Banner May 2010

Working towards 100 years Introducing the Interim Head, of School Keeping in touch with Alumni

May 2010 - Volume 3, Issue 3

Table of Contents

Seoul Foreign School 55 Yonhi‐dong, Seoul 120‐113, KOREA TEL: 822‐330‐3100

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Message from the Head of School

Updates from the Development Office Enhancing the Tradition of Excellence

Farewell Address Langston Rogde Asst. Head of School‐Operations

Excellence is a quest, not a destination ESLR Report

Summer Program

National Honor Society Message from Stuart Kent

Performance Data Elementary, Middle & High Schools

University Acceptances

SFS Theatre

High School Sports News

Moments in SFS History

Alumni Campus Visits

Alumni Notes

Alumni at Work

Alumni Reunions

Faculty Farewell

Page 3

Pages 4‐5

Pages 6‐7

Page 8 Page 9

Pages 10‐11

Pages 12‐14 Page 15 Pages 16‐18 Pages 19‐21 Pages 22‐23 Pages 24‐25 Pages 26‐27 Page 28 Pages 29‐31 Page 32

Dear SFS community, sisted of eight commendations such After several hours of work, I was

as the strength of our faculty, the amazed to see how many phrases Greetings from Seoul! We are slowly quality of our facilities, and the excel‐ were retained in the new statement. emerging from a long, cold winter Indeed, every group retained the lent long‐term financial planning. season, but spring is on the horizon. They had six critical areas for follow‐ opening: “Seoul Foreign School, cen‐ I hope this issue of the Banner finds up, such as redrafting our action plan, tered in Christ.” you healthy and enjoying the oppor‐ further integrating technology to im‐ prove learning and streamlining our I was gratified to witness the una‐ tunities that life offers. governance process. We will be ad‐ nimity of purpose we enjoy at SFS.

Most recently, we have finished a six‐ dressing the areas for follow‐up as First and foremost, we recognize our year evaluation by the Western Asso‐ we draft a strategic plan in the fall. prime distinctive as a Christian

ciation of Colleges and Schools school. New words included the verb As part of our preparation for the (WASC), the organization that ac‐ “inspires” rather than “promotes,” WASC review, we examined our mis‐ and the idea of a “dynamic interna‐ credits our School. We hosted six visitors from around the world, who sion statement and made some tional experience” to emphasize the changes to reflect our current focus. fact that our school is truly now an carefully examined our self‐study, visited every class and rendered a 40 Our new statement, although very international school, not just a page report on the final day of their similar to the previous statement, “Western school.” had to be unanimously approved by five day visit. the School Board, the Council and the We are so thankful for our on‐going

We were thankful for their generous Jaidan. It reads: identity as a rigorous, academic

commit‐ school, preparing students for the ment of “Seoul Foreign School, centered in finest universities in the world, that is time and Christ, inspires educational excel‐ centered in Christ, which gives us effort as lence and promotes Christian values, our important distinction. they

personal integrity and global citi‐ looked zenship through a dynamic interna‐ Faithfully Yours, into every tional experience. “ aspect of our School. Our review of the statement took Their re‐ place on a Saturday morning in port sum‐ November, involving parents, alumni, John Engstrom mary con‐ faculty, staff and Board members.

The Seoul Foreign School Board hosted a coffee hour in celebration of our updated mission statement.

Everyone enjoyed dessert, coffee & a gift of gratitude on March 31st in the Elementary School Atrium.

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Updates from the Development Office

After having launched the first Annual Fund at the school in the beginning of the 2010 calendar year, the Communications and Development Office has been busy breaking ground in many areas for our school community.

As this is our school’s first establishment of an An‐ nual Fund, we were fortunate to have the guidance of our Head of School, Dr. John Engstrom, who has had over 15 years of experience in fundraising. To ensure that appropriate measures were in place, a new Development Committee was established from the SFS Board, creating a structure which would help support initiatives/donations for the Annual Fund and Endowment.

The initial brochures were forwarded to all mem‐ bers of the SFS community, inclusive of alumni liv‐ ing all over the world. We are eager in this initial year, to create awareness and visibility of an op‐ portunity where the SFS community can help sup‐ port the continued viability of Seoul Foreign School.

Giving Makes People Happier According to a paper from the Harvard Business School, ‘Feeling Good about Giving: The Benefits (and Costs) of Self‐Interested Charitable Behavior’, a variety of experiments were conducted suggesting that, “…spending money on others leads to higher happiness than spending money on oneself. More‐ over,…that the spending amount need not be large to facilitate positive hedonic gains, as prosocial pur‐ chases made with as little as five dollars were suffi‐ cient to boost happiness levels” (Lalin Anik, Lara B. Aknin, Michael I. Norton, and Elizabeth W. Dunn., 2009, p. 11).

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It was encouraging to see that there was such a vari‐ ety of donors taking advantage of this introductory year in support of the Annual Fund. Irrespective of the range of donations made, it was clear that all who donated, were eager to participate in this initial effort.

Thanking you for your continued support,

June Kang Director of Communications and Development

Seoul Foreign School Annual Fund

Enhancing the tradition of excellence DONORS THE MILLENNIUM CLUB Do Yoon Kim Heather and Sunny Yi RED AND BLACK CLUB John C. O’Donnell The Shin Family

THE CREST CLUB Hongchul and Yasmeen Bae Christian and Benjamin Choi James & Julie Danahy John and Alice Engstrom James and Sarah Hubbard Gunberg Celine Jin Ji Yong Lee Tracy and Tim Mohr Shou Liang Wang Yonhee Badminton Club

CENTENNIAL CLUB Andrew Byun Eunhi Cho Hyun Sook Hong Warren and Robin Hudson Carol LaCroix Young Sun Lee Amy Lindholm Elizabeth Lloyd Patrick O’Malley Pete and Judy Penick Elise K. Prosser Langston and Linda Rogde Harry G. Rudolph Peter and Kelly TomHon

THE LEGACY CLUB Anonymous Ki Soon Nam

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Farewell Address Langston Rogde Asst. Head of School-Operations

It is with mixed emotions that I am ending full time work as a School Business Officer after 22 years ‐‐ 8 years with the John Cooper School in The Woodlands, Texas, and 14 years with Seoul Foreign School. I was the first Business Manager of the John Cooper School. During my 8 years the school grew from a starting num‐ ber of 170 students to over 700 stu‐ dents. It was an exciting time build‐ ing a new school from scratch and developing the facilities to support the school’s programs as the school grew. When I left that school, I felt strongly that I was called to Seoul Foreign School, as the circumstances surrounding my being offered the job here were so unusual. I found the school’s philosophical underpinnings and the purposes that it espoused matched my beliefs. While centering all that it does in Christ, SFS has a

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philosophy that permits a big tent for teachers who are Chris‐ tians. I have fully supported the school’s approach of teachers model‐ ing the Christian lifestyle to our stu‐ dents, rather than being openly evan‐ gelistic. SFS’s commitment to minis‐ tering to the needs of the whole child provides a balance of rigorous aca‐ demic, athletic, performing arts and extracurricular programs that in‐ clude opportunities for students to participate in Christian ministry ac‐ tivities.

Our daughter, Amanda, at‐ tended SFS for three years and graduated in 1999. Her experience at SFS was everything we could have hoped. During those three years we were most impressed with the school, the school commu‐ nity, and for that reason stayed at SFS an additional eleven years. How‐ ever, over the years we have sorely missed being with our daughter, son and other fam‐ ily members during the Langston’s welcome back gathering year and espe‐ with his Discipleship group cially on spe‐ cial occa‐

sions. Our son and daughter‐in‐law have now adopted a Korean boy, who is 18 months old and our first grandchild, through the Holt Agency in Seoul. We are most eager to spend as much time as possible with him. Moreover, my mother, while thankfully currently in good health, is 92 years old; we want and need to be available to assist her if needed. After prayerful considera‐ tion, we feel that it is now time for us to return to our home in San Antonio, Texas, where our roots and hearts are.

While my main area of focus has been the non‐academic areas of the school’s operations, I have also en‐ joyed my involvement in supporting the academic areas of the school. I have had multiple titles—Business Manager, Director of Business Op‐ erations, and finally Assistant Head of School‐Operations. My functional areas of responsibility though have remained the same—to ensure that all support functions—finance, hu‐ man relations, food service, transpor‐ tation, information technology, gen‐ eral maintenance and janitorial—run smoothly and support the teachers and student learning with a superior educational environment.

I am pleased to leave the school in a very strong financial posi‐ tion. Strong internal controls, good budgeting and reporting are in place,

as well as a new position, Business Manager, now filled by Celine Jin, CPA. During my tenure the school has always received unqualified opinions from our outside auditors, which annually provide assurance to the SFS Board of the school’s fi‐ nancial position.

