ACS Matters Spring/Summer 2015

The American Community School at Beirut Magazine

SPRING - Summer 2015

Community Service at ACS

Contents ACS Matters - The American Community School at Beirut Magazine

Spring - Summer 2015

ACS Matters is prepared and produced by the Development and Alumni Relations Office Editorial Committee Andrea Alemany Ceci Clark Danai El Hajj Ibrahim Fadwa Ghannoum Nabila Hamadeh Rebecca Naughton Daniel St. James

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Contributing Writers Nicholas Boke ‘63 Colin Campbell Ceci Clark Daniel St. James Design & Layout Nada Fawaz Photography Amer Assi ACS (Faculty & Staff - Archives)

Please send your anecdotes, fondest remembrences, entertaining stories and photos of your memories at ACS to: news@acs.edu.lb

Cover story:

Community Service at ACS Letter from the Head of School Hamilton Clark

18 Alumni Profile: Reliving ACS After 29 Years Apart: Three ACS Alumni Reconnect

44 Breaking Down the Walls

A Life of Service: Kathy Pope Olsen ‘60

22 Let’s Hear It From Our Alumni

30 Community Question: What is the Funniest Thing You’ve Heard in Class?

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24 Our First New Building in 60 Years!

32 Think College!

40 Faculty Spotlight

50 Swimmy: KG1 A Fish Project

52 Campus News

ACS Matters Spring - Summer 2015

Spring is the most wonderful season in Lebanon, particularly true this year after a cold and wet winter. I write this letter on a beautiful May day as our 10th and 11th grade students are just returning from their Week Without Walls trips. Those trips were as far ranging as Bali, Berlin, Italy, and Liverpool, but we also had three groups that stayed right here in Lebanon. Some of our trips focused on history, one on adventure, the one to Liverpool on the business of football, but nearly all our trips had a community service component. We had students building bathrooms in Bali, students cleaning up beaches in Lebanon, and a great group of really committed students who worked with autistic, physically and mentally challenged students here in Lebanon. I was able to talk with this last group, “Bridges to Ability� most days before they boarded their bus at ACS to head off to their challenging work at Sesobel, and they reminded me of my own experience with community service in high school in Boston nearly 50 years ago, and the profound effect that experience had on me.

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I was part of a group of 5 or 6 students who were driven by a teacher once a week for a semester to interact with some students who were about the same age that we were, but who were profoundly different as they were all intellectually disabled, and instead of living in nice homes with their families, these students lived in a state hospital. I remember walking on to the floor of that threadbare facility and being astounded to see some 100 cots all in one room, and being mobbed by a bunch of boys who were absolutely starved for attention. This was a world I had never seen before nor could have ever imagined. Some of the boys had physical disabilities, some could communicate easily while others were very hard to understand. Some were overly aggressive, some were acutely shy, but all were thrilled to have someone from the outside paying attention to them.

Letter from the Head of School

As we returned week after week, and took some of our charges out to play, or to the store, or just spent time with them, I came to realize that even if I could not teach these children any new skills, just showing up and being there for them each week brought the biggest smiles, the warmest hugs, and a sense of deep appreciation. As an adolescent who was not very sure of himself, as a young person who was still trying to find his way, being appreciated by someone else and understanding that my mere presence could make a difference to another was a very powerful experience. Teenagers are often very self-absorbed, but when you work with others directly, your focus shifts from yourself to others, then you gain confidence from realizing that you have the ability to make an impact. You start to care a little less about yourself, a little more about others, and that transformation benefits all of society. I went on to tutor disadvantaged students, and I continued to work with intellectually disabled students right through college. I believe that my sense of social justice derived from these experiences and perhaps even lead to my deciding to spend the next 40 years of my life working with young people and trying to help every student I encountered to grow and thrive. Community service in school was hugely important in my development, and I am delighted to now be associated with ACS where service is an integral part of the curriculum.

As I understand it, community service began in the 1992-93 school year at ACS. Laila Alamuddin who was instrumental in shaping the program, and Dania Maaliki, who also contributed with institutional memory, remember that community service started as a high school club and after school activity. There was initially no structure or requirement. When we started the IB diploma program, service and creativity were part of their program requirements, and ACS gradually started the implementation of a service requirement in high school, first requiring 25 hours, then 50, and finally the 100 hours we require today. Later, because students used to leave everything to the last minute, and in some cases graduation was at risk, ACS shifted to require 25 hours per grade level. In recalling the adoption of a service requirement here, Laila wrote, “the idea was that if you initially forced students to serve, then eventually service would become part of their lives forever.” That is certainly the case today.

In this issue of ACS Matters we highlight community service at ACS. It is now a school wide activity and our students and many of our teachers, log thousands of hours helping refugees, assisting in schools and hospitals, serving meals, raising money, and trying to improve the lives of others in a whole host of different ways. While our students serve others, they also help themselves by gaining confidence, gaining perspective, and learning that as Henry David Thoreau wrote, “when you give, you get.” ACS is leading the way with community service in Lebanon, our students are making a difference in the lives of those they interact with, sharing their hope and love and resources, and they are developing habits which will last them a lifetime.

Hamilton Clark

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ACS Matters Spring - Summer 2015

Community Service at ACS Nicholas Boke ‘63 Eleventh-grader Sarah Taha says that her ACS community service work “has changed my perspective on life”.

She’s not alone. Whether they’re describing their work in a cancer ward—as Taha is—or organizing games for Palestinian refugee children, cleaning up a beach near Sidon, feeding the homeless, or tutoring children at the Nasma Center in Hamra, ACS students are likely to echo the words of alumna Reem Chamseddine ’13 who says, “I found community service at ACS really meaningful and I found Mrs. Shatah a good resource for seeking opportunities to volunteer.”

This must be music to the ears of Hoda Shatah, who has overseen the ACS high school community service activities since 2003.

“My philosophy is, don’t ask what a situation can give you; ask what you are giving back to the situation. If we do good things, the whole community can benefit.”

Shatah’s approach is in keeping with the ACS Community Service Mission: “to develop caring young people who help to create a better and peaceful world through intercultural understanding and respect for others…. This encourages students to become active, compassionate and lifelong learners who understand people’s differences.”

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ACS Matters Spring - Summer 2015

ACS’s commitment to community service—which also includes Middle, Elementary and Early Years students—goes back to the 1990s. ACS’s commitment to such activities was part of a heightened focus on community service in many high schools, which gained momentum in the 1980s. This commitment, Sally Raskoff and Richard Sundeen explain in “Community Service Programs in High Schools” (http://scholarship.law.duke.edu 2000), has its roots in educator John Dewey’s belief that “learning must be grounded in experience.”

ACS students currently need 100 hours of community service during their high-school years in order to graduate. Years ago, Shatah and former Dean of Students Laila Alamuddin ‘62 were instrumental in changing the nature of these hours.

Shatah agrees with this hands-on approach to learning: “We need to understand others. We’re all different, but we’re all the same. This is not something you can get in traditional school, in the classroom.”

“I noticed that some kids were doing 50 hours, so I thought, what if 50 of the 100 hours had to be outside of school? Laila agreed. The first project was adopting Sister Schools in the South and in Beirut.”

Anna Pedersen’s IB Creativity-Activity-Service (CAS) project, FoodBlessed, exemplifies such an understanding of learning. Working with a local NGO, Pedersen and her IB colleagues helped cook and distribute food for the homeless.

Sister School is now a student-led “co-curricular,” which means that one block per six-day cycle is set aside during the school day for participating students to work on the project. In addition to the Lebanese sister schools, several years ago ACS adopted a school in Sri Lanka. Senior Tala el Hajj explains that in recent years the program provided significant support to the Sri Lankan School after it was hit by a Tsunami, painted the walls of a public school in Beirut, provided funds for a Balinese school, and helped rebuild a school in the South after the summer 2006 war. The group hosts a number of fund-raisers throughout the year to support its work.

“Working with FoodBlessed,” she explains, “put things into perspective… This community service project has become something different from what it was before.

It’s no longer something we need to do because we need a certain amount of hours to graduate, but has become something to do because helping the homeless… feels great and gives you an experience you wouldn’t otherwise be able to get.”

“When I came in 2003,” Shatah explains, “some students went to the Palestinian camps, but a lot just worked in the library, or tutoring at ACS, or in a drama production, and got their hours that way—25 hours a year.

