Focus Winter 2010-11

Focus Winter 2010/2011

the american school foundation, a.c.

PROGRESS WITHOUT PRESSURE Helping Kids Do Their Best in School

UNDER CONSTRUCTION An Update on the Fine Arts & Wellness Centers

THE 41st ANNUAL ART FAIR Another Stellar Event

STUDENTS, TEACHERS & THE INTERNET Opportunities... and Rules

A magazine for alumni, parents, students, faculty & friends

contents

Winter 2010/2011

26/ Art & the City ASFers Bring Works to the Community by kelly arthur garrett

28/ Art Fair 2010 Student Work Shines by paloma porraz fraser

& blanca santacruz

30/ A Glimpse of the Future Welcoming U.S. Ambassador Carlos Pascual by karla pacheco

02/ From the Executive Director 03/ From the Editorial Board

Family forum 32/ It’s Complicated Teachers, Students and Social Media by juan de jesus breene

04/ From the Board of Trustees Introducing five new members

06/ News and Events Fairs, fun, faces and fiestas... and other campus goings-on

Departments & Divisions 14/ Early Childhood Center Empathy and Action by rene rozen & anna siegal

15/ Lower School A Stroll Through the Library by phillip williams

16/ Middle School Practically Speaking by jonathan chenier

17/ Upper School It’s Personal by renee olper

34/ Ganas & Gratitude A financial aid success story by kelly arthur garrett

36/ Life Support Three volunteers who just keep giving by natalia carrillo

focus on education 38/ Under Pressure School can be tough. Remember? by mike hennessy

Institutional Advancement 40/ Strokes for Scholarships The 8th Annual ASF Golf Tournament

42/ The Capital Campaign & the Annual Scholarship Drive STUDENT VOICES 43/ Leaving Again by steven campillo

18/ The Arts Masks of the World by leonardo trias

19/ Parent Association Beyond the Bake Sale

20/ Athletics & Extended Learning

Alumni 44/ On the Fast Track Carlos Cohen’s racing career by stephanie matta (‘00)

45/ Running for Education ASF’s first 5/10K run

Bump, Set, Spike!

46/ Milestones

by devan sullivan

Births, engagements, marriages and in memoriam

Hard Work, Tough Challenge by carel roffiel

After Hours

47/ Class Notes, Reunions

by louisa renero

Keeping in touch with the ASF family Who got together... on campus and off

Campus currents 22/ Coming Soon The latest on the Fine Arts and Wellness Centers

kids’ corner 48/ Picture Poems Words and art, together Focus 1

From the Executive Director contributors

T

he holiday season may just be starting, but at ASF it feels like it’s been underway for months. Fall is high season for us – and you might even call it the season of giving! That’s because fall events from the Golf Tournament to the Art Fair and more help us raise money for scholarships, building funds and other important projects. If you haven’t been able to make it to any of these occasions yet, there’s still time. The Holiday Bazaar will fill the front part of our campus with great gift ideas from December 8th to 10th, with proceeds going to our scholarship fund.

Fall is also high season for ASF’s three A’s – academics, athletics and arts.

Inside the classroom, our students have been hitting the books, while a quick look at pages 20, 21, 26 and 27 show what kind of learning is going on outside the classroom walls, on playing fields and in the studio. As always, we at ASF are proud of the well-rounded young people that make up our student body, and we’re doing our absolute best to provide the learning environment they need to excel in every way. That includes building the new Mary Street Jenkins Wellness Center and the Ángeles Espinosa Yglesias Fine Arts Center, for which construction is currently getting underway.

Our student groups, despite their busy schedules, have also been involved in giving back to the school and the community through their participation in a variety of service activities from working with neighborhood children to organizing disaster relief programs. What a wonderful example they set for all of us in forming part of our vibrant community.

I would like to take this opportunity to mention another opportunity for you to personally get involved in all the wonderful things going on at ASF. Enclosed in this issue of Focus, you will find an envelope for The American School Giving Program. Whether you want to support bricks and mortar or tuition and fees, and no matter what the size of your gift, we want to make that as easy as possible. My holiday wish is that those of you who have never considered supporting the school in this way will give it some thought and will send back a pledge or donation in the size that is right for you. I guarantee it will make a difference in the lives of our students and the future of our school!

Whatever your role, thank you for being part of the ASF community this year. Warm wishes for the holiday season and a happy 2011!

Paul Williams Executive Director

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MIKE HENNESSY Mike, who wrote our cover story for this issue (“Under Pressure,” page 38), is an IB History teacher at the Upper School, as well as social studies department head and Model United Nations supervisor.

“I’ve enjoyed working with the students of ASF during the past four years,” he says. “And I’ve been known to put a little (healthy) pressure on them, occasionally.”

KARLA PACHECO An ASF senior, Karla covered for Focus the recent roundtable discussion on campus that featured the U.S. Ambassador to Mexico, Carlos Pascual (page 30). Born in Mexico City, she lived in Brazil for four years before returning to Mexico and entering ASF in the fifth grade. This is her first published article.

KELLY ARTHUR GARRETT An ASF parent and teacher of English at the FES-Acatlán campus of UNAM, Kelly grew up in Hollywood, California, before coming to Mexico City to work as a journalist in 1992. He has helped edit Focus for the last two years, and contributed two articles to this issue: “Art and the City” (page 26) and “Ganas and Gratitude” (page 34).

From the EDITORIAL BOARD

Dear ASF Community, Welcome to an action-packed issue of Focus that reflects just the kind of fall we’ve had at The American School Foundation. From the first day of school to now, our talented faculty, staff, students and families have been working, playing and learning non-stop – from project, tests and lessons in the classroom to big games on the field to big events like the recent Art Fair. We hope this issue of Focus will give you a taste of ASF to savor over the holidays, whether you’re far or near.

We especially want to call your attention to the following: ••

•• ••

••

Focus Winter 2010/2011

THE AMERICAN SCHOOL FOUNDATION, A.C.

PROGRESS WITHOUT PRESSURE Helping Kids Do Their Best in School

UNDER CONSTRUCTION An Update on the Fine Arts & Wellness Centers

THE 41ST ANNUAL ART FAIR

Art, art and more art! From the annual Art Fair (pages 28-29) to the ASF community’s off-campus part (pages 26-27) to the faces of ASF on canvas (page 12), you’ll come away from this issue of Focus with a renewed appreciation for our talented community.

On pages 38-39, are parents and schools putting too much pressure on children? See what one expert said parents are forgetting – and hear what ASF students think.

The U.S. Ambassador to Mexico visits the ASF campus. Read what he and other leaders think about the school’s role in preparing students who are ready to compete in the coming decades (page 30).

From tennis to football, Homecoming Week (page 9) had it all – even a brand-new event, the alumni 5/10K Run for Education (page 46).

If all this is a sign of things to come, 2011 may well be ASF’s best year yet. But that depends on all of us, so let’s resolve to be part of ASF in a new and different way this new year.

Best wishes for a happy holiday season and we hope to see you all on campus in 2011!

Another Stellar Event

STUDENTS, TEACHERS & THE INTERNET Opportunities... and Rules

Saludos,

A magazine for alumni, parents, students, faculty & friends

On the cover: Progress Without Pressure.

Photo: José Luis Santa Cruz.

Sloane Starke, Head of Communications and the Focus Editorial Board

Focus

A magazine for ASF Alumni, Parents, Students, Faculty and Friends Winter 2010/2011 Vol. IX | No. 3 | Mexico City Paul Williams, Executive Director Susan Olivo, Head of Early Childhood Center Evan Hunt, Head of Lower School Allen Jackson, Head of Middle School Amy Gallie, Head of Upper School Robert Wilson, Head of Athletics & Extended Learning Board of Trustees Rosa (Marentes) Pisinger (’87), Chair Cathy Austin (’78), 1st Vice Chair Carlos Williamson, 2nd Vice Chair Carla Ormsbee, Secretary Joan Liechty, Treasurer César Buenrostro (’85) Richard Campillo Murray Case Les DeGraffenried Francisco Demesa Sebastián Fernández Fernando Franco Maria de Lourdes Galván Frances Huttanus Antonio Rallo Tito Vidaurri Martin Werner Editorial Board Adele Goldschmied, Cindy Tanaka (’91), Clementina Aguilar, Michele Beltran, Paul Williams, Xenia Castro (’96), José Segebre, Juan de Jesús Breene Editorial Staff Sloane Starke, Editor-in-Chief & Chair of the Editorial Board Kelly Arthur Garrett, Editorial Consultant Daniela Graniel, Art Director José Luis Santa Cruz, Marisela Sanabria, Photography Alumni Relations alumni@asf.edu.mx Parent Association Aliki Elias, President Alma Rosa Rodríguez, Vice President Advertising Sales: 5227 4942 FOCUS es una publicación cuatrimestral editada por The American School Foundation, A.C., Sur 136 #135, Col. Las Américas, México, D.F., C.P. 01120. Editora Responsable: Sloane Alexandria Starke. Derechos de Autor: Licitud de Título y de Contenido 16220. Reserva de Derecho: 04-2008-111212240200-102. Distribuido por The American School Foundation, A.C. Sur 136 #135, Col. Las Américas, México, D.F., C.P. 01120.

Imprenta MG Impresores, José Morán #139, Col. Daniel Garza, C.P. 11830 México, D.F. Se prohibe la reproducción total o parcial de los textos de esta revista sin previa autorización escrita de The American School Foundation, A.C.

Focus 3

FROM THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES

T

he Board of Trustees holds the school in trust. What this means, among many other things, is that the Board ensures the well-being of the school for years to come.

During the month of September, Trustees and leadership of the school went on a retreat to work on the strategic plan that will guide ASF as it moves towards the future.

Always keeping the mission and vision of ASF in mind, the Board members discussed the school’s strategic goals. How should we envision ASF in the future? What values should hold the community together? How will we prepare our students to become responsible, contributing citizens of the world? Some key points arose.

ASF is an inclusive community made up of a caring and diverse student body. It is important for us to seek and retain talented families and students from different nationalities, religions, cultures and disciplines, regardless of their ability to pay our tuition. Participation of all community members is encouraged through partnerships that enhance our community’s shared values of respect and tolerance.

By blending American, Mexican and international curriculums and respecting individual learning styles, talented teachers and leadership encourage in students the joy and importance of learning, thereby promoting academic excellence.

It is imperative that ASF can count on modern infrastructure. New pedagogies call for modernized classrooms that can sustain the modern technologies that help with interactive learning. Better sports facilities and art venues will offer our students an advantage as they discover their own potentials. All of this can only be accomplished with sound financials — that is, with financial policies that ensure ASF remains a solid institution, capable of achieving its goals.

The goals set forth in the plan are ambitious and so are our expectations for the school and its programs. It will take a lot of work to accomplish them. We on the Board hope that the entire community will come together to help us do it.

Rosa (Marentes) Pisinger Chair of the ASF Board of Trustees

Welcome Aboard Meet the Five Newest Members of the ASF Board of Trustees Richard Campillo Richard Campillo comes to the ASF Board with a long and distinguished career in business that has taken him across the globe. Born and raised in New York, Richard has a B.S. in accounting from St. John’s University and a master’s in management from Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management. He worked at Price Waterhouse and Avon Products before launching an international career with Nestlé that has included senior management positions in Switzerland, Malaysia, the Philippines and Canada. In 2008, he moved to Mexico, where as vice president and general manager, he established the regional office for Nestlé Professional in Latin America and the Caribbean. Richard was a founding member of the National Society of Hispanic MBAs and has done volunteer work with the March of Dimes and City of Hope Hospital in Los Angeles. He and his wife Karen have three children attending ASF. Antonio Rallo Born in Columbus, Ohio, in 1962, Antonio Rallo was raised in Cuernavaca, Morelos before returning to the United States to earn his bachelor’s degree in marine biology from the University of California, San Diego, which led to a research graduate fellowship in aquaculture from Aix Marseille III in France. After serving as technologies director for Apple Europe, he launched his entrepreneurial career, founding several technology companies in Mexico, the most recent being Kionetworks, a managed services data center that is the most important of its kind in Latin America. He has been Televisa’s chief technology officer for the last six years. Serving on the Technology Committee for three years before becoming a member of the Board, Tony has been instrumental in getting such key tech companies as Cisco, Sun, Adobe, Apple and Google to donate services and equipment to ASF, as well as major discounts totaling more than $500,000 dollars. He and his wife Gaby have two children, both at ASF. Francisco Demesa Born in Mexico City and raised in Cuernavaca, Francisco Demesa earned his bachelor’s degree in marketing from the prestigious Tec de Monterrey and an MBA from the Harvard Business School. He has 14 years of professional experience in marketing and business development. Currently the marketing director for AstraZeneca, he has also held senior positions at such companies as Unilever, BAT and DuPont. Having returned to Mexico one year ago after five years in the United States, Francisco and his wife Claudia have five children enrolled at The American School.

Sebastian B. Fernández Cortina Sebastian Fernández was born and raised in Mexico City, where he studied political science and public administration at the Universidad Iberoamericana. He has also taken executive education courses in finance and corporate governance at University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business, the Rice University Jesse H. Jones School of Business and the Harvard Business School. He has served on the boards of a number of government entities and currently holds the post of business sector director with Infonavit, the government-run mortgage lender, where he participates on the board, in the general assembly and on all of Infonavit’s committees. Sebastian and his wife Yvette have three sons attending ASF.

Board of Trustees members and ASF staff pose during a fall retreat Back row: Trustee Sebastian Fernández, Executive Director Paul Williams, Chair of the Board of Trustees Rosa Pisinger ('87), Trustee Murray Case, Trustee Richard Campillo, Trustee Martin Werner.

Middle row: Director of Admission Patsy Hubp, Trustee Carla Ormsbee, Trustee Cathy Austin ('78), Administrative Assistant Janet Segura, Trustee Francisco Demesa, Trustee Les deGraffenried, Trustee Frances Huttanus.

Front row: Trustee Fernando Franco, Trustee Carlos Williamson, Director of Institutional Advancement Michele Beltran, Director of Academic Affairs Juan de Jesus Breene.

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Les deGraffenried A Texas native, Les deGraffenried graduated from the University of Texas at Austin, and received his Juris Doctor from Baylor University. After 10 years of practicing law, he served as a diplomat in Poland, Panama, Germany, Bonn, Uruguay, Azerbaijan and Italy. He is now with the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City. He was on the Board of the American Overseas School of Rome, and served as adviser to the State Department’s Office of Overseas Schools in Washington, D.C. Les and his wife Katie have a daughter and a son.

NEWS & EVENTS Author, Author!

English Book Fair With Libros, Libros, Libros!

The Parent Association organizes the English Book Fair each fall, with the help of lots of enthusiastic volunteer parents, who arrive at 7:00 a.m. and leave at 4:00 p.m. In past years, Scholastic was the sole provider of books, but since the company left Mexico, the English Book Fair had been struggling to find a distributor who offered books for ages 3 to 16 at reasonable prices. This year the excellent Mexico City bookstore Libros, Libros, Libros had more than 1,500 different titles to offer in the Lower School Multipurpose Room on October 5, 6 and 7. In what was said to be a less expensive and more varied fair, 3,342 books were sold to children, parents and teachers. —­ Lourdes Zebadua, PA

The English Book Fair last October included a book-signing appearance by a very special author, Middle Schooler Daniela Madrazo, who has inspired her schoolmates and the entire ASF community by becoming a published author as an 8th grader.

