Junto Issue 1

Junto

“Veritas vos liberabit”

ISSUE 1

Hong Kong International School 1 Red Hill Road Tai Tam, Hong Kong http://dragonnet.hkis.edu.hk

A STUDENT PUBLICATION OF HONG KONG INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL

Parents Opposed to Lower Primary Move send Mass Emails

BY MARTIN MAN

EMILY WILLIAMS/JUNTO

The Lower Primary building is going to be rebuilt over the course of three years. Above is an image of the remodeled building.

LOWER PRIMARY TO BE REBUILT

The Lower Primary building is set to be demolished in August 2012.

It will be rebuilt over the course of three years and, until the new building is finished, the Lower Primary will be housed in a newly renovated location in Chai Wan. Several High School students were displeased to hear about the changes at Lower Primary. 11th grade student Archie Kwong, who went through all four years in the Lower Primary, said, ‘I really think it’s a waste of money, because the Lower Primary already had a lot of renovations, and they’re investing even more money into changing the Lower Primary, while they should use the money on more important things.’

While some do not see the demolition of the building as necessary, Lower Primary Principal Ms. Maya Nelson and Associate Principal Mr.

BY EMILY WILLIAMS

Nate Dennison expressed an opposite view.

‘For a long time there’s been talk about improving it [the Lower Primary building]. We have been wanting to improve the facilities for young children, and realized in the last few years that there is a need for a whole new building,’ said Ms. Nelson.

Due to the Lower Primary’s current structure, there is very limited natural lighting, which is not ideal for children’s learning. In addition to that, the classrooms are arranged so that activities that require noise like singing and playing are very hard to orchestrate without bothering sixty other children.

Another quality that the new building will have is integrated indoor and outdoor space.

‘We wanted a building that would have elements of both the

inside world and the outside world,’ explained Ms. Nelson. In the new building classrooms for the youngest children will have balconies, which will allow kids to easily incorporate in-class learning with inquiry-based learning.

‘Our students get very excited about nature, but don’t have the option to interact much with the natural world,’ explained Mr. Dennison.

According to a written response from Abbi DeLessio, Chair of the Board of Managers, ‘Facilities that align with a 21st century learning environment will advance education and allow children to develop skills through exploration. The new LP will be one of the most advanced educational facilities in Asia-Pacific.’

Two groups of parents have sent mass emails to Lower Primary parents in the hopes of stopping the Lower Primary’s move to Chai Wan. Using anonymous email aliases, the parents have voiced their reasons for opposing the move, set to take place next school year, and have urged the rest of the Lower Primary parent community to take action.

Among the reasons raised for the parents’ objection to the Chai Wan location are allegedly higher pollution levels, a location farther away from home, lack of parking space next to the school, and inadequate facilities for education.

One of the groups of parents— who call themselves the “concerned HKIS parents”—stated in their first mass email: “The school is moving from a nice low density area to *inside,* not next to, inside a public housing estate located in a very high density industrial area. The chance of sexual predators and pedophiles interacting with our kids has jumped dramatically.”

These parents also deemed the Chai Wan building inadequate: “The Board admits that the Chai Wan School is in terrible condition but it will be refurbished. You can put Ferrari parts into a Ford but it will still be a Ford and no one will pay $3,000,000 for it.” They asked the email recipients: “Why should our littlest children be the innocent victims of misdeeds, pollution, substandard facilities and overcrowding?”

Many families moved to the Repulse Bay area in order to make travel times shorter. Some of these families are now upset that, after having moved to be near to the school, the Lower Primary is moving away.

A second mass email from a different anonymous email address—stopchaiwanmove@gmail.com¬—was sent five days after the original email—on Continued on Page 4

OCTOBER 2011

Christina Noble No Longer a Club at HKIS

BY ANDREW YU

The Christina Noble Children’s Foundation, a charity targeting orphans and children in Ho Chi Minh City, no longer has an official chapter at HKIS. Ms. Vipond, one of the former leaders of Christina Noble Children’s Foundation (CNCF) describes the reason for the demise of the club as the inability of club leaders to generate passion and eagerness to serve within its members. “A number of students who joined since they were freshman carried this club throughout high school. We were not very successful in retaining and recruiting new students, which made the club itself very weak, ” she said.

A problem Ms. Vipond identified was how the closeness of the leaders on a personal level affected the club.

“The leaders almost carried the club too hard, all the decisions were made by the leaders, and the members were just asked to show up. If they wanted a bake sale, they would all be willing to help each other bake food to sell, which doesn’t really give any opportunities for the club to be involved,” she says.

There were times as well, when Ms. Vipond noticed that not enough time was being put into organizing.

“We were missing the true compassion for the club that we needed. The biggest question as a leader is when you hit hard times, will you have the energy and the vision to continue?

And their answer was no.”

This failure was not entirely the fault of the students. HKIS is definitely a school with ambitious students, but the flip side is that they have too many responsibilities and being lackluster in many clubs rather than focusing on something that they are truly passionate about. Ms. Vipond believes that, “there is great pressure on the students, whether it be from peers, or from applications, or from parents, this pressure to do so many things causes students to Continued on Page 5

Continued on Page 3

Senior Hit List Still a Source of Controversy

BY KATYA DAJANI

Four months after it was released, students and teachers continue to disagree about the significance of the senior hit list.

Released on May 30th, 2011 by the infamous “Sydney H. Lace” Facebook account, last year’s senior hit list quickly made its way around the school. Soon, students could be seen gathering around computer screens and gawking at the comments made about some of their peers.

Even though the senior hit list has become somewhat of an HKIS tradi-

tion, a few teachers decided that it was time to put an end to it. Many in the senior class were surprised to hear that faculty members planned to skip their graduation in attempt to voice their disapproval.

“I was torn because I knew that for some of them, it was a personal choice in that they didn’t feel comfortable celebrating our graduation with us, but it still felt like a punishment,” says Amy Zhang, a 2011 graduate.

Despite this reaction, some

teachers stand firm in their decision, believing that it was important for graduates to understand the possible repercussions of such an act.

According to Mr. Ferrin, “I made my choice based on who I am as a person and what I believe in. To some, my choice might have been the wrong one. I’m not afraid to say that.” He continued, “But I am sorry to hear that some students viewed it as a punishment; I can honestly say that my decision was never intended Continued on Page 3

SCHOOL NEWS

How Does the Library Pick Its Books?

PAGE 4

TI-Nspire – as Nspiring as its name?

PAGE 6

HKIS Students Raise Money for Somali Refugee Camps PAGE 4

Increase in Chartwells’ Prices PAGE 6

Ritazza becomes Liscio because it was getting boring PAGE 3

HKIS PFO Releases New Cookbook

PAGE 5

New Hollister Store Fails to Attract HKIS Student PAGE 6

New service club in HKIS: Love not Lust PAGE 3

HKIS Welcomes a Host of New Faculty This Year PAGE 5

Senior Retreat Canceled This Year PAGE 7

Majority Supports HKIS Going “Green” Though Some Express Doubts

PAGE 3

VICTORIA MONTECILLO/JUNTO

The Musical Theater Club continues to rehearse for the musical production. Their show was unsuccesful last year, but this year they hope to attract big audiences.

OP-ED

Jung Joo Kim

PAGE 8

SENATE UPDATE LETTER FROM JODIE CHAN Senator of Public Relations “The Senate would like to express our excitement for this coming year and extend a great big welcome to all of you.”