As Linda and I prepare to leave Seoul Foreign School, I am looking back at the changes in facilities, staff, students and programs that have occurred at SFS over these years— they are many. Student numbers have grown by 1/3 with commensu‐ rate growth in staff and programs.

“While facilities do not make a school great, I know that great schools do have great facili‐ ties. The changes in the school’s facili‐ ties over these fourteen years have been quite striking!”

When I arrived on campus, the swimming pool complex was near completion. Since that time I have been involved in numerous con‐ struction projects, some of which were the parking garage, the Lyso Center for the Performing Arts, renovations of High School labs, an

additional floor on the British School, of the school over the years, has been chosen as my successor. He conversion of apartments to class‐ rooms on the upper floor of the Mid‐ brings a wealth of experience in both dle School, the new field turf surface business and finance, as well as a on the soccer pitch, “F” Apartment genuine love of the School. I am expansion, a new “C” apartment confident that I am leaving the over‐ building, a new “A” apartment all supervision of the non‐academic areas of our school in very good building, major renovations of the gym and Underwood Activity Cen‐ hands. ter (UAC), renovation and the addi‐ Finally, Linda and I wish to thank all tion of 2 floors to the Elementary School, the Multi‐purpose Center in the school community—the Board, (MPC) with a new Robb Hall and a the Administrators, the teaching new cafeteria, renovation of the old staff and the General Affairs staff, cafeteria into office, meeting and both past and present. Their support has been most appreciated, espe‐ classroom space, and a new “G” apartment building that is nearing cially this year while I was undergo‐ completion. All of these major pro‐ ing treatment for cancer, from which, thankfully, I am now fully recovered. jects were managed well and have been built with the school incurring It has been an honor and a great no debt. While I am proud of the privilege to be a part of Seoul For‐ school’s strong financial position eign School. As we leave, our prayer which enabled these facilities to be will be that God continues to bless constructed, these improvements to Seoul Foreign School and all who currently serve and have served our campus would not have oc‐ there, as He has for nearly 100 years. curred without the support of the SFS Board, Head of School, and GA We take many wonderful memories with us.

Staff, led by Mr. C.H. Lee. I am pleased that as part of the strategic plan‐ ning process next fall, a new facility master plan will be devel‐ oped that will in‐ clude a new British School Building, a new High School Building and other facility improve‐ ments.

I am very happy that Mr. Robert Black, a long time parent of three SFS graduates, Linda, Langston and SFS Council member Amanda Rogde Pedroza‘99 and active partici‐ pant in many areas 7

Excellence is a Quest, Not a Destination Shirley Droese Assistant Head of School-Academics

Seoul Foreign School is accredited by WASC, the Western Association of Schools and Colleges, which is a non‐ profit association committed to strengthening schools in the delivery of educational programs. WASC works with public and private col‐ leges, universities, and K‐12 schools in the United States and in the East Asia area. Every six years Seoul Foreign School undergoes a rigorous and structured self‐study as part of the WASC accreditation process which is called Focus on Learning. The “Focus on Learning” process involves faculty, staff, parents, and students from the entire school community looking at every aspect of the school, identifying the areas of strength and the areas of concern that need to be considered in order to continually improve in our pursuit of excellence.

The self‐study process encourages an attitude of continuous improvement for a school. In that effort SFS periodi‐ cally surveys parents, students, and faculty about various components of the school’s program—academics, student support systems, extra‐ curricular programs, facilities, cafete‐ ria, for example. Surveys on commu‐ nity perceptions were conducted and tallied by an outside agency last spring.

Another part of the self‐study process had the faculty consider and analyze the results of survey data, student aca‐ demic performance in a variety of for‐ mative and summative assessments, and external examination results such as IB exams, SAT scores, ERB per‐ formance, MAP assessments, NFER, as well as regular grade level and classroom assessments. Faculty met in subject area groups to analyze cur‐

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riculum, the use of research‐based best practices, and to identify the ar‐ eas of strength and the areas to im‐ prove in their subject areas, based on the data from a wide variety of sources.

A third area that was reviewed by the faculty was the Expected Student Learning Results, sometimes identi‐ fied by the acronym ESLRs (pronounced “esslers”). On this page

of becoming a mature, global citizen.

Spiritual development describes what we want students to learn about Christian beliefs and values. The en‐ tire faculty was involved in reviewing the documents about the ESLRs and ensuring that the ESLRs reflect cur‐ rent research and trends in education, as well as match what we value and place importance on in all SFS pro‐ grams.

Finally, after an extensive look at the data and our academic programs, fac‐ ulty, parents, and students looked at SFS through four lenses: Organiza‐ tion for Student Learning; Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment; Support for Student Personal and Academic Growth; and Resource Management and Development. A number of focus groups met to discuss aspects of the school using WASC‐prescribed proto‐ cols.

The 18‐month self‐study concluded with a visit by a team of educators from other international schools in Asia, as well as one member from a district in California. The Visiting Team finished their visit with a pres‐ entation about their findings to the faculty and staff. We were blessed to is a copy of the posters seen in many have a highly professional team who key places around campus. The ESLRs hosted a variety of meetings which are grouped into three main catego‐ gave them feedback about the self‐ ries: cognitive, affective and spiritual, study process and detail about the and they represent the major results school. The six people on the team that we want all students, school‐wide, affirmed our self‐study process and to learn and show evidence of after gave us many reasons to celebrate the great school that SFS is. The team also attending SFS. Cognitive develop‐ gave us some critical feedback that ment represents what we want stu‐ will guide Dr. Engstrom, the Board, dents to learn in the academic pro‐ gram—the knowledge, skills, and dis‐ the admin team, and the faculty as we positions of the curriculum. Affective plan and work toward strengthening development refers to character devel‐ SFS even further in our quest for ex‐ opment, life skills, and the other facets cellence.

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Summer Program Darrell Roddick Director of Summer Program

As the summer moves closer, so does the first summer program at SFS. I have been pleased by the re‐ sponse from the SFS community. We have over 300 students registered for programs. There is still time to reg‐ ister; however, some pro‐ grams are no longer avail‐ able due to small registra‐ tion numbers.

For our youngest students up to those finishing grade 5 or year 6, we will feature a day camp type program called Camp SFS. Camp SFS will feature daily swim lessons and a recreational swim, science and nature time, music, martial arts, play time, and organized sports. Students will be grouped by age and experience levels and will be accompanied all day by a counselor. Elementary stu‐ dents make up the majority of regis‐

trants and all six weeks of this pro‐ gram will take place. We are looking forward to a fun time with these young students.

Specialty camps will be offered to students from grade 4, year 5 to the

tennis or a recreational all‐sports camp throughout the eight weeks of the program. At this point, only bas‐ ketball and tennis have enough reg‐ istration to be viable.

All registration will be done through the RegOnline system, the same as the SWEP program at www.regonline.com/ seoul_foreign_school_summer_prog ram

For more information, please feel free to contact Darrell Roddick, Di‐ rector of the Summer Program at darrell.roddick@seoulforeign.org or by phone 010‐5305‐3125.

end of grade 8, year 9. There is a wide variety of programs; some offered for one week, some offered several times throughout the summer. SFS camps will include instrumental mu‐ sic, vocal music, robotics, tutoring, and praise band.

High School Enrichment programs will feature IB Extended Essay classes, first week only and SAT preparation classes for six of the eight weeks. These two programs aim to assist students toward better results in two very important areas.

Crusader Sports Camps will be of‐ fered to students from grade 4, year 5 to the end of grade 9. Students can choose from basketball, volleyball, soccer, competitive swimming,

This is an exciting new program for the SFS community. We hope to see your children this summer!