Daniela’s book, The Illustrator, (available for sale on Amazon.com and Borders.com, among other sites) follows a boy who helps support his family through his writing — and along the way meets and falls in love with a talented young female illustrator.

Daniela says her teachers started praising her writing and encouraging her to write starting in 4th grade. She started writing the 168-page novel in 6th grade, continued through 7th grade and published it in the 8th grade through iUniverse.com, a supported self-publishing company. She has sold approximately 80 copies.

“I’m such a serious bookworm. I love books,” Daniela says. “I decided to take my imagination and love for books and write one of my own.” She says she is already thinking about her next book, but reveals that it won’t be a sequel.

Houses of Fun Lower School students, teachers and families came to school on a Saturday — but not to sit in class. On September 25, House Family Fun day brought the Lower School community together for an art activity, lunch and some friendly competition between houses. Students who participated won points for their yearlong competition between houses.

¡Viva México!

ASF’s annual celebration of Mexico’s Independence Day sported some special bicentennial zing in September, with students in ECC, Lower School, Middle School and Upper School all celebrating the big day in their own way. ECC and Lower School held special assemblies, while Middle School reveled in an outdoors celebration and Upper School student leaders put on an after-school event featuring food, fun and mechanical bull rides.

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Ghoul Daze Halloween came a couple of days early at ASF but that didn’t affect students’ Halloween spirit! Among other festivities, ECC students trick or treated in the administration area, Lower School had a costume parade, Middle School hosted a spooky haunted house and Death wore white at the Upper School costume contest.

A Welcome Picnic For one Saturday morning toward the beginning of the school year, part of the ASF campus was all about bounce houses, face painting, games, music and food, as parents and students turned out for a Welcome Picnic. The fun-filled event, which took place on August 28, is organized annually by the ASF Parent Association.

Focus 7

NEWS & EVENTS Everybody Back Into the Pool!

ASF inaugurated the newly renovated swimming pool during Homecoming Week in October with a ribbon cutting, swimming races and a pool party. The bigger, Olympic-sized school pool now has a faster and more modern water filtering system, non-slip tiles, remodeled starting blocks and two more lanes than before. The depth has been evened out, and ledges were added at the sides for smaller children to be able to stand and hold onto. The pool is popular at ASF; it was in use nearly every weekday from 5:30 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. for practice, classes and lap-swimming before it was closed for renovation last spring.

Those Coming College Days It was a college-filled Saturday on campus for ASF students on October 9 as hundreds of seniors finished taking their SATs and ambled over to the Upper School Gym to join about 2,000 other students and community members at the 27th Annual College Fair. There, representatives from 130 higher education institutions offered information about opportunities for undergraduate education. The majority came from the United States and Mexico, but universities from the United Kingdom, Canada, Italy, Spain, Germany, Switzerland and Australia were also represented. While the event was a first for a new time frame (it started an hour later than usual at 11:00 a.m. to accommodate the SAT takers), it was a last for the location, as the old Upper School Gym is giving way to the new Fine Arts Center. —Rachel Dillon, College Counselor

Something to Celebrate: Language Diversity To be an international school that strives for diversity is to recognize many languages as part of the on- and offcampus community, not just English and Spanish. That’s why ASF celebrates Mother Tongue Day annually, and this year’s event, hosted by the Early Childhood Center, was held on Friday, October 12. “Parent volunteers and Upper School students did a wonderful job engaging our youngest students in foreign language activities which included story-telling, music with movement and children’s film, among others,” said Mia Barbee, ESL specialist at the ECC. The international languages represented were Japanese, Bengali, Korean, Hebrew, Mandarin Chinese, German, French, Portuguese, French, Italian and Swedish.

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Welcoming New Students...

With a Trip to Veracruz Integration and acceptance in a new school setting can be challenging to new students, especially those from another culture who are joining in the delicate years of high school. That’s why the Upper School Student Council members and Links organize a trip to scenic Veracruz early in the school year to enjoy the beauties of the Mexican landscape and participate in the many activities available there. Last August 26, 84 new students made the four-day, three-night visit and experienced exhilarating activities like the zip line and white water rafting. Coordinating Council Treasurer Daniel Campos, who has been on this trip two years in a row, describes it as an “awesome, epic bonding experience that really had us all feeling like a family.” This is one of the most looked-forward-to trips offered by the Upper School every year and we hope to continue the tradition. —Helen Kang, Upper School Student Activities Specialist

Sports, Spirit and Community At ASF, we celebrate Homecoming Week by highlighting each of our seven competitive sports — soccer, football, volleyball, basketball, swimming, tennis and running. This year’s Homecoming Week, which took place from October 18 to 24, was no exception. While the Upper School organized off-field activities to build community and school spirit, Athletics and Extended Learning held different athletic events each day of the week.

We asked our lower-level teams to attend each athletic event during Homecoming Week, to expose our youngest players to what competition is like at the highest level of the wide variety of sports opportunities offered at ASF. Their presence also boosted support for varsity and junior varsity athletic teams.

The week culminated in the featured Homecoming varsity football game on Friday night. The standing-room-only crowd was an indication of how much enthusiasm can be tapped for the student-athletes’ efforts. The game was exciting and well played, with Centinela coming from behind to beat the Bears 14-8.

Next semester, we will hold a special week for our athletics program in an effort to continue to build school spirit, community and support for our varsity and JV athletic teams.

This special week will have a similar look and feel to Homecoming, without having to wait for next fall. At ASF, we believe athletics provides students with the opportunity to experience recognition, connections and mastery. We encourage all of our community to come to a game and support ASF Athletics. —Robert Wilson, Head of Athletics and Extended Learning

New Hire Orientation New teachers and counselors are a constant source of fresh energy and international perspectives on campus.

At the same time, ASF, with its high academic standards, strong sense of mission and 122-year tradition, presents new opportunities for them. That’s why the school’s Human Capital staff organized a full week of orientation in August for the 46 new hires from around the world for the 2010-2011 school year, introducing them to the school’s mission and objectives. They got a chance to get to know ASF community members, including other teachers and counselors, heads of school and Parent Association members. And perhaps most important, they received a crash course on life in Mexico, getting a taste of the country’s rich culture through such activities as outings to San Angel and Xochimilco. —Karla Campos, Human Capital Focus 9

NEWS & EVENTS

In October, 9th graders attended a mandatory Outdoor Education Program in a remote wilderness area in the state of Mexico. Organized in cooperation with Outward Bound Mexico, a long-established leader in outdoor education, the four-day retreat helped the freshmen adapt to the Upper School experience by focusing on responsibility, group interaction, bonding, critical thinking and self-reflection.

Outward Bound, Inward Looking I have to admit, when I heard about the freshman retreat I wasn’t looking forward to it. It sounded cold and uncomfortable and difficult, and the rumor was we wouldn’t be able to shower for almost a week. But it turned out to be quite a cool experience.

What made the biggest impact on me was simply being in the outdoors every day for most of the day. Everywhere you looked there was nature. We rappelled, took some very long hikes into the mountains and played some unusual games. The games were all about teamwork; for example, there was this thing where about 10 or 15 of us stood on a plastic sheet and somehow had to manage to turn the plastic upside down with our feet without any of us touching the grass. And we did it! At one point I was taken to a spot in the woods and told to stay by myself for an hour to reflect, write in my journal and “communicate” with myself. It was a lesson in self-discovery that I never would have experienced back in the city. I’m glad we got to go on this freshman retreat because I learned a lot about things like teamwork, self-reflection and the natural world that nobody can learn in a classroom — even though it really was cold and uncomfortable and difficult, and it’s true, no showers. —Kevin Garrett, 9th Grade student

Celebrating Sports An ASF 8th grader played a special role in Mexico’s bicentennial celebrations. Mónica Ávila Álvarez took part in a gymnastics exhibition on Paseo de la Reforma at the Festival Olímpico del Bicentenario, a huge celebration of sports that also included an appearance

by U.S. swimmer Michael Phelps.

It was a big weekend for Mónica; just the day before, she won three gold medals, one silver and one bronze at the Copa Benito Juárez. Mónica’s two brothers, Ricardo and Pablo, are also ASF students, and their parents, Mónica Álvarez (‘78) and Ricardo Ávila (‘80), are both ASF alumni.

Be Part of it!

If you’ve been on campus this academic year, you’ve probably seen banners up around the school featuring a mix of ASF community members (a student, a teacher, alumni, staff, parents and friends) with quotes about why they support the school. It’s all part of a new community-building effort called “Be Part of it.”

What does it mean to Be Part of it? That’s what we want you to tell us! You can look at www.twitter.com/ASFmex for more on the Be Part of it initiative. Then tell us what it means to you to Be Part of it. Simply submit your comments via Twitter @ASFmex. Here’s a sampling of what people are saying: • “Belonging, helping, supporting. ASF is my second home.” —ASF staff member • “To me, ASF was the beginning of everything.” —ASF parent/alum • “I am here because of the students. They are talented people who can achieve a lot more than they thought possible if we dedicate ourselves to helping them.” —ASF teacher • “To me it means that you have to give your all at school and at making your and everyone else’s school year memorable!” —ASF Middle School student 10 Focus

ASF’s Apple Distinguished Educators Two members of the ASF faculty, Hannah Rollwitz and Juan Alfonso de Luca Zuria, have been selected to join the Apple Distinguished Educator (ADE) program as members of the Class of 2011. The program provides a forum for Apple and exemplary educators worldwide to exchange ideas and information about using new technologies to create engaging learning environments that will promote student achievement and academic scholarship.

ADEs are members of a select group of education professionals committed to the promise of educational technology in the classroom and beyond. This year’s event will be held for the first time in Mexico, and offer participants the opportunity to collaborate and network with the new Class of 2011 as well as a large group of ADE alumni nationwide. The date of the institute will be January 16-19 in San Miguel de Allende. Look for more information in the Spring 2010 issue of Focus! —Tracy Miller, Coordinator of the Center for Teaching Excellence

Save the Dates!

Here are just some of the highlights for the first thre months of 2011. Find more on the ASF web site!

JANUARY January 5 Classes resume January 5 Parent Association meeting January 28 Professional development day (no student classes)

FEBRUARY February 2 Parent Association Meeting February 7 Mexican Constitution Day celebrated (no school) February 15 Grandparents and Grandfriends Day (ECC) February 22 Founders Day February 25 Professional development day (no student classes)

MARCH March 2-4 ASOMEX Arts Festival March 17/18 ASF Model United Nations March 21 Benito Juarez Day celebrated (no school) March 24 Silent Auction March 25 Professional development day (no student classes) March 30 ASF Goes to La Feria de Chapultepec (Early dismissal 12:15 p.m.)

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NEWS & EVENTS Back to School Day... For Teachers

Improving Improvement When the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) renewed ASF’s accreditation during the 2009-2010 school year, it recommended that the school set up a formalized method to engage in “continuous improvement.” In response, ASF formed School Improvement Teams (SITs).

Over the summer, the administration created a list of issues these teams could address, including pre-existing efforts, such as our regular area reviews. Some SITs address institution-wide concerns, such as campus safety and security and employee satisfaction. Some deal with multiple division issues, such as Lower School-Middle School math or the Middle School-Upper School Mexican Program. Others are division-based, such as ECC’s printing and handwriting team, or Upper School’s Advisory team.

Juan de Jesus Breene, ASF’s director of academic affairs, says these improvement teams “gather important input from the ground up.”

By giving teachers and staff a chance to spend time together discussing issues and/or solving problems, and formalizing the process, better follow-through and continuous improvement will be a natural result. While some teams may simply discuss issues philosophically, others will be working on a final proposal. “There’s real strength given to a new school proposal that can say a team of teachers examined this idea for a year,” Mr. de Jesus says. He foresees a boost in teacher morale when staff members can look around and see the fruits of their team’s labor and say, “My work mattered.”

Some adjustments have already been made.

Tracy Miller, coordinator of the Center for Teaching Excellence, says some of the original 43 teams have already disbanded, merged with others or changed focus. This is the natural process of aligning staff needs with the teams’ mission. Mr. de Jesus reports that teachers have already begun coming forward with ideas for future SITs. For him, this eagerness to contribute is a sign that ASF is on the right track toward a productive continuous improvement process. —Mike Hennessy, Upper School 12 Focus

If money can’t buy happiness, shouldn’t we measure Gross National Happiness as well as the Gross Domestic Product? The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania wanted to find out, and in 2009 awarded ASF grad Alejandro Adler (‘05) an international research grant to travel to Bhutan to study that Himalayan country’s use of just such a happiness indicator to build institutions and develop policies. The Bhutanese government as well as the Wharton Scholarly Commons Journal published the results, which set Alejandro’s gross personal happiness index rising. “I’m so glad I had the opportunity to go to Bhutan,” he says. “It really opened up a new avenue of business for me where you can do well and do good at the same time.”

Alejandro, who graduated magna cum laude from Penn with degrees in psychology and economics, has made positive social impact his academic focus. For example, as a part of Penn’s Honors Psychology Program, he recently pursued a yearlong independent research project titled, “Well-Being, Happiness, and Resilience in Philadelphia’s Undocumented Mexican Immigrants.” He is currently applying to multidisciplinary PhD programs in a hybrid of economics, political science and psychology. A shining example of the ASF ideal of a responsible global citizen, Alejandro Adler plans to start his doctoral studies in September of 2011.

FACES OF ASF When she’s not teaching classes or preparing for them, ASF art teacher Patricia Patterson has been working on her own time on a series of eight large-scale portraits featuring some familiar faces. Using acrylics instead of her usual oil, she set out to celebrate on canvas members of the ASF community — from students and teachers to carpenters and psychologists. “I chose my models from people that I admired or respected from around school and my goal was to present them as honestly as I could, giving equal attention to all,” she says.

Working in live sessions as well as from pictures by school photographer Marisela Sanabria (whose work appears throughout Focus), Ms. Patterson undertook the portraits as a personal effort, using her own resources, rather than as a school project — thus upholding an ASF tradition of an art faculty consisting of working professional artists (see page 26). “From Nadine, the nine-year-old Lower School student, to [Executive Director] Paul Williams, it has been a lot of fun getting to know my ‘models’ and studying their faces.” Ms. Patterson says.

Happiness Matters If money can’t buy happiness, shouldn’t we measure Gross National Happiness as well as the Gross Domestic Product? The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania wanted to find out, and in 2009 awarded ASF grad Alejandro Adler (‘05) an international research grant to travel to Bhutan to study that Himalayan country’s use of just such a happiness indicator to build institutions and develop policies. The Bhutanese government as well as the Wharton Scholarly Commons Journal published the results, which set Alejandro’s gross personal happiness index rising. “I’m so glad I had the opportunity to go to Bhutan,” he says. “It really opened up a new avenue of business for me where you can do well and do good at the same time.”

Alejandro, who graduated magna cum laude from Penn with degrees in psychology and economics, has made positive social impact his academic focus. For example, as a part of Penn’s Honors Psychology Program, he recently pursued a yearlong independent research project titled, “Well-Being, Happiness, and Resilience in Philadelphia’s Undocumented Mexican Immigrants.” He is currently applying to multidisciplinary PhD programs in a hybrid of economics, political science and psychology.

A shining example of the ASF ideal of a responsible global citizen, Alejandro Adler plans to start his doctoral studies in September of 2011.

