco—one of the most beautiful places I have ever set eyes on. This experience has taught me to be tolerant and receptive to other cultures and be wary of making any assumptions.

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NEPAL: Enchanting Everest

By CINDY QIN (CLASS OF 2018)

NEPAL: ENCHANTING EVEREST

Photo by Cindy Qin (Class of 2018)

By CINDY QIN (CLASS OF 2018) I have seen one side of the Himalayas—from China, but I have always wanted to know what they look like on the other side. The allure of being able to see these massive mountains from a different perspective made me sign up for the trip. I was thrilled when I found that I’d even have a chance to see Mt. Everest. When I told my friends and parents that I would be going to Nepal, I was asked “Why Nepal?”

My answer, “Because Everest.”

Namche Bazaar was where the Everest viewpoint was. We went from 2,610 meters in Phakding to an elevation of 3,300 meters in Namche Bazaar in one day—a majority of our hike that day uphill. Getting to Namche Bazaar was difficult for everyone, but we cheered each other on. All of us knew if we made it, we’d have an opportunity to admire one of the greatest creations of nature.

The weather in Nepal can be unpredictable and treacherous at times. All we could hope for was for Mother Nature to be kind to us.

In the end, we never got to see Everest. It was cloudy that day and Everest was covered with clouds.

I would be lying if I said I was completely unaffected. Simply being in the presence of sheer beauty and majesty overwhelmed us. We took lots of photographs, and made lots of memories. One distinct memory etched in my mind was when we realized that we were not going to see Everest and we decided to compromise with a photograph of Kongde Ri, a sacred mountain close to Namche Bazaar.

Despite facing a setback of not being able to view Everest in its glory, we gained many other positive experiences. The bonds formed and the memories of cold nights, long walks, and plane rides overlooking the Himalayas dulled the misfortune that we experienced due to the weather.

Everest will always be there, but we will never be able to recreate this magical experience.

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Photo by Trevor Sturgeon (high school college counselor)

Lighting Paths, Building Lives: Stairway Foundation, Philippines

By HRITIKA SINGH (CLASS OF 2020)

As someone said, “The most valuable asset in life is not a head full of knowledge. But a heart full of love, with an ear ready to listen, and a hand willing to help.”

This quote came to life with our experience at the Stairway Foundation, originally founded by Lars Jørgensen and Monica D. Ray. Stairway Foundation, a humble sanctuary, focuses on improving the lives of boys who have suffered abuse on the notoriously violent streets of the Philippines. By providing these neglected boys with a home, education, therapy sessions, and most importantly a family like atmosphere, Stairway Foundation enriches their lives by giving them skills to try to make a life for themselves after their heart wrenching pasts. The therapy provided helps them overcome their dark experiences by enhancing their hidden positive attitudes such as selflessness, benevolence, and faith in those who aid them.

From their divergent personalities, we were able to absorb many a vital lesson. This experience opened us up to ideas such as cherishing our lifestyles and bringing more awareness to the prevalence and inhumanity of the abuse of children and their rights. Stairway aims to create a familylike bond between the boys which is extremely successful; despite the fact that they are not related by blood, they manage to love and protect each other like a family.

This trip offered us an opportunity to create a valuable impact on the boys, furthering their therapy at the Foundation. A shout out to Lars Jørgensen and Monica D. Ray for making an immense impact on the lives of many street children and bringing awareness to an important issue. Your concern for the wellbeing of society has inspired many who have crossed your paths, including us, to aim to make a bigger change in our world.

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KATY

LEGOED OUT!

CHARLOTTE

The SAS Instagram feed during Interim Semester week was filled with little Lego minifigures in locations across the globe! Curious about their origin, communications writer Kinjal Shah caught up with visual arts teacher and Lego collector Jeffrey Pabotoy.

By KINJAL SHAH Communications Writer Built like a tank, Singapore American School visual arts teacher Jeffrey Pabotoy looks like someone you’d never want to mess with. You’d think he wouldn’t be interested in mini-anything, let alone little Lego bricks and minifigures that take hours of patient building.

Truth be told, Pabotoy is an SAS Lego hero, known for his collection of thousands of Lego bricks and more than 500 minifigures, a few of which travel with him every time he leaves the country.

In a 25-minute conversation, this 213lb man tells me about his obsession with the world of Lego. As his eyes light up with the wonder and excitement of a little boy in a candy shop, I barely miss the irony.

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It’s great to get families involved!

My wife and kids help me find the right spots and help set it up.

SAMSON

JEFF

Even now at 40, my family buys me Lego sets for birthdays, Christmas, and pretty much every gift-worthy occasion—and I love it!

When did you get your first Lego?

I grew up in a small fishing/farming village in the Philippines where we had no access to running water or electricity, let alone Western toys. We played with sticks and whatever else we could find. But when we moved to Manila, I was made aware of all these toys by a fairly wealthy neighbor who would invite the neighbourhood kids to his place. We were never allowed to play with his toys. Only watch him do so.

I noticed these little figures and bricks, so I guess that was when I first laid eyes on Legos. I was around eight or nine years old, and asked my mum for a Lego set, but we really couldn’t afford it. One day she came home with a little plastic bag with seven or eight little pieces

of a random Lego bricks. I remember being excited and playing for days forming hundreds of configurations.

When and how did you start collecting Legos?

The desire to own Legos started as a kid and I couldn’t have it nor had access to it, but the feeling stuck with me long after. Once I finished college and had a little disposable income, I started collecting minifigures. I started buying little kits, because I loved building. When I started traveling, that’s when it got really interesting. I thought I could fix up a thing here and there and take the Legos with me and snap photos. And just like that, I’d found a tradition I enjoyed.

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What does your family think of your hobby?

They’re all in! My wife, Katy Mankin, who is also a teacher here, is extremely supportive of my little quirks.

Taking Legos on our travels has become a family tradition. She buys me Legos every time we travel, on my birthday, for Christmas—you name it! My kids and wife all help scout locations and set up the minifigures for our travel shots. The fact that my whole family is on board makes it even more fun and interesting.

What are some of the most complicated things you’ve made from Legos?

For my kids I am a superhero. Let’s say they watch a movie like Avengers, they would ask me to make them an Avengers tower. We watched Alice in Wonderland and my daughter Charlotte asked me to build her a playset. So I created a two level set where Alice would fall down a hole in a tree and end up in a Wonderland room! I love shopping for kits with my son—especially when a Star Wars movie is released.

What are your top favorites?

Hands down my trip to Jordan. I had Petra with Indiana Jones. Score! Lots of people take Lego minifigures when they travel. What’s unique about mine is I plan and research a place before I travel there and mix, match, or buy Lego figures to go with the culture. When we went to New Zealand, I got the Lord of the Rings Lego as well as a Maori one. The recent Interim Semester trip to Tokyo had a Godzilla Lego, a girl in a kimono, and a little Samurai guy.

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I have a travel Instagram account called @legoglobetrotter that I show my close friends. I once showed it to Interim Semester coordinator Dan Skimin who came back with the idea of extending this concept to Interim Semester trips. I was over the moon!

Though I must admit I wasn’t sure if the rest of the faculty sponsors would be willing. But it was exciting to see how quickly everyone took to it.

The most amazing feeling is when by sheer coincidence I find a real person that looks just like my Lego minifigure.

How awesome is that?!

The world is filled with people who want to be just like everyone else. Embrace your quirkiness because that’s what makes you unique!

Legos are pretty expensive. Where do you source them?

The bulk of our Legos have either been donated or bought from garage sales or from students who don’t use them anymore. We sort them out by size, color, or shape. I use little arts and crafts bins to store my minifigures and sort them out by series (like The Lord of the Rings), and the random figures are sorted geographically by region (Asian, European, etc.). If you have any spare ones, or those that you don’t use anymore, I’d be more than happy to get them off your hands.

What’s next for the Lego hero?

I plan to publish a Lego travel book for kids and currently I am in the process of gathering information on copyrights. Secretly, I’d also like to get enough followers on my Instagram account to hopefully get Lego’s attention to sponsor minifigures to take with my family’s adventures. In the end, if nothing comes of this nerdy hobby, I will be walking away with hundreds of little memories with my wife, kids, and eventually someday with my grandchildren, and you can be sure that I’ll have a Lego for those moments when they come.

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Feeling inspired to replicate a Mr. Hoe classic at home? Find the full recipe at www.sas.edu.sg/recipe.

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By SASHA QUINLAN Communications Intern

Having taught second and third grade at SAS, Sarah Farris is now part of the elementary school counseling team. Here she talks about her life at SAS and in Singapore.