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JUNTO

OCTOBER 2011

Senate Update THE Senate would like to express our excitement for this coming year and extend a great big welcome to all of you.

Part of my job this year is to increase communication between the Senate and the Student Body. With that goal in mind, there is now a Senate website accessible through the Student leadership section within the HS dragonnet page.

The Senate would love if the student body took the time to explore the website.

However, if you who would

GET A LIFE Once again, the HKIS National Honor Society is proud to present the “Get a Life!” career speaker series. This year, we hope to bring in speakers from a wide range of professions to talk about ther job, education and career path.

Our upcoming speaker, Mr. Scot Levy (Senior Vice President and Managing director of NBA Asia) will be speaking about his experiences on Tuesday October 25th (day 4) during Collaborative Time in Room 504.

All students are welcome to join. Come along to listen to what your future could be like, ask questions, and as a bonus, enjoy some breakfast goodies!

JUNTO

Hong Kong International School 1 Red Hill Road Tai Tam, Hong Kong Junto is a student publication of Hong Kong International School. Student editors make all content decision.

Please feel free to submit letters to the editors. Submit your letter to junto@hkis.edu.hk. Letters may be edited for clarity.

Teacher Advisor ..........................................................................................................................................Chris Taylor Editor-in-Chief ................................................................................................................................Sanchita Kanthadai Editors ........................................................................................................................................................Thomas Ruan Emily Williams Christine Herman Charlie Packer Layout Editor ....................................................................................................................................................Jinny Lee Layout assistants ...........................................................................................................................................Andrew Yu Tiffany Cheung Danielle Park Photo Manager ................................................................................................................................Victoria Montecillo Photo assistants ........................................................................................................................................Gabriella Tam Hannah Passamonte Amy Griffin Kira Bauman

rather not spend your free time looking through the Senate’s web pages, you can go to the forum section of the website to drop us some of your insights. An issue being debated right now is the continuation of community representatives. The website will act as a medium for Senate updates, contact details, meeting agendas, and meeting minutes among other things. So if you have some spare time, by all means check it out!

Senate meetings, which occur every other Monday,

are also open to the public, so feel free to join in on these meetings if you prefer sitting in rather than browsing through our Internet resources. This will be the first of regular Senate postings in Junto, so stay tuned for more exciting news sure to come your way soon!

Yours truly, Jodie Chan Senator of Public Relations 120261@hkis.edu.hk

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News JUNTO

LOWER PRIMARY TO BE REBUILT

Continued from front page While Lower Primary is being rebuilt, R2 to second grade students will be housed in Chai Wan, while R1 will be moved to the Middle School.

This has worried some parents. An anonymous parent group stated in an email, ‘The Board admits that the Chai Wan School is in terrible condition… So why should we pay the highest school fees in Hong Kong for a temporary reconditioned school?’

Ms. DeLessio wrote, however, that ‘Chai Wan was the only suitable facility located on Hong Kong Island and it offered the best options for maintaining the highest standards of education, for which HKIS is known, as well as the most potential for retrofitting to meet our high facility standards.’

Contrary to the parents’ fears, Ms. Nelson believes that the Chai Wan location, once fully refurbished, will actually be better than the current Lower Primary building.

The Chai Wan building ‘will be a traditional classroom setting, with uniform, open, and airy classrooms.

The air filtering system is better than what we have in LP both with the new and individualized controlled AC with HEPA systems… We’ll bring it up to HKIS standards,’ said Ms. Nelson.

‘We will gut the interior of the school down to its shell and then upgrade to the HKIS standards that one sees in the recently renovated Information Commons and Music Center in the High School,’ said Ms. DeLessio.

‘We’re excited about it,’ Mr. Dennison stated. ‘We’re excited for the opportunities that Chai Wan and the new building will offer.’

‘It really says something that their [the Board’s] priority is on young education,’ Ms. Nelson says. ‘It all starts at this age, and it will be fabulous to have a new building.’

High School Daily News

KIRA BAUMAN/JUNTO

The high school Daily News page, above, is commonly used by students, parents, and teachers.

BY STEPHANIE TANG

The newly-implemented High School Daily News is not living up to its expectations, students and teachers say.

The Daily News page, which can be found on the DragonNet website’s main page, was created with the purpose of informing high school students of upcoming events and general announcements. The site is maintained by Mr. Buck, who updates it with birthdays and the latest happenings at the school, such as college visits and Senate elections.

“We are using that to distribute different kinds of messages,” said Mr. Buck. “It’s part of a larger comprehensive information-sharing system we are developing. It’s imperative that students check the Daily News everyday, since between that and the MyDragonNet newsfeed, those are our two main channels for news distribution.”

Despite Mr. Buck’s emphasis on the importance of the Daily News page, students don’t seem to feel the same way.

“My homeroom teacher puts it up but it’s not useful,” said sophomore Sarah Faruqui. Several other students share her viewpoint. “I think I’ve looked at it once,” said senior Martin Man. “I haven’t ever really read it… though I’m still living after not hav-

ing read it once, so perhaps that says something.”

This sort of reaction is apparent even among the staff of HKIS. Mr. Coombs, a humanities teacher, said, “There’s not much there. It’s pretty thin right now, and it should be more substantial.” His suggestion is for students to be more involved. “Students should decide what goes up on the page. That way the posts would be related to things students care about.

Maybe they should be the ones writing the posts too. That would make the page much more interesting and relatable.”

Franziska Cheung, a sophomore, suggested that the HS Daily News be incorporated into the sidebar on MyDragonNet. “Everyone goes to MyDragonNet for homework and stuff, so if it was there, more people would look at it. A lot of people at school think that putting things on Facebook will make it more accessible to us, but we don’t need something else encouraging us to spend more time on the site.”

Students and teachers both admit that they can see the benefits of having a page such as the HS Daily News. “Hopefully they’ll make it better,” says Jamie Lee, a sophomore. “I think once it reaches its full potential, it would be a great asset to everyone.”

OCTOBER 2011

Ritazza becomes Liscio because it was “getting boring”

TIFFANY CHUNG/JUNTO

BY SU ANNE CHOONG

Last spring, Chartwells, the long time owner of Ritazza, decided to revolutionize the cafe because it was getting “boring,” and the cafè’s image and the products were changed.

The Hong Kong International School community has been unsure about the reason for the Ritazza to Liscio transformation. Some, such as Benjamin Yau (10) said Chartwells bought Ritazza and decided to announce the news by giving it a new face. “Ritazza wasn’t financially doing as well as before so it was replaced by Liscio,” said Roger Li (10).

According to Conforti Claudio, the Chartwells Contract Manager for Hong Kong International, Chartwells has always owned the Ritazza store. The reason for the change was because the contract with the Cafè Ritazza franchise ended and Chartwells felt that “Ritazza was getting boring,” said Claudio.

The visual changes were the name,

logo and the menu layout. The logo changed from the brown Cafè Ritazza trademark to the black and white Liscio logo. The menu layout used to be black with the brown Cafè Ritazza logo on the top. Now, the menu is much white, bigger and there is even a picture at the bottom.

Not only were there graphic changes, there were also food improvements. The alternations in the menu were based on what was popular in Hong Kong International in the previous years. There were also some new additions to the menu. For example, Liscio introduced baguettes.

The ingredients were also improved.

For example, the bread “used to be store bought, but now the bread is freshly made in Liscio,” said Claudio.

There were also changes in the sandwich filling ingredients. According to Claudio, it is now of higher quality.