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National Honor Society Induction Speech from Stuart Kent, HS Teacher

youth group in the “It is a very special day for the Na‐ tional Honor Society (NHS) inductees, near future, I read‐ our wider school community and of ily accepted. I National then embarked on course proud family members who have joined us. The goal of NHS: ʺTo some training and as a result, I was create enthusiasm for scholarship, to appointed a mentor to lead and guide stimulate a desire to render service, me. Let’s call him Phil. I can honestly say that, as the days turned into to promote leadership, and to de‐ months, I developed a certain velop character in the students of secondary schools.ʺ It is the promo‐ amount of hero worship of Phil. I really came to admire who he was tion of leadership and the develop‐ ment of character that I want to talk and how he led the youth. All things about today. I want to start by telling were going well. About 8 months a story from my past! I want to take into my training, I was called one af‐ you back about 20 years. It is the end ternoon to be told that there would of the 1980s, disco has died a slow be a very special meeting for all the death – way too slow for my liking. youth of the church that night. No U2 ruled the air waves; the VCR and explanation was given, so it was with the home PC were cutting edge tech‐ some intrigue that I went. Many nology; big hair for girls and mullets youth turned up and I learned a valu‐ able lesson – if you want people to for boys are hip, as is spandex and come to an event make sure there is stone washed jeans. I am a 17 year some secret or intrigue and people old nerdy kid who is about to com‐ plete high school and face the real will show up in droves. Before long, world. It was at this very stressful Phil, who I so admired and was train‐ and somewhat challenging time of ing under, walked in sat down and my life, one full of uncertainty about proceeded to shatter my whole world school, university, girls and my fu‐ in a few sentences. In a voice that ture, that I faced one of my biggest was barely audible and on the verge challenges. of tears, he shared with us all present

that he had been acting in a manner I was involved in a church youth that was far from what he should be doing as a leader of a church youth group at that time and when I was asked if I would like to be a leader‐in‐ group. His girlfriend was pregnant, training with the ultimate goal of be‐ for the second time. After the first ing a future leader of our church’s pregnancy, she had an abortion, at

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Honor Society Leaders his encouragement, but this time they were planning on keeping the baby and had decided to get married. I am sure you can imagine the impact on me ‐ my world crumbled; this was a faith‐filled, conservative church! He concluded by telling us that he was stepping down as a leader of the youth group and proceeded to apolo‐ gize for his actions and asked all of us gathered for forgiveness. Needless to say, I had my Tiger Wood’s mo‐ ment of massive disillusionment twenty odd years ago and unlike Ti‐ ger Woods’ indiscretions that had no personal impact on my life, this was personal. It had happened to me and I was shattered; the person whom I admired and looked up to had let me down. He walked out of the room and we all sat there in silence. One by one we drifted out and went home. I sat by myself for a long time in my car that night trying to come to terms with what had just happened. I was sad, hurt and angry and felt betrayed all at the same time. Over time, I got over it, but that experience definitely made an impact on my life.

NHS candidates, you are future lead‐ ers of our school and today we recog‐

nize, amongst other things, your lead‐ ership qualities. Students will admire you, try to emulate you and put you up on a pedestal. Let me share a friendly word of advice. Never think that you have it made. Do not be‐ come cocky and full of self belief and think that you are any better than the rest. Humility and ac‐ countability are the key to success‐ ful leadership. Be humble leaders and willing to apologize for mis‐ takes and be leaders that have some level of accountability. Make sure you surround yourself with people that will be honest with you and that you will be honest with them.

After some years passed, I spoke with Phil and asked him how he had shown on the surface all was above board and that he was a well‐ respected leader and yet, behind the scenes, he was living a double life. He concluded with these powerful words ,“People saw me as a leader and people focused only on my lead‐ ership skills but no one looked at the rest of my character. No one held me accountable for my per‐ sonal life. No one looked deeply into my life; they saw a façade. “

“So I encourage you, NHS candidates, to find a person whom you trust, a person you are willing to share at the deepest level with, to be an account‐ ability buddy, to help you as you take on leadership roles.”

These people whom we admire and elevate are just as likely, if not more

likely, to be tempted and often they will fail. We must choose carefully who we put our faith in and who we try to emulate. This was a hard lesson for me to learn and one that I hope

Stuart Kent speaks candidly to the NHS inductees that all of you never have to experi‐ ence. There is a much deeper lesson that I learned from this experience. It addresses the NHS desire to develop CHARACTER. For all of us, character development is a journey we are on.

For each of us our journey is differ‐ ent, but regardless of where we are at on life’s journey, I feel it is good to be reminded about GRACE and FORGIVENESS, two key character‐ istics we all need to develop at some stage in our life. These two qualities are sadly lacking in our world today and even here at SFS at times we fail to show grace and forgiveness. We are all too fast to judge and hold

grudges and even at times delight at the fallen leader, but we are not so fast to offer grace and forgiveness.

Phil took a very courageous step that night. He could have resigned and given some excuse and slipped away unnoticed, but he chose a different path, a much tougher one. He publi‐ cally acknowledged his shortcomings and asked for forgiveness. There was no guarantee that he would receive it and some did not forgive him.

In closing, Phil is now a dad of 3 great kids. His wife is still the girl‐ friend from all those years ago and he continues to be active in the same church in which these events hap‐ pened. He still lives with the conse‐ quences of his earlier mistakes but he was the recipient of much grace and forgiveness. It took me a while, but I also found it in myself to forgive.

NHS candidates, as you launch into your time in the spotlight, as you are recognized today for your leadership qualities, remember this story. Please make sure you have people whom you can be accountable to. For the rest of us, be careful who we follow, who we put our trust in.

And most importantly, let’s all try to be fast to forgive and slow to judge.

NHS candidates, congratulations on this very special recognition. I look forward to watching you develop into leaders at this school. All the best for the years ahead. Thanks for the chance to share with you today.

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Performance Data

Elementary School Elementary School Educational Records Bureau (ERB) Results 2009‐2010

SFS Elementary school completes the Educational Records Bureau (ERB) tests each year in grades 2‐5.These are unique standardized tests be‐ cause our scores are compared to Na‐ tional, Suburban and Independent group norms from the United States.

The standards are very high. We re‐ ceive comparison charts only for the

fourth and fifth grades. Our second and third graders do well on their tests as well. Yearly, the Elementary division scores higher than National and Suburban norms in all areas. We compare ourselves with Independent school norms, which are private schools in the US.

In grades 4 and 5, SFS students scored near, equal or higher than In‐

2009­2010 Grade 4 ERB Results 100 80 60 40 20

Grade 4 2009‐2010 data CTP National Norm Grade 4 2009‐2010 data CTP Suburban Norm Grade 4 2009‐2010 data CTP Independent Norm

dependent schools’ scores in Reading Comprehension (grade 4), Writing Mechanics, Writing Concepts and Skills, Quantitative Reasoning and Mathematics 1 and 2 portions of the test. Due to the second language learning of many of the SFS students, we score lower than Independent schools in the verbal reasoning and vocabulary portions of the test.

2009­2010 Grade 5 ERB Results 100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0

Grade 5 2009‐2010 data CTP National Norm Grade 5 2009‐2010 data CTP Suburban Norm Grade 5 2009‐2010 data CTP Independent Norm

0 Grade 4 2009‐2010 data SFS Students

Grade 5 2009‐2010 data 09‐10 SFS Students

Middle School SFMS uses various data points to regularly review programs and stu‐ dent progress. Two tests that we ref‐ erence are CTP‐4 (ERB) and MAP (Measurement of Academic Pro‐ gress). SFMS has administered the CTP‐4 for a number of years now, and beginning with the 2009‐10 school year, introduced MAP testing.

The CTP‐4 (commonly referred to as 12

the ERB because this is the testing company that publishes the test) is a standardized test. Its purpose is to test what a student knows at a given point in time. It comprises a battery of tests in reading, language usage, and mathematics and includes a se‐ ries of multiple‐choice and open‐ ended questions that measure mas‐ tery of skills and knowledge. The

CTP‐4 is considered a summative assessment because it is a measure‐ ment of learning. The graphs in this article show grade level data that as‐ sists SFS in reviewing trends that in‐ fluence instruction. The individual reports that parents receive are indi‐ cators of achievement, but by no means the only data point a parent should use to look at achievement.

These scores are merely a snapshot on a given day in the life of a child and are subject to a number of vari‐ ables. The scores from the CTP‐4 are compared to Suburban and Inde‐ pendent schools. SFS students con‐ sistently perform above the average of Suburban schools in the U.S. and are often on par with or out‐perform Independent schools.

The MAP test is considered a forma‐ tive assessment because the results guide instruction and are for learn‐ ing. It is a computer‐adaptive test; it adapts to a studentʹs ability level.

The first time a student takes a com‐ puter‐adaptive test, the pool of avail‐

able items is searched for an item based on the studentʹs current ability estimate. Correct responses are fol‐ lowed by more difficult items and incorrect responses are followed by easier items.

After only a few questions, the item difficulties are close to a studentʹs true ability and a reasonable estimate can be reported. The results reported indicate the student’s instructional level (as opposed to mastery of skills) and allow teachers to tailor instruction based on a continuum of skills that reflect learning over time.

The reports issued are for individual students.

MAP tests, like the CTP‐4, focus on reading, language usage, and mathematics.

Schools have a wealth of data avail‐ able about their students, ranging from student work that is evidence of learning in classes, to periodic test results from an outside agency (like MAP or CTP‐4). This ‘body of evidence’ helps us ascertain achieve‐ ment and program continuity. No one data point should ever be used at the exclusion of another. Instead, all data needs to be carefully consid‐ ered as one reviews learning and programs.