True Heroes One of the highlights of Mexico’s bicentennial celebration was the release of the independencethemed full-length animated film Héroes Verdaderos, written, directed and produced by a team of former ASF teachers. Carlos Kuri, who taught in the ASF After School program, and now has his own advertising company, White Knight Creative Productions, wrote the script with his wife Riley Roca, a former ASF art teacher. Backed by the federal government and companies such as Grupo Carso, La Costeña and the History Channel, Héroes Verdaderos started pre-production three years ago and grew into a 300-person effort that included former Disney animators. The plot centers around a group of youngsters of different backgrounds who accidentally become involved in Mexico’s Independence movement. Through their adventures, the audience follows Morelos’ and Hidalgo’s campaigns toward Mexico’s liberation from Spain. “From a pedagogical standpoint the objective of this movie is to spark an interest in children and to get them to love history,” Kuri says. “Once children understand that history can be exciting they will become lifelong learners of this subject matter.” The couple used their experience in education to take the movie a step further. They called on Marisol Ramos, also a former ASF teacher, to create lesson plans, posted at www.heroesverdaderos.com, so that teachers and parents can use the movie as an educational tool.

Courtesy: White Knight Creative Productions

Focus 13

Divisions & Departments / Early Childhood center From the Head of School

Toys That Teach Do you know what a maromero is? Escaleritas? Pirinola?

Well, the Pre-First children in Lupita Martinez de Escobar’s classroom didn’t know either until they began their exploration of Mexican toys in September.

They looked at different types of Mexican toys, observed how they are made, found out where they come from, and learned how children play with them.

As they closely examined the toys, students’ curiosity was sparked. Lupita directed the children to use their observations as a basis for brainstorming questions and ideas. Who made them? What are they made of?

How do they work? Why do children like to play with them? Where do they come from? As they pondered and explored, their thinking became more complex, and they considered the context of the society in which children used these toys. Then they made connections to their own lives. It got the children thinking about the toys they play with now and what the children of Mexico play with to this day.

The toys were the center of their attention for a week. Lupita observed that productive learning took place when the children were given opportunities to construct new knowledge by building on their own impressions and ideas. Looking at apparently simple toys led to reflection on the values and material influences that shape a culture. The children learned to listen to different points of view, to come up with their own judgments and to make connections between their lives and those of others living before them. They all decided that playing with these toys was much more significant than playing Wii or watching TV. Children discovered that toys are universal. They discovered that toys are more fun to play with when they challenge you and amuse you. They learned that yo-yos, tops and balls are cherished and played with by children around the world.

Susan Olivo Head of Early Childhood Center 14 Focus

Empathy & Action ECC children are learning that understanding others goes hand in hand with helping them.

By Renee Rozen and Anna Siegal

F

or the past 12 years, the ECC community has been collecting donations and distributing them to the indigenous and marginalized communities in rural Mexico. The involvement of children, parents and teachers has helped teach all of us valuable lessons about community and caring.

Caring, one of the values from the IB Learner Profile, is defined this way: “[Caring students] show empathy, compassion and respect towards the needs and feelings of others. They have a personal commitment to service, and act to make a positive difference to the lives of others and to the environment.”

The word “empathy” appears in that definition. The word “generous” does not. There is a difference between being generous and having empathy. Originally, the word generosity signified character traits associated with noble birth —gallantry, courage, wealth. Today, generosity is an admirable personal quality that anybody can have, that of being willing to give without wanting something in return. Empathy, on the other hand, is the ability to understand another person’s feelings or point of view. It is better to have empathy than to be generous.

Empathy leads to a desire to help. Empathy motivates generosity.

ECC community service efforts have succeeded in instilling a sense of empathy in the children. And that empathy is seen not only within our own school but also with the people receiving the donations, who insist on giving some of their own handicrafts in return.

As one ECC parent put it, “It helps them look at people beyond their immediate surroundings, and see that we are only a small part of the population and that we need to care for others.” Another parent said, “Before this my daughter didn’t want to give any of her things away and now whenever her clothes are too small she wants to take them to school for the children who don’t have much.”

Cristóbal, a Pre-First student who brought in a large bag of semi-new action figures, said, “I feel happy because I like these toys and want someone else to play with them as much as I did.”

We at ECC are striving to help our young students to be empathetic citizens of the world, to give not just because it’s the ¨right¨ thing to do but because they truly understand others’ needs and want to help them for that reason. Hopefully, this lesson will follow them into adulthood.

But the school can’t accomplish this alone.

Parent involvement is vital in promoting these values. In our community service programs, the children who were the most aware of the concept of empathy are the ones who both chose their donations and brought them in to school with their parents.

Divisions & Departments / LOWER school From the Head of School

Caring & Sharing

A Stroll Through the Library With new technology, the Lower School Library is better than ever. But the priorities remain the same — open-minded inquiry, information literacy and a love of well-written books.

By Phillip Williams, Lower School Head Librarian

A

t the ASF Lower School Library, we’ve been working to create an environment that embraces the opportunities offered by new technologies while retaining our essential focus on information literacy, openminded inquiry and access to high-quality literature.

Like international school libraries across the world, we are in a perpetual process of adapting to technology’s impact on the services we provide.

How well are we achieving the goal? What will our library look like in the future? Let’s take a walk through the library and find out.

With your first step into our freshly painted library you’ll immediately notice splashes of color that give us a hint of what’s to come.

Gone are the days of rigid, drab school libraries. Our aim is to create an attractive and inspiring physical environment, with a range of reading nooks and class spaces that can easily accommodate new technologies and new teaching approaches, as well as quiet personal reading time. For students, the library experience is a balance between the fundamental pleasures of a well-written book and access to a wide range of complementary technologies that facilitate active inquiry and deep reflection.

Take a few more steps inside and you will probably see a class hard at work on our new MacBook laptops. As opposed to fixed desktop computers, these laptops facilitate student learning in a flexible way that minimizes the focus on the technology itself, instead drawing attention to the essential learning objectives.

Coming to our library in the future are iPads, iPods, flip cams and other audiovisual technologies that expand learning opportunities.

Again, the motive is not technology for technology’s sake, but rather what that technology can provide — audio books, e-books, language programs, music, podcasts and Web 2.0 tools. The goal is to adapt and incorporate the learning tools that are undoubtedly on the way.

Continue strolling through our library and you’ll find shelves to explore and an on-line catalog to search, Destiny Quest (http://destiny.asf.edu.mx).

We are working hard to update our large collection of more than 20,000 print materials, always with an eye to providing material that will inspire inquiry, investigation and above all a lifelong appreciation and enjoyment of quality literature.

Come and see for yourself.

This past August, in an attempt to create more meaningful relationships between all stakeholders in our community, we implemented the Caring School Community — Wellness initiative in the Lower School. Each morning in every Lower School classroom, a 20-minute meeting takes place in which students, teachers and administrators share thoughts and feelings about topics that fall outside of the scope of academics. Those topics might include taking responsibility, inclusion, bullying and peer pressure, to name just a few. These discussion sessions not only help improve student interactions with one another, they also enable teachers to gain better insight about the children they work with every day.

After just four months of this program, we’ve already noticed a drop in the need for students to fill out reflection forms because of behavior issues. As teachers and students become more comfortable with these morning meetings, we expect this program to promote a more positive environment in Lower School. It will be interesting to see just how much.

We held a parent coffee in September to present the program officially. Coming up in the spring, there will be another opportunity for parents who may have missed the first meeting, or who want to learn more. This program’s success depends heavily on support from all stakeholders, parents included, and we encourage everyone to offer observations to help us improve.

We still have important work to do, but I remain confident that the morning meetings have us heading in the right direction.

Evan Hunt Head of Lower School

Focus 15

Divisions & Departments / middle school From the Head of School

SKILLS FOR TODAY What specific skills do young people need to face the future? As a parent and grandparent myself, as well as an educator, I have often asked myself that question.

The answer is not the same as it may have been 20 years ago. Here’s a list of skills for which 21st century students should be able to demonstrate progress so we know they are learning the right things. The list, from the National Association of Independent Schools, is not exhaustive, but it’s worth referring to continuously as we monitor our children’s or students’ improvement. A 21st century student should be able to...

• Conduct a fluent conversation in a foreign language about a piece of writing in that language • Write a cogent and persuasive piece on a matter of public importance • Recite with passion and from memory a passage that is meaningful, either from his/her own work or that of another • Produce or perform a work of art • Access media coverage of a global event from various cultural/national perspectives • Using statistics, assess whether or not a statement by a public figure is demonstrably true • Describe a breakthrough for a team on which he/she served and contributed that overcomes a human-created obstacle so that the team can succeed in its task • Construct and program a robot capable of performing a difficult physical task • Demonstrate a commitment to creating a more sustainable future with means that are scalable

These challenging expectations are of course in addition to the skills and values that all ASF instills in all Middle School students: self-discipline, empathy, integrity, resilience, courage, creativity, entrepreneurial spirit, real-world problem solving, public speaking, communication, teamwork and leadership.

Allen Jackson Head of Middle School 16 Focus

Practically Speaking With the Middle School’s new Practical Field Applications approach to camp outings, the emphasis is even more on realworld, hands-on education. The results so far are magnificent.

Jonathan Chenier, Middle School Student Activities Specialist

M

iddle School has shifted from fun camps with loose links to academic concepts to heavily graded “Practical Field Applications.” During five-day trips, teachers give instruction and lead special activities that cannot happen within the walls of the campus. This includes, but is not limited to, workshops, outdoor lab work, excavations, sample collecting and forest exploration. Students prepare for their Practical Field Application in class long before they leave for camp, and finalize their assignments when they get back. These excursions are an integral part of each teacher’s curriculum, and as such are a significant part of each student’s grade.

This first attempt at this updated concept took place earlier October, when the 8th grade class of 2015 visited the Hacienda Pipiol just outside the town of Valle de Bravo in the State of Mexico. It was a huge success. Student and teachers came back raving, “It was the best camp ever!” The combination of academic curriculum in a real-life environment and some elements of traditional camps accentuated the best of both worlds. Students were fascinated by how their academic subjects came to life in this laboratory without walls, and maintained that focus throughout the week in both academic and non-academic activities alike.

The eighth grade outing in October included: Mexican Social Studies: Students followed the process of corn from seed to tortilla, and helped with the harvest. They removed kernels from the stalk and made the masa for the tortillas they would be eating at dinner that night.

They studied the corn-related indigenous deities, and came away with a better understanding of how those who lived on this land long before us were linked to this noble gift of nature.

Spanish: In the town of Valle de Bravo, the students were inspired by storytellers who walked them through the streets, relating the legends of old, stories of how elements of the town came to be. Students used this as inspiration to create their own legends, blending creativity with their emerging writing skills.

Social Studies: As U.S. history is the main point of study in 8th grade social studies classes, teachers created a simulated “Jamestown,” with an environment similar to what the early American settlers had to face. Teachers had students face challenges that were rewarded with “Jamestown dollars” that could be used to trade for food and shelter as well as extras such as blankets and hot chocolate.

Physical Education: Students were taken 40 minutes into the mountain forest, while PE teachers taught them orienteering skills.

Language Arts: The students wrote reflections on their experience and will continue to discuss this throughout the year in all three classes.

Science/Math: Students took water samples from a mountain spring, from rivers and from a lake. They tested for temperature, pH level, turbidity and more. The testing was done right there on site, and the results were brought back to school in order to perform mathematical analysis, followed by discussion of the sometimes surprising results.

Extracurricular Activities: They included horseback riding, zip line, rappelling, climbing, nature walks, campfires and various team-building activities.

The Practical Field Application schedule for the rest of the school year has the 6th graders visiting the Valle de Bravo area from February 28 through March 4, and the 7th graders going to Jalcomulco, near Jalapa, March 7-11.

Divisions & Departments / upper school

It’s Personal The IB-guided Personal Project gives sophomores the opportunity to show the world something they truly care about.

Renee Olper, Personal Project Supervisor

Sophomore Natalia Garcia and her classmates are working on their personal projects, which will be presented at the Personal Project Fair on January 27.

H

ave you seen those new tennis shoes that are supposed to make your body look better just by walking around in them? How about that woman who was inspired by a movie star to go to Africa and help out an orphanage? And the Ecology Club here at the school campaigning for trash to be placed in the right bins so we can recycle and not waste? All of these are examples of personal projects.

After all, there had to be some person who came up with the idea that a tennis shoe could be transformed to tone the body. The woman who reorganized her life to do good in the world? Talk about a project! And every member of our Ecology Club has made a personal commitment to promote recycling.

The Personal Project that all sophomores undertake here at ASF aims at nothing short of those goals. In International Baccalaureate (IB) jargon, it’s the culmination of the fifth and last year of the Middle Years Programme. Students have to decide what they are passionate about (or angry or sad about) and then plan a project around that topic to show at the Personal Project Fair. Here is where each student can shine, communicating not only what he or she is considers important but also why.

There’s another part of the Personal Project — the written report. Following guidelines, the students put in writing what they did, how they did it, what they could have done differently and what conclusions they have come to about the whole experience. Grading is based on criteria established by the IB, which all students have access to from day one, so there are no surprises.

Students work on the project on their own time — not in school — and are almost always happy to have gone through the experience. They are thankful for the organizational skills that the effort forces them to acquire.

The Personal Project Fair takes place on campus on Thursday, January 27, 2011. Anybody can attend and everybody is invited. Come out and you just might see amazing things like paintings, murals, movies, new religions, stories, poems, decorated jeans, flash cards for learning Japanese, a World War I documentary, community service projects and much more.

What you are sure to see is the work of young people determined to display a project that is up to their own personal standards of excellence.

From the Head of School

TRANSFORMATIONS From the first day of school until now, I have witnessed a great number of transformations in Upper School students. We tend to associate noticeable growth with younger students, who seem to shoot up overnight, but metamorphosis is a common theme among our students as well. Here are some thoughts about the changes I’ve observed.

Ninth Graders: They’ve been in the Upper School for four months now.

Huddled cautiously together at first, they’re beginning to spread their wings.

During the four-day Outdoor Education retreat in October, each spent from one to two hours in isolation, writing a letter reflecting on his or her personal future.

We will return those letters to the students in the spring.

Tenth Graders: Sophomores are the “wise fools” among us. No longer newbies, they’re still not yet the college-bound upperclassmen they will be a year from now. They are on a journey of self-discovery. The Personal Project they will complete by next month will provide evidence of their academic and personal journeys.

Eleventh Graders: They’ve begun to consider horizons beyond ASF, but are still fully present here. They and their parents have attended college nights, spoken with college representatives at the College Fair and spent more than four hours taking the PSAT exam in October. A good number of them are enmeshed in advanced courses and will sit for more external examinations in May 2011.

Twelfth Graders: Our seniors are the multi-hued butterflies who flit from room to room, from discussions of Macbeth to the creation of vehicles built for speed in physics. Many of them have convinced their teachers to write them letters of recommendation for college.

They know that on June 4, 2011, their transformation into ASF alumni will be complete. They inspire us all.

Amy Gallie Head of Upper School Focus 17

Divisions & Departments / the arts

Masks of the World A collaborative ceramic mural on campus is a monument to diversity as well as creativity.

