Taipei American School Alumni News Magazine | 2022

TAIPEI AMERICAN SCHOOL ALUMNI NEWS

Front row sitting (left to right):Jacqueline Miao ’19, Stephanie Chiang ’09, Brenda Lin ’94, Kendra Ing ’16, Evelyn Chen ’03, Samantha Lee ’12

Second row sitting and kneeling (left to right): Stephanie Lee ’04, Stephanie Hsieh ’04, Sarah Peters ’95, Karen Wang ’04, Julie Tuan ’93, Sarah Ting ’12, Michelle Kao ’03

Back row standing (left to right): Betty Chang ’92, Maria Peters ’89, Jim Boyle ’76, Allen Yin Jr ’16, Joey Chen ’98, Sarah Wu ’13, Sanders McMillan ’13, Jessica Huang ’11, Weston Cooper ’08

Not pictured: Louisa Christen ’15, Henry Chuang ’12, Irene Fang ’01, Thomas Hall ’17, Sam Heagney ’04, Joan Ho ’08, Iris Hsu ’13, Julia Lee ’11, Mike Leu ’03, Adrian Town ’13, Cheryl (Quek) Lagerquist ’98, Vincente Tang ’68, Stacey Ward ’76, Lily Yang ’14, Nicky Yeung ’99

ABOUT THE MAGAZINE

The TAS Alumni News Magazine is published by the

to alumni, faculty, and former faculty. Update your contact information with us: Send an email to alumni@tas.edu.tw with your current contact information. Fill out the online update form: www.tas.edu.tw/alumni > Stay Engaged

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EMBRACING FAILURE BEFORE SUCCESS AT TAS

The Head of School, Director of College Counseling, and Director of the Tech Cube spoke with lower school parents on the importance of failure for students.

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CHEERLEADING THROUGH THE DECADES

The Taipei American School cheerleading program was a treasured tradition from the late 1950s to the early 2000s. The sport’s evolution leaves behind many fun memories for alumni and former faculty.

CELEBRATING OUR TIGER BABIES

The front cover features our oldest and youngest alumni faculty members, Jim Boyle ’76 and Kendra Ing ’16, who both joined the faculty in the 2021-22 school year, next to the Thinker statue. All photos courtesy of TAS, unless otherwise indicated.

Shan Lee Ives, Assistant Alumni and Community Outreach Officer

Connie Ma, Alumni and Community Outreach Officer

HEAD OF SCHOOL LETTER TO ALUMNI

Dear Alumni,

Happy Year of the Tiger to our Tigers near and far! Although we certainly think that every year is the year of the Tiger here at Taipei American School, it is exciting that in my first official year of headship I am able to yell it from the proverbial mountain tops. What an incredible year to be a Tiger.

I am grateful to be able to lead such a resilient and vibrant school, a school that continues to grow just as our students, employees, and alumni continue to do throughout their lifetimes, proudly calling themselves Tigers long after leaving our campus.

This year, the Alumni Office has made a concerted effort to deepen its relationship with each one of you, and it is my hope that you will join us in making this the best Year of the Tiger that it can possibly be. This year alone the Alumni Office has sponsored (or co-sponsored) over twenty events, each designed to meet you in your journey wherever you are. We hope to continue to learn with and from each of you.

One area of school life that I would like to draw your attention to is our continued commitment to the principles of justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion (JEDI). In the TAS Community Commitment drafted and approved by the School’s leadership team nearly two years ago, we intentionally commit our entire community - including the alumni community - to fostering a culture of justice, equity, diversity and inclusion that embodies anti-bias action and accountability. This year, we are so proud and thankful that alumni like you have taken this commitment to heart, helping us to achieve a consistent message between our school’s past, present and future as we strive to help everyone develop a deeper understanding of our own identities, biases, privileges and choices. In this school year alone…

• The Alumni Office has often partnered with the TAS Cultural Connection (TASCC) parent group and my office to offer several different learning opportunities that bridge the parent and alumni community. Alumni Officer Connie Ma and upper school teacher Darby Sinclair offered two parent workshops on “Understanding Our Identities” in October 2021. Nine of those parents who attended volunteered to become trainers who would lead workshops for other parents and participated in a “Train the Trainer” session facilitated by both Connie Ma and lower school librarian Brianna Pannell in February 2022.

• The TASCC and the Alumni Office also brought in Shawna Yang Ryan to discuss her book “Green Island.” She talked about her experiences in Taiwan as a Taiwanese American. The Alumni Office also brought in author Abigail Hing Wen to discuss Asian American Identity with the parent and alumni community. She also spoke with middle and upper school children.

• Several TAS alumni have banded together to create a DEIthemed podcast to discuss topics including how aspects of our identity intersect to impact discrimination, mental health, microaggressions, and more. Victoria Yeh ’16 and Brendan Wong ’17, created “Taipei Tiger Talk” in collaboration with

the school’s JEDI organization and have met with both the Communications and Alumni Offices along with the TASCC to broaden its reach.

Suffice to say, it’s exciting to see such a strong commitment from our historical base as fired up about this important work as we are here on campus.

At the end of last school year when I wrote a letter to you as your interim Head of School, I was excited to introduce the alumni community to the revised mission statement and the TAS Strategic Plan covering the years 2021-2026. We are well into the first year of this plan, a plan which provides a clear and important framework for the School’s largest shared goals. The fifth (and final) category of this plan is called “Strengthening the TAS Community,” and it includes clear language that inspires me on a daily basis. Essentially, over the next four years, I want you to stay tuned for even more communication from me and from TAS as we continue to engage and build a culture that supports each Tiger.

One part of this multifaceted strategic area relates to the TAS brand - what we stand for both internally within our own community and externally. A school’s brand is not its logo, tagline, or stationery; rather, it includes an organization’s reputation, emotional resonance, history, and much more. A stronger understanding of our brand will ultimately help us to strengthen the TAS community through a shared understanding of who we are (and who we are not). I’ve made this effort a major priority to ensure that we’re doing our very best to invite families and faculty to see TAS for who we really are.

In my time as Head of School, I’ve observed that we often struggle to articulate clearly what makes us unique, and what our unique approach to whole-child education means for our students. It’s time we work together to construct a way of expressing ourselves that is both authentic and compelling, from the inside out. This project is NOT about changing who or what we are. In fact, it’s about codifying the BEST of the School so that we can all continue to talk about TAS with consistency, clarity, and confidence.

I look forward to sharing more about the project with you as it progresses. Ultimately, it is our hope and objective to have a clear brand, clarified through community participation and input, one that reflects both our organization’s rich history and our aspirations for the future, as outlined in our mission statement, to guide both operational and communications decisions going forward.

I invite you to come along with us for the exciting year we still have before us. Whether you attend an alumni event, volunteer your time, or return to learn on our campus virtually, we hope to connect with each one of you. May you and your family remain in good health and keep the Tiger spirit with you until we are able to see you in person again soon.

With thanks,

Grace Cheng Dodge, Ed.D Head of School

EMBRACING FAILURE BEFORE SUCCESS AT TAS

By Lindsey Kundel, Director of Communication

Head of School Dr. Grace Cheng Dodge, in collaboration with Director of College Counseling Ms. Melanie Brennand Hamre and Director of the Tech Cube Mr. Matt Fagen, spoke to lower school parents on January 19, 2022 on the importance of failure for students at Taipei American School. A decade ago, Dr. Dodge herself led the college counseling team at TAS. “I was asked by the former lower school and middle school principals to address parents of younger students as to how TAS prepares students for a life after graduating from TAS or from another high school,” said Dodge. “What are we teaching your children and why do WE think it’s important?” The answer? Taipei American School wants our students to fail, a concept which they discussed for over an hour with parents.

“Regardless if you and your family stay at TAS until graduation,” Dodge said that she hopes the presentation will give both “reassurance and optimism” as to what an American-based curriculum at an independent school can do for children. Failure isn’t wrong, she warned. But a lack of failure in a child’s life can wreak havoc on their growth. She went on to explain that at TAS, we care more about our student’s entire KA-12 learning journey and the empowerment that we want each student to feel while in school. That, said Dodge, is why we work in this KA-12 environment.

One important takeaway Dodge hopes parents understood is that a school is no longer a place of rote memorization, says Dodge. Instead, Dodge reminded parents that it is those students who can acquire and apply both soft skills and a depth of character to every problem they need to solve and interaction they will have who will thrive in today’s world.

“We hope you are not thinking how to strategize crafting a child who will be a strong college applicant,” said Dodge. “Instead, we hope you are thinking of how you allow your child to be their best self, best self-advocate and allow that individuality to blossom.”

A child’s best self is not determined by a test score, nor is their self-worth determined by which college they attend – a point made by both Dodge and Hamre.

Ms. Hamre discussed in detail the college application process for juniors and seniors. Their journey is to find a college that is a good fit for their individual passions and potential and not just a name brand. Hamre says that failure is an important part of the college counseling process because a student needs to have developed both resilience and a growth mindset prior to graduation in order to be considered a successful applicant at many colleges today.

“Many articles, research, shows this is a continual process and skill to be nurtured and practiced. Failure is a critical component of this and not something to be afraid of,” said Hamre.

Ms. Hamre encouraged lower school parents to begin to see risk-taking and acceptance of failure as a key soft skill that parents should want to see from their children. This will help them throughout their time at TAS, and it will help them as they begin to think about which college they might want to attend and beyond.

The presentation culminated with remarks from Matt Fagen who shared his own personal experiences with failure and (eventual) success. When he began his teaching career, he found that the lecture-based model of teaching he experienced as a student only reached a few students in each class.

“I changed my approach, and the results were dramatic,” said

Head of School Dr. Grace Cheng Dodge addresses parents on how TAS prepares students for success

Fagen. “I started teaching physics in a hands-on style where students got to decide on physical projects that demonstrated the principles we were studying. Same material, but when students got to not only experiment, but decide on how to experiment, and when they started to fail, and realize everything wasn’t prefabricated with a predetermined outcome for success, something really beautiful started to happen in the class. The students were all engaged. They felt there was something real at stake. It was exciting to them that I didn’t know the correct answer and how the experiments would end up. And they came to life. And comprehension went way up! Not just for a few students, but for a majority of students.”

He says that the secret to his (and the Tech Cube program’s) success is that the Tech Cube isn’t actually about robots. “[Robotics] is a chance to figure out their value and what they can contribute to a team, and that each person is valuable for a different reason, and it’s a chance to learn to take joy in trying and failing,” said Fagen. “This is a skill they will absolutely need in our future.”

All three speakers wove a common theme, that of encouraging our community to more closely align our definitions of success with joy, and to let all know that failure IS success – or at least the only possible path there.

Director of the Tech Cube Mr. Matt Fagen shares his story about how failure provides an opportunity for learning

Director of College Counseling Ms. Melanie Brennand Hamre discusses the importance of developing resilience in the college application process

TAS STUDENT PRESENTS PAPER ON GAME-BASED LEARNING FOR CHEMISTRY

By Lindsey Kundel, Director of Communication

Another TAS student is in the news again for presenting their learning at an international conference. Senior Elaine T. was chosen to present at the 15th European Conference on Games Based Learning, which took place online from September 23-24, 2021.

Elaine’s presentation is titled “Development and Assessment of A Board Game for Learning Compound Solubility.” According to her teacher and advisor, Steve Anderson, she first approached him with an idea to develop a card game meant to teach and reinforce solubility rules.

“She loves card and board games and was able to parlay that interest and her love of chemistry into the game, which she not only made but also tested out with test groups of students and measuring improvements,” said Anderson. “She ultimately submitted a superbly written paper for the conference.”

Elaine agrees with her teacher’s assessment. “In my household, board games aren’t just a hobby,” said Elaine. “They’re more like a passion. We have roughly 103 different board games at home.”