Grade 6 ERB Results Percentile Rank

Nov 2009 120 100 80 60 40 20 0

CTP National Norm CTP Suburban Norm CTP Independent Norm SFS Students

Grade 7 ERB Results Percentile Rank

Nov 2009 100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0

CTP National Norm CTP Suburban Norm CTP Independent Norm SFS Students

Grade 8 ERB Results Percentile Rank

Nov 2009 100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0

CTP National Norm CTP Suburban Norm CTP Independent Norm SFS Students

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High School HS SAT Scores (2004‐2010) Critical Reading 1400

1281

1250

Math 1252

Total

1289

1258

1271

1200 1000 800

650 600

679 602

610642

674 615

660 598

665 606

600 400 200 0 2004‐2005 2005‐2006 2006‐2007 2007‐2008 2008‐2009 2009‐2010

Seoul Foreign School students continue to score well on the SAT. Of the 110 members of the Class of 2010, 91 took the SAT in their junior and/or senior years. The mean scores for this year’s SFS seniors were 606 on Critical Reading and 665 on the Mathematics section. The aver‐ age for college‐bound seniors (worldwide) the past three years has been 502 on Critical Read‐ ing and 515 on Mathematics. In regard to col‐ lege admission, it is important to keep in mind that SAT scores are only one “piece of the puz‐ zle” in the decision process. High school tran‐ scripts continue to be the best indicator of suc‐ cess at the university level.

Seoul Foreign School was the first IB school in Korea, and has been offering the IB diploma program since 1980. SFS students score higher than the world average in most subjects.

Source: WASC Visiting Team’s Final Report 2010

Seoul Foreign School IB Results as Compared to World Average Scores S FS Exam Average S ubjec t

2007

2008

2009

2009

E nglish A 1 HL

5.31

5.48

5.12

4.69

E nglish A 1 SL

6.0

5.03

5.37

4.93

E nglish A 2 HL

5.92

5.08

5.14

5.31

F rench B S L

5.83

5.69

5.43

4.72

S panish B S L

6.0

6.35

6.27

4.69

K orean B SL

6.71

6.33

6.22

5.75

K orean B HL

6.38

6.11

6.56

6.70

E conom ics SL

4.56

5.0

5.0

4.67

H istory S L

4.56

4.72

4.81

4.67

P sychology S L

4.86

4.86

4.34

4.36

P sychology HL

5.17

5.17

4.19

4.64

4.2

4.3

4.29

4.18

4.50

4

3.85

4.40

P hysics HL

5.4

4.25

4.63

4.63

M ath Studies S L

4.7

5.2

5.17

4.61

M athematics SL

4.09

5.2

4.21

4.45

M athematics HL

4.69

4.48

3.85

4.40

M usic HL

4.25

5.08

4.86

4.68

5.0

5.67

5.60

4.68

5.25

4.5

5.33

4.40

94%

91%

78%

B iology H L C hem istry H L

V isual Art H L T heatre Art P AS SING RATE

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W orld Average

University Acceptances CONGRATULATIONS TO THE CLASS OF 2010!

Chuck Krugler & Joon Myong HS Counselors

What a year this has been! With 110 students, this year’s senior class is the largest in the history of Seoul Foreign School. Reflecting on the year, there was the week‐long closure due to H1N1 (which, unfortunately, meant cancellation of the annual senior retreat)…mandatory tem‐ perature checks of all students every morning until December…the seniors’ prevailing as Field Day champions…unforgettable sports seasons and fine arts performances…the bonding that took place during the senior class trip to YongPyong…the memorable prom held at the Grand Hyatt Hotel…the stress of IB exams (and the thrill after they are over!)…and the excitement of their approaching graduation. These soon‐to‐ be SFS alumni are heading to various parts of the world, and we want to wish them all the best as they transition to the next chapter of their lives. May God bless your future paths. Keep in touch!

Julie Ahn – Barnard College Jake Attewell – Arts University College at Bournemouth Shirley Aulbach – University in Germany Clayton Baker – Missouri Baptist University Robbie Blades – Carleton University Ted Bolton – Davidson College Stuart Burmeister – Nanyang Technical University Vivian Byeon – University of California, Los Angeles Hanna Chang – Fashion Inst. of Design & Merchandising Grant Cho – New York University Albert Choi – Oxford College of Emory University Andrew Choi – University of California, Berkeley Jiin Choi – University of Chicago Jin Choi – Lancaster University Lynda Choi – Carnegie Mellon University Leah Chung – Rhode Island School of Design Rebecca Chung – Seattle Pacific University Matthew Clarke – Columbia College Chicago Lucia Danagher – University in Canada Nora Danagher – University in Canada Daniel Di Capua – School of Visual Arts Elisa dos Santos – Hofstra University Patrick El‐Hage – American University of Beirut Michael Fogarasi – Boston College Mariana Giardini – University in Brazil Sarah Goldberg – Tulane University Cree Han – Northwestern University Daniel Han – Northwestern University Mariana Harzheim – University in Korea Richard Hasegawa – Marymount College of Palos Verdes Charles Hong – Babson College Danny Hong – Boston University Kevin Horvath – George Washington University Andrew Hunsaker – University in France Natalya Jenney – University of Oregon Peter Jiang – University in Taiwan Janelle Jorgensen – University of Wisconsin, Madison Seline Jung – Boston University Li‐Hsien Jyu – University in Korea Natsumi Kamimura – University in Japan Yiota Kastritis – Tufts University Suzie Kil – Northwestern University Alisa Kim – University of Southern California Daniel Kim – New York University Eun Jae Kim – New York University Judy Kim – Northwestern University Julie Kim – Pepperdine University Justin Kim – Tufts University Mario Kim – King’s College London Paul Kim – Emory University Sae‐Jin Kim – Emory University Valerie Kim – University of Southern California Yeonjee Kim – University of British Columbia Camilla Ko – Barnard College Rosemary Ko – Parsons School of Design

Toma Kobayashi – University in the US or UK Michelle Koh – New York University Shannon Koh – New York University Samantha Koo – University of Pennsylvania Andrew Kwon – Villanova University Brian Kwon – University of California, Davis Celine Kwon – New York University Jean Kwon – Carnegie Mellon University Alexander Lee – Carnegie Mellon University Hannah Lee – Smith College Jay Lee – Embry‐Riddle Aeronautical University Jonathan Lee – University of California, San Diego Stephanie Lee – School of Visual Arts Stephen Lee – Wheaton College (MA) YunJoo Lee – University of Toronto Jeffrey Lim – Wesleyan University Kevin Lim – Calvin College Tina Liu – University in Taiwan Anna Majors – Babson College Justine Makki – University of Miami Amit Mamtani – University of Warwick Ian Maquignaz – Queen’s University Kayla Moon – Valparaiso University Nicole Muther – Brandeis University Andrew Park – Cornell University Jamie Park – California College of the Arts Matthew Park – Tufts University Patrick Rempel – Ontario College of Art & Design Chris Richardson – Dartmouth College Ryan Ricks – University of California, Berkeley Samantha Rim – Bryn Mawr College Sharon Sandhu – University of British Columbia Jonathan Schulz – University in Germany Elaine Shin – Boston University Caitlin Sneff‐Nuckles – George Mason University Christof Somweber – University in Austria Alexandria Song – Kalamazoo College Tsae‐Wen Suen ‐ Yonsei University Yu‐Chieh Sung – University in Korea Sheilah Tackett – University of North Dakota Julienne Tan – School of Visual Arts Kartik Tayal – University in Singapore Daniel Tessy – University of Toronto Dene Tzou – Oxford College of Emory University Jinny Uh – George Washington University Lawrence Uhm – Babson College Olivia Underwood – Denison University En‐Chi Wang – Oxford College of Emory University Maeve Wilson – New York University Rachel Wolochatiuk – Brock University Maika Yanagishita – University of Hawaii, Manoa Evan Yi – Art Center College of Design Jackie Yoo ‐ Penn State University, Brandywine Andrew Yoon – University of Illinois Tony Yoon – University in Australia

15

Stepping into the World of a Play from the Inside Out: the Elementary School 4th graders present

“A Thousand Cranes” Edie Moon, Director

16

Practicing movement. Watching a traditional tea ceremony. Exploring folktales. Learning the games that children play. These are just a few of the ways that the Elementary School 4th grade students have been prepar‐ ing for their production of A Thou‐ sand Cranes written by Kathryn Schultz Miller. This play is based on the true story of a young girl named Sadako who got leukemia as a result of the nuclear bomb of Hiroshima during World War II. Her idea was to fold a thousand cranes as a sym‐ bol of peace and healing in the world and as a means toward her own healing. Although she was not able to finish her own cranes, her family members and friends fin‐ ished them for her and hung them as they had promised they would.