Leonardo Trias, Visual Arts Coordinator

B

ack in 2005, I and another Upper School ceramics teacher, Consuelo Novoa, joined forces with students to create a collaborative mural on a public wall of our school. The title of the piece: “Masks of the World.”

Five years later, there are nearly 900 masks on the wall, all student created. The mural enhances and celebrates the cultural diversity of our campus.

We are proud to share it with our community.

In considering this project, a question naturally arises: Why masks?

Masks have been used since antiquity in almost every known culture, both for ceremonial and practical purposes. In Mexico, their use dates from 3,000 BC. Masks were used by priests to summon the power of deities and in the sacrifices of pre-Hispanic Mexico.

They remain significant in Mexican culture today. From traditional religious ceremonies, such as those on the Day of the Dead, to the more secular realm of popular wrestling, masks are nearly as pervasive culturally as they were in centuries past.

Masks have a personal impact on us. We all have an identity, a unique face, which differentiates us from the rest. We also can all feel the attraction of masks. And yes, we can be scared by them.

It is fascinating to see the kids on their way to the school buses, stopping by and pointing out a mask to their friends: “Have you seen that one?”

The ceramic pieces on the wall of masks elevate and inspire the imagination. The masks seem to take on a life of their own. I like to think the mural has the power to enchant viewers of all ages and all backgrounds.

An ASF Welcome to Dr. Deborah Lawrence, Our New K-12 Performing Arts Coordinator Deborah Lawrence brings a doctorate and 32 years of music education experience to her new position as ASF’s K-12 performing arts coordinator. A former principal, Dr. Lawrence heads up the school’s music and drama efforts in an exciting time, as performing arts education at ASF begins to prepare for the opportunities that will come with the construction of the new Fine Arts Center.

18 Focus

Divisions & Departments / parent association From the President

Beyond the Bake Sale

The Year So Far

Students examine part of the selection at a recent PAsponsored book fair on campus.

Question: What does the Parent Association do for ASF? Answer: Much more than you might think.

T

he Parent Association, a multicultural volunteer group striving to promote the welfare of students, is probably the most effective community-building organization at ASF. It is certainly the largest.

With all parents of enrolled ASF students automatically members (paying no fee or dues), the PA roster numbers in the thousands.

Still, not everybody is aware of the vital role that the PA plays in helping the school complete its educational mission. The fact is, many of the events that are so much a part of ASF life wouldn’t exist without the work of the PA executive board and the scores of members who volunteer their time and effort to make them happen.

The best example of that is the annual Art Fair (see pages 28-29), one of the most important events of the year on the ASF campus. While almost all segments of the ASF community are involved — students, community artists, sponsors, teachers, staff, maintenance, security and many more — the fair is a PA-organized event.

The PA’s community-building efforts are varied and overlapping, but they might be divided for convenience’s sake into four categories, as follows.

Events. These can be direct community-building events such as the Welcome Back Picnic at the beginning of the school year for students and their families, or the several group outings to selected Mexico City cultural sites. The PA also organizes hospitality events throughout the school year for Lower School homeroom parents and teachers, all the teachers at holiday time and on Teachers Day, fundraising volunteers and seniors at graduation time. Add to this a number of special events that vary from year to year, and often deal with environmental awareness.

Educational Support. PA volunteers are directly involved in the teaching and classroom process. This support is mostly as homeroom parents in the ECC and Lower School, and as coordinators in the Lower, Middle and Upper Schools. PA members also proctor the two major outside evaluations given at the school, NWEA and Enlace testing.

Communication. The Parent Association’s general meetings on the first Wednesday of each month are at least as much informational as they are organizational and procedural. A topic of importance to parents of ASF students is explored each month at these meetings, usually with an expert leading the discussion. Subjects in the past have ranged from flu prevention and safe driving tips to on-line research and the challenges of being an international student.

The PA also arranges special conferences that address similar topics of interest.

Fundraising. The Parent Association is one of the most important fundraising organizations at ASF, responsible for bringing in more than a million pesos a year for the Annual Scholarship Drive and the Capital Campaign. Many of the PA’s efforts combine education-related activities with fundraising success. Again, the annual Art Fair is the most outstanding example of this dual purpose. Others include the three book fairs — English-language, Spanish-language and used – and ASF Goes to La Feria de Chapultepec.

These efforts aren’t carried out by a lot of outside consultants and event-organizing professionals. The work is done by everyday parents who volunteer their time and effort to help improve the educational opportunities for their children and their peers. The PA represents the best of what the ASF community is all about.

We began the year with our traditional Welcome Back Picnic. Parents, students and faculty alike had a great time getting acquainted with fellow members of the community.

Beginning the first week of school, we offered hospitality and faculty meals for the Back-to-School Nights.

In October, we held our annual English Book Fair, this year working with the fine Mexico City bookstore Libros, Libros, Libros to offer our community a vast selection of books at great prices.

Our cultural visits program continued with a tour of the fantastic México 200 Años exhibit at the Palacio Nacional.

In keeping with tradition, our 41st Art Fair was a huge success. The Contemporary Sculpture in Mexico 1990-2010 exhibit, as well as the Student Art Show and the Art to Art Auction, were a testament to the talent in our community. Everyone had a great time and because of all the support we received, we are able to contribute to the Annual Scholarship Drive and the Capital Campaign.

With the new year, please be sure to get involved in our activities and join us for our meetings held on the first Wednesday of the month.

Finally, I’d like to wish all of you a very happy and healthy holiday season and all the best for 2011.

Aliki Elias Parent Association President

Focus 19

Divisions & Departments / Athletics & extendED learning From the Coordinator

EMPOWERMENT “Through excellence in sport, we empower the young to become good people, good students and good athletes — always in that order!”

Though it has been reworded slightly over the years, this has been the Athletics mission statement for quite some time. The essence of it must be understood at a higher level by all role models of our studentathletes. Excellence in sport can be achieved from kindergarten to the professional level, as long as the young are empowered. That means: Empowered to be become good people as they learn respect, dedication, desire and more.

Empowered to become good students as they learn time management, teamwork, discipline and more.

Empowered to become good athletes as they learn sport-specific skills, training techniques, strategies and more.

Our mission as role models for the young is to make sure our studentathletes are taught to become good people first, good students second and good athletes third, without exception. It is important for all to know that at ASF you will never become the third, without the first and the second.

Noah Randall Athletics Coordinator

Bears Volleyball: Bump!

Set! Spike!

M

ore than 20 girls try out to make either the junior varsity or varsity volleyball team each year. In 2009 the ASCOPA volleyball league was canceled, so our coach, Martha Dominguez, organized scrimmages against higher-ranked opponents to get the team ready for ASOMEX. Winning ASOMEX was our main goal during the season and when we arrived in Queretaro we felt we had a shot at gold. Unfortunately, two of our star players were injured and the varsity team was down to its final six girls. But even with no substitutions on the bench and enduring long days at the American School of Queretaro, we still brought home the bronze trophy.

This year, we returned to the ASCOPA League and winning it has been our focus. The amount of new talent on the court and the dedication of all our players made for a fun season, with a record of 5-5 in the regular season. The ASOMEX tournament was canceled this year, but as I write this, we still have ASCOPA championship hopes! —Devan Sullivan

Bears Football: Hard Work, Tough Challenge L

ast year’s varsity football season was a magnificent experience for me and for all of my teammates and coaching staff. We were able to accomplish our goal, an undefeated season and a championship. We worked extremely hard to play perfect, to be perfect.

That only meant that this year we’d have to work even harder to get to the places we want to get. I was really excited since the success of the program encouraged more than 40 talented athletes to join varsity football this year, everybody working for the same thing: a championship. But, this year the challenge was even harder because we moved up to a tougher and more demanding division within our league and faced tougher, stronger and faster opponents. That is why we started preparing in May with conditioning sessions, summer weightlifting programs, mountain runs, training camp in Puebla and more. We didn’t have the size we had last year, but we definitely had the talent, the determination and especially the heart — which led us to a 4-2 record in the regular season. —Carel Roffiel 20 Focus

Divisions & Departments / Athletics & extendED learning From the Head

Participate

After Hours Wonder what you’re missing if you haven’t tried out Extended Learning yet? Here’s a peek.

The fifth division at ASF, Athletics and Extended Learning, has a new look this year.

Extended Learning Coordinator Louisa Renero and I are new to the division.

Along with Athletics Coordinator Noah Randall, we are committed to providing our students with the most comprehensive athletics and extended learning program in Mexico. It is our goal to continually improve the programs we offer and to introduce new activities to meet the needs of our students.

As we go forward, we encourage every student to participate in our K-12 Athletics program, which offers seven sports: soccer, American football, basketball, volleyball, swimming, tennis and running. We also are offering 23 activities in our Extended Learning program (visit the ASF web site to view the various activities offered in our K-adult program).

Please e-mail me at wilsonr@asf. edu.mx or visit our office if you have further questions or if you’d like to talk about the programs.

I look forward to serving the ASF community and am excited to be here.

Robert Wilson Head of Athletics & Extended Learning

Louisa Renero, Extended Learning Coordinator

T

his year’s Extended Learning took off with a bang. Here’s a peek at what our community is doing after school...

Before the “big school” is let out, our youngest community members are already dancing ballet and jazz, striking yoga poses, performing gymnastics routines, practicing karate katas and learning French and Chinese. Future athletes can also participate in soccer, tennis, swimming or playball.

Then comes the 2:30 p.m. bell. Afternoon activities begin for older students. On the lounge seats of the Upper School we see children enthralled in bridge, learning strategic thought processes as they play. Teenage students concentrate on difficult algebra or geometry problems at the science and math study hall. Others work on composing eloquent, convincing essays in the Writing Lab. In the other buildings, students learn vocabulary and grammar while singing in French, Spanish, English and Chinese. The artistic segment of our community is busy too, working on their end-ofterm exhibit in the ceramics room, or rehearsing in our very own classical string orchestra.

Adults get their chance as well! Teachers, administrators, parents and friends develop important language skills in English and Spanish. These classes, from beginners to business level, are sprinkled with culture to ensure true immersion in the language. Others practice ashtanga yoga, or learn photography techniques to use in teaching or simply to preserve those candlelit moments that are hard to capture with an automatic flash.

How about getting more than just a glimpse? Become a part of our Extended Learning community!

Focus 21

[campus currentS]

Coming Soon to the ASF Campus: The Angeles Espinosa Yglesias Fine Arts Center & the Mary Street Jenkins Wellness Center

22 Focus

Those initial signs of construction that are becoming more visible on campus mark the beginning of a new era for ASF, as the dream of a new arts facility and a new sports facility move from the planning stages to a physical reality.

Going up over the next 12 to 18 months will be the new Angeles Espinosa Yglesias Fine Arts Center and the Mary Street Jenkins Wellness Center.

The former will be built at the location of the Upper School Gym, which is being converted into a memory. The latter, which will be built simultaneously, will include a sparkling new gym and be located were the tennis courts stand today.

The Fine Arts Center will feature a state-of-theart theater, drama and band rooms, as well as art rooms. The Wellness Center will have a doublecourt gym, space for physical education classes, an area for spinning and other cardiovascular exercise machines, weight rooms and locker rooms. It will also house the athletic offices.

Naturally, all of us in the ASF community will have questions about such a dramatic and positive change on campus. Focus, the ASF web site, the Communications Office and other outlets will make continuous efforts to keep everybody informed and updated. Here we’ll let some members of the team involved with the new facilities share their thoughts.

ASF’s Master Building Plan

By Cesar Buenrostro (’85), Chair, Board of Trustees Buildings and Grounds Committee As education evolves, learning spaces must change to meet the needs of teaching practices. That change must happen in a planned and organized fashion. For that reason, ASF, as a top international independent school, has an ongoing maintenance and campus upkeep program, as well as a formal, phased plan for major new infrastructure.

On the maintenance side, the Board and the administration have been paying special attention to renewing existing school facilities.

The most salient example of this is the newly remodeled pool, recently inaugurated. It has been expanded from six to eight lanes, and now has official 25-meter semi-Olympic length, with new environmentally friendly water filtering systems and a solar panel heating system. The design complies with U.S. Red Cross safety standards.

New construction is guided by the Master Building Plan, developed in 2002 by an American design firm, Mathes Brierre Architects, and updated in 2007 by Mexican architect Fernando Vasconcelos of the firm Nuevo Espiritu. The Master Building Plan calls for several phases; two of them have already been completed — the Transportation Center and Coach Colman Field in 2004, as then the Upper School renovation and new administrative wing in 2009.

The next phases are the buildings we’re seeing the beginnings of today, the Fine Arts Center and the Wellness Center. Thanks to the generous leadership donations (see the accompanying boxes), both will be under construction simultaneously, so the transition period the school goes through without its principal indoor sports facility will be as brief as possible.

Going from the Master Building Plan to the finished construction is not an easy task. It involves a long process of hard work from a multidisciplinary team. Board members, administrators, faculty and staff, volunteers and outside consultants have worked on the planning, fund procurement, the selection and hiring of the architect, project manager and construction companies.

The Donors Who Made the Fine Arts Center Possible The Angeles Espinosa Yglesias Fine Arts Center is made possible in part thanks to the generosity of the following donors: Cornerstone Gift: Fundación Amparo

Leadership Gifts Adelman Alan Aguila García Gerardo Ahumada Sheila Bridgestone / Firestone Case Murray and Claudia Castellanos Family Cazes Heidi Chaba Kalach José Cía. Hulera Goodyear Oxo, S.A. de C.V. Comerica Bank Correa Etchegaray Gerardo Daimler Chrysler Foundation Fund De la Garza y Ramirez Ricardo Adolfo De Jesus Breene Juan Del Valle Perochena Family DeLong Cynthia Detmold John Editorial Limusa S.A. de C.V. Foarde Craver Timothy Fomento Educacional Fundación JP Morgan

Fundación Mary Street Jenkins GE Capital Gojman Marcos Goldschmied Adele/Olivares Helaine Gomez-Obregon Jose Gonzalez Aguade Manuel González Mend Mary Grossman Sandy and Andre Gwynn Robert Gwynn Rosemary Hogan John Inmobiliaria Quetzal Kassel Javier Kodak Lechner de Brooks Kathleen Niven Loera Diez Family Maldonado Norma Margarita Yvs Martinez Joyce Lujan Mateos Wilson Humberto McDonald’s Milan Divo Miller Tracy Olvera Liechty Family Parent Association

Parent Association Art to Art Palme Sierra Johan PepsiCo Procter & Gamble de México S.A de C.V. Promar Construcciones S.A. Putnam Jane Quintanilla Roel Natalia Ramírez José Marcos Razguzman Castro Jose Riner Deborah Rodriguez Robert Romero Macías Felipe Ruíz Uruquiza y Cía. S.C. Seagram de México S.A. de C.V. Seguros Cigna S.A Shveid Félix Sleigh Karen Smith William Solorzano Giardinelly Family Southwestern Bell Stephens Karen Sulaiman Héctor and Monica Sullivan Tom The Coca Cola Export Corporation

The Wiskemann Family Foundation Torres Margo Viberg Gordon Walkup Dorothy DP Werner Martin (Goldman Sachs) Williams Paul Zamora Etcharren Rodrigo Zink J.