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ACS Matters Spring - Summer 2015

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Community service at ACS is focused on the empowerment of the student; it includes a social component, so students can develop into more than just a vessel of knowledge.

ACS Go Green is another service activity that has become integrated into the school landscape as a cocurricular.

Senior Delaire Fattah explains the organization began as “a student-led club that aimed to make ACS as environmentally friendly as possible” and make the community aware of environmental issues. Today, he says its activities range from “beach clean-ups, to planting trees and recycling initiatives, to planning the school’s annual Earth Day celebration.”

Adults, such as Science Department Chair Dania Maaliki, often play very significant roles in ACS service activities. Fattah says Maaliki “was always there to support me, advise me, and encourage me…. This year, [Environmental Science teacher] Rick Davis was also extremely helpful as our supervisor.”

Shatah explains that after the requirement including off-campus activities was instituted, she got to work “exploring the city to see what the needs were.” She continues such explorations, always on the look-out for NGOs and projects that might be suitable for ACS students.

The FoodBlessed program came into being, senior Lama Jeber Azzam says, when Shatah “gave us different ideas and a list of NGOs we could work with.

The local NGO FoodBlessed was on the list.” Shatah contacted the NGO, arranged a meeting, and has, Azzam goes on, “helped us through the whole year, because whenever we had any question or needed help, she was always available.”

Math teacher Tom Pederson is the advisor for the CCC (Children’s Cancer Center of Lebanon) co-curricular that Taha participates in. When the project began, Pederson says, it focused on raising money. “Now the focus is on spending time with the children instead of raising money,” he explains, “I am so proud of the kids because they come back from each trip and tell me about how great it was to be with the children.”

CCC member ninth-grader Fatima Makki remarks, “to see how their faces light up when we play and speak with them is the most rewarding feeling I’ve ever felt.”

The 20 CCC students now visit children in four hospitals. Pederson says that more students would like to participate but he hasn’t been able to line up more hospitals.

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ACS Matters Spring - Summer 2015

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Senior Omar Arafeh gets a feeling similar to Makki’s from working with students—Palestinians and Syrians—in the Mar Elias refugee camp. Moreover, the experience has inspired him in a broader way. “It’s almost as if I have had an epiphany of the troubles in the region and the exponentially deteriorating situation,” he says.

the empowerment of the student; it includes a social component, so students can develop into more than just a vessel of knowledge.”

ACS’s commitment to community service, as described in the handbook, is intended to generate just this kind of response: “Community service at ACS is focused on

And the Middle School Community Service Club continues such work. The Club has recently raised money for residents of the victims of violence in

Such activities begin in the elementary years, when, for example, students recently raised $5,000 to help purchase a mobile soup kitchen to feed the homeless.

Tripoli’s Bab el-Tabbeneh. This year, the Home for Hope orphanage, which was selected to be the focus of this year’s fund-raising efforts, has received various forms of support. Middle School students put together Christmas boxes and a variety of other gifts for children at the orphanage.

Other such activities and efforts arise from time to time, such as Hoopful Hands, a basketball program for youth from Bourj al Barajneh Palestinian camp developed by senior Rhea Dandashy, and a dramaclub production that raised money to buy clothing and boots for Syrian refugees. Several years ago, then Guidance Counselor Jodie Thiel suggested holding a community service fair. Shatah agreed; that year, 12 NGOs attended. This year, it was 20.

“We’re growing,” Shatah explains. “People hear what we are doing and they want our students.”

But the high school program—which has to support and supervise more than 300 students every year—is not a simple thing to establish and maintain. Shatah makes sure that the work students are placed in programs that meet ACS community-service criteria and that the students have accomplished what they set out to accomplish.

“Working in a pharmacy, for example,” she explains, “might be a good learning experience, but it’s a forprofit business, and that’s not our job. We’re trying to help the needy.”

What would Shatah like to see happen to the program?

She hesitates, then says, “I’d like to see the students not counting their hours. Students would do community service as part of clubs and groups that were just part of the school. I want it to become natural to our community, to be part of our behavior.” n 13

A Life of Service: Kathy Pope Olsen ‘60

ACS Matters Spring - Summer 2015

Colin Campbell

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Kathy Pope Olsen ‘60 arrived in Lebanon in October 1947, a few days after her fifth birthday. Her family’s first apartment was in a building overlooking the Bain Militaire, near Al Manara Lighthouse. She began attending ACS in 1949 after a year spent in Saudi Arabia where her father worked. “I attended ACS from second grade through tenth grade. It was an amazing and transformative experience. I learned to love to learn. The teacher who influenced me the most and gave me the tools to both survive and excel in my future life was Mr. Turmelle, the seventh and eighth grade Math and English teacher. Another teacher who made a big impression on me was my fourth grade teacher, Miss Nasser. She was a Palestinian who arranged a class visit to our counterpart class in the Palestinian refugee camp near St. Simon beach; she had us all collect pencils and paper for that school,” says Olsen. Olsen’s family moved back to the States to southern Illinois for her last two years of high school.

She then attended Wellesley College in Massachusetts and majored in Economics and minored in History;

she also met her husband John while studying there.

They have now been married nearly 50 years. “I am very fortunate to have a supportive husband who encouraged me in my volunteer work, including financially,” she says.

Olsen’s has lived a life full of volunteer work that has taken many twists. Initially, she did refugee resettlement work with Vietnamese, Cambodian and Laotian [Mien] after the fall of Saigon. She and John sponsored six Korean Amerasians (Korean mothers and American soldier fathers), who had an increasingly difficult time as adults. She began her adoption agency work after she and John did their first adoption in 1972. Olsen says, “I had always wanted to adopt after visiting a Lebanese orphanage with the Girl Scouts when I was in about sixth grade. Initially, we tried to adopt in Lebanon, but the criteria for adoption changed and the new requirement was that the adoptive family be childless [they already had two children].” She continues, “We then applied for a Korean child and joined an adoptive family group, which led to my being invited to volunteer for an adoption agency created by that family group.” In 1980, the Olsens moved to Taiwan for one year for John’s job and she started a Taiwan adoption program for the agency. In 1984 she joined her Taiwanese adoption agency with Adoption Advocates International (AAI), an organization that had a stronger focus on finding families for the hard-to-place child (older, handicapped, sibling groups, etc.) and also had a strong post-placement support system. Their second Korean daughter was one of the first placements through AAI. “The adoption work took me to numerous countries in Asia, then eventually to Bulgaria, where John and I adopted two more kids - ages 15 and 16. There are just some kids in my kind of work that you just can’t leave behind,” says Olsen. In the late 1990s she began working in Ethiopia, a country of extreme poverty overridden by the AIDS epidemic that was creating an entire generation of orphaned children. “The orphanages and, in fact, all the social and medical services, were overwhelmed.

AAI established a children’s home for those that would be adopted through the agency programs.

The children were moved from the overcrowded and often squalid conditions to a cheerful, wellstaffed, clean home with nourishing food and medical care during the months of paperwork involved in their adoptions,” says Olsen.

Soon after, Olsen started “AHOPE for Children” to help support a new home for HIV positive AIDS orphans, who were unadoptable; it would be a place that would provide a loving care and hospice, which was considered the only option at the time. One of every seven children brought into the AAI adoption program in Ethiopia tested positive for HIV/AIDS. The home was separated from AAI and reorganized into an Ethiopian NGO with its own board of directors, it was re-named AHOPE Ethiopia. AHOPE for Children is the US based charity that provides funding and works closely to provide the best for the kids. “We were the first children’s home in Ethiopia to receive the Anti-Retro-Viral medications. When we started, it was rare for an infected child to live past age two and considered near miraculous for such a child lived to age seven. But thanks to the medications, the focus turned to raising a competent and educated adult. Our first college student enters university this fall!” says Olsen. AHOPE has grown into a full community development program that facilitates orphans to live with a remaining relative. The children 15

Tones of Light, Kyla Wickens, IB, 2015

receive educational, counseling and medical services and their caregivers receive financial support, plus training in essentials like sanitation, nutrition, and child development. Additionally, a micro-finance program gives caregivers cash advances to set up small businesses.

“I think my drive to help others was nurtured at ACS. The idea that the fortunate have a Christian duty to help others not so fortunate was a strong message that came from our chapel services. I also learned by example from people in the ACS community.