Today there is a monument at Hi‐ roshima in the Hiroshima Memorial Park which honors her desire for peace ‐ paper origami cranes are made all over the world and then brought to the monument by people of every age particularly on August 6th , National Peace Day. As a means of preparing to enter the world of Sadako, the 4th graders have experienced a series of work‐ shops on many elements of the Japa‐ nese culture so that they can see from “the inside out”. With the help of three of the class mothers, Mrs. Rie Lee, Mrs. Harumi Kobayashi and Mrs. Noriko Saito, the students did a variety of workshops focused on Japanese movement where they explored types of bowing and walk‐ ing particularly in costume, chil‐ dren’s games and songs, folktales of

the culture, and the making of origami cranes. One of the high‐ lights of this preparation time, however, was when Mrs. Maramatsu, an expert in the Japanese tea ceremony, came and took the students through the process of the ceremony while at the same time impressing on them the importance of detail, the significance of putting one’s heart into the proc‐ ess, and the careful practice that takes place sometimes over years and years in order to perfect the many tea ceremony forms and ritu‐ als. As the workshops were being done, each element was then incor‐ porated into the play. The students were empowered to make choices about what they would include such as which games they would present, which folktale would be acted out and what types of dances they might use. This truly became an ensemble experience as students created the play with the director so that the heart and life of Sa‐ dako might more accurately and au‐ thentically be por‐ trayed. The play was then adapted based on what the students had learned and created.

The students were asked what they were learning as they went through

the experience and they wrote: “I learned about the tea ceremony. I thought it was just about tea but it was about respect.” Mark Ku “I learned that when you do some‐ thing, you should do it with your heart, and not just with your body.”

Tara Kim “I learned that Japanese people walk very gracefully, carefully, and full of confidence and generosity. They step very little by little like walking on clouds.” Annette Uhm “I have learned how Japanese peo‐ ple bow and that their kimono might come open if they don’t walk properly. They put their heart in their tea‐making. They have a tiny door that goes into the tea ceremony room so that when they enter, they have to bow. That makes them for‐ get their pride.” Eunice Shin

Although one of the key goals of the play is to unfold the story of Sadako while at the same time authentically conveying Japanese culture, the stu‐ dents have also discussed in detail how the play is a symbol of the ex‐ periences of children all over the world and that the ultimate message is to listen to the voices of the children of war. Additionally, we are to re‐ member cranes as symbols of world peace.

This is at the heart of the story and at the heart of the production.

As usual, at Seoul Foreign School, the production is a community effort. I have worked side by side with not only the wonderful mothers from Ja‐ pan, but also the three 4th grade teach‐ ers, Mrs. Mandy Falgout, Mr. Geoff Odell, and Ms. Leslie Horne, as they have willingly opened their classroom time to these interactive learning ex‐ periences as part of the rehearsal pe‐

riod. This could not be done, of course, without their support and en‐ gagement in the process. The wish engraved at the base of Sadako’s statue in the Hiroshima Peace Park is

“This is our cry, this is our prayer; peace in the world.” This is the wish of all of us and the heart of the mes‐ sage of Sadako’s story that we will soon tell. time to these interactive Edie Moon‐Director

Hello Dolly Darrell Roddick, Director

This year’s High School musical, the classic comedy, “Hello, Dolly! took to the Lyso Center Main stage on April 23rd and 24th, entertaining and delight‐ ing audiences with witty dialogue and foot‐tapping tunes. With a cast, crew and orchestra of 65 students, teachers and parent volunteers, Dolly was a

great success. As Director, my goal for the performers was to entertain the 16 audience with laughs, music and

dance per‐ formances that highlighted the exceptional abilities of our students on‐ stage. Working on a set designed by John Black and built and painted by a host of volun‐ teers, the actors were able to open walls, use trap doors and see their wall fly out of the way as well as having a grand restaurant scene on a rotating turntable.

The music in Hello Dolly is a collec‐ tion of well known, singable melodies.

The singers were well trained by the musical directors, Melissa Richardson and Onyu Park. The orchestra, con‐ sisting of high school musicians and teachers, was under the direction of Marion Statton, whose conducting brought the show together.

The title role of Dolly was performed

by Michelle Lee, while the role of Horace Vandergelder was played by Daniel Kim. They were supported by Jonathan Jun and Philip Frasse as Cornelius and Barnaby and by Mauli Whitney and Carlee Benson as Irene

and Minnie. Kayla Moon played the weeping niece, Ermengarde and Charles Shyn played her suitor, Ambrose Kemper. The actors in the chorus played the roles of townspeo‐ ple, waiters, cooks, dancers, buyers and sellers, and sang and danced throughout the show.

Now that the show is over, the cast and I would like to thank all of our parent, teacher, and student volun‐ teers for all their invaluable help dur‐ ing the whole production process. We would also like to thank our suppor‐ tive audiences, who created an encour‐ aging atmosphere for our actors. Your help made such successful perform‐ ances possible.

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Pirates from Grammar Island British School, Year 5

On Wednesday 14th of April, it was the BS Y5C’s play and it was called the ‘Pirates from Grammar Island’. The class and I had practiced long and hard and everyone id really well. I was very impressed on the day of the play because we were able to hide backstage without people noticing. But the only disap‐ pointing part was that the classes came in too early so we had to hide backstage in a hurry!

The play topic was Literacy and it included three main characters. They were Smitty, Captain Comma and Downing. They had come from Grammar Island to collect punctuation. On their excursion they met cer‐ tain people such as the Queen of Pronouns or Synonym, Antonym and the Officials from the Capi‐ tal Capital and a few other people. The play on words was brilliant and there was a lot of quick‐witted hu‐ mour.

All the characters had to tell something about themselves in a song which I think was very impressive. Like for instance the adverb Librarian or the adjective Librarian.

We were all very excited as the other classes filled up the seats in Robb Hall. Everybody did very well and I really think all the credit should go to Mr. Corben and for making it all happen and Mrs. Curran for her love of Literacy! I really think the class did a great job.

Well‐done 5C and Audience!

By Michael Kimber Y5C

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KAIAC Swimming SFS Swimming Swim Co-Captain Andrew Park Breaks multiple Records contributes his thoughts KAIAC Tournament

One to Remember: KAIAC Swimming Tournament 2010

The Seoul Foreign School Crusader Stingers finished as hosts of the KAIAC Tournament with no indi‐ vidual 1st place team awards, no 1st place combined awards and not even the sportsmanship award (which definitely should’ve been SFS’s). So why was it the best KAIAC ever for the SFS boys and girls in the pool? It’s because there was so much more behind KAIAC than just the final standings. There was the junior quartet of Brian Cho, Derek Champlin, Andrew Park and Joseph Ha who obliterated

both KAIAC records in the Med‐ ley and Freestyle Relays which are not likely to be approached by anyone anytime soon. Record‐ setting performances by Cham‐ plin (50 Breast) and Park (100 Back) also set the tone for what was a very quick and competi‐ tive meet. On the girl’s side, their greatest accomplishment was prov‐ ing that they were contenders in KAIAC despite the loss of several standout swimmers from the previ‐ ous year. Although they trailed the vaunted SIS girls and the SAHS girls team throughout the whole sea‐ son, the girls showed that with time, they could become a force to contend with in KAIAC. 5 boys were named to the All‐Tournament Team and 4 to the All Conference

Team while 3 Girls made the All‐ Conference Team and 4 made All ‐Tournament. While the swim‐ ming accomplishments were many, the camaraderie and the friendships built during the season were also on display. The sportsmanship was ex‐ cellent and while there was competi‐ tiveness, it didn’t stop friends and competitors alike from congratulat‐ ing one another on a personal best time or just a good swim. In short, there was no shortage of hugs. Like any season or team, it never stays the same. This time next year, with new participants, new supporters, new teammates and also those who have experienced KAIAC 2010, will never forget it.

All Conference: Boys: Michael Yi, Andrew Park, Joseph Ha, Brian Cho, Derek Champlin Girls: Aramie Sohn, Julie Kuo, Lily Ha

All tournament: Boys: Roy Shin, Andrew Park, Joseph Ha, Brian Cho, Derek Champlin Girls: Aramie Sohn, Julie Kuo, Lily Ha, Genna Danahy

New KAIAC Records broken: Boys 100 Back 1:00.9 4/23/2010 Andrew S Park Boys 50 Breast 30.9 4/23/2010 Derek Champlin Boys 200 Medley Relay 1:54.7 4/23/2010 Brian Cho, Derek Champlin, Andrew Park, Joseph Ha Boys 200 Free Relay 1:43.9 4/24/2010 Derek Champlin, Brian Cho, Joseph Ha, Andrew Park 19

SFS Hosts Boys’ APAC Soccer Jack Moon

How do you spell APAC Soccer?

V‐I‐C‐T‐O‐R‐Y April always means the crowning of a new APAC soccer champion for the school year. SFS, acting as host, was fortunate to be able to welcome schools from Beijing, Japan, Guang‐ zhou and Shanghai to this year’s ASIA Division Boys’ Soccer tourna‐ ment. At the outset, as Activities Di‐ rector, I would like to thank all those parents who graciously opened up their homes to our visiting athletes. It is one of the wonderful features of APAC, that in addition to providing strong competition among athletes, the program includes homestays which allows athletes to get to know each other off the field and forge friendships that can last a lifetime.