TAKE A SEAT Austin Cathy Brown Connie Buenrostro Hernandez Cesar Buenrostro Moreno Cesar Cantu Felix Cantu Maria Elena Class of 2009 Fundación Cultural Mexico-EUA McCoy Horacio Merikanskas Leon Olvera Liechty Family Ormsbee Carla Padilla Carlos Parent Association Pisinger Diego and Rosa

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The Donors Who Made New Athletic Facilities Possible The Mary Street Jenkins Wellness Center and The Vive Saludable

by PepsiCo Bleachers are made possible in part thanks to the generosity of the following donors: Cornerstone Gift: Fundación Mary Street Jenkins

Leadership Gifts: PepsiCo McCoy MacDonald Family ASF Parent Association

Patrons: Abitbol Roberto & Diana Abizaid Zapien Jose de Jesus Adame Javier Allphin Alan J. Alverde Francisco Austin Catharine Bello Antonio & Mary Ellen Blake-Smith Sue Borgen Burtin Camacho Art Campos Manuel & Elizabeth Cherem Marcos & Tamara Coca Cola Colman Bryant Crump Gary Davis Arakelian Family De Clementi José Emerson Process Management Estrada Barbara Fundación Mary Street Jenkins Gomez Alberto & Viviana Gonzalez Joseph Guizar Rafael Janivosky Amnon Justus Mauricio Keoseyan Roberto Lugo Carlos Manufacturas y Confecciones AGAP Melhado Jim Muñoz Manuel Perez Violet & Robert Petrinovic Mark Rivera Castañeda Family Rivera-Torres Alberto RK Consultores S.A. de C.V. Rodriguez Ricardo Rosengaus Sergio Serra Puche Jsimr Shell Smith Brian Sprague John Sultan Jeff Viele Tony Water and Waste Systems Lawsco S.A. de C.V. Zamorano Gerardo

24 Focus

The Faculty’s Input

A State-of-the-Art Facility

By Juan de Jesus Breene, Director of Academic Affairs How many teachers have the luxury of giving input into the design of their learning spaces? Not many. But the ASF faculty did have that luxury in the design of the new Fine Arts Center, and they took advantage of it. Teachers see big and small things that others don’t, things that make a huge difference on how students learn and use space.

So a series of meetings were held over several years with arts teachers to help create what’s known as a “needs analysis” before moving forward with the design of the Fine Arts Center. Most recently, teachers had the opportunity to meet with the architect to share some specific needs.

What kind of input did they give? For example: Teachers said, “Storage, storage, storage!

Storage cannot be an afterthought; it must be part of the design.”

Our architect, José Moyao, heard them. “It makes no difference to me if I had selected half of the front wall for half of the closets and half of the back wall for the other half,” he commented. ¨But teachers may logically say that they teach from the front wall, so put all of the cabinet space on the side wall.”

The architect pointed at that teachers are like the chef in the kitchen — they know the traffic patterns.

“In the same way,” he said, “the teacher knows the typical patterns of how art classes operate, so I want to know how teachers and students work.”

What teachers most appreciated was that in the redesign process, classroom square meters were respected and in many cases enlarged significantly.

“As buildings develop over time and modifications take place to a 40- or 50-year-old building, lots of space gets wasted,” Mr. Moyao said. “In this redesign (of the existing arts space that will be connected to the new facility), I am able to repurpose lots of the currently wasted space into learning spaces and pass on the benefits to the students.”

By Robert Wilson, Head of Athletics and Extended Learning The Wellness Center will give the school one of the premier athletic facilities in Mexico City. It will allow us to offer students first-rate facilities for physical education classes, for aerobic exercise and weight training, for varsity and junior varsity athletic events and for health and wellness courses. But it will be even more than that. The Wellness Center will provide a venue for school assemblies, parent meetings, community events and other large group events. This center will transform our facilities from adequate to state of the art. Our division is excited about the project and we look forward to its completion.

What the FAC Means to the Arts Program

By Leonardo Trias, Visual Arts Coordinator The new Fine Arts Center will benefit both the visual and performing arts at ASF. I and the rest of the visual arts faculty are really excited that its construction is underway. Considering all the talent that emerges from our school every year, with so many graduates going straight to the best art and design colleges around the world, we look forward to being able to offer our students not only the best art programs available but also excellent facilities to develop their full potential. Another big advantage will be the integration of classrooms and performance spaces where all students can participate in the various stages of the creative process. There will also be better and bigger areas to display artwork, and show the broader ASF community and visitors the vibrant and outstanding skills of our students. There is no limit to the heights we can reach when the arts are supported and placed at the heart of the school campus. And that is what the new Fine Arts Center represents.

[campus currentS]

Art & the City An ASF teacher and mother are doing their part to bring new art to the people of Mexico City. And vice versa.

By Kelly Arthur Garrett, ASF Parent

Monica Sulaiman:

Jason Schell:

A Volunteer With Wings

Next Stop, An Urban Celebration

M

L

onica Sulaiman is an ASF mother, a veteran volunteer who has helped organize major school projects since her oldest child first enrolled, the current co-chair of the Annual Scholarship Drive, an art writer and an advocate for Mexican artists.

That’s a full plate by anybody’s standards, but somehow she found time to arrange and promote one of the most beloved public arts displays in recent Mexican history — the “Alas de la Ciudad” (Wings of the City) exposition of bronze wing-themed sculptures that grace the leafy center divider of the stretch of Paseo de la Reforma that passes in front of the Anthropology Museum.

The pieces, which weigh 200 to 500 kg each, are the work of the renowned Michoacán-born artist Jorge Marín. They feature a giant pair of sculpted wings that visitors can position themselves in front of, as though the wings were their own. Ms. Sulaiman, whose writing on art topics appears in a number of important Spanish-language publications, had been an admirer of Jorge Marín for some time, and it was she who worked with the Mexico City government to make the exposition happen.

In fact, Ms. Sulaiman remembers when city Culture Secretary Elena Zepeda came to Jorge Marín’s studio in the Colonia Roma to discuss the possible exposition. “Right as she was ringing the doorbell, Jorge got the sudden inspiration for the wings,” she told Focus, referring to show’s signature piece. “He was sketching away to get it ready to show her as I was answering the door.”

Inaugurated in September, the Reforma exposition can be seen as in tune with the bicentennial celebrations, with the wings reminiscent of the Monument of Independence. But Ms. Sulaiman and the artist both see in the wings (a time-honored symbol of freedom) a broader appeal.

“We live in violent times when all the news is bad,” she said at the inauguration ceremony. “These wings give a feeling of hope, that we can overcome anything.”

Ms. Sulaiman also agrees with the artist that art needs to be closer to the public at large than it typically is in museums or galleries. The Reforma traffic island, with its walkway, certainly furthers that goal. Viewers don’t just look, they mingle, and become a part of the exhibit.

“I like people to want to touch my work,” Marín told Focus. On Reforma, they can touch a lot — not just the sculptures but also the explanatory plaques, which include Braille versions so everyone can enjoy the works with one sense or another.

In her way, Mónica Sulaiman has exemplified ASF’s efforts to contribute to the greater community outside the school walls. An iconic art display in the heart of Mexico City owes its existence in a large part to an ASF mother.

She can see the results of her efforts (and of course the artist’s) whenever she drives by the Chapultepec area of Reforma. “I watch people looking at the sculptures and they’re rapt with attention and deep in thought,” she said. “Right now Jorge Marín is the envy of every sculptor in Mexico.”

26 Focus

ike millions of Mexico City residents, ASF art teacher Jason Schell rides the Metro. Unlike the others, he has created a series of art pieces depicting the people and atmosphere he finds there, and displayed the work in several important sites, including the Metro itself.

“A lot of artists are in a dialog with the environment they live in, with their life experiences,” says Mr. Schell, who grew up near Pittsburgh and has also lived in Philadelphia, Rome and Seattle before coming to The American School. “I’m one of those artists and I’ve spent the last year making an artistic diary about the things I see on the Metro, a series I’ve called “Pasajeros” (passengers).

The pieces, combining pencil, ink, acrylics, charcoal and other tools, moved recently from the Tacubaya Metro station to the Casa de Cultura Azcapotzalco, in the northern zone of Mexico City. He has also displayed work in Mexico City restaurants, the Chamber of Deputies building, a Guadalajara gallery and two ASF Art Fairs (2008 and 2009).

That puts Mr. Schell right at home with the ASF philosophy of liberating art learning and instruction from the confines of the classroom and taking student and teacher work out into the community at large. He is an artist as well as an instructor, so it’s natural to produce and show work inspired by his surroundings.

In Mr. Schell’s case, those inspiring surroundings include the Metro.

“I focused on the Metro for personal reasons,” he says. “I’m very interested in studying people in an urban environment and I enjoy building and rendering the compositions you see in my drawings caused by their urban-ness.”

Then, as though to remind us of his academic role, he puts his artistic vision into a historical perspective. “It’s something an artist like Vermeer would do,” he says, “which is to take people, places and objects — a woman in a bonnet, a pitcher of milk, an interior of an old Dutch house — and put it all into an interesting composition. Except I use the people, bars, florescent lights and seats (in the Metro) with the same goal.”

ASF art students, Mr. Schell points out, are developing their talents smack dab in the middle of one of the most lively art environments on earth.

“As an artist, I’m really excited and honored to be working in Mexico City,” he says, “I truly feel like an art boom or renaissance is happening right here and now. In the 1900s, Paris and New York had their art booms, now it seems like it’s Mexico’s turn. The city is big and international, the rent is cheap, there’s plenty of studio space, the people here are creative and the arts are being supported both privately and publicly.”

He urges students and the ASF community at large to take advantage of the opportunities and plug into the Mexico City art scene. “If you live in this city and are not going to art-related events, I think you’re missing out on a historical moment and a lot of fun,” he says.

The artist and his wings.

Courtesy Jorge MarĂ­n Estudio.

Three art pieces, from Pasajeros.

Courtesy: Jason Schell.

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[campus currentS]

Art Fair 2010 The 41st edition of ASF’s premiere event brought together community artists and many of the biggest names in contemporary Mexican art.

But as usual, it was the student work that shone brightest.

A

SF’s Annual Art Fair has always been a joyous event full of the spirit of human generosity. This year’s 41st edition, which took place on November 6, both followed tradition and added to it, providing as always a closer look at the student creativity and teacher commitment that dominate art eduction at the school, as well as at outstanding work by those artists living in Mexico who brought their work to campus.

Long time Art Fair favorites — the community artists in the gardens, the student exhibits and of course the food stalls run by members of Upper School clubs — have been joined in recent years by a featured artist of the year this time it was Sharon Moon (’10), a special guest exhbition (this year highlighting sculptures by major artists in Mexico), the Art to Art auction of student work, art workshops offered by prestigious Mexican museums and a children’s play area.

New this year were a special space for antiques and a coffee area amongst the outdoor community artists’ space, complete with chamber music. All of these features turn the fair into something more than a place to see art; it’s a place for interaction and celebration as a community.

To describe all of what this year’s Art Fair had to offer would take up most of this edition of Focus, so we’ll concentrate on what we found most notable as ASF parents. That would be the work of the students and their teachers. There we could see not only young people’s early work in different techniques and approaches, 28 Focus

By Paloma Porraz Fraser and Blanca Santacruz but also the way teachers encourage them to use different ways to work with images.

It is clear that this is a school that takes the visual arts seriously, and affords its students the necessary tools and instruction to both understand and explore a number of paths, including communication arts, photography, architecture and fashion design, as well as art per se. The student exhibit showed the ability to integrate elements of composition, such as in the wonderful work done in Pat Patterson’s class, resulting from exercises in composition and the placement of forms and volumes that develop into a comprehension of space and how to use it.

At The American School, young people explore these paths whether or not they intend to go on with their art studies. Either way they are enriched by having had the experience in their formative years before going out into a world where so much revolves around images and media. ASF students have the opportunity to practice art creation they would not have elsewhere.

For example, in ceramics, the students are able to have their work fired and glazed, resulting in something collectible as well as educational. This was evident at the Art Fair in ceramic masks gathered in a simulaton of a prehispanic ceremonial space. These kids have clearly ben to museums as well as classrooms.

Another wonderful exhibit was by Lower School students who converted recyclables into creations of great beauty reminiscent of the Uruguayan sculptor and painter Joaquín

Torres Garcia (1874-1949). We could see that the objects had batteries and switches — minimachines converted to decorative objects.

Much of the student work at the fair dealt with the concept of community, using art to express human values. For example, a Lower School video managed to convey with very few elements a strong message about health and ethics. That concept of community was evident in such varied works as a human rights-themed mural to photographs by the smallest children.

It might be interesting next year to see, along with ASF student work, the work of recent graduates who are pursing their art studies in institutions of higher learning. This year Sharon Moon’s work focusing on ideas of beauty was a good example. With more young graduates exhibiting, the students (and the rest of us) would be able to see the themes and techniques being pursued at the next level. I would say that the creative thinking of the graduates and current students would not differ much, since The American School offers facilities and instruction comparable to university-level art education institutions.

The 41st Annual Art Fair showed what ASF’s commitment to world-quality art education can result in. We celebrate this great event that made us proud to belong to the ASF community.

Paloma Porraz Fraser, an ASF parent, is executive coordinator at the Museo del Aniguo Colegio de San Ildefonso in Mexico City. Blanca Santacruz, also an ASF parent, is vice president of the ASF Parent Association, which organized the Art Fair.

Art to Art Now in its second year, the Art to Art auction raised $90,000 pesos during the 41st Art Fair. Students from ECC through Upper School donated their work, which was put up for bids with all proceeds going to support construction of the Angeles Espinosa Yglesias Fine Arts Center.

Thanks to the following generous artists: Victor Aboumrad Emiliano Albores Ivana Alcantara Diego Alcocer Susana Alonso Valeria Alvarez Morphy Espinoza Lucia Arreola Helena Arribas Paloma Arsuaga Nicolas Ayestaran

Monserrat Barajas Mariana Barcenas Alejandro Barrutieta Paula Barrutieta Natalia Becerra Franco Valentina Bernot Paola Beteta Lorena Borja Diego Briseño Carrillo Andres Bustamante Diaz de Sandi Andres Bustos Emilia Canasi Samuel Cano Fernanda Castellanos Jeronimo Castellanos Bagatella Ana Castillo Dalva Cheney Jay Chitalia Victoria Colby Rodrigo Cortes Juan Cortina Fernando de Fuentes Felipe de la Hoz Isabel del Rio Aldo Demesa Rafael Dominguez Julio Dondish ECC Room 19 ECC Room 20 Ali Estrada Emiliano Franco Leon Maite Garcia Lascurain Natalia Garduño Carmona Pia Gomez Orvañanos Santiago Gorbea Jose Gutierrez Ye Eun Hong Ana Hunt Julia Hwang Jeronimo Jacques Ye Eun Jeong Kierrica Johnson

Ximena Junquera Quijada Margot Kalach Yeo Kim Danna Krouham Julia Kuribreña Suarez Carolina Lebrija Alfredo Lelo de Larrea Pablo Marcos Brosnan Esteban Lopez Mendez Regina Mizrahi Daniela Nates Diego Palacios Michelle Padilla Juan Pablo Peralta Roberta Perez Emiliano Pereza Sandoval Julieta Perezcano Mauricio Podoswa Humberto Pulido Natalia Reimers Paloma Rivas Tejeda Katerina Rivera Torres Regina Robles Guillermo Rode Melissa Rodriguez Juan Pablo Rojo Fernandez Alejandro Romano Ariel Rotberg Alexandra Rovzar Celia Sanchez Manuela Sanchez Anthony Scarpello Elizabeth Shelley Yeon Jae Shim Emily Tejeda Isaac Daniel Urbina Rojas Eduardo Vazquez Matias Vazquez María Jose Villalobos Ruben Wulfson Ehrenwald Alejandro Zaga Salame

On Campus: The Best in Contemporary Sculpture The featured exhibit at the 41st Annual ASF Art Fair was “Contemporary Sculpture in Mexico, 1990-2010,” displaying works from a stellar list of 21 major Mexican and Mexico-based artists, including José Luis Cuevas, Pedro Friedeberg, Vicente Rojo, Joy Laville, Irma Palacios and last year’s featured artist Leonora Carrington.