My mother was a model to me; she ‘adopted’ a home for children with Tuberculosis that was run by a missionary couple in the mountains. She made colorful quilts for the children’s beds and got her friends in the expat community to donate toys and art supplies,” says Olsen.

“You are the leaders of tomorrow and have both the honor and obligation to create a new Middle East where Lebanon can shine, like Al Manara, as a model of peace and prosperity. ACS has given you the tools you need. Use them!”

The Olsens have lived in the Seattle, WA area since 1966; where Olsen has coordinated her overseas adoption and childcare work. They have seven adult children, none of which have visited Lebanon yet.

“Most of them have a philanthropic streak and one of my daughters in law became President of the board of AHOPE for Children for a few years after I retired,” says Olsen. She finally returned to Beirut for the ACS Centennial celebration in 2005 and brought John to Lebanon for his first time. “I loved returning to familiar places - my old neighborhood hadn’t changed too much, although it was more quiet and deserted, compared to the vibrant streets I remembered. It wasn’t until I was married that I stopped thinking of Lebanon as ‘home’,” she says.

Olsen hopes to inspire current ACS students, “You are the leaders of tomorrow and have both the honor and obligation to create a new Middle East where Lebanon can shine, like Al Manara, as a model of peace and prosperity. ACS has given you the tools you need. Use them!”

Olsen retired officially in 2009. She is currently working on a book based on the letters that her father wrote to her mother when he was overseas during WWII in Africa, Turkey, India, Saipan, Hawaii. She has already written a childhood memoir. n 17

alumniProfile

Reliving ACS After 29 Years Apart: Three ACS Alumni Reconnect

ACS Matters Spring - Summer 2015

Colin Campbell

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Chetan Karani’s family arrived in Beirut in 1960 when he was one year old. His family lived in Lebanon until 1975 and then later from 1977 to 1982. “Even though the Civil war turned my life upside down, I have only the fondest of memories from Lebanon. I remember the majestic Cedars, the chic chalets of Faraya, the cool summers of Broumana, and the wonderful cuisine,” says Karani ‘76.

Karani studied at ACS starting in seventh grade and left during the first few weeks of his senior year. “I enjoyed playing basketball, tennis and soccer, but was never good enough to make the Varsity or even the JV teams. I stuck with tennis and still play twice a week.” says Karani. Karani attributes part of his perspective as a youth to the influence of his closest friends at ACS - David Livingstone ‘75, Mohammed Nasser Chourbagi ‘76 and Xavier Carim ‘76. “We spent so much time together, both in and out of school, that it was impossible NOT to influence each other. I know that I am the better for it.”

Nasser Chourbagi came to Lebanon in 1970 at the age of 12 from Rome, Italy, where he grew up, and studied at ACS from grades 7-11. “The first friend I made in school was Chetan and we became best friends.

Having come from a British School, the [American] system was new to me; I found it more open and friendlier. The teaching methods and styles were more interesting, giving the student freedom to go into depth in subjects of more interest. The school helped me feel more responsible to make my own choices in life. I was shy and lacked self-confidence - ACS and gave me the confidence in myself, my independence, and my life objectives. It was a good transition from childhood to adulthood,” says Chourbagi. He thoroughly enjoyed playing soccer, basketball and softball at ACS. Karani’s family had a jewelry business in Beirut and because of business needs, they waited until the last possible moment to leave Lebanon when the war was starting. Every day they discovered someone had left, usually without any warning or opportunity to say goodbye. The Karanis left very abruptly in late September 1975, just before the war of the hotels, expecting to come back in a few weeks. “At the time, it all seemed like a great adventure to me. I did not realize the magnitude of the tragedy unfolding.

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alumniProfile At age 17, when Chourbagi was in grade 11, the war started and his family went back to Italy and he finished his last year of high school there. “It was difficult leaving Lebanon at first because I had made good friends. Teenage years are very important - I spent most of them in Lebanon and they were all good memories. But after a few months in Italy I appreciated living there as well. I was lucky to have enjoyed both countries.” After finishing his last year of school in Italy, Chourbagi went to the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, USA to study Electrical Engineering; David Livingstone also joined him to study there. After graduation Chourbagi worked for Schlumberger and Dresser in the oil field services for four years. He then got his MBA from INSEAD, ‘The Business School of the World’.

We went to London and after two weeks I think my parents realized that I would not be able to go back to ACS Beirut. I was enrolled into ACS London midsemester without any official transcripts of my grades; all they had were copies of the quarterly report cards.”

Carim’s family also moved to London and he joined Karani at ACS London. They both graduated in June 1976 and applied to British universities.

ACS Matters Spring - Summer 2015

“Even though I loved London, I missed Lebanon because it was home for me. During my two years in London I made a lot of friends with ex-residents of Lebanon. Our shared experiences of Lebanon seemed to bind us. My parents went back to Lebanon at the end of 1975; I wish I could have joined them,” says Karani.

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Everything changed for Karani in 1977. He was planning to begin at Imperial College in London in the fall to study Physics. In the summer, he went back to Beirut to spend time with his parents. “On August 23rd my father had an accident while driving from Beirut to Damascus and died on the way to the hospital. At 18 years old I had to make one of the most important decisions in my life. Even though I was naturally inclined to academics, and till that day I had nothing but disdain for commerce, I decided to forego college and run the family business,” says Karani.

He spent the next several years trying to practice what he had learned about the business from his uncles. When the civil war would flare up, he would escape to India and Japan [where his uncles resided], returning once it was relatively safe. “After the 1982 Israeli invasion I decided to finally move out of Lebanon. I spent the next year traveling and ended up setting up shop in Dubai. I still kept our apartment and business in Beirut.” ACS was the core of the last formal education Karani received, so he gives the school credit for much of his business’ success, “The

“The school helped me feel more responsible to make my own choices in life. I was shy and lacked self-confidence - ACS and gave me the

confidence in myself, my independence, and my life objectives.” - Chourbagi ‘76

education I got at ACS was absolutely incredible, it was a solid foundation that allowed me to continue to learn and build a ‘successful’ career.”

In November 1984, Karani took a business trip to Lebanon. “On the last day, as my colleague and I were returning from East Beirut through the ‘Green Line’, we were stopped at a check point and asked for our papers. Before we knew what was happening, four rather large heavily armed men got in to the car and ordered us to drive to their headquarters. They took us into the deserted downtown area and held us in an abandoned building. After waiting for about an hour and not hearing any sounds we decided to try the door. Luckily, it was unlocked and there was no one outside. Miraculously they had taken only our money and left us alive. Needless to say, I was not allowed to go back to Beirut again.”

After 14 years away, Chourbagi returned to Lebanon in 1989 for the first time. “It was a painful experience to find it devastated by war. I couldn’t recognize most of the areas I used to know because of the destruction that the war had brought on. It was a sad experience and I did not feel like I belonged anymore.” However, Chourbagi still had the inspiration to reconnect with an old friend and relive some of the glory years of ACS and Beirut. He and Livingstone tried for many years to contact Karani, but to no avail. Then in early 2011, they finally connected. Karani says, “They managed to track me down through the jewelry association in Dubai.

The funny thing is that I recognized David’s voice when he called me almost immediately even though we had had no contact for 29 years! We decided to meet as soon as possible.” The three of them planned a four-day ‘reunion’ in Beirut during May 2011.

“The education I got at ACS was absolutely incredible, it was a solid foundation that allowed me to continue to learn and build a ‘successful’ career.” - Karani ‘76

“Meeting after all these years was awkward, but at the same time the friendship was strong and we felt that we had not been separated for that long. We visited ACS, recalling all the old memories, as well as visiting places we used to hang out in our youth.

It was a fantastic experience. We went through our yearbooks and remembered all the people we had forgotten over 35 years, including teachers and students,” says Chourbagi. “It was as if we were teenagers back in 1975. After 30 years, conversations were picked up as if we had met the day before. What a wonderful experience!”

Karani has lived in Dubai with his wife and two boys since 1983. One son graduated from New York University and is married, the other graduated from George Washington University and currently works for an advertising agency (JWT) in Dubai. Karani took his family to visit Lebanon in 2009 and his son went back with friends this year to celebrate his 30th birthday.