This year’s tournament opened to cool but clear weather which was en‐ joyed throughout the rest of the tour‐ nament. In the opening ceremony, the initial parade of teams was fol‐ lowed by a spectacular Taekwondo demonstration by 40 Yong In Univer‐ sity students. The shouts, the action, the breaking of wood from all angles

and heights drew exclamations from game throughout the tournament up‐ the crowd and helped set the tone for set CISS, winning by a score of 2‐1. In the tournament. The first game be‐ the championship game, SFS and CA, tween SFS and Canadian Academy two evenly matched teams pushed (CA) confirmed that this was to be a each other to the limits with SFS pre‐ long, hard struggle for the champion‐ vailing with a score of 2‐1. ship. Little did anyone know that PLACE SCHOOL RECORD ‐ W/D/L the first game was to mirror the same SFS 4‐1‐0 1ST two teams chal‐ 2ND CA 4‐0‐1 lenging each other for the champion‐ ISB 3‐0‐2 3RD ship.

GSIS 1‐2‐2 4TH After each team played five games 5TH CISS 1‐1‐3 in the round robin 6th ASIG 0‐0‐5 portion of the tournament, the rankings for the playoffs were set as As I reflect back on the tournament, follows: The final games of the play‐ what I found remarkable was the off pitted SFS vs CA for 1st and 2nd level of effort put forward by each place; ISB and GSIS team in the playoffs regardless of for 3rd and 4th place which rank they were playing for. and CISS and ASIG Each team showed commitment, skill for 5th and 6th place. and sportsmanship as they gave their When the prover‐ best to win. The awards ceremony at bial dust settled, the end, along with the slide show, the outcome of the sought to recognize the efforts of all three games went the players and coaches involved that made the tournament such a memo‐ to form with the rable experience. exception of the th th 5 / 6 game in

which AISG who Andrew Park & John Choi had not won a

20

formed with consistency and fo‐ cus. By outscoring opponents 24 to 5 over six matches, the Lady Crusaders left a lasting impres‐ sion on the other five teams and their fans while walking away with the gold medal. Scoring was led by senior Yiota Kastritis and sophomore Kathy Lee with 6 goals each while defense was an‐ chored by sophomores Claire Park and Jaimie Kim. Yiota Kastritis & Leah Chung The SFS Girls’ Varsity Soccer Team flew to Kobe, Japan, for their annual Asia‐Pacific Activi‐ ties Conference (APAC) tourna‐ ment after dominating their com‐ petition for the majority of the KAIAC season. By the time they returned to Seoul, the girls had picked up their third APAC championship in five years after cruising through the three‐day, six‐match tournament undefeated with 5 wins and 1 tie, including a 3‐1 victory over International School Beijing in the finals.

Led by senior co‐captains, Rachel Wolochatiuk (Goalkeeper) and Leah Chung (wing), the team per‐

The Crusader midfield, with jun‐ ior Kristen Lee and sophomore

Katie Baur Sarah Stegner, is where the team separated itself from its competi‐ tion as the pair, supported by the superb play of Chung and fresh‐ man Katie Baur, ruled the mid‐ dle with constant hustle and aggressive play.

Girls’ APAC Soccer 26

9 21

Moments in SFS History 1990s at SFS

SFS swimming pool—completed fall 1997

Entrance to High School—Winter 1998

HS Students—1995

November 4th, 1992, Royal visit from Princess Diana SFS Field —Winter 1995

Soccer Field with swimming pool in the background before the Turf 22

Psalms Student Lead Praise, Worship and Performance Group—1999

HS Play “Fiddler on the Roof” ‐ Spring 1998

BS Reception Class—1998‐99

Recapturing memories of yesterday

Twenty years later...and it feels ex‐ actly the same.

We arrived in Korea in the fall of Jenny Koenig ‘92* 1988. I was thirteen. Seoul immedi‐ ately became the first place weʹd lived to which I felt consciously con‐ crazy ascents. nected ‐‐ like I had a substantial role to play ‐‐ and SFS was the community Ah....and here is center of our lives for those two years. where my heart

broke for the first How captivating it is to tour the cam‐ time.... The teen‐ pus after all this time. As I glance age years are cru‐ around at familiar spots, memories cial. They are elbow one another out of the way for significant times my attention. Here is the hallway in most lives. Itʹs where I was introduced to a group of a wonder that Edie Moon & Jenny Koenig girls to whom I would grow so close with everything as to maintain relationships for years in flux, memo‐ to come, in spite of distances. That ries would have a chance at finding a Those freshman and sophomore years at Seoul Foreign were a good was where weʹd load onto the bus permanent grip. Yet thereʹs some‐ sixty‐five percent of the paste that I when school let out each afternoon, thing about those formative years intent on breaking as many rules as which seems to adhere the moments needed to fuse my experiences and together. Itʹs as if life were a large friendships and all that I was learning possible without being nabbed by paper mache’ project. Thereʹs the into forming a respectable project.

George, the bus ʺsupervisor,ʺ who childhood of working with raw mate‐ And I couldnʹt have asked for a better paced the aisle and kept us in line. (He always caught the unbuck‐ rials ‐‐ locating cardboard tubes and place to consciously come into my led seat belt and made us spit out our styrofoam; cutting paper with own. Faith, love, and laughter contraband gum into his open palm.) rounded scissor tips; and inflating sculpted my being. As I walk around different sizes and shapes of balloons and look at the faces of the kids at‐

tending now and listen to their voices to represent a rough image of what Hereʹs the classroom where Shake‐ in the classrooms, I hope that they are speare sauntered onto my stage and one wants to be. experiencing a similar process. My enchanted me with his wisdom and wit. Thank you, Mrs. Moon. Thereʹs Then, in the teenage years, the paste overwhelming sense is that they are.

is mixed in a large bowl. Flour and the playground where we took a To this day, when Iʹm feeling a little photo of the ten of us, knowing weʹd water and cornstarch make an un‐ soon be split asunder by our dadsʹ job sightly mess of things. With erratic less than grounded, I can hearken ‐transfers to other countries. Hereʹs and unpracticed brush strokes, the back to times at SFS and recall my paste is generously placed all over the gymnasium where we had foot‐ center. Seoul Foreign is a special the form, while layer after layer of stomping, exciting basketball victo‐ place, with a century of right‐ ries; school dances with large circles sopping tissue paper is added. But minded, soulful people putting in of teenagers awkwardly moving our seemingly overnight, the glue hard‐ the work to make a difference in one feet and arms in repetitive motions; ens, and all the pieces indelibly fuse anotherʹs lives and in the world.

Thank you to every adult and peer and nights spent at ʺlock‐insʺ in emo‐ together. tionally‐charged religious and hor‐ who touched mine, both in the late

monal fervor. Finally, we come to the Once adulthood arrives, one needs 80ʹs and during my return visit. hilly driveway winding past the cam‐ only to smooth out the rough spots, pus, where we learned to drive on a adding the surface textures and deco‐ standard transmission in Driverʹs rating touches ‐‐ and maybe bore a Ed. Weʹd cause the car to buck as we hole here and there to gain access to attempted to shift gears on those the inside and add a little weight.

23

ALUMNI CAMPUS VISITS

Barney L. KELLEY ‘67 now Barney CHOOH stopped by at SFS on Wednesday, April 7th on his business trip to Seoul.

Barney attended SFS as a first grader and this was his first visit since he left. He currently resides in San Fran‐ cisco, California, and just missed the West Coast Reunion in February of this year. Pictured is Barney and his wife Elizabeth with the Director of Communications & Devel‐ opment, June Kang.

colleagues and students promising that she would get reconnected through our On Friday, April 9th we had a special couple visiting the alumni website.

SFS campus. Mrs. Patricia PRITTS MOFFETT and Mr. Blair MOFFETT, FT made their visit with a current par‐ She has wanted to get in ent at the school. Mrs. Moffett, then Ms. Pritts taught at touch with a former student SFS from 1962‐1965 and was the First grade teacher and who she remembers in her Junior and High School Girls’ PE teacher. Mr. Moffett First Grade. He was Yoshio taught Music in the High School. They met at SFS and ESCARBORTE, a brilliant stu‐ got married here. Currently the Moffetts live in Walfe‐ dent who impressed her a lot. boro, New Hampshire.

He is pictured below with his Mr. and Mrs. MOFFETT First Grade classmates in 1963. in front of the Elementary If anyone has contact informa‐ School building in April 2010 tion for him, please let us know as Mrs. Moffett will be thrilled to get in touch with him.

Alumni in Search of Alumni!

Mrs. Patricia PRITTS

Mr. Blaire MOFFETT in 1963

While browsing through the 1960s yearbooks, they shared some memories of the past. Mrs. Moffett remem‐ bered coaching the Girls’ basketball team. She had three very tall girls and the Korean national Olympic team was pleased to practice with them on the SFS campus. She also drove the school bus, which was then a Land Rover.