To Elaine, board games are the perfect stress reliever for a person of almost any age, and she strongly recommends them to her upper school peers. “We all struggle academically, and we all need some support. Board games can offer that for students,” said Elaine.

Anderson says that Elaine is a natural teacher. “Early on

last year [in AP Chemistry], Elaine discovered that her best study approach was to explain concepts to other students,” said Anderson. “This realization was the impetus behind her establishing a group help chat she called ’Elaine’s Help Desk.’”

Elaine ended up creating the game when she was preparing to serve as a TA for Anderson’s summer Honors Chemistry class. Even though the class ended up being canceled due to COVID-19, Elaine still delivered this game idea from initial brainstorming to the eventual prototype in service of her fellow students.

“Most of my favorite classes are in the STEM subjects,” said Elaine. “And so for this current game, I asked myself, what is something that we all struggle with in chemistry? I quickly realized that many of us struggle with the same thing: memorizing the solubility rules. I spent more than one semester designing the game and improving it.”

Elaine has since taken her game development to the next level. She is currently manufacturing the game on a small scale and investigating different platforms on which to sell the game. Her ultimate goal, however, is not to make money, but to continue to help other students through gamification of learning.

In the future, Elaine hopes to be able to combine her love of STEM with her love of helping others by studying computer science and education. “I hope that I can develop something cool for future students and continue to work on games that give students a fun learning experience,” said Elaine.

TAS JEDI COMMITTEE CONTINUES TO EXPAND ITS WORK

By Amanda Jacob, Interim Academic Dean

For the last two school years, the TAS community has committed itself to fostering “a culture of justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion that embodies anti-bias action and accountability” and to doing “the work necessary to maintain an inclusive, diverse, and welcoming environment for all.” The school-wide JEDI committee, divisional JEDI committees, and the TAS Cultural Connection (TASCC) parent group are working hard to make this commitment a reality. This excerpt from the report focuses on what TAS students are engaged in. For the full JEDI Committee report, including sections on Faculty, Staff, Parent, and Alumni involvement, please visit the TAS News website.

The four goals of anti-bias education that anchor the work around the world are:

• Identity – Each child will demonstrate self-awareness, confidence, family pride, and positive social/group identities.

• Diversity – Each child will express comfort and joy with human diversity, accurate language for human differences, and deep, caring human connections.

• Justice – Each child will increasingly recognize unfairness (injustice), have the language to describe unfairness, and understand that unfairness hurts.

• Activism – Each child will demonstrate a sense of empowerment and the skills to act, with others or alone, against prejudice and/or discriminatory actions.

Across the three divisions, faculty are finding ways to infuse this work into the students’ days through advisory, integrated work within the curriculum, and opportunities outside of class.

• During the first day of Middle School, children met with their homeroom advisors to learn about and discuss the School’s JEDI goals. They built charters for their homerooms to help make the goals a reality. The Middle School also planned five extended advisory lessons across the year with pre- and post-discussions during regular advisory sessions. The extended lessons have focused on the language we use to talk about identity, diversity, empathy, gender, advocacy, and privilege.

• Middle school librarian Carol Youssif has joined Project LIT and hosts monthly book club talks when she shares books around a monthly diversity theme (for example, physical, gender, ability, socio-economic differences). There is a lucky draw, and one child walks away with one title. Carol continues to research, purchase, and promote diverse books within the library and with English teachers.

• Upper school librarian Cassy Lee has been working with her student group, The Archivists, to display and recommend diverse books. The group asked English and history teachers for book recommendations for Black History Month and have been featuring the books that have had an impact on them on Instagram and the Upper School Information Commons website. The Archivists are also planning a Human Library event for May when they will invite in people from marginalized groups to serve as “human books,” sharing their experiences with small groups of students.

• All students in the Upper School read the graphic novel “American Born Chinese” over the summer. Follow-up sessions during advisory helped students explore their own identities and those of the characters in the book. The author, Gene Luen Yang, spoke with the students about writing the book and his experiences moving to the US.

• Motivational speaker Anthony Kelley met with our Grade 9 students to watch and discuss his documentary, “A Journey Through Conflict and Identity.” As the students asked questions about his life, Anthony shared tools for managing emotions, stress, and anger.

Knowing the importance of students reading literature that provides them with mirrors in which they see themselves and windows in which they come to understand people with different identities and experiences, the lower school language arts representatives for each grade level researched new own-voice titles and books with more diverse characters to add to the classroom libraries for read-aloud and independent reading. The representatives have also been studying and piloting effective ways to use read aloud to help students explore identity, diversity, and fairness. During the next school year, they will share the effective practices they have learned with the rest of their grade level team.

In all divisions, faculty are finding ways to weave JEDI goals into the existing curriculum.

• In the Lower School, Grade 2 students study how needs and wants are met within a community. This year, the teachers helped the students focus on the unmet needs of less privileged members of the community.

• Grade 5 students and the upper school students in the International Relations course partnered up for a multipart learning exchange involving research projects and podcasts about Taiwan and what it means to be Taiwanese.

Grade 9 students watch a scene from motivational speaker

Anthony Kelley’s film “A Conflict Through Conflict and Identity”

• In the Middle School, many JEDI-related goals have been woven into the history curriculum through discussions of how different people have been treated by governments and cultures over the years, including one especially poignant example in Grade 7, where students learned about the industrial age’s racist immigration policies through an interactive game.

• Another example includes offering diverse choral selections representing different cultures and languages for the winter concert, which has historically focused on music from Christian cultures. This year’s offerings included songs in English, Hebrew, Latin, and Scottish Gaelic, among others.

Upper school curricular offerings, in particular, continue to abound and expand.

• The Grade 10 English classes read a collection of essays, novels, poems, and articles about identity and privilege

to support in-depth conversations and analytical writing.

• Anthony Kelley and Tobie Openshaw worked with 50 IB Global Politics and International Relations students for 6 class periods on the question of reconciliation within a human rights context. They evaluated three case studies: South Africa Apartheid, Black Lives Matter, and Indigenous Taiwan. They compared the processes of reconciliations within the framework of each human rights violation.  Fish Tung led an additional lesson to this class on Indigenous Culture focusing on her own affiliation with the Amis tribe of Taiwan. She has been asked to assist with lessons in both the Lower and Middle Schools later this spring.

• Since SY2016-17, the Upper School has continued to offer Dr. Erika Soublet’s Honors Seminar: History of Minorities in America with strong enrollment and interest (with the exception of one school year). The class was originally created to provide more diversity

Yosifu, an Amis contemporary artist, shared his personal journey with TAS students and also inspired them to create self-portraits

“American Born Chinese” Graphic novel author Gene Luen Yang spoke with middle and upper school students about his book

in the history curriculum, something which the JEDI task force will continue to help examine and address over time. This class, which is open to juniors and seniors, examines the history of minorities – women, Black/ African Americans, Asian Americans, HispanicLatinx Americans, Indigenous Americans, people with disabilities, and the LGBTQ+ community – from their perspective as opposed to other perspectives. Students explore how current events have been impacted by history to develop a deeper understanding of the interconnected histories of marginalized communities and explore solutions.

Students are also getting involved in JEDI-related activities outside of the curriculum through extracurricular and club activities.

• The Middle School continues to offer two important clubs for students interested in DEI topics: Rainbow Tigers and Project LIT.

• The Upper School, with almost 80 clubs, has multiple offerings for students including the DEI group, Rise

Up leadership summit, ChildAware Club, Girls in STEM, Indigenous Impact club, Initiative Formosa, International Culture Club, LGBTQ Alliance, Neurodiversity Club, Walk for Refugees, World Vision and others. The DEI group was started by a group of upper school students interested in creating a safe space that welcomes all upper school students to discuss social issues within the TAS community and the greater world. Already this year, they have discussed identity, privilege, neurodiversity, and calling in/ calling out. Upper school sponsors Ryan Haynes, Erika Soublet, Kendra Ing, and Chase Williams help the group accomplish their goals.

Our work toward making the goals of the JEDI Community Commitment a reality is just beginning. This is something we freely admit because it will take time and ongoing commitment to make sure that TAS is “an inclusive, diverse, and welcoming environment for all.” We are committed to the work ahead because we believe that it will make the world a more just place and help our children succeed wherever their future takes them.

TAS SERVES AS COVID-19 VACCINATION CENTER FOR CONSENTING MIDDLE AND UPPER SCHOOL STUDENTS

By Lindsey Kundel, Director of Communication

On Friday, October 1, 2021 and Friday, January 14, 2022 Taipei American School was able to provide first and second shot COVID-19 vaccines on our campus to consenting middle and upper school students as part of a larger governmental vaccination program aimed at increasing the vaccination rate of the younger demographic in Taiwan.

Students who were born on or before September 1, 2009, were eligible to take part, and their families had to complete a governmental consent form to register for both vaccination sessions.

For both clinics, students in the Upper School were scheduled to receive their vaccines in the morning, whereas middle school students received their vaccines after lunch. Both divisions adjusted content and activities to ensure that if students were not feeling well after the vaccine that they would not miss essential material.

TAS had professional medical personnel on hand to assist with and ensure the well-being of each child. The process for vaccination included verifying student names, taking temperatures, and a brief evaluation by a doctor before receiving a vaccine behind a privacy screen. After the

30-minute observation window, students could return to class unless they felt unwell.

Head of School Dr. Grace Cheng Dodge said that she was "very happy" that the Taiwan government matched TAS with Yang Ming Hospital to provide vaccines to eligible students.

In addition to medical personnel from Yang Ming Hospital, the TAS health, administrative and counseling teams, along with employee volunteers from around the School, spent much of the day in the gym caring for students before, during, and after they received their vaccine.

Upper school psychologist Sherri Grande described the event as "historic," noting that when she was growing up, it was commonplace for vaccinations to take place at school. She acknowledged that this is not the norm nowadays, but expressed both happiness and gratitude for being able to support our students in yet another way to keep them safe.

The COVID-19 vaccine is not currently required to attend Taipei American School, but if students have received full vaccinations, the Health Office encourages families to submit that health data to its office in order to keep up-to-date vaccination records for students.

TRAVELING THE WORLD IN 2020

- ANNIE WU SU ’89’S

COVID-19 FAMILY GAP YEAR

By Connie Ma, Alumni and Community Outreach Officer

WHY A FAMILY GAP YEAR?

“When I look at my life story, the concept of traveling began at TAS,” recalls Annie. “During my three years as a Tiger, I joined IASAS and traveled to the Philippines for the first time in my life. The sights, sounds, culture, food and people left an impression. Joining ’Journeys into Asian Culture’ organized by Mr. Arnold impacted me for life, sowing the seeds to see the world from a new lens. Over 35 years, this seed developed into my own expanded edition: Journeys into World Culture— Becoming a Global Citizen.”

In 2001, Jonathan quit his consulting job to pursue his childhood dream of helping the poor and the marginalized by doing community development. The family moved to Kunming, China so Jonathan

could work for World Vision. “It was an intriguing but exhausting season for me raising three young children in a new country while Jonathan had extensive work trips either to the villages or doing urban projects for the rural migrants,” Annie remembers. “What I did enjoy was finding out who I was. I was treated as a foreigner despite looking Asian and given the grace to be different. We found our tribe in the local expat community: people from around the world, converging in China to do something meaningful and significant while building our families cross-culturally.”

The idea of taking a family gap year evolved out of necessity for Annie and Jonathan. “Our marriage crashed by 2003. We were fighting all the time and had to make hard decisions: either divorce or get help. In 2007, our counselors encouraged us to create our own marriage and family vision statement, just like companies have their vision statement.” Annie wanted

Who would take their family with three children on a travel gap year around the world in 2020? Maybe only a family that has already done it twice. In 2020, Annie Wu Su ’89 and her husband, Jonathan Su, took a leap of faith repeating what they began with their children in 2008 and 2015. This team of five survived multiple quarantines, COVID-19 tests and uncertainties to make it through 13 countries, four continents, and the pandemic throughout 2020 and 2021.

