Taipei American School Alumni News Magazine | 2020

TAIPEI AMERICAN SCHOOL ALUMNI NEWS

Institutions where TAS graduates from the Classes of 2017, 2018, and 2019 enrolled.

Boldfaced print indicates institutions attended by graduates from the Class of 2019.

UNITED STATES

Arizona State University

Babson College

Barnard College

Berklee College of Music Boston College

Boston University

Brandeis University

Brigham Young University Brigham Young University, Idaho Brown University Bryn Mawr College

Bucknell University California Lutheran University California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo

California State Polytechnic University, Pomona

Carleton College

Carnegie Mellon University Case Western Reserve University

Chapman University Claremont McKenna College Coastal Carolina University College of William & Mary Colorado College Columbia International University

Columbia University Cornell University Curry College

Dartmouth College Drexel University Duke University Elon University

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Emerson College Emory University

Endicott College Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising, Los Angeles Fordham University Georgetown University Georgia Institute of Technology Glendale Community College Grinnell College Harvard College Harvey Mudd College Haverford College Indiana University at Bloomington Johns Hopkins University

Loyola Marymount University

Loyola University Chicago

Marist College

Massachusetts Institute of Technology Michigan State University

Middlebury College

Minerva Schools at KGI New York University

North Carolina State University

Northeastern University

Northwestern University

Nova Southeastern University

Occidental College Pacific Lutheran University

Pomona College

Pratt Institute

Princeton University Purdue University

Reed College Regis University

Rhode Island School of Design

Rice University

Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology

Rutgers University

San Diego State University

Santa Clara University

Savannah College of Art and Design

Seattle University Simmons University St. Olaf College

Stanford University

Stevens Institute of Technology Stony Brook University

Suffolk University Syracuse University

Temple University

Texas A&M University

The Curtis Institute of Music

The George Washington University

The New School

The University of Alabama

The University of Texas, Arlington

The University of Texas, Austin

The University of Texas, San Antonio

Tufts University

Tulane University

United States Coast Guard Academy University at Buffalo The State University of New York

University of California, Berkeley University of California, Davis University of California, Irvine University of California, Los Angeles University of California, Riverside University of California, San Diego University of California, Santa Barbara University of California, Santa Cruz University of Chicago University of Colorado at Boulder University of Connecticut University of Hawaii at Manoa University of Illinois at UrbanaChampaign University of Maryland, College Park University of Massachusetts, Amherst University of Michigan University of Nevada, Las Vegas University of North Dakota University of Northern Colorado University of Notre Dame University of Oregon University of Pennsylvania University of Portland University of San Diego University of San Francisco University of South Carolina

University of Southern California University of the Pacific University of Virginia University of Washington

Utah State University

Vanderbilt University Virginia Tech Washington University in St. Louis Wellesley College Wesleyan University Yale University

EUROPE

Durham University

Ecole Hôtelière de Lausánne

IE University - Madrid Imperial College London Jacobs University King’s College London

Massey University

Polimoda International Institute of Design and Marketing

The American University of Paris

The London School of Economics and Political Science

The Royal Danish Academy of Music

The University of Edinburgh

The University of Warwick Universiteit van Amsterdam University College London University of Bath University of Bristol University of Glasgow University of Otago University of Oxford University of Sheffield University of St Andrews University of the Arts London University of York Webster University, The Netherlands

AUSTRALIA & NEW ZEALAND

Bond University

Massey University

The University of Melbourne University of Sydney UNSW Australia

CANADA

Humber College

McGill University

Queen’s University

Simon Fraser University University of British Columbia University of Lethbridge University of Toronto University of Toronto Scarborough University of Waterloo Vancouver Film School Western University York University

ASIA

Beijing Film Academy

The Chinese University of Hong Kong City University of Hong Kong Fudan University

The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

Hosei University

KAIST - Korea Advanced Institute of Science & Technology

Keio University

Keio University Mita

Korea University

Kyoto University

Ming Chuan University

National University of Singapore

NYU Shanghai

Seoul National University

Shanghai Jiao Tong University of Medicine

Shih Hsin University

Singapore Management University Temple University Japan

The University of Hong Kong

Waseda University Yale-NUS College Yonsei University

ABOUT THE MAGAZINE

The TAS Alumni News Magazine is published by the Advancement Office and is circulated free of charge to alumni, faculty, and former faculty. Update your contact information using any of these three ways: Send an email to alumni@tas.tw with your current contact information. Fill out the online update form: www.tas.edu.tw/alumni > Stay Engaged with TAS > Contact Information Update Form. Log in to the Alumni Online Directory and update your profile: www.tas.edu.tw/alumni > Alumni Online Directory.

06

PLAY, LEARN, AND GROW IN THE NEW TIGER GARDEN

The new lower school playground, The Tiger Garden, opened on December 12, 2019. It beckons children to climb a bit higher, step out of their comfort zones, and shift their perspectives.

09

JOURNEY TOWARD SELFHOOD

Visiting Author Dr. Shawn Wong ’67 returned to TAS and led a panel of TAS alumni writers in a discussion about their craft.

11

THE PAGODA RETURNS TO TAS

In January 2020, a pagoda appeared quietly on TAS campus.

Finally, the last of Taipei American School’s iconic items has come home.

Connie Ma, Alumni and Community Outreach Officer

HEAD OF SCHOOL LETTER TO ALUMNI

Dear Alumni,

I write to you this year humbled by our community’s resilience during difficult times. While we anticipated this year to be one of celebration for our school’s 70th anniversary, we have changed to understand that this year is truly a celebration of the preciousness of life and community.

Thank you to all of you not only for your support of this amazing institution but of your support for one another. I did not realize that this year would be such a testament to our community’s mission and character. You have all proven to be much more resilient and flexible in the face of disruption than I could have ever dreamed. Each one of our alumni this year has helped to continue the Taipei American School legacy in the face of challenges. When you left our school’s campus—be it one or 70 years ago—we hoped that you were amply prepared for life beyond our walls, possessing the intellectual, creative, emotional, and social fortitude to tackle the challenges and opportunities that have awaited you. Now, more than ever, we know that to be true.

Wherever you are in the world, know that Taipei American School stands with you. Our community is physically spread far and wide, but our commitment to one another remains strong. Stay in touch— with us and with one another—and take care of those you love.

Faithfully,

Sharon D. Hennessy, Ed.D. Head of School

ADVANCEMENT OFFICE LETTER TO ALUMNI

Dear Alumni,

This year has been a year of celebration and of challenge for the school. We celebrated the 70th anniversary of the school, honoring our current and longest-serving Head of School by dedicating our Upper School building to her. But we also know that this memorable year was not without difficulty: our physical campus was closed for a total of four weeks and Tigers went digital in their studies. We know that this theme probably continued for each and every one of you, as well.

We look forward to seeing each of you again soon. In this magazine, you have a chance to glimpse what many of your former classmates have been up to, during a time when community matters more than ever. I hope you enjoy catching up on the stories of your friends and learning a little bit more about the TAS of today and tomorrow.

Warm regards,

Kathy Limmer, Ed.D. Assistant Head of School for Advancement

REDEFINING SUCCESS

BUILDING A BRIDGE BETWEEN ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE AND SOCIO-EMOTIONAL WELLNESS

By Dr. Sharon D. Hennessy, Head of School

“Great schools hire great teachers, who have a magical ability to ask children to give every single bit of the Godgiven talent that they’ve inherited and grown up with, without asking more of them than they can possibly get. In other words, that delicate tightrope between saying I know you can do it, versus making them feel they can do it when they can’t, and thereby damaging their confidence for the rest of their lives. That delicate balance is what a great school is all about.”

- John Littleford

Taipei American School is more than a school—it is a vibrant community with a higher purpose, one that is clearly delineated in our mission statement. We are innovative. We are modern. And we are, fundamentally, a learning community. But in addition to these core fundamental tenets, our mission is to inspire each student within our walls to be a confident, creative, caring, and moral individual prepared to adapt and succeed anywhere in a rapidly changing

world. We have chosen to provide an Americanbased education with a global perspective in order to achieve these things. Our goal? That our students leave our campus with a deep love of learning, a firm commitment to academic excellence, an unequaled ability to create a balanced life, and a sincere desire to be of service to others.

The realization of our goal is no small feat, but no one ever said having a higher purpose would be easy. In fact, simply to commit to such a lofty purpose as ours is one of the hardest things a group of people can attempt. But it is worth it.

I say this to you because it is my duty as your community’s educational leader to remind us, from time to time, of our shared purpose—to remind us of our bedrock, our foundation, our true north. Without the mission as our guidepost, it can be easy to get lost in the mire of what other people say we should be doing. Sometimes following our mission means staying the course, but, of course, sometimes it also means setting out on a new path. Our choices all depend on whether or not a given pathway aligns with who we are as a community.

Lately, I have been deeply troubled by many articles that have come my way—and I have discussed these troubles publicly in administrative meetings and parent coffees. According to research performed over the last two decades, children who grow up in privileged

communities such as our own, where both incomes and expectations are high, often report high levels of anxiety, depression, and substance abuse—levels commensurate with those of inner-city, less privileged students. While I do take all new research with several grains of salt, some things are undeniable. Too much pressure can be just as harmful as no pressure at all. A pressure cooker is designed to hold in heat and cook contents quickly, and if our students feel that they are in a pressure cooker, the extreme heat will take a toll on their bodies and on their minds. Articles such as The Atlantic’s “Why Is Middle School So Hard for So Many People?” or “The Perils of Pushing Kids too Hard” or books such as David Gleason’s “At What Cost” or Lenora Chu’s “Little Soldiers: An American Boy, a Chinese School, and the Global Race to Achieve” have words that jump from the pages, grab us by the heart, and demand that we reflect upon the very best and safest ways to achieve our mission.

At Taipei American School, we have and always will strive for academic excellence. That is quite literally at the heart of all that we do. But there is and always will be room for us, as a learning community, to learn new paths to support and foster academic excellence. As a community, we are deeply committed to learning, which is why we value professional development so highly, and why we will continue to bring worldrenowned experts to our campus, like recent wellnessrelated visitors Dr. Craig Hassed, Dr. Lea Waters, Dr. Lisa Damour, David Wolowitz, Drs. Doug Ota, David Bott, Justin Robinson, Dr. Josephine Kim, Roy Chen, Dr. Kenneth Podell, and Michael Pollock. It is also why we have trained all our teaching faculty in both the Lower and Middle School in the techniques of Responsive Classroom. And all of this just within the last two school years!

The research is clear. Improving students’ health can be beneficial for their academic achievement; the same research has shown us that focusing solely on achievement can be detrimental to our students’ health. To this end, Taipei American School acknowledges that we need both—a healthy mixture of academic excellence and student wellness. We will never sacrifice academic rigor here at TAS, but we can—and will— continue to find ways to support our students’ health as they focus on their academic goals. Simply put, healthy students are better learners. We as a community have already embraced certain aspects of health and wellness. For example, there has been considerable discussion about and significant action on nutrition at TAS. That is good. Many have embraced the importance of exercise as a part of wellness, and athletics and traditional physical education have been supplemented with lifetime exercises, like yoga, martial arts, and fitness at our incredible health and wellness center. This, too, is good.

There has been, however, little community buy-in to a pair of key elements for wellness. Research on sleep provides a crystal-clear message: significant sleep significantly increases learning. We sometimes

forget that sleep depravation is a well-known form of torture—or, at least, that is how it appears to me. The usual reaction to this problem is a proposal to begin school much later. For logistical reasons, that just isn’t possible. The only solution is for students to go to bed at a reasonably early hour. “Impossible!” is the response. Well, yes and no—and here is where the other element of the pair comes in: choices that provide a challenging learning experience that is not overly stressful. Navigating choices successfully continues to elude too many adults; thus, navigating them well as a child is a daunting challenge. And there is no “one size fits all” to help guide us. Some students find AP Calculus BC to be an interesting breeze; others find it impossible. Some students have a stable, structured home life; others do not. The same assignment can take one student a half hour and another student an hour and a half. So, I am convinced that to address sleep, we must first address choices. We must explore paths where all of us do our part to better support student choices and to monitor the consequences of those choices--each student’s choices. This, of course, requires a commitment from all members of our community; the School cannot achieve success here alone. “It takes a village to raise a child,” they say. It will take the entire TAS community to raise healthier students.

It is my firm belief, however, that any and all wellness initiatives that Taipei American School undertakes must be built upon the foundation of academic excellence because that is a fundamental part of our organization’s true north. Taipei American School is a bridge from an island to the world, and our wellness initiatives are a bridge from the stressful pursuit of scholastic achievement to the supported ability for all our students to pursue their full learning potential. We need to redefine success in a way that preserves our lofty academic goals while incorporating systems and methods that recognize the needs of our children for health, balance, and joyful schooling. As we endeavor to create a new Strategic Plan to Guide TAS from 2021-2025, these concerns will need to be carefully incorporated.