His jewelry retailing and distribution business has continued to grow throughout the entire Arabian Gulf region. “We have enjoyed the benefits of Dubai’s rise from a laid back trading port to a powerhouse regional business and cultural hub,” he says.

Chourbagi has been living in Egypt since 1985. He started his own business and launched the United Colors of Benetton in Egypt in 1988. He still works in the garment industry with several other brands and travels often to Italy, where his wife and two boys live. “Two years ago I took my wife to Beirut for the first time and visited ACS, she really enjoyed it,” he says. n Please send your anecdotes, fondest remembrences and entertaining stories to: news@acs.edu.lb

Let’s hear it from our alumni

58.98

%

M&B

7.69%

Washington

Which

dekkaneh

do you reminisce the most?

ACS Matters Spring - Summer 2015

5.13%

22

The old man by the pink building

20.51%

Kameel’s

7.69% Green & Tasty (even though not much of a dekkaneh)

Team Hakim

or

Team Abdallah

23

ACS Matters Spring - Summer 2015

Ceci Clark

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ACS Matters Spring - Summer 2015

ACS has embarked on a bold step in the construction of its first new and purpose-built building in over 60 years. This affirms the school’s commitment to updating facilities, just the first step in the plan to remodel ACS into a 21st century school where the facilities will match the school’s reputation and mission.

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As conceived by former Headmaster, Dr. George Damon, several years ago, approved by the BOT, and finished in record time, the newest building for ACS in 60 years is now open, occupied and being enjoyed from top to bottom. The building is attractive and functional and interspersed with plantings on every floor to soften the outside lines and deliver some greenery to those inside and out. It has been much admired by the neighbors and has been greatly needed by ACS. The building is a clever solution to the many needs of ACS including teaching space and apartments for foreign faculty. The first few floors house our students:

the 5th Grade team, Elementary French, Arabic teachers, and the ES, MS, and HS Music teachers with spacious, and well lit classrooms that enhance both teaching and learning. This generation of students needs space as they learn, cooperate, and collaborate.

Technology needs specific planning within the classroom. Now our students have room to practice, sing, demonstrate their work and feel less constrained in these large areas. Our teachers are free to do their best work also. Finally, there is space for all kinds of educational activity that was simply not possible on the 2nd floor of the BD building with its small rooms and isolation.

The upper floors are 16 faculty apartments facing either east or west – each with two bedrooms, a balcony with sunset or sunrise views, plenty of storage and a clean modern look and feel in design. The building now creates a special community of teachers who choose to live together within a few yards of school, while other foreign hires prefer the vibrant neighborhoods of Hamra, a short walk to school, and the lure of more activity up the hill.

ACS Matters Spring - Summer 2015

Our new faculty building will be fully occupied by August 2015 when our new foreign teachers arrive in Beirut. They will, no doubt, be charmed by the views, access to school, and sense of strong community with one another.

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“Moving into the new building was exciting especially that students were asked to help move classroom materials and books. Everything looks neat and feels comfortable. My new class felt cozy and warm from day one. I’m very lucky because I’ll have good memories from my old class in the BD building and my new class in the new building.”

- Omar Farouki, 5th Grade

At the roof top one side will have solar panels to produce hot water for the building and a shared roof terrace that will become a very popular ACS event space, with superb views from the Manara in the west to Zeitounay Bay and the snow-capped mountains in the east.

The 12th and 13th floors house the Head of School’s apartment – one floor of which is designed for public entertaining for school groups, dinners, trustees, faculty gatherings and honored guests. This apartment replaces the well-known apartment at the top of the BD building, formerly inhabited by three Heads of School and their families.

As a result of the 5th grade and the Head of School apartment moving fromt eh BD to the new building, ACS has acquired both new and much needed space to construct a new HS science center and new HS classrooms and offices, to accommodate more dynamic teaching and learning styles in keeping with our educational mission and standards of excellence. n

“I just love loving in the new faculty housing! My flat faces the east which provides a sweeping view of the bay and the mountains, boats moving across the horizon, as well as sunrise and twinkling city lights at night!”

- Susan Larson – new resident, HS teacher 29

CommunityQuestion

What is the

Maysa Boubess Grade 1 A Homeroom Teacher

After a few days of missing Word Study, Marco excitedly shouted: “Thank God we have Word Study today!”

Anton looked at him and replied: “Don’t thank God, you should thank Mrs. Boubess”.

Rima Zein EY Arabic Teacher

In my History class is: Me: “The Sykes – Picot Agreement was a secret agreement between France and G. Britain.”

Student: “Miss, is it still a Secret?”

Lolita Mattos MS Mathematics Teacher

“It smells like Camel in here.”

Eric Triche 6th Grade Language Arts Teacher

ACS Matters Spring - Summer 2015

I can’t think of funny things I’ve heard. However, I have some funny things written in essays. Students had to write about a memorable experience in their lives:

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“Have you ever been held as a hostage, been attacked by a shark, gotten into a car accident, or even been bitten by a dog? Well, I myself have been through the worst of them all…being lost in the mall!”

“The first day of middle school, I walked in with butterflies in my stomach. Those butterflies must have had a lot of caffeine because they were bouncing like crazy!”

“So we lived happily ever after…or did we?”

“I realized that middle school is as good as a tiger – great but it can kill you!”

“The day my soul died…my brother’s birth! … In time I figured out how to control him and use him as my slave!”

you've heard in class?

Michael Simmons 7th grade Social Studies teacher

During the first week of school I could hear two of my students arguing. As I was walking over to see what was wrong, one of my students asked in a desperate voice, “Mr. Simmons! Don’t octopus have 8 testicles?”

Lama El-Zein EY Arabic Teacher

As an EY Arabic teacher, the funniest part is when they mix English with newly acquired Arabic words like: Sharnaqa (Cocoon) turns out to be “Sharqoun” girafa (instead of zarafa), curseat (for koursi) A KG1 girl once asked me: “Miss Lama why don’t you cut your hair long?”

Viviane Khoury Saab IB/HS Physics teacher

This incident happened 3 years ago when two students were preparing for their presentation in physics. They got a hair dryer from home to show a demonstration and when one of them was trying to plug it into the electricity outlet, I immediately asked with urgency “Is it 220?”, the other student looks at his watch and tells me no it is already 3:00.

I was asking about the voltage of the hair dryer!

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ACS Matters Spring - Summer 2015

Think College!

Colin Campbell When ACS students hit their Junior year there is a very important person that comes into their life for the first time; a person even more integral throughout their Senior Year. That person is none other than Marie Assir, who has been the Director of College Counseling at ACS for six years. Assir is a huge asset to the students and helps guide them to find and apply to the perfect universities for them - based on their interests, abilities, location, and academic level.

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Laila Alamuddin ‘62

ACS Matters Spring - Summer 2015

Marie Assir

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Assir holds a Master’s Degree in Counseling and began her career working in the counseling field for many years, and worked at a university in northern Virginia (USA) as an Academic Advisor. Eventually, she decided to transition to a position as a college counselor for high school students in Fairfax County, Virginia. “I love working with young adults at this stage in their lives. It is so exciting for them to be thinking about their future and their passions; I am grateful to be part of the process for them. At times, it is challenging to encourage students, while trying to remain the voice of reality. I never want to kill their dream, but I also need to share my advice and experience. I love helping students get scholarships and finding the “right” school for them,” says Assir.

The college counseling program began in 1992, when Laila Alamuddin, a 1962 ACS graduate herself, arrived back in Lebanon and came to the school. At that time there were only 25 seniors. Alamuddin had been living in Switzerland during the war and had started working with college-bound students there. “ACS had this amazing energy because it was coming out of the civil war. Anyone who remembered what the old school was like, and happened to be in the right place at the right time, could do amazing things,” says Alamuddin. She began attending conferences, got her Master’s in education, and constantly built up the program. By the time she left to move back to the States in 2009, the school had grown significantly and the college counseling program was very well developed and accomplished. This was all under the tenure of four different high school principals.

Alamuddin continues to independently counsel students applying to universities; she lives with her husband in the Chicago area near one of her sons.

In the early 1990s, most of the seniors wanted to go to AUB, but over the years the options grew, along with Alamuddin’s advice, and many students began applying abroad. With the IB program instituted at ACS, many students had a straightforward trajectory to attend universities in the UK or Canada that valued the academically rigorous IB program and were not as concerned with extracurricular activities as USA schools. “One of the frustrations of the job was that I would have students who were keen to attend universities in the United States [or other countries], that I would think would be a perfect fit for them.