Annie and her family on the beaches of Portugal on their third gap year in 2020

their marriage to be a safe harbor for emotional healing and spiritual growth, while Jonathan envisioned a family life of fun, adventure and shared life experiences. Due for their first sabbatical after working on the field for seven years, they decided to try developing a new family culture through a shared gap year.

“In 2008, we spent our first family gap year together: three months in South America, three months home schooling in North America, and 6 months living in a Yi village near the Lijiang region,” Annie recalls. “Our children were 11, 8 and 6 years old, and we had the time of our life! Despite having the least amount of resources, we thrived. In the village, we cooked out of a fire pit in the ground, shared the outhouse with the pigs, and took showers at the police station next door. Our 8-year old son was tasked by the Grandma the job of starting the fire, like any other kid in the village.” For entertainment, the family read Chronicles of Narnia out loud at night by the fire pit and huddled in bed together watching 《 三國演義 》(Romance of the Three Kingdoms). “Even though our kids had the least, both Jonathan and I were there living a simple family life with them full time.”

For their second gap year in 2015, the family chose to explore the Silk Road together on a budget. “We used to invite backpackers to our home when they passed through our village. They introduced us to Couchsurfing for backpackers, Warmshowers for cyclists, and Workaway, which is volunteering in exchange for room and board,” explains Annie. “In Egypt, we worked at a hostel near the pyramids of Giza. In Kazakhstan, we worked on an organic farm, where we helped them harvest organic tomatoes and chili peppers. In India, we served at the orphanage that Mother Teresa established.” Throughout their Silk Road Journey, the family broke bread and shared life with their hosts who are now a part of their family too, from Sudanese and Palestinian refugees to Jews, Jordanians, and many more. In 2015, with the encouragement of families and friends, Jonathan and Annie published a book on their first gap year experiences from 2008, entitled “

” (No Work, No School--A Family’s Journey to the Ends of the Earth).

WHY TRAVEL IN 2020?

Originally, Annie and Jonathan thought 2020 would be the best time for a final gap year, because “our oldest Olivia would be graduating from college, our youngest Joani would be graduating from high school, and our middle son Nathan could take a gap year between his second and third year of college.” Despite the pandemic, the family decided to go ahead with the gap year in order to prioritize their mental and emotional health as a family.

For a big change, the family could not choose where to go. “We went to whatever country was open and would take our passports,” admits Annie. “In August, we started by flying to the United Kingdom, staying at vacant homes of friends and family in Bath and hiked Hadrian’s Wall. We camped in Wales and stayed in Stamford and London. When the door to Portugal opened, we stayed in Lagos and played spike ball on the beach. We harvested twelve tons of grapes as Workaway volunteers at a vineyard in the Dao Valley, and walked the Camino de Santiago in Spain.” Finally, they were able to fly to Africa in October. “We were invited to volunteer at the British Language School in Morocco teaching conversational English. We were able to visit the Sahara Desert, walk the streets of Fez and Marrakesh, and make friends with street vendors in Casablanca. In late November, we flew to South Africa to meet many old friends.” In Africa, they spent a memorable few months trekking through Johannesburg, seeing penguins in Cape Town, volunteering at refugee camps in Uganda, staying on Mfangao Island in Lake Victoria, and visiting Chinese communities in Nairobi, Kenya, just to name a few adventures.

In February 2021, Jonathan started feeling unwell and received emergency care at Aga Khan University Hospital in Nairobi, Kenya. Battling severe malaria, he suffered kidney failure, and almost died. “Our medical insurance just expired, and evacuation wasn’t an option. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, we could only take turns taking care of him in the hospital, cooking and bringing him food, playing games with him, and keeping up his spirits,” Annie recalls soberly. “Thanks to the prayers and financial support of friends and family around the world, Jonathan’s kidneys came

Annie (center) with children Nathan (left), Joani (center right), and Olivia (right) on their first family gap year in 2008

back after six rounds of dialysis.” Annie is grateful to the many Tigers around the world who helped out with their medical bills. In April, a fresh round of COVID-19 lockdowns and Jonathan’s health condition made them decide to return to the US to receive COVID-19 vaccinations, receive trauma counseling, and rest and recover. By May, they felt ready to finish up the gap year and made one last fiveweek trip to Mexico, Guatemala and El Salvador.

REFLECTING ON FAMILY, THE PAST, AND ASKING FOR HELP

For Annie and Jonathan, travel has changed from a form of marriage counseling to a form of family building and now into a family lifestyle. These gap years have helped them share their faith with others

around the world and bring their children into adulthood. As a Third Culture Kid raising her own TCK children, Annie is fully aware of the pitfalls. “I told my kids, you’re not a one-shot drink, you’re a blended fruit shake of cultures. Don’t let anyone tell you what to be.”

“The season at TAS isn’t easy for everyone,” Annie remembers. “But it’s priceless because it gave me a way to understand my children’s experience as TCKs and to know there’s a community of people who will get you. Especially during this season of my life when I’m going through menopause, I need support. There’s a safety net of Tigers that will do anything. I’ve seen so many of them around the world in Turkey, Europe, Los Angeles. There’s genuine care because we shared a piece of existence during the most tender part of our life. Tigers can help each other through whatever happens.”

Annie (center) with daughters Olivia (bottom) and Joani (top) in India on their second family gap year in 2015

Annie and her family in Vancouver after finishing their third family gap year in summer 2021 All photos courtesy of Annie Wu Su ’89 Learn about Annie and her family’s adventures through their blog: www.sufamilyadventures.com!

REENVISIONING SOCIETY WITH A RESTORATIVE JUSTICEAPPROACH - AN INTERVIEW WITH MIKA DASHMAN ’93

By Connie Ma, Alumni and Community Outreach Officer

Mika Dashman ’93 had been practicing law in New York City for seven years when she read about restorative justice and changed her career path. Now as the Founding Director of Restorative Justice Initiative, Mika devotes her professional life to advocating for the revolutionary idea of restorative justice that reshapes the way that we think about justice, conflict, and harm and prioritizes human relationships at its core. In this interview, Mika reflects on what brought her to her current work and how it has the potential to change the criminal justice system and educational systems in the United States and other areas.

WHAT WAS YOUR TAS EXPERIENCE LIKE? WHEN DID YOU ARRIVE IN TAIPEI?

My parents were Peace Corps volunteers in the 1960s, and they met in Nigeria. They both had a love of travel, living overseas, and immersing themselves in different cultures. In high school, I started looking at that idea of living abroad. The plan was to live out of the country my junior year and then come back for my senior year for high school, but we ended up arriving in Taipei in November of my senior year of high school. By the time I showed up at TAS, most of my classmates had one foot out the door and were so excited to move back to the US. On the other hand, I was like, “I’m here in Taiwan and I want to immerse myself in this culture.” I had a lot of fun doing drama at TAS. My drama teacher was Mr. Robert Carelli, and I remember traveling to Bangkok for the IASAS

Cultural Convention. We performed “Fools,” which was a Neil Simon play set in a fictional Russian village, which we rehearsed in Taipei and then performed in Bangkok! I also took a photography class at TAS. I remember enlisting various classmates to model for me, and we would run around and scout locations around the city to do photo shoots.

WHAT WAS YOUR FOCUS IN COLLEGE? HOW DID YOU COME TO ATTEND LAW SCHOOL AND BECOME A LAWYER?

I studied theater and dance at Sarah Lawrence College. It had never occurred to me to be a lawyer until I was in my mid-twenties. I started looking for a job that felt meaningful and allowed me to do good in the world but also to pay the rent. That led me to think about going to graduate school. I was interested in law and public policy, and someone told me about the City University of New York (CUNY) School of Law. It’s the only dedicated public interest law school in the country, and only after I learned about CUNY Law did I think I should apply to law school; not because I wanted to be a lawyer, but because I thought it would set me on a path to find that fulfilling job.

WHAT DID YOU PRACTICE LAW IN? HOW DID YOUR LEGAL CAREER LEAD YOU TO RESTORATIVE JUSTICE?

I practiced law for seven and a half years. Most of my clients had HIV/AIDS so they lived with chronic illness and many were not able to work. I did public

Mika Dashman ’93 (Photo by David Lindner)

benefits advocacy, eviction prevention and housing discrimination litigation for my clients. When you’re a lawyer, people entrust you with a lot of information about their lives. It was a tremendous privilege to hear and hold those stories and to be able to turn them into effective advocacy. What I didn’t like was the adversarial nature of the justice system. It didn’t suit my personality and my values to operate within that system where there’s inevitably a winner and a loser. It seemed to me like there had to be a better way of advocating for people, a process through which people could come together and meet in the context of their shared humanity and find common ground. That was the kind of process I wanted to be a part of, not this adversarial system.

WHAT IS THE DEFINITION OF RESTORATIVE JUSTICE?

Restorative justice is an umbrella term. It refers to a set of principles and practices that originate in many different Indigenous cultures around the world. The term, “restorative justice” was coined in the 1970s by Mennonites and it describes a set of values that stand out in contrast to our dominant cultural values, the ones that shape our current criminal justice system, which is adversarial and also extremely punitive and retributive.

Restorative justice asks questions like: What was the harm? Who was impacted? How can we come together to make things as right as possible? In restorative justice, the process and resolution is always going to start with the needs of the survivors or the people who were harmed. In contrast, the criminal justice system is focused on the law that was broken, not the needs of the people who were harmed. This approach represents a different paradigm of justice and comes out of a different cultural context, where there’s a high value placed on the common good as opposed to simply individual rights.

HOW DID YOU LEARN ABOUT RESTORATIVE JUSTICE?

In 2013, I read an article about restorative justice in the New York Times. It was such an epiphany for me: I knew right away that this was the thing I had been looking for, the process that I wanted to be a part of. I realized it exists, it has a name, and it’s used in the criminal justice system… which blew my mind. I started looking into who was doing this work in NYC and how I could get involved. As I began to meet people, I started to understand that the work was quite siloed: people were doing it either in the criminal justice system or in schools, and the work didn’t overlap. Restorative Justice Initiative, which I founded in 2015, serves as this connective tissue; we’re a network of practitioners and advocates, but we’re also an information clearinghouse for all kinds of people who want to learn more about restorative justice processes and facilitation. We bring the community together and connect funders to programs that need resources; we connect schools and

organizations to trainers. We connect organizations and community groups to facilitators when they want to bring someone in to address conflict or harm in their organization.

WHAT ARE THE BIG APPLICATIONS OF RESTORATIVE JUSTICE IN THE UNITED STATES AND IN PARTICULAR WHERE YOU WORK IN NEW YORK CITY?

In the US, more and more people are recognizing the school to prison pipeline as a concept. Research shows that students who are subjected to exclusionary discipline like expulsion and suspensions are many times more likely to wind up involved in the criminal legal system than students who are not. The restorative justice approach has caught on in a lot of schools that are under pressure to rethink their disciplinary policies.

When I first got started, there were a handful of restorative justice pilot programs in New York City public schools. Here in NYC, we have the largest public school system in the country; it’s a vast and

Mika at the Citywide Roundtable on Restorative Approaches in the Bronx, January 2020 (Photo by Maurice Pinzon)

highly politicized bureaucracy but by the end of 2019, we had won a significant victory because the NYC Department of Education announced a commitment to implementing restorative justice programming citywide throughout all middle and high schools. And then the pandemic came, and everything shut down. It’s not clear how the district-wide implementation plan will play out now that schools have reopened. My organization is a member of a coalition called Dignity in Schools New York. It’s an intergenerational coalition to end the school to prison pipeline and rethink exclusionary discipline.