“IT WILL TAKE THE ENTIRE TAS COMMUNITY TO RAISE HEALTHIER STUDENTS.”

CELEBRATING 70 YEARS OF HISTORY

On September 26, 2020, we gathered as a community to celebrate 70 years of Taipei American School by reflecting on both our rich past and our bright future.

From the basement of a seminary in 1949 with eight students in attendance to our modern, 21st century campus with an enrollment of nearly 2,400 students, our school has evolved dramatically over the past 70 years.

The first graduating class of 14 seniors in 1956 went on to become business, civic, and government leaders around the world and in Taiwan itself, just as the graduates of 2020 will do.

As a community, we have come so far and continue to expand the options and opportunities for every TAS student. By planning for a school that meets the needs of our students today, and those of their children’s children for generations to come, our evolution influences us as we strive for excellence in all that we do.

PLAY, LEARN, AND GROW IN THE NEW TIGER GARDEN

By Becca Budde, Communications Officer

The new Lower School playground, the Tiger Garden, opened on December 12, 2019. Despite being a stone’s throw from Zhongshan North Road, the shady trees, flowing water, netted tree house, sand box, bike track, and multiple slides and tunnels allow students’ imaginations to soar; students may even forget that they are in the middle of the city, and still on campus. Play is critical for children in the development of emotional, social, and creative thinking skills, and it helps them grow into creative and confident adults. By encouraging independence and appropriately scaffolded risk-taking, the Tiger Garden beckons students to climb a bit higher, step out of their comfort zones, and shift their perspectives.

A truly unique playground, the Tiger Garden was designed specifically for our space and for our students; lower school students and principals worked with architects on the design, sharing their ideas, dreams, and vision for the space. The

goal was to capture the energy, optimism and playfulness of the Lower School, Tara Simeonidis, Lower School Principal shares. “We wanted the playground to capture the spirit of the lower school. And play and exploration are a huge part of learning. The Tiger theme, of course, is a fun way to acknowledge our school mascot,” she adds.

During a typical recess period, groups of students are racing around the Tiger Garden in their regular game of tag, negotiating where “base” is. Two students are at the water feature creating a dam with their hands to temporarily block the running water, before releasing it all at once and gleefully counting how many pebbles the water can drag down this time. Four students are chatting in the shade of a slide, coming together from different homerooms to connect and share about their mornings.

For students who spend the majority of their days in carefully structured and controlled environments, the Tiger Garden provides spaces for them to be free to be kids, where they can create their own games and develop social emotional intelligence in an environment where teachers are nearby but not directing conversations. Construction of the Tiger Garden was funded by the generosity of parent donors. Thank you to our parents and everyone in the community who contributed to making this dream a reality for our students!

A LASTING LEGACY

INTRODUCING THE NEWLY MINTED DR. SHARON DIBARTOLOMEO HENNESSY UPPER SCHOOL BUILDING

By Lindsey Kundel, Communications Officer

On September 26, 2020, during TAS’s 70th Anniversary celebration, our community was able to celebrate another important milestone for the school during a surprise announcement by Board Chair, Ms. Tina Koo. To commemorate this historic event—and to honor TAS’s longest-serving Head of School—33 sets of donors banded together donating over USD $1 million to the school—in order to rename the Upper School D-Block building.

The newly minted Dr. Sharon DiBartolomeo Hennessy Upper School is a physical testament to the transformative leadership of its namesake. Under her leadership, the school has undergone many major changes, including the construction of the Solomon Wong Tech Cube, Liu Lim Arts Center, and the building which now bears her name, D-Block, formerly known as the Upper School Science and Technology Building.

Dr. Hennessy was both genuinely surprised and touched by the generosity of these donors, humorously asking the audience to grant her two minutes of preparation for her remarks, which is the same amount of time allotted to upper school extemporaneous speakers competing in forensics tournaments. Although she said she does not like surprises, this major surprise left her deeply humbled and honored. She lovingly brought her husband, Lt. Col. Gary Hennessy, and trusted colleague, Dr. Richard Hartzell, up to the podium to express her gratitude for them both as they worked alongside her to accomplish her goals over the last 14 years.

The Upper School Science and Technology Building first opened in 2012, under the guidance of then-principal, Dr. Richard Hartzell, who retired at the end of last year. It features state of the art science and robotics labs, and new classrooms equipped with cutting-edge technology, which is updated annually. It also features the Winston Wong Lecture Hall, a multi-use space open to guest speakers, upper school clubs, and classes in a true university-style format. The building also includes the Upper School Joie Gymnasium,

the Tiger Health and Wellness Center, and covered outdoor tennis courts.

Prior to the opening of the Upper School Science and Technology Building, the upper school community was located in B- and C-blocks of our campus. In February 2009, the Board of Directors passed resolutions adopting a Master Plan for a Facilities Development Project and a corresponding funding proposal, and TAS broke ground on the facilities development project on Tuesday, September 14, 2010. The Board was able to attract the participation of world-renowned architect and TAS parent, Kris Yao. Mr. Yao’s deep understanding of the TAS mission enabled him to translate the board and administration’s statement of program needs into a design of structures that demonstrates how TAS values academic excellence, co-curricular involvement, and environmental awareness.

ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE GOES DIGITAL

By Lindsey Kundel, Communications Officer

In the wake of news about the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) in February 2020, the Taipei American School followed the Taiwanese government’s recommendations on closing school campuses to prioritize the health and safety of its nearly 2,000 members, and as a result, reopened on February 6, 2020 not on the school's state-ofthe-art campus in Shilin district but in kitchens and living rooms, on sofas and in bedrooms.

How do you transition from physical classroom learning to online learning overnight? If you're a teacher at TAS—seamlessly. With less than a day's notice, faculty and staff across all divisions mobilized to ensure that there was no gap in learning for our students when we closed our campus. Faculty not only made use of the many existing online solutions but also came up with new and creative ways to adapt the physical classrooms, and lessons, into virtual ones.

In the Lower School, students used their time independently reading, interacting with math modules, responding to Mandarin activities, watching morning meeting video announcements, and much more. By

structuring distance learning off of the routine that students are used to, lower school teachers provided consistency, routine, and support for students as they continue with their learning at home.

Some parents have found themselves surprised by the studiousness of our school's youngest learners. "Our girls—Hazuki (Grade 2) and Hoshina (Kindergarten)—have been very excited to participate every morning and they even got their Japanese homework done by themselves before I got out of bed this morning!" said lower school parent Miwako Ito. "E-learning has been helping us to build a good routine and structure at home."

In the Middle and Upper Schools, students were hard at work on the school's learning management software, Canvas, which has been in place for the last two years. The transition to digital learning and teaching was quite easy for many in these divisions since blended learning enabled by this software has been both the norm and expectation in both divisions.

Middle School mathematics department chair Chris Hoffman quickly created a command center at his home to help facilitate his various online classes, all of which met synchronously online.

"I had one computer running a live video feed on the Zoom application with my Honors Geometry students as we learn[ed] about the Law of Sines. I also had another computer running two other classes (Algebra 1 and Math 8) as they worked through a series of learning tasks which included watching a pre-recorded video and communicating via Canvas Chat focusing on the properties of exponents and exponential functions."

TAS was in a unique position to switch to digital learning when the need to do so occurred because of the government's decision to close schools. While many schools in the region shut down with no learning opportunities for students, the TAS Board and Administration of years past had the foresight to plan for a scenario just like the one we faced, for example, by instituting a 1:1 laptop program in the Middle and Upper Schools.

"Our technology infrastructure has been intentionally enhanced over the last decade," said Head of School Dr. Sharon Hennessy. "Our teachers were trained and new hires are expected to bring appropriate knowledge of the use of these tools. In order to support the faculty, well-trained educational technology specialists work with their respective divisions and provide expertise to optimize teaching and learning through the integration of technology. We are all committed to ensuring your children are supported in their journey towards academic excellence, under whatever circumstances we may face. We will also continue to provide the academic excellence and personal care for which we have become known."

JOURNEY TOWARD SELFHOOD

By Brenda Lin ’92, Upper School English Teacher

The year is 1957. A boy waits with his mother for the bus to take him to the American school in Taipei. It is his first day of school—the family has just moved from California to Taiwan, and his mother will help him with registration. The school bus rolls up and as the boy boards the bus with his mother close behind, he hears the children on the bus—all of whom are white—begin to chant, “No Chinese on the bus! No Chinese on the bus!”

The boy’s first reaction is to let the children know that the woman behind him is his mother, that it is okay.

The boy in this story is Dr. Shawn Wong, who attended Taipei American School in the second grade, during his father’s one-year stint working as an engineer for the U.S. Navy stationed in Taiwan. He shared this story with students, faculty, and parents during his week at TAS in January, at the invitation of Mr. Richard Arnold and with the sponsorship of the PTA. It was Dr. Wong’s first time back to TAS, after 63 years.

What is remarkable about this story is not only the sting of racism within our own community, not terribly long ago, but how the young Dr. Wong did not immediately recognize that the “Chinese” the other children were referring to was him. One’s cultural identity is often pushed upon by others or made obvious by differences (at its worst, it is defined by mainstream oppressors). After his year in Taiwan, Shawn Wong went on to become one of the pioneers in Asian American studies and literature in the United States, scouring bookstores and libraries to rescue Asian American writers out of obscurity and forgotten history, collecting their stories into anthologies. He wrote two very different books— ”Homebase” and “American Knees”, both of which are ruminations on what it means to be Asian American—giving voice to a culture with deep roots in the art of silence.

The story on the bus has a happy ending: Amid the taunts, a little girl walks up the aisle and asks to sit next to the young boy. She sits down and holds the little boy’s hand for the remainder of the bus ride, and for the rest of the school year, the two children are inseparable.

Just like the little girl who offered friendship, a common theme in the stories Dr. Wong shared with us during his week at TAS was one of kindness and generosity—how the writer, Susan Sontag, encouraged him during a period of self-doubt by sharing her own bad writing; how he and his cohort of Asian American writer friends crusaded to bring books like “No No Boy” to print; how he now helps war veterans work through PTSD by

using the creative and healing process of storytelling. One story he did not share, but that I thought of often: the kindness he showed a young writer he had never met by reading her book and offering to write its blurb. That writer was me; the book was my first⁠—which had started out as a travelogue about a month-long train ride in China, and ultimately became a collection of essays about family and cultural identity. This is what he wrote, 16 years ago, for the back cover of my book: “Naming oneself would seem to be the easiest task in the world, but…naming our national identity is just the beginning, while ’becoming’ something, such as an American, is quite another story.”

While Dr. Wong was here, Mr. Arnold put together a panel of writers, all of whom are TAS alumni, graduating between 1966 and 2019. I had the honor of being included on this panel. The age range was broad, as was the types of writers—novelist (Shawn Wong ’67), activist (Linda Gail Arrigo ’66), journalist (Han Cheung ’99), MFA student (Lin King ’12), and recent editor of the Blue & Gold (Shereen Lee ’19), but the conversation was grounded in the general agreement that in order to cultivate a thoughtful and engaged existence, one must first look inward.

The contexts may vary—be it a bus or train ride—but the journey toward an understanding of the world we live in must begin with an understanding of our own culture and identity. As a creative writing teacher, my job is to help my students develop the confidence to find their own voice.

In a diverse community like ours—of expats, third-culture-kids, multiracial families, frequent travelers—what most of us discover is that we are not defined by either/or, but rather, and/and/and; we are braided in multitudes. And the most complex (and beautiful!) answers to a deceptively simple question—where are you from?—are found in our stories.

’66

VISITING AUTHOR DR. SHAWN WONG LEADS A PANEL OF TAS WRITERS TO DISCUSS THEIR CRAFT

At the TAS Writers Panel, Shawn Wong ’66 (left), and Linda Gail Arrigo

(Courtesy of Ian H. ’21, The Blue & Gold)

SUMMIT

ALUMNI SPEAKERS PAY IT FORWARD TO TAS STUDENTS

Back in the day when you were a student at TAS, you may not have known how to start a business, become a composer, or begin your career in medicine. Today, current TAS students are lucky to benefit from the experiences of many alumni who have come back to share their stories and advice in different areas. Gordon Fan ’11 spoke to marketing students at TAS about his experience in luxury brands, while Pearl Chen ’03 shared her experiences working in the fast-moving consumer goods industry at Johnson & Johnson. For the Entrepreneurship Club, Jake Schnackenberg ’05 talked about his work at Migo, an entertainment start-up. Dr. Andy Huang ’07 talked to students from Doctors Without Borders about his work in the medical field. Mr. Arnold assembled a panel of TAS writers who spoke with students about their own paths. The panel consisted of Linda Gail Arrigo ’66, Shawn Wong ’67, Brenda Lin ’94, Han Cheung ’99, Lin King ’12, and Shereen Lee ’19. For students in the arts, Tami Tossey ’88 came back and held a dance workshop with Deb Fleming’s students, and Dr. Tiffany Chang ’04 shared her experience as a composer and professor in the U.S. Younger alumni had wisdom to impart as well; Awu Chen ’16 and Harrison

In ’16 spoke about the VR club they started while they were at TAS and how those experiences determined their path in college. Thank you to everyone who gave back to TAS by speaking to students this year!