It was mainly the East Coast USA schools. The child would be accepted and ready to go and then at the last minute, the parents would pull the rug out and say ‘You are going to AUB’. There was a deep rooted fear

that they would lose their child forever if they went to the States, that the child would not come back.”

Consequently, the students who went to college in the States usually had an American parent or family in the States.

Today, ACS students are excited to attend universities all over the world. Current seniors have had great success in the 2014-2015 school year. Most students are very pleased with their options, but as always there are some universities that are receiving many more applications and have become overly competitive. As with business, college education has gone through globalization and students from all over the world are now applying to the same schools.

College fair

Almost half of the current ACS senior class will matriculate to universities in Lebanon, including AUB, LAU, and others. Additionally, many students will be attending top notch universities all over the USA, including UCLA, University of Pennsylvania, St. Olaf, University of Washington, Barnard, Swarthmore, Northeastern, Emory, Davidson, Oberlin, and more.

Another group of students will attend universities in the UK and Canada, including McGill. Many of these students received considerable academic scholarships, which may have affected their choice. Since ACS has quite a diverse, international student body, this also affects where students choose to attend university, as many will return to their country of origin. For the coming fall, this includes countries such as Spain, Germany, Denmark, Australia, Turkey, Kuwait, and Holland. Some students are anxious to return to the country that they lived or spent a significant amount of time in.

ACS students are consistently setting themselves apart from the competition and boosting their applications by showcasing their incredible extra-curricular activities, including volunteer work, their arts (dance, artwork, music, theatre, etc), athletics, and intellectual and entrepreneurial hobbies. Students have also become very creative in highlighting their talents, some have sent videos, songs, raps, and art portfolio supplements to compliment their essays and grades.

Universities around the world recognize that ACS students have a unique level of talent and passion, plus the school’s exceptional reputation also helps students’ applications stick out.

Assir discusses her offerings, “I offer each student the opportunity to work with me on an individual basis and then we devise a plan. For some students

Universities around the world recognize that ACS students have a unique level of talent and passion, plus the school’s exceptional reputation also helps students’ applications stick out.

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ACS Matters Spring - Summer 2015

it is purely financial. For others, they need to stay in Lebanon for family reasons. I provide services and help from the beginning to the end. Students often need help thinking through the process to identify what needs to be done by when for their applications.

I also help students develop a customized list of universities and do research to recommend schools based on their needs. Then we build a concrete list. I

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really enjoy this part of the process - helping students discover what they want and then identifying colleges that ‘fit’. It is all about the ‘fit’!”

Assir continues, “I really enjoy reading student’s brag sheets, which are documents they complete to help me write their recommendation letter. I learn so much about the students from their brag sheets and I spend

a lot of time on the recommendation letters trying to highlight what makes each student unique and special.

It is really important to me, and of course the student, to have an excellent letter of recommendation.”

As with all offerings, some students take advantage of all Assir’s services, some only certain pieces, and others never contact her. Assir’s expertise is especially

ACS students are consistently setting themselves apart from the competition and boosting their applications by showcasing their incredible extra-curricular activities, including volunteer work, their arts (dance, artwork, music, theatre, etc), athletics, and intellectual and entrepreneurial hobbies.

important for the essay and writing components of the application, as those are struggles for many students.

They wonder what they should or should not write about, but often a quick conversation with Assir can help them identify what is good and appropriate content for an application and what a university is looking for.

Assir expresses concern that not all students know what the college counseling office can offer. “Some students are reluctant because they are nervous about the process or maybe their own grades. Some students feel that they don’t need help or guidance and can do things on their own,” she says, “I let the students know that I am here to help, but I treat them like adults. I will not chase a student down or beg them to complete their part of the process. We need to work together on this and I expect the student to be responsible for deadlines and completing applications.” The responsibility to meet deadlines is good practice for the high expectations that will be placed on each student when they arrive at their university.

Finding the right “fit” is very important and it’s unique for each individual. Assir helps students identify their needs and the universities that will help them achieve their goals. She says, “Students need to have a strong level of independence and maturity to study successfully outside of Lebanon. Students also need to be aware that college will not be easy and that is ok.” The college application process can be stressful for ACS students, but with the right tools and time management, it can also be an enjoyable experience that will help craft student’s passions and academic interests that can greatly affect their future.

“The biggest challenge was always to get the students to start the process early. It was always difficult to get students even faintly interested until maybe spring their Junior year. You could tell the kids that were really motivated, because they would start the process early,” says Alamuddin. To combat this, she tried to develop a program that started introducing ACS students to universities starting in their freshmen year.

This is an issue that Assir also echoed, especially for students who are applying to universities abroad.

Students should always be willing to ask for help and guidance; at ACS that means going to see the College Guidance counselor. With the proper experts helping students, ACS graduates will be gaining acceptance to incredible universities around the world for many years to come. n 37

College Acceptances

ACS Matters Spring - Summer 2015

Graduates of ACS are lifelong learners and 100% of the students continue their education after completing 12th grade. One or more of our graduates from the past five years have attended each of the following universities.

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United States Albion College, MI Bard College, NY Barnard College, NY Berklee College of Music, MA Boston University, MA Bryn Mawr, PA California State University, CA Carleton College, MN Chapman University, CA College of William and Mary, VA Columbia University, NY Connecticut College, CT Dartmouth College, NH Dickinson College, PA Elon University, NC Emerson College, MA Emory University, GA The New School for Liberal Arts, NY Fairleigh Dickinson University, NJ Georgia Institute of Technology, GA Hampshire College, MA High Point University, NC Kenyon College, OH Lehigh University, PA Lewis & Clark College, OR Marist College, NY Middlebury College, VT Mount Holyoke College, MA New England College, NH Northeastern University, MA Northwestern University, IL Oberlin College, OH Parsons The New School for Design, NY Pennsylvania State University, PA Purdue University, IN Reed College, OR Richard Bland College, VA Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, NJ Sarah Lawrence College, NY Savannah College of Art and Design, GA

Syracuse University, NY Texas Tech University, TX The George Washington University, Washington, DC The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, NC The University of Texas, Austin, TX Tufts University, MA University of California at Berkeley, CA University of California at Davis, CA University of California, Los Angeles, CA University of California at Riverside, CA University of California at San Diego, CA University of Florida, FL University of Houston, TX University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, IL University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA University of Miami, FL University of Notre Dame, IN University of Pennsylvania, PA University of Southern California, CA University of Virginia, VA University of Washington, WA Vassar College, NY Villanova University, PA Wake Forest University, NC Warren Wilson College, NC Wentworth Institute of Technology, MA United Kingdom Arts University Bournemouth, Dorset Brunel University, Middlesex Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design, London City University, London Coventry University, Coventry Durham University, Durham Goldsmiths College, University of London, London Imperial College of Science, Technology, and Medicine, London

King’s College London, London Kingston University, Surrey Leeds Metropolitan University, Leeds London College of Communication, London London College of Fashion, London London School of Economics, London Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester Regent’s Business School London, London Royal Holloway, University of London, Surrey School of Oriental and Asian Studies, London University College London, London University of Brighton, Brighton University of Dundee, Scotland University of East Anglia, Norfolk University of Edinburgh, Scotland University of Glasgow, Scotland University of Leeds, Yorkshire University of Nottingham, Nottingham University of St Andrews, Scotland University of Surrey, Surrey University of Warwick, Coventry Canada Carleton University, ON Concordia University, QC McGill University, QC Ontario College of Art & Design, ON Queen’s University, ON University of Ottawa, ON University of Toronto, St. George, ON University of Waterloo, ON

Europe American University of Rome, Italy Franklin College Switzerland, Switzerland Glion Institute of Higher Education, Switzerland Istituto Marangoni, France John Cabot University, Italy Les Roches International School of Hotel Management, Switzerland Les Roches Marbella, Spain Sciences Po, France University College Utrecht, Netherlands University of Southern Denmark, Denmark Lebanon American University of Beirut Lebanese American University Lebanese International University University of Balamand India D.Y. Patil Medical College Kuwait American University of Kuwait Qatar Texas A&M University at Qatar

With the proper experts helping students, ACS graduates will be gaining acceptance to incredible universities around the world for many years to come.