WHAT ARE SOME EXAMPLES OF WHAT YOU’RE DOING AT RESTORATIVE JUSTICE INITIATIVE?

In 2018 we started this participatory action research (PAR) project called On Our Terms. PAR is like a restorative justice approach to research in that the people directly impacted by the research are the researchers. We had NYC public school students, parents, and teachers who we trained to work as researchers interview their peers, distribute surveys, and conduct focus groups. They asked questions

about safety, accountability, and restorative justice in schools. We are raising funds to compile a website with this data and advocacy tools which can be used to inform future campaigns around this issue in schools.

New York City recently made a commitment to allocate several million dollars a year to community restorative justice programming. The Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice hired us to convene an advisory council of restorative justice practitioners and thought leaders for three months this spring to define community restorative justice and make a series of recommendations for how that funding should be allocated over time. Our work was very well received, and they have asked us to continue convening community stakeholders to put together a detailed longer-term strategic plan for this funding.

Mika (right) with RJI Board members at the Citywide Roundtable on Restorative Approaches in the Bronx, January 2020 (Photo by Maurice Pinzon)

CHEERLEADING THROUGH THE DECADES

By Sharon L. ’22, The Blue and Gold, and Connie Ma, Alumni and Community Outreach Officer

The Taipei American School cheerleading program was a treasured tradition here for many decades. From the late 1950s to the early 2000s, middle and upper school students cheered on their fellow classmates in basketball, volleyball, and soccer. Although the program was eventually discontinued, the sport’s evolution leaves behind many fun memories for alumni and former faculty.

CHEERLEADING IN THE 1960S AND 1970S

According to past yearbooks, the cheerleading program started in 1958. The cheerleaders had to try out at the start of the year, where they were divided into two teams: varsity and junior varsity. According to Winnie Tang ’65, the tryouts received a lot of engagement from the students, who watched as the cheerleaders performed in front of a panel of faculty. “Preparing for the tryouts was the most challenging part because you’re always afraid of not being selected, so you want to try your best,” remembered Winnie.

The cheerleaders had routine practice sessions almost

every day of the week, where they choreographed their own cheers and perfected different cheerleading techniques. They also designed their own uniforms, which they wore along with pompoms while cheering for TAS basketball, volleyball and soccer teams throughout the year.

Cheerleading meant a lot to the students who took part. Bernadette Toner-Whitney ’79 said, “I absolutely loved being a cheerleader. It gave me an outlet to express my school spirit and share this passion with all of my classmates.” Bernadette came to Taipei in 1974 with her family. She tried out for the cheerleading squad in Grade 8 in 1975, and joined the junior varsity squad her freshman year. During her sophomore year, she was elected captain.

At that time, the cheerleading program was very much influenced by cheerleading trends from the United States. “We used to have these cheerleading magazines from the US with very small pictures of teams. We would take the photos to a local tailor, and they would create our uniforms. Because I love artifacts, I’ve held on to a lot of my TAS cheerleading memorabilia,” said

Cheerleaders (including Winnie Tang ’65, center) from the 1965 Yearbook

Bernadette. She also contributed four cheerleading uniforms, two sweaters, and two pom poms to TAS, which are now on display in the Upper School Information Commons.

What did cheers sound like at the time? According to Winnie, one cheer called “Go Tiger” began like this: “TAS, around the world, and here we come! From the north to the south, from the east to the west, TAS Tiger is the very best.”

CHEERLEADING AS A SPORT

The cheerleading program started as a single-gender sport for middle and upper school girls, but boys joined the sport as the program expanded and peaked in participation in the late 1980s. Former Associate Athletics/ Activities Director Ms. Kathy Culter recalled seeing the team doing complex stunts involving pyramids and flyers around that time.

Debby Krieger Bever ’90 credited fellow teammates with making that happen. “We were the only squad in our conference that had male cheerleaders. Because of the guys, we were able to do much more complicated stunts and with more safety, because they were able to catch us and spot us.” In 1990, three boys were full

varsity members of the cheerleading squad - Michael Lemme ’92, Peter Hexter ’91, and Alan Crooks ’90. Erin Mahon Wright ’93 was captain in her junior and senior years. “Being a cheerleader was very physically demanding, and required a lot of mental concentration. We had to memorize about 150 cheers, dance routines, and stunts,” said Erin.

Lianne Lim ’94 agreed: “We worked hard in all our routines, sourcing complex dance choreographies overseas then breaking down the moves step by step ourselves.” Lianne joined cheerleading as a freshman and served as captain in the 1994 school year.

Christina Chen ’97, a four-year varsity cheerleader recalled cheers from that time period. “One of the biggest challenges was coming up with new and dynamic routines that could wow the crowds,” she said. “If I think about it, we were quite young back then and never really received proper cheerleading training other than from our own parentled dance classes.”

According to Samantha (Wong) Campbell ’97, who was a cheerleader from 1993 to 1997, “the biggest

Cheerleaders from the 1973 Yearbook

Bernadette Toner-Whitney ’79’s contributions in the USIC Exhibit

challenge for the team was proving themselves to be taken seriously. “Many people don’t think cheerleading is a sport, but we sure did practice just as hard as any other athlete!” said Samanatha. “We spent hours and hours rehearsing and that in itself is quite challenging as well. It was always a bit of a struggle finding places to practice as well.”

Mrs. Nanette Carreon-Ruhter, who served as the faculty sponsor for both cheerleading and The Blue & Gold, agreed. “We practiced a lot, even Saturdays and Sundays and after school,” said Mrs. Carreon-Ruhter. “These girls were indefatigable. They were such perfectionists.” Mrs. Carreon-Ruhter also taught English in the Upper School, and her two sons Ignacio ’96 and Miguel ’95 both attended and graduated from TAS.

“I originally got involved in cheerleading because my boys played basketball. The girls were in my English classes, and they needed a sponsor,” said Mrs. Carreon-Ruhter. “Since I waited for my kids who were at practice, that’s how I started working with the cheerleaders. I didn’t know much about choreography, but I was a mother hen. I gave them advice, and we became like a family.”

MEMORIES OF TRAVELING

The cheerleaders also traveled with other athletic teams on various trips to compete against other schools. Many alumni cheerleaders specifically recalled cheering at the Morrison Academy in Taichung. They also traveled to Hong Kong International School (HKIS) for a Holiday Basketball Tournament, which was the highlight of the year for the cheerleading program, as cheerleaders from each school competed against each other in addition to supporting their respective teams on the sidelines.

Ms. Kathy Cutler remembered, “Traveling to the tournament over the Christmas holiday was a big event for many families. Hong Kong was always really

festive with holiday lights everywhere!” Christina also remembered traveling to Hong Kong. “The TAS cheerleading program back in high school was quite competitive. The varsity basketball team was one of the best in the region so knowing that we could cheer for the very best and attend the yearly Christmas Tournament at HKIS was very appealing to many.”

The cheerleading team also participated when TAS hosted IASAS in Taipei by performing cheers and chants with the Tiger Mascot. Cheerleaders from the early 1990s also remembered visiting Okinawa for a basketball tournament.

REFLECTIONS ON CHEERLEADING

The TAS cheerleading program ended in the early 2000s. According to Ms. Kathy Cutler, it was most likely due to safety concerns. It was also not an IASASapproved sport and did not align with the School’s emphasis on particular seasons for athletic participation. Though the cheerleading program is no longer running at TAS, alumni remember their time here well and cherish the friendships they made along the way.

Bernadette was only at TAS for a few years, but held onto the connections made here. “I made many good friends in my cheerleading team, one of [whom] lives close to me today. We get together a few times every year with other TAS classmates, still to this day,” Bernadette said.

Winnie agreed. “Cheerleading was a mixed group. You were able to interact with people from different backgrounds. In my time, Asian students were in the minority [in the student body]. The majority were white students or families of international diplomats.” She says that cheerleading helped to bridge this racial divide in her time at school.

Samantha and Christina also fondly remember their time here. “Both my brother and I attended TAS. It is by far one of the most significant experiences in my life that has shaped who I am today,” reflected Samantha.

“The DNA of the school is so embedded in who I’ve become today. We learned to work hard and play hard, focus on becoming very well-rounded kids and continue to serve our community when we can,”

Christina said.

Cheerleaders in 1997 (Mrs. Nanette Carreon-Ruhter at far left) (Photo courtesy of Christina Chen ’97)

Cheerleaders on a trip to Okinawa in 1993 (Photo courtesy of Erin Mahon Wright ’93)

CLASS OF 2021 CLASS AGENTS REPORT ON THEIR FIRST SEMESTER OF COLLEGE

By Douglas Lee ’21 and Julianne Vaughan ’21, Class Agents

This article is written jointly by Douglas Lee ’21 and Julianne Vaughan ’21, who represent their class as Class Agents. Douglas and Julianne are currently in their freshman year of college at Northwestern University and Boston University, respectively.

The Class of 2021 will always be remembered for our resilience. Born during the SARS outbreak, we could have never foreseen that 17 years later, our world would once again go into lockdown. While we were lucky to have a “normal” first semester our senior year, a surge in COVID-19 cases in May shut down any hope of having graduation and prom. It felt as though the culmination of our hard work through our elementary, middle, and high school years had led to nothing. As we said our goodbyes to Taiwan, we were at least happy that we could have a normal freshman year at college.

As soon as we set foot in America, we had to acclimate to our new environment. In particular, we were shocked to see so many people walking around the airport. People everywhere were not wearing masks,

which was in stark contrast to the streets of Taiwan. Douglas became skeptical of Northwestern’s plan to go in-person. Julianne was also doubtful that people would adhere to the indoor mask mandates and would be cautious about social distancing in large gatherings. But soon enough, as freshman orientation began, we adjusted to this new sense of “normalcy.” While there were still a small number of reported cases on our campuses each week, we began to have a positive outlook on our freshman year. Douglas was pleased that the state of Illinois issued a statewide mask mandate. Julianne was pleasantly surprised by how her peers prioritized pandemic safety over individual freedoms. The majority of students wore masks properly, even outdoors, and students took contact tracing seriously and would choose to abstain from club bondings and parties. Knowing that most students on campus were vaccinated calmed Julianne’s worries, and she felt welcomed knowing that her peers cared nearly as much about the pandemic as people did in Taiwan.

After one quarter/semester of college, we are in complete agreement that TAS prepared us extremely

Douglas Lee ’21 (left) with fellow alums (left to right) Wilson Huang ’21, Daniel Liu ’21, and Louis Asanaka ’21 who visited Douglas in Chicago over Thanksgiving break

well to handle the academic rigor of college. Even in a quarter system school, where classes are supposed to be more fast-paced, Douglas has not found any trouble keeping up with his work. Douglas’s first-ever class in college was legal studies. As Douglas began learning about the Constitution, he was reminded of his AP US Government class taught by Mr. Williams. Having studied the American justice system at TAS, Douglas found the class to be extremely manageable. In fact, Douglas actually had read some of the required readings for this class in his AP English Language and Composition class. Douglas believes that researching and debating philosophical issues in AP Seminar provided him with a strong foundation that has served him well in his college classes.

In contrast, Boston University has a more traditional semester-based calendar system similar to TAS. Mainly taking introductory courses, Julianne was shocked when she discovered the number of free hours she had each day, because she was used to the time-consuming work of the IB Diploma and the rigorous courses she took in TAS.

Possibly one of Julianne’s favorite parts of college academic life is the wide variety of courses. There were over 50 different topics to choose from in a mandatory writing course for first-year students. Selecting a class called “Commerce and Character,” Julianne dissected economic philosophy readings by renowned philosophers, from Plato and Aristotle to Smith and Marx. Through unfiltered class discussions three times a week, she debated the differing morals and values taught under different economic systems. As a result, Julianne felt that she was learning subjects she was genuinely interested in.