To become an alumni speaker, please contact the Alumni Office (alumni@tas.tw).

At the fourth annual TAS Girl Up Summit on Saturday, March 7, 2020, five panelists, including four alumnae, spoke to nearly fifty students about their career experiences. Moderated by two students, the panel included Alyssa Chen (AppWorks), Natalie Lin ’10 (AppWorks), Pearl Chen ’03 (Johnson & Johnson), Vivian Chiang ’93 (SpeedSmith, BlueX), and Angela Pan ’93 (management consulting, formerly Amazon). All five panelists shared their experiences in dealing with gender stereotypes and family expectations, and also gave advice to students, encouraging them to challenge and improve themselves every day and to be confident in their own abilities. Thank you to these alumnae for being role models! Girl Up Leadership Summit is a global movement founded by the UN Foundation to help empower young women leaders who defend gender equality. This year’s theme was “Tip of the Iceberg.”

ALUMNAE SPEAK TO TAS STUDENTS AT GIRL UP

THE PAGODA RETURNS TO TAS

By Connie Ma, Alumni and Communications Officer

In January 2020, a new yet old landmark appeared quietly on TAS campus. Now, a colorfully painted pagoda of about ten feet in height stands at the southern end of the Lower Athletic Field outside the Dr. Sharon DiBartolomeo Hennessy Upper School Building. Finally, the last of Taipei American School’s iconic items has come home.

Mr. Richard Arnold, who is marking his 50th year teaching at TAS this year, probably knows the most that anyone does about the origins of the Pagoda. According to him, custodians built the Pagoda at the campus on Chang’an East Road, where TAS was located from 1953 to 1968. It was most likely brought to the then-new campus in Shilin in 1967, where it quickly found a home on Senior Island.

The Pagoda on Senior Island at Shilin Campus (Courtesy of TAS)

Mr. John Dankowski, former faculty, remembers seeing the Pagoda there on Senior Island when he arrived at TAS that year.

When asked to reminisce about TAS, the topic of Senior Island inevitably surfaces among alumni of a certain generation. For those who attended TAS anytime between the late 1960s and 1989, it was the focus of much longing and envy. Students had dug a moat around a Taiwan-shaped island in the middle of the horseshoeshape made by the classroom buildings. Any students found on the island who were not seniors were summarily ejected from the island, sometimes into the moat. “I left Taiwan in 1973, at the end of my freshman year,” remembers Stacey Wire Ward '76. “I can tell you we were all green with envy about how totally cool Senior Island was and of the Pagoda, etc. It was something the lowly underclassmen eyed with awe.”

Frank Miller '76 recalls, “When I attended TAS at the Shilin campus, the Pagoda was at one end of Senior Island, protected by a moat. I was not a senior so did not have access to the Pagoda, but no one could move between classes in high school without seeing it. On nice weather days, seniors could be found lying in the short grass all around it.” Like Frank and Stacey, many students counted down the years when they’d

be allowed to claim Senior Island for themselves, lounging on the island between classes and after school. “When I pull out my yearbook from my senior year of 1971 and look back, the Pagoda is on nearly every page of the section on the senior class,” reminisces Janel Wire Pratt '71. “It was on Senior Island, never painted, but much coveted as a seating spot.”

Not all underclassmen on Senior Island were treated with scorn, notes Janel. “As a part of our Senior English class, many of us were paired with an elementary student as tutors to help them with their reading. We often took our ’kids’ to Senior Island and sat under the Pagoda. Somewhere there is a photo of me and my charge, whose name was Bobbi.”

Traditions surrounding the Pagoda seemed to change with the decades of students who came and left at TAS. According to Romanus Wolter '82, “It was already a tradition during his time for juniors to cover Senior Island in toilet paper during ‘Senior Skip Day.’” In 1980, the juniors failed to carry through with this tradition, so Romanus along with fellow sophomores Julie Thweatt '82, Becky Bishop '82, and Craig Dinsmore '82 took it upon themselves to keep the tradition alive. “The seniors came back the next day, found the island full of TP, and took us to Student Court for the next day. We were found not

Students from the Class of 2020 sign the newly painted pagoda. (Courtesy of TAS)

Mark Taylor ’71 on the Pagoda from the 1971 Upper School Yearbook (Courtesy of TAS)

John Steere ’81 at the Pagoda c. 1979-81 (Courtesy of TAS)

The Pagoda at TES (Courtesy of Alan

guilty of ruining Senior Island but guilty of keeping a tradition alive. Also, the next year, I was voted Student Body President even though I was only a junior; so keeping traditions alive no matter the consequences was worth it,” quips Romanus. By the time Eric Kaplan '87 became class president, he recalled that the seniors would often decorate the Pagoda for whatever holidays were coming up, like Valentine’s Day, Christmas, Chinese New Year, and St. Patrick’s Day. When the senior class was on their senior trip, the juniors were allowed to paint the Pagoda however they wanted to for the next year, which was the only time they could “legally” touch it.

Former assistant superintendent and business manager Mr. Ira Weislow was instrumental in negotiating TAS’s move to our present Tianmu campus in 1989. While the TAS Bell and the statue of The Thinker were both allotted places of importance in the new campus, Mr. Weislow elected not to move the Pagoda right away. “I did not have any knowledge of the construction design and was afraid it would fall apart. Taipei European School (TES) was quite gracious in agreeing to preserve the structure and allowing TAS alumni from the old campus to visit,” he remarks.

In fact, for alumni who attended school at the Shilin campus, the current TES campus became a staple of their return tours to Taipei, even though by then Senior Island no longer existed, and the Pagoda had been relegated to a corner of the TES campus. Alumni in 2015 found it unpainted and dilapidated, and succeeded in persuading TES to help spruce it up.

In 2016 and 2018, alumni visited the Pagoda at TES campus during the Worldwide Reunions and delighted in taking pictures of this memory from their youth. Though there were numerous attempts to move the Pagoda back, it only happened this year, during the 2019-20 school year, thanks to the efforts of Chief Operations Officer Mr. Larry Kraut.

Today, the Pagoda once again sits on the TAS campus, situated at the entrance to the Joie Upper School Gymnasium. Not all current students know the history of this piece yet, but some with alumni family members have learned more. Nicole C. '21 who is writing a piece on the history of the TAS Pagoda for the student newspaper, The Blue & Gold, heard stories and traditions surrounding the Pagoda from her father and aunts, who are all alumni. “After hearing their stories about the Pagoda, I was very excited to have such an important cultural piece back on TAS campus. I hope that my generation and future generations can continue the traditions that were created while also making new ones.”

Going forward, there are future plans to commemorate the Pagoda with a plaque that honors its history, and perhaps to inaugurate some new traditions with current students and seniors. What’s certain is that the Pagoda will continue to have a place in TAS history and become a part of the memories of students once again. Expressing the sentiment echoed by so many alumni, Debby Bever '90 commented, “It looks great, and I’m so glad it’s back home where it belongs!”

“...IT WAS ALREADY A TRADITION DURING HIS TIME FOR JUNIORS TO COVER SENIOR ISLAND IN TOILET PAPER DURING “SENIOR SKIP DAY”.

The Pagoda in 2016 (Courtesy of Jim Smith ’78)

TES in the early 1990s Alan Tucker ’85)

The Pagoda in 2020 (Courtesy of TAS)

MISS WORLD OKLAHOMA, PRISCILLA WANG ’12, CHAMPIONS DIVERSITY IN TECH

By Connie Ma, Alumni and Community Outreach Officer

What does it take to be a pageant winner? Sometimes, it takes an engineer. In October 2019, Priscilla Wang ’12 competed in the Miss World America pageant as Miss Oklahoma and placed in the Top 25. In her day job, Priscilla is a software engineer at J.P. Morgan and aims to use her platform in pageantry to further her efforts to provide technical education and career opportunities for both boys and girls from underrepresented minority groups.

Priscilla attended TAS for upper school and credits her experience here with helping her understand that there was more to learning than grades. “I took a few AP and IB courses at TAS, and I especially enjoyed how my education encouraged me to fully understand a subject, rather than simply prepare for an exam.” After TAS, Priscilla enrolled at Scripps, an all-women’s liberal arts college in the Claremont Colleges Consortium, where she became intrigued by engineering. “The feeling of being able to create things is really empowering,” says Priscilla. “I never really thought of it as, ’I’m going to be an engineer,’ but rather, ’I am accumulating a skill set that will help me innovate and make cool things in the future.’” Ultimately, she enrolled in the 3+2 program, which allowed her to graduate from Scripps with a Bachelor of Arts and also from Columbia Engineering with a degree in computer engineering. Today, Priscilla works in software engineering on client-side applications at J.P. Morgan.

At Columbia, Priscilla noticed the lack of gender diversity, as she was often one of the only women in a

40-person lab section. Once in the workforce, the lack of racial and ethic diversity was even more evident to her. “There are very few women in engineering, and even less so in technology management. Even further, the industry also mainly consists of Whites and East Asians,” confides Priscilla.

Priscilla is passionate about initiatives that reimagine engineering, not only as a creative activity but also as a democratizing one: an occupation that is open to all people. “There are very few women in engineering, and even less so in technology management. Girls are often taught to be creative, being encouraged to pursue things like art and music. Boys, on the other hand, are often socialized to play video games and join robotics, both of which lead to an increased interest in engineering. Moreover, both boys and girls from minority backgrounds often do not have similar access to the resources or exposure to develop an interest in STEM fields.

“I volunteer for Girls Who Code, which sponsors engineers around the nation to come talk to girls about what it’s like to be an engineer. Girls Who Code doesn’t just teach young women how to code—it also creates a supportive environment. In addition, All-Star Code is another organization I volunteer for which focuses on underrepresented minority boys, who are also missing from the engineering field.”

For Priscilla, the value of a supportive community was key to her success, and she now wants to bring that to help encourage more students from underrepresented populations to get into engineering and STEM. “So

Priscilla speaks at Girls Who Code graduation. (Courtesy of Priscilla Wang ’12)

many of these great organizations and events are free, but many kids don’t know that there are people and resources to help them succeed. In high school, I used to look at engineering and think I’d never be able to do that. I felt really intimidated then, but once I stepped into the real world, I learned that other women—and people more broadly—have the same insecurities as me! Scripps as a women’s college made me realize how important it is to have a supportive community; it allowed me to realize that I am not the only one on this journey and that I have an army of people who see my full potential, even when I can’t.”

Astonishingly, Priscilla’s entrance into the beauty pageant world only happened this May. “I’ve been following pageants for quite a while. I have always admired how pageant girls are able to balance their day job, volunteer work, and training for competitions,” Priscilla explains. Why had she never decided to enter before? “I never felt very confident about the way I look, but this year is the next to last year I’m eligible because of my age, so I decided to compete in one of the preliminary rounds to challenge myself.” She joined the Miss World pageant system because of their focus. “Their slogan is ’Beauty With a Purpose,’” explains Priscilla. “Some of the pageant girls work at improving financial literacy among immigrant populations, assisting at-risk youth in the college application process, and advocating for American Sign Language

Priscilla (second from right) backstage with other contestants at the Miss World America 2019 Pageant (Courtesy of Priscilla Wang ’12)

education in public schools.” Though she did not place in the first preliminary round, Priscilla was invited back to compete at another preliminary a month later, and was crowned Miss Oklahoma.

However, the weeks leading up to the national pageant for Miss World America were still quite intense for Priscilla. “I had to find dresses, get them tailored, work on my walk… at the same time, I was trying to work my 40-hour work week!” laughs Priscilla. “The preliminary challenges include social media, talent, and top model walk. Then there’s the final. I think the hardest thing is getting the look down for your evening gown, because stage make-up is so different from make-up in photos.” Ultimately, Priscilla finished in the Top 25. “I really liked this pageant experience, because sometimes, there are 200 girls going on stage, but with 50 girls, each representing a state, I felt that I got to know them really well,” smiled Priscilla. “I’m excited to collaborate with a few girls on STEM-related causes. Miss Massachusetts is a civil engineer and Miss California is a physicist who used to work with NASA. The three of us are planning a ’Girls’ STEM Day’ in the Spring of 2020.”