Where did you grow up?

My dad was in the military, so I am an army brat! I moved around a lot and attended seven schools before fifth grade so I know what it is like to be the new kid. I mostly grew up outside of Washington DC in Virginia, and worked as a Peace Corps volunteer in Namibia. I’ve always wanted to go overseas, so I am glad to be in Singapore.

How long have you worked at SAS? I have been at SAS for 13 years now! I work with pre-k, kindergarten, and first graders. Even though I am a counselor, I teach a lesson every single day. I also work with other teachers, parents, and administrators. Each day is so very different.

Any Singapore favorites?

I love SAS and living in Singapore. My current favorite thing to do is spin—spin cycling. They turn on the disco lights, crank up the music, and you’re off sweating it out...I love it!

Favorite SAS memory?

Every day is a favorite memory! Second grade walka-thon, Asia Fest, mystery unit in third grade, and so many more.

Most loved reads...

The Invisible Boy, One, There’s a Boy in the Girls’ Bathroom, Boundaries, and a few counseling books.

What are you looking forward to in the next few months?

I’ll be Dr. Farris on May 26—receiving my doctorate along with 17 other SAS teachers...can’t wait for the change in title! I’ve learned a lot and it has opened up so many learning opportunities.

The one person who changed your experience at SAS? Ken Schunk—I respect him tremendously. He has so much heart—something I think is important for a school. He’s this big guy and he’s so good with the little ones and with parents. He’s unafraid of being truthful, and he is the heart of the elementary school at SAS. Describe your job in three words.

Advocate. Multi-task. Support.

What is the most Singaporean thing you have done so far?

Walk down Orchard Road, head down, texting friends, eyes glued on phone...repeat same behavior on the MRT, in the taxi, etc.

What, if anything, do you miss most about home?

My family and our labradoodle!

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By KINJAL SHAH Communications Writer

Pennywise, the dancing clown from It. Kyungmin P., fifth grade

Indiana Jones because he’s adventurous and cool.

Reed M., second grade

Thomas from Maze Runner.

Belle from Beauty and the Beast.

Emma A., pre-kindergarten

Mr. Fredrickson from Up because he loves adventure.

Oscar K., sixth grade

Gabe Haydu, elementary school teacher

The alien in Interstellar because it’s mysterious.

Hannah Joe, ninth grade

Princess and then General Leia from the Star Wars films.

Smart, funny, and brave.

Lauren Mehrbach, middle school principal

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Rapunzel in Tangled. Because who wouldn’t want a chameleon for a sidekick?

Ron Weasley from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone because he’s funny.

David Li, tenth grade

Natalie H., eighth grade

The wicked witch from Enchanted.

Annabelle M., pre-kindergarten

What’s your story?

The bonds of friendship. The mentorship of teachers and staff. Memories made in moments big and small.

The learning that shines through perseverance.

Every interaction, every pursuit, every class, and every activity at SAS weaves the fabric of our community to make us who we are.

We want to celebrate all things SAS. Share your story with us, and we may share it with our community online or in Journeys.

Connect with us at communications@sas.edu.sg and help us tell the story of what makes SAS a special place.

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Season Two IASAS Tournament Girls’ Touch Record: Fourth The team played positively and cohesively throughout the entire IASAS tournament.

After a rough start, the girls fought hard to regain their composure and got their tournament back on track. The girls should all be proud of their efforts in a tough fought, evenly matched competition.

Boys’ Rugby Record: Fifth Each and every time the boys took the field during IASAS, they improved their game— the attack started to run lines and deploy deception; the defense organization had fewer gaps as players committed to their roles and executed pressure. We had our opportunities to make the semi-final but it proved a step too far this year. But this team has a future. This team is young. This team has passion. This team will grow.

Girls’ Swimming Record: Gold With a record of 19 championships in 20 years, the pressure is always on our girls to win. Olivia Morris broke the IASAS 50 meter Butterfly record at 28.41 seconds and won the 50 meter Freestyle. The Lady Eagles also won the 400 Medley Relay and the 400 Freestyle Relay.

Boys’ Swimming Record: Fourth The boys’ competition was a much closer title chase. Collin Schuster smashed the IASAS 200 meter Backstroke record by three seconds in 2:04.34. He also won the 800 meter Freestyle and 100 meter Backstroke. Jimmy Cheng won the 400 meter Freestyle.

Girls’ Basketball Record: Silver The girls played solid throughout the tournament with tremendous teamwork and unselfishness and should be very proud of their efforts.

Boys’ Basketball Record: Fourth The boys played strong throughout the tournament and met Jakarta Intercultural School in the final. They gave the crowd a wild ride as they overcame a late 11-point deficit and took the game to the last seconds losing at the last second on a JIS tip-in.

Girls’ Tennis Record: Silver The Lady Eagles played strong and smart going into the final round against International School Manila playing their best tennis for a well deserved silver. The All Tournament prize went to Sally Nakasawa at #3 singles and Tanvi Rajeev at Alternate.

Boys’ Tennis Record: Fourth Despite a final result that was less than hoped for, both SAS doubles teams were named All Tournament team with the best record in their respective seeds.

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By C A R A D ' AVA N Z O Staff Writer

Learning journeys in the early learning center at SAS encourage students to experience nature, using the environment for exploration, play, and creativity.

A favorite learning experience for our early learning center students is a “wander,” a walk to a different part of the Singapore American School campus where they can observe, marvel, and ask questions about what they see. Some wanderings have taken our youngest students to the eco-garden, the rainforest, and the sports fields. In each place, students have discovered what plants and animals live there and learned about how humans can affect them. While wanders don’t take place every day, connecting students with their environment in and out of the classroom is one of the four curricular foundations of our program.

Inspired by the preschools in the small town of Reggio Emilia, Italy, the SAS early learning center program embraces the idea that, along with adults and other children, the physical environment is the child’s “third teacher.” A Reggio-inspired approach sees both the outdoor environment and the classroom environment as crucial to creating in children the wonder, excitement, curiosity, and joy that should be integral to all learning experiences. Learning about the environment also teaches students citizenship, as caring for our surroundings is part of being a responsible member of any community.

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“We are very intentional in using our outdoor areas as fully as possible and infusing natural elements throughout our indoor spaces,” says early learning center director Jo McIlroy. “We see that exposure to nature enhances our students’ appreciation of beauty, piques their curiosity, allows them unique sensory experiences, and promotes calmness and tranquility.”

She notes that early learning center teachers worked hard as a team to maximize nature-based learning opportunities during the 2015–16 redesign of the early learning spaces, and they continue to focus on the environment as a “provocation” for inquiry, play, and creativity.

The center’s renovation included a number of changes to increase students’ engagement with their environment. Now, large windows allow more natural light into hubs, classroom furniture incorporates natural materials, and potted plants give students calming greenery and let them observe how light and water affect plant growth. The center’s three outdoor learning spaces include more natural materials, such as water, sand, and planters, and entryways that encourage flow between indoor and outdoor areas. Sticks, leaves, and other “found” natural objects serve as decorations, toys, and inspiration for indoor exploration through art, drama, and writing activities. Outdoors and indoors, children collaborate, communicate, question, and explore in response to an ever-changing environment.

The emphasis on concept-based and inquiry-driven learning means classes develop their own projects, guided by their teachers, who design lessons and activities around students’ interests. These learning journeys can evolve through months or even the whole school year, and it is no surprise that many, if not most, eventually include an environmental connection. In one hub, questions about why man-made materials end up in waterways has sparked a year-long research project on protecting the oceans, while in another, playtime with dinosaurs led to a fascination with volcanoes. Projects develop as students learn more and then ask more questions; with teachers as guides and classmates as collaborators, inquiries blossom to include lessons about history, language, culture, literacy, numeracy, art, and science.

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An ongoing inquiry in pre-k hub two, for example, began with students playing “dogs and cats,” which led them to think about pets.

Some built a pet hotel, and others told stories of real and fictional animal adventures. Group discussions led to questions such as, “How do we keep pets healthy?” and “What can we do for animals who don’t have a home?” Students read library books, and then someone remembered seeing a cat on campus. The class went on a wander to find him, and had plenty of time to observe, draw, and, of course, pet him! Over time, this inquiry included class visits by parents and their pets, a visit to the high school art teacher to learn animal-drawing techniques, discussions about animal anatomy and behavior, and lots of creative projects. “By thinking, feeling, questioning, communicating, and making connections, the students are engaged in a meaningful and relevant learning experience,” writes teacher Lynsey Howitt. “I look forward to seeing how this project is propelled forward by our students.”