Some of the ingredients are from the Fairtrade Foundation, an independent

Majority Supports HKIS Going “Green” Though Some Express Doubts

BY GIGI W CHOY

Almost all students and faculty members interviewed by Junto gave positive feedback on HKIS’ new plastic bottle policy and other efforts to become more environmentally friendly.

Beginning this school year, HKIS has banned the sale on campus of drinks that are packaged in plastic bottles.

Eleventh grade student Danielle Park said the change was positive because it benefits others especially with the pollution crisis in Hong Kong.

The Senator of Student Life, Barton Liang (12) said “it’s a good idea because it is responsible on the school’s part for the environment.”

Mira Naseer (12), the Presiding Officer of the Senate, said that the school’s decision to cut down the amount of waste and energy was good idea and a great initiative. However, she said that even though the new plastic bottle policy is a step towards becoming more environmentally friendly, the canned and glass drinks being sold at the school are still a problem that needs to be tackled.

On the other hand, some students and faculty members are not sure about whether the school’s efforts to go “green” are beneficial. A student who did not want to be named stated

that if the school wanted to really do something about the environment, then it should advise students not to drink anything other than water in order to end the aluminum can and glass bottle problem that the school now has with the selling of Snapple, Perrier, and tonic water drinks.

Most students and teachers expressed their approval of the newly installed water fountains. However, there are some that are uncertain about whether the new water fountains are environmentally friendly or not.

Roots and Shoots president, Jennifer Ho, explained, “it is a common misconception that the new water fountains use more energy because they have more functions than the old water fountains did.” She said that the new water fountains are more energy efficient, while the old ones are not, since they ran 24 hours each day. The new water fountains use less energy to cool water.

Roots and Shoots helped implement the new plastic bottle policy and their goals this year are to continue raising awareness about the environment, install more wind turbines and solar panels at the school, and change the heating and cooling system used at HKIS.

non-profit organization that aims to help producers in developing countries to improve trading conditions and sustainability.

“I’m so glad they added the Baguettes. I used to get anything at Ritazza, but now I try to line up (to order) as soon as I get out of class,” said Daisy Miranda Cheng (10).

“The Pepperoni and Cheese (Baguettes) are the best,” said Gigi Wong (10).

According to Claudio, the former name, “Ritazza,” is a mix of two Italian words, “Ri” and “Tazza”. “Ri” means “again” or “another”. “Tazza” means “cup” or “container”. The exact translation would be “another cup.” “Liscio” means “smooth”.

Claudio also said there will not be any changes in Liscio anytime soon.

“I’m happy with the changes, Ritazza has been revolutionized for the better,” said Vivian Lee (11)

New service club in HKIS: Love not Lust

BY GABRIELLA TAM

At $32 billion a year, child sex trafficking is the second most profitable crime in the world. In Hong Kong, child sex trafficking is said to be the second largest market for exploiting young children. Many of the victims are forced into prostitution or commercial sexual exploitation. This year, HKIS has founded a new service club, “Love not Lust,” in order to raise awareness and prevention for child sex trafficking.

Juniors Danielle Park, Karina Lam and Su Min Oh formed the service club as a way to increase awareness in Hong Kong. “Our primary goal is to show people how prominent child trafficking is and to raise awareness in Hong Kong,” said Park.

Love not Lust is associated with an organization called Love 146 that is based in the United States.

Founded in 2002, Love 146’s vision is “The abolition of child sex slavery and exploitation. Nothing less.” Love not Lust will be working closely with Love 146 to raise awareness about Hong Kong’s role as one of the world’s largest transit zones for sex trafficking.

Future goals for Love not Lust include holding events around Hong Kong to raise awareness, and raising funds for Love 146’s ‘Prevention Care,’ a program that helps the victims of sex trafficking.

PAGE 4

OCTOBER 2011

NEWS

PARENTS OPPOSED TO LOWER PRIMARY MOVE SEND MASS EMAILS How Does the Continued from front page Library Pick Its on 5 September. This group responded to the comments of the “concerned Books? parents”, stating, “their scaremongering tactics were ridiculous, unnecessary and ended up fractioning the parent community.” Adding that “it is just not kool [sic] to make generalized statements about groups of people and expect reasonable parents like us to not be offended.”

A lack of consultation with the parents of Lower Primary children before the announcement of the campus move was another point of contention raised by both groups. They have called the Board of Directors “authoritarian” and “patronising”, as well as accusing the school of being “dismissive of its parents’ demands.”

The parents have proposed writing letters to the Hong Kong Education Bureau in order to pressure them to retract the Chai Wan campus offer.

Writing directly to the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod has also been proposed.

Mr. Seehafer—whose child is currently in 1st grade—commented that the mass-mailers are a “terrible reflection on HKIS parents”. He disapproved of their “elitist, prejudiced thinking”, saying that the parents are “really selfish” in their opposition.

Mr. Canham—also with a 1st grade child—expressed similar approval of the move, saying that “it’s a great thing…for the long term benefit of the school”. He pointed out that the current Lower Primary building lacks windows, air and space.

With two children in Lower Primary, Mr. Buxton said that it would be a good thing for students to “see a bit of local Hong Kong”. Adding that eastern Hong Kong has a low pollution level and that “it is industrial but you don’t see it—it’s not dirty.” He also approved of the larger playground and greater natural lighting of the Wan Chai site.

Both groups of parents were contacted by their anonymous email address with requests for interviews.

The ‘concerned parents’ did not respond, while ‘stopchaiwanmove’ initially agreed to an interview but did not answer the questions posed to them.

HKIS Students Raise Money for Somali Refugee Camps

BY ARSHIA BHATIA The ongoing Somalia drought has been declared the ‘Worst Humanitarian Crisis’ in the world by CNN. The head of the United Nations Refugee Agency appealed for the world to provide ‘massive support’ to the thousands showing up at refugee camps.

Two HKIS students, Sarah Faruqui (10) and Daisy Cheng (10), have decided that HKIS needs to play an active role in this humanitarian crisis, and have become involved by raising money from selling T-shirts.

Faruqui and Cheng created an original T-shirt with a thematic design and slogan. The proceeds from the sales of these T- shirts go towards Somalia famine relief.

Faruqui has previously lived in Kenya, Tanzania and South Africa, and feels a personal connection to the issue of famine in Africa.

According to Chang, the money raised from these sales will go to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. It will supply refugee camps with standard food ration for 3 weeks, emergency packages including a tent, sleeping mat, blanket, cooking set etc. Refugees with medical issues will be sent to health clinics, malnourished children will receive plumpy’nut or formula milk depending on the situation.

The World Food Program estimates that 10 million people in the Horn of Africa require food assistance.

BY LOTUS YE

The temporary Chai Wan campus, above, will be used until the new Lower Primary building is built.

EMILY WILLIAMS/JUNTO

Senior Hit List Still a Source of Controversy

BY KATYA DAJANI

to punish anybody.”

More importantly, he stressed that, “this cannot happen again. In some cases, this is defamation of character and has potential legal ramifications.

In all cases it is cruel, petty, and not the kind of world we want to live in. This type of bullying is digitally published for a lot of people to see.

Teasing somebody to his or her face can be dealt with directly but when it is out there on the Internet, it is out of your control.”

To some students though, the hit list was not a big deal, and the faculty reaction was too much.

Senior Andrew Yu said, “I actually think that this senior hit list situa-

tion was blown out of proportion. I mean, in the real world, this is not uncommon. It’s idealistic to think otherwise. Additionally, I believe it was unfair to the rest of the senior class who were not able to enjoy the presence of certain teachers at their graduation.”

