Journeys December 2008, Volume 5

Published by the Office of Communications and Development

40 Woodlands Street 41 Singapore 738547Tel: (65) 6363-3403 Fax: (65) 6363-3408

[email protected]

Volume 5 December 2008

ourneysSingapore American School Alumni MagazineJSAS

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SAS alumni withvision, passionand internationalperspectives

Inside features:• SAS today — the fabulous PTA• Oilers vs Steelers 1974-2008• High school and alumni sweethearts• Then & now scenes of Singapore

JOURNEY COVER 11/24/08, 8:48 AM2-3

C o n t e n t s

Board chair reflects on being an SAS parent 5

Pirated sounds of the seventies 6Album becomes “a rare psyche rock classic,”according to the Record Collectors Guild.

Proactive PTA parents close the circle 8between home and school

SAS Education Foundation and donors 13

SACAC football at SAS 1974-2008 16 Football was a major event in the 80s. Today, a

small league and homecoming keep the spirit alive.

Formula 1’s first-ever night race takes 21place on downtown Singapore streets

SAS sweethearts 24

Alumni and current students enthusiastic 31about preserving the environment

Chinese language classes K-12 at SAS 36

SASers who give 39Four stories about SAS alumni, students andteachers who bike, build and nurture children

Then & Now — Singapore in the 1950s & 2008 49

Alums around Singapore 53

Reunions from the 80s and 98 55

Notes & Quotes 58

EditorJunia Baker

SuperintendentBrent Mutsch

Director of Communicationsand Development

Beth Gribbon

Associate Director of AlumniRelations

Lauren Thomas

DesignerJosephine Yu

SAS Journeys is publishedby the SAS Office of Commu-nications and Development.

Vol 5

December 2008

Front cover: The octagonal LauPau Sat building, formerlyknown as Telok Ayer Market,and Telecoms building are twoof the few colonial buildings inSingapore’s financial district.This photo was taken from the50-storey One Raffles Quaybuilding by James Roberts.Back cover: SAS Directorof Communications andDevelopment Beth Gribbonand Associate Director ofAlumni Relations LaurenThomas.

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Welcome Alumni

Dear SAS alumni,

Even though the leaves haven’t changed and the weatherhasn’t cooled here in Singapore, this fall season has been atime of excitement and change.

The most newsworthy event was the first ever FormulaOne night race roaring around the streets of downtown Singa-pore in September. The world watched as the drivers spedthrough the illuminated city, dwarfed by the impressive sky-line. SAS alum Francesco Zargani (86) flew in from Boston totake part in this historic event, and he shares his twin pas-sions for racing and Singapore in this issue.

Anyone returning to Singapore after a number of years,such as Brenden (94) and Ashley Zeni (96), returning after14 years, will tell you how much Singapore has changed.We’ve taken a “then and now” approach with one feature inthis issue, comparing photos of Singapore landmarks fromthe 1950s to photos from today. I’m sure you’ll be as as-tounded as we were at the incredible changes.

SAS continues to change and improve each year becauseof its strong foundation of traditions, like SACAC football.This year we celebrated Homecoming with a huge crowd at afootball game between the Oilers and the Steelers andcrowned the homecoming court at halftime. A great crowd oflocal alums attended, including three generations of theLivingston family.

The SAS family continues to grow: this summer we re-ceived news of several SAS weddings! Congratulations toMegan Waugh and Jordan Bloem, Richard Miller and KristenYoung, and Leon Liu and Claire Tan, who all tied the knot,joined by their SAS friends and family. These are the mostrecent SAS weddings, but we’ve been hearing that there aremany, many more! Several SAS couples have told us theirromantic Singapore stories in this issue, but if we’ve missedyou, please contact us to share your SAS love story.

Even as we face continuous change, we have taken theopportunity to celebrate the events and people who came

before us. The SAS Memory Garden is now complete. You arewelcome and encouraged to visit and spend a few minutesreflecting in this beautiful space. We will have a dedicationceremony in spring 2009 to celebrate and thank our gener-ous donor, Stephen Riady, for making it happen. The alumnioffice will send out more details via e-mail so that you canplan your visit.

If you’re not Singapore-bound this spring, please stay con-nected via http://alumni.sas.edu.sg. We may be headed yourway! As we did last February, Superintendent Brent Mutschwill be in several U.S. cities to recruit new teachers. I willtravel with him, and we plan to connect with SAS alums. Wehope to see you then!

Happy holidays to you and your families,

Lauren ThomasAssociate Director of Alumni Relations

Anish Jain (02) and Rob Livingston (87) competed in thepunt-pass-kick competition at the SAS Homecoming.

SAS then and now

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Letters & News

Several alumni were on the campaign trail this past year,including Siddarth Mohandas (96), Jessica Blakemore (03),Emily Blakemore (06) and Scott Duncombe (04), who workedfor Barack Obama. Emily’s experiences are below:

I spent this past summer working as an Organizing Fel-low on the Obama campaign in Virginia. I was one of eightfellows working in the region; together we had the task ofestablishing grass roots organizations and setting up officesin three cities. The job focused mostly on organizing volun-teer efforts and bringing the national campaign to smallercommunities across rural Virginia. I worked in a team ofthree in a small college town. Although the town had anestablished democratic committee and a good support base,it needed substance and direction. My six weeks was spentfiguring out who the supporters were and how to plug into theDemocrats and eventually merge the two groups into a coor-dinated effort. We managed to open an office, have twohundred people attend the opening, and by mid-summer ithad about 15 hard-working volunteers a day. The tasks werenot necessarily difficult, but they were challenging.

Those challenges were easier because of my interna-tional experiences. Much like the “caf” at SAS, these smallcommunities are full of people from different backgroundswith conflicting viewpoints and various opinions. As an or-

ganizer I had to step in and coordinate these different schoolsof thought. Having grown up overseas I felt well prepared forthe job at hand. Navigating through an already establishedsystem while creating a melting pot of disparate ideas wasdifficult, however I think my global perspective helped me dothis effectively. Through experiences like interim semesterand student council at SAS, I developed skills that equippedme well for this job. �

From Aleasha Morris, SAS 7th

grade resource support: My husbandand I have only been in Singapore twoyears, and it is amazing to have a maga-zine like Journeys to fill us in on all theyears we missed!

From Mel Kuhbander, SAS Super-intendent 81-90: I truly think that SASJourneys is the absolute finest publi-cation of its kind anywhere. It is sim-ply so wonderfully well done and all ofthe editorial team should be glad,glad, glad!

I read the entire issue andloved the inclusion of Mr Ho’s reci-

pes. What a great idea. Now if youcan just get him to explain how he

manages to cut the Thanksgiving tur-key so that it doesn’t appear to have

been sliced but on removal of the skin,Voila! There’s a magic there, I think.

From Joanne Blakemore, parentalumni: Haywood (SAS School Board 99-

03) and I are so impressed with the SASalumni magazine. Page after page is

marvelous. Brava!!!

On the campaign trail at thegrassroots level

Yearbook celebrates 50!

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In June my daughter Emma will graduate from SAS, following her brother Sam, who graduated in 2007. Both started pre-school atSAS’s Ulu Pandan campus, and June will mean the end of 17 years as an SAS parent.

There are many things about our family’s time at SAS that have given me great pleasure, some that have caused angst, and manythat have made me laugh and shed tears of joy.

From the time Sam started pre-school I have been in the classroom as often as possible. I remember the fun of coming into mykids’ classrooms in the early years to play guitar and sing with the class and the long hours on Gecko Press production days, hoursspent with glue, glitter and bubble paint. As pretty much the only dad on hand, I was often faced with the question: “Don’t you have ajob? My dad does!” It was far easier to answer, “Yes, of course I have a job, but this is much more fun,” than to explain the choices I wasmaking as a self-employed architect to find time in my professional life to be involved in my children’s school life. This decision did infact limit the growth of my practice to some extent, but it was a choice I would make in exactly the same way today.

There was something uniquely satisfying in being there, in the classroom, singing songs and doing projects with Sam and Emmaand their friends. In the hard-working driven-to-success world that is Singapore, I am convinced that taking the time to play with mykids and their classmates was a vital part of finding a balance in making Singapore home for more than 25 years.

I know that important by-products of that time with my children were the friendships I developed with the teachers and adminis-trators at SAS. In contrast to the relationships built through my work, the motivating force and world views of those professionals whoteach our kids are distinctly non-commercial. The talk is not of profit and productivity, of market growth and regional coverage; theconcerns are community and care, holidays and parents and about helping kids succeed. As Brent Mutsch, our current superintendentwould say, “each student is daily the focus.”

As Sam and Emma moved into the Middle School, there were fewer opportunities for me to participate in the classroom. By thistime SAS had moved to Woodlands, and its population was growing rather quickly. There were a number of things that were changingabout the school, and my sense was that it was drifting toward losing some important pieces of its feeling of community. The Asianeconomic crisis that started in 1997 was in full flow, and I felt that the balance I had found was a perspective that might be useful tothe school as a member of the Board of Governors. I put my name forward for election in 1999 and have served on the board ever since.

My first year on the board coincided with Bob Gross’s first year as superintendent, and I served throughout his tenure at SAS. Boband I developed a kind of partnership that was founded in our shared sense of community, informality and genuine surprise that wewere able to navigate the sometimes rough but always surprising sea that is the SAS community. I know that Bob’s insights, wisdomand manner were sources of support and continuing education for many of us. Under Bob’s leadership we did much to improve theschool’s facilities, built the new High School and grew to become the largest single-campus international school in the world. Yet wehave remained a community familiar and comfortable with ourselves and one another, joined together in our shared motivation to dothe best we can for every student, all characteristics that continue to be stressed under Brent’s tenure as superintendent.

Since becoming a member of the board, I have attended nine graduation ceremonies. At every one of them I have wiped tears frommy eyes, since I just can’t help being touched by the sentiments and emotions that fill the hall. I always come away feeling full of prideat all that our students have accomplished. This June will be my last SAS graduation. I can already imagine the happiness I willexperience at Emma’s reaching this threshold of adult life and the satisfaction I will feel about my small contribution to the continuingdevelopment of our community.

Garth Sheldon, SAS Board of Governors

AnSAS

parent for17 glorious

years

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Then & Now

By Kim Bengs (75), Bryan Hall (77), Greg Kemp(75), Howard Kukla (75) and Guy Rittger (77)

Life took an interesting twist on May 22, when HowardKukla sent former members of his high school band an e-mail listing a website (andthenthechimneyspoke.blogspot.com), where he had been interviewed about eventsthat happened in Singapore over 33 years ago.

Circa 1975: It was a cold, long winter in Singapore …

oops, hot, humid winter, and Kim, Bryan, Greg, Howard andGuy were trying to figure out what to do for Interim Semester.So we went to the administration with a proposal that ourband, Crystalaugur, make an album — you know, those biground vinyl things most of your parents have in the attic col-lecting dust. We would write our own music, record it, have itpressed to vinyl and distribute it. The result was Terranaut. Itis our own work. Greg recorded it on a TEAC or AKAI 4 trackreel-to-reel with over-dub of vocals and other sound effects.

Why yes,son, I am aRock Icon

Crystalaugur (clear light) performing for SASers in the 1970s. Its one album, Terranaut (earth man) is now an “insanely rarepsychedelic rock” collectors’ item.

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Then & Now

The artwork was done by Guy’s stepmother. We had the re-cording pressed by BMI Ltd in Singapore. Only about 200copies were pressed, which we gave to friends and family. Itwas never intended to be a money making venture, just meantto get us through the two-week semester break.

Like many groups, Crystalaugur started out by learning avariety of the popular music of the time, including songs byDeep Purple, Led Zeppelin and Grand Funk Railroad. How-ever, Howard and Kim had been writ-ing original songs before they joinedthe band, and Crystalaugur decidedto include some of the original ma-terial in performances. A number ofthese original songs appeared in theTerranaut recording.

The album was recorded in theteacher’s lounge at King’s Road (inthe old headmaster’s quarters) andin the school auditorium. The acous-tics in the auditorium proved to bequite a challenge, so the group con-structed an ad-hoc recording boothof free-standing room partitions, pil-lows and assorted odds and endsfound in the auditorium that day.

Imagine our shock when weGoogled the name Crystalaugur andfound over 1,700 hits! Turns out thata European bootleg operation hadtaken our album and re-released iton CD in 2001. We found that original vinyl copies have soldfor over $1,000, and cuts from the album have shown up onradio playlists. Some websites called the album “a perfectexample of 70’s psychedelic rock”; rumors circulated thatthe album was actually cut by a group of “Native American”Vietnam vets on R&R in Singapore. No, just a bunch of creativeteenagers making music together, for a very memorable year.

The most fun we have had with this revelation is that wehave been able to receive the unbridled awe and respect ofour teenagers, friends and coworkers. Yes, we are Rock Icons.

Rock icons circa 2008Kim Bengs — vocals, guitar, piano — later played in his

college jazz and rock bands. He’s continued to studyguitar, especially rock, jazz and finger-style and is planning torecord music for release on the Internet in the near future. Hehas also worked in the radio side of music off and on sincecollege, currently in a part-time position at 94.9 KLTY in the

Dallas-Fort Worth area. Kim lives in North Texas with his twoteenage kids.

Bryan Hall — drums — lives in Nashville with his wifeRegina and three teenagers. Bryan is a consultant and writerwho travels extensively. Last summer, while in Thailand, hevisited with Kim’s parents who are still in the area. He hastwo books coming out in the next six months, Mano a Mano,a father/son devotional written with his two sons, and What

Child is This?, a novel set in Singa-pore and Malaysia dealing with childslavery.

Howard Kukla — guitar — wenton to get an engineering degree. Heand his wife Lisa have three kids.Lisa is a nurse with a hospice com-pany in Dallas; Ben is in Athens get-ting his degree; Jacob is trying to fin-ish high school; and Marcus wantshis learner’s permit. No wonderHoward has a full head of grey!

Guy Rittger — bass — is plantedin northern California wine countrywith a lovely wife, two faithful pitbulls and a challenging-enough cor-porate career in information technol-ogy. Music remains an important partof his life, filling in the gap betweenhis primary passion — racingsailboats — and the often soul-numb-ing monotony of his job.

Greg Kemp — sound man and technical guru — whosedad is still in Singapore, is a geologist who wanders the globeand is now in Australia.