Connecting nature with the classroom doesn’t just lead to student engagement with the subject matter. Research shows that other benefits of encouraging children to experience nature—whether through a field-trip, plants in the classroom, or even a view of greenery from a window—include improved cognitive abilities,

academic performance, and discipline, as well as more developed social skills and enhanced creativity. Incorporating nature into everyday learning also helps students manage stress and maintain focus. And of course, it’s a lot of fun!

In the early learning center, each of the seven SAS desired student learning outcomes— character, collaboration, content knowledge, creativity, communication, critical thinking, and cultural competence—can be furthered through nature-based learning experiences. As we look to the future, we are excited to incorporate new opportunities for our students to engage with their physical environment. We have installed a number of new planters for gardening, and we hope to give pre-k students, in particular, more flexibility in moving from indoor to outdoor environments, as our preschool students currently have. We are also excited to tap into the knowledge and experience of our community by inviting staff and parent experts to help the children with their investigations. Wherever they wander, our youngest Eagles will take with them the lessons learned during their early learning center adventures!

Building landscapes for dinosaurs sparked a passionate and enduring interest in volcanoes. We began to represent volcanoes through multiple “learning languages”: we constructed them with blocks and magnetic tiles, drew them with fine-tipped markers, painted them with watercolors, and created a large papier-mâché model. Representing volcanoes in these different ways has helped us to refine our understanding of their shape, structure, and stages.

—Preschool teachers Devin Bokaer and Nancy Devine

“Miss Sam, I brought in a caterpillar!” Sparked by an interest in how caterpillars turn into butterflies, pre-k hub three collaborates with a local hydroponic farm to raise caterpillars and observe their transformation into butterflies. Using iPads and magnifying glasses to record and enhance our observations, and books to help us answer questions, the children of hub three develop their questioning, critical thinking, and literacy skills through miracles of nature!

—Pre-k teachers Samantha Ierullo and Peggy Mason

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“I hope it will be of interest to many generations of middle schoolers and maybe even inspire an NHD project one day,” says Elliott.

SAS parent Guy Elliott has been interested in photographer Edward S. Curtis since 1990 when he was renting one half of an old Victorian house in the Lake of the Isles district of Minneapolis. The owner, Chris Cardozo, was a leading expert in the field and a dealer in Curtis photogravures and other material.

OF CONFLICTS AND COMPROMISES: NATIONAL HISTORY DAY By

KINJAL SHAH Communications Writer

Fascinated by the Republication Project which is celebrating the 150th anniversary of Curtis’ birth, SAS parent Guy Elliott connected with Matthew Elms. Elliott thought that perhaps the reference edition would be an interesting addition to the middle school library. The rest, as they say, is history! The first batch of five volumes of The North American Indian Complete Reference Edition™ arrived at SAS on February 5.

Twenty volumes, 20 portfolios, 2,234 photographic prints, 5,023 pages of text and over 2,500,000 words and special characters—a delight for any history buff! There are only around 220 originals of this vast collection ever published, and this is the first of the Reference Edition that Chris Cardozo is republishing.

from SAS is working on research papers, websites, exhibits, documentaries, and performances based on the theme of Conflict and Compromise.

Hosted by SAS for the first time and in its Seven years ago, Matthew seventh year Elms, middle school social in South Asia, studies teacher at Singapore School, and Ryan National History American Campbell, a former teacher at British School Jakarta Day focuses brought National History on historical Day to South Asia. Hosted at SAS this year, the contest research, anticipates 250 participants interpretation, from 15 schools across seven countries—India, Indonesia, and creative Malaysia, Pakistan, the Singapore, expression for Philippines, and Thailand. The top two projects from each of the 18 middle school will compete in and high school categories the finals at the University of Maryland, College Park in students.

June this year.

Eight months. Over 100

hours of research. Tears.

Frustration. Elation. And so much learning. Welcome to National History Day (NHD).

“There should be a warning label on the program with a skull and crossbones: Not for the faint hearted!,” says freshman Noemi Elliott.

From projects on World War I to Galileo’s conflict with the Catholic Church, to more contemporary issues about hostage crises in the 1970s and 80s—a variety of interests will see the light of day during NHD. At the time of writing this, students are finalizing their projects with four weeks to showtime! The 70-strong middle school contingent

Within the constraints of time and theme, students learn how to work with a group, persevere, work through adversity, show grit and rigor, and overcome obstacles to get the job done. A lot of those require lifelong learning skills that our students exemplify—the SAS desired student learning outcomes of content knowledge, cultural competence, character, collaboration, communication, critical thinking, and creativity.

As part of the high school mentor program, students work closely with middle schoolers on NHD projects.

Guiding writing, questioning research, sharing ideas, and engaging in academic

discussions—watching a mentee learn and grow makes for an insightful high school experience.

Senior Tanvi Gupta first participated in NHD as a sixth grader and then as an eighth grader. She looks forward to NHD every year and has been volunteering for the last four years.

“The NHD project was a defining experience in Noemi’s SAS education.

Watching her working on a project for 10 months, diving deep into research, and then diving deeper and deeper into original sources was pretty amazing,” says Guy Elliott, an SAS parent since 2010. The Elliotts recently donated a rare Complete Reference Edition™ of Edward Curtis’ magnum opus, The North American Indian—an invaluable resource for NHD students— to the middle school library.

“Ultimately NHD is a validation and support for students who want to work hard. The harder they are willing to work, the more they get out of the program.

Ask any NHD participant and they’ll tell you about the rigor and hard work it takes to complete one project.” says Elms.

SAS will be hosting the event for the next two years, and hopes to engage the local community—local schools and universities, and other international universities— encouraging participation in the contest.

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Climbing Wall A favorite with students and teachers, the climbing wall at SAS is used for physical education classes in both middle school and high school. Arranged around the gym are 10 climbing stations with fixed anchors and ropes for belaying, and four cabled auto-belay stations allowing students to climb safely without the assistance of a belay-partner. The gym also has a raised metal platform, high on one wall and accessible by a built-in ladder, for instructing students on how to rappel (abseil), or descend safely on a hanging rope.

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A 33-foot high indoor rock climbing wall offers you the chance to enjoy everything from recreational climbing to more intensive climbing if you’re looking to improve your technical skills.

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Practice your bouldering skills and sharpen climbing techniques as you focus on the wall’s surface features, strategically planning each move.

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Exercise your brain muscles even as you work your limbs! Figure out where to put your feet so you can push yourself upward to reach a higher hold with your hand. Problem-solving skills are applied every time you look for the next hold.

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More than 370 students enjoy a good climb each week. In addition to this, there are a handful of teachers and other staff members who enjoy workouts here.

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By KINJAL SHAH Communications Writer

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In order for a child to learn, the mind and body must work together. This is why a perceptual motor program is important in the early years. The perceptual motor program at SAS focuses on developing the whole child, physically, cognitively, and social emotionally. It also offers a transdisciplinary experience and encourages the core values of compassion, honesty, fairness, respect, and responsibility.

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“My favorite thing about teaching the program is to see the joy and delight on a student’s face when they get excited about things and they squeal and laugh. When they push themselves, leading to that aha! moment as they experience or achieve something for the first time. The self efficacy that the student enjoys in that moment is priceless” says Mr. Donaghey.

The Harlem Globetrotters, Singapore American School dancers, and even athletes, all have it.

People like Homer Simpson, Mr. Bean, and me?

Not so much!

What? You ask.

The moves.

These moves, or perceptual motor skills as we would call them, play an integral role in our lives.

What’s the big deal?

We are constantly calling upon them when we write, walk, play sport, dress...you name it. We don’t even know we need them!

Helping children develop to their full potential requires addressing their physical, mental, and emotional needs. Elementary schools across the world focus on academic and emotional development. How many actually address physical development?

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Is it important? Can we do without it?

More and more current research shows that programs focused on improving children’s physical skills enhance not only their physical health, but also their academic and emotional health!

Perceptual motor skills allow sensory information to be successfully obtained and understood with appropriate reaction.

Perceptual deals with obtaining information and motor refers to the outcome of movement.

Perceptual motor activities require children to use their brain and body together to accomplish tasks—for example, playing catch while reciting the alphabet.

Addressing perceptual motor needs at SAS Our primary goal in the perceptual motor program at Singapore American School is to teach students a range of fundamental movement skills, along with gross motor and fine motor skills. We do this in a fun, safe environment and aim to incorporate learning

opportunities that are being explored in the regular kindergarten classroom into movement.