Now that the competition is over, Priscilla looks forward to using her platform to promote her causes. “The glitz and glamour is definitely really fun, but for me, I entered the competition because I thought it was a great opportunity to promote the causes that I care about.”

Priscilla visits Tulsa STEM Expo. (Courtesy of Priscilla Wang ’12)

After winning the Miss World Oklahoma crown, Priscilla made an appearance at the Tulsa STEM Expo. “They invited me to speak to the kids and engage with them to inspire them to go into STEM. Tulsa is very diverse, but the school districts are very divided. There’s still a lot of work to be done in order for every child to have equal access to education, and I hope to be a part of that process,” Priscilla concludes. In 2020, Priscilla hopes to host her own workshops in Oklahoma and all around the world to get young people interested in STEM. To sponsor or collaborate on making workplaces in tech more diverse, Priscilla invites fellow alumni to get in touch with her through her website: thepriscillawang.com

“My goal—my heart—is set on helping kids. I want to show them how exciting life as an engineer can be. I want to create a great experience for them. And after I got back from Nationals on Monday, I immediately thought, ’OK, I’m ready to get to work.’ I understand that there will be a lot of challenges. But anything worth having in the world is worth the effort.”

CAROLINE CHOU ’02 FINDS SUCCESS BLENDING DESIGN WITH FOOD

By Connie Ma, Alumni and Community Outreach Officer

For most people, running a restaurant and a design studio would mean taking on two separate full-time jobs. For Caroline Chou ’02 and her husband Kevin Lim, it is a serendipitous combination that enables them to fully flex their creative muscles as co-owners of OPENUU Design Studio and Mean Noodles.

“My first encounter with architecture and design was in our 8th grade woodshop class at TAS. I found it wonderful to work with my hands and to design and produce something,” Caroline recalls. At Wellesley, Caroline studied computer science, but kept a focus on design, and after graduating, she earned a Master’s degree in Architecture at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD). In Boston, Caroline met her future husband, Kevin, a native of Hong Kong with roots in Malaysia, who had degrees in culinary arts and architecture. In 2012, the couple moved back to Hong Kong.

“We came back to start a design business here, because it’s easier than setting up shop in the U.S., and there are more opportunities in Asia,” says Caroline, echoing a common sentiment among TAS alumni and Asian entrepreneurs. At first, OPENUU, the husband-and-wife collaboration took on every available project, including warehouse conversions, restaurants, and offices. Soon, they came up with the idea of an operating restaurant which would double as a showroom for their design studio. Together, Caroline and Kevin created a Malaysian noodle shop called Mean Noodles (麵佬到), a play on the Chinese character mian, or noodles. While Kevin and his kitchen team primarily run restaurant operations, Caroline works on social media and marketing.

Caroline and Kevin’s hard work has landed them the 2019 Will Ching Award from IIDA, which “celebrates originality and excellence in commercial design from firms with (5) five or fewer employees,” and received coverage from Interior Design magazine in June 2019.

Designing and running the restaurant has been a useful combination for Caroline and Kevin. “Many restaurant

owners encounter problems because the designers don’t understand restaurant operations. For kitchens, the workflow is really important, so how they do service, where to locate the cashier, it’s all key to the operation of the restaurant,” Caroline explains. Mean Noodles also reflects OPENUU’s work with current trends in design. “In this style called modern industrial chic, we use a combination of different materials. The floors are concrete and industrial, but the tiles are modern and updated, giving it a more stylish look,” explains Caroline. “We even found this tile pattern that was inspired by batik, which is a traditional floral fabric motif in Malaysian culture.”

With its laksa noodle soup and stir-fry noodles, Mean Noodles belongs to the trend of fast casual cuisine, which is often accompanied by Instagrammable, stylish settings. “People want to try a new place, and then turn around and post it online for other people to see,” Caroline explains. “So it’s great to have a setting which creates those sorts of Instagram or 打卡 moments.”

Caroline and Kevin have big dreams for OPENUU, including three new restaurants in Zhuhai and a new hotel project in Hong Kong. They are also working on gaining visibility and are always eager to grow and learn. “You can only achieve so much, and then you need to talk to people who have more experience,” reflects Caroline.

Caroline Chou ’02 and husband Kevin Lim (Courtesy of Caroline Chou ’02)

DR. PAUL COURTRIGHT ’72 REFLECTS ON A CAREER ABROAD

By Connie Ma, Alumni and Community Outreach Officer

For Dr. Paul Courtright ’72, a few years in Taiwan was the inspiration for a lifetime abroad. As a teenager, Paul felt empowered both by his TAS education and also by his experiences in exploring the island of Taiwan. Following a stint in the Peace Corps, Paul pursued an international career in the epidemiology of eye diseases, eventually founding the Kilimanjaro Center for Community Ophthalmology (KCCO) in Tanzania with his wife Dr. Susan Lewallen. Today, Paul is internationally recognized for his work, and credits his international upbringing for his later career which has changed the lives of so many.

Paul arrived in Taiwan with his family in 1968. His father, who worked for USAID, was based in Vietnam, and Paul, his brother John ’71, and his mother lived in Wellington Heights for three years. Though he wasn’t physically in Taipei for his last year, Paul graduated from TAS as a part of the Class of 1972. “The main thing I enjoyed about TAS was the real mix of people from all over the world: mostly Americans but so many people with a variety of backgrounds and cultures that I found fascinating,” reminisced Paul. Paul had lived in Iran for two years during middle school, so living overseas was not new to him, but he found living in Taiwan as a teenager a novel experience. “I found Taiwan an incredible place to explore. I have memories of walking along railroad tracks, going through markets, and exploring the south of the island by train.”

At TAS, Paul studied under Mr. William Rada, who taught geography and current affairs and inspired him to study international relations and China in college. “One experience I’ll never forget is that our class invited the ambassador for South Africa to come speak at TAS. In 1970-71, South Africa still had

apartheid, and we wanted to hear from him and have our classmates have the opportunity to fire questions at him about the government and those racist policies,” remembered Paul. “He agreed to come, and for an hour, he talked and faced a whole bunch of questions from everyone. There was a huge turnout for that talk, and I came away from that feeling that we as teenagers can actually do something meaningful and get people engaged.”

Because of his experiences at TAS, Paul and his wife Susan resolved to raise their children overseas to give them that valuable experience of being outside their comfort zones and being exposed to other cultures. “As a young person where you really have to seek permission from parents to do things, having the flexibility to do things at TAS and explore in ways we hadn’t thought about before was really exciting.

Paul examining a leprosy patient in South Korea in 1981 (Courtesy of Dr. Paul Courtright ’72)

I’m really grateful for the kind of education that TAS provided during my time there,” Paul explained. The Courtright family left Taipei in 1971 for Australia, where Paul applied to college to study international relations and Chinese language. After Paul decided that following the typical career path to work in a U.S. embassy was not for him, he switched to another school to earn a degree in education and then entered the Peace Corps. “I spent my Peace Corps time in Korea as a leprosy worker, and when I went, I knew absolutely zippo about leprosy, but I received really good training in Korea,” recalled Paul. “I went out to live in the village of leprosy patients, and what struck me was that there was a lot of eye pathology in those patients. That’s how I went down the direction of ophthalmology, because I got interested in what was going on with the eyes of my leprosy patients.” After nearly four years in Korea, Paul went to Johns Hopkins University and earned a master’s degree in public health with a focus in epidemiology to learn about how diseases affect populations. “I was lucky that they were doing a fellowship in preventive ophthalmology, which is all about how to prevent eye diseases on a population scale. That put me on the pathway to doing epidemiology of eye diseases, which I also focused on for my doctorate at UC Berkeley.”

Paul and his wife Dr. Susan Lewallen met at UC Berkeley and spent their next two decades overseas. They lived in Malawi for four years, where their sons were born, and where Susan acted as the only ophthalmologist for a population of five million people. “We both recognized here that eye care was not provided as efficiently as it could be because there weren’t any systems in place. To meet the needs

of the population, we realized that a more public health-oriented approach and a less clinically-oriented approach was needed.” After Malawi, Paul and Susan transitioned to Vancouver for seven years, where Paul founded an institute on international ophthalmology with a focus on epidemiological research at the University of British Columbia.

In 2001, Paul and Susan channeled their combined experiences in Africa, epidemiology, and ophthalmology into founding the Kilimanjaro Center for Community Ophthalmology in Tanzania. “We had to write all of our own grants and hire staff, but though it was difficult, it turned out to be extremely successful because we were fulfilling a need that wasn’t being met anywhere else in Africa.” The need that Paul and Susan saw was for capacity building for hospitals and ministries of public health; with their assistance, African doctors and clinics could better plan their service delivery, improve management, lead programs to bring more patients to hospitals, and maintain programs once they were launched.

Paul is especially proud of some of the strides that KCCO made while he and Susan were co-directors. “We were the first group globally to realize and document through research the finding that women accounted for 2 out of every 3 blind people in the world, and that they did not have equal access to eye care services. The World Health Organization funded us to find different ways to improve their use of those services, and so we were really trailblazers in understanding that problem, finding solutions, and implementing them.” Another area of work that Paul is proud of is identifying and helping children with cataracts. “It’s rare for children to be born with cataracts or develop them, but they only came to the hospital two or three years after their parents detected the problem. We led the work to identify these children earlier and help hospitals develop pediatric eye care units, connect them with ophthalmologists to do the surgery, and ensure follow-up.”

In doing this crucial work, KCCO faced some incredible hurdles. “Health systems are incredibly weak in Africa,” lamented Paul. “When you develop programs, you need to start from scratch and train people on understanding and using a bank account, managing money, using Excel, and planning service delivery. People come into the field with very limited skills, so it’s very challenging.” Turnover also contributes to their challenges. “You can train up people so that two years later, they’re doing a great job, but if the ministry moves them somewhere else, you have no control over that, and you need to start all over again.”

Over the years, KCCO has grown under Paul and Susan’s stewardship. Thanks to their deliberate approach, KCCO spread organically across Africa. “Early on, we started running two-week and six-week courses, and through those classes, we identified really sharp people who were motivated and had leadership skills. So we asked them, how can we help you when

Paul meets Queen Elizabeth in October 2019. (Courtesy of Dr. Paul Courtright ’72)

you go back to Burundi or Zambia? What can we do to help you transform your eye units and hospitals into more effective facilities?” Those people became their first partners in those countries, and today, KCCO is active in nearly 10 countries in Africa. Four years ago, KCCO expanded in a new direction to work on trachoma, a condition where a bacterial infection can cause eyelids and eyelashes to grow inward. The British government and the Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Trust have funded KCCO to work with a population of about 3 million people to organize surgery and treatment for this condition and focus on eliminating this public health issue.

In 2012, Paul and Susan moved to South Africa to work at the University of Cape Town for four years, running the operation at a distance so their staff in Tanzania could handle more work. In 2016, they handed over the reins for KCCO and moved to San Diego into semi-retirement. In October 2019, Paul met with Queen Elizabeth II in recognition for his work at KCCO and also for his current role as the Trachoma Technical Lead for all trachoma work

supported by the Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Trust. While consulting in this role, Paul has also been busy writing his first book, which will be published in 2020, about his experiences in South Korea during his Peace Corps years.

Reflecting on his experiences, Paul kept coming back to the foundation he received at TAS. “My education here gave me a real sense that the world was open to me, and it was up to me to do something with it. I still feel very privileged to have had this education. I hope other TAS alumni will treasure the experiences they’ve had here, and look at it as the foundation or springboard for doing something meaningful in life.”

To younger alumni and students, Paul has these parting words of advice. “There’s a lot to do that’s meaningful in life, and you may not figure it out to begin with. I was in my thirties before I got into the field that really resonated with me, so don’t feel like you have to rush it, and take the time to figure out how you’re going to use that education and experience.”

Paul (left) and Janvier at the Nyundo pharmacy in Rwanda in 2006 (Courtesy of Dr. Paul Courtright ’72)

Paul teaching at a KCCO retreat in Tanzania in 2007 (Courtesy of Dr. Paul Courtright ’72)

From right to left: Paul and Susan with their sons Jim and Tom (Courtesy of Dr. Paul Courtright '72)

FROM GRADE 7 TO SEVENTHGRADE

By Shereen Lee ’19

Geo Lee ’03 and Chuck Ma ’03 became fast friends when Lee moved to Taipei American School in Grade 7. But unlike many of the middle school relationships that drift apart over time, Lee and Ma’s lives only became more tightly intertwined after their graduation from TAS.

The duo attended colleges only half an hour apart—the University of California, Irvine, and Chapman University, respectively—and spent hours driving to stay connected over the course of college.