While “hit lists” and other Internet-posted attacks may be common, they can have very serious ramifications. In the United States, six teenagers were charged with civil rights violations when sixteen-yearold Phoebe Prince committed suicide after months of cyber-bullying.

“Undoubtedly, there are people who will say this is blown out of proportion. Perhaps eventually they

will be right, but it is far too early to tell. If the hit list ends, if students are more aware and compassionate towards how they treat each other, if names like ‘slut,’ ‘whore,’ and ‘faggot’ no longer get flippantly slung about as if they don’t sting then I think this was an important step,” Mr. Ferrin said.

Class of 2012 Senior Class Vice President Devesh Chotrani pledges that “we’re going to try our best to break the [hit list] tradition. The senior hit list has been going on for some time now and it has somehow embedded itself into the minds of some seniors, making them believe it is in their right to publish a senior hit list.”

A study conducted by Google showed that as of 2011, almost 130 millions books exist worldwide. So out of the vast array of selections in this literary sea, how does the Information Commons decide which books to add to the library each year?

According to Ms. Vipond, who is in charge of picking the bulk of materials, new books are often chosen according to how well they tie in with three main areas of interest: the school curriculum, the school mission, and current social and global affairs.

“Around 50% of our fictional books tie in to global issues,” said Ms. Vipond. “It allows students to empathize and understand things on a more personal level. It brings out human feelings to these issues.”

Books are also selected based on their popularity: young adult novels that receive glowing reviews and New York Times’ best-selling authors are frequently included in the library’s shipment orders.

The Information Commons staffs aren’t the only people in charge of deciding what books to order. The Commons also receives frequent feedback and suggestions from teachers. For instance, based on Mr. Friedericks’ counsel, the library now has a new collection of books dedicated to Eastern spirituality.

One of the library’s most valuable sources of input is from the students themselves. Students are strongly encouraged to contact the library with suggestions for books, and can do so in a variety of ways: through the Information Commons website, an email to Ms. Vipond, or, as she prefers, telling Ms. Vipond in person herself.

For those interested in the library’s new books, the Information Commons sends out a monthly bulletin with a list of their recent purchases.

Next month’s news will include a feature on the current top 24 mystery novels.

Musical Theater Club: A Preview for 2011-2012

BY VICTORIA MONTECILLO

The Musical Theater Club plans to take on a full musical production this year, and is expecting great success and bigger audiences at their performances.

In previous years, the Musical Theatre Club has left full musical productions to the production class; however, the production class was eliminated from the school schedule after 2010. After the class was canceled, the club continued to perform musical revues, which are cheaper and less work. This year, however, the club has decided to perform the Stephen Sondheim classic Into the Woods in its entirety.

Last year, the club attempted to put on a musical production. However, it was unsuccessful due to a lack of consideration for the many factors and issues in putting on a full-scale production. Problems such as securing the rights and other logistical issues ultimately made a musical impossible.

This year the club leaders have prepared for possible mishaps. “All five leaders are hugely committed to this project, and have been waiting for an opportunity like this for a long time” said director Nathalie Ellis-Einhorn. “We’ve been doing a lot of planning over the summer so that we’re prepared to deal with all logistical issues involved with putting on a show like this.”

The club leaders are very confident with their choice of show.

Musical Theater Club’s “Best of Broadway” show in April 2011.

Into the Woods combines childhood fairytales, mixing the familiar tales of Rapunzel, Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood.

Ellis-Einhorn said, “We, the Musical Theater Club directors, feel like we’re filling a crucial hole in our high school’s cultural life. The show itself is very exciting and interesting. It has a lot of roles that will give many of the talented students in our club a

chance to shine.”

The club’s five leaders, Nathalie Ellis-Einhorn, Melissa White, Tiffany Li, Victoria Montecillo, and Kristen Shruhan, will cast, direct, and perform in the show that will be put on in mid-April of 2012.

In previous years, the Musical TheaterClub has struggled to attract big audiences for their musical revue performances, but the leaders think

VICTORIA MONTECILLO/JUNTO

that this different project will draw larger crowds. Ellis-Einhorn said, “A full musical will generally gather a bigger audience than any musical revue because people have higher expectations for what they’re coming to see. We’re already doing a lot of advertising to promote the club and we will continue to do this throughout the year to create a bigger audience for our final performances.”

PAGE 5

OCTOBER 2011

NEWS

HKIS Welcomes a Host of New Faculty This Year

BY IVY TSE

Mrs. Rowe, a new Fine Arts teacher, teaches Art History and Art Studio, specializing in photography, design, painting, and sculpture. After receiving her degree and diploma in Toronto, Canada, where she grew up, she was trained in the “Artists in the Community” program. She spent 2 years teaching art at the American International School of Kuwait prior to coming to HKIS. Outside of school, Mrs. Rowe enjoys hiking, field hockey, and volleyball. She is engaged and is getting married in the summer.

New humanities teacher Mrs. Wheatley said that she wants “to make the learning experience fun and meaningful for my students.” After graduating from Indiana University, she taught AP literature and AP language at Wheeler High School in Georgia. Her hobbies include reading, writing, travelling, eating, and spending time with her husband and 3 children. She spent the last ten years in Atlanta, Georgia and said that she “is more than excited to be here”.

With a M.S. and Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Stanford University, Ms. Aiyer began her teaching career in Atherton, California, where she taught in Menlo School for 4 years prior to moving to Hong Kong.

She grew up in New Mexico and Southern India, then worked as a senior software engineer at Analogic Corporation around Boston. This involved designing image reconstruction software for CT machines and language scanners. She also knows Indian music and dance as well as classical western music on the violin.

Mrs. Aiyer savors time spent reading, cooking, traveling, dancing, and with her twin 6-year-old daughters. Mrs. Aiyer is currently teaching 3 classes of Geometry and 1 class of Physical

Science.

Mrs. Xing grew up in Tianjin, China, where she achieved a BA in Tianjin Normal University and a Master’s Degree in Beijing Language and Culture University.

She now lives with a family of two daughters and a husband that works at Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Prior to entering the high school mandarin department this year, Mrs. Xing taught in the middle school for 13 years. In her free time, she enjoys reading, traveling, and cooking.

Also coming from the Middle School, Mrs. Wimbush is a PE and ESOL teacher who has taught kids of all ages from kindergarten to high school. She’s from Indonesia and has 2 boys, eight and nine years of age.

Mrs. Wimbush loves to teach PE.

“It’s where kids open up,” she said.

Currently, she is learning to ride a motorbike, a hobby inspired by Ms. Klekamp.

Joining the counseling department are Mrs. Ferrara of the I community and Mr. Fleischmann of the K community.

Coming from a family of 4 brothers and sisters in New Jersey, Mrs. Ferrara received her Master’s degree at the University of San Diego.

She has previously worked at the International School of Hamburg in Germany. For the past 3 years, she has had counseling training, which includes participating in an internship at HKIS in the year of 2009. This was after she first discovered HKIS through a visit with a multicultural counseling class.

Christina Noble No Longer a Club at HKIS

TIFFANY CHUNG/JUNTO

Varsity Baseball is Underway

BY MICHAEL LIN

Expectations are high for this year’s young group of varsity baseball players, a year after the varsity team’s best season in HKIS history.

This year’s team will almost certainly face difficult challenges, after losing 8 seniors (3 who will play at a college level) and 2 juniors, all of who were excellent players in the eyes of Mr Seehafer, the varsity baseball coach.