For example when students are engaging in their poetry unit, we incorporate poems into perceptual motor—helping students move their bodies while reciting them.

The program is also geared towards socialemotional skill development. We allow students to have voice in their activities and aim to embed our desired student learning outcomes (DSLOs) and core values within each class. Students learn to share, take turns, think critically, and show compassion when trying new activities for the first time.

Unlike other schools, many of whom share their gross motor learning spaces, SAS boasts a dedicated space catering to the perceptual motor needs of students. This unique and inviting space caters for the ability to create and host up to a dozen stations at one time—climbing on a rock wall, swinging on a high bar, using a rope ladder, riding on a vehicle propelled by the student’s own body weight, throwing, catching, and bouncing a ball, building things using fine motor skills— students are allowed choice.

“It is great to see over 20 students move fluidly through the room. It’s like poetry in motion with kids having a great time,” says Kevin Donaghey, perceptual motor teacher at SAS. Perceptual motor program at SAS The perceptual motor program at SAS started more than 20 years ago and 220 students go through the program every year. It was earlier aligned with physical education classes and then moved to a dedicated perceptual motor space.

Movement matters. Every day, there are new articles including research which highlights the downside of prolonged sedentary activity or sitting for long periods of time. This is not only detrimental to our productivity, but also impacts our overall health. When students are able to take a brain break and move their bodies, they can reflect, recharge, and produce natural endorphins from their physical movements. These endorphins provide them with self efficacy they need to challenge themselves and experience success.

The program caters to dynamic and static balance, fine motor skills, and gross motor skills. Students may be given a box of objects and asked to build something using their creativity and imagination. They play with engineering tools, hammering stations, and even nuts and bolts. The program integrates learning in the classroom with transdisciplinary skills from science, math, and English. These concepts are used during the perceptual motor class and vice versa with motor skills and understanding being transferred back into the classroom.

During the recent festival of reading, students used poetry units and props for static and dynamic balance activities, spatial awareness, and social emotional learning. When learning math concepts, students can roll dice and manipulate objects depending on the mathematical outcome.

Science concepts are reinforced through playing with objects that require pushing and pulling forces, all these movement activities allow the students to experience concepts learned in the classroom and gain a better understanding of them while reinforcing the message through movement.

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IMMERSE. ENGAGE. SOAR. 53 JOURNEYS

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Play with friends. Ask questions. Engage with teachers. Now imagine doing all of these in both Chinese and English, as a kindergartener. Students in our inaugural Chinese immersion program move beyond learning a language to using the language to enhance their learning. Supported by native Chinese speaking teachers and instructional assistants, our students are immersed in a collaborative environment that helps them truly hear and be heard in two languages.

SINGAPORE AMERICAN SCHOOL

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By KYLE ALDOUS Director of Communications

How to be Heard in a Noisy World How do you talk less and say more? Check out these skills to help you be more influential and make things happen in a distracted, attentiondeficit world.

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Pop quiz!

How many words on average do we consume each day?

10,000 50,000 100,000

In 2008, IBM and Cisco Systems funded and conducted a study to determine this number. They estimate that the average American consumes roughly 100,000 words each day.

Each year this means you hear or read roughly 36.5 million words. That number has likely crept up since 2008.

Have you ever played the game “telephone” before? Typically, a short sentence kicks things off and is passed around before the original sentence is completely butchered and the content

lost by the time you reach the end of the telephone line.

You might have a great business idea, or a non-profit changing lives, or maybe just a fun personal experience you’re hoping to share with someone.

If you’re trying to communicate anything then you are in a serious competition. You’re competing for attention with the latest Marvel movie, Netflix original, YouTube sensation, SnapChat story, Justin Timberlake album, and juicy Hollywood gossip.

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So in a world where we are all overwhelmed with content how do you stand out?

Stop talking!

You may have been hoping for tips on effective communication or advanced body language, but the fact is, in a world where content is being spewed out by everyone, everywhere, the real way to get ahead and get your message heard is to first stop spewing and start listening, validating, and understanding.

Can’t Fight This Feeling There is a story famously recounted by an American woman named Jennie Jerome (Sir Winston Churchill’s mother). Jennie was a beautiful woman and was admired by many and at one point she had the opportunity to spend an evening with William Gladstone, one of Britain’s prime ministers. Several nights later she had the chance to spend an evening with Benjamin Disraeli, another British prime minister. When she was asked by a newspaper how the evenings went, she replied, “When I left the dining room after sitting next to Gladstone, I thought he was the cleverest man in England. But when I sat next to Disraeli, I left feeling that I was the cleverest woman.”

It is the classic story used to often highlight the cliché “they may forget what you said, but they will never forget how you made them feel.” And because it is cliché, we often discount the value of the message.

Conversation Football So how do we bring feeling to a conversation?

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Ironically, it usually means we say very little. Have you ever thought about how a conversation works? It seems simple, right? One person speaks and then when they finish you pick up the thread of the conversation and continue. The problem with most conversations is that the person who is supposed to be listening is instead simply preparing what they’re going to say next. This is where the majority of miscommunication happens.

Because as you’re thinking about what to say next you are missing out on the nuances of what the person in front of you is saying.

Football is an amazing sport to watch because between each play both teams decide on a certain play to run.

As they come back to start the next play, both groups have locked into something—but the really talented players don’t just put their heads down and run the play they decided on. The best players come to the conversation and take time to observe what the other team is doing and instead of barreling ahead, they adjust and act based on what they see and hear from the other team. Think about an important conversation you’ve had recently. You might have planned out exactly what you were going to say before even starting the conversation.

When you do this—you completely sabotage yourself and your chances for success. If you and I show up to a conversation with preplanned speeches we deliver to one another and simply go back and forth in our delivery—it’s not a conversation. You want to show up to a conversation ready to be agile, nimble, flexible.

Measure Twice—Cut Once Research on motivation by Arie Kruglanski, a social psychologist, and his colleagues at the University of

Maryland suggests that there are two distinct motivational mindsets: a thinking mindset and a doing mindset.

When you listen, you put yourself in a thinking mindset. It gives you a chance to really try to understand what is going on around you. When you focus on planning your next contribution to the conversation, you enter a doing mindset, and you don’t think through the events carefully. Give yourself that chance to think.

Shifting yourself out of a doing mode can be difficult. Often, colleagues come to you with a problem, and so your initial reaction is to prepare yourself to solve the problem.

However, the problem that people come to talk to you about is not always the real problem that needs to be solved. If you jump too quickly into a mode of trying to solve the problem you are facing, you may cure a symptom rather than curing the disease.

Taking the thinking perspective is the conversational equivalent of the carpenter’s saying “Measure twice, cut once.”

The Listening Mind So how do we practically do it? How do we move from running our mouth to a place where we say less, create stronger feelings, and ultimately help ourselves be more heard in a noisy world?

Remove distractions Go to the cafeteria, hawkers, MRT, or any place and just watch groups have conversations. In a very non-scientific study I conducted at the high school cafeteria I noticed entire groups of students having conversations while doing something else at the exact same time. One person is speaking while others are on their laptops or

phones and then they pop their heads up and offer an obligatory laugh or might even miss the comment altogether because they were distracted. In a world where everyone is uber connected to their tech you can stand out and become a person of presence by being 100 percent present in your conversations.

Repeat after Me Get in the habit of repeating back at least some of what colleagues have said to you when you are dealing with important issues. Give that summary before you launch into your own solutions. There are three reasons why this is helpful. You have to listen carefully to what other people have said in order to be able to repeat it back. When you accurately state what other people have said, they feel like you have taken in what they had to say.

As a result, they trust your response more than if they don’t feel they were heard. By repeating it back, you also ensure that you really understood it. If you missed something, you may find you have trouble actually summarizing what was said, and so you can ask for clarification. In addition, your summary gives other conversation participants a chance to correct or clarify the point.

Communication is one of our desired student learning outcomes here at Singapore American School. In a world where 100,000+ words race through your mind each day, you need to learn how to say less and accomplish more to beat out the fierce competition in this real-life attention game.

Tell Me More These three words can save you in almost any conversation...When you are talking with someone there is almost always an opportunity to throw these three words into it. You can use other variations of them but the concept is the same. The goal is to give the person you’re talking with the chance to go deeper, to move beyond surface level conversation. Remember our goal is to be so engaged and to create this feeling of validation and understanding that when you invite someone to explain more, or share more about something they get excited and you create a connection.

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By K AT E B U C K N A L L M i d d l e S c h o o l Te a c h e r

Gearing up for another three weeks of TRi Time, middle school teacher Kate Bucknall highlights past experiences and is excited for the next adventure that her students undertake.