In 2016, more than 20 years after their first meeting, they started a comedy duo called SeventhGrade. A series of humorous videos primarily centered around Asian identity, the group’s most popular videos have garnered up to 350,000 views on Facebook.

In an age where meme groups like Subtle Asian Traits dominate the internet, Lee and Ma are part of a recent trend in exploring pan-Asian cultural expression. From videos on white people who get Chinese-character

tattoos to tackling stereotypes about the “dateability” of Asian men, their videos are a refreshing take on what it’s like to be an Asian-American in the 21st century.

“We hope to continue to make the best videos that we can make, hopefully, so that it can become a positive representation of Asians and Asian Americans in the entertainment industry,” said Lee. “Especially this year with ’Crazy Rich Asians’ and a bunch of other milestones, we [AsianAmericans] have been finally breaking into the Western entertainment industry."

SeventhGrade is not their first venture together: In 2013, nine TAS alumni started a breakdancing crew called Instant Noodles, which was founded in 2003, and the group danced together for over ten years in shows like MTV’s America’s Best Dance Crew.

As the dance group fizzled out, the duo eventually grew interested in a new iteration of the dance group. “As we grow older, dancing becomes tougher on your body,” he said. “Making videos seemed like a natural extension of our art.”

DEREK CHEN ’99 AND CHANTAL CHEN’S JOURNEY INTO CROSS-CULTURAL MINISTRY

By Connie Ma, Alumni and Community Outreach Officer

Derek Chen ’99 and Chantal Chen never pictured living in the remote jungles of Papua New Guinea, but in 2018, their calling in Christian ministry brought them to the island country where they built a home among a local tribe and began to learn their local language. Though they came back to stay in Taiwan in winter 2019, Derek and Chantal hope to return to their work in Papua New Guinea soon. In this interview, the couple reflect on their journey so far and what brought them to Papua New Guinea.

Derek: “Not at all. In high school, I was in the music circle, studying under Stephen Abernethy and Kristin Love, and I represented TAS at IASAS. People even used to call me Yo-Yo Chen, because I played the cello. Back then, becoming a missionary in the middle of nowhere didn’t even occur to me. Growing up in Taiwan, I attended church, but I didn’t really consider myself a Christian. I loved my time at TAS, because those were my building blocks. I think one of the biggest

things I learned here was being a third culture kid. This experience allowed me to see and appreciate cultures, and as a missionary, I have to constantly work across cultures.

“It was at Northwestern where I met my wife Chantal in a Bible study when I started reexamining what the core message of Christianity was. Truly becoming a Christian is the touchstone that has reshaped my identity in many ways. The message of the Bible was life-changing for me, and even though I had been going to church most of my life, I had missed that message early on. I felt like there was a responsibility for me to share that understanding.”

WHAT WAS YOUR TAS EXPERIENCE AND YOUR COLLEGE EXPERIENCE LIKE? DID YOU KNOW YOU WOULD BECOME A MISSIONARY EVEN THEN?

Derek Chen ‘99 and Chantal Chen with their three sons in front of their home in Papua New Guinea (Courtesy of Derek Chen ’99)

WHAT PLANTED THE SEED FOR YOU TO DO MINISTRY WORK AS MISSIONARIES IN VERY REMOTE PARTS OF THE WORLD?

Chantal: “Our Bible study was led by a student who was a missionary kid, and he told us a lot of real-life missionary stories. After Derek and I graduated from college, we lived in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, for three years, and worked with a parachurch organization. I met and wrote a book about a missionary couple who had lived and worked in a tribe in Paraguay for 17 years. Even when I was interviewing them, we were inspired by how special their lives were, but at that time we thought to ourselves that we could never do anything like that.”

DID YOU START OFF IN YOUR MINISTRY AS OVERSEAS MISSIONARIES? WHAT EXPERIENCES OR FORMAL TRAINING DID YOU BRING TO MISSIONARY WORK?

Derek: “Before we started doing missionary work, we both attended Dallas Theological Seminary for four years. Afterwards, I served as the Assistant Mandarin Pastor at Westside Calgary Chinese Alliance Church in Calgary, Canada. We learned a lot there through shepherding a church, doing marriage counseling, officiating weddings and conducting funerals. The Mandarin congregation was 99% mainland Chinese, and that was where we learned to do crosscultural ministry. We learned not to assume too much or impose our culture on them. Many of them are first-generation Christians, who didn’t grow up in Christian households, so they needed a lot

of teaching on how to parent as Christians or live out their marriages biblically.”

WHAT KIND OF MISSIONARY WORK ARE YOU DOING?

Derek: “We serve with Ethnos Canada (known as Ethnos360 in the U.S.), which focuses on unreached people groups. That means these groups don’t have Christian presence or Scripture in their own language, because nobody has gone there to learn their language and translate Scripture into their mother tongue. Our goal is to do that and train the people there in what we call discipleship, so they can become church elders and learn to teach the next generation. It’s the same way that many missionaries worked in Taiwan, and now these Taiwanese churches are standing on their own. We chose Papua New Guinea because its official language is an English-based creole, which we could learn fairly quickly and then be able to move into an unreached people group. Ethnos also has good infrastructure in this country, and many experienced missionaries.”

HOW HAS THE EXPERIENCE BEEN SO FAR? WHAT ARE SOME UNIQUE EXPERIENCES YOU’VE HAD?

Derek: “We arrived in early 2017 in Papua New Guinea for our training in-country. In 2018, we visited the Tanguat people in the Ramu Valley, asking for permission to work with their community. This is an area of the country that doesn’t get much attention from the government, so there aren’t any roads, and the closest medical facility is at least a few hours’ hike away. When we asked if we

could come, they considered it an honor of sorts. Some groups in the country can be hostile, but most— like ours—are fairly receptive, and they know that outsiders come with their benefits, so we have to be careful about what we’re promising.”

Chantal: “Before we moved in, we told them: ’We commit to learning your language, teaching you how to read and write in your own language, translating the Bible into your language, teaching you the Bible’s message, and then teaching you how to teach others.’ Everything else is bonus. The temptation is always to give them more material goods, but that doesn’t help them become self-sufficient, and sometimes even harms them. In Papua New Guinea, 97% of people are subsistence farmers, so while malnutrition may be common, there are rarely any famines or problems of hunger. They’re very community oriented, and there are hardly any orphans because children are immediately taken in by relatives.”

Derek: “After we got the permission to move in, the first thing we did was to build our new house in the village from scratch. We worked alongside the villagers and community to cut and fell trees with chainsaws, and shaped and milled the lumber together. Even the children made makeshift ’wheelbarrows’ and carried the dirt away from the holes we dug to accommodate the posts of the house. Ethnos brought in eight helicopter loads of building materials. The house is simple, but we do have a few modern amenities—running water, a flushing toilet, solar panels with a water heater, a stove and oven, and even a semi-automatic laundry washer and spinner.”

Chantal: “One of the more unique experiences we’ve had so far was harvesting a sago palm tree with the village. Sago starch is a basic food product for many Papua New Guineans, and the whole process is quite involved. We had to cut down the tree, scrape away the inside, rinse the starch out of the

Derek (center) and villagers build the Chens’ house in 2018. (Courtesy of Derek Chen ’99)

pulp, and then cook it. Our three boys really got into the entire experience.”

WHAT ARE THE BIGGEST CHALLENGES THAT YOU FACE IN YOUR MINISTRY HERE?

Derek: “We trained for one of the biggest challenges: how to learn an unwritten language and put it into writing. We can only learn the language from a native speaker, so we would go out every day, find families to talk to, and just start naming things, moving from objects and nouns to verbs and connectors. We took pictures of different kinds of trees. Even though at first glance, it’s not important to learn the names of twenty different types of trees to translate the Bible, it’s important to understanding their culture. Chantal actually has documented twenty different kinds of bananas, because they eat all twenty kinds and can tell you all about them!”

Chantal: “I think the most challenging thing about ministry here is really understanding their culture. You can learn someone’s language but culture takes years and years and years of spending

time with people to understand what they think.”

Derek: “But we also see learning another culture as being one of the biggest benefits of being a missionary. You’re leaving your comfort zone and trying to become comfortable in another context. Someone once said, one of the biggest gifts you can give people is to learn their language and culture. You understand what makes them tick, what motivates them, and what makes them happy.”

WHAT BROUGHT YOU BACK TO TAIPEI? HOW ARE YOU DEALING WITH THIS UNEXPECTED SETBACK?

Chantal: “In March 2019, we came back to Taiwan for a short checkup on an existing medical condition that I had. During the same routine check-up, they diagnosed me with a fast-growing lymphoma cancer. So we unexpectedly had to stay here while I received chemo treatment, and we even put our two older sons in a local elementary school. We’re now waiting for the green light to return to Papua New Guinea at the end of 2019.”

Derek: “Cancer can be a scary word, but we’re keeping the

bigger picture in mind. Missionary work has been a very personal call for us. It’s not something abstract, or even something we’re particularly good at. But for us, it’s very clear. We have a relationship with Jesus, and we want to share his life-changing message. As long as God allows us to be there and keeps opening doors for us to do that work, that’s what we want too. To us, we won’t be devastated if a door closes. Ultimately, we know that God is loving, God is powerful, and whatever he gives us, it’s ultimately for our own good. That’s how we’ve been facing this cancer thing. It sucks, but God knows what’s best.”

Chantal: “Yes, the most fulfilling thing is that we’re finally doing what we’re called to do. Even when I was working in a law firm in Chicago, I enjoyed a good living, but the entire time, I didn’t feel like I was serving my purpose in life. Just being here is a great gift. We’re thankful for God’s plan and that we have resources. We have to think about how we can bless others with that privilege.”

Derek and his family visit Inapang in 2018. (Courtesy of Derek Chen ’99)

CLASS OF 1989

30-YEAR REUNION

The Class of 1989 had a wild 30-Year Reunion weekend in August 2019! Despite a typhoon, ’89ers enjoyed happy hour at the ACC, took in a tour of TAS, dined at the Grand Hotel, visited the National Palace Museum, and enjoyed a party at Triangle.

ALUMNI PROSPECTIVE PARENTS

More than 20 alumni attended our annual Alumni Prospective Parents event in November 2019 to learn about the TAS admissions process from Michael O’Neill, Director of Admissions, and to hear about the Mandarin program from Caroline Hsu, K-8 Mandarin Coordinator.

ALUMNI VS. VARSITY VOLLEYBALL GAMES

Our alumni teams played against the TAS boys and girls varsity volleyball teams to provide competition for their first games of the season in August 2019. Congratulations to all the players, and thanks to TAS Athletics for supporting!

TAS

70 YEARS OF EXCELLENCE

On September 26, 2020, the TAS community came together to celebrate its 70th Anniversary. Current and past Board members, administration, parents, faculty, staff, as well as students and alumni were welcomed by dancing and singing performances as well as an exciting lion dance. A video looking back at TAS’s seven decades of history premiered at the event. Director of AIT W. Brent Christensen, former TAS parent, spoke, as did Board Chair Tina Koo and Head of School Dr. Sharon Hennessy. Donors came together to donate USD $1 million in order to rename D-Block as the Dr. Sharon DiBartolomeo Hennessy Upper School.

Following the celebrations on campus, alumni celebrated TAS’s 70th Anniversary at Little Creatures in downtown Taipei. Over 80 alumni from the Classes of 1970 to 2013 came out to enjoy the event and catch up with each other.

CELEBRATING 70 YEARS COAST TO COAST

Head of School Dr. Sharon Hennessy celebrated TAS’s 70th Anniversary this fall with alumni on the East Coast. Dr. Hennessy met TAS graduates currently attending college in the Boston and New York City areas, and heard about this next chapter in their lives. Dr. Hennessy also hosted an all-decades alumni event gathering in NYC.

NYC, BOSTON, SF, LA WITH HEAD OF SCHOOL

In January 2020, Dr. Hennessy visited the West Coast to celebrate Chinese New Year with many TAS alumni from the Classes of 1968 to 2019 in San Francisco, Berkeley, Irvine, and Los Angeles. Thank you to our generous sponsors: Mr. Stanley Ko ’88 and Mrs. Annabelle Ko, Mr. Bobby Sheng and Ms. Charlotte Kuo ’86, and Mr. Erwin Shyu ’76 and Ms. Tina Fan (Diamond Jamboree Development).

SAN FRANCISCO

Our San Francisco alumni came out in October 2019 to SPIN SF. More than 40 alumni attended from college-age students to alumni from the Class of 1981. Alumni enjoyed playing pingpong together and watching the “Celebrating 70 Years” video, created specifically for TAS’s 70th Anniversary.