The most significant adjustment we had to make was in regards to our social life. For the first time in years, we both had to make entirely new friends in a completely new environment. Unlike high school, we didn’t have the safety net of meeting people through mutual friends, and Julianne was intimidated at the prospect of finding her “friends for life” in a school of over 16,000 students. Despite this, the thrill and excitement of meeting new people rushed through most freshmen, and the first month of college, we both heard hundreds of “what’s your name, where are you from, and what’s your major?” In both our schools, freshmen would knock on each other’s door just to say hello. In Julianne’s dorm, which consisted of 3 towers, students would even put sticky notes on their windows to communicate with students living in the other towers.

Extracurriculars have also been a big part of our new college life. Like at TAS, there is always a big club fair at the beginning of the year. But unlike TAS, many of the clubs at Northwestern require an application just to be a member. At BU, only a few organizations, such as fraternities and sororities, required applications just for membership. Still, the significantly large number of students on campus meant that auditions or try-outs for leadership positions were highly selective.

Douglas was immediately drawn to the Northwestern Mock Trial team.While Douglas never did Mock Trial at TAS, he believes his years of MUN and Speech and Debate prepared him well. After a written application and a competitive try-out process, Douglas was one of ten freshmen selected to join the team.

To Douglas’s surprise, a graduate student in the film school was filming a documentary on Northwestern’s Mock Trial Team. After filming Douglas at two competitions and consulting with his Emmy award-winning professor, he changed the subject of his documentary to the life of an international student in the US. Douglas will now be featured in a documentary project that will follow his college experience for the next three years.

Douglas is also exploring his passion for law by working in the Deportation Research Clinic on campus. Douglas has been busy filing Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests for the Attorney General of Illinois to turn over documents.

At BU, Julianne explored some of the previous interests she had in high school. After joining a theater club, she participated in a 24-hour theater event, where a script was written, props were made, lines were memorized, and the show was performed, all in 24 hours. She quickly fell in love with college theater, because students could create and perform in ways Julianne had never experienced before. In shows, both studentwritten and not, performers discussed and critiqued controversial topics such as abusive relationships, organized religion, and sexuality, while stripping down to underwear and cursing on stage.

However, auditioning for roles in college theater was significantly more competitive. Having performed lead

Julianne (second from right) at BU’s Taiwanese American Student Association Boba Fundraiser

roles in TAS musicals and plays, Julianne was shocked when she did not receive a callback for the fall musical production, even for the ensemble role. Initially feeling discouraged, she reminded herself that in such a large and talented theater community, she had to work much harder to secure a role in a show. Knowing that there are many more theater opportunities than in high school, she is keeping her head high, excited and passionate about her future experiences in college theater.

Julianne, currently majoring in environmental analysis and policy, also searched for clubs related to sustainability at BU, finding a large community of tree-huggers and environmentalists. She is now in a co-ed environmental honors fraternity, Epsilon Eta, where they meet once a week for clean-ups, fundraisers, or alumni networking events. She has been introduced to many environmental organizations, and in December, she started working as an intern for the US Coalition on Sustainability.

Our first quarter/semester of school has gone by in a blink of an eye. Through it all, we realized how lucky we were to have gone to TAS. The opportunities and resources TAS provided students are on par with what we have seen in our universities. We have also

Julianne (front row, furthest right) with new members of Epsilon Eta, a co-ed environmental honors fraternity at Boston University

realized how large the TAS family is. During Douglas’s first week on campus, he ran into a fellow journalism student at church whose grandma worked as a music teacher at TAS in 1967-1968.

As we write this article, Northwestern has shifted classes online for the first two weeks of the semester, and BU, while remaining in-person, has changed its COVID-19-safety policies. While we are uncertain about our future in college during a pandemic, we know that the Class of 2021 will be equipped to face any challenges.

In a screenshot from the documentary, Douglas (left) during his Mock Trial Tournament at Tufts University

CELEBRATING OUR TIGER BABIES!

By Shan Lee, Assistant Alumni & Community Outreach Officer

The TAS community is a family and we want to celebrate the milestones in the lives of its members, including the arrival of a baby!

The arrival of a baby is a unique and special moment for every family. We want to be one of the first to congratulate our alumni, faculty, and staff families on this milestone and welcome their newest family members with a gift from TAS.

A few years ago, the Alumni Office worked with les enphants Co., Ltd. to design our TAS bandana bib — a gift we have been giving for the past few years to TAS alumni, faculty, and staff members who we know recently welcomed a baby into their family.

Last spring, the TAS Alumni Office and les enphants reunited to create the Tiger Baby onesie which debuted this past fall. We wanted to involve members of the TAS community in the debut effort and share the joy of celebrating our Tiger babies. We are also proud to continue partnering with an alumni family business. les enphants was founded by alumna Brenda Lin ’94’s father in 1971.

A request was sent out over social media to TAS alumni, faculty, and staff whose babies who could help us debut the Tiger Baby onesie by modeling it in a photo. We had 50 community members sign up and we shared their photos in a social media post on November 4, 2021.

Our TAS community is made up of many generations of Tigers who have contributed to the community in ways that continue to and will forever benefit the current school community and our alumni as well. We celebrate our Tiger babies who will always be connected to the TAS community.

If there is a new addition to your family, please fill out this form so we can send you a Welcome Tiger Baby package: https://www.tas.edu.tw/alumni/welcome-tiger-baby

ALUMNI SPEAKERS AND VOLUNTEERS

The TAS Business Club welcomed two speakers this year. Stephen Wu ’10 recently graduated from Cornell with his MBA and joined American Express full-time to work on payment network strategy. He shared his MBA experience with students. Darren Chien ’16 works at Burnt Finance as a business development associate and talked to students about his journey and previous job at Foursquare.

Girls in STEM welcomed Dr. Jaime Lien ’01 who is the Radar Research Lead of Project Soli at Google Advanced Technology and Projects (ATAP). Jaime shared her work at Project Soli on using radar to detect spatial changes and how the algorithm translates that into information. With Project Soli, consumers can make a smartphone

The annual Rise Up Summit (formerly known as Girl Up) in March 2022 welcomed several alumnae for a panel discussion on their experience as women in professional industries: Christina Huang ’99 who runs Manloy Metal Industrial Co., Ltd, a company which sells electrical steel and insulation materials to transformer and motor manufacturers; Nina Shih ’01, User Experience Design Lead at Google Fitbit, and Karen Jung ’05, Marketing Operations Manager at Epson America. Thank you to these alumnae for sharing their experiences!

This year’s student-run NOVA Entrepreneurship Competition also welcomed alumni mentors and judges who were able to provide very helpful feedback and guidance to nearly 100 student entrepreneurs from TAS and four other international schools, as they addressed the challenge of creating new consumer tech that can help address a social problem. A big thanks to Jim Boyle ’76, Chen Jun Luo ’07, Jane Chen ’08, Weston Wang Cooper ’08 and Roxanne Lo ’08.

In March 2022, parent and board member Jay Cheng ’97 was invited by the upper school Student Government board to talk about his career during a flex period. Having started his first business during his sophomore year at USC, Jay has accumulated ample experience in the tech-business industry. He shared about his unique path to success, the transitions from college to profession, as well as insights on the tech industry today. Jay advised students as they went through high school and college to focus on emotional intelligence, knowing their own strengths and weaknesses, making mistakes early, and following their passions.

Stephen Wu ’10

Darren Chien ’16

skip a song or increase volume through just hand gestures and not touching the phone.

Seamus Boyle ’17 visited TAS during his winter break as a guest speaker in Mrs. Rowe’s middle school international relations class and for Mrs. Sinclair’s MUN teams.

ALUMNI FACULTY AND STAFF MEET AND GREET

In September 2021, the Alumni Office held a meet and greet for all our Tigers who have come back to work at TAS. Above, Stacey Ward ’76 (right) proudly sports a shirt designed by Jessica Huang ’11 (left). Below, Weston Cooper ’08, Michelle Kao ’03, Karen Wang ’04, and Lily Chen ’14 pose together.

FIRESIDE CHAT WITH ANDREW CHAU ’08

Andrew Chau ’08 starred in the Taiwanese historical drama SEQALU: Formosa 1867 and shared his experiences in our September Fireside Chat event with student interviewer Gustavo V. ’22.

FALL VIRTUAL HAPPY HOUR

Alumni from all over the world tuned in to our Fall Virtual Happy Hour in October 2021 to talk about their work in industries like tech, healthcare, and education and share advice with younger alumni in college.

The Class of 2011 held two in-person reunions, one in Taiwan in January 2021 and one in New York City in August 2021. Congratulations on celebrating 10 years since your graduation from TAS!

ALUMNI PROSPECTIVE PARENTS SEMINAR

In November 2021, Director of Admissions Michael O’Neill provided an overview of the TAS admissions process to interested alumni.

ONLINE TIGER SHOP POP-UP

In November and December 2021, the Alumni Office ran an Online Tiger Shop Pop-Up and a portion of every order went to support the Hope N. F. Phillips Scholarship Fund. This year’s pop-up shop debuted our Tiger Baby Onesies and TAS Alumni t-shirts. Kanako Suwa ’13 (left) and Matt Davies ’92 (right) are both sporting our new TAS Alumni t-shirt.

TIGER BOOK CLUB DISCUSSION

Class Agent Sherry Hsia ’92 (upper right hand corner) led a discussion in November 2021 inspired by “When the Body Says No: Understanding the Stress-Disease Connection” by Gabor Maté, M.D. Attendees talked about the mind-body connection and the relationship between stress and chronic illness.

TAS VIRTUAL AUTHOR VISIT WITH SHAWNA YANG RYAN, AUTHOR OF “GREEN ISLAND”

In November 2021, TAS parents and alumni attended a Virtual Author Visit, Upper School and TAS Cultural Connection (TASCC), with TaiwaneseAmerican writer and author Shawna Yang Ryan. Ryan authored “Green Island” (2016), a family story about the 228 Incident and White Terror era. She shared the process of researching and writing the book in her talk, titled “Exploring Taiwan’s History as a Taiwanese American”.

ALUMNI HELP ORPHANAGE CLUB WITH HUNGER DAY DONATION DRIVE AND CHRISTMAS ANGELS

TAS IGEM MEET AND GREET

The 2021 TAS iGEM Team shared about this year’s project “UniversO” with alumni during a virtual Meet and Greet in November 2021. Their project on converting different blood types to Type O received a gold medal award as well as four other prizes in this year’s competition.

In November 2021, alumni came out in force to support the TAS Orphanage Club (OC) in their Hunger Day Donation for the Taitung Food Bank and Christmas Angels gift drive for the Pearl S. Buck Foundation.

WITHDRAWN STUDENTS OUTREACH

Any student who has attended TAS, even if just for one semester, is a TAS alum and part of our alumni community! In December 2021, the Alumni Office sent out a shipment of care packages to over 150 former students who left TAS last year to wish them a smooth start at their new schools and to let them know that we are thinking about them from afar.

FRESHMAN OUTREACH PACKAGE

In the fall, the Alumni Office sent a care package to the Class of 2021 containing a speciallydesigned postcard with a message from current seniors, Taiwan-themed masks, and TAS stickers. Students wrote encouraging messages for these college freshmen to remind them that they would be forever Tigers.

“AMERICAN GIRL” SCREENING

In December 2021, the TAS community was invited to a special screening of the film, “American Girl”, which was produced by alumnus Clifford Miu ’11, stars current TAS student, Caitlin F. ’24, and was directed by Fiona Roan. Clifford, Caitlin, and Fiona participated in a special Q&A session after the event, which was jointly sponsored by the Alumni Office and the TAS Cultural Connection (TASCC).

WINTER MENTORING

HAPPY HOUR

More than 20 alumni from the Classes of 1975 to 2021 attended the virtual Winter Mentoring Happy Hour in January 2022 and participated in one-on-one or one-on-two breakout sessions with other alumni.