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Question. Investigate. Create. Reflect.

This is the inquiry process our middle school students followed during TRi Time in November and December last year. Teachers also experienced this process in their training, and many mastered the process last March. For teachers, TRi Time covers many of the skills that we teach in our classes. TRi Time, however, allows for a more independent range of choices, from graphic design to historical research, to physical activity.

It is thrilling to watch and assist students as they develop a wide range of life-skills. They learn to be independent in choosing an area of focus, to pitch their idea, to make tweaks to their proposal, to find their own materials, and to conduct research. They also learn to collaborate with others, to reflect on their inquiry process, to face failure and move past it, to embrace personal growth, and to share their learning with others.

Not only do students come up with their ideas to investigate, but they also have to solve their problems when they hit a roadblock.

For many teachers, watching and assisting students face a challenge and overcome it is the most impressive growth we see. A student’s ability to develop resilience when they face a roadblock and learn to adapt and move past it is an important life-skill.

Donna Volpitta, a coauthor of The Resilience Formula: A Guide to Proactive, Not Reactive, Parenting, argues that resilience has a much broader meaning nowadays. It doesn’t just mean living in poverty or facing a tough life situation; it means responding to any type of challenge which helps with coping skills and learning how to find solutions to problems of all sorts. Volpitta says, ‘Using everyday setbacks to explore new and better ways to approach things helps all kids...It can help them build self-awareness and selfadvocacy skills. It can also help them develop new strategies and tools for solving problems. And it can boost their motivation and self-esteem.’ For our students, developing their resilience in ways that are increasingly independent is an important area of growth.

We see the skills mentioned by Volpitta transferring into their everyday school life as they learn to be more proactive, confident, and ultimately, independent.

As a parent of older children, I realize it is important to be able to develop and follow through with projects independently. My daughter who graduated from SAS in 2015 did not have the chance to experience independent projects at SAS. So when she had to manage one for an internship, it was pretty stressful for her.

We’re already gearing up for another three weeks of TRi Time this semester. Students in my classes are already reflecting on their last project, laughing about their roadblocks, and planning for a new project ahead. As their TRi Time teacher, I’m looking forward to guiding students through the struggles and successes of their next adventure.

Muqriz A. Project: Working on my graphic novel adaptation of my favorite book, Scythe Roadblock: Even with the Wacom Cintiq software, it was hard to form the graphic novel. To make this make sense to you, it’s like if you had an infinite number of clothes, bags, and jewelry. You could make an infinite number of outfits and combinations but which one is the best?

Solution: That was one of the dilemmas I faced but after a good halfhour of sketching I found my art style and after that, it was a creative flow. I presented all my work to my homebase via a speed drawing video (with commentary from me.)

Claire T. Project: Write an essay about the Holocaust Roadblock: Working out my driving questions and finishing the project in three weeks. Making sure I included important parts of my research.

Solution: When going over my notes I realized that one of my anecdotes related back to Anne Frank who I have read so many books about. I totally forgot all about her and how she was part of the Holocaust. Her story helped me to better focus my work and my understanding of the Holocaust.

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C a r e e r S p e a k e r S e r i e s

By QUEST TEAM

Executives and industry professionals from top firms shared their success stories, how they made it and outlined the fundamental aspects of preparing f o r a c a r e e r.

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In September 2017, the Singapore American School Quest program launched one of the most popular events in high school—the Quest Career Speaker Series.

Tapping into the community’s valuable pool of experienced professionals, high-caliber executives from a variety of industries were invited to offer students insights into current and future industry trends and potential career paths.

From engineering to marketing, biomedical research, law, and even art and architecture—the series hosted a diverse group of speakers from organizations like ExxonMobil, Johnson & Johnson, National University of Singapore, The Coca-Cola Company, and many more! Answering questions about challenges, career paths, and the skills required, speakers shared how their career journeys unfolded in unexpected ways.

The Quest Career Speaker Series is a rare opportunity for high school students to get access to and engage in a direct conversation with industry insiders and understand their passion, and learn what it takes to succeed. A fantastic opportunity to network, form connections to the real world, and to be inspired, the series is a unique platform that allows students to benefit from the program’s mission of pursuing their curiosity and passion.

Managed and led by students from start to finish, the series provides practical learning opportunities as they select speakers, make contact, and organize schedules and equipment. Managing time and available resources to overcome obstacles, solve problems, and network, the students are able to extend the Quest experience.

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By DEREK SMITH (Class of 2002)

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A Well-Lit Path Derek Jackson Smith (Class of 2002) fondly recalls his time at SAS and the experiences that added to the heart o f w h a t h e i s t o d a y—a n i n n o v a t o r .

My dad’s job as the head of Asia for a US multinational brought me to Singapore in the early 1990s when I was in second grade. I had never been overseas and I was coming from a small town in South Carolina. As I took in the bright city lights, the lush tropical landscape, and the sheer number of people navigating public transport on this Little Red Dot, I remember being in awe.

An expat himself, my father was born in Hong Kong, and raised in Japan and Taiwan (he is an alumnus of the Taipei American School).

With a passion for Asia and all things Asian, he was excited to offer his children a similar opportunity to experience the world. My mother is from a small town in Ohio, and although she had never lived overseas, she immediately took to the culture and lifestyle.

Singapore was a very different place then. My family encouraged me to overcome my fear of moving to a foreign country and embrace new experiences. At Singapore American School, I soon started enjoying myself. I was active in several sports, but my heart was set on soccer. My friends and I were long-time teammates on the soccer field, making us formidable opponents at every IASAS tournament. I have very fond memories of taking home the gold!

While soccer was my focus, I also played varsity rugby and softball— both at IASAS. I wasn’t a natural at either, but I like to think I held my own!

After leaving SAS, I attended Southern Methodist University (SMU) in Dallas, Texas. I had never been to Texas either, though Texas was home to two of my grandparents. I was in for a shock...but leave it to the SAS community to make you feel at home. Another SAS Eagle called me on my first day and really helped me to feel welcome. What an amazing way to start my time at SMU. A shout out to John Fletcher Wheeler (Class of 1999)!

I graduated from SMU in 2006 with degrees in Cultural Anthropology and Chinese. It was my time spent in Singapore and traveling across Asia that guided me when it came to tertiary education. I had an innate passion for different cultures and for being able to communicate with them!

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In my opinion, SAS is one of the most amazing communities I’ve ever been a part of (if not the best). I have remained close with many people from SAS, and everyone has been incredibly supportive and encouraging.

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I also met my wife, Elizabeth Dachs, while at SMU. A native Texan, she has helped me develop a love for the Lone Star State.

Fifteen years, a wife, and two kids (soon to be three) later, I am happily calling Texas home!

My first job out of college was with a large Taiwanese LED manufacturer. Talk about another cultural experience! Boy did I learn a lot! I found the industry to be exciting, dynamic, and extremely fast paced. I was hooked and received sound training, making me fall in love with the world of lighting systems. I have now spent my career working in the LED sector in various product development and sales and marketing roles.

Frustrated with owning too many different personal lighting products (headlamps, flashlights, lanterns, bike lights, etc.), my brother-in-law and I saw an emerging opportunity and set out to develop a unique product. We set up our company in Dallas— Thirty Third Parallel (Dallas is located on the 33rd Parallel North)—to re-imagine the limitations of personal lighting.

Teaming up with an incredible design firm and engineers (with backgrounds at IDEO, Samsung, Apple, and Tesla, to name a few), we developed a modular lighting system that we call Portable, Adaptive Lighting (or simply PAL).

Our goal is to create a lighting system that is as versatile as people’s’ lives—and we believe that we did just that. Lighting is such an important part of our lives, but it can also be a very limiting factor. With convenient access to lighting, people can get so much more out of the night! Knowing that I am helping people to really brings me joy and motivation.

A desire to create led me to love driving innovation. As co-founder and chief innovation officer at Thirty Third Parallel, I lead the sales, marketing, and product development efforts (among other roles).

As part of our go-to-market strategy, we recently launched a Kickstarter project—an incredibly thrilling and at the same time, a nerve racking experience—one I won’t forget anytime soon.

Not only did my time at SAS open me up to the larger world, it opened me up to a progressive world filled with opportunity, and people with experience and offers of support. Thirty Third Parallel has a big give-back element—we have partnered with like-minded charitable organizations to help support outdoor adventures for underprivileged urban youth. I can’t help but feel like my Interim Semester experiences helped to develop this interest of our company. Everyone deserves the opportunity to get outside and enjoy the great outdoors—not only is it healthy, but it also helps people develop crucial life skills like communication, leadership, and confidence. And in our case, going for our dreams!

