The Interim Semester program at the high school reflected the direction in which SAS was heading. The program had originally been limited to travel in the Asia Pacific region, but this restriction was lifted in the early 1990s. Courses were offered in Greece, France, Spain, Kenya, Austria/ Hungary, and Switzerland. The program had gone global. Beginning with the Nepal courses, which support the Ladakh School, the number of Interim programs with a service component grew progressively. Habitat for Humanity projects were organized in the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand and Fiji. Students helped provide technology to schools in Bintan, Indonesia, and most recently, groups traveling to tsunami-hit areas in Thailand and India in 2005 carried donated funds for schools and children impacted. Community service projects also extended beyond Asia as students raised funds for projects in India, Africa and even the United States. In the 2000s school-wide fundraising took on an added dimension with drives that included relief for world disasters, from September 11 to the 2005 trio: the Asian Tsunami, Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf Coast, and the India/Pakistan earthquake. Students continued to pledge their support to regional activities, such as house-building trips in Cambodia and Thailand, and to community
organizations with which they have developed strong relationships. Even kindergarten classes routinely walked three blocks from the school to help work with patients at the Adventist Rehabilitation Center, an activity initiated by long-term kindergarten teacher Eileen Sonnack together with the primary school administration.
Top: Eileen Sonnack's first grade students join her in leading a song and Opposite: Middle school students began a community service project to exercise activity with residents at the Adventist Rehabilitation Centre in the provide refurbished computers to schools on the nearby island of Bintan in Woodlands neighborhood.. Indonesia. The successful project has led to increased involvement year after year with Bintan schools and now also involves intermediate and high school Bottom: Eighth grade students with teacher Kurt Johnson pose with the students. Cambodian family whose house they have helped to build.
WOODLANDS & A NEW MILLENNIUM 209