eagle march 2013

A PUBLICATION OF SHANGHAI AMERICAN SCHOOLmarch 2013

EXCELLENCE FOR SCIENCE

High school teachers on both campuses use E4E funding for real-life learning.

pp. 18–19

EAGLE PRIDE

Puxi girls and boys are APAC basketball champions! See special report. pp. 30–31

LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS

Pudong high school drama students bring voracious vegetable to life on stage.

p. 11

NFL PLAYER VISITS SAS

Defensive tackle Ndamakung Suh talks to Puxi MS students.

pp. 16–17

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- Joshua Barnett, SAS Pudong

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VOL 4, NUMBER 6MARCH 2013

4 Reach for excellence: acts of integrity and compassionKerry Jacobson

Recruiting highly effective teachersAlan Knobloch

Counselor’s corner: meeting basic human needsKirk Mitchell

Puxi 5th graders rock the schoolhouse!Jonathan Shih

AMIS: two ensembles, one festivalKendrick Tan

Double dreamin’ with the masterAllison Rohrbeck, Elisa Daguin, Lisa Ross, Lisa Ferguson, and Karolina Pek

Advice from a writerEmma Bourquin

Can kids change the world?Genevieve Barrons

Experiencing the Holocaust in ShanghaiYvonne Ye

Exploring world issues in an international cityCatherine Kwon

MUN in the city of peace and justiceCatherine Li

APAC Special Reports: table tennis, swimming, and basketballSteve Doleman, Todd Parham, Gregg Kerr, Dianna Li, Chris Russell,

Tie Watkins, George Carpouzis, Corry Day, Michael Branch, and Matt Kuykendall

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On the cover: SAS Pudong high school drama students in the school’s production of Little Shop of Horrors. See page 11. Photo by Maxwell Modien.

The Eagle is produced by the SAS Communications Office, based on both the Puxi and Pudong campuses. Information in the magazine is primarily about SAS people and organizations. We encourage parents, students, teachers, and administrators to submit stories and photography. All submissions will be edited for style, length, and tone. Articles and stories from the Eagle also appear on our Eagle Online website, at www.eagleonline.org.

The Eagle Production TeamEagle Staff: Genevieve BarronsGraphic Designers: Fredrik Jönsson and Cindy WangAdvertising Manager: Taylor HaydenExecutive Editor: Steven Lane

Production Schedule 2013April issue: Copy deadline March 11May issue: Copy deadline April 15June issue: Copy deadline May 20

Pudong campus: Shanghai ExecutiveCommunity, 1600 Lingbai Road, Sanjiagang, Pudong, Shanghai 201201. Tel: 6221-1445.

Puxi campus: 258 Jinfeng Lu, Huacao Town, Minghang District, Shanghai 201107. Tel: 6221-1445.

Email: [email protected]

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Shanghai American SchoolA n I n t e r n a t i o n a l C o m m u n i t y

Also: Editor’s note; Little Shop of Horrors; SAS Puxi hosts Fringe Festival; SAS Aqua Eagles at NIS Invatational Swim Meet; Summer Academy @ SAS; Annual Fund; and photos of Chinese New Year Assemblies.

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NFL PLAYER ENCOURAGES SAS STUDENTSBy Ethan Teo

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EDGE FOR EXCELLENCE FUNDS SCIENCE PROJECTBy Coke Smith

MS STUDENTS EXPLORE SCIENCE AND TEAM WORKBy Kevin David

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VOL 4, NUMBER 6: MARCH 20134

When I was just able to read, my mother took me to a small neighboring town to an old

imposing brick building that sat atop a high, high hill. Before we climbed the steps she helped me sound out the words and numbers chiseled above the giant doors: BLACK RIVER FALLS CARNEGIE PUBLIC LIBRARY, est. 1915.

Before we entered, my mother explained how a library was a very special home for thousands of books and newspa-pers and magazines, a place where anyone who wanted could come and read and learn as much as they could, a place that gave people a chance to become smarter and better educated so that they could one day help themselves and others.

Last month, I listened to members of our SAS Development Council put the final touches on the plans for our 2013 Edge for Excellence Annual Fund Cam-paign. Our SAS community’s many great examples of charitable giving brought to mind that long ago day and my first introduction to a library and to the word CARNEGIE in its name. Years after visit-ing many such libraries, I learned about Scottish-American industrialist Andrew Carnegie and how he had donated much of his fortune to assist communities across America, Canada, England, Scotland, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and other

countries in the construction and furnish-ing of 2,509 of these magical places.

The size of Carnegie’s generosity is unusual, but the benefits to society are obvious. As with Carnegie, we too can bring about far-reaching change through giving to institutions that ate important to us. As you know, this past week we launched our yearly Edge for Excellence Annual Fund campaign. You should have received a packet from your child one day in the week of February 18.