But where would we be without our groupies!!! Not! Wewere, however, blessed to be influenced by some great youngladies, Cara Smith Palier (75) was dating Kim and was amajor contributor to the project (heck, we all had a crush onher). Married to Mike, with three kids, she spends mostof her time drawing, painting, sculpting and designing wear-able artwork. Pam Campbell Gerritsen (78) was dating Howard(earlier in the year she had dated Guy) and was the inspira-tion for “Pam’s Song,” one of the hits. Pam and Gary, herhusband of 19 years, live near Austin, Texas with four catsand a yard full of wildlife and birds.

The long hair is now short, gray or gone. Our musical skillshave been left to the next generation, but we can still shout,“WE ARE CRYSTALAUGUR!” We’re even considering a gig nextsummer at the SAS reunion in Houston. �

Guy and Bryan today. Their 1970s iconic band,Crystalaugur, is considering a gig at theHouston SAS reunion next June.

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By Lauren ThomasAssociate Director of Alumni Relations

Every August, as timid children face the prospect of anew school year, shyly clutching at their parents’ legs beforetaking those first few independent steps into the PrimarySchool, they don’t realize that their parents are equally nerv-ous, looking around for familiar faces and wanting to share

their first day jitters.Luckily, at just the right moment, a seasoned PTA mom or

dad swoops in and collects the nervous new parent, askingabout their recent move to Singapore or about the teachertheir child has that year, or if they’ve ever lived abroad before.The PTA parents will see these new parents again at the Wel-come Coffee and probably enlist their help later in the yearfor the PTA’s wine dinner or the County Fair.

PTA builds bridges andmemories for all

PTA school-wide functions include the County Fair (above), the Book Fair, the International Food Fest, Staff Appreciation Dayand the Ice Cream Social at the annual Open House in August. The funds they raise are poured back into the school.

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In this predominately American community, an activeParent Teacher Association is a natural fit and an integralpart of the school’s continuing success. The parents involvedin the PTA embody the “can-do” inclusive spirit of hometowncommunities everywhere.

The PTA at SAS is a unique group among parent-teacherpartnerships: it brings together an international communitythat recognizes its uniqueness and celebrates and honorsthe differences of its members and uses these attributes to

Top: PTA volunteers welcome and fete new families with ice cream, information and friendship.Bottom: One of the first PTA functions in the 1950s was a fun fair on the lawn of the original campus on Rochalie Drive.

Parents involved in thePTA embody the “can-do”

inclusive spirit of the community

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better the educational experience of all the children at SAS.The history of parent participation at SAS really began

the very first moment American expatriate parents decidedthat the British colony needed an American school for theirchildren and then convinced the international businesscommunity to help them.

The fledgling Parent Teacher Association is mentioned inthe early School Board minutes from 1956. Each board meet-ing included a report from the PTA, usually noting its plans tosecure something the school needed. In 1956, this includedorganizing a partnership with a nearby doctor for emergen-cies at school and joining together to buy school books andto furnish the play yard outside 15 Rochalie Drive.

Then as now, SAS families turned to the PTA to assuagehomesickness and came together to enjoy PTA events. An-nual events now include the Pumpkin Sale and the CountyFair. In addition to being fruitful fundraisers, these eventsadd an American flavor throughout the multinational com-munity. The PTA is also known to hand out appreciation like

hotcakes, sometimes literally! The PTA’s annual Staff Appre-ciation Day is a spring event to recognize each staff mem-ber’s contribution and to stuff them silly with homemadegoodies, including pancakes.

The PTA builds bridges between SAS faculty and SAS par-ents. Working to improve communication between home andschool, they have printed phone directories, cookbooks andcalendars and send out countless mailings and emails. Nota group to be intimidated by technology, they have harnessedthe internet to showcase their hard work at pta.sas.edu.sg.

Over the 52 years of its existence, the PTA has displayedformidable fund-raising prowess, which is increasingly im-pressive with each passing year. The 2007 PTA donated over$300,000 to the Education Foundation, $50,000 of whichwas intended to commemorate the tenure of former Super-intendent Bob Gross with the “Best Foot Forward” fund. Grosssaid, “In my 43 years as an educator and an administrator, Ihave never come across such a successful and well-organ-ized parent volunteer group.”

Invoking images of Thanksgiving and Halloween, these pumpkins are classic PTA: They were donated by APL; used to create aPumpkin Patch room for the younger students to visit, hear stories and take home small gourds; and then sold to parents to raise fundsfor high school service clubs — a cycle of giving that these volunteers repeat in all their activities.

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At the International Food Fest and County Fair, the PTA encourages high schoolers to set up booths to raise funds for their clubs andsocial service organizations, such as Caring for Cambodia and Tabitha.

Always a leader in school initiatives, the PTA made the first major donation to the SAS Education Foundation when it was establishedin 2006 on the fiftieth anniversary of the school. Former Superintendent Bob Gross holds “check” below.

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In my 43 years as an educator and an administrator, I have never comeacross such a successful and well-organized parent volunteer group

Other PTA funds go to high school academic and travelscholarships and school-wide division requests for equipmentand program support.

In addition, the PTA provides fund-raising opportunitiesfor high school community service clubs, encouraging themto set up booths at the County Fair and Food Fest. The clubsuse these funds to further their charitable initiatives.

For the hundreds of volunteers who have rolled up their

sleeves in support of their children’s education at SAS, thePTA has been both an outlet for their energies and a supportfor their families. The 1961 Islander yearbook includes adedication thanking the PTA: “To the PTA we are deeply appre-ciative for the sympathetic way in which they have supportedthe school’s needs.” This big thank you is as true today as itwas 47 years ago.

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Superintendent Bob Gross (99-07)

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Education Foundation

By Beth GribbonDirector of Communications and Development

Nearly $1 million was contributed to the SAS EducationFoundation during the 2007-2008 fund-raising campaign asa result of the generosity of parents, alumni and corporatedonors. These funds will support academic, athletic and ex-tra-curricular programs as well as add to the endowment forthe future of the school. A portion of the funds will be used tooffer financial aid and scholarships, including the continuedsupport of a student from a developing country. The fundsavailable for financial aid continue to grow with the increas-ing success of each year’s fundraising campaign.

In addition, the PTA contributed $300,000 to school pro-grams through “PTA Fund Spending” and with scholarships toassist graduates with their post-SAS education. The PTA do-nated an additional $70,000 to programs supported by theEducation Foundation and offered Interim Semester schol-arships to high school students. As well as making substan-tial financial contributions, the work of the parent organiza-tions (PTA, Booster Club and Arts Council) — volunteering andsponsoring activities, such as Food Fest and the Book Fair —contributes to the “culture of giving” and strong communitysupport at SAS.

The Riady Performing Arts Center and Memory Garden,made possible by Stephen Riady’s $4 million donation, isnearing completion. Music and drama productions will ben-efit from the expanded and enhanced performance venueand those attending receptions and other gatherings will en-joy the spacious, airconditioned lobby area between thetheaters. The adjacent Memory Garden will provide a placefor reflection and honoring milestones in the history of theschool. A commemoration event for the Memory Garden isanticipated for later in the school year, and alumni will benotified of the details once they are confirmed.

Consider Making a DonationFund-raising efforts continue to be supported almost ex-

clusively by our current parent and corporate community.Alumni are also invited and encouraged to make a donationto the foundation. Reflect on your time at SAS and how itshaped your future and consider making a contribution tosupport the programs making that same opportunity avail-

Academic Programs $ 37,000Athletic Programs $ 25,000Capital Programs $ 15,000Community Service Programs $ 60,000Extracurricular Programs $ 69,500Financial Assistance Programs $ 173,000Professional Development Programs $ 25,000

PTA DonationsPTA Senior Scholarships $ 30,000PTA Fund Spending $293,268

Designated for the Endowment:Allocated from Annual Fund $220,195Donor-directed donations $300,250

Nearly $1 million!able for current and future SAS students.

The 2008-2009 annual fund campaign will run throughJune 30, 2009. Donations will be acknowledged in the De-cember 2009 issue of SAS Journeys.

Please consider a contribution to the 2008-2009 an-nual campaign in support of the SAS Education Foundation.Donations may be made by check or credit card. Checksshould be made payable to SAS Foundation. Go to http://alumni.sas.edu.sg/donations to make a donation by creditcard via our secure server. Donations made by check or creditcard in U.S. dollars are tax-deductible for U.S. tax purposes.All donations are greatly appreciated and will be used to sup-port the school’s programs and endowment. Donation checksshould be mailed to:

Office of Communications and DevelopmentSingapore American School40 Woodlands Street 41Singapore 738547

Allocation of 2007-2008 Annual Fund Donations

Donations, including $70,000 directly donated to these pro-grams from the PTA, were allocated to the following areas.

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Orchid Circle S$1,000-S$4,999

1956 Circle S$50,000 and above

SAS Parent Teacher Association Yonggi Tanuwidjaja & Melina Tanusaputra

Eagle Circle S$20,000-S$49,999

William & Jamie Amelio Michael & Eva DeNoma Stephen Riady & Shincee LeonardiAh Wah Chan & Cheok Kee Lim Khoo Teck Puat Foundation Billy Siu & Marianne Chua

Hano Maeloa & Sukma Widjaja

TigerICircle S$10,000-S$19,999

David Ban & Irene Lim John & Paula McCarvel Jeff & Cindy TayFanny Barki Brent & Maggie Mutsch Rohet & Arshna TolaniCrocs Asia Pte Ltd Yoon Suck & Suzie Nam Ee Chao & Jennifer WeeDHL Express Pte Ltd Edan & Bon Park Ee Lim & Sofina WeeColin & Claire Holdstock Richard & Jacqueline Seow Peter Yan & Siew Yen ChuaHae Jin & Young Rim Lee Brent & Sandra Smith Xu Quan & Xue Qiong YaoWilliam & Lois Lydens In Jun Song & Joo Hyun Lee

Gecko Circle S$5,000-S$9,999

Joe & Mae Anderson Ragnar & Joey Horn Keum Shik Shin & Seung Hee LimBoeing Gift Matching Program Kelly Randall Carl & Anne StockingHussein Nabil El-Lessy Steven & Maya Roll

Jonathan & Jessika AuerbachRichard & Ashley BarryAl & Clarissa BautistaBart & Valerie BroadmanJohn & Janine ByrneDong Woo Chang & Ah Jung LeeBelinda ChuaBob & Monika ComstockJeff & Vicki Crocker

Johny Djuhar & Lilies IrawanMichael Fan & Grace YaoEdward GaffneyJim & Beth GribbonKirk & Janice HulseAjai & Abha KaulRini KeimChris & Elyse KhangMavis Khoo-Oei

Devin Kimble & Amy SittlerWisanggeni & Evi LauwJoo Bae & Eun Hee LeeSeung Hee Lee & Ki Ran RhoNorman & Bee Bee LemKevin Leong & Deborah HoLim Meng Keng Department StoreThomas & Cheryl LintonShahryar Mahbub & Shazia Khawaja

SAS Education Foundation Donations 2007/2008

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Vivek & Sadhana AhujaMike & Julie AllenAnil & Sangeeta AminJai & Rohini AryaTodd & Mary AveryLola Bernal De PizarroChetan & Deepali BhatiaVarun & Ruchi BhatiaSandeep & Anuradha ChalkeVimal & Priti ChandariaVijay & Shalini ChopraSanjay & Neeta ChowdhryRakesh & Abha DasPhil & Shelley DeFordJanak & Seema DesaiNaresh & Kalindi DesaiDinesh & Manju GangSandeep & Kiran GillScott & Shivi GrahamGary & Sally GreeneSheetal & Ruchi GulatiGanesh Iyer & Anju JainRaghupati Iyer & Padmaja NatarajanShailesh & Sankhya JejurikarAtim & Himali KabraRahul & Shalini Kale

Dhanesh & Sonu KaliaVikas Kalia & Sarita TafwarSuraj Kalra & Anita KapurSunil & Binifer KaushalAmit & Ritika KhatterSatish & Sandhya KhatuAlbert KohRanga Krishnan & Sripriya ChithamoorRajat & Teena KumarPrem & Sridevi LakshmananAshok & Garima LalwaniNicholas LaverisAyaz & Shamina LavingiaManish & Anu MadanTarun & Bhavani MahrotriApurva & Rashmi MathurSanjiv & Devika MisraVed & Shubha NarayanSamba Natarajan & Vidya SambamuthyNilesh & Anu NavlakhaNeel & Arathi NilakantanHarjive & Diya OberoiBhaskar & Hemagini PantDeepak & Enaxi ParikhRajesh & Chanda PiplaniRaghu Rajagopalan & Lakshmi Venkatesan

Ramachandran Rajamanickam & JessRamachandranBharat & Vinika RaoVeldanda & Aparna RaoRahul & Smita ShahDeepak & Pratima SharmaDevendra & Sangeeta SharmaTiri & Susan ShawWilliam & Marybeth ShayEdmund Sim & Yu Lin WeeSam & Usha SivaskandanMahesh Sivaswamy & Mala MaheshSrini & Malini SrinivasanAnup & Neeta SuriRuss & Michelle SuriAlan & Akashnee ThompsonDoug & Shannon ThurmanRajeev & Shailaja VaidyaSunil & Sabeena VarkeyHarish & Jay VasudevanSundeep & Sunita ViraNaresh & Alpa VyasWilbert & Amy Young

Traveler’s Palm Circle S$100-S$999

Below S$100

June Moore Jennifer Tsai Land’s End

David & Christy MillerNatarajan Minakshisundar &Arudhati MehtaRudy & Andrea MullerJanie OoiNeil & Mika ParekhVijay & Sujata ParekhKishore & Deepa PasumartyAdrian & Susan PehRaj & Mary Rajkumar

Nam Uh & Youn Soo RheeStephen Russell & StephanieMorgan-RussellIwan Sarjono & Ingrid PrasatyaSteven & Raju ShaulisGarth & Roxana SheldonRajagopalan & Vidya ShyamusunderHelman Sitohang & Maria PraptaniAjay & Sukeshi SondhiRadhakrishnanan & Saraswati SreenivasYulies Tan

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Soejono Varinata & Fae SugihartoClement & Una WangHarrison & Sheila WangRayanusin Widjaja & Diana HarkonoJonathan Wilson & Cindy LeakeJun Won & Yoon Hee ChoiKwan Nga & Rosa WongHoward & Beth YaoRaymond & Kaori ZageDavid Zemans & Catherine Poyen

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Homecoming

By Roy Tomlinson, SACAC Commissionerand SAS high school teacher

“There’s no football league in the world quite like theSingapore American Football League,” said League Com-missioner Rod Jahner many years ago. His words ring just astrue today as they did back then. SAFL is alive and well in2008. To play in a league where you know each and everyone of your opponents, hang out with them, go to class withthem and in many cases, form lifelong friendships with them,is singularly unique.