The team is relatively young, with the majority of starters being sophomores and freshmen. Even with this young, rebuilding team, Coach

Seehafer remains optimistic that the varsity team can perform well, and he has set high expectations.

Coach Seehafer attributes success to mastering the little things, which include “throwing strikes, baserunning and fielding.” These skills, along with a good morale, will play a key role in the team’s performances in the APAC, Wuxi and China Cup tournaments.

Last year’s varsity team went undefeated, winning all the tournaments it entered and cumulatively outscoring opponents “280-15,” according to Coach Seehafer.

Continued from front page lack focus. And being a leader of a club definitely needs a certain level of attention to be genuinely helpful.

Some students are just taking on too much.”

In attempts to reenergize the members of the club to be more passionate about the cause, the leaders organized a trip to Ho Chi Minh City in the fall.

This trip was a result of planning over a span of almost two years, as the initial date proposed for the trip was postponed due to the H1N1 virus.

The trip would be pushed again from a date during spring to the fall. When the students finally had the opportunity to go on this trip, many were “extremely excited”, Ms. Vipond recalls, only to be disappointed at the CNCF facilities in Ho Chi Minh.

As the teacher who organized the trip, she said, “We planned this trip with two full days with the kids, they have a couple of facilities. And we were cut down for having ‘four hours’ with the kids, which really also included a tour as well as travel time.” She felt that much of the foundation itself had become very institutionalized, and the passion that Christina Noble once had seemed gone. “We also felt like we weren’t really needed. The foundation did not really value much of the help and volunteering we were offering by very strictly limiting the time we had with children. But this did confirm some rumors that we had heard about CNCF, when people asked why we chose them to kind of…donate to. An NGO is comprised of two types of people; people who write the checks and those who are willing to be volunteers. And there seems to have been too much check-writing and too little volunteering to help the kids.”

GABRIELLA TAM/JUNTO

In her free time, Mrs. Ferrara enjoys travelling, reading, and relaxing at the beach.

As a child, Mr. Fleischmann lived primarily in Washington State in the U.S. After graduation, he moved to Singapore where he spent 2 years with his wife Noelle. In his broad teaching career he has taught social studies, economics, government, psychology, and world history. While teaching, he also obtained his master’s degree in education counseling at the State University of New York in Buffalo. Following this, he worked as the counselor at the same school for 4 years. “I love talking to strangers, sports, reading, sports, travelling, and did I mention I love sports,” said Mr. Fleischmann.

US Politics not a Major Part of HKIS Education

BY ARCHIT BATLAW

Though HKIS is an American school by definition, there are a huge percentage of students who are not from the USA. This leads to some disagreement regarding the extent to which US politics should be studied Senior Edmund Ho says that most students only know the big names on the political scene. “In relation to US politics, the parties, and the method of election, people may not be very familiar, but they do know the figureheads, for example: Hillary Clinton and Barrack Obama.” Ho also claims that the average student did not know the purpose of the Electoral College.

Junior Tiffany Smith thought back to the 2008 elections and said that, “Most people didn’t know enough, they just kind of followed the Obama crowd.” She went on to say that a great number of her peers jumped on the bandwagon, without examining Obama’s (or the other candidate’s) viewpoints.

Whether or not knowledge of U.S. politics is important remains a source of controversy. Guidance counselor Adam Goad said that it is important for students to be taught about current US political topics, especially if they are considering the US for college.

Senior Sauman Cheng disagreed, saying that if students were interested in current events in the US, they would seek the information by themselves. She also said that a class could not force uncaring students to learn about US political issues.

According to junior Alisa Price and others, many non-American students do not care about the political issues in the US.

New Attendance Policy in Effect

BY BARTON LIANG As of this August, attendance issues at HKIS are no longer linked to demerits.

Last school year, students would receive one demerit for every three tardies, and two demerits for every unexcused absence. When school started this year, rumors quickly circulated around the school about the new attendance policy, with some students wrongly claiming that “absences no longer mattered”, or even that “they changed the whole demerit system”.

According to Ms. Fine, the attendance policy itself has not changed, and is no less important. Students are still expected to be in class on time, every time, and if students miss too many classes in a semester, credit will not be given. However, the enforcement of the policy has shifted. The old model of “policing” students, where the policy seemed to focus on punishing tardy or absent students, is now replaced by a new, much more holistic way of addressing attendance issues.

Instead of having a rigid, arbitrary limit on the number of tardies required for a demerit, the school will now look at trends and patterns.

Ms. Fine said that one thing they will focus on is students who are consistently tardy to their first class of the day. If a pattern in tardies is observed, students will be contacted, and they will meet with their counselor to discuss the reasons behind the tardiness and how the school can help address the issue. If the pattern continues, however, the school may contact parents. If there is no other way to solve the problem, the school may take further action, such as taking away travel or other privileges.

In order for the new system to work properly, teachers are being encouraged to consistently take attendance for all classes. The introduction of a mobile PowerSchool app should also be useful to teachers who may not have constant access to their laptops, such as those in the PE department.

According to Ms. Fine, the previous, punitive system of addressing attendance created negative responses from the students. With the new, more holistic system, the focus is now on helping students address the reason for their tardiness. By making these changes, the administration hopes to ensure that students get the best experience out of their classes.

HKIS PFO Releases New Cookbook

BY ELLIOT WILLIAMS

The HKIS Parent Faculty Organization (PFO) has just released a community cookbook containing recipes from various members of the HKIS community. Contributors included teachers, students, parents, and alumni.

The idea of a cookbook was originally suggested by Marcy Yakuel of the PFO as an idea to raise money for the Faculty Education Development, a program which allows the faculty of our school to stay up to date with developments in education, and enables them teach more effectively.

The recipes were collected in response to a recipe drive via email.

The PFO collected 500 recipes, of which the best 250 were included in the book.

ZoeLynne Sursock, president of the PFO, said her favourite thing about the cookbook is “the diversity that it reflects in our community.” The cookbook includes recipes from all around the world.

The cookbook is on sale in the Dragonshop for $250.

PAGE 6

Overwhelmed, but not mission impossible

KIRA BAUMAN/JUNTO

BY SAMANTHA FONG

Freshmen and new students state that the workload at HKIS has become overwhelming to them. Most of them claim that they are working for more than 6 hours per day, and only rarely less than 3 hours.

Ninth grade student Evelyn Liu said “I think it’s adequate, and sometimes, a bit much.” She said she spends almost 7 hours per day on homework, including time spent on homework early in the morning and after school. However, this also excludes practice time set aside for music and time spent on doing homework at school. She goes to bed between 10:30 and 11, and wakes up at 5 in order to finish her homework.

Since she also has about one hour or more of extracurricular activities every day, she starts her homework later. Not only is 7 hours at home doing assignments not enough, spends meeting times after school, if she doesn’t have a club or activity, also doing homework.

While 6-7 hours of homework is common in the freshmen class, there are some outliers who spend as little as 3 on homework.

Aisha Fong, also in ninth grade, said that her total work hours were about 6, including practicing for her music class. Even though she states she’s able to complete all her tasks and even set aside a little time for practicing, she thinks that it’s still way too much for her to handle, and finds it unbelievable when told that some people spend only 2 hours.

Why do some people spend more time than others? For one, it depends on the classes taken. Liu takes advanced algebra honors, while Fong is taking geometry honors. Also, Liu explained that she likes to take time and perfect things in order to get better grades, even though it will count as a mere homework grade.