Focus 29

[campus currentS]

U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Carlos Pascual headed up a distinguished list of prominent businesspersons, community leaders and ASF student leaders who assembled in the Middle School Agora for a roundtable discussion on leadership, education and the future of U.S.-Mexico relations. The event took place in front of an audience that included ASF eighth graders. Also in attendance was 12th grader Karla Pacheco, who filed the following report for Focus.

30 Focus

A Glimpse of the Future

“I

am a graduate of The American School, and I am [still] recovering,” were Roberto Newell’s (’65) opening words to an audience made up of 8th graders and prominent international enterprise leaders at the ASF Middle School Agora last September 28.

U.S. Ambassador Carlos Pascual was present at the roundtable, as well as prominent businesspersons John Bruton, Juan Elek (’60), José Sulaiman, Martha Miller (‘66) and Mr. Newell, as well as ASF Student Council representatives Jennifer Kim and Isabel Raz Guzmán. Each of the aforementioned individuals has some link to ASF. With the exception of Ambassador Pascual, all speakers at the roundtable are either ASF alumni or parents (and in some cases grandparents) of current ASF students. This formed a special connection between speakers and audience, particularly when the time came for the topic to be introduced. It was important for students to hear the testimonies and advice of these men and women, to know what it takes to make a difference in the world of business.Instead of showing off their merits, the speakers resorted mostly to advice and opinions about the potential for ASF students to be future leaders of the world. All speakers communicated the importance of being educated individuals, as well as having the ability to communicate and be open-minded; they agreed on how important it is to be able to cooperate and work in teams. Considering ASF is an international school, students here have the opportunity to learn how to be, in the words of Mrs. Miller, “globally comfortable.” When Juan Elek took the floor, he told the students, “I was sitting where you’re sitting 55 years ago.” This statement struck home; students looked around at each other in amazement. Sitting before them was an example of a very successful ASF alumnus, leaving a pair of big shoes to fill for future generations of graduates. However, that was the only moment Mr. Elek spoke of the past; he instead talked about how the students should consider what the border between Mexico and the United States will look like in the future. José Sulaiman gave continuity to Mr. Elek’s idea: “it is our job to maintain a healthy relationship [between Mexico and the U.S.]” ASF students have the privilege and advantage of being in a school where they are educated to become global citizens. The world keeps changing, renovations occur every minute, and it is up to students, whether they are college students or eighth graders sitting in an agora, to keep up with those changes and start looking for ways to find similarities in two very different cultures, and use both similarities and differences to further improve international relationships in the future.

[family forum]

It’s Complicated Should teachers “friend” students? How instant does communication need to be?

ASF has rules for the digital era, but these days all institutions are constantly playing catch-up.

By Juan de Jesus Breene, Director of Academic Affairs

T

he writing is on the wall, or rather the screen: The digital natives (students) need the digital non-natives (adults, especially teachers) to participate in their wireless, smartphone world. They expect instant communication about schedules, assignments and surveys, and they expect digital options for handing in work, doing research and collaborating with their peers.

This irreversible development is ripe with possibilities, but it poses questions. Should teachers “friend” students? Should Facebook be used in schools? How quickly should teachers be expected to respond to parents’ e-mails? How are schools expected to protect families’ private information? These are just some of the communication issues that schools face.

Like most schools, ASF has polices in place to protect minors, employees and confidential information. For example, teachers are expected to use only their ASF e-mail accounts for communication with students. This allows no possibility of impropriety.

It separates work from non-work.

Simple, right? Not exactly.

Say one of my students e-mails to ask me about a homework assignment and it comes to my BlackBerry. Am I going to make sure the e-mail address is the student’s ASF account before I answer it? On my phone, I won’t even see that.

I’ll only see the need to answer something like, “Remember, the project is not due until after the break. Stop worrying!” Did I break policy? According to the letter of the law, yes. But in the sprit of the law, I did my job by answering the question promptly and sending the response to his personal device.

What about Facebook? Teenagers literally lose sleep at night as they spend time with extremely wide networks of “friends.” The digital natives see this as a way to be connected, solve problems, share information, work on projects and have discussions. But wait. Isn’t that what school is supposed to be? So why wouldn’t the teacher become part of that network?

Aren’t teachers and students already connected? We certainly hope so.

32 Focus

So while many schools would outright prohibit teachers from Facebook communication with students, ASF takes another tack. Our policy asks teachers to set up a separate ASF Facebook account — that is, one used only for professional purposes under a different username.

Why? A teacher using a personal Facebook account is potentially allowing access by the teacher’s adult friends to ASF students, and vice versa. That would be a clearly undesirable clash of universes. So by imposing the slight inconvenience of creating a separate professional Facebook account, ASF policy protects both teacher and student without sacrificing the educational benefits of this powerful medium of communication.

What about parents? Like most institutions, we aim for a 24-hour response time to e-mails received from parents (and anybody else), even if that response is something along the lines of “Let me look into it; I will get back to you.” That’s a good and necessary goal, but again, the real world is not so cut and dry. How quick is too quick? Do those who respond rapidly only receive more e-mails, with the cycle getting quicker and quicker?

When does it end? At some point a teacher might legitimately ask, “Is my job to teach or to answer e-mails?”

Thinking about the past helps put the situation in perspective. Not so long ago, a teacher would actually sit down to write a note to parents by hand, which required time and reflection, not to mention finding an envelope and hoping the student would actually deliver it. Today we risk emphasizing the word “instant” at the expense of “communication.”

That’s why many principals are reminding teachers that 24 hours doesn’t mean 24 seconds. “Think about the save button versus the send

button,” they tell them. “Sleep on it sometimes. Everything in your outbox today will be there in the morning. Decide if it makes more sense to send it tomorrow, especially if you are angry about something.”

The truth is that policy formation cannot be finite when it comes to navigating the digital seas. Things change rapidly. Facebook is enormously popular today and we could legislate pages of policy around it. But tomorrow another medium will take its place.

Ultimately it’s the digital natives — the students — who will choose.

They’ll always want to be on the cutting edge, and rightly so. After all, their future livelihood depends on being there. The rest of us and the policies we write can only try to stay caught up. That’s the fun of working with young people.

ASF has done a pretty good job of staying as caught up as possible.

On-line grading? We got it. Teacher sites with all the year’s class work?

We got it. Projecting a broadcast in every classroom from a computer emission that skips the TV? We got it, with LCD projectors in every room.

What’s next? Looking at my phone to watch my child in class? The technology exists, but I hope we’re not going there.

But I’m not worried about any of this. We know why parents make the sacrifices they make for their children to have the ASF educational experience. But we also know the real reason kids go to school; it’s for the personal social networks they create. Like it or not, those personal networks are also digital, and we’re part of them. As the technology behind the networks evolves, ASF, like all schools, will work to create polices that keep kids safe and parents informed, and give teachers the tools they need to get the job done.

[family forum]

Ganas & Gratitude The financial aid program makes an ASF education available to those who otherwise wouldn’t be able to afford it – currently helping 319 students. But it’s not just about money. It’s about families. Meet one of them.

A

dozen or so years ago, grade schooler José Luis Franco (‘02) came home with an unusual proposal for his father: “I want to go to a school where they speak English.”

The request was not totally out of the blue.

Young José Luis had always shown an aptitude for the language at his bilingual elementary school, the kind where kids are exposed to and practice English, but seldom master it.

His father, also named José Luis, didn’t dismiss the idea out of hand, as many might have done. Instead, he asked around, heard about something called the “Colegio Americano,” and made the drive from the Linda Vista area in the

34 Focus

By Kelly Arthur Garrett, ASF Parent northeast section of Mexico City to Tacubaya one night to take a look.”I didn’t have the slightest idea what it was or where it was,” he says.

“But I found it and the next day I paid a visit and told them I was interested in enrolling my son in the school.”

The first step (after a tour of the campus) was an academic evaluation, essentially an entrance examination. What Mr. Franco remembers most about that day, though, is his first taste of ASF’s international atmosphere, in the form of a European family that was also waiting for the test to end.”I noticed how easily they went back and forth between languages,” he recalls. “It turned out they spoke four languages in the home. Amazing.”

Also on his mind were the registration and enrollment fees that would be due immediately.

Mr. Franco is a small businessman, at the time owning an automotive electrical system repair shop. Like many small businessmen, he earned an okay living, but not much more. “I’ll tell the truth, my reaction was ‘ay caray, that’s not a small amount,’” Mr. Franco says, smiling at his understatement and then confessing, “Of course I wanted José Luis to pass the test, but a certain part of me was wondering if financially it would be better if he didn’t.”

He did. Not spectacularly, his father recalls, but well enough to be accepted on a probationary basis.

A Matter of Resources

The solution to the enrollment and registration fees was parked outside his home. Mr. Franco sold his Grand Marquis. “I loved that car,” he says. “But I had the chance to give my son the opportunity to realize his dream.”

The younger José Luis started realizing his dream right away. Entering ASF as a seventh grader, he adapted quickly, made lots of friends, as most ASF newcomers do, and got good grades.

“Probation” was soon a thing of the past. But the matter of tuition wasn’t. The Francos were by now on board with ASF, but the reality of the monthly payments threatened everything. “I did the accounting and honestly, it was too high for me,” Mr. Franco says. “I simply didn’t have the economic resources to continue paying that tuition.”

It was Mrs. Franco who brought up the idea of a scholarship. Since the 1980s, ASF has had a financial aid program in place, paid for by donations from the ASF community and the public at large to what is now known as the Annual Scholarship Drive. One of the main functions of the program is to prevent successful students from having to leave the school because of economic need. That situation certainly applied to José Luis Franco.But there was nothing automatic about the aid. Then as now, it was based on need, not academic performance, and the process for allocating the scholarship fund money in any given year was (and is) formal and strict. At the time, the economic needs study didn’t include home visits, but Mr. Franco remembers “a lot of paperwork to do and a lot of documents to turn in.”

In the end, the Francos secured enough aid to take care of 40 percent of José Luis’s monthly tuition, just enough to make sure that Mr. Franco, who had to drop his engineering studies to earn a living, would see his son complete an ASF education and move on to study business administration at the Universidad del Valle de Mexico.

A Titanic Effort

But his work on behalf of his children was far from done. For one thing, financial aid must be renewed each school year, a requirement Mr. Franco fulfilled successfully. For another thing, there was a family wedding. It was at that wedding that a younger son, Ramses Franco (’05), witnessed his brother translating enthusiastically for some relatives who had come down from the United States for the event.

Impressed and inspired, Ramses decided then and there that he, too, would attend ASF. Hit the rewind button. Mr. Franco went through the entire process again, a little wiser this time around but still wondering where the money would come from. He even sold another car. A second goal of ASF’s financial aid program is to try to keep family members together at ASF. Even so, the determining factor is, again, economic need, so the Francos went through the

evaluation process a second time. They came out with enough financial help to enroll Ramses in the seventh grade, and soon (again because of need) the aid settled at 65 percent of the total tuition.

At ASF, there is zero difference between scholarship students and the rest; requirements and expectations are equal across the board. Ramses, like his brother, became a model ASF student — popular, active and academically successful — and is now studying law at the Universidad Iberoamericana, one of the most prestigious private universities in Mexico. And, oh yes, there’s more. A daughter, a toddler when José Luis first brought up the idea of attending “a school where they speak English,” is a junior in the Upper School this year.

Mr. Franco is aware that it took a “titanic effort” to provide his sons and daughter with an ASF education. “We gave up a lot of things over the years,” he said, referring to himself and Mrs. Franco. “I wouldn’t have minded spending some time on a beach somewhere once in a while.” But he’s also aware that others shared in that effort, not the least of which are all of those who contributed to the Annual Scholarship Drive in one way or another — by writing a check, by putting a hundred-peso bill in an envelope, by buying a piece of art at the Art Fair, or a chocolate bar from an ECC kid, or by helping out at (or just attending) any of a number of ASF fundraising events.

Perhaps most of all, however, the credit goes to José Luis, Ramses and their little sister, and hundreds of other ASF scholarship students. If they didn’t have the ganas to study hard, get involved and strive for success, no amount of financial aid would have made a bit of difference. “They’ve always wanted to be the best, not just socially and economically, but academically,” Mr. Franco says of his children. “They try to transcend any obstacle.”

Full Circle

Would José Luis and Ramses be attending UVM and the Ibero today if financial aid hadn’t enabled an ASF education? Probably. But not with the depth of knowledge they gained at ASF. Not with the kind of educational trips and camps they experienced at ASF. Not with the sense of teamwork and camaraderie they developed at ASF. And not with the international perspective they lived with daily at ASF. Take Ramses, for example. Naturally, he became fluent in English quickly after starting at ASF. He studied French there, and mastered that language.

Then, invited by a friend he met at ASF, he spent time in Italy, developed a taste for the language and now handles himself in Italian as well.

So now, after graduating from ASF, Ramses Franco speaks four languages, just like that European family that impressed his father so much way back in those first days he and his oldest son visited the campus.

Amazing.

Focus 35

[family forum]

Life Support

Some volunteers have worked tirelessly and without compensation on behalf of ASF for decades — and they show no signs of stopping.

Here’s a look at three of them.

By Natalia Carrillo

A

school is only as successful as the people who care about it. The main reason ASF has evolved from a one-room kindergarten to a world-class international K-12 school is that for 122 years, enough dedicated people worked hard without compensation to make it happen.

ASF volunteers are as plentiful today as ever. Their selfless spirit is nurtured by a number of motivating notions. One is good old-fashioned loyalty, the urge to be true to your school by serving it after you graduate.

Another, perhaps loftier, motivator is a firm belief that the kind of education ASF offers — creating responsible, contributing global citizens — is a force for good in the world.

But the most powerful force for volunteerism is surely the strong sense of community that pervades every aspect of ASF life, on and off campus.

That feeling of belonging to something bigger than yourself generates a desire to contribute that is the lifeblood of the school. The contributions can take a thousand shapes, from attending Parent Association meetings to serving on an event organizing committee, from helping your child sell chocolates for fundraising to writing a check to the Annual Scholarship Drive. They all make a difference.

For some, the sense of community is so strong that they have spent the better part of their adult lives doing what they can to help ASF reach more young people and serve them better. Volunteers like Adele Goldschmied, Gordon Viberg and Horacio McCoy (’57) have been integral parts of ASF for so long they seem to be part of the infrastructure.