In 2007, the league enjoyed nearly unprecedented suc-cess, with a total of 13 teams in the American, National andWorld Leagues. The high schoolers had four teams for the

first time in many years — the Oilers, Vikings, Bulldogs andSteelers. The 2007 season was kicked off at the openingceremony with the presentation of the Rod Jahner ServiceAward to Dennis Schoff, a long-time referee and coach.Schoff’s 25+ years’ service to the league, despite not havinga child in the league for many of those years, who exempli-fies what makes SAFL so outstanding — those special folksin the community who tirelessly give to the kids for nothingmore than the intrinsic rewards.

The Singapore Falcons came together mid-season to goto Tokyo to take on the American School in Japan Mustangs.The Mustangs are an international high school team thatcompetes in a U.S. Department of Defense league in theTokyo region. It was a very up-tempo week of practice with

SACAC football stillstrong at SAS

The Oilers, Vikings, Bulldogs and Steelers are still on the SAS playing fields 24 years later. The enormous enthusiasm has faded alongwith memories of the Aggies and Boilermakers, but SACAC football remains a force in the community.

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Homecoming

the outgoing Tim Taylor, in his final year of coaching SACACfootball, serving as head coach, and SAS teacher BrianDonalson coaching the JV team. The teams flew to Tokyo ona red-eye flight on Thursday evening. Fortunately, ASIJ werefantastic hosts and provided home stays for the boys in addi-tion to many cultural events (re: food! — like yakitori, ramenand Japanese barbeque). Despite the overnight flight, theboys ran through a crisp and organized practice session onFriday afternoon in preparation for the Saturday game.

On Saturday, game festivities began with a gift exchangebetween the two teams, and the JV game started the action.In a hard hitting contest, the Falcons prevailed 20-6. Thevarsity game, which immediately followed, started auspi-ciously, with the Mustangs hitting a pass in the flat for a 65-yard touchdown. Down 7-0, the Falcons came back and overthe course of the game, ran the ball extremely well, account-ing for 400 yards rushing for the afternoon. Josh Smith (08)and Alex Finch (09) had one touchdown each and over 100yards rushing. In addition David Nockels (09) had two touch-downs. In total, the Falcons had five players with over 50yards rushing and for the first time since 2003, won a gameagainst a travel opponent. The 35-20 victory was the culmi-nation of a fantastic weekend in Japan for the seniors, thecoaches and of course, the parents.

In Singapore, the World League was very competitive,with three of the four teams contending for the champion-ship in the last weekend of games. The championship be-tween the Oilers and Steelers came down to a one-seriesovertime from the 10-yard line. Stopping the Oilers on a twopoint conversion, the Steelers celebrated their hard foughtvictory and as they always do, lined up to shake their friends’hands in a show of respect and sportsmanship.

The closing ceremony culminated in the presenting ofthe David Nobles Award to a fantastic young man, RobbieWhitehead (08). Robbie was a four-year member of theleague and set an example in every way possible — as aplayer, a leader, a student and a friend — which is what theaward is all about. As commissioner of the league, I had theprivilege of giving it to Robbie, and it was a moment I won’tforget. Robbie walked with the award to his teammates, andother SAFL members, also his teammates, all shared hisjoy… and sorrow. Another season of this “unique to the world”league had come to an end.

The 2008 season is just as exciting as 2007 in everyway. We have over 150 kids in the program. The Oilers andSteelers played in second annual SAS Homecoming, and atpress time, the Falcons were set to travel to Korea to take onthe Osan American High School Cougars. �

SACAC football teams in the twenty-first century may not havethe pom-pom cheerleaders that were abundant in the 70s andearly 80s, but they definitely have their fans. These supporterswere at the September 2008 Homecoming Game.

Alumni, students, teachers and Superintendent Mutsch turned outfor the Homecoming Game, a new tradition initiated by teacherEric Burnett to foster school spirit among members of the greaterSAS community.

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Homecoming

By Sajan Shah (09)

The last week of September saw a transformed highschool as the students geared up for SAS’s second annualHomecoming Week.

The idea of Homecoming was introduced last January tofoster class spirit, recognize the achievements of seniorsthrough a Homecoming Court and provide a venue for theentire SAS community, especially alumni, to come together ina non-academic environment and have fun!

The week featured a variety of dress days, ranging fromGeneration Day to Heroes and Villains Day. Students dressedas toddlers, hippies and super heroes, and most importantly,sported the SAS red, white and blue on Friday’s Eagle Day.

Whether they were riding tricycles through the cafeteriaor catching marshmallows in their mouths while blindfolded,Homecoming Week saw many, many students participatingin the lunchtime activities to win class spirit points. As ex-pected, the big bad seniors from the Class of 2009 tookhome the most points.

The culminating event of the week was the Homecom-ing football game, which showcased the Oilers, coached bySAS alumni Josh Nobles (99), and the Steelers, coached bySAS teacher Roy Tomlinson. These two SACAC teams havefeatured SAS football players since 1974 and are fondly re-membered by many alumni. Teacher and alumnus Jim Baker(66) tossed the coin, and many other alumni cheered theteams from the stands.

The football game started off in a surprising manner, withthe Oilers recovering an onside kick and rushing for a touch-

down just two minutes into the play. Two additional onsidekicks later, the game was set for a blowout.

Throughout the game, various clubs sold hot dogs, cot-ton candy and popcorn, and activities were held in the backfields for those who wanted to take a break from the game.During halftime, the senior Homecoming Court was recog-nized. Wyatt Guggisberg was crowned Homecoming King andCiera Walker was crowned Homecoming Queen.

Stealing an idea from Phil Haslett’s (05) Tufts Universityexperience, where a year’s tuition is up for grabs, SAS adoptedits own version of a punt, pass, kick competition. Three teams(made up of an alumnus, a football player and a raffle ticketwinner) tried to pass, punt and kick a field goal the length ofthe field. Unfortunately, all three teams failed miserably, whichmeans the $500 prize money will carry over to next year fora $1000 prize.

Over 1,300 students, faculty, alumni and familycheered the teams and enjoyed the evening. Next yearpromises the same energy, as well as bigger prize money.We invite all alumni to come back to SAS and get into thespirit of Homecoming 2009! �

Oilers vs Steelersat 2nd

annual SASHomecoming

Homecoming moves to fall seasonto include SACAC football

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By Jim Baker (66), SAS teacher

In terms of sheer numbers and community resources, noschool program could match the American football programthat was established by an enthusiastic group of “oil patch”parents in 1974. The nature of the community had a muchmore Southern accent in the 1970s and 1980s, and it dic-tated which new activities would be popular. Football is nodoubt popular in the United States, but in the Singapore-American community, it quickly became a passion.

Football is an expensive sport, but the parents negoti-ated with SAS for permission to build a full-sized field on theUlu Pandan campus including stands and lights, an announc-er’s booth and concession stands. This required hundreds ofthousands of dollars. The yearly operating budget of theleague ranged between $150,000 and $200,000 beyondthe costs of uniforms and gear for the kids. Prohibitive costswould have discouraged the establishment of such a league,but the oil service companies bankrolled the program. Theircontributions and $40,000-$50,000 a year in beer sales

made the football program possible.Within a few years, SACAC took over the administration

of the football program, but its popularity and success contin-ued to rest in the hands of the parents. For a decade (1975-1985), football was the largest program in the community.The numbers of people involved in the program were nothingshort of phenomenal. At the different age levels, there were12 teams each with coaches and staff, cheerleading squads,water girls and student trainers. In 1978, it was estimatedthat 500 students were involved, close to a third of the school.

An outgrowth of the football program that also benefitedthe school program was the creation of a group of sportsmedicine trainees. Organized by Jane Bell, a PE teacher atUlu Pandan, students were taught first aid skills and tapingtechniques to assist the coaches. Their services were notconfined to the football program as they assisted SAS varsityand junior varsity teams as well. This group proved to be aninvaluable asset to both school and community programs.

In many ways, football filled a sports need that had arisenwith the establishment of the school at Ulu Pandan. When

American football —

a Singapore phenomenon

Homecoming

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the junior high school was on the King’s Road campus, grades7 and 8 had participated in local age-group sports competi-tions. The philosophy that Ulu Pandan adopted in the newlycreated middle school precluded an active interscholasticathletic program. The belief was that competitive inter-schoolsports were inappropriate to the development of individualself-worth. SACAC football and later SACAC basketball, swim-ming, softball and gymnastics filled the void.

The football league began the 1974-75 school year withtwo leagues of four teams for kids from grades 4 to 8. In the1975-76 school year, a high school league was added. It hadfour teams — Bulldogs, Oilers, Vikings and Steelers. Originallyall three leagues played on a rented field on Dover Road.They moved to Ulu Pandan in 1977.

ISKL established a two-team high school league, and thetwo leagues played off and on in the 1970s and early 1980s.For a couple of years, Singapore also played against the Ja-karta school, but its league was short-lived because Indone-sia did not have quality medical facilities for injured athletes.

Crowds of 1,200 to 1,500 attended the games over theweekends. They ate barbecued ribs cooked by the Cajun

Chefs, a group of oil patch men. Drill teams, cheerleadersand play-by-play commentators completed the picture — foot-ball in the tropics.

Barry Newman, Singapore representative for the WallStreet Journal, described the football program in the Singa-pore American newspaper in 1976:

“It’s complete with chaw tobacco, chili with raw onionsand portable toilets. People are walking around the grand-stand in cutoff jeans and T-shirts and those golf hats thetractor companies hand out. Cheerleaders wearing cowgirloutfits and waving pompoms are going through tricky rou-tines. On the field, the Aggies and the Boilermakers, in pro-fessional football finery, are tearing away at each other whilestriped-shirted officials blow their whistles and fling their pen-alty flags.

“It used to be said in this part of the world that only maddogs and Englishmen went out in the midday sun… On UluPandan field this blazing afternoon, there isn’t a known Eng-lishman or any mad dog in sight — just one basset hound (theAggie mascot) and hundreds of whooping Americans.“

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In the 70s and 80s, each football team had a cheerleading squad of 20 or more girls.

Homecoming

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By Francesco Zargani (86)

It’s been 22 years since I deposited a marble in Dr. MelKuhbander’s hand while collecting my diploma at gradua-tion, a rite of passage the Class of 1986 thought was sheerbrilliance at the time. In those 22 years, I’ve been consumedby two passions: my infinite love for Singapore and the Singa-pore American School and a visceral love of motor sports.

My devotion to motor racing began when I was four. Myfather took me to a world-famous race track in Monza, Italy.I vividly remember sitting in the grandstands and watchingcars practice in the rain. With the intellectual acuity of a four-

year-old, I really could not make much sense of it, but it’sbeen a part of me ever since.

When I lived in Singapore, in the days before satellite TVand cable, sports on SBC’s two channels were mostly limitedto soccer, rugby and cricket. The choices for motor sportswere non-existent, except for an occasional blurb in TheStraits Times, and Formula 1 results were posted in a score-card summary section.

Like many expatriates in Singapore from my generation,I was fortunate to have means at my disposal that were be-yond the ordinary. I therefore concocted this great scheme,with the taciturn acceptance of my father (who never quite

F1 GrandPrix in

Singaporewas dreamcome true

Much of the F1 race was on land that was reclaimed from the sea. Esplanade Drive, the road that bisects the photo above, and all theland to its left were part of the harbor until the late 1980s. The F1 route went along Marine Promenade, Raffles Boulevard and NicollHighway, past the Singapore Recreation Club, along St Andrews Road between the Padang and St Andrews Cathedral, past the CricketClub, over Anderson Bridge, past the Fullerton Building, down Esplanade Drive past Theaters-on-the-Bay and along Raffles Avenue.

Photo by Jim Tietjen

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figured out how his son could possibly be so enamored withcars going around for hours), where I enlisted his friends andcolleagues to tape the races overseas and ship them to me.My ingenious plan worked for years. It gave brutal weight tothe meaning of “tape-delayed” since I usually saw races threeweeks or a month after they took place and already knew theresults because the BBC broadcast race reports. Middle ofthe night, early morning, it did not matter; for years a littleradio and my right ear were the conduits of triumphs, disap-pointments, anticipation and a few fists pumped in the air.

When I started racing as a hobby, I had the American flagand the Singapore flag on my racing overalls. On my racinghelmet, which was always white and red after Singapore’scolors, I had a large SAS logo. In motor sports, as in every-thing in my life, I always felt a close bond with SAS; a connec-tion which far surpasses my attachment to my college almamater in Connecticut.

Throughout my time at SAS I had daydreams of a For-mula 1 race that took place in the streets of my belovedSingapore; judging by my report card, these daydreams

seemed to take place during 2nd period math or 5th periodphysics. I dreamed of Formula 1 cars racing down OrchardRoad, just like they did in Monte Carlo.

For years I always said that if Formula 1 ever came toSingapore, no matter where I was, I would come back to bepart of the event. Since the mid-1990s motor sports haveexpanded beyond traditional European and American mar-kets and ventured into Southeast Asia. In 1999, Malaysiahad the Formula 1 race near Kuala Lumpur, and I rememberwatching it on television thinking that maybe one day F1would travel a bit further down the peninsula. In 2007 it wasannounced, after years of rumors, that the Singapore GrandPrix would become a reality. I started looking for tickets themoment the announcement was made.