TAS AUTHOR VISIT WITH ABIGAIL HING WEN, AUTHOR OF “LOVEBOAT, TAIPEI”

TAS held its first in-person author visit of the 2021-2022 school year with Abigail Hing Wen, author of “Loveboat, Taipei” in January 2022. Wen spoke to parents and alumni and also upper school students.

CLASSES OF 2019, 2020, AND 2021 DONATE TO THANK TAS SUPPORT STAFF

Our youngest alumni recently made donations from their class funds exclusively to be used for projects and initiatives that would directly benefit TAS support staff. Donations were used to renovate the Staff Lounge and purchase, install new ventilation fans in the staff locker rooms, and provide each staff member a Lunar New Year gift of a box of Krispy Kreme donuts and a fresh cup of Jamba Juice.

EXECUTIVE COACHING WORKSHOPS

Executive Coach Jennifer Melyan ’02 created and hosted three professional development webinars just for TAS alumni in spring 2022. Jenn is an experienced Executive Coach with EPIC (Executive Performance Institute for Coaching). This series of three workshops helped alumni understand how to optimize one’s performance, address procrastination and improve time management, and overcome selfdoubt and imposter syndrome. Thank you to Jenn for offering webinars tailored to serve the specific needs of the TAS alumni community!

CROSS-CULTURAL CONVERSATIONS WITH DR. DAN LONG

In March 2022, Dr. Dan Long, upper school Dean of Students, hosted two cross-cultural conversation events with alumni to discuss cross-cultural upbringing. Through these events, alumni gained a better understanding of how a cross-cultural upbringing can influence one’s view of the world and provide advantages and challenges. Alumni also appreciated the opportunity to share and connect with each other over similar experiences.

www.tas.edu.tw/alumni/alumni-resources

Greg Carter has taught physical education at TAS for 27 years. He will forever remember the many wonderful students and knowledgeable, professional colleagues at TAS. In his retirement, Greg will take the opportunity to get bored and to get reacquainted with his family, friends, and Aotearoa New Zealand. “I will always be thankful to Middle School Principal Cathy Funk for taking a chance on us back in 1992,” says Greg. “Also, a big thank you to the people of Taiwan for making us feel so welcome. Thanks to our many wonderful friends and colleagues at TAS who have helped and supported us over the years.”

Kathy Cutler has taught physical education at TAS for 38 years. She is also the former Associate Activities/ Athletics Director. Her favorite memories at TAS include traveling and hosting IASAS Cultural Convention, MUN and athletic events, winning IASAS volleyball gold medals, and traveling with the Adventure Club to Nepal and Sarawak, Malaysia. Kathy will retire with her son to their lake house in Washington state. “Thank you to everyone here at TAS,” says Kathy. “We appreciate all the support and opportunities over the years. We will miss everyone and living in Taiwan very much!”

Daniel Hudkins has served as Chief Information Officer and softball coach at TAS for five wonderful years. “Watching our student athletes improve and seeing the program grow has been enormously satisfying,” says Dan. “I’ll miss the flowers and fruits of Taiwan, as well as the people, a lot. I hope that everyone continues to keep a growth mindset about the role of technology in education.” Dan welcomes visitors to Freeport, ME, where he will be retiring.

spend time in Sydney and with her daughter in Canada. Louise reflects, “I have loved living in Taiwan and working at TAS. People have been so kind, welcoming, and supportive. I look forward to visiting, as it is a good stopover between Australia and Canada.”

Mary Ann Cooke-Jones has served as the Middle and Upper School Speech/ Language Pathologist for 18 years. She will be retiring to Chattanooga, TN to be near family. Mary’s best memories and experiences are of “seeing students who initially struggle academically and/or socially grow to become confident, successful students who use strategies and improved self-awareness to help them work smarter, not harder. I’m so grateful for the opportunity to be part of this amazing community.”

Deborah Flemming has taught dance and physical education at TAS for 27 years. Of her time at TAS, Deb says, “The most precious memories at TAS are the ’wow’ moments in class, when students would present a piece of choreography or perform an excerpt and it would cause spontaneous and enthusiastic applause and cheers!” Deb is looking forward to settling in Toronto and spending time with her daughter.

“I am so thankful for the support that I received over these many years. It is rare that the arts, especially dance, are as valued and respected as it is at TAS,” reflects Deb.

Randall Kondruk taught middle school science at TAS for two years. He spent his career teaching in Canada and also internationally. His favorite memories of TAS are of working with competent, amazing colleagues and students from all over the world. Randall will retire to Canada and looks forward to fishing, hunting, camping, time with his family and grandchildren, woodworking, and other hobbies.

Brian Tobey has taught physical education in the Middle School at TAS for 30 years. His most memorable times at TAS include coaching varsity volleyball and badminton, which included both his children. Brian looks forward to splitting time in retirement between Taipei and San Diego. Of his time at TAS, Brian reflects, “I am very fortunate to have been given the chance to make life-long friends while working here these past thirty years.”

Louise Perdana has taught Grade 3 for seven years. Her favorite TAS memory is of the building and opening of the Tiger Garden, which her classroom directly overlooks. In retirement, Louise will

Ben Wu has taught Mandarin at TAS for 30 years in the Middle School. His favorite memory of TAS is of Cabby Tennis, the MS associate principal whom he helped reenact a mythological story (by starting a bonfire with a flaming arrow hidden behind a tree) on the beach during Grade 6 camp in Kenting many years ago. Ben looks forward to spending more time with his family, maintaining his health through exercise, and volunteering for the environment.

John Hillis ’56 wrote in summer 2021, “This is the 65th anniversary of the first TAS graduation in 1956. I think most of us are still around, a little grayer and worse for wear, scattered in various parts of the globe but mostly in the U.S. Though I continue my role as an external examiner for the International Baccalaureate Organization (an annual task I’ve been doing for decades), my wife and I are retired in Istanbul, a fascinating city with wonderful historic, natural, and cultural attractions which are frustratingly mostly shut down because of the pandemic. Recently we managed to get out on a warm spring day to visit Emirgan Park overlooking the Bosphorus, the historic strait that separates Europe from Asia and up which Jason and his intrepid Argonauts sailed over 3000 years ago to the Black Sea in pursuit of the legendary Golden Fleece. The park was once a sultan’s estate but now hosts an annual tulip festival, a flower indigenous to these parts (not Holland!), a prominent Ottoman symbol, and a common motif on Turkey’s celebrated Iznik ceramic tiles. I always enjoy reading about the exploits of TAS. Little did we imagine 65 years ago that our humble academic institution would develop into the world-class international school that it is today. Keep up the good work!”

CLASS NOTES

Texas in January 2022. Brian Hanson ’60, Jon “Butch” Hilsabeck ’60, and Tim Timmons ’60 met in Austin, Texas at the Oasis on Lake Travis. All three attended TAS in 1957-58. Tim and Jon were both hospital administrators in their professional careers, and Brian worked as a chemical engineer. Thank you to Jon for updating us!

Frances (Bowden) Affandy ’63 is still living in Indonesia. She and her family will welcome another (grand) Baby Tiger to their family in July 2022—the Year of the Tiger— to join big sister and happy parents. Congratulations to Frances’s family!

Thomas Hope ’73 writes, “It has been since 2013 since we have had a reunion. I have truly enjoyed these events. While celebrating my birthday, my son gave me a polo shirt with the new school logo. I couldn’t have been happier. He researched what he thought I would like and really understands what graduating from TAS means to me. Thank you all for being such a huge part of my life!”

Three friends of the TAS Class of 1960 visited each other in Austin,

Norbert Nasuta ’71 writes, “Still alive and kickin! Living on the foothills of Mt. Hood, working at New Seasons Market in SE Portland. Deadhead but lovin’ all music. Between my wife’s two children and my two children we have 10 grandchildren! Living very modestly but happily, all things considered. Peace and love, y’all!”

Class Agent Elizabeth “Bette Ann” (Coluby) Molloy ’83 writes: “We are planning the TAS Alumni Reunion weekend in Seattle, WA, to take place July 28-31, 2022! Anyone from any graduating class, faculty and staff, or friends, are all welcome to join us to reminisce about your days on the ’beautiful isle’ and make more memories! Fun events are planned for Thursday through Saturday nights. As of now, we have almost 200 alumni from the classes of 1963 to 2014 attending, including a dozen former TAS faculty. For more information and regular updates, join the “TAS Reunion Summer 2022 - Seattle WA” Facebook group or email Bette Ann at 2022TASReunion@gmail.com or ecoluby@gmail.com.” Thanks to the organizers: Bill Holden ’83, Selina (Moralis) Lai ’83, and Bette Ann Molloy ’83!

Tim Brantingham ’88 and Matt Carroll ’88 are co-founders of BCI Engineering, a steel equipment contract manufacturer based in Pittsburgh, PA. The group unveiled a new solar racking product created in-house called Full Tilt in April of 2021. Tim and Matt founded BCI Engineering in 2006. Thank you to Martha Laughlin ’86 for sending in this note!

Cheney Wang ’92, David Ko ’92, Alfred Wang ’92, and Philip Wu ’92 (top); bottom row: David’s wife Wendy Hsia, Class Agent Sherry Hsia ’92, Board Member Elizabeth Wang ’91, Alfred’s wife Vicki Liang, and Philip’s wife Patricia Huang.

Christian (Shih-Chi) Lin ’92 adopted his English name Christian after he left TAS, and later became a Christian in 1999. He lives with his wife Ada and two kids in the San Francisco Bay Area. He works at the chip design company Socionext and used to work at the microprocessor startup SiFive. Christian and his family enjoy taking train rides, exploring parks, trying new soup recipes, and going out for bike rides.

The Class of 1989 held a minireunion in Taipei in March 2022. From left to right, top row: Dan Cooper ’89, Vera Wu ’87, Sandy Wu ’89, Steve Gee ’89, Janny Chen ’88, and Christopher Yu ’91; bottom row: Jerri So ’89, Maria Ting ’89, Annie Wu Su ’89, and Jonathan Su, Annie’s husband.

Toshiu Nakama ’92 has been back in Taiwan for over 25 years and engaged in manufacturing and selling electronic components.

Mika Dashman ’93 lives in Brooklyn, New York, where she is the Founding Director of Restorative Justice Initiative. Now in its sixth year, Restorative Justice Initiative is building bridges and encouraging collaboration between organizations and institutions working for criminal justice reform, educational equity, and community groups seeking to disrupt the school-to-prison pipeline, end mass incarceration, and create a more just and equitable city.

The Class of 1992 held a minireunion in March 2022. From left to right, top row: David Chao ’92,

Heidi Steigmann ’92 married Bill Beale in 2021 and became stepmom to Zoe in a family ceremony on her parents’ property in Amboy, Washington. Heidi and Bill are currently renovating a 1910 home in the charming little town of Ridgefield, Washington, which is nearly encircled by the Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge. Heidi and Bill are both active in the dragon boating community and enjoy hiking and spending time taste testing local microbrews. You may recognize Judy Steigmann from the photo. She worked in the high school library. When you are in the area, Heidi would love to take you kayaking.

Sam Dogen ’95 is publishing a new book with Penguin Random House called “Buy This, Not That: How to Spend Your Way to Wealth and Freedom”. The book will launch on June 28, 2022.

Alex Lin ’91 held a July Fourth barbecue at his house for TAS alumni in Shanghai.

Class Agent Kent Wu ’95 writes: “After having moved (back) to Taiwan in November of 2019, I’m happy to state both our kids are now at TAS in Grade 1 (Trenton) and Grade 8 (Addison). Both are adjusting very well and having a great time. We’ve all had a great time catching up with former Alumni and their families, and exploring the amazing destinations on the island. The TAS ethos and fabric remains strong. I will be heading out of town for business and pleasure for 6 months, visiting 4 countries in which Just Kitchen will be launching: Singapore, Philippines, Thailand, and Malaysia. Then I will head to Dubai, Cambridge, and meet family in Los Angeles where we will head to the Bahamas for summer vacation. After that world tour, we will be back in Taiwan after summer. Wishing everyone a great year of the Tiger, along with health and prosperity!”