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Faculty Spotlight Daniel Saint James

ACS at Stanford University Wafa Kays recently represented ACS during a visit to Stanford University. While this was Mrs. Kays first time visiting the Students and faculty at the actual campus, this wasn’t the first time she represented ACS at the prestigious university in California.

Mrs. Kays explained that “Four years ago Dr. Eva Hashem, who is a Language Professor at Stanford, got my book as a gift from her friend and it seems she like it and so adopted it for her classes to teach the colloquial part of the language.”

ACS Matters Spring - Summer 2015

Mrs. Kays’ Arabic language learner book Wafa’s Way is the academic text that has been used at Stanford University for the last four years. Earlier this year Dr. Hashem visited Beirut and asked to meet with Mrs. Kays and during the sit-down quickly expressed her desire to have Mrs. Kays visit her classes in Northern California. Having already planned a trip to Los Angeles to visit family in April, Mrs. Kays with the help of her son drove from Los Angeles to Palo Alto along the famous Pacific Coast Highway. Once she got there she was impressed with the students, “they were so attentive and curious about the title of my book that made them love it more. Wafa’s Way is not the normal book that they find in the market. I also was happy to hear that they like the book as it covers what they need to learn from verb conjugation to dialogues and everyday survival expressions.”

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According to The World University Rankings by Times High Education Stanford University, Stanford ranks as the 4th best university in the world, and we are so proud of Wafa Kays for representing our community, as well as bringing that caliber of teaching to ACS. We are not the only ones happy with her, upon her return she thanked the University for hosting her and according to Mrs. Kays “Stanford President, Dr. John Hennessey, replied thanking me for visiting and reporting back.”

Writing for a Cause It seems that Eric Triche has been everywhere in his first year at ACS, bringing with him over a decade of teaching experience, and a desire to cultivate students’ social awareness as well as their academic ability. On the academic front, Eric brought forth the idea of students using Metacognition (put simply: “thinking about your thinking”) into the classroom. “I had shared this teaching strategy with my Middle School ELA team at the beginning of the year. The team really liked it and began to implement metacognition in all Middle School English classes immediately. Teachers of other content areas and other grade levels began to ask me about the strategy. I was encouraged to spread this strategy to more teachers by presenting at the Mini-NESA conference here at ACS on November 14, 2014. I was lucky enough to then be chosen to present it at NESA’s Spring Educators’ Conference in Istanbul, Turkey,” Eric explained.

His presentation was titled “Using Metacognition to Develop Strong Readers in All Content Areas.”

Unsurprisingly, it was a huge success. Teacher and administrative attendees were thrilled about the simplicity and flexibility of implementing the strategies with their own students. Just like at ACS, teachers of many different content areas and grand levels could see the relevance in teaching using metacognitive strategies. But for Mr. Triche, the best moment was watching his other colleges present and being able to support them during their presentations.

When it comes to social growth, Mr. Triche is just as dedicated. In his, as well as all, 6th grade English classes students practiced essay writing for a cause! As part of this assignment, students had to research and write essays on various types of cancer. Students then had the option to participate in the annual Letter-a-Thon fundraiser for St. Jude’s Children’s Cancer Center of Lebanon. They raised donation pledges of LL100 for each word that they wrote in their essays. Mr. Triche says he couldn’t pass up the opportunity “to serve the community while also raising awareness and teaching students writing/research standards.” The students

were excited to research and write about various types of cancer. When they learned about the community service component, they became even more excited.

Most of them enthusiastically participated in the Letter-a-Thon and helped raise lots of money for a great cause. The result? “Individual students raised anywhere from LL25,000 to LL450,000 and in total 6th graders at ACS raised over $2,800 in funds to donate to the Children’s Cancer Center of Lebanon.”

It is clear that Mr. Triche truly follows through with his self-designed teaching style, and that his students (and fellow teachers) “learn and grow both personally and academically by balancing high expectations, fairness, and consistency in the classroom.” We at ACS are very fortunate to have Eric Triche as a member of the ACS community.

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Atelierista (Artist-in-Residence) at ACS As the Atelierista, or Artist-in-Residence, at ACS Jesse Schlabach embodies and represents creative thinkers everywhere. She also represented ACS at NESA’s Spring Educators’ Conference in Istanbul, Turkey with a workshop titled “Inside a Creative Mind.” Her presentation focused on dispelling myths about creativity (such as the creative right brain) and how “current neuroscience research that is re-defining creativity as a mental activity, and illustrated how to design an emotional and physical environment in a classroom that will nurture creative thought and behavior.” Ms. Schlabach explained that “while most people say ‘be creative’ all the time, most have no clear idea of what it means, where it comes from, or how to cultivate it.” Furthermore, she stressed that creativity is not a domain owned by artists. Creativity, simply put, is relevant and novel problem solving, something every teacher in every subject can agree is vital to a student’s success, not only in school, but in life. Ms. Schlabach wanted to alter thinking towards the idea that “rather than a bone you’re born with, creativity is a muscle that improves with exercise.” She shares that, as teachers, it is our responsibility to help our students develop those creative muscles!

Her workshop could not come at a better time during the conference, as Jesse stated “the first day, our keynote

speaker emphatically and poetically stated, ‘Areas of discomfort are areas of learning.’ Throughout the conference, everyone was echoing the importance of students overcoming their fear of failure. My workshop was held on the very last day, and it felt like I was administering some kind of cure, because creative thinking/problem solving helps students become more comfortable with the possible failure that results from true experimentation and risk-taking.”

Teachers and students alike are encouraged to use Ms. Schlabach’s methods and strategies at ACS and it is no surprise that we are all better for it, as teachers, students, administrators, and people. We are proud to have her here at ACS, and her self-described teaching style is a life motto itself that all of us should constantly be in the front of our minds “is there another way we could do it?”

ACS Matters Spring - Summer 2015

Student-centered Class

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Jared Pete, a high school social studies teacher, was a presenter at NESA’s Spring Educators’ Conference in Istanbul, Turkey with a workshop titled “Enhancing Academic Language in the Classroom.” His goal was to share different pedagogical strategies that teachers across academic disciplines could use in their classroom to facilitate the development of students’ literacy skills.

While this may seem like a mouthful at first glance, this type of language is exactly what Mr. Pete was pushing for in classrooms around the world. In order to obtain a successful and strong academic education, students

need to explore topics using academic language. Mr. Pete stressed that this wasn’t just a social studies requirement but one for all subjects. The key to success is to make sure students are engaged in the lessons, and teachers can’t expect to lecture at students using academic language and see strong comprehension. Mr. Pete demonstrated this by “Incorporating kinesthetic movements into oral practice with different sentence frames.” In layman’s terms, people had to move around and act certain ways turning the lesson, which is a strategy that Mr. Pete uses regularly as he develops a student-centered class by engaging students in inquiry-based learning. We are proud to have him as a teacher at ACS, and the school certainly will not be the same without him next year. But we will take his elite instruction to our viscus of cardiac muscle that maintains the circulation of the blood, and encourage him during his future ambitions, as well as his educational endeavors. Or in layman’s terms: we won’t forget you and good luck in the future!

Paper Lamp 2, Pip Hiemstra, IB, 2015

ACS Matters Spring - Summer 2015

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Breaking Down the Walls Daniel Saint James

On the first morning he woke to the sound of the Sunkoshi River harshly beating against its rocks. It was evident that it was not yet time to begin the day. But Jad Kaiss didn’t mind, he decided to embrace the beginning of the day and quietly, so as not take wake his Egyptian tent mate, grabbed his Kerouac novel and headed down to the sounds of the water.

On his way, he saw a man kneeling in front of a lifesized Buddha Statue surrounded by candles. A little ways down the road he saw a man water the plants around his house, who gave him a genuine smile and a wave. As Jad grabbed a small wooden chair, a few other men walked back from the river with freshly washed pots and pans and headed into the Kitchen.

Jad realized that his presence was not a burden but in fact welcomed by this community in the Himalaya.

He soaked in his surroundings and began to read his book. On the second morning of what would become his morning ritual, Jad was given the opportunity to water the plants by a gardener. While still overcoming the shock of being entrusted with the care of such a beautiful garden, the man began to explain to Jad the Koshi river system and how attempts were being made to cut it off. Jad spent the rest of his mornings immersed in this small community’s morning routine.