The cars did not race down Orchard Road like in my child-hood dreams; rather they raced along Raffles Boulevard andNicoll Highway. More than half the race was on land reclaimedfrom the sea, which did not exist when I was at SAS. It’s beena long time since that radio and those middle of the nightreports, but on September 28, 2008 the grand race came to

The first-ever Formula 1 Grand Prix night race took place in Singapore on September 28, 2008. Photo by Kumi Takeda

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The Formula 1 SingTel SingaporeGrand Prix last September was the firstmodern F1 race to be held in Singapore. Itwas one of only three street circuits world-wide. Most racing enthusiasts agree thatstreet circuits are the most challenging andbest venues for drivers and spectators. Itwas also the first F1 night race. Singapore’sstriking skyline, its exotic location and itsevocative history created a glamor thateasily rivaled that of Monaco. Formula 1’sBernie Ecclestone said in Today newspa-per that the event was a remarkableachievement and a hard act to follow.

For years I always said thatif Formula 1 ever came to Singa-

pore, I would come back tobe part of the event. I was therein September — and grinnedlike an idiot the entire time.

Singapore, and I was there.When I sat there, in the Padang grandstands, for the first

night race in Formula 1 history, I felt as privileged as I didgrowing up — and I grinned like an idiot the entire time!

I also visited my beloved Singapore American School; itmight not be on King’s Road anymore, but it is still home. Iraided the Booster Club store for t-shirts — nothing like amature grey-haired man wearing a PE t-shirt. �

Francesco Zargani and his racing helmet with SAS logo.

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Kristen and Richard by Kristen Young Miller (98)

There are very few times in our lives that have as muchimpact on us as the four years spent in high school. Wemature physically and emotionally and experience friendshipsthat can last a lifetime — or maybe just a day. The SingaporeAmerican School was where I met my future husband anddiscovered that the world wasn’t so large after all.

Richard Miller (97) could be defined as your “all-around”great guy. He excelled in the arts, played basketball andsocialized with a mixed group of friends from across the highschool spectrum. His grin was infectious, and his height madehim stand out from the crowd. I was also a social butterfly, asI dabbled in drama, music and sports. The typical cheer-leader, I made friends easily and had an omnipresent smile.

Looking back, we were the perfect match but were too busyto notice each other.

The spark began the summer of 1998 on Orchard Road,where we ran across each other outside Starbucks. I was stilla senior, and Richard had just returned from his freshmanyear at NC State. We spoke briefly, but it was the image ofme in my school blues and whites that stuck in Richard’smind until my arrival at NC State that fall.

We became friends in college and spent countless after-noons together sharing our love of all things. Fate caused usto be roommates the summer of 1999, and our relationshipbegan that fall. We were inseparable through college, mak-ing friends where we were most comfortable, in Richard’sinternational dorm. His engineering degree took led to gradu-ate school. I finished my degree in zoology and got a job.

SAS sweetheartsand their stories

“Looking back, we were the perfect match in high school but were too busy to notice,” says Kristen Young Miller (98).

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Kristen and Richard seamlessly transitioned from high schoolfriends to college sweethearts to true soul mates.

By 2003, Richard had finished his master’s in engineer-ing and began the job hunt. We had been together for fiveyears, effortlessly. Our fights consisted of him showing uplate for a date or me putting things away in his room where hecouldn’t find them. We seamlessly transitioned from highschool friends to college sweethearts to true soul mates.

I began my MBA in 2004, and Richard followed his ca-reer as a systems engineer for Cisco Systems in Chigago,and I stayed behind in Raleigh. We saw each other about fivetimes that year, but there still remained no strain on our rela-tionship. Our friendship and love for each other just contin-ued to grow.

The fall of 2005 I transferred to Loyola University andmoved in with Richard. It was a big move, as we had beentogether for six years and were not as yet engaged. While I

searched for a job and finished my master’s, Richard sup-ported us both. While we enjoyed alone time, we were thetoken “couple” at all our social gatherings with friends. Ourfriends considered us “old and married” by the time wereached our seventh year together.

In July of 2007, Richard finally proposed. I immediatelysaid yes, and we were married this September, a weddingthat was nine years in the making. It can only be said that ourlove and respect for each other provided the strong bridgethat made our relationship last from our late teens to our late20s to the rest of our lives.

Attending the Singapore American School provided usboth with the opportunity to learn about new cultures, expe-rience different worlds and build friendships that will trulylast a lifetime. �

Richard excelled in the arts, played basketball and socializedwith a group of friends from across the high school spectrum.

Kristen was the typical cheerleader, making friends easily andalways smiling.

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Claire and Leon by Leon Liu (96)

Although it took over a decade, it was inevitable that thetwo of us would meet eventually. Claire and I both attendedthe Singapore American School, and one of Claire’s bestfriends, Amy Tan Wei, was the younger sister of one of my bestfriends, Chris Tan. We caught glimpses of each other either atschool or while hanging out with our respective groups, butneither of us had the opportunity (or interest) in talking to theother. (Think beauty and the geek...)

A tragic circumstance brought us together ten years laterwhen my childhood friend, Rajiv Krishnan, passed away. Amemorial was held in New York, and I flew up to attend. Ifound Claire to be interesting and captivating, and we found

The beauty and the geekwe shared a lot of interests in common. After a year of see-ing each other every weekend, I decided to propose, but my“funny but romantic” scenario did not exactly play out well.

The idea was simple. We were in Singapore visitingClaire’s family, and I planned to put a large, fake diamondaround the neck of Claire’s favorite dog, who would thenappear at an unexpected location on Claire’s morning run.Being the dog lover she is, Claire would most likely startplaying with the dog, without suspecting that it was Casper. Iwould kneel down and do the same (meanwhile, Claire’sfamily would be taking pictures). I would ask Claire to lookfor a license to see who the dog belonged to. She wouldsearch the collar and find the fake ring. When she finally putthe pieces of the puzzle together, I would already be on one

SASers at Claire and Leon’s wedding: front, Paula Silverman (teacher), Jennifer Lee (98), Claire (98) and Leon (96); second row, RickSilverman (teacher), Rose Bava (teacher), Carolyn Choy (98), Nini Mitchel (former staff), Wendy Choo (98), Ann-Marie Tan (98), EzraMiksic (95), Umerto Pellegri, Samir Mowla (97), Anokhi Kapasi (98); third row, May Lim (current staff), Jim Baker (66 and teacher),Robert Saludo (69), Farida Mallal (retired teacher), Pauline Ashness (retired teacher), Kathy Tan (67), Chris Tan (96), Fritz Tan (93),Brian Miller (95); fourth row, Rohaya Samijan (current staff), Karen Wong (current staff), Henry Tsang (69), Maevin Tsang (70), VivienTsang (68), Zahed Kahn (97), Mark Garofalo (95), Richard Miller (97).

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SAS sweethearts Megan and Jordan: Alumni who attended the marriage of SAS high school sweethearts Megan Waugh (04) andJordan Bloem (04) on September 20 in Beaver Creek, Colorado were (front) Adam McCurley (04), Jordan, Rachel Bloem, NicoleDeFord (04); (second row) Kate LeSueur (04), Joanne Lonergan (04), Megan; (back) Lon LeSueur, Sara Calvert (06), Heather Wigmore(04), Chris Wong (04), Kenny Rosche (04), Scott Greene (04), Vincent Vainius (04), Bob Benbow (04), Andrew Wigmore (02), MichaelBloem, Matt Bloem (02), Auggie Bautista (04).

At SAS, neither of us had theopportunity — or interest — to

speak to each other.

knee with the real ring in my hand.On the morning of the proposal, Claire’s sister, Anne-

Marie, and her mother attached the ring to Casper, and thethree of them drove off to the prearranged spot. The real ringwas in a pouch that I looped through my necklace and hidunder my shirt. As we approached the spot where the pro-posal was to take place, Claire’s mother and Anne-Marie letCasper go. Everything was going according to plan. The dogwalked toward us, and Claire didn’t suspect for a second thatthe dog was hers. Even when she saw the flash from acamerawoman wearing inconspicuous electric blue shortsand hiding behind the bushes, her thought was “Why is shetaking a picture of the dog?” The biggest failure was thedog. Instead of heading for Claire, Casper wandered off to-ward some garbage cans.

Without thinking, I blurted, “Casper! Casper, come here!”My cover was blown, another flash went off in the distance,and since making the scene convincing was no longer possi-ble, I tried my best to make it confusing. Pretending not to

have said what I said, I got down on one knee and played withthe dog. Claire had already figured it out at that point andasked, “are you going to propose to me?” I retrieved the realring from the pouch around my neck and proposed to her.

Claire Hwi Meng Tan and Leon I Ming Liu were marriedin Singapore at St. Ignatius Church on King’s Road onAugust 23, 2008. �

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Sally and Mike by Sally Ackerman Casey (76)

I was in and out of Singapore as a child: we moved afterI finished first grade, then returned for sixth grade throughsenior year, except for my junior year, when my parents werebriefly transferred. When I returned that summer of 1975 formy senior year, I noticed a lot of changes: many of my friendshad moved away, and the community was becoming more“Americanized.”

I noticed Mike and his piercing blue eyes at the AmericanClub. Later his sister Maureen invited me to his hockey game.I went expecting field hockey, but it was ice hockey! In Singa-pore! I couldn’t imagine it. He was a “tough guy,” a jock whoalways wore his hockey jersey. We dressed like most West-ern kids in the 70s: jeans, Indian blouses, peasant tops andsandals. The girls back then wore little or no makeup andwere very low key. I’m pretty sure we never wore shorts out-side the clubs or school campus. We had free dress day on

High school sweetheartsand friends to this day

Sally and Mike Casey and Phil and Gina Provost were high school sweethearts and good friendsat SAS in the late 1970s. After they graduated from SAS and returned to the United States,

the two couples remained in close contact as they finished college, married and had children ofsimilar ages. This year, both couples are celebrating the arrivals of their first grandchildren.

High school sweethearts Gina Blick and Phil Provost (right) with Jeff Cantrell and Wendy Shaver at 1976 prom.

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The 70s in Singapore was a wonderful time. The hotels werespectacular, the food incredible and the people gentle. Singapore wasstill between two centuries with dirt villages among the high rises

that were starting to peek through the skyline.

Fridays, which everyone loved. There was a strict hair codefor the boys, but Mike and Phil kept their hair as long as theycould and were always dodging the principal!

Mike and I dated through our senior year at SAS, going tothe American Club, Sentosa and the movies. We hung out ingroups at each other’s homes. Mike was one of the few stu-dents who had a car, not that there were many places to drive

to. There were a few “pubs” we went to at night, but I can onlyremember the Balmoral now. We liked to eat at the stalls.

We knew we’d continue our relationship despite going todifferent colleges. Later, Mike joined me in Oregon to starthis flight training, while I attended the University of Oregon.

We moved to Texas in the early 80s and married in 1982.We have lived in Texas for the last 24 years and raised ourkids here. Mike is now an international airline pilot for Ameri-can Airlines, and I teach pre-school. Just recently, we werehappy to become grandparents for the first time, when ourdaughter Junell welcomed a son, Landry Michael.

Gina and Phil by Gina Blick Provost (77)

Phil and I met in English class during our junior year atSAS. He used to kick my shoe off as he sat behind me, and Ifound it annoying, though I think that his persistence grew onme, and I guess in the midst of that I fell in love. We had agreat time in high school: we traveled to Brunei on springbreak aboard a freight liner, we spent time with his parents inPalembang, Indonesia (Phil’s dad worked for Kellogg andPhil lived in the Methodist hostel with Mrs. Snead), and wescouted out Singapore every weekend, bars and all.

Our first date was the elegant Marine Ball. That datecould have been a deal breaker: Phil was late picking me up,and I was sure I had been stood up. Back then there were nocell phones. Phil had been playing football, which he loved,and as I recall the game went longer than expected. Mrs.Snead, whom I remember as a wonderful lady, called to as-sure me that he would make the date.

Phil also played baseball, and all through the baseballseason I would watch him pitch and ooh and ah over howgreat he was. I was deeply in love.

The 70s in Singapore was a wonderful time. The hotels

Sally Ackerman and Mike Casey in 1976.

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were spectacular, the food incredible and the peoplegentle. Singapore was still between two centuries with dirtvillages among the high rises that were starting to peekthrough the skyline.

Phil graduated from SAS in 1977. I graduated from highschool in Houston. It was my first time living in the States, andit was very difficult to leave Phil behind. I thought the worldhad fallen apart. We kept in close contact. It was trying, butPhil wrote me a letter every day! I still have them.

Upon Phil’s return to Texas, we decided to go to Louisi-ana Tech together, and the rest is history. Phil and I now worktogether on our online furniture business, eWay Furniture, inAustin, Texas. We have two gorgeous daughters, Mia andDeana, and we’ve recently been blessed with our first grand-son, the son of our daughter Deana, who also married herhigh school sweetheart, Darryl. We had the privilege of spend-ing the entire summer with our grandson, just ooohing andaaahing over him. We couldn’t be happier. �

Sally, Phil, Gina and Mike in 2008 — friends for over 30 years.

This issue ofJourneys has covered

only a few of the manySAS sweethearts. If youwould like to share your

story, please [email protected].

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By Stephanie Tang (04)Former SAVE Club president

Plato said in The Republic that wealth is the parent ofluxury and indolence; yet I beg to differ. When used wisely,wealth can be the parent of an educated and generous popu-lace capable of utilizing its resources for the betterment ofthe greater community. The difference between these view-points is obvious: individual effort. As the SAS community is

Sustaining our greenconscience

undeniably an affluent one, we must be extra cautious thatwe do not vindicate Plato’s statement. Fortunately, the extra-curricular platforms at SAS have proved that passion andeffort go a long way. SAS has the ECO Club in the middleschool and SAVE Club in the high school, both of which havedifferent types of programs that teach children the multifac-eted practice of having a green conscience. SAVE stands forStudents Against Violation of the Environment.

There are programs that expose students to nature and

Primary School students go green — treasuring the environment is a school-wide priority at SAS.

Going Green

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all its beauty: such as the Singapore Association of the Visu-ally Handicaped (SAVH) Sensory Trail, which allows them toaccompany visually handicapped adults on once-a-month out-ings to Pulau Ubin. The highlight of the trip is a trail that allowsthe blind to experience different tropical plants through touch,taste and smell while reading from Braille plaques. Myfavorite part of the trail is the “meadow of pandan leaves,”pandan being a plant used often in cooking and fragrances.The sweet smell of Malay kueh (green, steamed pastry) neverfailed to remind me of my childhood, although many times Iwas rudely interrupted by sighting a tiny garden snake lurkingnear the plant! I found it a very worthwhile activity as the kidsare able to cultivate a keen appreciation of local flora whilecontributing a service to the less advantaged. In keeping withthat appreciation, we created the Blair Sonnenberg Memo-rial Butterfly Garden while I was co-president of SAVE in 2004.National Parks experts helped us to choose butterfly-attract-ing plants that, as the garden matured, would allow us toobserve the whole life cycle of these “garden angels.”