Grace Chuang ’98 has moved back to Vancouver, Canada, where she was born. Grace was brought up in Taipei, and after graduating from TAS, she moved back to Vancouver for art school and then Los Angeles to attend USC. For the past sixteen years, she lived and worked in Asia. She would love to tap into the TAS community in Vancouver, reconnect, and hopefully find a suitable job in town. Please reach out to Grace directly (grace.yt.chuang@gmail. com) if you live in Vancouver or have any leads!

Zenaida Féraud-Pfisterer ’98 is a teacher and a children’s author based in Switzerland. She attended TAS from 1989 to 1994. Her book “Grandfather Tree”, a children’s picture book for pre-K to Grade 1, was published in February 2022, and it is now available through Amazon and other online bookstores. Thank you Zeny for also donating a copy to the Lower School Library at TAS!

The Classes of 1998 and 1999 held a friendly Clash of the Classes Basketball Game at Dazhi High School in March 2022.

Jonathan Liao ’00, co-founder of FutureWard, is also the Project Director of the Taiwan Employment Gold Card Office under the National Development Council. The Taiwan Employment Gold Card is a qualification-based, resident work visa which allows foreign special professionals to live and work freely in Taiwan for up to three years. Under the Act for the Recruitment and Employment of Foreign Professionals, the Gold Card is a key component of Taiwan’s efforts to attract and retain foreign talent. Since 2018, over 3,600 gold cards have been issued. For more information, check out goldcard.nat.gov.tw.

In December 2021, Class Agent Edward Wang ’99 was reelected into the office again as the President of National Taiwan University Global MBA Alumni Association and has successfully transformed the association into an aggregate organization. In January 2022, Edward was also elected as the President of Beijing Tsinghua University Executive MBA Alumni Association Taiwan Chapter. Congratulations on your achievements!

Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig ’01 is an Asian American playwright. Her recently published book from Bloomsbury/Methuen is Frances YaChu Cowhig’s China Trilogy: Three Parables of Global Capital. These plays explore the forces of global capital as they explode within the lives of everyday people in contemporary China. This volume collects together the three plays in the series, including her exploration of the human cost of development in China’s socialist market economy (The World of Extreme

Happiness), of justice and revenge amidst ecological and economic catastrophe (Snow in Midsummer), and the tale of the trade in blood that brought the AIDS crisis to rural China (The King of Hell’s Palace).

Steve Ng ’01 writes: “Hey Tigers, I have been on an adventure in Vietnam for the past 2 years and has recently launched a F&B franchise startup. Please do message if you get a chance to visit Vietnam.”

challenging it can be to make your wellness a priority. This book is here to support the readers who want to dive deeper into their inner journey and includes all the tools you need to get there.” The book is available in paperback and e-book format on Amazon.

Year. He just couldn’t wait to be a Tiger Baby! Congratulations to Diana’s family!

Lela Masano Philbrook ’03 performed in “Madame Butterfly” by Puccini in the lead role with Opera West! In Santa Fe, NM from October 22-24, 2021. Lela also took part in “Suor Angelica” also by Puccini in March 2020.

Elbert Kou ’04 got married in September 2021 and was fortunate enough to have an in-person wedding celebration attended by some fellow TAS alumni.

Congratulations to Elbert and his wife!

Marissa Hou ’04 recently published her first book called Woke Bitch: Your Guide to WellBeing, a sassy and funny spiritual self-help book with personal stories, heartfelt lessons and a ton of easy exercises the reader can practice to improve their holistic well-being. Marissa shares: “After over a decade of working high-pressure corporate hospitality jobs and years teaching at NYU, I know firsthand how

Christine Yew ’04 recently gave birth to a baby boy (Ronald Lawrence Ma) on February 17, 2022 in Hong Kong. Her parents flew over from Taiwan to visit. Congratulations to Christine and her family!

Cindy Tsai ’06 is excited to join and serve as an Executive Board Member with the Asian Culture and Media Alliance, which provides a voice of unity, awareness, and empowerment for the AAPI community. Cindy is a boardcertified internal medicine physician, wellness expert, speaker, and life coach focused on helping high-achievers avoid burnout and live their best life with ease. As a physician, she saw the impacts of chronic stress on the body and wanted to do more than just prescribe medications as a band-aid. Her approach to healing and growth is centered on the mindbody connection - unique to each and every individual. She developed a holistic and personalized method to healing through coaching, mindfulness, and other energy healing modalities (e.g. reiki, breathwork, EFT tapping, human design, and more). Learn about Cindy’s work at www.cindytsaimd. com and say hi on social media to @cindytsaimd!

Conductor Tiffany Chang ’07 conducted the opera “Tosca” by Puccini with the Portland Opera this season. The production premiered on Tuesday, November 16, 2021.

Diana Chang ’05 has welcomed a new addition to the family - Arthur J. Blaney, born February 1, 2022, on the first day of the Lunar New

Jasmine Shao-Man Chen ’07 represented Chinese Taipei in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics in summer 2021. She competed in the equestrian jumping individual event.

Tokyo University of the Arts for graduate school, all majoring in the saxophone. During his time at Tokyo University of the Arts, he turned away from pursuing a career in classical music since he did not want to teach. While working as a recruiter, Danny began learning how to use digital audio workstations and created his own music in his free time. He experimented with a lot of genres including EDM/ hip-hop/ trap and orchestral music. He recently collaborated on “That Taiwan Wrap” with fellow TAS alum Eric Tsai ’08. Danny is currently studying in the MBA program at National Taiwan University and is working on multiple projects including creating background music for artists and YouTubers.

sparked a clash between America, Indigenous, Hakka, Hoklo and the Qing Dynasty.

Family and friends of Caryn Hsu ’07 are running the campaign “Swab for Caryn.” Caryn was diagnosed with an aggressive form of adult leukemia. She is in need of a bone marrow transplant, but there are a low number of registered minority donors. Anyone in good general health between the ages of 18-40 can test for a simple cheek swab to see if they are a match, and sharing the same ethnicity (Asian) greatly increases the odds of a match. Please visit this link to get a swab and see if you can help Caryn: linktr.ee/swabforcaryn

Inspired by her roots in Taiwan, Lillian Lin ’08 recently came on board to Yun Hai Taiwanese Pantry, a US online specialty food shop dedicated to Taiwanese gourmet items. Last year, Yun Hai launched a Kickstarter campaign, raising over $100,000 to fund a collection of Taiwanese dried fruits in support Taiwanese farmers after China banned all pineapple imports from Taiwan. Yun Hai also carries Empress Hot Sauce by Jane Chen ’08, an American style hot sauce made using Taiwanese fruits.

Stephanie Chiang ’09 opened “Intermittences of the Heart” (斷續心 斷續情), an exhibition of watercolor pieces and poetry that reflect the intricate experiences of nostalgia, disillusionment, emptiness, and love. The show was open between January 22February 20, 2022 at Madeleine Art Gallery (63 Yong Kang Street) in Taipei.

Danny Chien ’08 is a music producer. During his time at TAS, he played the saxophone in the school wind ensemble. After TAS, he enrolled in a local music high school in Taiwan and then went to Japan to study classical music at the Musashino Musicae Academia for undergraduate and

Eric Tsai ’08 is now working at Taiwan+. The English-language platform, which launched on August 30, aims to promote Taiwan through news and shows intended for an international audience (including subtitles and English voiceovers). Most notably, one of Taiwan’s most ambitious productions called SEQALU: Formosa 1867 aired internationally on Taiwan+. The TV series shows how a shipwrecked American crew

Karen Wang ’09 was featured as a speaker at TEDxTheBund in Shanghai, China, speaking on the topic “Do you think the dream you choose is really your choice?”

After graduating from TAS, Veronica Hsiao ’10 relocated from Taipei to Las Vegas to pursue her hotelier career and attended the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, where she obtained both her bachelor’s and executive master’s degrees. She has since taken a deep dive into the luxury hotel world. Veronica shares: “Following Las Vegas, I have worked/lived in Singapore, Palm Beach, San Francisco, Fort Lauderdale and now Miami. I most recently relocated from San Francisco to South Florida during the pandemic with The Ritz-Carlton hotel company, as it is currently the busiest market for travel in the world. TAS prepared me for navigating through dynamic environments as a global citizen. The current team I have at work has over 20 nationalities and it’s part of an exciting daily life as a luxury hotelier. Taipei is always home to me no matter how many places around the world I have lived or will live in. I look forward to visiting TAS and reconnecting with old friends when I next visit Taiwan.”

Natalie Lin ’10 got married in December 2021 to her coworker Jack An. They met at AppWorks and got married in Taiwan in the mountains of Xindian, with the company’s CEO as the officiator. Congratulations to Natalie and her husband Jack!”

In summer 2021, Jennifer Chiang ’11 ran SPARK Accel, a 4-week virtual accelerator program designed to inspire, educate, and accelerate Taiwanese American entrepreneurs on an entrepreneurial journey. As part of the program, entrepreneurs worked alongside mentors such as Patrick Lee (Cofounder, Rotten Tomatoes), Kevin Lin (Co-founder, Twitch; Cofounder, Gold House), and Wes Kao (Cofounder, Maven).

Sara Lin ’12 works at IRCADTaiwan, a minimally invasive surgery training center located in Lugang, Taiwan, which trains over 1,000 surgeons every year. Beginning in 2020, IRCADTaiwan hosted their first successful high school medical summer camp. In 2021, their second high school medical summer camp took place July 9-11, 2021. This summer camp gives students an overview of what life is like being a doctor, surgeon, pharmacist, nurse, and much more, so it is for students who are interested in any kind of medicalrelated career.

Clifford Miu ’11 is the producer behind “American Girl” (2021), a coming-of-age story about 13-year-old Fen who relocates from Los Angeles to Taiwan during the SARS epidemic in 2003. “American Girl,” which was directed by Fiona Roan and stars current TAS student Caitlin F. ’24, is now available exclusively on Netflix worldwide (in over 190 territories and countries) as of March 2, 2022. Congratulations to Clifford, Fiona, and Caitlin!

Kevin Liou ’12 and Emily Tang ’12 held their wedding reception at the Mandarin Oriental on December 26, 2021. Many TAS friends and former teachers were in attendance. Congratulations to Kevin and Emily!

Sarah Ruggiere ’12 is living in Portland, Oregon. She teaches Grade 3 at Milwaukie El Puente Elementary School, a dual language immersion (Spanish-English) school. Sarah previously taught EAL at TAS.

Adrienne

’13

applying to MFA programs in design to continue her career creating human centered experiences and visual identities. As of December 2021, she is based in North Carolina, taking on freelance graphic design and branding projects, going on long walks, and working on her next personal art project! You can see what she’s up to on her instagram @lilartlab or website www.lily-yang.com.

Keva Bui ’13 has accepted a tenure-track position at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in the Department of Asian American studies. They are graduating in 2022 with a PhD in Ethnic Studies and a graduate certificate in Critical Gender Studies from the University of California, San Diego. Congratulations Keva!

Maxine (Tu) Yip ’13 gave birth to her son Aden Parker Yip in November 2021. Class Agent Nick Yeh ’13 was fortunate to visit this new Tiger in Seattle. Congratulations to Maxine and your family!

Owner Justus Wah ’14 and Business Development Manager Lewis Welt ’12 have opened the first F45 studio in Xinyi to inspire healthy living and a sustainable fitness program amongst us.

Vivian Sun ’13 was married in 2022 in California. She honeymooned in Hawaii. Congratulations to Vivian and her husband!