Jad’s is just one of many captivating experiences that our students feel during ACS’s Week Without Walls program. It is designed to incorporate educational travel for students as part of their curriculum. The goal being to expand students’ global perspective by embarking on a journey to a location they are unlikely to travel to with their family or friends. On the trip students maintain academic rigor with specific and thematic connections to multiple curriculums.

Students receive hands-on learning experiences that incorporate real-world situations. In addition, students improve trust and cooperation within the community by facing challenges and experiences together. But for many, such as Jad, it goes beyond what is promoted on the ACS website.

The enterprise is more than a glorified classroom and is not merely another challenge to be conquered; 45

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ACS Matters Spring - Summer 2015

it is an altering of perspective. It is the opportunity to expand the world they know and gain a genuine understanding of different cultures and people of this world. It is the opportunity to feel welcomed in a small village in the Himalayan Mountains. To see that the Nepalese aren’t a people of ancient history to be memorized for a quiz, they are human beings that share common interests. That the challenges faced by citizens of Bali are not theirs alone, but ours as human beings that we must solve together. This perspective shift is what Week Without Walls instils in the students of ACS. The Week Without Walls program started as a middle school project during the 2000-2001 school year with the 6th graders going to Syria, 7th graders and 8th graders going to Jordan. In the 2001-2002 school year the 6th graders went to Syria, The 7th graders went to Jordan, and the 8th graders went to Egypt.

The structure continued to progress, the destinations drifted further, the focus on community service intensified and now Week Without Walls is a part of the official Middle School curriculum. Eventually

ACS’s Week Without Walls program is designed to incorporate educational travel for students as part of their curriculum. The goal being to expand students’ global perspective by embarking on a journey to a location they are unlikely to travel to with their family or friends. in 2012 Week Without Walls made its way into the High School program. While each trip provides its own unique experience, they all share common goals consisting of exposure to academic curriculums, as well as developing interpersonal skills and an understanding and appreciation of different cultures.

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ACS Matters Spring - Summer 2015

For the 2014-2015 school year, the trips themselves have evolved with some trips such as the NASA space camp in Turkey switching grade levels from 7th to 6th because it fit the standards better in science. Since week without walls is part of the middle school curriculum for students those you choose not to leave the country still have the opportunity to experience Week Without Walls in Lebanon, where students get immersed into the different cultures across of the country.

During the 2014-2015 academic year, the program begins for our students in 6th grade with the opportunity to attend space camp in Turkey. Students had the opportunity learn about astronomy and the life of an astronaut. The seventh graders traveled to Armenia and used technology such as Google glasses, as well learned about the rich Armenian history.

Sri Lanka provided adventurous travel for the 8th grade students who explored the extensive flora and fauna of the island.

In the High School, students continue to expand their perspectives. This year tenth and eleventh grade students got to choose between four unique options, Italy, Berlin, Liverpool and Bali. In Italy, students discovered art in different Italian cities. The football fanatics made their way to Liverpool to learn more about the Liverpool F.C. and the way they conduct an almost billion dollar franchise. In Berlin, our students took in world history and sites of Germany’s capital. As for Bali, there was the Surf & Turf group and the Bound for Bali group which was a community service group working to improve the conditions for the people of the island. Finally, in Lebanon, a group of students completed internships while others did community service with Bridges to Ability.

Week Without Walls truly embodies the finale of the ACS Mission Statement as students spend a week gaining the skills required to “serve Lebanon and the world community with understanding and compassion.� Whether it is providing assistance to communities in Bali, exploring the jungles of Sri Lanka, learning business with the Liverpool Football Club, simulating leaving this world behind at Space Camp in Turkey, or learning from different communities right here in Lebanon, our students are already committing to service and gaining a sense of understanding and compassion that they will carry with them as they grown into the future leaders of our world community. n

It is the opportunity to expand the world they know and gain a genuine understanding of different cultures and people of this world.

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Swi

During Reflection Time, the children shared their ideas and theories about sea animals, and composed a story about a “small fish.”

ACS Matters Spring - Summer 2015

The teacher started a sentence and the game began. The children added one sentence each until all had a turn.

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Teacher: “There was a small fish...”

Viktor: “Whose name is Swimmy...”

Sofia N.: “He lived in a school.”

Sara: “He had new friends.”

Nour: “The fish played with his friends.”

Naomi: “He was eating cherries.”

Ryan: “He swam in the deep water. The shark ate him.”

Adrian: “He was scared of the shark.”

Hashem: “The shark ate the fishes.”

Kian: “The fish swim away.”

Reina: “They came all to a big fish.”

Jad K.: “They hide.”

Camille: “They think.”

Kira: “There was fish scary of shark.”

Viktor: “A stingray came to have dinner with the shark and they ate sushi.”

mmy

KG1 A Fish Project - Research, Observation, & Discussion February – March Protagonists: Adrian, Hashem, Kian, Leila, Naomi, Shams, Sherif, Sofia N., Viktor

Children from Mrs. Nabila Hamadeh’s KG1 class gathered to research, observe and discuss the variety of sea animals.

Together, they drew and created a puzzle of their observation; which they shared with Ms. Jesse.

They also went on a field trip to the “Wonders of the sea”, where they saw real fish. Their trip was documented in a self-made book called “The ‘Fish’ Book”.

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Early Years – Middle School Buddy Program

Campus News

Early this year, Middle School Assistant Principal Nick Thornton and Early Years music teacher Ingrid Thornton spearheaded the new Early Years-Middle School Buddies initiative, which was envisioned as an opportunity to enhance the “C” in ACS. The Buddies program has aimed to foster a sense of community at ACS by providing means for students from disparate age groups to develop positive relationships by spending time together. MS and EY students began their relationship in our first Buddies session by taking turns drawing portraits of each other. During later Buddies sessions, the EY students shared stories that they had authored and MS students read stories to their buddies. The Buddies also had fun teaching each other and playing their favorite games. The program culminated last month with a picnic, in which the MS and EY buddies shared a meal and added their own personal touches to the ACS campus by decorating walls and the floor of the MS Courtyard with chalk drawings and patterns. Based on the success of the Buddies program this year in forging relationships between our youngest Knights and our not-so-young Knights, we can look forward to more Buddies activities when we return from the summer vacation.

ACS Matters Spring - Summer 2015

Francophonie Event

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For the past four years ACS has been celebrating the Francophonie and 2015 was no exception. Each year at the end of March all French speaking countries through schools, universities, institutions celebrate the Francophonie by organizing events related to France and the French culture. The students of ACS from Elementary School through High School participated in three activities to celebrate French Culture. The elementary students from grade three to five researched French speaking countries and presented them, worked with a French artist and built an Eiffel tower and “un arc de triomphe” using recycled objects. They also learned French songs and sang along with a guest guitarist. Finally, parents helped by preparing delicious crepes. In the Middle School, students in the Advanced seventh grade class organized a French rally paper for their peers in intermediate and beginner classes dividing them by groups.

The three winning teams were given prizes by Mrs. Clark. In High School, the 11th grade IB students organized a debate about freedom of speech after “Charlie Hebdo” events. Teachers, coordinators, as well as, administrators participated in this event. Mrs. Joelle Yacoub, the French Language Coordinator, who put on the celebration, believed that the best moments were witnessing students’ “enthusiasm and engagement, and to see that although ACS is an American school, students truly enjoy using the French language.”

Service Summit This year students at ACS had the opportunity to participate in The Service Summit, an event very similar to an information or job fair, but the participants were NGOs exhibiting their volunteer opportunities. Each NGO was given a booth and the opportunity to explain about their organization’s background, activities, and what they’re looking for in a volunteer. The summit provided students the opportunity to connect with NGOs and learn about programs that they could participate in to fulfill their community service requirement. Students were given a chance to see a variety of ongoing projects that they could participate in, build off of, or to start something new. They were free to discuss new projects with the NGOs or amendments (if feasible) to existing activities. Even more, they could look at where the gaps in service are and could come up with projects to start as their own. This was the second Service Summit and according to Hoda Shatah, who put on the event, it was a huge success and she plans to make it an annual event. “It was an excellent experience for both the students and the NGOs--several of them commented to me on how excited/energetic and fully invested our students seemed; they’re looking forward to having such a high caliber of students volunteer with them.” We look forward to see this event become an annual summit here at ACS.