Other programs in SAVE and ECO teach students how ouractions have environmental consequences: such as the In-ternational Coastal Cleanup held every year, where all the

members spend a Saturday morning in a worldwide effort toclean up the mangrove beaches; not to mention the exten-sive school-wide recycling efforts for paper, plastic and inkcartridges. Recycling every Friday was hard work as we had tolug massive bags across the school campus, but we alwaysfelt as if we were part of a very special team working behind

The beauty of ECO andSAVE involvement is that it

cultivates an ethic thatinfiltrates life outside of it.

Planting in the Blair Sonnenberg Memorial Butterfly Garden with Dr. Jane Goodall, who founded the Jane Goodall Institute forWildlife Research, Education and Conservation.

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the scenes, and we were amply rewarded with a pizza or icecream party every month!

Today SAVE has made great progress in reducing plasticwaste. A couple years ago, SAVE released its stylish reusablecloth tote bags with original student designs in an effort toreplace disposable plastic bags. I use them for everythingfrom transporting groceries to carrying my books back andforth between lectures. This year SAVE has succeeded in per-suading the school administration to ban the sale of plastic

Top: SAVE members at annual International Coastal Cleanup.Left: SASer guides visually impaired partner along the SAVHSensory Trail on Pulau Ubin.

Going Green

water bottles. It was a multi-step process, which began withpersuading food vendors, such as Mr. Hoe, Subway andSodexo, to phase out the sale of these bottles. More drinkingfountains were installed; Mr. Hoe provided free water andreusable cups; and the community was encouraged to buyother drinks in recyclable aluminium containers. SAVE hasfurther initiated the sale of reusable aluminium SIGG waterbottles that do not leech the harmful carcinogen (BPA) thatthe Nalgene plastic bottles do. After overcoming the initialinertia of old habits and with the support of the Booster Cluband HS Principal Norcott, very few students today drink waterfrom disposable plastic bottles, if any.

The beauty of ECO and SAVE involvement is that it culti-vates an ethic that infiltrates life outside of it: kids who recy-cle on Fridays remember to save paper at home. Lookingback at the time I contributed to SAVE, I feel blessed to havehad the opportunity to participate and foster what has be-come an aspect of my way of life. �

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Energy independenceis about thinking

big and starting small

Warrenton Mayor George Fitch (65) plans to build a $30 million plant that will turn garbage, construction waste and agriculturalrefuse into sufficient electricity to power all the homes and offices in his town of 8,000 people.

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Warrenton, Virginia: Mayor George Fitch (66) is leadinghis constituency toward total energy independence with abasket full of initiatives both big and small. The grandest partof this initiative is to build a $30 million plant that will turngarbage, construction waste and agricul-tural refuse and residue into sufficient elec-tricity to power all the homes and officesin his town of 8,000 people.

Once an SASer (he attended 57-62)and later a tennis-playing student at theNational University of Singapore, Fitch wenton to become a U.S. diplomat and interna-tional trade consultant — and a maverick.

He’s most known — or was once mostknown — for creating the quixotic Jamai-can bobsled team. In 1987, when he wascommercial attaché in Kingston, he andfriends jokingly wondered how Jamaicanathletes, known for their speed andstrength, would perform in the winter Ol-ympics. The speculation became realitywhen Fitch quit his job and invested all hissavings in creating a team. While the athletes practiced on amakeshift sled down a cement slope in Jamaica, Fitch mar-keted and cajoled and won over the naysayers. With his homemortgaged to the hilt and no funds to make the payments, hebrought the team to the 1988 Olympics in Calgary.

His bobsled adventures led to television commercials,speaking tours and the sale of movie rights to Disney for CoolRunnings. And he paid off the mortgage.

When he was invited to speak to the SAS Class of 1998,Fitch talked about his adventures and achievements, encour-

Take opportunities and persevere in the face of mockery and adversity.

Warrenton Mayor George Fitch (65) speaking to theSAS graduating class of 1998

Going Green

aging the graduates to “take opportunities and persevere inthe face of mockery and adversity.”

Fitch continues to be a “Yes we can” kind of guy, thoughhe professes to be a fiscally conservative Republican. When

he ran for mayor in Warrenton, he was toldhe did not have a chance of winning, but hepersisted and beat the odds. Then he didwhat he had promised the voters: he im-proved community services, reduced taxesand built a budget surplus.

Now he wants to make Warrenton en-ergy independent, probably his most ambi-tious project ever. The feasibility studieshave been done, the technology evaluatedand the private company selected to takethe trash at the landfill — which is now beingburied and emitting greenhouse gases — andturn it into 10 megawatts of electricity,enough for every home and office. It will alsoeliminate more than 100,000 tons of green-house gases, which represents 15 percentof the city’s carbon footprint.

All these initiatives may take years to complete, butGeorge Fitch tells skeptics that somebody has to make thefirst foray into a greener future and that he doesn’t mind“stepping into the water.”

Meanwhile, the city of Warrenton is proceeding withsmaller initiatives, such as LED traffic signs and exit signs ingovernment buildings, which have already reduced energyusage dramatically.

Fitch says, “we are going to be the greenest, most sus-tainable community out there.” �

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By Henry Cheng (07)

As child in a Chinese household, I grew up listening to myparents’ infinite oration on the wonders and importance ofthe Chinese language. Not once did they fail to stress theimportance of learning Chinese whenever possible, whileThursdays became the worst days of my life. Upon returningfrom school, I’d have to sit through an hour of Chinese tuition,only to forget anything I might’ve learned by the time dinnerwas served. The repetitive writing of Chinese charactersseemed like the only way to learn the dreadful language,which requires recognition of roughly three thousand charac-ters to be even considered remotely literate. Thus I neverlooked to the Chinese language with enthusiasm or interest,proficiency or hope.

All that changed by my sophomore year in high school.

My parents handed down an ultimatum: either continuetaking that dreadful Chinese tuition or sign up for Mandarinclasses in school. Like many kids who enter high school witha Chinese background, I had figured that I could bypass thetwo-credit language requirement through some form of profi-ciency test. I spoke the language relatively often at home; Ihad no problems conversing with my grandparents in Taipei,albeit with a few vocabulary obstructions. Yet not surpris-ingly, I was almost 100% illiterate.

So I enrolled in Mandarin III with Ms. Zhu and started myunforgettable experience with Chinese at SAS. Not only didMs. Zhu effectively teach her students the material, but shechanged my attitude toward Mandarin a full 180 degrees.Within a year, I had improved so much with my new-foundinterest that she offered me a shot at taking AP ChineseLanguage & Culture the following year. That became an op-

At SAS, Chinese language and culture are introduced in preschool and continue across all grade levels.

for SAS

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portunity for which I will forever be grateful.For the first time in my life, I had an engaging environ-

ment through which to develop my trifling Mandarin skills. Iwas surrounded by students with similar backgrounds: ver-bally competent with colloquial usage yet nothing else. Mostgrew up in Chinese families, and had this AP class not beenoffered, they probably would’ve graduated from SAS withoutever stepping into a modern language classroom. Through-out the year, we read extensively about Chinese culture tobolster our limited vocabulary and garner interest in one ofthe great cultures of our world. I became interested in Chi-nese philosophy, history and customs. Through the interestcame the knowledge, and we applied it to our speaking andwriting. When it came time to write, we utilized the comput-

ers and practiced inputting Chinese characters day afterday. It became one of the most practical lessons I tookaway from the class. Instead of having to memorize overthree thousand characters, I could write a Chinese essayon the computer through phonetics as long as I couldrecognize the rough look of the characters. In time, thisprocess helped me recognize so many characters thatalthough I cannot pick up a pen and scribble away, I cancertainly read newspaper headlines and movie subtitles.

At the end of the year, the results were astounding. SASachieved an average score of 4.76 in its inaugural year of APChinese Language & Culture. Yes, most students came inwith a background in Chinese, but the SAS results toppedschools from Beijing to New York.

Last year, in a stellar performance, AP Chinese studentsconjured up an average score of 4.81 on the exam, attestingto the brilliance and effectiveness of the class. Despite there

Like many kids who enter high school with a Chinese background,I figured that I could bypass the language requirement

through a proficiency test since I spoke the language relatively oftenat home. Yet I found I was almost 100% illiterate.

being more foreign students and fewer native speakersthan the previous year, last year’s results flew to evengreater heights. Class materials were better chosen,practice exercises became more effective and focusedand without a doubt, Ms. Zhu’s devotion as a teacherbecame ever more obvious.

As a student from the inaugural class of AP Chinese, itwasn’t the 5 on my College Board score sheet that put asmile on my face. In a way, many other students could saythe same. Instead, I personally treasure the opportunitiesthat AP Chinese offered me and my future so much more. Iwas able to learn my native language in a complete andengaging environment. I had a teacher who managed tobring out my interest in the Chinese language and its culturefrom unfathomable depths. And most importantly, I obtaineda desire to further my learning of

�

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By Mark Devine, AP Coordinator

The Advanced Placement program at SAS is the largestAP program outside the United States. SAS offers 29 AP ex-ams and is a top scorer among all schools giving AP exams.Out of the 1,250 exams SAS students took in 2008, theaverage score was 4.1. Ninety-one percent of SAS studentsscored a 3 or higher, compared with 57 percent of all stu-dents and 73 percent of those in international schools.

The AP Chinese program is still in its infancy, having giventhe exam for only two years. In those two years, SAS studentshave achieved noteworthy scores.

Although many (in 2008, 16 of 26 students) studentsenrolled in the AP Chinese classes have the advantage ofChinese-speaking family backgrounds, they take advantageof this opportunity to combine their home backgrounds withthe advanced Chinese language instruction at SAS.

In 2007 and 2008, 37 and 26 SAS students, respec-tively, sat for the AP Chinese exam. The exam includes listen-ing comprehension, reading comprehension, speaking andcultural knowledge. In 2007, the average U.S. national scorewas 3.93, while the SAS average was 4.75. In 2008, the

average SAS score rose to 4.81.To put the AP Chinese test scores in perspective, SAS

also offers an AP English language course. In 2008, the aver-age score of SAS students who took the AP English exam was3.89. The U.S. national average for that exam was 2.82.

The fact that the AP Chinese scores were extraordinarilyhigh is a testament to the language skills of each student, totheir ability to improve existing skills through the exceptionalinstruction and curriculum at SAS and to their confidence toperform well on exam day.

Superintendent Brent Mutsch, Assistant Superintendentfor Curriculum Mark Boyer and I are hoping to build on thesuccess of the AP Chinese program and make SAS a regionalhub for AP Chinese. We have been speaking with the APCollege Board about using SAS as a training center for APChinese teachers.

There is always more we can do to advance student learn-ing within the school by providing different methods, instruc-tion and quality programs. The impact of making SAS an APChinese hub would be great not only for the AP program butalso for the program SAS offers as a whole. It shows that SASis constantly improving and changing. �

Programs that reinforce the Chinese connection include Interim Semester in Beijing and Shanghai, fund raising for earthquake victimsand a “full-immersion” visit to Taipei. Younger classes visit temples and festival celebrations in Singapore.

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By Joe Lingle, SAS high school math teacher

Instead of vacationing on a tropical beach over Thanks-giving last year, a team of SAS teachers chose to spend theirholiday performing hard labor in Cambodia. After tours ofsites from the Pol Pot days to better understand the histori-cal context of many Cambodian’s lives, the team spent twodays building 12 simple houses for Cambodian families.

David Rops, a high school math teacher, has been onseveral trips. He goes because “it is one of the few service

opportunities where you can see firsthand where your moneyis going. It’s hard work, but you get so much more in returnwhen you see for yourself the difference that you are makingin such a concrete way.”

For many families in Cambodia, home is a leaky 8-foot-square hut made of grass, cardboard and discarded mate-rial. The parents sleep in the hut while the children sleepoutside on the ground. When it rains, all get wet and have norest. For the children, it is particularly bad. It is very dark inthe countryside, and the noises in the night are scary. The

SAS students and teachersbuild homes in Cambodia

SAS Middle School teacher Peter Cuthbert blows bubbles with Cambodian children.

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noises could be from snakes or from bandits.Tabitha Cambodia was formed in 1992 to support the

poorest of the poor in Cambodia through savings programs,the sale of cottage industry products, installing wells andhouse building. Tabitha’s programs are centered on empow-ering families to tackle their poverty themselves by settingand achieving goals through savings. For instance, to be eligi-ble for a new house, most recipients have raised enoughmoney to purchase a small plot of land and some of thebuilding materials.

Since Tabitha began, many thousands of families havemoved from abject poverty to self-sufficiency at a middleclass level and have graduated from the Tabitha program.Today Tabitha serves nearly 25,000 families.

Not long after its formation, SAS became involved inTabitha in a big way. Since 1996, SAS has sent dozens ofteams of teams to build houses. Some teams are teachers;other teams are students as part of a Middle School program

Top: SAS teachers Paul Koebnick and Natalie Grimbergen hard at work.

Below: Two little girls braid hair of SASer at last year’s Middle School Tabitha house building project in Cambodia.

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or High School Interim Semester project; and some teamsare made up of SAS families.

SAS also provides support in many other ways, such asthe earn-to-give fundraiser in the first grade and the donationof space for Tabitha’s stockroom.

A few high school students were so inspired by their house-building experience that in 2007 they started a club, “Housesfor Hope,” which has raised thousands of dollars for Tabitha.Combined, all of these programs result in over $100,000raised for Tabitha Cambodia every year.

One of the cornerstones of the Singapore AmericanSchool is contributing to the global community. SAS supportof Tabitha is one of the many ways that SAS backs up itsvision with real action.

To learn more about Tabitha Cambodia, visit www.tabithasingapore.com. �

A house before and after. When the teachers left, 12 families had new homes.

Tabitha supports the poorest of the poor in Cambodiathrough savings programs, the sale of cottage industry products,

installing wells and house building.