I have two older siblings that also graduated from SAS—my older brother—Perry or P.D. Smith (Class of 1997) and an older sister— Lindsay Smith, (Class of 1998). I was the youngest and the last to graduate—but now I feel like I am the lucky one as I was able to spend the most time living in Singapore!

Some of my closest friends from SAS— Andrew Wigmore (Class of 2002) and Jeremy Chang (Class of 2002) live only a few miles from me (in Dallas). In fact, my son and Andrew’s son are in the same daycare class.

So we now have second-generation Eagles being raised together in Dallas.

In my opinion, SAS is one of the most amazing communities I’ve ever been a part of (if not the best). I have remained close with many people from SAS, and everyone has been incredibly supportive and encouraging. I don’t think I would be where I am today if it weren’t for all of them. And despite the distance between us and the time that has passed, there is a great joy and bond that we all share from growing up in Singapore.

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For Donovan Chandler (Class of 2003) one science lesson during his junior year about angular momentum changed the direction of his life. Fifteen years later as an entrepreneur he is still using that lesson every single day.

“I can still remember sitting in Mr. Crawford’s physics class my junior year as we learned about angular momentum.

If you make a spinning object smaller, it will spin faster. If you make a spinning object bigger it will spin slower. That afternoon I went to the gymnastics room and learned a standing back flip. If I jumped up and backward as a straight bodied object I was going to spin slowly. But when I tucked into a ball I became a fast spinning object.”

Who knew that a high school science lesson would lead to the creation of Skyline Trapeze, a thriving enterprise with Donovan Chandler (Class of 2003) at the helm?

Donovan Chandler discovered gymnastics at SAS for the first time at age 17 when his mom told him she signed up his younger brother for class. One trip to the SAS gymnastics room led to another and then another. While most gymnasts start young and find the foundational skills useful as they explore other sports later in life, Chandler was a multisport athlete who found that gymnastics combined all of the skills he had previously developed while participating in soccer, football, swimming, dance, and track. After graduating from SAS he walked on to the US Naval Academy’s gymnastics team. He trained with the gymnastics team and became a tumbler on the varsity cheerleading squad.

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I recently stopped by SAS while my ship was in transit from Australia to Hong Kong and I was able to meet Fred Crawford and give him a hug. I don’t know if he’ll ever fully understand how his physics course in my junior has affected my life.

Chandler dreamt of flying helicopters for the Marines. After several years at the Academy, majoring in physics, he realized the best path to his dream would be to graduate from a civilian school first and then apply to the Marines. He secured a scholarship for the cheerleading squad at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas during his junior year and headed West.

After graduating from UNLV with a degree in pre-Law and a minor in Math, he attempted to go back into the Marines only to aggravate an old knee injury. Working in Atlanta on a tunneling project skyrocketed his career to a supervisory role with Southland Contracting in Washington DC. As he settled in and reconnected with old friends from the Academy, he was drawn to a new hobby: flying trapeze. During the first class, his gymnastics background and understanding of motion and movement earned him a job offer from the owner as a catcher.

After two years the Washington DC tunnel project wrapped up and the next offer came: a project further up north. After five years of 80-hour work weeks Chandler was ready for a change. Instead of pursuing work in the snow,

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Chandler opted for something a bit warmer. He pitched his boss on taking a six month leave of absence to pursue flying trapeze at various Club Med resorts around the world. His boss signed off and said to come back when he was ready for the next project.

Chandler intensified his circus training in DC and job offers began rolling in. His first break came with Circus Vargas in California. Soon after, a one-month contract in Dubai. Things snowballed from there and Chandler officially joined the professional world of performers.

The work was exciting but ultimately made it

difficult to save money. He needed a home base between gigs and had been dating a woman who lived in Dallas, Texas. He moved to Dallas and opened his own trapeze training facility. While the relationship ultimately fizzled, the business flourished.

As the sole proprietor and operator of Skyline Trapeze, Chandler is involved in everything from trapeze rig maintenance, invoicing, loads of email, and many of the day-to-day operations of the business, but his favorite part of work is getting to teach. “There is something magical about seeing eight to 10 random people walk in at the beginning of the class, and watching them transform from nervous, timid, strangers into a group of laughing, smiling, confident friends who all just accomplished something together that they never imagined they would be able to do.”

Skyline Trapeze operates with 12 employees, offering classes six days a week. Currently, they are the only flying trapeze company contracted by Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines where they spend one week each month on board their ships inspecting and maintaining their equipment, and training their staff.

“Teaching my staff is the best. I get to take the most capable people I meet, offer them an opportunity of a lifetime, and then groom them into instructors and performers who have the ability to travel the world and earn a living doing something that most people would never dream possible! My instructors come from various backgrounds (ice-skating instructors, competition rodeo riders, professional skydivers, competition rock climbers, professional swing dancers, gymnastics, ninja warrior trainers, etc) and we all get to share those realms of expertise with each other. That’s why I do what I do,” Chandler said.

Fifteen years later Chandler still speaks fondly of Mr. Crawford. “I attribute all of my successes in gymnastics, cheerleading, flying trapeze, and tunneling, to the fact that I understand how the world works. It all started in his classroom on the first floor near the cafeteria,” he said.

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By KRISTINA DOSS Staff Writer

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Self-confessed geography nerd, world traveler, and biological sciences fan, the teenage Michelle Schmitz (Class of 2007) wanted to become an epidemiologist after she experienced the SARS outbreak in Singapore.

Singapore American School families normally use spring break as a chance to explore the little red dot and beyond, but in 2003 many—including the family of Michelle Schmitz (Class of 2007)— stayed home due to an outbreak of a severe and deadly form of pneumonia called Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).

Most teens would be bored to tears stuck at home, even if it’s for a good reason. However, Schmitz—who was 12 years old at the time, and attended SAS with her twin sister, Nicole Schmitz—was intrigued by the spread of SARS and how the city-state successfully handled the outbreak. In fact, the experience would go on to inspire Schmitz to pursue a career in epidemiology.

“Living through SARS, around the same time that I read Berton Roueché’s The Medical Detectives, was fundamental to my burgeoning interests in biological sciences and epidemiology,” said Schmitz, who is now an award-winning research fellow for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, Georgia.

According to the CDC website, epidemiologists are like disease detectives. When a disease such as SARS or other health problems emerges and spreads, epidemiologists look for clues and use statistical analysis to find out how a particular health problem was introduced, identify new diseases, find out what caused them, and make recommendations on how to control the spread of the disease or prevent a future occurrence.

In order to join the ranks of disease sleuths, Schmitz needed more than an inspirational experience and a good read. She required a solid education that would give her a special set of skills.

The New York native, who moved to Singapore with her family in 1998 and attended SAS until she graduated in 2007, didn’t exactly have a roadmap on how to get to where she wanted to go. After all, public health—even amid the SARS outbreak—wasn’t necessarily a popular or well-known field to pursue among her peers. But she found a way to get there.

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Schmitz took Advanced Placement (AP) Biology, AP Chemistry, AP Physics C, and a biotechnology elective, along with AP Calculus AB and AP Statistics, during her time at SAS. More importantly, Schmitz says she didn’t stay trapped in science classrooms and labs. In fact, some of her most vivid memories—besides having to dissect a cat in AP Bio—was of traveling the world. Thanks to SAS’s Interim Semester program, the self-described geography-nerd snorkeled in Australia, scuba dived in Palau, camped in Bhutan, and even discovered a love for the German language in Austria, which she would go on to learn in college.

“One thing about living overseas for so long, I love geography, maps, traveling, and things like that,” Schmitz said. “This comes into play because my specialization is in a field called spatial epidemiology…I particularly look at the effect of geographic place on disease control or under the control of different health factors.”

Schmitz earned a Bachelors of Arts in Biological Sciences, with minors in Human Rights Studies and Statistics, from the University of Chicago—degrees which she says provided her with skills that are “essential” for an epidemiologist.

Schmitz’s education didn’t stop there. She also received a Master of Science in Public Health (MSPH) in Global Epidemiology from Emory University Rollins School of Public Health—the only university in the United States, she says, that has a specific work-study agreement with the CDC.

Now an Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE) fellow at the CDC, she uses her statistics, spatial analysis, and health-services background to look at how maternal complications and mortality cluster geographically so that her team can see if the burden of disease is greater in certain areas of sub-Saharan Africa.