Our athletes, the ACS Knights, completed another successful year.

The 2014-2015 school year saw the Knights compete in a new conference, the Oasis Activity Conference, which consists of schools from the UAE, Jordan, Bahrain, Lebanon and Saudi Arabia. In the new conference, ACS teams won three championship trophies, ten banners currently hanging in the gym, and second place for overall participation. ACS represented itself well in this eight-team conference and looks to improve upon its already stellar set of accomplishments.

In addition to joining a new conference, newer sports are flourishing and being explored next year.

One possible introduction to the list is Golf, which is being considered as a possible winter sport for the coming school year. With the support of the Beirut Golf Club, students will be able to learn a new activity outside of the classroom and outside of the walls at ACS. The second year programs of Rugby and Tennis had their enrollment numbers increase dramatically as well, demonstrating that these programs are here to stay. Overall Athletics remain a significant part of the ACS community with 60% of high school and 70% of middle school students participating in athletics during the 2014-2015 school year.

Look out for our monthly e-newsletter (NewsFlash) for more up-to-date news!

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Ina Peglow, IB, 2015

Self-penned Obituary

Margaret “Deedee” McMullen Corradini ‘61 April 11, 1944 ~ March 1, 2015 “I was born on April 11, 1944 in Providence, RI, the second child of Marie-Louise and Horace McMullen. From ages 4 to 15, my family and I lived in the Middle East, first in Beirut, Lebanon, where my father, a theologian and minister, was President of the Near East School of Theology and I attended the American Community School. Then we were in Aleppo, Syria, where he was President of Aleppo College. I made lifelong friends and became fluent in French and Arabic.

ACS Matters Spring - Summer 2015

I attended Drew University from 1961-63, where I met and married Paul Robert Corradini. We moved to Utah after falling in love with the mountains. We had visited my parents there after they relocated for my father to become the pastor of Holladay United Church of Christ.

I received a Bachelors degree in Psychology from the University of Utah in 1965, then a Masters in Educational Psychology in 1967. Paul and I had two wonderful children. Although we divorced in 1973, we remained close throughout our lives.

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With an early passion for politics, I served as Press Secretary to Congressman Wayne Owens (D-Utah) and Rep. Richard Ottinger (D-NY) in early 1970’s. This led to a great desire to serve the public, which I was honored to do from 1992-2000, as the first, and to date, only female Mayor of Salt Lake City. There are two things of which I was most proud from my tenure as Mayor: The first was bringing TRAX light-rail to the city, allowing a more modern and eco-friendly transportation system for the public. It has been extraordinary to see TRAX continually expanding, which has enabled Salt Lake City

the potential to become the innovative, world-class city it deserves to be.

The second was winning the bid for the 2002 Olympic Winter Games. I held such a great love for Utah, its mountains and its people, and I wanted to share that with the world. I will never forget the moment I received the Olympic Flag during the Closing Ceremonies from the International Olympic Committee President Juan Antonio Samaranch during the 1998 Winter Games in Nagano, Japan.

It was also an honor to represent all of the nation’s mayors by serving as the President of the United States Conference of Mayors, both on the national and international front.

In 1998 during a Renaissance Weekend on Hilton Head Island, SC, I met my partner in life and love, John Huebner, a charming Southerner from Greenville, SC, with whom I went head to head on a panel titled “The Changing Relationships Between Men and Women.”

We married a year later. I have enjoyed a wonderful and fulfilling 16 years with him by my side, both travelling the world, and living in our home in Park City, sitting on the deck watching the sun set over our beloved Wasatch mountains in the summer and relaxing in front of our roaring fire in the winter.

In 2004, I met a teenage world-class ski jumper, Lindsey Van, who told me that women were not allowed to jump in the Olympic Games. First I was in disbelief, and then I

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was furious. Soon after that pivotal meeting, I became the President of Women’s Ski Jumping USA. With an army of athletes, volunteers and the court of public opinion, we would go on to wage a 10-year, global battle for justice to one day see women ski jumping on the world’s biggest sports stage. We ultimately won and women’s ski jumping made its debut - and made history - in Sochi, Russia in 2014.

Since 2004 I have enjoyed my time as a Senior Vice President with Berkshire Hathaway (formerly Prudential) Real Estate. They have been wonderful to me.

I was honored to serve as President of the International Women’s Forum (IWF) from 2011 to 2013, where I was surrounded by many bright and visionary global women leaders who continue to lead our world on a brighter path forward. Most recently, I served as IWF’s Global Ambassador. My time spent at IWF greatly increased my understanding of and perspective into the incredible talent and leadership potential that women have in this world. It inspired me to champion, promote, and enable women to create their own extraordinary legacies.

I am survived by my wonderful husband John Huebner, my two incredible children and their spouses whom I have loved as though they were my own; my son, Andrew Stafford Corradini and his wife Valerie Petrone Corradini of Hillsborough, CA, and my daughter, Andrea Marie Corradini, and her husband, David Brown of Portland, OR; my three wild and wonderful grandchildren, Savannah, Stafford, and Sebastian; my sister Laura McMullen, my

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brother Daniel McMullen and his wife Marina; my niece, Katya, my nephew Matthew McMullen (Ashley) and their girls Ella and Ava, and my nephew David McMullen (Ayumi), and their son Akira. I am preceded in death by my parents Horace Martin McMullen and Marie-Louise McMullen, and my brother, Garrett McMullen. My family has brought me immeasurable love, support, strength, and joy and I know they will continue to live with sheer grace and joyful hearts.

I am profoundly grateful to the amazing medical team at the Huntsman Cancer Institute (HCI) for their care since my diagnosis of Stage IV Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (the non-smoking type) on July 23rd; Dr. Wallace Akerley, Julie Luckart, APRN, Terry Van Duren, RN, Dr. Anna Beck, Dr. Jonathan Boltax, Audra Zdunich, RN, and Brigitte Christianson, who administered my IVs gently and painlessly, and always left me with a hug.

To all the incredible nurses and aides who were so kind during all my days and nights at HCI, you were a blessing. I would also like to thank Sue and Liza, the nurses with Community Nursing Services who took care of my comfort and allowed me to be at home with my family during my hardest and final days.”

Published in Salt Lake Tribune from Mar. 4 to Mar. 6, 2015 1. Deedee and her husband, John Huebner.

2. Deedee and Nina J. Köprülü ‘79 (President of the ACS Board).

3. Deedee and Lyn H. Grinstein ‘62, longtime friend & roommate at ACS. 4. Left to right: Lyn H. Grinstein ‘62; Deedee Corradini ‘61, Laila F. Alamuddin ‘62 and Peter Dorman ‘66.

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6 tips

High School is often confusing for parents and students alike, with different choices to make and a lot more responsibility. Here are

HS principal, Dr. Robert Evans on...

Rebecca Naughton Community Service

Even though this is a required part of the high school curriculum, it is your choice as to how you are going to approach this, i.e. you won’t get much out of the experience if you go into it as if it is a burden or if you only join an option because your friend will go with you. Use this experience as an opportunity to learn something about yourself and how you are part of a larger community.

Teaching Students Independence

ACS Matters Spring - Summer 2015

I would recommend that you look for opportunities to spend time away from your families during summer.

Go to camp. Get a job. You need to learn how do fend for yourself before you get to college not once you get there. Your mother means well but she does too much for you; same with your dad too, I’d bet.

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The Importance of Extra-Curricular Activities (sports and activities)

Get involved. Do something. Like I said at the start of the year, high school can be boring if you don’t take advantage of the non-academic activities on offer. Even if you don’t find the things we have here interesting, try one or two to see if these are different than you thought. Don’t be boring.

Helping students take ownership

At some point you have to accept that you own your education. If you want to be in control and have multiple options available to you, be responsible enough to get your work done and to finish what you start.

Social Media Presence dangers, appropriate behavior Just know that people beyond your immediate social group pay attention to these. Future employers or even internship opportunities will look up applicants to see if there was anything online to be worried about.

IB vs Honors Programs

Find the right option for you and there isn’t a simple formula to follow here. You have to know yourself, have some idea about what might be your path in college, and then weigh the options. Both will offer rigorous coursework and that is what colleges are looking for.

Fight The Machine, Omar Arafeh, IB, 2015

Dedicated teachers & engaged students in ACS classrooms... 1905 - 2015

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