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By Auggie Bautista (04)

It was a mere nine months ago that my good friend and Ifirst had the intention to undertake an original project thesummer after we graduated from college. Our ambitioustarget was to raise $20,000 for the construction of a schoolby cycling 2,000 miles through four countries: China, Viet-nam, Laos and Cambodia. We titled the project Cycling+1 tosymbolize our altruistic goal of adding at least one more schoolto our world by the end of the trip.

Equipped with only our humility and common sense (andsome spare inner tubes), we successfully covered over 2,000miles starting in Kunming, China and ending in Phnom Penh,Cambodia (a few of us continued on to Siem Reap andAngkor). At the beginning of each day it was nearly impossi-ble to predict the conditions of the ride ahead. Some dayswe would cycle along new roads beside picturesque rice fields,but other days we were condemned to muddy, unpaved roadsand torrential rains. We were exposed to inept border guardsand blatantly opportunistic shopkeepers.

My Ambition – Cycling+1

Auggie and friends at border crossing between Laos and Cambodia.

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I firmly believe that even a smallproject has the power to make a

significant impact on our society,and I encourage everyone to be

resourceful and idealistic.

Still our spirits were high because along the way we metthe most interesting and diverse travelers and the mosteasygoing locals who would stop whatever work they weredoing simply to shout a loud “HELLO!” In Vietnam, Laos, andCambodia remnants of past civil, French and American warsare ubiquitous. It was eerie to encounter the charminglypleasant Lao farmer juxtaposed with his collection ofunexploded ordinances and B-52 bomb casings.

The crowning point of the trip for me was when I decided

to cycle solo for the last leg from Saigon to Phnom Penh (atwo day, 150-mile cycle). The first day I cycled 75 miles toSvay Vieng. In anticipation of being delayed at the Vietnam-Cambodia border I set off relatively early, only to curse Sai-gon’s rush hour traffic. However, once I was outside the city’speriphery, polluting trucks and reckless scooters became lesscommon. The next day, after a satiating roadside breakfast,I cycled the remaining 75 miles through the tranquil Cambo-dian countryside, interrupted only briefly by a short ferry rideacross the Mekong River that broke the highway into twoparts. It was a great feeling reaching Phnom Penh after twolong days of cycling solo.

We have already exceeded our fund-raising target of$20,000 and are working with our partner organization, Freethe Children, in spearheading a school construction projectin China’s Gansu province.

My previous apathy toward charity, not-for-profit work andthe like has transformed into enthusiasm. I firmly believethat even a small group project has the power to make asignificant impact on our society, and I encourage everyoneto be a little more resourceful and idealistic. This project,unforgettable and without regrets, left an indelible mark onmy life.

Check out our website at www.cyclingplusone.com andour trip’s photos at www.flickr.com/photos/cyclingplusone.�

Cycling through coastal Vietnam — some days the rides werepicturesque and smooth.

The cyclists spend time hanging out with kids at an orphanage inPhonsavan, Laos.

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By Colin Nederkoorn (00)

I dipped my back wheel in the Pacific Ocean and left SanFrancisco behind me on May 17, 2008. I packed four pan-niers onto my bicycle and headed west across the UnitedStates toward Boston and the Atlantic coast. Like many ofyou reading this, I have wanderlust. I crave to see new places,taste new foods and smell new smells.

I bought a bike in December 2007 and started doingweekend rides in Boston’s snowy winter. I trained when theweather and work allowed me. However, there’s no prepara-

Coast tocoast

for charity

tion for riding a bike for 6 - 8 hours a day for two months.The beginning of the trip during a California heat wave

was a struggle. I was constantly battling dehydration in 100degree weather while climbing into the Sierra Nevadas. Aftertwo weeks of riding, the pain disappeared. I hit a groove andcould ride indefinitely.

As I progressed further into the country, the physical andmental challenges of the trip changed. One day in Utah, Ifroze in a blizzard. Two days later I was scorched by the sun inthe desert and unable to continue, I slept the night in a ghostmotel. I crossed the continental divide in the rocky moun-

Blizzard in Utah. Photo by Brett Holman

Like many of you readingthis, I have wanderlust. I

crave to see new places, taste newfoods and smell new smells.

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tains at Monarch Pass (11,312 feet), ex-perienced the devastation caused by therecent flooding in Iowa, explored thegreat city of Chicago, ate fresh cherriesand berries in New York State and burgerafter burger in town after town. After 54days of riding, just over two months afterleaving San Francisco, I arrived at Re-vere Beach in Boston to the cheers ofmy friends.

People commonly ask what moti-vated me to do the trip. Firstly (and self-ishly), it’s a personal challenge to push

Mission accomplished — 54 days by bicycle from San Francisco to Boston. Photo by Dave Fisher

the boundaries of one’s mental and physi-cal strength. Second, I wanted to do somegood. I raised $3,160 for “Kick for Nick,”a charity that has soldiers distribute soc-cer balls to kids in Iraq and Afghanistan.Kick for Nick was started by the family ofNick Maderas, a fallen American soldierin Iraq. For more information about theprogram, see bikeacrossthe.us andkickfornick.com.

Overall it was an incredible trip. I ex-perienced tremendous personal growthwhile helping raise money for charity. �

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By Clayton Crawford (07)

The walk from the volunteer house to the Ama Dablamorphanage house was never routine. Each day I stepped outof the light blue gate, turned left and passed the local well,where at least 18 hours a day young women heaved upbucket after bucket for their thirsty families. Next I passedcalves meandering around the neighborhood as if they wereneighbors out for a stroll. A friendly wave to local boys allwearing imitation G-unit apparel and hanging around a va-cant lot was without fail returned with a jubilant cheer of“Namaste!” I then rounded a forgotten construction sitestrewn with red bricks made at the squalid factories at whichmany orphans used to work and took the small dirt path thatled to the orphanage houses. The path wove through con-

crete and brick houses oddly painted in peach and baby blue,past little vegetable patches and open fields where childrenplayed. Some days the Nepali sun beat down on my necklike a heavy gong, and other days the rain turned the pathinto a muddy slip-n-slide.

Each time I walked to and from Ama Dablam I inevitablypassed several Nepalis with faces like sweet, worn yak leatherand smiles that conveyed a sincerity and contentedness onlyfound on those who work hard all day and still manage totake time to whisper Buddhist chants and turn prayer wheels.On occasion I passed a monk or two in bright maroon andyellow robes — they never said a word, but their sparklingeyes revealed their playful wisdom.

Least routine of all was the constant view ofSwayambhunath, serenely sitting atop a nearby hill with

Namaste — Never routine

Clay with Nepali orphans —“You’d be surprised what you can gain from giving.”

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multicolored prayer flags proclaiming the Buddhist mantra“Om Mane Padme Hum” (hail to the jewel in the lotus). Theharmika, or square base, painted with the purple and redeyes of Buddha, its starch-white dome and its shining, 13-tiered golden spire made the temple a magnificent sight.Imagine, one of the most holy Buddhist temples, a world-heritage site, literally at your doorstep! My eyes on the thir-teen golden tiers, which symbolize the thirteen steps to nir-vana, I finally reached the rusted gate of Ama Dablam andwas greeted with a dozen happy shouts of “Namaste brother!”

For two months in the spring of 2008 I lived inKathmandu, Nepal, volunteering at the Umbrella Organiza-tion Nepal and making this walk almost every day. I firstheard about the organization through my parents, both teach-ers, who had visited it with a group of students. As a full-timecollege student I was pretty busy, but this far-flung place in-trigued me, and I decided to take a quarter off to see what itwas all about. I had been to Nepal once before, but only fora week, which is too short a time to appreciate and experi-ence all it has to offer. So I packed up my dorm, said farewellto my stunned roommate and my college routine and headedto Kathmandu.

Before I go on, I must admit that I had more than justvolunteering in mind. I intended to explore and enjoy myself.One of the people I met summed up why I came to Nepalquite well: “Don’t let your schooling interfere with your educa-tion.” So I didn’t. I jumped off a 528-foot bridge into a rivergorge near the Tibetan border — the highest bungee jumpsite in the world; I rafted down the Bhote Kosi river; I walkedaround world-famous heritage sites and explored Buddhistand Hindu temples and pungent markets and crowdedsquares; I consumed tasty dishes; I met countless interestingtravelers and locals who opened my naïve eyes to so manynew things; I read more great books in two months than I hadall the previous year; and I took time to just sit and think. Totop it all off, I trekked all the way to Mt. Everest base camp,finally reaching the summit of Kalapatar at over 18,400 feetabove sea level with a picture perfect sunrise view of the top

of the world.Most of my time however was spent with the kids in the

Kimdol neighborhood in western Kathmandu. The daily rou-tine was pretty simple — daal baht (rice and lentil curry) andchia (tea) for breakfast, get the kids ready and walk them toschool, then pick them up from school, afternoon chia andbiscuits, play time, homework, daal baht for dinner, morehomework, then some play time, then bedtime. On the nu-merous religious and political holidays I took the kids to thepublic swimming pool or up to Swayambhunath or to thenearby Natural History Museum. I helped them practice Eng-lish, taught them about the countries I had visited and an-swered questions about a multitude of things, from PowerRangers and oceans to math and sports. I watched out forthe younger ones and helped all with everyday chores. Mostimportantly, I just interacted with them. I played soccer andtickled them and colored and joked and laughed with them.I played games they had invented with small pebbles and letthem (painstakingly) teach me a few Nepali words and songs.Essentially, I was a tall, blonde, English-speaking older brother.

On my first day, I was met at the airport by Chandra, thevolunteer coordinator, and together we took one ofKathmandu’s infamous miniscule white taxis along the unre-lenting bumpy roads, past cows and swarms of motorcyclesand rickshaws and shining white and gold temples. Thevolunteer house is a curry-red, concrete, open-air house withthree floors, two basic bathrooms and a little kitchen. Afterdropping off my duffel bags I got the full tour of the eightorphanage houses of the Umbrella Organization, each namedafter a famous Nepali peak — Ama Dablam, Saagarmatha,Macchapuchhare, Dhaulagheri, Gauri Shankar, Annapurna,Sol Himal girls and Sol Himal boys. The houses were split byage group and sex, and each had a resident house manager,a housekeeper and several tutors. The orphans mostly camefrom other orphanages around Kathmandu, rescued fromfilthy conditions and abusive directors to live in relative com-fort at the Umbrella Organization and go to school nearby.Volunteers were expected to help out where they could and

At the end of that first day at the orphanage inKathmandu, I returned to the volunteer house exhausted and

jetlagged and oddly fulfilled. I felt good!

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with what skills they had and to simply interact with the kids.I was a volunteer at Ama Dablam, which housed boys

from ages five to twelve. My first feeling was one of resolve;I was doing a selfless thing by helping these kids withoutparents who had escaped poverty, right? I prepared myselffor the tough job, one filled with instruction and supervision.And then something funny happened. At the end of that firstday I returned to the volunteer house exhausted and jetlaggedand oddly fulfilled. I felt good. I realized that what I hadthought was a truly selfless act, helping Nepali orphans, re-ally wasn’t, because I had gained something too. These tough-as-nails kids had immediately accepted me as an olderbrother and from there on out we had a lot of fun together. Ienjoyed the volunteering, and every day when I arrived at theAma Dablam gate and was greeted with dozens of gap-toothed smiles, I already had a grin of my own. While I taughtthem about California, they taught me about Nepal. While Itaught them English, they taught me Nepali. While I taughtthem about American food, they taught me how to eat daalbaht with my right hand. Every day we learned from eachother and we had a good time. We had a lot more in commonthan I had imagined. Most importantly, they and I both ben-efited in so many ways from the time I spent at Ama Dablam.

Giving time and energy to help out those in need benefitsnot only the kids but the volunteer. I had experiences manyteenagers my age can only dream of. I made friends withsome of the most interesting, friendly, funny, peaceful peopleI’ve ever met. I learned that it doesn’t necessarily take thesame genes to make a family and became part of the AmaDablam family. As cliché as it is, I grew from the experienceand though I didn’t notice until afterward, the orphans taughtme a lot more about life than any textbook could. Volunteer-ing in Nepal changed very quickly from an act of communityservice to a fulfilling lifetime experience, one that has shapedwho I am, more so than the bungee jumping, rafting, sight-seeing and trekking (as cool as they all were).

By breaking my routine (which was the hardest part — bigchange is high up there on the scary list for most people,especially me) and going somewhere completely foreign andnew, I learned so much about the country, its people andmyself. I’m not sure if there really exists a truly selfless act —the fact is that while giving back to the community and help-ing others, one inadvertently gains priceless knowledge andexperience. I plan to come back sometime, and I recom-mend you join me. You’d be surprised what you can gainfrom giving. �

Clay at sunrise atop Kalapatar, adjacent to Mt. Everest. In the valley below is the Solo Khumbu glacier on which the Everest base campsits.

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Then & Now

Singapore fifty years ago

and today

The octagonal Telok Ayer Market(aka Lau Pau Sat), which was

converted to a food court in the 1970s,and the neo-classical Telecoms Building

behind it are now two small spotson the island’s soaring cityscape

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Then & Now

In the 1950s, the Singapore River,especially Boat Quay on the right,was the shipping center (above).Today, both sides of the river havetidy, tony hangouts for the youngprofessionals who work nearby (left).

Still the commercial center of thecity, Raffles Place has become apedestrian mall, and little of its

old world charm remains.

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Then & Now

Empress Walk, just across the Singapore River from Empress Place, as it is today (above)and the way it looked in the 1950s (below left). Glimpses of the past are found in the 1925

Fullerton Building next to the relatively unchanged Anderson Bridge (below right).

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Then & Now

Top and below: Quaint Empress Place isnow the Asian Civilizations Museum.Right: The 18-storey Bank of China

building was one of the island’s firstskyscrapers in 1954.

All 1950s photos were contributedby Stuart Lippe (59).

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Alums around Singapore

Julina Halim attended SAS grades 3 to 5 from 1984 to 1987and has been back in Singapore for 8 years. She is anutritionist and has been working with a consultant to ensurehealthy choices in Mr. Hoe’s cafeterias.