TAS ALUMNI AROUND THE WORLD

SEOUL

At our first Seoul event at Dinette in Itaewon in November 2019, 18 alumni from the Class of 1994 to 2016 gathered with current TAS faculty Darby Sinclair and former lower school counselor Lisa Adams to share updates about the school, life after TAS, and how things are going in Seoul.

PORTLAND

Former faculty who live in the state of Oregon enjoyed dim sum at lunch with each other at Wong’s King in November 2019. Attendees included Henry Schwarz (front left) and continuing clockwise, Charlene Schneiter, Fred Schneiter, Jeff Fischmann, Kay Haberlach, Jan Clark, Susan Rinker, Carol Chadwick, John Chadwick, and Bill Funk.

NEW YORK CITY

Over 30 college freshmen from the Class of 2019 gathered in New York City’s Chinatown in November 2019 and bonded over their different yet similar college experiences around the world. It was a night of reminiscing and chattering as if they were still in the TAS cafeteria.

SHANGHAI

Over 40 alumni showed up at Pistacchio in Shanghai for a Thanksgiving-themed buffet feast in November 2019. We had representatives from the Class of 1970 to the Class of 2012. A big thank you to coordinator Irene Chang ’95 and Pistacchio owner Bonnie Chen ’03 for organizing the event.

ALUMNI THANKSGIVING DINNER

Over 170 alumni and family came out to give thanks with us and to enjoy a Thanksgiving buffet of turkey with all the trimmings as well as the perennial favorite Chinese chicken leg! Alumni enjoyed a tour of the new Solomon Wong Tech Cube, courtesy of TAS faculty Matt Fagen, and also heard from Board member Joe Hei ’93 and Assistant Head of School for Advancement Dr. Kathy Limmer.

CLASS OF 2009 10-YEAR REUNION

More than 60 alumni from the Class of 2009 met up in December 2019 at the Ambassador Hotel followed by a night out at KOR. Thanks to organizers Shuping Liu ’09 and See Lim ’09.

CLASS OF 1994 25-YEAR REUNIONS

The Class of 1994 celebrated their 25th year since graduation on December 28, 2019 in Taipei at Chili’s Neihu with an after party at the rooftop of the Marriott nearby. Twenty-seven members of the class attended the party. An earlier class reunion was held in August 2019 in New York City. Thanks to event organizers Stella Tsai ’94, Lalta Keswani ’94, Becky Yuan ’94, and David Tang ’94!

CLASS OF 1999 20-YEAR REUNION

The Class of 1999 took a trip down memory lane on December 21, 2019. The ’99ers basketball team competed proudly together in the Clash of the Classes Basketball Games and bonded at Mary’s Hamburgers. Later that evening, Class of 1999 had their 20-Year reunion dinner at Wildwood Live Fire Cuisine, owned by Ben Ng ’99. Over 40 alumni from around the world attended and enjoyed seeing Mr. Castelaz and Mr. Arnold. Big thanks to Class Agents Edward Wang ’99 and Lien Chu ’99, Nickey Yeung ’99, Dorothy Hsui ’99, Grace Chu ’99, and Lisa Hinat ’99.

2019 CLASH OF THE CLASSES BASKETBALL

GAMES

More than 60 alumni came back to compete in the annual Clash of the Classes Basketball Games. Kevin Lee ’09 captained his team to an overall victory over second place finishers led by Sean Cheng ’02, while Michael Chou ’16’s team captured third place over the team led by Collin Chen ’18. The TAS girls varsity basketball team also enjoyed a scrimmage with alumnae during the winter break.

ALUMNI HOMECOMING TEA AND LUNCH

During winter break, more than 150 collegeage alumni from the Classes of 2016-2019 returned to TAS for the Alumni Homecoming Tea and the traditional chicken leg lunch with the current senior class. An alumni panel also spoke to upper school parents about their college experiences.

ALUMNI VS. VARSITY BOYS SOCCER GAME

Fifteen alumni came out during winter break to play a scrimmage against the TAS varsity boys soccer team.

Front row (left to right): Weston Cooper ’08, Michael Leu ’03, Sanders McMillan ’13; second row (left to right): Maria Peters ’89, Betty Sun ’72, Stephanie Lee ’04, Samantha Lee ’12; third row (left to right): Jenn Huang ’04, Cheryl Lagerquist ’98, Jessica Huang ’11, Nicky Yeung ’99; top row (left to right): Sarah Peters ’95, Michelle Kao ’03, Irene Fang ’01

Not pictured: Betty Chang ’92, Stephanie Chiang ’09, Evelyn Chen ’03, Joan Ho ’08, Stephanie Hsieh ’04, Brenda Lin ’94, Adrian Town ’13, Karen Wang ’04

Elizabeth Wang ’91 Paul Hsu ’94 Joseph Hwang ’87 Gayle Tsien ’87 Vera Wu ’87 Joseph Hei ’93

CLASS NOTES

Andy Paul Wee '56, better known professionally as "Littlepaw," is an award-winning sculptor and wood carving artist. He has won the Best of Show in both Oklahoma City and Mountain Home, Arkansas, Carverof-the-Year, and he has a wall full of ribbons for his work. Littlepaw creates unique, custom-designed beaded walking/hiking staffs, each of which contains over three thousand handpainted and carved beads. Littlepaw participated in the prestigious 25th Annual "Art in the Square" Exhibit at Utica Square in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on Saturday, October 5, 2019.

John Church '65 graduated from TAS and went on to a career in the Air Force. He is a strong supporter of and volunteers at the Mikey Medium English School, which opened in Bauniyan (in far western Nepal in 2008. The school was founded by John's son Mike, after a chance encounter with a Nepali family in this community during a cycling trip around the world. Since 2010, John and his wife have supported the Mikey Medium English School through a 501c3 organization called Grassroots Education Nepal, where volunteers visit and teach at the school every year. Today, there are 300 students at Mikey Medium English School, up from 42 at its founding in 2008. John invites fellow TAS alumni who are interested in getting involved to visit their website: grassrootseducationnepal.com.

Five alumnae from the Class of 1969 reunited in Taipei in October 2019: (left to right) Man Hua Yu '69, Sylvia Hai '69, Madeline Ma '69, Nora King '69, and Rosita Young '69

David Benson '74 is a Grammynominated music producer, concert promoter and award-winning innovator in interactive media. He has served many key roles as musician, music/audio producer, engineer, programmer, and sound designer. He has also been a production manager for artists, labels, corporations, TV programs, and for performers including Barbara Streisand, Michael Jackson, Barry Manilow, Eric Clapton and Carrie Underwood. His last visit to Taipei was in 1993 while on tour with Michael Jackson. Currently David is documenting his exploration of cities around the world through local music scenes. David visited Taipei in June 2019, and he shared that the Taipei music scene has proven to be the most vibrant so far.

Lindsey Arison '68 revisited Taipei in July 2019. His mother taught Grade 3 at TAS when they lived here, and Lindsey attended TAS for eight years. After TAS, he attended Jakarta International School, and went to West

Dr. Paul Courtright '72 is an internationally renowned epidemiologist in eye diseases, and co-founded the Kilimanjaro Center for Community Ophthalmology (KCCO) in Tanzania with his wife. He was recognized by Queen Elizabeth for his work in November 2019.

Point. Lindsey also attended USC and Harvard for graduate school, and currently runs Academy Cruises (http:// www.academycruises.com).

Three alumni from the Class of 1968 had the chance to visit TAS together in November 2019: (left to right) Steve Chiu '68, Vincente Tang '68, and Maria Chen '68

Deborah Lau '77 (right) visited Taipei for the first time in decades in January 2020 with her friend Mary and was very glad to see Mr. Arnold, whom she remembers fondly.

Harrison Ting '77 lives in Manila, and visited TAS in August 2019 for the first time in decades with his family. He was delighted to be reunited with Mr. Arnold, and hopes that fellow alumni will visit him in Manila.

Paul Montague '78 lives in Ocean View, Hawaii, and sends his greetings. His mother Claire Smith, former Chemistry teacher at TAS, lived with him until she passed away in February 2020.

Cynthia Wong ’87, Allie Chen '88, Sherry Yuan Hunter '88, and Joel Chan '89 held a mini reunion in Toronto in September 2019.

Thailand. She studies host-pathogen interactions of influenza viruses and coronaviruses and is also helping the Thai Government Pharmaceutical Organization with their development of cell culture-based influenza vaccines. Samaporn welcomes interested TAS students and graduates to apply as interns at her institute to further explore molecular biology, tissue culture, or virus and cell engineering research.

Clayton Cole '78 and Dawn Cole were reunited with Doug Sutherland '79 and Barb Sutherland in October 2019 while passing through Peterborough, Ontario, Canada.

Raiole '79 is a U.S. Foreign Service Officer. He was recently reunited with TAS students who were attending the AMIS Jazz Festival in London in September 2019. Mike's daughter currently attends the American School of London, and also sang in the AMIS Jazz Skills Workshop.

Dawn Farber '91 currently lives in Hong Kong at HKUST with her husband Patrick Yue and two children. They came to visit TAS in May of 2019.

Julie Tuan '93 attended TAS from 1989 to 1990. In July 2019 she relocated back to Taipei with her husband and two children after 14 years of living in Hong Kong and Shanghai where she worked as an attorney. She also co-founded, owned, and operated Hong Kong's first artisan popsicle business: Lola's Ice Pops.

Derek Chen '99 and wife Chantal have been living in Papua New Guinea for the past two years with their three boys. Prior to returning to Taipei in March 2019 for a medical leave, they had just moved into a remote village in the tropical jungles and started learning the aboriginal language with the goal of translating the Bible and starting an indigenous church.

Erik Wang '94 (center right) and Julie Wang '96 (center left) visited TAS with Julie’s family and their mother Elizabeth in June 2019.

Susan Costlow '80 currently lives in the U.S. with her husband and two children. They visited TAS in August 2019 for the first time she graduated. Susan is the Class Agent for 1980.

Samaporn Teeravechyan '96 currently works as a researcher in the Virology and Cell Technology Laboratory at the National Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology in

Debbie Chou '00 is a singersongwriter currently based in New York City. Debbie’s debut album, “Lovebug” (2012), and the single, “Little Prince” (2013) reflect her piano and synth-based aesthetic borrowed from post-punk, piano rock, indie rock, classical, and electronic music. Her latest release, “The End Of Our Time,” is her first new music offering in six years and is available on Bandcamp, Spotify, iTunes, and KKBox.

Dinesh Parvani '98 (left) and his family as well as sister Upasna Parvani '06 (right) visited Taipei in October 2019. They now live in Hong Kong.

Coen Crijns '00 visited Taipei in November 2019, and was delighted to be reunited with his former tennis coach Mr. Vandenboom, now upper school associate principal.

as Lorraine Baines, Marty McFly's mother. Based on the 1985 film of the same name, the production opened in February 2020 at the Manchester Opera House. Learn more about the production at www. backtothefuturemusical.com.

Gordon Kung '01 is engaged to the founder and CEO of Modern English Scholastic Institute, Susan Cheng, who received her M.S. in Education from UPenn. In March 2020, they did an early wedding photo shoot at TAS.

Dr. William Hung '03 is Branding CMO and Assistant Physician at Maria Von Stem Cell and Biotechnology Company, which signed an MOU with Devova Sciences. Run by CEO and Co-Founder Daniel Tan '05, Devova Sciences provides preclinical alternatives to animal testing in Singapore. Together, they are targeting the R&D driven personal care market by offering an ethical non-animal testing approach for companies keen on developing Asia-specific products.

Edward B. Lin '03 is a family medicine physician at Kaiser in Montebello, CA. He visited Taipei in May 2019.

Marco Son '03, a former New York City lawyer, founded Amp Café in 2014. Marco is partnering with classmate Will Hung '03 (Maria Von) to encourage healthier work culture and increase employee engagement at Maria Von. Amp Cafe opened a location at Maria Von's headquarters in Xizhi. Customers with a TAS ID or Alumni ID can enjoy 10% off their purchase.

Dr. Andy Huang '07 visited TAS as an alumni speaker in November 2019. In college, Andy studied psychology at McGill University in Montreal, and then moved to Sydney, Australia, to complete his medical degree. He recently obtained a Master of Medicine from the University of Sydney and is completing his residency in Psychiatry at one of the major hospital networks in Sydney. He came back to campus to speak with students from the Doctors Without Borders Club and share his insights and experiences working in the medical field.

Natasia Sun '10 is currently based in Hong Kong. Combining her passions for event planning and education, Natasia started Exploracademy - an educational study tour company for pre-teens and teens. Learn more at www.exploracademy.com.