New Students Recount Their Japan Earthquake Experience

BY THOMAS RUAN

On March 11th, a math class at the Nishimachi International School, in Tokyo, was celebrating Pi Day when a 9.0 magnitude earthquake hit the North-East coast of Japan.

Tristan Choa, who now is a freshman at Hong Kong International, was in that math class. He said that, “It was very scary, all of my classmates and I thought that 2012 may happen.”

This earthquake was greater than previous ones; Choa said that, “Japan has not experienced an earthquake like this since the Great Hanshin in 1995 and the Great Kanot in 1923.”

Jenna Watson, now a junior at Hong Kong International, was in the American School in Japan when the earthquake struck. She and Yi Lin Lee, also a junior, were in photography class when the earthquake happened. The afterschool buses took six hours to get home. She called the whole incident “pretty freaky,” though pointed out that most of the people in Japan are used to the relatively frequent earthquakes.

In fact, according to Lee, the American School’s building did not suffer any damage, because it is “built for earthquakes anyway.”

The American School had their Spring break lined up straight after the quake, but when school resumed, some parents kept their children at

BY POOJA HATTANGDI

home. “They were scared of the radiation, or aftershocks,” Watson said, but “most people were fine.”

Families from Nishimachi also left; Choa’s family left the following Monday for Manilla, the Philippines.

The major concern was not the earthquake – the Japanese government was used to dealing with those – but with the risk of radiation.

Choa said that necessities such as water bottles, milk and rice were in very low supply.

Lee said that she thought the “international news exaggerated a lot” of what happened. Watson agreed, and said, “the news made it seem so much worse.”

Other families made enquiries for international schools in different countries, like Hong Kong. The Hong Kong International Office of Admissions said that, “there were queries because of all the uncertainty,” but most of them were withdrawn.

Choa’s, Watson’s and Lee’s families were all planning on coming to Hong Kong before the earthquake.

According to the Office of Admissions, out of the 60 applicants from Japan for all four divisions of Hong Kong International, “only about two or three were vocal” about any sort of concern, and around 90% of the applications were made before the March 11 earthquake.

Out With the Old and In With the New Water Fountains

BY BRONWYN LLOYD

HKIS’s new water fountains allow students to fill up their water bottles more easily and have sensors that inform students of how many plastic bottles have been kept from being thrown away by using this particular water fountain. The new fountains also provide colder, cleaner water than the do older ones.

Biology and Environmental Science teacher Mrs. Dee Mulligan says that although she has been at HKIS for sixteen years, the old fountains were here before her. According to Ms. Mulligan, the age of filters in the old fountains raises questions as to the cleanliness of the water dispensed from them. The age of a filter affects its ability to function, and failure to function properly could mean that the water from these fountains is more harmful to our health than helpful to the environment.

The new fountains are placed

near the middle of hallways, rather than next to the toilets on every floor, adding something of a psychological incentive to using the fountains rather than buying bottled water. It is a much more attractive idea to get water from the middle of the hallway, than from a fountain next to the toilets.

While most new water fountains in the school are of the newer model, two new fountains on the athletic field are of the same model as the old water fountains.

The student response to the new fountains has been positive. The fountains’ appearance and ability to easily fill water bottles with cooler water seem to be winning over the HKIS student body. However, there is a very small minority of students who do not like the taste of the water from the new fountains; some students made reference to both metallic and plastic tastes.

Increase in Chartwells’ Prices

TI-Nspire – as Nspiring as its name?

BY ISABELLE ROWLAND

The new calculator promoted by the math department is receiving mixed reactions from students.

The TI-Nspire-CX-CAS was introduced this year, and students have been highly encouraged to purchase one.

Mr Gill, head of the mathematics department, is enthusiastic. “It’s a dynamic calculator,” he said. “The CAS (computer algebra system) lets you see everything simultaneously.

You can even factor with fractions, something nearly impossible to do manually.”

“Students really, really think it’s cool,” Said Mr. Gill. ‘They’re impressed with its abilities.”

Some students share this opinion.

“I love this calculator, because my teacher explains how to do stuff,” says Madyson Lyman, a sophomore.

However, many don’t feel the same way. “I wish teachers spent more time explaining the different functions. It seems really easy, I just don’t know how to do anything,” says senior Mira Naseer.

Chloe Chan, a sophomore, bought

New Hollister Store Fails to Attract HKIS Student

The opening of Hollister’s first Asian branch in Hong Kong on August 19th has failed to muster any excitement within the student body of HKIS, as the store has been deemed too far to travel to.

Located on Festival Walk, Hollister has not yet managed to entice HKIS’ students to undergo the journey to the store. Junior Lauren Levine said, “The store is too far away, and the clothes aren’t good enough to induce me to go there.”

While the female students at HKIS refuse to travel the distance, a lot of male students were not even aware of Hollister’s opening. Senior Garrett O’Kelley said, “I don’t feel like I’d need to go there, maybe if I needed to buy new clothes, but I usually shop in the States anyway.”

Although not interested in shopping at Hollister, some students have turned the new store’s opening to

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JUNTO

their advantage by pursuing job opportunities.

Senior Jackie Ewing logs 15 hours a week as an Impact team member for the branch. Her role with the store entails working in the stock room, organizing the clothes to be displayed, and manning the dressing rooms.

Although Jackie has never spotted a customer from HKIS in Hollister yet, she said that this behavior is considered an exception in the otherwise packed store. “The Hollister branch in Hong Kong has really put in a significant amount of effort into hiring international-looking employees as to attract a diverse clientele. And so far it has worked; we have a range of customers of varying genders, race and sex in our store.”

Jackie predicts that the imminent opening of Hollister’s parent company, Abercrombie and Fitch, in Central later this year will generate a lot more buzz within the HKIS community than its predecessor.

the Nspire but continues to use her TI-84. “I bring both calculators, in case I don’t know how to use it. For AP Chem I use the TI-84. It’s easier, faster.”

Mr Gill acknowledges that “there is a steep learning curve; even teachers are learning as we go.” He believes the effort is worth it – for those who own the Nspire, that is. Selling for $1250 at the Dragon Shop, 25% more expensive than the old model, there are many students who have yet to make the switch.

Mrs Taylor, another math teacher, finds the calculator’s price aggravates the problem. “It’s slowing down teaching - half the students have the new one and the other half don’t. It takes time to explain twice.”

There are difficulties, but she’s optimistic. “It’s difficult to begin, but long-term it’s definitely better. It’s going to change how we teach.”

Not everyone may like it, but according to Mr Gill, this calculator is here to stay. “To be honest, I don’t see us moving away from the Nspire for many, many years to come.”

AMY GRIFFIN/JUNTO

BY EDMUND HO

Chartwells, the company that caters the school’s cafeteria, has seen an increase in prices due to decrease in revenue and increase in supplier costs.

Conforti Claudio, the supervisor of the Tai Tam Chartwells branch, said that the decrease in revenue is a result of the plastic bottle ban enacted at the beginning of this year. Since a major part of Chartwells’ revenue comes from selling bottled water, the company has been struggling to maintain its profit margin.

Part of Chartwells’ plans to keep its profit margin is to charge extra for drinks such as the chocolate milk or

the Vitasoy boxed drink. However, suppliers are also increasing their prices, thus increasing Chartwells’ expenditures.

Aside from suppliers increasing prices, Chartwells also has to pay the costs of electricity and maintenance in the high school cafeteria.