Kathy Saludo Tan (67), who has taught at SAS since 1973, shares third-grade memories of the Rochalie Drive campus with Keiko Yamaguchi,who visited Singapore in September. Both women rememberedplaying on the swings under a tall tree with red flowers, attending classin the bedroom of the house and Principal Albert Fisher callingtheir names on a bullhorn when their drivers arrived to take them home.

Activities Director Mimi Molchan hugs Muriel Chometsky, momof three alums who attended SAS in the 80s and 90s. Murielresides in Singapore about half of each year and spends the restof her time visiting family in Alberta and Houston.

Ee Chien Chua (07) is back after finishing his first year atBrigham Young University. He is deferring enrolment untilhe completes his two-year mission project in Singapore.

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Ernest Glass (67) visited with Singapore alums Jim Baker (66)and Russ Ng (67) late last year. Over the years, Russ has been agenial host for many visiting alums. Jim continues to teach historyand economics at SAS and is the author of several books, includingthe 08 revised edition of Crossroads, A History of Malaysia andSingapore (www.selectbooks.com.sg) and Singapore’s Eagles, thefiftieth anniversary history of SAS (alumni.sas.edu.sg).

Pictured are Ashley Zeni (96) and mentor Kim Melsom, who hastaught science at SAS for 15 years. Ashley is a veterinarian inWashington, D.C. She visited Singapore in September and servedon the science panel for SAS Career Day.

Anish Jain (02) returned to Singapore this year and is aninvestment associate at Temasek Holdings. He was a speaker atSAS Career Day in September.

At an alumni gathering in September at Brewerkz were (above)Anna Von Essen (08), Samir Mowla (97), Ken Yeoh (08); (below)Aaron Couch (98) and Elizabeth Love (99); and (bottom) GregRutledge (78) and Tanja Bayes (76).

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Notes & Quotes

55

By Buddy Byington (81)

The last week of March 2008, a group of SAS alumnifrom the classes of 1977 to 1981 (and the token reunionGaruda) got together for an intimate gathering in two vaca-tion houses on a secluded beach just south of Galveston,Texas, and called it “Beach Mania.”

The weather could not have been more cooperative. Thebeach provided a perfect venue with the sounds of lullingwaves, groovin’ music, spirited conversation and belly laugh-ter setting an ambient background for the party. The wholepremise was to relax, enjoy palatable, home-cooked mealsand reminisce about old times. It wasn’t long before every-one was teleported in time, carrying on like we were back atthe King’s Road campus.

Everyone had a hand in preparing tantalizing meals that

Beach Maniareminded us of Newton Circus and neighborhood food stalls.The meals were exquisite, the drink fine and the conversa-tion endless. Reflecting on the stories told and the time spenttogether, it became immediately apparent that few thingscompare to the depth of friendship and love this group sharewith one another. Even after all these years, we’re still mak-ing lifetime memories from lifelong friendships.

Those who attended Beach Mania were Rod Berglund(80), Oliver “Buddy” Byington (81) and Lisa, Brad Cantrell(80) and June, Scott Gill (79), Dean Jackson (81) and Melanie,Bobby and Katy Hayes Jordan (79), Bess Corbell Terhune(78) and Rob, Steve Kennon (79), Missy Miller (81), SteveProvost (80), Bill Sibley (79), Sunny Stevens (80), OtekaMcClain-Stevens (77), Colin Sturtevant (81), Heidi Servideo-Strickland, Karl Theriot (78) and Missy, Rod Theriot (77) andBeth, Mike Warren (79) and Marcia and Scott Warren (81).

Those who did not make it, be sure to e-mail Katy HayesJordan (79) through the alumni website for details on thememorable “SAS family gathering” planned for summer 2009:it’s the class of 79’s 30th anniversary reunion! �

Top: (front) Beth and Rod Theriot, Oteka McClain-Stevens, SunnyStevens, Missy Theriot; (back) Steve Provost, Bobby Jordan, MikeWarren, Scott Warren, Heidi Servideo-Strickland, Katy HayesJordan, Bill Sibley, Colin Sturtevant, Melanie and Dean Jackson,Missy Miller, Scott Gill.Right: Brad Cantrell, Steve Kennon and Mike Warren looseningup for the luau.

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Kelly Sonnack, Summer Schubert, Lindsay Smith, KarenBotcheller and Allison Franz in Las Vegas to celebrate high schooldays on the other side of the world.

Tom Murphy stands behind SAS 98 revelers Ken Yamada,Richard Liu, Kendall Smith, Akilesh Sridharan and BiancaPortela Collins.

Nearly 60 SAS alumni of the Class of 98 attended thereunion in Las Vegas last June.

Class of 98

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By Shari Vo-Ta (98)

There was a fantastic turnout of nearly 60 people at theSAS Class of 98 10-year reunion in Las Vegas this past sum-mer. Held at the Westin Casuarina Resort & Spa, right off thefamous Las Vegas strip, the festivities began Saturdayevening in the Westin’s Mesquite ballroom. Attendees weregreeted with SAS name tags and were given a branded keyring from our alma mater. Each of the tables had copies ofthe 1998 Senior Issue of the Eagle Eye, which had a promi-nent section titled “Where Will They Be in 10 Years?” Thismade for very amusing reading as alumni enjoyed readingand laughing over how their classmates’ predictions from10 years ago panned out.

While the Asian-style buffet was decent, it was not theSingapore cuisine we fondly remembered. Nevertheless, thethemed buffet helped set the appropriate mood for a nightfilled with reminiscing about our high school days halfwayaround the world. Former SAS history teacher Michael Imperi

celebrates ten yearsstopped by to say “hello.” He’s the headmaster at anearby school in Las Vegas, and his daughter Jessie (98)was in attendance.

The special presentation of the evening was a slideshowof our SAS years. From freshman year through to our lastyear of high school, everyone was treated to a visual specta-cle of old photos of the Kings Road and Woodlands cam-puses, parties, Interim Semester and performances setagainst the requisite music from the 90s (cue Green Day,TLC, Third Eye Blind, Hanson). Afterward, a big group of usheaded to Pure nightclub at Caesar’s Palace to continue thefun-filled night of reconnecting with old friends.

There were jokes that our next reunion should take placenext year but most likely we’ll be seeing everyone again in2013 ... for our 15th year reunion! �

DVD copies of the slideshow are available [email protected].

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Lenny Perry (85) and his wife Lindseywelcomed Jack Nicholas Perry on May5 at 1:58 a.m., 6 lbs 8 ounces and 20inches long.

Notes & Quotes

58

1964Dee Green Pickelman retired two yearsago after teaching middle school Eng-lish/reading for 35 years. She nowserves on on three boards — GuadalupeValley Christian Counseling Center,Seguin Education Foundation and Re-tired Teachers Association — and men-tors an 11 year old Hispanic boy. She isa reading tutor to “At Risk” students.Dee was a UIL Spelling sponsor for 15years and was asked to be the wordcaller at a Spelling Bee Benefit. Her sonJason 36 is a lawyer in Dallas with twochildren, and son Matthew 38 is a urolo-gist with eight year old twins inTexarkana, Texas.

1969Eric Kidder retired from Mary Kay Cos-metics after 32 years. He works parttime as an American Red Cross instruc-tor and as a substitute teacher in theMesquite (Texas) Independent SchoolDistrict. He also keeps busy with BoyScouts and his church.

Kim Page Shafer (73) is associate pro-fessor of epidemiology and biostatisticsat University of California, San Francisco.Kim works on HIV and hepatitis C virusresearch in the U.S., Latin America andAsia, specifically Cambodia and Thailand,as well as teaching medical students,fellows and scientists from developingcountries. She stays busy with her threechildren, and her new passion is tangodancing! Inge Lass Verhoef (74) welcomed her first

grandson Harrison Anthony, on August15. Inge says that the AC/DC onHarrison’s suit makes it clear that babyHarrison is half Aussie — despite the factthat he was born in New York and his dadis American. Inge’s daughter Saskia, isAustralian. Inge’s family is moving backto NY from Australia so they can be animportant part of Harrison’s life, and forInge to further pursue her career as aconcert pianist.

1973Stephen Self is a civil engineer in IonaStation, rural Ontario, where he liveswith his wife of 15 years, Dale, and sonJoshua 13. Stephen trained for theministry at Regent College in Vancou-ver and served in five churches in On-tario from 1990 to 2004. From 2004,he has worked in sales for General Con-tractors. Stephen fondly remembers histhree years at SAS, and his classmatesLiz Adams, Theresa Thonus, Debbieand Darrell Panchishin, JacquesClaveau, Lesli Edge, Nicki Gudgeon,Greg Harris, Brad Larsen, Peter North,Doreen Myers, Michael Ray, JimmyStewart, Mike Slaton, DaveStegemeier, David Wakefield, KKWatts, Don Clark and Diane Schmidt.

1976Mike and Sally Ackerman Casey livein Texas, where Mike is an international

Duncan McPhee (70) and Sherry Keith(70) were married on May 14, 2008.

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Notes & Quotes

Carrie McGrath Redding (83) and husband Kevin had dinner withEd Deiss (83) and his wife Kitty, who were in Connecticut on vaca-tion. Carrie has two daughters, Kailey 14 and Erin 10, and worksas a senior credit analyst for The Hartford. Ed lives outside Rich-mond, Virginia, with Kitty, Will 10, Rachel 7, and Zoe 4. He is aconsultant for a management and IT firm, North Highland.

Derek Low (87) and his wife Cheryl wel-comed twins, Keira and Ethan, in May2008.

captain for American Airlines and Sallyis a pre-school teacher. They have re-cently become grandparents for the firsttime, as their daughter Junell had a babyboy, Landry Michael.Doug Thurman and his 1976 class-mates would like to contact YukikoMiyake. If you are in touch with Yukiko,or know of someone who is, pleaseemail Doug through the alumni website.

1980Patti Snodgrass Burckel, a cardiologytechnician, and her husband of 23years, a firefighter, live in New Orleans.They have two daughters, 20 and 18,and a son 14. The family lost their homeand a few friends to Katrina in 2005.Patti says the loss has really opened hereyes to the preciousness of life. Shesays, “It’s not what you have or howmuch of it, it’s how you live with it!”

1990Leo Campbell works as an Avionics En-gineer at Boeing in Huntington Beach,

California.Mike Miller and his wife of nine years,Kristen, met at Sam Houston State Uni-versity, and have been living inGreenville, South Carolina for sevenyears. They have a son, Aiden (6) anddaughter Adelaide June was just bornon August 26. Mike is a divisional salesleader with Health Markets, an insur-ance company, and Kristen is a stay athome mom.Paul Trask and his wife Beth announcethe birth of their third child Isaac PaulPhilip, born June 24. Isaac joins EmmaRose (4) and Elizabeth Noel (2).Mandy Osburg Loughman and her hus-band Cary Loughman are expecting ababy girl, Mia, on November 7. The cou-ple resides in Houston, Texas. Mandy isa graphic designer for AIA Houston, andCary is a natural gas attorney at TargaResources.

1992Matt Nealon has finished his residencyin endodontics — that’s specializing in“root canals” — and completed a mas-

Sheryl Sutton (77), Nancy Blodget-Meisenhelder (75), BrendaBailey Burnett (76) and Julia Nickson (76) gathered atSheryl’s home for a small reunion. They had a blast bringingout the Islander and reminiscing!

ter’s degree in molecular science atHarvard. He is now practicing inBerkeley, California.Greg Nealon is a chaplain in Boise,Idaho, where he lives with his wife andtwo children.Randy Baker’s Rorschach Theatresqueezed 3/4ths of its entire seasoninto two months over the summer afterlosing its permanent performance

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Notes & Quotes

Emma O’Donnell (89) and her husbandFredrik Antonnson live in Gothenburg,Sweden, with Nellie 3 and Nils 2. Emmais a Montessori teacher of children ages3 to 6.

Julie Payne Kemmer (91) had baby number three in October. She spent a memorableweek on Cape Cod in September, attending the wedding of Anne Cangi (92) and ChrisAkin. Julie and Anne played soccer together at SAS under coach Don Adams, and thewedding was a reunion of SAS soccer players Christine Botcheller (92), Kristi Hagen(91), Karina Martin (92), Brandi Becknell (92), Julie Payne (91), Jen Reynolds (93)and Jillian Leviton (92). Pictured are L to R Kristi, Karina, Brandi, Julie, Anne.

space. Performed at Georgetown Uni-versity, Randy’s second full-length play,Dream Sailors, was dubbed a “halluci-natory, pop-culture-savvy, romantic mys-tery” by the Washington Post, while thepaper said that the Rorschach interpre-tation of The Skin of Our Teeth was “visu-ally astute and sneakily immediate.”Best of all, the latter production offeredMatt MacNelly (04) his first paid act-ing job!

1993Jen Reynolds started a new job for theU.S. Army as a liaison between the Armyand Congress in the Office of Congres-sional and Legislative Affairs. She willbe traveling throughout the U.S. and in-ternationally on congressional delega-tion visits. This summer she travelledto Alaska for the annual family fishingtrip.Stacy Cushing Calloway and her hus-band Devin welcomed their first child,Charlotte Alyssa, on May 23, in Con-necticut.

1995Monique McGrew Michel lives with herhusband, three stepchildren, three catsand bearded dragon in Alexandria, Vir-ginia, and works in Washington, DC asan international trade attorney for theglobal cosmetics industry.

1997Johanna Mitchell is engaged to DougFrauenberger, whom she met in Bostonwhile they were pursuing MBAs at theMIT Sloan School of Management. Theyare looking forward to celebrating theirwedding in the beautiful Riviera Maya,Mexico in April 2009.

1998Lauren Phillips Martin and her hus-band Brandon welcomed Emma GraceMartin on August 20 in Salt Lake City,Utah. She was 8 lbs. 13 oz. and 21.5inches long and has lots of dark hair!

1999Hallie Pearson Chambers and her hus-band of four years, Andrew, are teach-ers in Southern California.

2000Joanna Lawson-Matthew moved fromBaltimore to San Francisco in June.She will continue to work for Blue SkyFactory, an online marketing firm basedin Baltimore. She lives in the NorthBeach neighborhood with her boyfriendof five years and they love exploring theirnew home together!Shannon Prather Hamilton is pursuingher PhD in neuroscience at Baylor Col-lege of Medicine in Houston, Texas,where her husband Johnathan is in lawschool.Mitch O’Leary is a client services man-ager in San Diego, California. He saysthat besides how beautiful Merikalooked at her wedding last March, hisfavorite part of getting together with his

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Notes & Quotes

Brenden Zeni (94) and his wife Dianawere in Singapore this fall while Brendenwas on a three month work assignmentfor American Express. Brenden had agreat time catching up over dinner withCoach Bava, his rugby coach.