Natalia Carrillo, from the Middle School counseling staff, recently spoke with these three pillars of the ASF community to find out what drives them to spend so much time and effort (and, yes, often money) in the service of The American School. Here are her observations:

36 Focus

Adele Goldschmied: Grand Volunteer Grandparents Day, a new ASF tradition conceived, developed and overseen by former Upper School arts teacher Adele Goldschmied, is an exemplary school event because it both builds community (by inviting grandparents and “grandfriends” to spend a school day with ECC students) and raises funds (by selling tiles in the patio wall engraved with the names of grandparent and grandchild). It is Adele’s most recent project, but hardly the only one in a span of ASF service that began in the mid-1970s when her daughters Gina (’89) and Susi (’91) started at ASF. One of Adele’s key contributions was the creation of this magazine, when in 1996 she combined the old Alumni Gazette and a newsletter run by another longtime ASF volunteer, Diana Anhalt (’59), to form Focus.

Her fundraising emphasis is the Annual Scholarship Drive, especially its function of providing aid to ensure that existing students don’t have to leave the school for financial reasons. “If there’s a break in students’ ASF education, they probably won’t be able to come back,” she says. “This school is challenging, and it’s not easy to catch back up.”

Adele is a strong believer in ASF as a community, and feels that paying tuition and attending school is only a fraction of what it means to be a part of that community. “Students’ families need to get involved not only with funds but by donating their time and talents to the school.”

That’s what she’s been doing for more than three decades, and with three grandchildren in the Lower School and one in the ECC, it’s a safe bet that ASF will be benefiting from Adele’s volunteer service for at least a decade more. “It’s been wonderful,” she says. “What you get back in return is something you won’t find anywhere else.”

Horacio McCoy: Half a Century of Effort The chair emeritus of the Capital Campaign Committee, Horacio McCoy, has also played a large role in raising funds to implement the Master Building Plan, which guides the physical development of the campus.

A football fan and believer in the positive role of sports in the development of young people, he was a major factor in securing funds for the new visitors bleachers soon to be installed at Coach Colman Field. Because of his efforts, the home bleachers have been renamed in his honor.

Horacio’s involvement with the school goes back more than half a century, when he was an ASF student and quarterback, and then father of three ASF graduates. Now he has three grandchildren at ASF and two more will enter next fall.

Throughout all this, he has never stopped contributing his time, both to ASF and to the surrounding community. But his focus is on the future, not the past.

“It’s very important for the school to continue to modernize the installations for the current and future students,” he says.

Gordon Viberg: A Capital Asset for ASF It’s no secret that a number of cultural and historical factors make encouraging donations from Mexico’s population at large a challenge. But Gordon Viberg, a longtime and important volunteer for ASF causes, insists that the philanthropic spirit is there to be tapped if people are informed about what the school is doing and given a chance to participate.

He should know. As a member of the Capital Campaign Steering Committee and now its co-chair, Gordon has been closely involved with raising funds for the various infrastructure improvements that have transformed the campus in the last 15 years, including the construction of the current Middle School and the covering (and later expansion) of the swimming pool. Most recently, he played a key role in securing two large grants that capped fundraising efforts that resulted in the current construction of the new Fine Arts Center and Wellness Center on campus.

Like many long-term volunteers, Gordon started getting involved with the school when his son enrolled in kindergarten.

He continued his volunteer work after he graduated, and cites a very simple reason. “It’s a great school,” he says. “It guarantees an allaround education as well as acceptance to international universities.”

He recognizes that by giving of himself, he is also receiving something. It has to do with student achievement. “It’s gratifying to see what your efforts are producing,” he says.

Focus 37

[focus on education]

Under Pressure The renowned child psychologist and educator Michael Thompson came to ASF in October with two key messages for parents and teachers. One is that unrealistic expectations can backfire. The other is that for kids, school can be hell.

By Mike Hennessy

F

or students, school is difficult, pressure-packed and sometimes painful. It’s a place where they’re constantly forced to deal with a myriad of expectations — academic, parental, social — that are thrust upon them precisely when they’re busy developing as human beings.

That’s only part of the problem. The rest of it, says Michael Thompson, Ph.D., the renowned child psychologist and educator, is that most parents have either forgotten or suppressed their own similar school experiences.

Which means those in the best position to help are too often unaware of the intense pressures students feel in the school environment.

“The reason I wrote the book,” Dr. Thompson says, referring to The Pressured Child, which includes first-hand accounts of painful school experiences, “was to remind parents what a pain in the behind school can really be.”

Thompson issued that stark reminder during an interview with Focus shortly after he talked with ASF staff as part of a school visit last October 1, at the joint invitation of ASF and the Peterson Schools. His visit, in which he spoke to the entire ASF faculty during a professional in-service day and gave two evening sessions to ASF and Peterson parents, coincided with the recent release of his latest book, Raising Cain: Protecting the Emotional Lives of Boys.

Dr. Thompson told teachers he began thinking about writing The Pressured Child after he found during elementary school visits that children as 38 Focus

young as fourth grade were feeling significant pressure to excel in school or risk being denied admission to elite universities that many already knew by name. He decided to shadow students throughout their day to see what school was really like for them. What he discovered, along with his own experiences as a parent and his many professional contacts with children as a psychologist, drove the writing of The Pressured Child.

Some children are blessed with what Dr. Thompson calls a “school brain.” Others struggle along without it. All must manage academic expectations while navigating the eight lines of development — physical, cognitive, social, moral, emotional and so on — identified by seminal child psychologists such as Jean Piaget and Erik Erikson. Dr. Thompson reminds us that kids never take a day off from developing in these other areas, so to focus solely on a child’s academic development is to miss much of what he or she is going through daily.

Different Strokes

Dr. Thompson makes another important point: Parents need to accept that their child is a different person than they are. Many assume their son or daughter has the same abilities and aspirations that they themselves had as children. That assumption may be very far from reality, and can make it more difficult for parents to give support as their child lives through his or

her own real school experience. What’s more, the pressure to fulfill these unfounded parental expectations can be damaging to a child.

That your child is not the same person as you may look obvious on paper, but it’s often not easy for parents to realize it. Dr. Thompson himself told Focus that it took him and his wife, also a clinical psychologist, a long time to truly understand that their son was not an academic person, but rather a visual artist. And though the notion may be naturally easier for adoptive parents to accept, Dr. Thompson writes in detail about his personal struggle to help his adopted daughter through her difficult academic journey (a difficulty he never endured himself as a very successful academic child).

on their children without considering that the child may be doing the best he or she can. By middle school, Dr. Thompson pointed out, students are very aware of their own strengths and weaknesses; it is a very rare case in which a student in the middle or bottom of the class rank suddenly makes a dramatic move toward the top. Parents need to accept this reality and not heap unhealthy pressures onto children already barely keeping their heads above water.

After lunch, Dr. Thompson and the ASF staff reconvened for a session that included a panel of students from the Middle and Upper Schools. As he asked them probing questions, the students opened up about their struggles

An experienced professional lecturer, Dr. Thompson moved easily across the front of the stage set up in the Upper School Gym where the entire faculty, along with some parents, gathered for his first presentation. He shared anecdotes from his conversations with young children and teens over the years, in which many expressed the various pressures associated with school. He told the story of the time he asked a young child why he never gave a satisfying answer to his mother’s question of “How was school today?” The child said, “There’s nothing she can do to help.”

For some children, school is a heavy cross they bear in silence.

with peer pressure, social drama and sleep deprivation. They revealed, one after the other, tales of the “bad year” that they all had experienced at one time or another. He also asked them if there had been an adult in their lives who had helped them through these times. Most of them were happy to report there had been, and that it had made a significant difference.

And that’s the crux of Dr. Thompson’s message. Some hear him speak and expect a broader message of school reform, which he doesn’t offer.

Instead, there’s this: Support children as they are. Some are well suited for school and handle pressure well; many others are not and do not. We must accept the difference and support both along the way.

So, if it is crucial that parents and teachers are cognizant of the struggles associated with school life, is there a systematic way to check in with students regularly so they can address situations in which students feel overwhelmed? Dr. Thompson said the new advisory program in the ASF Upper School could be a great help to students if it is used in this way.

And if parents need to discard unrealistic expectations, how do they know what to replace them with? Dr. Thompson’s answer: Watch and learn.

“You have high hopes and you put in what you can,” he said. “But in the end you just have to watch and learn and see what comes out.”

Half and Half

Dr. Thompson began his lecture by pointing out that even before stepping foot on campus for the first time, he knew something about The American School—that half of the students at ASF were in the top half of their class, and that half were in the bottom. Encouraging students to be the best they can is a desirable role for parents. But imposing unrealistic academic goals can do more harm than good, an example being the parents who hired four separate tutors for their middle school son to ensure placement into a competitive high school.

Driven by a deep-seated fear that somehow their children may not do better than they did in life, parents sometimes put exaggerated pressure

You can find more of Michael Thompson’s insights about young people by visiting www.michaelthompson-phd.com

Focus 39

institutional advancement

Strokes for Scholarships Our 8th Golf Tournament was a great success, raising more than 750,000 pesos for scholarships. We thank Toyota Financial Services and Bosque Real, without whom the tournament would not have been possible.

T

he players teed off at 8:30 a.m. and had a great time on the links... and in the bunker. The tournament ended at 3:00 p.m., and a fabulous meal was served. First, second and third place winners collected their prizes, as did the longest drive and O’Yes winners. There was also a drawing where everyone had a chance to win. We thank the 165 players who made this event unforgettable. The tournament winners were:

1st Place

Ezequiel Gutierrez Felipe Franco Luis Gutierrez Efren Franco

2nd Place

Leon Merikanskas (’93) Erik Sigal (’93) David Sigal Arturo Gutierrez Carlos Atri

3rd Place

Francis J Toedtli (’97) Gustavo Rodriguez (’97) Richard Valdes (’97) Andres Rivera (’97) Pablo Elek (’97)

Best O’Yes:

Fernando Villaseñor Longest Drive (Women):

Natalia Vazquez Longest Drive (Men):

Felipe Franco

R

40 Focus

A special thank you to all our sponsors, whose logos grace this page: Toyota Financial Services (Main Sponsor) Aon Risk Services Bosque Real Bounce Caras Sports Congresum Devlyn Gatorade Gillette Fusion Goldman Sachs Hotel Hilton Hotel Presidente Intercontinental Kaloni science center La cava de los amigos Lorant Marinter Old Spice Operadora Cever Piel Canela Rancho Avandaro Seguros Atlas Tecnoloment Tequila Herradura Texas Ribs Tide to go Viu Manet vinos Warranty Group Zientte

And the winners are...

Director of Admission Patsy Hubp tees off.

Jose Cerna, Roberto Aguilar, Miguel Arroyo, Tom Sullivan, Daniel Marvan, Pablo Lorant, Guillermo Diaz, Mauricio Murillo

We had a record number (17) of students playing this year, including Santiago Poo, Roberto Lebrija and Costantino Enriquez.

Focus 41

institutional advancement Meet the Capital Building Campaign Steering Committee Chair Emeritus: Horacio McCoy (‘57) General Campaign Chairs: Gordon Viberg, Rodrigo Gonzalez Calvillo Members: Fernando Gutierrez, Carlos Williamson, Marilu Hernández, Cecilia Saba, Vicky Fuentevilla, Paulina Cosio, Viviana Gomez, Luz de Lourdes Gomez de Madero, Rosa Pisinger (‘87), Frances Huttanus, Paul Williams and Michele Beltran.

Meet the Annual Scholarship Drive Executive Committee Co-chairs Rodrigo Gonzalez Calvillo (left) and Gordon Viberg.

Monica Sulaiman & Roman Alvarez (’85), Chairs, Adele Goldschmied, Helga Mendoza (’90), Hugo Salcedo, José Razguzman, Karina Rogers, Leslie Phillips, Marissa Russell (’92), Martha Elena Dominguez and Mauricio Justus (’87).

Chocolate Sale

Our Chocolate Sale took place September 22 through October 1, directly supporting our Annual Scholarship Drive. All ECC and Lower School students participated in this effort and we raised more than $120,000 pesos! Thanks to all the students and parents who took part. Our sincere thanks go to the Arellano Aguilar family, who were instrumental in getting the donation of the Hershey chocolates. Special thanks also to Marissa Russell (’92).

The Holiday Bazaar is Here Don’t miss our Holiday Bazaar on December 8, 9 and 10. There will be great items for sale, so plan to get your holiday shopping done at ASF. While you check off everyone on your list, you’ll also be supporting the Fundación de Asistencia Educativa Irene Anzaldúa, IAP, which provides scholarships to ASF students. We will have surprises for the students and the community on Friday, December 10, so keep your eyes open!

42 Focus

[

]

Past Holiday Bazaars have featured bargains galore and tons of fun. This year will be no exception. We’ll see you December 8-10!

ASF Giving Program 2010-2011

As part of our ongoing effort to create a broad base of community support for ASF, we are pleased to present to you the ASF Giving Program for 2010-2011. As a non-profit institution, ASF relies on the generosity of community members like you to continue our efforts to be a world-class institution. ASF is at a vital time in its history, seeking to create a state-of-the-art campus and grow our scholarship program, preparing for the next 120-plus years.

Remember that all gifts to The American School are tax-deductible both in Mexico and the United States. Your employer may even offer matching contributions — ask at work or call ASF’s Institutional Advancement Office at +52 55 5227-4922. Finally, please note that as of August 2010, all receipts will be emitted electronically. For this reason, it is important that you provide your e-mail address with any pledge or payment.

We are enclosing pledge cards in this issue of Focus for your convenience. Thank you in advance for your generosity!

[student voices]

Leaving Again

By Steven Campillo, 8th Grade Student

T

his wasn’t the first time I had to pack up and ship out. Leave my friends, my house, my team and all the good times behind.

Although this wasn’t the first time, it was the scariest and it was something I dreaded. I was older now, and my friends mattered more. Also, I didn’t want to go to a place with such a lousy reputation. First, I would have to conquer the new language – Yikes! And then I would have to confront all the horrible rumors. I only hoped Mexico wouldn’t be as bad as they said.

I had to break the news to my friends at school. Their faces became gloomy. They were about as happy as I was about the idea. Later that cold April afternoon, I rode with my family in our black Jeep Cherokee back to our box-filled house. The only things left unpacked were our snug, cozy beds. Inside, the movers were coming and going through the house like the seasons. Outside, the white fluffy snow had disappeared, but the green of spring had not yet sprung. The dismal weather reflected how I was feeling: gray, cold and sad. The next day I was on a plane to Mexico. It was nine or so long hours where I felt nothing but dread and butterflies in my stomach. But, of course, we finally arrived.

Personally, I think the worst part of moving is house shopping. With all the houses and apartments to see and so much walking, why would anyone want to do it? Eventually, we chose our favorite and within a few

weeks we moved into our new home. Unfortunately, our shipment of furniture from Canada hadn’t arrived yet and we only had the sparse, hard, uncomfortable rental furniture. It made the apartment feel small and cold.

School was next on my list of challenges. I had to find new friends in the sea of new people, new faces and new buildings. Understanding Spanish was really tough for me at the beginning. During the second week of school, I had mustered up enough courage to try out for the soccer team despite the fact that all the players spoke Spanish. My stomach churned and I was debating about going home. But I didn’t, and I’m sure glad that I stayed.

In fact, two years later, I am trying out again for this year’s soccer team.

I now appreciate the new country I call home. In a way, I am grateful that we moved here. My new friends and the cultural aspects of Mexico are all wonderful. The bad news is that I will eventually have to leave all of it behind once again, but now I know another adventure awaits. Heck, moving wasn’t as bad as I thought.