Mrs. Moffett wants to get in touch with many of her past 24

First Grade in 1963

Ronit GUDES ’01 stopped by at SFS on Monday, April 12, 2010 during a 24 hour transit in Seoul on her way back to Tel Aviv, Israel. She was thrilled to be back on campus to see both Mrs. Edie MOON and the changes of the SFS campus since her graduation in 2001. She is currently working for foreign services in Tel Aviv and hopes to return back to SFS for the 100th Anniversary celebrations in the upcoming 2011‐2012 school year.

Pictured below is Ronit with Drama Director, Edie Moon and June Kang and Yoojin Um from the Commu‐ nications & Development Office.

Two of our local alumni living in Seoul, Ronald CHANG ‘98 and Nancy KIM ‘91 stopped by the SFS campus on Tuesday, April 13 for the first time since their graduation.

Ronald is currently a writer and re‐ porter at TBS EFM and Nancy is a freelance voice actress and writer.

Pictured is Ronald and Nancy with their former teacher Mrs. Edie Moon.

Pictured from left is Elaine MORRISON (daughter of Sally), Harold J. VOELKEL ’59* , Sally (Sarah) VOELKEL MORRISON, Former Principal (1954-57), Jack VOELKEL (attended SFS in 1948-49) , Alan VOELKEL (nephew of Sally) and June Kang, Dir. of Communications & Development

Martha VAN LIEROP VALASEK ‘73* made a visit to SFS Monday, April 12, 2010, while visiting Seoul. Mrs. Sonia STRAWN, Former SFS Jaidan Chair, gave Martha a tour of the SFS campus. Martha was happy to be back in Seoul and see all the development that has taken place at SFS. She is currently a speech therapist. Both Martha and Sonia would like to contribute to SFS for the preparations of the upcoming 100th Anniversary cele‐ brations!

Yiyun WANG ‘98, Amanda MAR‐ TIN ‘04 and Liz RICE ’83* also visited SFS in April 2010.

Please contact the Communica‐ tions & Development Office for Campus Visits at jkang@seoulforeign.org or yjum@seoulforeign.org

We were thrilled to meet with a long time teacher/ principal and two alumni on April 28, 2010. Sally (Sarah) VOELKEL MORRISON was a former SFS Principal and teacher during ’54‐’57. Sally shared a special story about having had designed school desks for her students right after the end of the Korean war in ’54, when the country was only on‐the‐mend and resources were seriously limited. She was amused at how she had just graduated with a Master’s in Educa‐ tion from Teachers’ College at Columbia University and had been challenged with something that she was never taught ‐ making student desks! It was certainly a wonderful opportunity to meet with Sally and her family.

25

Alumni Notes

1960s

1940s

Miriam Joan PERRY, SFS alumni and sibling of May SYLVESTER HOR‐

WOOD ‘40* wrote to inform us of the passing away of her sister May on

16th December 2009 at the age of 86.

Upon going through many of May’s Susan HILL MOORE ‘62 and photographs and personal papers she her husband Douglas came across a tiny note with the ad‐

dress of SFS on it with the request “please send details if anything hap‐ Susan HILL MOORE ‘62* wrote to pens to me”. us wanting to get re‐connected with Five of the SYLVESTER family at‐ her former classmates. She currently tended SFS before the family was resides in Maryville, MO and retired transferred by The Salvation Army to from the sheriff’s department in July Southern Rhodesia. Their parents 2009. The picture above is Susan were pioneer officers in Korea for the with her husband Douglas. They Army dating back one hundred years recently celebrated their 46th anni‐ to 1910 when her father arrived in versary. She would love to hear Seoul, followed three years later by from her former classmates and her mother, who then got married in teachers especially “Mr. G” and the Korea.

“Hill Kids”. Her e‐mail is su‐ zuhm@live.com She also enclosed

Miriam is the only surviving member two pictures taken while here in 1955. of the family and her elder brother,

Bramwell SYLVESTER ‘35* passed

away in England in August 2008 at

the age of 91 years.

Left: Picture of the SFS choir in 1938‐ 39 in which May performed.

26

Picture of the art class in 1955

Picture of the baseball team with cheerlead‐ ers taken in 1955. Susan is in the stripes in front of Dorothy DECAMP RUDOLPH ‘62 and Susan’s sister Virginia. Don CLARK ’61 is holding two bats and Breck JEFFRIES is up to bat. She recognizes the other faces but cannot recall the names.

1970s

Michael BOURCHIER ʹ74 has just finished shooting a series for pre‐ schoolers called ʺPenelope K, By the Wayʺ for the BBC. He is currently shooting two seasons simultaneously of a children’s reality adventure se‐ ries called, “Escape From Scorpion Island” for the BBC and ABC (Australia), which is just great fun and a hugely popular show in both countries as well as in Canada and several other countries. Beyond that, he is developing a number of shows and financing another movie ‐ this time for children.

While it is hard work and keeps him International Therapist Directory: http://www.facebook.com/ busy, he is very lucky to call what l/8009a;www.interactionintl.org/ he does a job and fortunately people intltherapistdirectory.asp seem to like the TV shows and films

he produces.

He’s also been privileged to repre‐ Michael remembers his time at Seoul sent Interaction at various confer‐ Foreign as full of plays ‐ both at the ences, offer a workshop at Taylor school and also down on the army University, and step into a key role, base. He counted 12 plays one year working with Libby Stephens, in including “The Diary of Anne Frank”, “No Exit”, a range of short preparing for and offering summer plays by Eugene Ionesco, “Of Mice Third Culture Kid (TCK) Transition and Men” etc. It might explain why Seminars. he wasnʹt a very good student! He Along with continuing in the kinds can both blame and thank SFS for of involvements highlighted above, Poster picture of Sarah Son‐Theroux the precarious but rewarding busi‐ he is hoping to help develop a work‐ ‘84’s exhibition ness in which he finds himself today. shop for adult TCKs, expand the

Massachusetts, ʺRecent Landscapes: online resources they currently of‐ Estonia to Indiana to Cape Cod. Feb‐ fer, On March 5, 2010, David K. BER‐ ruary 27 ‐ April 11, 2010; She also NARD ’74 and begin offering formal counsel‐ held a Gallery Talk earlier this year. ing services under the Interaction was inau‐ International umbrella in Seattle,

gurated as Washington.

After graduating from SFS in 1989 the Gen‐ The counseling services will be for a and spending the past 21 years in eral Suer‐ fee, thus ultimately helping to dras‐ Philadelphia, PA, John KIM ‘89 is intendent tically reduce the amount of funding returning to Seoul, Korea. He has of the spent the past 10 years as an M&A he will be responsible for raising United tax consultant (director) at Pricewa‐ that keeps his non‐profit afloat.

Pentecos‐ For those of you who wish to learn terhouseCoopers LLP in the Phila‐ tal Church delphia office. He will be joining the more: Interna‐ http://www.facebook.com/l/8009a; tional, David K. BERNARD ’74 PricewaterhouseCoopers network and his wife, Connie firm in Seoul ‐ Samil as a tax director. https://www.interactionintl.org/ which has Bernard.

DonationsDetail.asp?id=22 He has been married for 17 years 30,000 and has one child ‐ a son, Han who churches will be in 3rd grade in the Fall.

Jeff GILMORE ‘97 recently wrote to in 190 nations. See www.upci.org for details. change his address for the Banner.

The software company he works for 1990s transferred him to London UK office 1980s

a year ago. He left Vancouver last

Gina PARK KWON ‘98 just fin‐ April and was practically homeless David J. VAN ECK ’80 and Gabriele ished medical school and has moved for the following 6 months while (Gaby) BRENCHER ’81 have relo‐ near Johns Hopkins University working on a project in Norway. He cated from Singapore and now call where she will begin her residency. is now settled in London and en‐ Vancouver, Canada, home. They

joyed meeting the new headmaster, look forward to catching up with Josh SANDOZ ‘95 has been working Dr. John Engstrom and other SFS SFSʹers in the region. with Interaction International over folks for a brief reunion at a Korean

this past year and a half expanding restaurant there in January.

Sarah SON THEROUX ’84 recently his role and providing services for had a solo exhibition of paintings at the internationally mobile commu‐ the Cape Cod Museum of Art in nity. One of the projects is the online 27

Alumni AT WORK Sheila CHOI ‘ 01 CEO, Fuzzy Dog and Cat Rescue, Inc. Sheila CHOI ‘01 is currently the CEO of a nonprofit organization, The Fuzzy Pet Foundation (TFPF) in Cali‐ fornia. It is her hope that she can pro‐ vide some ex‐ posure to the work she does for the ani‐ mals and be‐

yond, which she wants to share with our Alumni.

TFPF has been getting a lot of excel‐ lent publicity from the rescue of our two‐legged dog, Scooby‐Roo, and the outpour in celebrity support that came afterwards.