Tze Choo, Sara Dallaire (96) and MattKeenen (96) met for a night out in NewYork City. Tze Choo is an engineer in Hou-ston, Sarah works in public relations inNYC, and Matt works for Standard &Poor’s in NYC.

GahYan Tsui (96) married Chris Robertson on March 8. Attending the afternoonceremony at the Tanglin Club and evening banquet at the Four Seasons in Singaporewere sisters GahWing (00) and GahYee (94) and SAS friends Alison Smith (97) andSawako Morikawa (96).

Allison Franz (98) married Marc Melkie on July 17, in Las Vegas.

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Notes & Quotes

Kristine Viray-Fung Williams (97) married John Williamson August 17, 2007 in La Jolla, CA. Tiffany Kwock (97)attended the wedding. The couple honeymooned in Jamaica,and hope to return to do volunteer work there in 2009.

Ann VanVolkenburghChang (98) is lovinglife as mom to CalebDerek, born March 11.

Cheryl Quek (98) married TerryLagerquist on March 29 in Singapore.The couple is expecting their first childin February 2009.

Claire Tan (98) married Leon Liu (96) in Singapore on August 23(see SAS Sweethearts story).

Vonya Miksic Eisinger (98) and husband Nate welcomedGeneva Anne Eisinger on October 28, 2007. Geneva isthe first grandchild for the Miksic and Eisinger families.The family moved to Pittsburgh in 2008 where Nate isworking for a specialty titanium products company andVonya will work in biomedical research.

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Notes & Quotes

Sergio Camara (99) married Jill Turnquiston August 23, 2008 in Worcester, Mas-sachusetts.

Jessica Wilgus Stewart (99) welcomed her second daughter, Sophia An,on November 12, 2007. Big sister Isabella was born November 25, 2005.Jessica and her family live in southern California and would love to catchup with SAS alumni living nearby or passing through the area.

Bethany Sunquist Lomelino (99) andhusband Joshua welcomed their firstchild, Isaiah Thomas Lomelino, on Novem-ber 8, 2007, in Franklin, Tennessee.Joshua is a professor at O’More Collegeof Design, and Bethany teaches aerobicclasses and is a stay-at-home mom. Thecouple has a design studio, Anomaly Stu-dios, and they work on graphic design,web and 3-D projects together.

SAS friends was that Mrs. Rogers waspleasantly surprised to see that he wasstill alive, as he guessed she had beenbetting against it!

2001Alexis Hickman obtained her master’sdegree in Urban Planning in June, whileworking for the City of Santa Ana as apart-time management assistant. Sheis now working toward a PhD in urbanplanning and public policy at the Uni-versity of California, Irvine.

2002Anish Jain moved back to Singapore inJuly to work as an associate forTemasek Holdings. He is looking for-ward to catching up with other SASalumni based in Singapore.

2003Tricia Begemann married Kevin Lemeryin St. Louis, Missouri, on July 14. SASalums attending the wedding includedSAS classmates Garrett Greer andbridesmaid Lian Kitts.

2004Sidhant Rao finished his thesis at NewYork University and received an awardfor the best thesis in the category ofconflict and cooperation. An edited ver-sion of his thesis was published in theNYU Undergraduate Journal of Politics

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Notes & Quotes

Amerika Adams (00) received a master’s in school counseling and will be a guidancecounselor at a top ranking high school in Palos Verdes, CA. Merika married MichaelMcHugh on March 29 in Redondo Beach, CA. Maureen Oakley (01), Joanna Lawson-Matthew (00), Melanie Sonnack (00), Erin Collins (00), Emily Reiff (00), ShannonPrather (00), Hallie Pearson (99), Jason Peck (00) and Mitch O’Leary (00) all attendedthe wedding.

Erin Collins Wheeler (00) is a managerfor the Juliet Boutique Hotel in Layfayette,Louisiana. She is married with one beau-tiful daughter, Mya (above).

& International Affairs. He now worksfor the National Football League in NewYork.Erin Fortin is pursuing a PhD in organicchemistry at the University of Colorado-Boulder.Corinne Ameel worked in Phoenix, Ari-zona this summer at Jabil Circuits as apurchasing expeditor. In December sheplans to move to Phoenix and work forJabil Circuits full time.Sarah Gundle works for a shipping com-pany in Charlotte, North Carolina.Philip Finch works at NorthwesternMutual Financial Network in NYC as afinancial advisor/marketing manager.He is a disc golfer extraordinaire.Jake Emerson lives in Washington DC,and is currently trying to locate 100 Plusin the DC area!Lindsay Bench is studying to become alicensed interior designer in Houston,Texas. Since graduation, she hasworked as a free-lance artist/graphic

designer, gallery curator and museumof contemporary arts lecturer.Urvi Gandi graduated from NYU in De-cember 2007, and is now a credit riskanalyst at The Macquarie Group in NYC.Jessica Felt married Neil Mertlich in SaltLake City on July 1. The couple is mov-ing to London, where Jessica will workin fixed income capital markets forCitigroup.Chris Dugard will graduate in Decem-ber 2008, and then either study geneticbiology in graduate school or find a re-search job. He’s hoping to move backto Singapore.Mayank Kochhar works for Banc ofAmerica Securities as an analyst in NYC.Erin Quassa will graduate in December2008. She will then intern in Austin,after which she will either travel for sixmonths, go to Alaska, or join the PeaceCorps.Kristen Spatz is going through a three-year program at Columbia University to

get a doctorate in physical therapy.Fiona Tsai graduated from SouthernCross University Hotel School. She nowworks at the San Want Hotel in Shang-hai as a general manager’s assistant.Goldie Chow works in a business man-agement rotational program for GeneralMills in Phoenix, AZ. Her job has hertraveling between Phoenix and LA, so ifyou’re in either spot, check in withGoldie! In the next five years, she’s hop-ing to move to Asia, most likely China.Marisa Robertson lives in Los Angeles,working in an advertising agency on theNissan Infiniti account.Heather Wigmore works at the JaneGoodall Institute in Shanghai, where shemoved in October.Jason Chin travelled through China dur-ing the summer of 2008 before return-ing to Chicago, where he’ll attend medi-cal school at Northwestern for the nextfour years.Sarah Goddard is in Paris, studying for

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Notes & Quotes

Carissa Stevens (01) and Courtney Machen (01) at Jennifer Hahn’s(01) engagement party.

Kelly Dwyer Williams (05) and husband James Williams wel-comed 5 lb 15 oz Amy Joy on May 5 in Denver, Colorado.

her master’s in international relations.Diane Gondokusumo works for Herit-age Wealth Management in Singapore.Her work takes her to Jakarta often.Katherine Koa La Lung is finishing herfifth year as a dance major at the Uni-versity of Minnesota. She is currentlyworking on her senior project, choreo-graphing an evening-length piece, aswell as dancing in her first professionalshow with Wil Swanson/Danceworks.Megan Waugh and Jordan Bloem weremarried September 20, in BeaverCreek, Colorado. Megan and Jordanwere high school sweethearts andstayed together through four years ofcollege in different states. HeatherWigmore (04), Kate LeSueur (04),Rachel Bloem, Nicole DeFord (04),Joanne Lonergan (04), Michael Bloem,Matt Bloem (02), Adam McCurley (04)and Chris Waugh were in the weddingparty (see their photo in SAS Sweet-hearts story).Stephanie Tang graduated from Christ’sCollege, Cambridge, and will be em-barking on her master’s in internationalbusiness law with National University

of Singapore. The program will continuein Shanghai until June 2009. From Sep-tember 2009, she will be withLinklaters in London.Kahini Iyer works for McCann Univer-sal, an advertising agency in San Fran-cisco. She’s working on the i’m Initia-tive from Microsoft and says it’s a prettyamazing concept!

2005Lena Ishak is currently in Berlin, work-ing as a marketing assistant for a filmdistribution company. She will graduatefrom university this August. She visitedSingapore for a month last Septemberand caught up with many SAS friends.Cory Nguyen will finish his degree incomputer information technology atPurdue University in May. He has beenworking for Fortune 500 companies,such as ExxonMobil, Microsoft and JohnDeere, while at Purdue. Cory plans topursue graduate work in informationsecurity and network security.

2007Warren Ho is keeping busy with Na-

tional Service in Singapore and will beattending university in the U.S. in fall2009. He visited the U.S. in October andhad a great time catching up with SASfriends on the east coast.Sean McCabe spent his freshman yearstudying philosophy at Depaul Univer-sity in Chicago and hosted an episodeof the Jerry Springer Show. He has takena year off from university to work as apersonal assistant to the scientificskeptic, investigator James Randi. Seanand Randi have already traveled to theGalapagos Islands to retrace Darwin’sfootsteps and have more internationaladventures in the works.

2008Matthew Bardon and Michael Andrewwere awarded Boy Scouts’ highesthonor, achieving the rank of EagleScout.

2011Ben Parent was awarded Boy Scouts’highest honor, achieving the rank ofEagle Scout.

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Notes & Quotes

Send news and photos for theJune 09 issue of SAS Journeysto [email protected] note that themagazine will not list e-mailaddresses. If you want to com-municate with SAS class-mates or teachers, pleaseregister with other alumni athttp://alumni.sas.edu.sg.

by Karen Studebaker

In the 70s, Karen Kreiling Middleton(music teacher) was known as “TexasKaren,” Karen Crocombe Guerin (artteacher) was “Nevada Karen” andKaren Studebaker (learning specialist,administration) was “Hawaii Karen.”They were and are great friends andmade a quartet with Ronette Field Gurm(PE teacher) that was known as “TheThree Karens and a Ronette.”Texas Karen had a May break fromteaching at Texas A&M, Corpus Christiand made a trip to Australia and NewZealand, where she visited Ann Wu (artteacher) in Sydney. While there, Karenclimbed the bridge, went to a concertat the Sydney Opera House and “ran allover the city with Ann.”Following Karen’s visit, Ann and hus-band Tong went on a two month around-the-world tour. Ann is exhibiting herprints in a show in Sweden featuringthe top 25 print makers in Australia.In New Zealand Karen saw RonetteField Gurm and family, where their fur-niture business still keeps them busy.Christie is engaged to a fellow employeefrom the insurance firm where she

works and her daughter Zoe is “ador-able.” Tasha is “incredibly beautiful andsmart.” She works for the same insur-ance firm as her sister, but is havingthoughts of travel and doing social en-vironmental work in Alaska. Ronettedrove Karen all over Auckland anddown the center of the North Island toRotarua, the volcano parks and boilingmud baths!Karen’s eldest son Kevin (78), wifeCandace and two children arrived in Julyas part of their home leave from Taipei,where Kevin is with Dell. Kathi (81) andhusband Allen and two daughters livein Austin where Kathi works for Hoo-vers and Allen works for Dell.Dave and Terri Lewis (teachers) havebeen making their home for the past 5years in “The Villages” in Florida, justthree blocks from Paul and HeidiPrester. Terri and Dave were part of theUlu Pandan “Taiwan Mafia,” a termcoined by then Principal Ted Gehrman.Other members of the mafia were Mikeand Betty White and Principal DaveMcKeen and wife Jean. The Lewis’youngest daughter, Dave and Terri re-main close to the McKeens and Whites.The three couples had a Taiwan Mafia

meeting in October of thisyear at The Villages. Thiswas a part of their fifth an-nual “Double Tenth” cel-ebration that also includespeople they worked with inTaipei. The Presters repre-sented Sumatra and joinedin their festivities. �

Karen’s Corner: news of UluPandan in the 70s

66

McKeens, Whites andLewises celebrate DoubleTenth together.

Former Faculty and Parent

David Smith died May 23. He was 68years old and had fought a courageousyet tough battle against the rare dis-ease, Multi-Systems Atrophy. He will belovingly missed by his wife Peggy, hisdaughters Tracy Moland and MargaretSmith, his sons Kirby Smith (Louise) andMichael Smith.Joan Adams (84-02) is the vice presi-dent of International Schools Services,a private, non-profit organization serv-ing American international schools over-seas. In addition to overseeing the ISSschools in China and the Caribbean,Joan works with Laura Light (MS 94-02), who is director of educational staff-ing and organizes and directs interna-tional recruitment fairs around theworld. In 2009, ISS will host recruit-ment fairs in Bangkok, San Francisco,Miami and Philadelphia. All interestedalumni are welcome to contact Lauraor Joan for more information.Simon and Shirley Lowes live in Jakartaand travel to Singapore often. Their sonChris (03) graduated from Haas Busi-ness School at Berkeley in May. Daugh-ter Ashley (08) graduated from LeysinAmerican School in Switzerland, and willattend George Washington University inWashington, D.C. in the fall. �

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Singapore’s Eagles, the history of SAS andSingapore, is on sale at the SAS online store.The photos alone make it a book to cherish.See http://alumni.sas.edu.sg or snail-mail

Lauren Thomas, Associate Director ofAlumni Relations, Singapore American School,40 Woodlands Street 41, Singapore 738547.

Young Alums (Classes 98-08): December 17, 2008, Union Bar, American Club, Singapore

Class of 1999: Las Vegas, June 19-21, 2009. Contact Tina O’Neill Mysliwiec

Class of 1989: Panama City, Florida, July 24-26, 2009. Contact Lauren Kuhbander Thomas

Class of 1979: Houston, summer 2009. Date to be determined. Contact Katy Hayes Jordan

Information on all reunions: http//alumni.sas.edu.sg

Class of 2008

Upcoming Reunions

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Published by the Office of Communications and Development

40 Woodlands Street 41 Singapore 738547Tel: (65) 6363-3403 Fax: (65) 6363-3408

[email protected]

Volume 5 December 2008

ourneysSingapore American School Alumni MagazineJSAS

MIC

A(P

) 0

98

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/20

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SAS alumni withvision, passionand internationalperspectives

Inside features:• SAS today — the fabulous PTA• Oilers vs Steelers 1974-2008• High school and alumni sweethearts• Then & now scenes of Singapore

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