Rosie Hyland '03 is starring in the world premiere of the musical production of "Back to the Future"

Margaret

currently lives in Hong Kong with her family and works as a pediatric nurse. She attended TAS in the early 1990s with her sister Rebecca Scholtes '07 and brother John Scholtes '03. After leaving TAS, she attended school in the U.S., U.K., Brazil, and South Africa. She has two young children with her husband Dave Whittingham. In May 2019, she visited TAS for the first time since she left in the mid-1990s.

Nick Sands '11 currently works as a Behavioral Specialist at the Stamford American International School in Singapore, where his father Dr. Eric Sands, former TAS upper school principal, is the Superintendent. Eric's sister Andrea Sands '07 works as a teacher in Ithaca, NY.

'11

in

New York

in June 2019 as a rising Taiwanese-American chef and restaurateur. His Manhattan restaurant 886 boasts Taiwanese classics new and old, from fried chicken cutlet sandwiches to lu rou fan.

(Scholtes) Whittingham '05

Eric Sze

was featured

the

Times

Congratulations to Kevin Liou '12 and Emily Tang '12 who are engaged to be married! They enjoyed a fun engagement photo shoot at TAS and will be getting married in the summer of 2020.

School in Massachusetts. Sabrina is currently pursuing her Master's Degree in Art Education at Boston University.

took part in the Remote and Rural Enterprise (RARE) program in Vietnam and traveled to Hanoi to work for a social enterprise there.

Stefan Chen '15, also known as ØZI, is a hip-hop and R&B artist in Taiwan. ØZI's first single "Title" was released on YouTube in 2017 and marked his ascendance as a popular young artist. In October 2019, ØZI was featured on the cover of Taiwan's edition of GQ magazine.

Jessica Wegner '18 and Shawyuan Hsu '19 were both four-year varsity swimmers, IASAS athletes, and were inducted into the TAS Athletics Hall of Fame. Now in college, they are leading Wellesley College's swimming and diving teams. In a recent meet against Seven Sisters rival Mount Holyoke, Shawyuan and Jessica both won multiple individual events to contribute to Wellesley's dominating 198-97 victory.

Before starting the 2020 winter term at NYU, Hannah Smith '19 took a gap semester and worked as an intern for a neurotechnology start-up in the Seattle area called White Matter.

Priscilla Wang '12 competed in the 2019 Miss World America pageant in Las Vegas, Nevada, as Miss Oklahoma. She made it to the Top 25 of the competition.

Ray Heberer IV '13 works as a data scientist and part of a team of consultants that Fortune 500 companies call on to help them make hard decisions. He shares what he learns on Medium, a publishing platform, where his recent article on Bayesian Priors has been selected by curators "to be recommended to readers interested in Machine Learning and Data Science.”

Hanna Wong '13 joined the Office of Hawaii State House Representative David A. Tarnas (District 7) in January 2020. She graduated from the University of Hawaii at Manoa with a degree in Chinese Language, and has a background in tourism, education, and long-term care social services. As a member of Rep. Tarnas's office, Hanna will be focusing on topics under the Energy and Environmental Protection Committee and higher education issues covered in the Education Committee. She will also take the lead on constituent communications during the 2020 legislative session.

From classmates to colleagues: Nick Yeh '13, extended term history substitute teacher, and Sabrina Tso '15, student teacher for art, are both working during the 2019-20 school year at Cambridge Rindge & Latin

Amy Hsuan Chiu '15 published her first book of poetry in 2019 with New Degree Press. "REBORN: To Heal. To Believe. To Love." is an invitation for readers to accompany Amy on her healing journey as she reminds readers that they are not alone. The book is now available for purchase on Amazon. com in paperback and e-book; the audiobook will be released soon.

Austin Lai '16 is pursuing his Bachelor's degree in Chemistry and Biology at Emory University. In summer 2020, Austin will be leading Emory's Global Medical Brigades team on a trip to deliver medical care to rural communities in Honduras. He is currently fundraising to purchase medical supplies and lower the financial barrier for devoted members of the team. To learn more about Austin's trip, please visit his GoFundme page: gf.me/u/xfmpi6.

Tom Moran '16 is pursuing his Bachelor's degree in Commerce at University of Sydney. Recently, he

FORMER FACULTY

Glynn Condit is a Korean War veteran, having served in the U.S. Army from 1954 to 1962. He specialized in artillery defense and as an instructor while in college in Durant, OK. He and wife Helen had two children: Shirley Kay Condit, who was a nurse in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War, and son Eugene Condit '76, who was a Chinese linguist with the U.S. Air Force, stationed at Kadena Air Base, Okinawa, Japan. In spring 2019, Glynn took part in a two-day Honor Flight, an all-expenses paid trip to see the War Memorials in Washington, DC and Arlington, VA. Glynn has been retired for 12 years and is nearly 84 years old.

Sharon (Scott) Bray worked at TAS from 1984 to 1986 as the scheduler in the Administrative office and also as the IB secretary in the Counseling Department. Sharon fondly recalls working with the IB students whom she called "intelligent, interesting, and worldly," and also enjoyed working at TAS with Kay Pan, Jennie Chou, and Mei-Chuih Wang, who took her under their wings and taught her a lot about Taiwan. Since returning to the U.S., she met her husband Donald and supported him throughout his career in the U.S. Navy. After returning to Hawaii, she has been working at Leilehua High School, her alma mater, and Aiea Elementary School.

Thomas Cook, former faculty and former parent, passed away on June 1, 2019 in San Francisco. He taught at TAS for 25 years until he retired. Tom taught Grades 4-5, from 1984 to 2000, and Grades 6-7 from 2000 to 2012. He is survived by his wife Nancy McCloskey Cook; daughters Willow Cook ’93 and Ashley (Cook) Morando ’95; sister Sherry Cook; and uncle Jack Giolitti of Pleasant Hill. Tom was a wonderful husband, father and grandfather. He will be dearly missed by his family, friends and everyone who had the pleasure of knowing him.

IN MEMORIAM

CLAIRE SMITH

Claire Smith, former faculty and former parent, passed away in February 2020. She taught chemistry and introductory physical science in the 1974-75 school year. She spent her last few years living with her son Paul Montague ’78 on the Big Island of Hawaii.

ARCHANA MANDPE ’81

Thomas Cummings, former faculty, passed away on March 8, 2020 at the age of 89. He taught English in the 1960s and is fondly remembered by many alumni. After leaving TAS, Tom established the Ramah Navajo School in Pine Hill, New Mexico, and worked for decades at the University of New Mexico recruiting and supporting Native American, Hispanic, and African American students. Alumni who knew Tom are invited to join the Tom Cummings Memorial Group on Facebook and also to share their memories and photos of Tom through email to: tomcummingsandgoings@ gmail.com.

Peter Hahn, former faculty, passed away on August 9, 2019, surrounded by family and friends. He was an upper school counselor at TAS from 1993 to 2000. A service was held on September 14 at St David’s Episcopal Church in Austin, TX, USA.

Of his mentorship, George Jeng ’99 says: “Peter Hahn was quite special to me. My relationship with him started out just as friends, he wasn’t even my counselor, just a casual conversation here and there. But as our friendship grew, I eventually requested a transfer under his care. As my counselor, he challenged me to be a better person, he helped me work through the relationship drama (which was never ending) and encouraged me to explore an outdoor leadership program, which opened the door to my love for hiking and camping. At school, he was the one adult that I knew that wouldn’t treat me like just another student, but would take the time to listen to me. His mentorship extended past his time at TAS, and until he passed away, we stayed in touch.”

GUY PRIEST

Former lower school faculty Guy Priest passed away on Jan. 3, 2020, after battling a combination of health issues. Guy and his wife June lived in Taipei, Taiwan from 1970 to 1975. Guy is survived by his Aunt Shirley Hettiger and his two sons, Gerald and Greg Priest and their families.

Archana Mandpe ’81 passed away in March 2020. She attended TAS from 1974 to 1981. Archana lived in New York City and worked at Morgan Stanley as VP, Global Product Solutions and innovation Manager. She will be dearly missed by her fellow alumni.

ERINA SAWA ’18

Erina Sawa ’18 passed away on January 23, 2020. She was a secondyear student in the Linguistics program at Universiteit van Amsterdam. At TAS, Erina showed a passion for dance and drama. She is dearly missed by her former teachers and classmates. In March 2020, upper school dance students performed ELSEWHERE, a dance production exploring where we go after we die and the acceptance of death, and dedicated the performance to Erina.

THOMAS COOK

THOMAS CUMMINGS

PETER HAHN

PROGRAM EXCELLENCE

Gifts to Program Excellence are reflected in the achievements of our students, the development of programs and the expansion of unique learning opportunities. Last year’s gifts to the Program Excellence fund supported many programs such as:

JOANNA NICHOLS VISITING SCHOLAR AND JOANNA NICHOLS ARTIST IN RESIDENCE

The Joanna Nichols Visiting Scholar and Joanna Nichols Artist in Residence programs bring relevant, distinguished, and stimulating figures to TAS each year to share singular insights and experiences with students.

The 2019 Joanna Nichols Visiting Scholar, Dr. Aaron Kyle, auspiciously spent the month of January at TAS during the unveiling and opening of the new Solomon Wong Tech Cube facility. Dr. Kyle serves as Senior Lecturer in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Columbia University which has grown to incorporate bioinstrumentation, biomechanics, and tissue engineering. Dr. Kyle was named a recipient of Columbia University’s Presidential Award for Outstanding Teaching at both the undergraduate and graduate levels for his lasting influence on the intellectual development of Columbia students. Dr. Kyle’s stay at TAS represents the eighth installment of the Joanna Nichols Visiting Scholar program, which is the result of the continuing, extraordinary generosity and vision of former TAS parent Mr. Kenny Cheng.

The 2019 Joanna Nichols Artist in Residence, Dr. Elaine

Kwon, is a prize-winning concert pianist, martial artist, and a Lecturer in Music at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She made her orchestral debut with the Washington Idaho Symphony at age 15 and has performed solo, concerto, and chamber music concerts throughout the United States and internationally. During her month-long residence at TAS, Dr. Elaine Kwon gave numerous private piano lessons, special talks, performed with the orchestra and with students in an ensemble concert, and even taught two weeks of martial arts classes. She also presented a special “Savor your Senses” performance. “Savor Your Senses” is an immersive performance series where selected music and food and other sensory elements are paired and enjoyed together.

THE STANLEY ’88 AND ANNABELLE KO CLASSICS SCHOLAR IN RESIDENCE

Mary Zimmerman is an American theatre and opera director and playwright from Nebraska. She is an ensemble member of the Lookingglass Theatre Company, the Manilow Resident Director at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago, Illinois, and also serves as the Jaharis Family Foundation Professor of Performance Studies at Northwestern University. The Tony Award-winning director opened students’ minds to the creative process of making theater in a new way. Over three days, 75 theater students benefited from her unique ideas and conventions in the craft of telling stories for the stage that were inspired by Greek Myths.

ROBOTICS PROGRAM

The robotics program continued to grow this year with the support of annual giving.

Middle School and Upper School Public Speaking, Debate, and Forensics Program

Many purchases were made this year to support the expanding student interest in public speaking, debate, and forensics. In particular, the school sponsored trips to the NSDA National Speech and Debate Tournament and the Stanford/Berkeley Debate tournament.

M.C. ESCHER ENDOWED CHAIR FOR SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH

Funds supported the upper school iGEM team as it again traveled to the iGEM annual Giant Jamboree. TAS was one of only seven high school teams that earned a gold medal for the high school division. In addition to a gold medal, TAS won the Best Entrepreneurship Award and placed second among all high school teams.

PERFORMING ARTS PROGRAM

Gifts supported visiting artists to teach students including Viktorija Semekaite, elite ballet dancer, and Zachery Groenewold, who taught Hip Hop and choreographed the upper school year-end show in April. The school also sponsored the Eric Marienthal Jazz Workshop for the K-12 music program.

VISITING AUTHOR LOUNG UNG

Bestselling author Loung Ung again visited TAS with the generosity of our annual giving program. Loung Ung spoke to students and worked in English classes.

WRITING ACROSS THE CURRICULUM

Funds supported two writing based curriculum experts, Leif Gustavson and Kira Joell Baker-Doyle, who met with both teachers and parents.

JOANNA

NICHOLS

MEMORIAL LIBRARIES

The Middle School Library benefitted from renovations to furniture which improved the storage capabilities of the space.

ATHLETICS PROGRAM

Funds supported the TAS athletics program for upper school boys and girls basketball, contributing to practice jerseys, shoes, and game video analysis. Additionally, gifts helped to purchase new pool starting blocks and platforms and a new tennis ball machine.

FILM PROGRAM

TAS continues to invest in its award-winning film program. This year, funds supported the purchase of new cameras, batteries, cables, memory cards, storage equipment, and covered expenses for the All American High School Film festival.