You can take a look at some of our news clips at: http://www.youtube.com/user/ TFPFAdmin While Sheila and her organization are under‐going some major changes on their website, you can also read through the links that cover what they have accomplished thus far: http:// www.fuzzyrescue.org/Media.html Established in 2005, TFPF has over‐

seen the res‐ cue, rehabili‐ tation, and re‐homing of at least 600 dogs and cats. They are now making aggressive efforts to help families spay and neuter their pets, ultimately in hopes of ending pet overpopula‐ tion and shelter euthanizing.

Sheila hopes that this short alumna story will inspire others to truly fol‐ low their passion, whether it be in the field of nonprofit work or medi‐ cine. Furthermore, it would be great to shed light on the plight of animals while possibly recruiting fellow SFS volunteers!

Honoring Ruth Richter, Former Alumni Coordinator Plans for the Centennial Anniversary…

On February 16th, during an alumni reunion hosted in San Diego, Ruth Richter, former Alumni Coordinator, was honored for her commitment to facilitate alumni‐relations from 1997~2009.

Ruth was presented with a certifi‐ cate and crystal paper‐weight in‐ scribed with her service as the Alumni Coordinator.

Ruth provided the SFS community with many years of dedication to keep alumni connected with the school. During her tenure, she published an alumni newsletter twice a year from her own home in Idaho. Her unprecedented sup‐ port to alumni provided resources unique to the Alumni community.

Her institutional knowledge and contacts to alumni were unparal‐ leled, which greatly benefitted the school. A greater portion of our alumni community was in fact, familiar with Ruth as the key 28

point of contact for Seoul Foreign School.

Ruth’s contributions to our Alumni community have served to establish a strong foundation for current and future alumni. We are grateful for her invaluable ser‐ vices and having so graciously assumed such a meaningful role in building and sustaining rela‐ tionships with so many of our alumni!

Thank you to all alumni who have contributed to our Zoomerang survey that was distributed online on April 8th. We wanted to find out what would interest you most: most favorable time of the year, events of greatest interest, and the most favorable types of accommodations.

Here’s what we found:

•

40% felt mid‐May would be ideal to visit Seoul, while 33% were favorable to late‐August,

• • •

A split opinion about bringing families

55% were interested in the opening of the Time Capsule

•

71% were interested in the 100th Anniversary Gala Dinner

• •

Ruth Richter at the San Diego Reunion in February 2010

A split opinion about tour packages

62% were interested in an SFS Picnic

66% interested in a 5 day tour as opposed to 7 days • 59% for a Tour of Seoul City, Palaces, City Hall, Kwanghwamun, Seoul Tower, DMZ, etc.

Many of you also provided additional feedback that will help us make our centennial year more meaningful to many of our alumni and commu‐ nity members. We would encourage you to write to us and let us know how we might make our 100th anniversary more special. We thank you for your patience and look forward to updating you with more in the very near future!

Alumni Reunions attendance online, we prepared As part of initiatives for the Com‐ name tags with their old school munications and Development of‐ fice to re‐establish relations with our yearbook mug‐shots. A music video was also shared, of pictures SFS alumni community, both the Head of School, Dr. John Engstrom, collected throughout the history of and Director of Communications & SFS and also current pictures. Dr. John Engstrom led efforts to update Development, June Kang hosted a everyone on how the school was WEST COAST reunion this past doing and also got alumni compet‐ February. ing with one another to reach back

into the past for answers to school‐ All three reunions were held at fabulous Korean restaurants to help related trivia.

capture and rekindle some of the familiar cultural flavors that would It is a first for the school to host have been experienced by any of alumni reunions coordinated our alumni who have lived in Seoul. through the Communications and For all those able to confirm their Development Office in collaboration

with the Head of School. While it is challenging to reach out to alumni who are scattered in so many differ‐ ent parts of the world, we endeavor to continue hosting annual reunions in areas that have received favorable attendance and offer other po‐ tentially popular places.

San Diego—February 16, 2010 In addition to the impres‐ sive range of alumni who made their way to our first reunion in San Diego, the program included mem‐ bers of the Friends of Seoul Foreign School board, con‐ sisting of Gail MEYER (Board Chair), Dick UN‐ DERWOOD (Former Head of School), Ron RICHTER (Former Elementary School Principal), Harlan

LYSO (Former Head of School) and Ruth RICH‐ TER (Former Alumni Co‐ ordinator). The reunion was scheduled to include the members of the FSFS board who meet annually for their board meeting. It was yet another very rare occasion for the three SFS Heads of School to be pre‐ sent. Ruth Richter was honored at this gathering

for her outstanding contri‐ butions as the Alumni Coordinator for 1997‐ 2009. In addition, we were thrilled to have received our very first donation to the annual fund by Elise KIM PROSSER ’83, who made her contribution at this event.

29

Alumni Reunions Los Angeles – February 17, 2010

Edward LEE ‘95 and Edward HA ‘97

Compared to other regions, we had the largest number of alumni attend‐ ing this special gathering. In addi‐ tion, the oldest alumnus here was from the Class of ’65*, Soli CHUNG, who attended with his wife. Soli had forwarded our development office an old school crest in the form of a patch; something he was given back during his time at SFS. It has been added to our collection and archive of SFS memorabilia. We were fortunate to have John KIM from the Class of ’71* present as he was very instrumental in helping to attract alumni to the west coast reunions. He even made it to the San Francisco reunion and was awarded an alumni t‐shirt for all his efforts and enthusiasm.

While there were many stories and countless accounts of SFS from our range of alumni whom attended, we were treated also to a story about three friends who met through SFS and managed to continue their friendship beyond graduation, each having pursued Medical school: Ed‐ ward LEE, class of ’95, Edward HA, class of ’97, and Michael BAHK class of ’95 (unfortunately, Michael was unable to attend the reunion).

Their amazing story about the be‐ ginning of their friendship and jour‐ ney of faith from SFS and beyond, reaffirmed a great aspect of the SFS community familiar to many of our alumni.

Dr. John Engstrom offered updates about SFS and all enjoyed the eve‐ ning of wonderful food and great stories from the past.

If you wish to see the list of attendees for the West Coast Reunion, February 2010 please log on to our alumni web‐ site at www.seoulforeign.org and look under “Alumni & Friends”.

30

Alumni Reunions San Francisco – February 18, 2010 While we had the least number of alumni here, we were treated to some of the oldest alumni! From the class of ’49*, we were honored to be in the presence of William BENJAMIN, who expressed much interest in gar‐ nering old archives of Korean history.

He has since forwarded us links to literature from the historical Korean War which began June 25th, 1950. We were also delighted to be in the presence of two former teachers from ’87‐‘94, Warren and Robin HUDSON. We enjoyed a won‐ derful Korean barbeque and the wife of our alumnus Emjay TAN from the class of ’95, Christine TAN, provided us her excep‐ tional photography skills to share footage of the memorable event (as seen here) with our SFS

community. During the dinner, we were treated to a few of our alumni actually pointing themselves out to black and white footage which was used as part of a music video of SFS historical pictures (as seen in our photos here). We were all thrilled to be in the presence of such wonderful alumni from such a wide range of years past.

John KIM ‘71*

John MINCEY ‘63 and his wife

Korean War in 1950s

John MINCEY ‘63

William BENJAMIN ‘49*

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Faculty Farewell Deborah Aarhus (HS Chem/Eosystems)

Sharon Ashton (BS Year 2)

Helen Rader (HS Gr. 9 Counselor)

Daniel Richardson (BS Year 7)

Melissa Richardson (Choir)

Edmundo Herrera (HS Spanish)

Saundra Hopkins (Manager of Educational Technology)

Colleen Ireland (HS Humanities— Sabbatical)

Judy Jang (ES Gr. 3)

Geri Johnson (HS Social Studies)

Kenneth Balk (HS Biology)

Stephanie Batley (BS Year 6)

Rebecca Budelman (MS ESL)

Linda Cameron (IB Coord./Biology)

Jessica Kemnitz (HS/MS Art—leaving 2nd trimester of 2010‐11)

Jieun Kim (Middle school Orchestra)

Joshua Kim (Christian Ministries Intern)

Sarah Carpenter (ES Computer—Sabbatical)

Lisa Cuthbertson (MS ESL/Humanities)

Mandy Falgout (ES Gr. 4)

Christina Farley (Asst. to AHOS Academics)

Deb Okray (ES ESL)

Douglas Farley (HS English/Speech)

Daniel Knight (BS Music)

Kerrie‐Anne Neary (BS Reception)

Mee Ro (ES Lib. Media Specialist— Retirement)

Langston Rogde (AHOS Operations— Retirement)

Christina Root (Christian Ministries Intern)

Stephanie Simon (MS French)

Wyatt Wilcox (MS Gr. 8 Science)

Susannah Wilcox (BS Year 3)