The Dragon Noodle Shop, also supplied by Chartwells, has also seen price increases. Mr Claudio attributes this to a switch to new, better quality products. Last year, he says, the ingredients were “good quality, but not great quality.” The new ingredients are “really expensive,” so there are “lots of external costs that factor into such a decision.”

Rwanda Summer Trip Explores Issues of Faith and Forgiveness

BY DANIELLE PARK

In the wake of the Rwandan genocide in 1994, many people have stereotypes of Rwanda as a dangerous place, full of internal conflict and struggle. This summer, a group of 14 HKIS students with the guidance of Tash McCarroll and Mr.Ferrin went to Rwanda in order to experience Rwandan culture, visit an orphanage, and learn more about Rwandan History.

The summer trip to Rwanda was not only a cultural experience but as also a course taken for school credit.

Students who participated in this course received ½ a credit for humanities and ¼ a credit for religion.

In Rwanda, the students had class with Mr.Ferrin every day to discuss some essential questions about Christianity and the linkage between religion and the individual students’ lives. Students also had to write journals everyday as a requirement of the

course and as a way to communicate their individual thoughts on Rwanda, faith, and Christianity.

“I strongly feel that spiritual practice and wisdom should be explored and taught in relative context,” Mr. Ferrin said. “While grace, justice, forgiveness, and compassion can be practiced anywhere, I believe that they are more pronounced and laid bare in places like Rwanda; they aren’t muted by the cacophony of capitalism. When the incessant white noise of our culture is removed, we have a chance to listen with new ears, see with new eyes. Rwanda reminds us there is more to life than SATs and APs and JRPs and do as you please. Rwanda allows you to consider—even if for only a fleeting moment—what joy there is in the gift of presence. “ Eleventh-grade student Katya Dajani, a participant in the Rwanda trip, said, “I really think I’ve come

out of this trip changed. Playing with the kids, and getting the chance to see endangered gorillas were definitely once in a lifetime opportunities. I think a lot of us were able to break our stereotypes of not only Rwanda, but the Christian religion as well.”

Many students were able to break stereotypes they had about Africa and Rwanda after the genocide. Rwanda opened many of the students’ eyes to the way in which, after a terrifying internal conflict like the genocide, there can be slow and steady changes made in order to reduce the tension.

Ten-grader David Helfer, another student on the Rwanda trip, said “Rwanda was a great experience for me, because not only did each night I went to bed knowing I made a difference in someone’s life… but it also deepened my understanding of forgiveness and compassion that I have brought back with me to my everyday life.”

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JUNTO

Students Express Difficulty with Gmail Transition

BY NICHOLAS LIU

Four weeks into school, the decision to use Gmail for school-wide email is receiving a mixed reception from students, while teachers greet the change with genuine applause.

One of the main reasons why Gmail is not entirely appealing to students is the difficulty of adapting to this change after years of using GroupWise.

Sophomore George Molina, while happy with Gmail’s new features, thinks that its appeal is undermined by the trouble of having to manage two Gmail accounts at once. “I like Gmail’s new features and apps, but I preferred the ease of using GroupWise where I only needed to manage one account. I don’t like the fact that I have to manage two Gmail accounts now which can sometimes be annoying.”

Some teachers believe that confusion between school and personal accounts on Gmail can be resolved by self-discipline. “I never have this problem since I never log on to my personal account in school,” said Humanities Department teacher Mr. Campeau.

For these who need to access their personal accounts in school, sophomore Anisha Khosla presents a solution. “You can go into settings, and change it to the multiple sign-in function. It’s on the top in the Google bar and once you find it you can easily switch it.”

Senior Denise Hui Bon Hua doesn’t think Gmail made a difference even after she figured it out.

“At first it was really inconvenient because it interfered with my other accounts, but I learned how to fix it though it doesn’t really make a dif-

BY BEATRICE YEUNG

planning of this retreat. “We spent so many hours preparing for it. The food was ordered. Buses were ready.

We had fun activities planned. The venue was booked.”

This year’s seniors did not express much disappointment at the cancellation. “I was pretty happy if I’m honest. It would have been nice to bond with the rest of the grade, but I can’t complain about a day off,” said senior Jonathan Raines. “It doesn’t seem to have hurt the grade, as I feel we are pretty cohesive.”

Senior Anne Holyoak said that “it was sad that one of our last days to hang out as a class was cancelled, but it was nice to be able to sleep in.”

Ms. Fine said that “a very successful senior retreat was held four years ago, and that retreat was one of the main reasons that made the class

INTERIM 2011~2012

BY SAMANTHA KLEIN

This year Interim fees are to be capped at $25000 Hong Kong dollars.

According to Ms. Fine, airfare prices have been increasing steadily, and the economy is so bad right now that it is a strain to pay so much for interim. “It is ridiculous to ask parents to pay more than 25000 right now,” Ms. Fine said.

Some teachers leading longdistance interims are having a hard time going along with the price cut.

Mr. Seehafer, the leader of the Spain interim, said that there will be less money for lunches on the trip, and the lunch for interim half day might need to be cut.

The other leader of the Spain inter-

im, Mrs. Moreno, explained that there is a 1000-HKD administrative fee per student going overseas and a 200HKD administrative fee for students participating in Hong Kong trips.

This, along with soaring airfares, is making it difficult to comply with the price cap, Ms. Moreno said.

Interim sign-up begins on Friday, October 7th, the time when students begin to choose between the various interim trips our school has to offer.

Since Interim sign ups are approaching teachers and the administration are now coordinating these trips. In addition to the regular conflicts with scheduling this year they are also working to comply with the new budget cap.

JINNY LEE/JUNTO

ference.”

Confusion and adaptation aside, Mr. Campeau also emphasized the academic advantage posed by using Gmail. “More often than not, we use Google apps and docs for our work, and now we can direct access these tools with our own school account rather than having to do it from GroupWise.”

Technology coordinator Mr. Buck, who was an integral part in the transition to Gmail, strongly believes this move will benefit the school.

An important factor in this change, according to Mr. Buck, was the easy access to Google apps and docs for academic purposes. Another benefit is the enormous amount of time coordinators needed to manage their own email system with GroupWise. With the transition to Gmail, that burden was greatly eased.

SENIOR RETREAT CANCELED THIS YEAR The annual senior retreat, which was supposed to take place on Friday, September 2nd, was cancelled by school authorities due to high Air Pollution Index.

The annual senior retreat takes place at the beginning of each year and is meant to strengthen senior class spirit. However, due to bad weather conditions, the senior retreat has been cancelled three years in a row, according to Ms. Fine, associate principal of student life. The senior retreat two years ago was cancelled by a typhoon and last year’s retreat was cancelled due to rain.

When asked what was planned for seniors at this year’s Senior Retreat, Ms. Fine claimed that it was and still is a “surprise.” She said that a lot of hard work and effort was put into the

OCTOBER 2011

extremely connected and bonded, which led to a great school year for the seniors that year.” According to Ms. Fine, students the next year were devastated that the retreat was cancelled, and were “banging doors down” in an attempt to set an alternative date and venue for the senior retreat to take place.

As the school steps into the third consecutive year in which the senior retreat has been cancelled, the senior retreat experience seems to have faded away.

“I just stayed home and did my college applications and slept,” Barton Liang, the senator of Student life, said. “It’s been cancelled for the last three years, and even when I was a sophomore, the senior class that year did not have the opportunity to experience the senior retreat.”

HANNAH PASSAMONTE/JUNTO Interim sign ups are coming up on October 7th. The above is a photo from past interims.