Middle Schooler Steven Campillo knows what it’s like to move. Born in Florida, he has lived in Canada, Malaysia, the Philippines and now Mexico. He wrote this personal essay as a class assignment to show that while changing countries is not always easy, it usually turns out well.

Focus 43

alumni / profile

On the Fast Track Carlos Cohen (’05) is living his post-ASF life in the 200 MPH lane.

By Stephanie Matta (’00)

C

arlos Cohen has been surrounded by cars since age 3. “As a boy I was fascinated by these machines,” he says. “The sounds, the smells naturally led me to motor sports at the age of six.” Carlos started out racing in the Go-Kart challenges, breaking in the small 5.5 engines and gradually moving up to 50 cubic centimeters, then into the 80s up to the 100 and the 100 Supers, and finally the crown jewel, the 125 Shifters.

After his carting days, Carlos moved up to the Copa Corona, which used 2.0-liter Renault engines in a Lola chassis, which can be compared to a Formula 1 car, but half the size.

He also participated in touring events such as the Neon Cup and the Clio Cup. Regardless of the machine or the level, auto racing demands total emotional, physical and mental concentration, with a split second possibly being the difference between victory and defeat, not to mention life and death. But hard work and perseverance are two values that have helped Carlos follow his dream toward reaching Formula 1.

“Every race has felt like my first,” he says. “Emotions boil and there’s nervousness in the air,” Cohen recalls.

A racecar driver needs to be as professional as possible because he is not racing for himself, but for a team. In that sense, Carlos credits his days at The American School for instilling in him the sense of unity and camaraderie that has served him well as a member of a professional racing team. “I learned the importance of working together and giving your best for the greater good,” he says.

A Fighting Bear on the junior varsity football team in his Upper School days, Carlos recently helped organize and participated in the Alumni Bowl, an experience he will always remember. “Wearing the ASF colors once again made me feel more grateful than ever to ASF and all it represents in my life,” he says.

At ASF, he says, he always felt that he was part of a family.

Belonging to a racing team is a similar experience, he says. Teammates are an important part of the racing life; they are the people you travel with, work with and share victory or defeat with.

After graduating from ASF, Carlos studied law at the Escuela Libre de Derecho. He plans to study mechanical engineering at the Instituto Politécnico Nacional or industrial design at the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana. He’s working now with the Mexican brand México Calidad Suprema, which also has a presence in the United States, Europe and Southeast Asia.

But right now, Carlos is preparing for the 2011 season with Brooks Associates Racing in the Firestone Indy Lights and Logan Racing for the IZOD Indy Car Series. “The team and I are still building for the 2011 Indy Lights season, but I’m convinced that with the right attitude and the proper support we will achieve excellent results, he says. “We will be one of the most competitive teams in the field and will take the championship in just a couple of years.”

44 Focus

alumni / race

Running for Education ASF staffers Cynthia DeLong, Omar Ugalde and Mariana Hernandez.

The 5K winners were: Female: 1. Nayely Salgado Hernandez 26:22 2. Patricia Harari Ancona 27:34 3. Monica Lorena Colin Gutierrez 28:42 Male: 1. Mauricio Mendez Cruz 17:43 2. Tomas Bravo Garcia 21:23 3. Alvaro Valenzuela Irurita 21:25

The 10K winners were:

W

ith around a thousand runners, cheering onlookers, rousing bands, delicious food and a ton of enthusiasm, ASF’s first-ever “Race for Education” — a 5/10K run for students, alumni, families, friends, staff, supporters and kids — turned out to be an amazing event that will hopefully become a yearly tradition.

“It was fantastic to be back at the ASF grounds again after more than 10 years,” said third-place winner Franco Ambrosi (’98), summing up the spirit of the day. “The race was both fun and challenging, and I’ll definitely be running for this great cause next year again.”

The magnificent day was made possible by the following sponsors: Círculo K, Lipu, 4000 Taxi, Telcel, Tecnológico de Monterrey, Energy Fitness and Hard Candy Fitness.

Working hard to make it all happen was the Alumni Council, consisting of chair Leon Merikanskas (‘93), Mauricio Justus (‘87), Janet Huerta (’03), Melissa Berenstein (‘03), Mauricio Quintana (‘00), Pablo Goebel (‘77), Cathy Abitbol (‘94), Paola Camacho (‘95), Claudio Hall (‘87) and Juan Rebolledo (‘00).

There was a kermes afterwards, with different activities for kids and a variety of food stands such as Pi Elemental Teas (David Olivo, Class of ’01), Senses (Andre Magallanes and Carolina Reyes, Class of ‘99), Tacos de la Abuela, Cinnamon Roll, Auntie Anne’s, Moyo, Chilim Balam, and an Alumni stand with beer and pizza.

A number of bands entertained throughout the event, including the Galaxies, with lead vocalist Desiree Cabrera (’87).

Female 15-19: 1. Lucia Pichardo Sanchez 1:05:43 Male 15-19: 1. Pablo Cesar Ledesma 37:17 2. Rodrigo Riviello Goya 40:12 3. Santiago Riviello Goya 40:34 Female 20-24: 1. Naveli Arvina Palacios 49:54 2. Lucia Gamboa Sorensen 51:36 3. Cecilia Ezquerro Souza 54:06 Male 20-24: 1. Rafael Sanchez Cruz 37:12 2. David Perea Vázquez 39:24 3. Jose Antonio Alfaro Valencia 42.32 Female 25-29: 1. Veronica Echenique 53:14 2. Fabiola Bolaños Jaramillo 54:07 3. Carolina Bocando Mendez 59:18 Male 25-29: 1. Rodrigo Sanchez Cruz 40:12 2. Fernando Roldan Chanona 44:20 3. Antonio Leon Bayona 45:57 Female 30-34: 1. Silvia Dolores Zarate Guzman 53:05 2. Heide Koudek Bracho 53:16 3. Tamara Leon Chavez 53:55 Male 30-34: 1. Felipe Ramirez Nicolai 42:58 2. Edgar Tiburcio Martinez 43:14 3. Franco Ambriso Beckmann (’98) 47:55 Female 35-39: 1. Iliana de Silva Muñoz 48:43 2. Samantha Teusher 49:56 3. Claudia Hossfeld Rudolph 51:04 Male 35-39: 1. Marco Antonio Marquez Soto 40:44 2. Francisco Franco Velazquez 45:11 3. Antonio Alcazar Vara 47:13 Female 40-44: 1. Aurora Leon Bayona 42:26 2. Jennifer Nacif Berman 51:25 3. Gloria Minvielle Lagos 52.055 Male 40-44: 1. Jacobo Buzali Jalife 40:55 2. Roman Alvarez Varea 43:47 3. David Alvarez Martinez 45:33 Female 45-49: 1. Veronica Iturbe Bermejo 44:11 2. Josefina Barrera Rico 59:54 3. Jackye Kassem Suria 1:00.45 Male 45-49: 1. Santiago Rojas Gonzalez 45:44 2. Pablo Meyer Walersteibn 46:21 3. Jose Luis Montaño de las Salas 49:14 Female 50 and up: 1. Rubi Celia Medina Garcia 45:28 2. Marivi Esteve de Murga 53:43 3. Carmen Flores Berros 55:52 Male 50-54: 1. Gerardo Madrazo Gomez 47:22 2. Albino Sanchez Sanchez 47:28 3. Alonso Garcia Tamés 49:57 Male 55-60: 1. Leodegario Juarez Cisneros 44:11 2. Samuel Troice Miramontes 51:36 3. Javier Fernandez Christlieb 53:28 Male 60 and up: 1. Jose Manuel Serrano Miranda 53:32 2. Emilio Lavín Sánchez 54:15 3. Alejandro Ramirez Santillan 59:54

Congratulations also to all our younger competitors, from kindergarten-age up, who participated in special kids’ races on campus. You are all winners because you all participated!

Focus 45

alumni / milestones

Melissa Berenstein (’03) and Jorge Guaida got engaged on April 21, 2010, in New York. They will get married in February 2011.

Juan de Luca (‘00), an ASF teacher, and Sylvia Freyre (‘88) are the proud parents of Giuliana and Isabella. The twins were born February 25, 2010.

They are 7 months old in these pictures.

Stephanie Gil (’00) and Omar Castro were married in November 2010.

Melanie Hogan (’03) married Xavier Fux on June 26, 2010, with many ASF alumni in attendance, including Daniel Zajarías (‘03), Mateo Falcón (‘03), Galia Venguer (‘03), Daniel Besquin (‘03), Jorge Mustri (‘03), Max Adler (‘03) and Daniel Cuevas (‘03).

Monica Fridman (’98) and her husband, who live in New York, have welcomed into their family a new baby boy, Diego.

IN MEMORIAM...

• Carmen Rosas Lopez (’32) With great sorrow I share with you the recent loss of our mother, Carmen Rosas de Pous, who died August 13, 2010. She finished high school at ASF and lived to the age of 97 in great health and with a great mind until the last moments. She was a great and loving person, a great mother, and we will miss her very much. —Carmen Pous (’61) • José Antonio de la Torre (’35) His wife Nellie Barranco (’40), son Marco Antonio (‘63), daughters Laura (’67), Marianela (’71) and Veronica and grandchildren, share in the loss of their husband, father and grandfather, Ing. José Antonio de la Torre, who died on August 8, 2010. Class valedictorian and a member of the football team, my father was an exemplary man who always sought to fulfill his goals with virtue and to succeed in his objectives with principles. —Laura de la Torre de Wein (’67) • Richard Anthony Prado (’77) Richard died December 10th, 2009 at the age of 51.

Xenia Castro (’96) and her husband Daniel Estudillo welcomed a new baby girl, Eugenia, July 19th. She weighed 2.9 kg and was 50 cm long.

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• Mark Martinez (’92) ASF is sorry to report that Mark Martinez, a beloved member of the Fighting Bears football team, passed away earlier this year.

• Alan David Costales Bruzaferri (’93) Alan passed away December 6th, 2009, at the age of 35.

alumni

CLASS NOTES

1985: Reunion at Nuevo Vallarta

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Guy Benveniste (Frenchy), who attended Harvard and later joined the faculty of the University of California at Berkeley, has just published his book From Paris to Berkeley, which includes a good deal of material about life at ASF during 1942-44, when the school was still on Avenida de los Insurgentes. Guy also attended Mexico City College in its incipient years. He mentions Miroslava Stern, Yvette de la Grave, Mariana Blago and others who attended ASF. Bridget Connelly, professor emerita of rhetoric at UC Berkeley, offered this appraisal of the book: “From Paris to Berkeley is a great read: funny and profound. The best memoir I’ve read in years.” It can be ordered directly from Amazon.com.

n the first weekend of October 2010, members of the Class of 1985 got together at Nuevo Vallarta, Nayarit, Mexico, to celebrate their 25-year class reunion. More than 30 alumni from different parts of the United States and Mexico spent three days together, having fun and remembering their golden high school years. A special highlight was the presence of Miss Cynthia George, their fifth grade English teacher. Host Richard Zarkin did everything possible to make this the best reunion yet.

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SESESA, owned by José Brito, has won first place in the energy services business category of the National Prize for Energy Savings and Sustainable Solutions, awarded by Mexico’s Energy Secretariat, Federal Electricity Commission and Energy Trust Fund. José, who was scheduled to receive his award from President Felipe Calderón, said, “I am honored to share this acknowledgement with my friends after 22 years of completing successful projects in energy savings and environmental solutions.”

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Monika Schlick of Andover, Maine visited former teacher Marilyn Garciagodoy and Juanita Garciagodoy in Minneapolis in September. Marilyn was a business teacher at ASF in the 1960s.

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Judges selecting the best and brightest International Young Screen Entrepreneur for 2010 awarded a special commendation to Elena Fortes Acosta, director of the Ambulante Documentary Film Festival in Mexico. Elena was chosen by a committee of the British Council to represent Mexico as one of 11 international finalists, visiting London, Bristol and Cardiff in October to forge relationships with UK business. She is the daughter of Magdalena Acosta Fortes, and the granddaughter of Magdalena (Magda) Acosta Urquidi (’42).

Alumni Bowl 2010 Continuing a tradition, The American School Fighting Bears alumni went back to high school and defended their colors once more. This year’s Alumni Bowl was played against the Gamos-CUM, reliving one of the greatest school rivalries in Mexico. It was a great event with an opening and closing ceremony. There was an announcer commenting on every play, and food and drinks were sold. All in all, it made for a great Saturday afternoon.

And, oh yes... Bears won 32-0!

2000: Graduates of the New Millennium

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his past 28th of August, the Class of 2000 — Graduates of the New Millennium — held its 10-year reunion at La Casa Roma, a restaurant/art gallery in Mexico City’s Colonia Roma. It was a truly inviting place, and the ideal setting for the class to mingle, enjoy some drinks, and have a good time.

We were pleasantly surprised to see that a lot of class members made it, including several that flew in from the United States and other parts of the world. We also enjoyed meeting up with old school friends who ended up not graduating with the class but were classmates at some point during our ASF adventure. Others came with their significant others, all of whom were really nice and were incorporated as the newest members of the Class of 2000.

We would like to thank Erika Sanchez, Pamela Alexander, Arturo Martinez, Pablo Abuasale and Ruy Villamil, the organizing committee that took care of planning and organizing a wonderful time for everyone.

“Class of 2000! Respect your past. Believe in your future.” —Ruy Villamil

The Bears 2010 alumni team: Amin Cardenas (’02), Arturo Chaltelt (’00), Arturo Gomez Becerra (’00), Bernardo Prum (’04), Carlos Cohen (’05), Daniel Fridman (’01), David Weingarten (’09), Diego Garcia-Cacho (’04), Felipe Zamarron (’00), Fernando Madrazo (’02), Gerardo García (’05), Gerardo Sepúlveda (’02), Ivan Zapata (’04), Jonathan Salomon (’03), Jose Guillen (’98), Jose Zepeda (97), Juan Carlos Rubiralta (‘00), Juan Jose Súarez (’09), Mauricio Quintana (‘00), Paul Jowett (’02), Paul Sarfati (’00), Rodrigo Jimenez (’01), Seung Lee (‘10) and Vicente Montemayor (’01).

Career Day 2010 Career Day, which took place on October 8 on the ASF campus, provides an opportunity for ASF students to meet with alumni and learn about possible career options. A big thank you goes out to the following alumni who participated this year: Alfonso Rendon (’92), Jerónimo Perez-Correa (’00), Ruy Villamil (’00), Melissa Berenstein (’03), Allan Fis (’95), Adriana Terrazas (’03), Ricardo Cortina (’01), Juan Rebolledo (’00), Pola Capuano (’00), Gabriela Morett (’85), Philip Watson (’01), Cesar Buenrostro (’50), Fernando Madrazo (’02), Marisela Stahl (’94), Sergio Reyes Retana (’03), Claude Salomon (’47), Larry Rubin (’93) and Argel Becerra (’95).

What Are You Up To?

Let Focus be your way of letting the ASF community know what’s been going on in your life after you moved on from the school. Send information to alumni@asf.edu.mx. Don’t forget to include a photo!

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kids’ corner

Picture Poems Second graders in Ms. Andrea Amell’s classroom undertook a challenging creative project. They wrote and illustrated their own poems about nature, trying to make the words part of the picture. Here are three of the wonderful results.

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