The team—which includes obstetriciangynecologists, midwives, data analysts, and researchers like her—also specializes in building health systems in the absence of vital registration records such as birth and death certificates in Cameroon, Zambia, Tanzania, and Uganda. “We help conduct activities that can better estimate populations of women of reproductive age, women delivering in facilities, women who die before/during/after childbirth, health facility strength, fertility rates, among other things,” Schmitz said.

“The hypothesis for many people is that these conditions happen in areas that are far from adequate health care,” Schmitz said, who specifically supports project activities in Tanzania and Uganda. “Knowing where to provide facilities that can most adequately serve the population has sometimes been a guessing game, which it shouldn’t be.

Estimating how individuals travel to access healthcare is important because it gives policymakers more ability to adequately allocate healthcare.”

To be sure, it is not always uplifting work— particularly when she’s hearing stories about complications and deaths while out in the field in Tanzania and Uganda. “It reminds me that it’s not just numbers, it’s people,” Schmitz

“I still have The Medical Detectives: The Classic Collection of Award-Winning Medical Investigative Reporting more than 14 years later, dog-eared, ripped cover, and all,” she said.

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said. “When I’m behind the computer analyzing the data, I don’t notice it as much, but when I’m in the field and directly reading registers at facilities, I notice it more.”

That said, her job is rewarding. “I love epidemiology as I can help an entire community as a whole by understanding the factors behind the underlying health conditions, so people are less likely to experience them in the future,” she said.

“I essentially get to help to count and document different populations, and help to understand the factors behind one of the biggest, and most preventable health problems out there.”

Her job isn’t just rewarding personally. Her team won the 2016 CDC/Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry Honor Award for Excellence in Surveillance in Health Monitoring on the international side for their work. (Schmitz is based in the Field Services Branch in the Division of Reproductive Health, under the Global Reproductive Evidence for Action Team, or GREAT for short.)

When Schmitz isn’t working, she is most likely plotting her next adventure.

“My one fun claim to fame is that my friends joke that I’ve been to more places than anyone else,” said Schmitz, who—true to her statistician tendencies—has a running spreadsheet of all the countries she’s traveled to, which numbers somewhere in the 40s.

Of course, this begs the question: where to next?

“The biggest time change in the world is between Afghanistan and China,” she says, explaining that a trip across the border would satisfy her inner geonerd. “That, or the ‘stans, or Botswana, or Namibia.”

In the meantime, Schmitz will travel for work. She currently travels to project areas about three to four times a year, with each trip being two to four weeks in duration.

If only 12-year-old Schmitz could see herself now.

“I still have The Medical Detectives: The Classic Collection of Award-Winning Medical Investigative Reporting more than 14 years later, dog-eared, ripped cover, and all,” she said.

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Making the world a better place By ASHLEY ENTWISTLE Eighth Grade

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A global environmental, animal welfare, and humanitarian youth outreach programme in 110 countries, Roots and Shoots empowers young people to do their part in solving human, animal welfare, and environmental problems in their communities.

“The least I can do is speak out for those who cannot speak for themselves,” stated Jane Goodall, who is one of the founders of the Roots and Shoots Organization.

The mission of this service organization is to inspire individuals to take action to make the world a better place for people, animals, and the environment. The Roots and Shoots Club at Singapore American School was the first chapter in Singapore and has been involved in countless campaigns to help accomplish the mission.

A well-received ongoing campaign is the annual picnic with Humanitarian Organization for Migration Economics. A picnic and a donation drive hosted earlier in the year allowed club members to get a glimpse of migrant workers’ lives—those who have been abused or had their rights stolen. The Roots and Shoots Club was touched after hearing about the hardships the workers had experienced.

“Roots and Shoots is a great opportunity to do service and make friends at the same time,” said Gargi S., a seventh grader,

who enjoyed spending the Saturday morning with her friends at the picnic. “Connecting with the domestic helpers during the picnic encouraged me to step out of my comfort zone.” Smiles lit up the faces of the domestic helpers, Roots and Shoots members, and other SAS volunteers as they enjoyed games, dancing, good food, and a community of friends.

On the environment side of things, this year the club once again teamed up with the high school Roots and Shoots Chapter (SAVE club) and many other members of the SAS community for the annual International Coastal Cleanup Singapore. It was the definition of stuck in the mud as heavy rain left the grounds saturated. Despite the mess, it was a fun way to clean up mangroves from trash that not many people knew had collected there.

“One powerful thing about the club is that students plan the actions they are going to take,” said Mr. Arleth, eighth grade ELA teacher and Roots and Shoots leader. Another highlight this year was when the club reached out to Animal Concerns Research

and Education Society (ACRES), a wildlife rescue facility primarily focused on rescuing snakes, turtles, and other smaller animals. The animals at the facility were either trafficked, injured, or owned as illegal pets. The trip Roots and Shoots took to ACRES gave the club an insight into how humans can protect and improve the lives of animals.

“Even if it seems like you can’t do anything, you can still make a difference,” quoted Miles H., a sixth grader who joined Roots and Shoots this year. Miles wrote a book called Endangered Animals and won an award for his dedication to Roots and Shoots at the island-wide conference last autumn. Miles, along with other Roots and Shoots and SAVE Club members also had the opportunity to meet with and share their project highlights with Dr. Goodall when she visited Singapore in August!

The Roots and Shoots Club is open to all middle school students and welcomes newcomers at anytime.

Meetings take place on Thursday afternoons in M125.

We ship internationally!

WHY I GIVE A N I N T E RV I E W W IT H SUZ ANNE H E AT HOR N

(E L E M E N TA RY S C HO O L TE AC HE R )

By SARAH MORRIS Chief Advancement Officer

How long has your family been part of the Singapore American School community?

My child Izak joined the SAS community in 2006 going into second grade. My younger son Zavier joined the community in 2009 starting at pre-k. I have been working in the elementary school for 13 years now.

Why did you choose SAS? SAS has a reputation that has surpassed itself in the international school community. I was working for another international school in 1996, and it was often mentioned among my colleagues that SAS was a leader in education. It was a school that had the reputation of putting students first. It was an institution that honored professional learning and prided itself on staying focused on education. It was a school that was not about making a profit but making a difference in children’s lives.

Tell us why you volunteer at SAS? I have always felt that SAS was like a family and a community. My colleagues uphold the core values of the school such as compassion and responsibility. I am part of the Active Girl Guides clubs here helping with their art badges. Being an ex-Brownie and Girl Guide myself, it has been a joy to see the girls learn new skills through their badges.

I am also part of 100 Women Singapore where women can join together and nominate and donate to local Singaporean causes that are not always government funded. My gift to SAS has been a part of giving back to a community I believe in. It has been a rewarding experience to dedicate my resources to the services of teachers like Thomas Schultz who like many staff at SAS shared his passion, skills, and talents with my child Izak—who, even after graduating—aspires to be an active alumnus and help in the Drama class in high school. I

have also been a recipient of a parent’s donation and I have been touched knowing I made a difference.

What excites you about the education at SAS? I believe SAS is creating exceptional thinkers of the future. My son Izak, now serving in Singapore National Service as a policeman has truly benefited from the education at SAS. I often say SAS did not just enrich Izaks mind but his soul. Izak has said that going to SAS gave him an excellent foundation to meet the rigorous academic and physical demands of the police force and respect and understand the reason for the training and academic work. He excelled in his studies and he was mindful of respecting his peers around him. Students from over 55 countries attend SAS and Izak was exposed to understanding and respecting cultural differences and learning from those. Izak felt SAS gave him the skills needed to understand how to problem solve and think for himself during different academic exams applying his knowledge directly to problem solve different potentially life-threatening scenarios that Singapore police face on a daily basis.

Why do you choose to support the SAS Foundation?

I believe that giving back in honor of teachers that have touched our children’s lives is a true way of showing our appreciation. I value how the advancement team at SAS connected with me to share how my gift contributed to the ongoing development of the school.

Why is it important for the community to support SAS? I believe if we all contributed a gift to the foundation, we can feel we have supported a community that believes in the future of children—that each person is recognizing that this school does make a difference and that there is no other school like it in the world.

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1

IN MEMORY OF KENDRA PAYNE (CLASS OF 2002)

The Kendra Payne Memorial Biathlon held in December last year saw SAS varsity swimmers take on a 1,000-meter swim and run the two-kilometer course. Kendra Chiota Payne (Class of 2002) was a colorful individual whose strong athletic abilities were matched by her humility. She encouraged others to believe in themselves and inspired them to go after their heartfelt dreams and goals. In January 2006, Kendra was killed in an accident during a triathlon-training bicycle ride in Santa Barbara, California.