LOWER SCHOOL MANDARIN PROGRAM

As the Lower School Mandarin program grows, many books were purchased this year thanks to the generosity of donors. Books were purchased for both the Mandarin learner track and the Mandarin heritage track. Gifts also supported the visit of a Lower School Chinese visiting author, Shu-Fen Wang, in April.

PROFESSIONAL EXCELLENCE

TAS is dedicated to recruiting, developing, and retaining engaged and innovative subject matter experts who have a direct impact on exceptional student learning. Contributions support teachers by offering meaningful professional development to keep faculty inspired and at the forefront of their field.

GENERAL FACULTY PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

TAS invited Dr. Kenneth Podell, a Houston neurologist, to come to TAS and speak with teachers, parents, and students on concussion protocol.

The School was also able to invite two expert educators, Michelle Benson and Christine Diaz, to TAS in November to consult on the new Middle School Responsive Classroom initiatives. Annual giving helped to fund awards for professional excellence to three associate principals: Gary Pettigrew, Rick Rabon, and John VandenBoom.

JOANNA NICHOLS PROFESSIONAL EXCELLENCE

AWARDS

Principals and the Head of School select two teachers from each division annually. As recipients of the Joanna Nichols Professional Development Award, these teachers demonstrate a commitment to excellence in their classroom and have exceptional student performance data and feedback surveys from parents and students. The 2019 recipients are Liwen Chao, Jenessa Van Schooneveld, Peter Stanley, Drew Williams, Stephen Abernethy, Michelle Bruce, and Brandon Maguire.

Recipients of previous Joanna Nichols Professional Development Awards continued to use their funds during the 2018-2019 school year by purchasing school supplies and magazine subscriptions, and attending school conferences or other learning programs in the United States, the United Kingdom, Colombia, and Ecuador.

BUILDING EXCELLENCE

Gifts to Building Excellence support the development of campus facilities, which enhances programs across the school.

SOLOMON WONG TECH CUBE

Gifts allowed TAS to complete building the Solomon Wong Tech Cube, a state-of-the-art facility dedicated to KA-12 STEAM education, which will cement Taipei American School’s reputation as the premier center for K-12 STEAM excellence in all of Asia.

LOWER SCHOOL PLAYGROUND

Annual Giving allowed the school to renovate the lower school playground. This new state-of-the-art lower school playground is an investment in the physical, mental, and social wellbeing of our children and will help our students play, learn, and grow into creative and confident adults who make a difference in their communities.

QUASI ENDOWMENT

Your gift to Quasi Endowment helps assure long-term financial stability for the school. It ensures that future generations of TAS students enjoy excellence in education. It also serves as an emergency reserve. Twenty percent of all Annual Giving Program gifts made toward Building Excellence, Program Excellence, or Professional Excellence will be designated to Quasi Endowment, unless otherwise specified by the donor.

HOPE N. F. PHILLIPS SCHOLARSHIP FUND

Taipei American School established the Hope N.F. Phillips Scholarship Fund to provide partial scholarships—temporary tuition support—to families experiencing financial difficulties. This scholarship fund allows students who would otherwise have to leave the school because of financial hardship to continue their education at TAS.

The scholarship deservingly bears the name of Hope N.F. Phillips, former teacher, principal, board member, and alumni ambassador at large. This scholarship had been her dream for many years. It bears the name of one who greatly enriched the history of the school, and it ensures that capable and valued students are able to continue their education at our school.

For previous years the following number of students were assisted.

• 2018-2019 - seven students

• 2017-2018 - one student

• 2016-2017 - six students

• 2015-2016 - five students

• 2014-2015 - one student

• 2013-2014 - three students

Parents, faculty, staff, alumni, friends, and corporations are invited to contribute and assist us in growing this fund. Please support the Hope N. F. Phillips Scholarship Fund online at https://www.tas.edu.tw/give.

Thank you to the following alumni who chose to participate in our Annual Giving Program during the 2019-2020 school year. Your gifts are greatly appreciated. (As of April 10, 2020)

Alumni

• Anonymous

• Harry W. Fritz '55

• Bill Rollins '60

• E.H. and M.E. Bowerman Advised Fund of The Oregon Community Foundation

• John Church '65

• Jean Liu

• Harry Allyn Cockrell '68

• Terry Shu '68

• Paul Geddes '72

• Linda Groat Sheppard '73

• Phil Peach '74

• Simon Chang '77

• Skip Abbott

• Janet Chen Louie '81

• Albert Chu '83

• Walter and Shirley Fan '86 Wang

• Class of 1989

• Hiko Kawashima '89

• James Tsao '89

• Deborah Bever '90

• Gary Mi '91 and Janet Chen '92

• Shing Chi Poon '92 and E-wen Liao

• Eydie Tai and Edward Tai

• Chris Peng '93 and Julie Yang '93

• Deborah Shapiro '93

• Allen Timothy Chang '94

• Irene Fan '94

• Michael Hsu '94

• David Tang '94

• Richard Wang '94

• Eric Wu '94

• John Bishop

• Christie Cheung '95

• Paul Lin '95

• David Ta-Wey Liu '95

• Laurie Shapiro '95

• Barbara Tsai

• Phil Chen '96

• Shigeru Go

• Timothy Weiting Huang '98

• Jeffrey Lin '98

• Helen Wong '98

• Johnson Yeh '98

• Albert Chuang

• Albert Hsu '99

• Harry Wang and Dorothy Hsui '99

• Christina Huang '99

• Eric Sun '99

• Edward Wang '99

• Mark Yin '99

• Likai Gu '00

• Ian Lin

• Donald Tang '00

• Terry Chung '01

• Jack Huang '01

• Kevin Chang '02

• Sean Cheng '02

• Allen Fang and Tina Chou

• Jack Hou '02

• Jay Shuang '02

• Pearl Ai Wha Chen '03

• William Hung

• Frank Kuo '03

• Cerise Kao and David Lo '03

• Cleo Tsai '03

• Jeffrey D. Wang '03

• Christopher Yeh

• Dallas Yew '03

• Paul Newman '04

• Paul Torkehagen

• Jonathan D. Wang '04

• Caleb Michael Yang '04

• Jay Choi '05

• Robert Wang

• Tiernan Grehl '07

• Scott Chen '09

• Laticia Fan '09

• Eric Tsai '09

• Ervin Tsay '09

• Jerry Yang '09

• Gordon Chen' 10

• Vincent Wang '10

• Jocelyn Bohn '11

• Kevin Liou '12

• Ting Wei '12

• Rexford Chang '14

• Jin-Tai Teng '14

• Antonio Chan '15

• Alex Dunn '15

• Ethan Lin '15

• Riley Chang '16

• Joy Chiu '16

• Michael Chou '16

• Kevin Hsu '16

• Travis Huang '16

• Jonathan Moon '16

• Jeremy Shih '16

• Derek Wang '16

• Seamus Boyle '17

• Tiffany Chen '17

• Collin Chen '18

• Joseph Pogue '18

• Matthew Yang '18

• Class of 2019

• Lucien Chiu '19

• Andrew Chu '19

• Cheyenne Hsieh '19

• Curtis Hu '19

• Henrick '19, Ambrose '19 and Everett '25 Koo

• Marcus Liaw '19

• Stephanie Wang '19

GRATITUDE REPORT

Current Board Members who are Alumni

• Joseph '87 and Katherine Hwang

• Ferdinand P. Tsien and Family

• Vera Wu '87 and Harry Spiegle

• David Ko '92 and Elizabeth Wang '91

• Joseph Hei and Vivian Chiang '93

• Benny and Vicky Hsu

Current Faculty who are Alumni

• Anonymous

• Betty Sun '72

• Maria Peters '89

• Terry and Cheryl Lagerquist '98

• Nicky Yeung

• Irene Fang

• Evelyn Chen '03

• Michelle Kao '03

• Michael Leu

• Stephanie Chih-Yang Hsieh '04

• Stephanie Lee '04

• Karen Szu Chun Wang

• Weston Wang Cooper

• Stephanie Chiang '09

• Jessica Huang

Current Parents who are Alumni

• Anonymous

• FC Tigers and Heartbreakers parents

• Sherry Kuei and Jim Boyle '76

• Erwin Shyu '76 and Tina Fan

• TK and Gina Chiang

• H. Lee and J. Lin

• Helen Elena Tsung '84 and Sofia C.H. Liu Tsung '21

• David Wu and Karen Chyan

• Simon Chen '86 and Daisy Chan

• Bobby Sheng and Charlotte Kuo '86

• Romy Chen and Family

• Mark Go

• Stephanie Ling '88

• Class of 1989

• Lisa Chiang and Stanley Chung '89

• Ben and Becca Kintzley

• Irene Chen '90

• Michael Fei '90 and Maria Ting '89

• Krista Lee '90 and Paul Hu '90

• Bonnie Su and Johnny Wang

• Judy Young '90 and Tom Soong

• Cynthia Teeters

• Danny Chow

• Cynthia Hsu '91 and Alfred Woo '89

• Chung-Jen Kuo

• Austin Lee '91

• Cathy Chen and Christopher Ling

• Mark Wang '91 and Yumi Cho

• Andrew and Alexandra Chiang

• Johnny Liao and Judy Chen

• Stephanie Hong '92

• Cheng Family

• Benjamin Liao and Crystal Lee

• Alfred Wang

• Cheney Wang and Sherry Hsia

• Michael Chu '93 and Fantine Wang

• Chris Liu and Conny Lin '93

• Richard Moh '93 and Shao-Yun Yang

• Brian Hsieh and Tina Wu '93

• David Chuang

• Catherine Hsu

• Peggy Liao

• Larry Shao

• Gloria Tsai '94 and Family

• Audrey Wang

• Celia Chan '95

• Robert Lee and Teresa Hsu '95

• Doris Chou '96

• Imie Liu '96

• The Ting Family

• Patricia Wee

• Jason Chang '97

• Jimmy Chen and Juling Wang

• Willy Chen '97

• Albert Ku

• Sue Jung Lee

• Alan Ng

• Fong-Ming Nyeu and Jeffrey Su

• Louis Liu and Amy Su

• Christine Chi '98 and Chia-Ming Yeh

• Joanna Wang '98 and Jerry Chiu

• The Chao family

• Daisy Lin '99 and George Jeng '99

• Jerry Lin '00

• Sunny Chen and Jeffrey Lin

• Lisa Wang '00

• Monica Yen '00 and Louis Wu

• Grace Wang '01

• Elin Hsu and Ryan Yeh

• Jennifer Hsui '03 and Michael Hsieh '97

Former Faculty

• Charlie Chen

• John Dankowski

• Karen and Andrew Jao

• Sarah Ruggiere '12

Matching Gifts

• BNY Mellon Community Partnership

In Honor of Mr. Richard Arnold

• Albert Chu '83

• Shing Chi Poon '92 and E-wen Liao In Honor of Rick Krieger

• Deborah Bever '90

In Honor of Class of 1999

• Albert Hsu '99

• Edward Wang '99 In Memory of Doug Bishop

• Michelle Kao '03

• Jessica Huang In Memory of Tom Cook

• Karen and Andrew Jao In Memory of Jan McDowell

• Stephanie Chih-Yang Hsieh '04 In Memory of Rick McGowen

• John Church '65 In Memory of Steve Lane

• John Dankowski

In Memory of Mike Parmley '65, Lisa Longacre '66, and Zerk White '67

• Anonymous In Memory of Hope N.F. Phillips

• Anonymous

Members of the TAS community have the opportunity to name a seat in the Guy Lott, Jr. Auditorium. For NT$90,000, an inscribed plaque will be on permanent display on a chair in the Guy Lott, Jr. Auditorium. By participating in “Please Have a Seat,” part of the Building Excellence initiative, your gift will benefit the development and enhancement of TAS campus facilities, which will support student learning from KA through Grade 12. In the past few years, gifts to Building Excellence have made possible the construction of the Solomon Wong Tech Cube, the installation of our new lower school playground—the Tiger Garden, the renovations to the Guy Lott, Jr. Auditorium, the construction of the recently named Dr. Sharon DiBartolomeo Upper School Building, that of the Liu Lim Arts Center, and much more.

This year Harry A. Cockrell '68 honored the Cockrell Family with Chair #269. In the 2018-2019 school year, Janel Wire Pratt '71 and Stacey Wire Ward '76 honored their father Dr. Howard Wire with Chair #55. In 2017-2018, the Class of 1992 named Chair #92 in celebration of their 25-year reunion, and the Class of 1996 named Chair #96. Chair numbers matching class years have been reserved for alumni.

Contact the Development Office at development@tas.tw to name a chair in honor of your class, family, or a former teacher.

Celebrating 70 Years of EDUCATIONAL EXCELLENCE