New Experimental Classrooms Implemented to Benefit Student’s Learning

BY RADHIKA JHUNJHNUWALA

The high school’s experimental classrooms, which have been put into further use this year, have been receiving a variety of reviews from students. While the classrooms were first tried out last year for AP Biology lectures, they are now being used more regularly.

The experimental classrooms include whiteboards on all walls and a moveable projector that can connect wirelessly to any students or teachers laptop. The table and chairs are foldable and are placed in a corner in the beginning and ending of each class, so that each teacher can determine how they want to arrange them depending on what they are doing in class that day. The portable whiteboards were built and designed by the school, and cost a couple thousand USD. Mr. Buck, the Information Technology facilitator, said that, “On a larger level, this is a tryout for the whole school. The whiteboards benefit the students, and were an idea we got from a school in California.

However the portable smartboard may not do it. The wireless part is good, but we still need to fix little bugs, so they may not be implemented in the final classrooms.”

HKIS senior Florence Wong also commends the classrooms. “The environment is better and the chairs are very comfortable,” she said.

Many students, however, express negative perspectives on the new classrooms. Jessica Chan was part of one of the first classes last year to try them out. “I think that the classroom is not suitable for particular courses because there are moving projectors for a class like Biology,” she said.

“Also, the table moving is clumsy.”

Another student, Judy Kim, who started using the classrooms this year, said that, “I don’t think it makes a difference to our learning. The school can use the money for different purposes.”

According to Mr. Buck, the money spent on these classrooms is hard to determine, since they are funded from the whole school-wide technology budget.

One Year Later: 1-1 Computers

BY JUSTIN FUNG

It’s been a year since HKIS gave all of its students Macbook Pros. But has their gamble paid off, or were the computers a waste of over 2 000 000 HKD per grade?

Every student asked recognized the benefits of the 1-1 program. Even the most recalcitrant students admitted seeing the usefulness of the new technology. Many people enjoyed Google’s built-in calendar in particular. In a tribute to Internet texting protocol, one especially enthusiastic student said of the calendar, “It be awesome.”

At the same time, students are in agreement that having personal laptops distracts them from their work.

“Social networking” and “games” are frequently cited as the most counterproductive aspects of the computers.

Nevertheless, people also have innovative ways to get around distrac-

tions. The applications Freedom and Self-Control Written are frequently mentioned as organizational tools, as are simple strategies like closing unnecessary applications and alternating between homework shifts and gaming shifts.

Most people said that on a scale from 1-10, with 10 being a miracle cure for disorganization, the Macbook Pros were a 7 or an 8. Many students credited this to the heavy reliance on Google calendars and myDragonnet this year, as well as the fact that they could carry their work home without the aid of the often unreliable GroupWise e-mail, as had been the case before the 1-1 program.

Most students seems to think that the computers were ultimately worth the expense. As freshman Harry Hartley puts it, “I think I’m working smarter, not harder.”

AMY GRIFFIN/JUNTO

PAGE 8

Op/Ed JUNTO

JUNG JOO KIM/JUNTO

OCTOBER 2011

JUNG JOO KIM/JUNTO

SAME, SAME SERVICE, BUT DIFFERENT JUNG JOO KIM/JUNTO

By Jung Joo Kim

T

HEY usually happen under a cerulean blue sky, on a field of pearled green grass: the bonding and the learning. It’s how most of us imagine service. You get there, then possibly build a few houses or teach a bit of English, and maybe perform too. But the golden experience on any service trip is the part when we play with the kids, the part with the human connection.

“It’s during that time, I find meaning in the menial labor I do when I’m there,” Lindsay Chow, Gr. 12, said. “You have such a strong connection that you want to do the best you can when you build or cook something for them.

And so, it’s no surprise that many of the memorable stories from this school year’s first service trip to Cambodia came from the playtimes with the children.

With the exception of one story about slaughtering a chicken for lunch, most of the tales were filled with moments between HKIS students and the children at the Child Rescue Center.

“When my bike broke and I had to fix it, it was really frustrating. My bike buddy, David, could

have continued riding on, but he still waited for me. He held the pieces together, while I screwed them onto the bike. It was sweet to know that even if we didn’t speak the same language, we could build a strong friendship and properly finish a task,” one of the students said.

Another student added multiple tales of her adventures with a little boy named Salim: “When I lost a flip-flop while we were playing Sardins in the dark, he risked getting caught, ran back to where I lost it and retrieved it for me. During the bike ride, he helped push my bike through the muddy paths.

We took dozens of photos with our matching sunglasses. He was the sweetest boy!”

Unlike many of the service programs in Hong Kong International School, AHIA: Cambodia’s precious moments are not a “oneoff deal.” Students are given the opportunity to return to the child rescue center and strengthen that bond. Whether it is through the relational capital that was created by last year’s AHIA students or through the second trip back to the same Child Rescue Center, AHIA offers the students a “service experience with relational continuity.” As a result, those relationships and that fulfillment each student has when they carry out a project

for the center is sustained and increased.

“You can feel the energy building. Classes always try to compete to see which class was better. But, what I wish the students in this class could realize is that no class could have the experience they had if the previous one hadn’t done what they did. We’re building on what the previous class did. We could not exist at the level we’re at without what they did. And they can be proud because this class had a more energized experience because of what they did,” said Mr. Kersten, teacher and founder of the AHIA: Cambodia course.

The most apparent sign of this continuity is the fact that the trip’s translator the recipient of a college scholarship provided by last year’s AHIA class. He also mentioned that it was “much easier to bond because [he] was able to talk to [this year’s AHIA students] about last year’s, like Soyoung, Aidan, and the boy who looks like Justin Bieber.”

The service aspect of AHIA is in some ways more personal and deep than that of many other HKIS service programs. It is allowing the students to study a problem in more depth, thus allowing them to find more efficient and meaningful solutions. Students are able to see the local context, understand

JUNG JOO KIM/JUNTO

it, and find solutions that benefit the community. Potential projects already include dental care for the children at the Child Rescue Center, an educational field trip to Angkor Wat, and solar powered electricity.

Unlike many of the service programs in Hong Kong International School, AHIA: Cambodia’s precious moments are not a “one-off deal.”

“We’re going in with the intention to learn and listen, not an intention to enforce,” said Mr. Kersten. “We’re asking what they need, and we’re asking as many people as we can.”

“What we do for service isn’t organized; it’s open and free. I like that,” said Zoe Chui, Gr. 11.

“Not only is it realistic and more meaningful, but also you definitely know how the service you are doing is supposedly meant to effect the people you’re helping.

You could find the flaw in your solution faster that way as well.”

AHIA is a class that is teaching our students how to effectively serve communities. It gives stu-

dents real-life problem solving situations. It is fun, and many of its activities are very fulfilling. In general, it could be an ideal service class. Yet that does not necessarily mean that it is better than any other HKIS course that deals with service, such as Humanities I in Action or Service, Society & the Sacred.

“I think it’s different, but not necessarily better,” said Mr. Kersten. I think it is the next right step in terms of development. I think it’s providing a place for continued growth. It complements our existing service programs in a way that has not yet been fulfilled. So, it’s different, but not better; it’s a proper complement to what we are doing.”

It is hard to define what the relatively new course, Asian History in Action: Cambodia, is. However, the options that it is providing to our students are certainly promising for a better development of social consciousness, and are laying stronger foundations for advocating sustainability in the service projects carried out in HKIS. What the course really is will only become certain years down the road. For now, we’ll continue to observe its impact on the tiny lives back in Kranglovear’s Child Rescue Center. It is only the beginning.