2

SAS FOUNDATION RECEIVES S$3 MILLION—SECOND LARGEST IN THE SCHOOL’S HISTORY The SAS Foundation is the beneficiary of a S$3 million gift from the Lim family in honor of the late Dr. Lim Kee Ming, to continue the school’s journey towards a personalized learning curriculum as part of its strategic plan. The gift from the Lim family will enable SAS to add faculty resources to develop the curriculum and assessment frameworks that will be required to shift to a fully personalized curriculum.

The impact will be profound, influencing learning for students across all grade levels, and for generations to come.

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3

RARE BOOK COLLECTION NOW AT SAS

Thanks to the Elliott family, the SAS middle school library has received The North American Indian Complete Reference Edition™ by Edward S. Curtis. The first batch of five volumes of arrived in February, and has been an important resource for our National History Day students. There are only around 220 originals of this vast collection ever published, and this is the first of the reference edition that Chris Cardozo is republishing.

4

BOSS BABY CREATOR COMES TO SAS

Designed to foster the love of reading and literacy, this year’s annual Festival of Reading played host to Marla Frazee of Boss Baby fame. An American author and illustrator of children’s literature with two Caldecott Honors to her name, Frazee worked with students from early learning center to fifth grade, talking about the art of writing a book. Frazee was invited as part of the SAS PTA and SAS Foundationfunded academic visitors-in-residence program.

5

PUPPETEERS PERFORM AND WORKSHOP WITH STUDENTS

Puppeteers Robin Lee Holm and David Wright of Adzooks Puppets worked in-residence with SAS early learning center kids showing them how to create magic from light and shadow! Adzooks Puppets was invited as part of the SAS PTA and SAS Foundation-funded academic visitors-in-residence program.

6

KINDERGARTEN STUDENTS CELEBRATE HOUR OF CODE

Millions of children and adults celebrate Hour of Code every year in more than 180 countries. In December 2017, Kelli Buxton, Alison Cuthbert, kindergarteners, and first graders participated in an Hour of Code event at SAS to celebrate this internationally recognized week. Students learned more about coding and used Osmo Coding Kits to practice coding skills.

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7

SHINING IN THE GOA SPOTLIGHT

Junior Anna Bierley was spotlighted as a changemaker for her project in the Genocide and Human Rights Global Online Academy course. SAS is a member of the Global Online Academy—a consortium of top independent schools around the world with a mission to replicate in online classrooms the intellectually rigorous programs and excellent teaching that are hallmarks of its member schools.

8

WINNING STREAK ON ICE

Congratulations our ice queens! Fifth grader Sissi G. finished in third place while seventh grader Emma G. came in first at the 2018 Singapore National Figure Skating Championship.

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9

HORSEPOWER FOR THE WIN

Junior Victoria Yang received the Singapore National Young Rider of the Year award from the Equestrian Federation of Singapore. The award is given to the rider (16 and under) who has achieved the most points across 12 separate showjumping competitions in a year. She achieved double the number of points to the next competitor. In 2017, Yang was awarded the ‘Olympic Pathway’ award by the Equestrian Federation of Singapore, given to four young riders (15-20 years old). Yang was the only non-Singaporean recognized.

10 EAGLES ATTEND HARVARD

MODEL CONGRESS AT HKU

SAS Eagles and faculty member Lauren Murphy spent a weekend in January at The University of Hong Kong—HKU—香港大學 attending the Harvard Model Congress Asia and representing the school. This was an incredible opportunity to learn about government, connect with new people, and grow as public speakers.

11 NDHS WELCOMES

NEW INDUCTEES

Congratulations to our newest members of the National Dance Honor Society: Luke Anderson, Sara Arora, Joslyn Blass, Kristen Chen, Katherine Egan, Genevieve Felder, Brianna Grant, Patricia Guirao, Joy Jaensubhakij, Lauren Lee, Rachel Lee, Mika Martin, Radhe Patel, Ushmil Sarkar, Ashna Vaidyanath, and Unnati Yagnik.

12 SETTING THE BAR HIGH

Congratulations to fifth grader Tahnee B. for placing fifth overall at the UWC South East Asia East Dragons Gymnastics Invitational 2018. With 20 athletes participating in level four Junior category, Tahnee won a silver in the floor event, bronze in the vault event, placed sixth on uneven bar, and placed ninth in the beam event.

13 JIU JITSU JOY FOR

SIXTH GRADER

Sixth grader Natalie T. won the gold in the Dream Jiu Jitsu as well as the world-renowned kids Jiu-Jitsu competition PanKids 2018! Natalie has become the first Singaporean and the first representative from any Singapore gym to win gold at this prestigious event.

14 AMIS ENSEMBLE GOES TO

HONG KONG

The SAS middle school strings troupe attended the Association for Music in International Schools Asian Middle School Honor Orchestra hosted by the Hong Kong International School! Students had the opportunity to play in a 70-student strings orchestra with students from 11 other schools. The festival culminated in a gala concert to a full audience.

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15 SAS ROCKS DEBATE AND

FORENSICS AT IASAS CULCON

17 SNHS SAYS HELLO TO

NEW INDUCTEES

A fantastic finish to the SAS-hosted Debate and Congratulations to our newest members of Forensics part of IASAS Cultural Convention. Eagles the Science National Honor Society: Hari Balaji, swept up the Original Oratory category with twoTaylor Buechel, Alan Chang, Anya Devgan, Maria time gold medal winner Priyanka Aiyer bagging Ellsworth, Elizabeth Frey, Debora Ghosh, John gold, Malena Ramnath winning silver, and three-time Hahn, Jessie Hong, Seoyoung Hwang, Yoon Kang, IASAS delegate Hana Matsudaira winning bronze!

Min Sung Kang, Shivastu Kartik, Ahan Kaul, Paul Sophomore Regina Bernardo won silver for Oral Kim, Gary Kim, Brenda Lee, Veronica Lee, Ryan Interpretation, and Faisal Halabeya and Abby Fry Lee, Yoojin Lee, Varun Narayan, Rohit Narayanan, were finalists for Impromptu Speaking. The Eagles Raghav Narayanswamy, Anisha Nilakanta, Tanvi also won silver and bronze in Debate. Hats off to SAS Rajeev, Yash Talekar, Christina Yoh, Luka Yoshioka, teachers, administrators, and students who pitched in Diana Yuan. to put on a memorable and exciting convention.

16 EAGLES SOAR AT FIRST LEGO

LEAGUE COMPETITION

Middle and elementary school students walked away with five and six awards respectively at the First Lego League competition held in March.

Students worked for over five months coding robots and practicing presentations in preparation for the event. A shout out to all parent and faculty members for their dedication!

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18 JUNIOR BAGS MILITARY YOUTH

OF THE YEAR AWARD

The Singapore Area Coordinator (SAC) recognized junior Ryan Walker as its 2018 Boys and Girls Clubs of America (BGCA) Military Youth of the Year. This is the second year in a row that Walker has received the award.

19 I AM MALALA AUTHOR

VISITS SAS

Visiting-author-in-residence Patricia McCormick worked with middle schoolers, delving into the art and process of storytelling and writing as they engage more deeply with characters, settings, conflicts, and themes related to social justice. Shout out to the SAS PTA and the SAS Foundation for the opportunities our students receive.

20 SAS EDTECH COACH

PUBLISHES BOOK

Patrick Green, education technology coordinator and site director for the Global Online Academy for SAS, recently published a book titled 50 Ways to Use YouTube in the Classroom. His new book bridges the digital gap and brings YouTube inside the classrooms in engaging ways.

21 ELEMENTARY CHINESE TEACHER

CREATES APP

Many times parents asked Shuna Sun, elementary Chinese teacher, for information about a fun Chinese story app that children could use at home to enjoy learning the language. When no suitable ones were found, she decided to create one. Two years later, an interactive fun Chinese app—Baobao Guoguo—was finally published in the Apple App Store.

22 ONE FOR OUR MATHLETES

SAS students did an amazing job at the recent South East Asia Math Competition (SEAMC).

Earning more individual medals than any other team, SAS brought home the Warry Cup—the top honor—as the highest scoring team overall for the fourth year in a row!

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40 woodlands street 41 Singapore 738547 Phone: (65) 6363 3403 WEB: WWW.SAS.EDU.SG QUESTIONS? EMAIL US AT COMMUNICATIONS@SAS.EDU.SG CPE Registration No.: 196400340R Registration Period: 22 June 2017 to 21 June 2023 Accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) © 2018 Singapore American School All rights reserved.