Lily Yang ’14 held “Conscious Creatures” (意識怪獸), an art exhibition of 100 postcards exploring various reflections and meditations on everyday life. Each conscious creature is made with random scraps of recycled materials. The show was open September 4-28, 2021 at Garden City Bookstore (田園城市生活風格書店) in Zhongshan. Lily is currently

Seamus Boyle ’17 visited TAS during his winter break. After he finishes his senior year at Reed College in spring 2022, he will be off to Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs to continue to pursue his interests in international security policy.

Hsieh

has moved to Naperville just outside of Chicago, IL.

Seamus is looking forward to moving back to New York to enjoy its unique atmosphere, people, and energy.

Melissa Cho ’17 graduated with a double major in News & Documentary and Theatre from Chapman University in Orange, CA. Her recent work was selected by the Society of Professional Journalists 2020 Mark of Excellence Awards, as a finalist for two award categories (“Best News Magazine” and “Podcast”). In 2020, she and her broadcast journalism peers produced a 30-minute news magazine piece regarding their experiences with the COVID-19 pandemic called Corona Diaries News Magazine. Her 20-minute podcast, about representation in voice acting, which she produced as an addition to her 40-page Theatre Thesis, is called “Invisible Performances: A Crash Course on Voice Acting and Its Conversation About Representation”. She served as both International Producer and Social Media Director of her school’s Chapman News broadcast. Her team has also received SPJ awards for “Best All-Around Newscast,” “TV Breaking-News Reporting” (on Trump’s COVID-19 diagnosis), and “COVID-19 Coverage.” In addition to her involvement at school, Melissa is interning for Dateline, NBC News’ crime news magazine program. Recently, Melissa has started her own podcast

called “hAAPI hour”, where she interviews and highlights AAPI creatives. She is currently a freelance associate producer for Condé Nast Entertainment.

Swimmers Jessica Wegner ’18 and Shawfong Hsu ’21 continue to make a splash at Wellesley College. In November 2021, Jessica won the 100 yard backstroke and the 100 yard butterfly in their home opener. Shawfong won the 100 yard breaststroke and the 200 yard breaststroke, her first two career individual wins.

Bryan Kang ’19 has released a new music EP as DJ KANG. Check out his new music releases on Spotify.

Jacqueline Miao ’19 completed her bachelor’s degree within 2 years from the University of California, Irvine as an English major with a minor in Asian American Studies. She simultaneously obtained 2 teaching certificates: the first in Teaching English as a Second Language (University of California, Irvine Division of Continuing Education), and the second in Social and Emotional Learning (University of California, Riverside Extension). In addition, she volunteered at Tzu Chi Collegiate Association (慈濟大專青年聯誼會), teaching underprivileged students online during the pandemic. As a long-term teaching assistant and tutor, Jacqueline is now preparing to pursue higher education and a

FORMER FACULTY

career as an educator.

Victor Kao ’20 has been writing music since he was at TAS. In summer 2021, he wrote and produced nine new songs which you can listen to on Spotify. Victor is now attending the Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA.

Alice Chiang ’21 graduated from TAS in spring 2021 and began her studies at the University of Southern California in spring 2022.

Vivian Hir ’21 wrote an article for the MIT Technology Review called “Am I still Chinese enough?” in February 2022. In it, she describes her strong personal bond with Taiwan and her memories of her time at TAS as well as how she experienced reverse culture shock and adjusted to returning to the US. During her time at TAS, she was active in Orphanage Club (hi to Mr. Arnold!). Vivian is a freshman at MIT, where she plans to major in chemical biology. She also plans to do research at the Kiessling lab in the Department of Chemistry at MIT this summer.

Jason Lin ’21 was spotlighted by Cal Tech as a star swimmer in November 2021 His 2:00.99 breaststroke time was the sixth-best Division III time in the nation this season. Congratulations to Jason!

Former administrator DJ Condon has started in his new position as Director of the International School of Luxembourg (ISL), which is the seventh international school he has worked at. DJ talks about his international experiences, including his family’s time at TAS, in a profile published in September 2021 on Delano.lu

Former faculty Sujen Rocovits retired in 2020 and writes: “I am doing very well. I am still in Taiwan and enjoying my retirement life in Beitou, taking Chinese painting and writing with my favorite black ink and most of all enjoying my backyard national garden, Yangmingshan Park!”

Judy Warren Heaps ’59 passed away on Jan. 8, 2020 in Red Lion, Pennsylvania. She is survived by her husband Kenneth, her sister Joyce, and their families.

Joyce Warren Weller ’64 passed away on Aug. 1, 2020 in New Bern, NC. She was survived by her husband of 52 years, Philip Weller, and their sons David, Philip, Evan, Stephen, and their families.

Sallie (Chu) DiMartino ’66 passed away on February 26, 2021. She was a loving wife and mother. Sallie left behind Michael, her husband of 49 years, two children, and two grandchildren.

William Oprysko ’79 passed away on January 10, 2022, in Pottstown, PA at the age of 60. He was a printing press platemaker for over 25 years, and then worked as a rail vehicle and equipment mechanic with SEPTA. Bill enjoyed playing ice hockey, crabbing, attending airshows, making homemade pickles, and restoring cars. He also coached his daughters’ softball and soccer teams.

Former Board member and former parent Sharon Anne Brown Voegele, passed away peacefully, Friday, September 24, 2021 after a long and courageous battle with Parkinson’s Disease. She served as the PTA president during her time at TAS and also served on the Board of Directors from 1988 to 1993. She is survived by her sons Jason Voegele ’91 and Ben Voegele ’93 and her family.

Former administrator Richard “Dick” Carlson of Duluth, Minnesota, passed away at age 93 on Oct. 31, 2021 in the company of his family. He served as the upper school principal at TAS from 1970 to 1972.

Former faculty Mark Gurecki passed away on January 3, 2022. He taught ESL in the Lower School from 2001 to 2013. He was fondly remembered by his students for writing and directing skits. Alumni praised him for his approach to teaching and for nurturing a philosophy around multilingualism. He lived in Nagasaki, Japan where he and his wife ran a small school teaching English. Mark is survived by his wife, former faculty Himiko Gurecki. Friends are welcome to contact Himiko through Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/ himiko.gurecki) or via email.

Former faculty Don Smith passed away on Nov. 1, 2021. His daughters Michelle Smith and Jenny Souders write, “We wanted to let you know that our father, Donald Smith, passed away at home on November 1, 2021. His time at TAS and his colleagues and students were an important and cherished part of his life—as demonstrated by his 32 years at the school and that he continued to sport his TAS sweatshirt. The route from his apartment to the school was certainly well tread. Although he was born in Adrian, Minnesota, Taiwan was his chosen home, and he loved the people he met there and the place. He retired in 2013 and moved to Windsor, Colorado, but quickly relocated to Portland, Oregon, to be near his daughters and his three grandchildren. Just as he was as a father, he was a loving, kind, and devoted grandfather. Please feel free to reach out if you want to connect. We miss him very much, and thank you for being such an important part of his life. Best, Michelle (michelle.erin.smith@gmail.com) and Jenny (soudersj@gmail.com).”

In Memoriam

Photo Credit: mary-skrynnikova-unsplash

PLEASE HAVE A SEAT

Members of the TAS community have the opportunity to name a seat in the Guy Lott, Jr. Auditorium. For NT$90,000, an inscribed plaque will be on permanent display on a chair in the Guy Lott, Jr. Auditorium.

By participating in “Please Have a Seat,” part of the Building Excellence initiative, your gift will benefit the development and enhancement of TAS campus facilities, which will support student learning from KA through Grade 12. In the past few years, gifts to Building Excellence have made possible the construction of the Solomon Wong Tech Cube, the installation of our new lower school playground—the Tiger Garden, the renovations to the Guy Lott, Jr. Auditorium, the construction of the Dr. Sharon DiBartolomeo Upper School Building, that of the Liu Lim Arts Center, and much more.

In 2021, Jonathan Chow ’01 and Lilian Lim ’01 donated to name Chair #167. In the same year, the family of Benjamin Tsai ’00 honored his memory with Chair #036. In 2019-2020, Harry A. Cockrell '68 honored the Cockrell Family with Chair #269. Chair numbers matching class years have been reserved for alumni. Contact the Development Office at development@tas.tw to name a chair in honor of your class, family, or a former teacher.

Institutions where TAS graduates from the Classes of 2019, 2020, and 2021 enrolled. Boldfaced print indicates institutions attended by graduates from the Class of 2021.

UNITED STATES

Chinese University of Hong Kong City University of Hong Kong

Fudan University

The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

Hosei University Keio University Korea University Ming Chuan University National University of Singapore Seoul National University

Shanghai Jiao Tong University of Medicine

Sophia University University of Hong Kong University of Tokyo Waseda University Yale-NUS College Yonsei University

AUSTRALIA & NEW ZEALAND

Bond University Griffith University Massey University University of Adelaide University of Canterbury University of New South Wales University of Otago University of Sydney

CANADA

Humber College McMaster University University of British Columbia University of Ontario Institute of Technology University of Toronto University of Waterloo University of Windsor Western University

EUROPE & UNITED KINGDOM

Durham University

Ecole Hoteliere de Lausanne

Erasmus University Rotterdam Goldsmiths, University of London IE University - Madrid

Imperial College London Jacobs University King’s College London Leiden University Leiden University College - The Hague Les Roches

Lund University Universiteit van Amsterdam University College London University College Utrecht University of Cambridge University of Edinburgh University of Glasgow University of Manchester University of Oxford University of Sheffield Utrecht University

Arizona State University Babson College Barnard College

Berklee College of Music Boston Conservatory Boston University Brandeis University

Brigham Young University Brown University

Bryn Mawr College

Bucknell University

California College of the Arts

California Institute of Technology California Lutheran University

California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo

California State University, Northridge California State University-Long Beach Carleton College

Carnegie Mellon University Case Western Reserve University

Chapman University Colgate University College of Atlantic Colorado College Columbia International University Columbia University Connecticut College Cornell University Curry College Dartmouth College De Anza College Duke University Eckerd College Emory University Endicott College Fashion Institute of Technology Fordham University George Washington University Georgetown University Georgia Institute of Technology Harvard University Harvey Mudd College Haverford College Hult International Business School Indiana University Bloomington Johns Hopkins University

Keene State College Lafayette College

Loyola Marymount University Marist College

Maryland Institute College of Art Massachusetts Institute of Technology Michigan State University New York University

North Carolina State University Northeastern University Northwest Vista College Northwestern University Occidental College Pepperdine University Pitzer College Pomona College Pratt Institute Princeton University Purdue University

Quinnipiac University

Reed College

Regis University

Rhode Island School of Design Rice University

Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology

Santa Clara University

Savannah College of Art and Design School of the Art Institute of Chicago

Seattle University Stanford University

Stevens Institute of Technology

Texas A&M University

The George Washington University

The New School

Tufts University

United States Coast Guard Academy

University of Alabama University of Arizona University of California, Berkeley University of California, Davis University of California, Irvine University of California, Los Angeles University of California, Riverside University of California, San Diego University of California, Santa Barbara University of California, Santa Cruz University of Chicago University of Colorado, Boulder University of Illinois at UrbanaChampaign University of Maryland, College Park University of Massachusetts, Amherst University of Michigan University of Notre Dame University of Oregon University of Pennsylvania University of Pittsburgh University of Puget Sound University of Rochester University of San Diego University of San Francisco University of South Carolina University of Southern California University of Texas, Austin University of Texas, Dallas University of Texas, San Antonio University of Virginia University of Washington Utah State University

Vanderbilt University Vassar College

Virginia Commonwealth University Washington University in St. Louis Wellesley College Wesleyan University Yale University

Back cover photo credit: Dustin Rhoades (left, second from bottom)