Why do we give to the annual fund? What is the impetus for these acts of giving?

At SAS, the second prong of our mis-sion statement sets the bar: “SAS inspires in all students a commitment to act with integrity and compassion.”

This mission is based on our SAS core value: “We believe that acts of compassion and generosity of spirit create a better world.”

Each act of giving to our annual fund is a reflection of our compassion for the broad education of our students so that they are appropriately armed with this attitude of compassion and benevolence. Our students are already involved in many wonderful service opportunities: Habitat for Humanity, Jacaranda, aid to migrant schools, Relay for Life, The Giving Tree. This year’s annual fund provides us each with the opportunity to model that com-

passion, that generosity.And, researchers at the Harvard

Business School have discovered an equally significant reason to give. According to the authors of Feeling Good about Giving, “Happier people give more and giving makes people happier, such that happiness and giving may operate in a positive feedback loop with happier people giving more, getting happier, and giving even more.”

My mother was right about the pur-pose behind the Black River Falls Library. Andrew Carnegie believed that the purpose of giving was to help others so that they could help themselves. This, too, is the basis for our giving to our SAS campaign. Those students who will be the direct beneficiaries will not only be able to help themselves. Through their commitment to acts of integrity and compassion, they will just as surely help many more in the future.

And so, my mother wisely took us all to the library and taught us to give. My father later provided the context: “As you live through each day, each year of your life, leave each place a little bit better than you found it. You and the world will be better if you do.”

RBY KERRY JACOBSON, SUPERINTENDENT

This year, SAS has the benefit of a very committed group of parents and staff who are serving as the prime “developers” of the annual fund, and the enablers of compassion, generosity, and a better world. The members of the SAS Development Council are: Amy Bu, Paul Cherry, Ken Chou, Cindy Easton, York-Chi Harder, John-Paul Ho, Karin Kelly, Deborah Lowham, Scott Rein, Robert Roche, Lindsay Thierry, and Mei Ye.

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WWW.EAGLEONLINE.ORG 5

Our students, parents, teachers, administrators, and Board members have a common goal for

SAS: to be one of the best schools in the world. Given the powerful and long-lasting impact effective teachers have on their students, this goal requires SAS to have a world class faculty. Recruiting teachers has become significantly more challenging in recent years given the fierce competition for the highly effective educators, and the rapid increase in the number of interna-tional schools — 150% over the past 12 years, according to one source. As a school community, we need to be committed to investing the time and money necessary to recruiting the best possible teachers.

As I noted in a 2007 article in Parent Talk (a precursor to the Eagle), “The chal-lenge of recruiting highly effective teach-ers,” the research is quite clear that a highly effective teacher can deeply influence student achievement and the way students interact with their fellow students and the world around them. In fact, accord-ing to one researcher, the quality of the classroom teacher is second only second to the influence of parents in its impact on student achievement. Recent research has also highlighted the importance of the teacher’s personal qualities. Effective teachers need to be able to differenti-ate instruction, use technology effectively, as-sess for student understanding, and build caring positive relation-ships with students in addition to having a strong background in their content areas.

The increase in the number of interna-tional schools, coupled with the rapid ex-pansion of many of these schools, like SAS, has created a very competitive market as the supply of top quality teachers interest-ed in going overseas has not kept up with the demand. These trends will continue with the number of international teaching positions expected to increase almost 80% from the current 295,000 to 529,000 in the next 10 years. Finding highly effective

teachers and recruiting them to work at SAS is one of the most important and chal-lenging things we do as administrators.

Many schools have shifted to hiring teachers as early as possible through phone and Skype interviews, however at SAS administrators have continued to place a premium on meeting the candidates in person. While we often will make initial contact through email, phone, or Skype, the best way to measure the teacher’s interpersonal and verbal skills is to meet them face-to-face. The vast majority of our teachers are hired at one of the internation-al job fairs. To fill more than 50 vacancies, administrators from SAS attended seven job fairs around the world this year — in Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok, Iowa, Boston, and San Francisco, which allowed us to interview teaching candidates from literally around the world.

At almost every fair, the number of jobs available outnumbered the candidates. Excellent teachers in all areas are in high demand and could expect three to four job offers at the fairs. Guidance counselors, or high quality teachers in specialty or hard-to-fill areas could expect five or more offers. So as recruiters we spend significant time to build relationships with the more

desirable teaching candidates to provide them with the attention and information they need to make their decision. (The most asked question, by the way, is about air pollution.)

Why do teachers chose SAS? We are fortunate to have an excellent reputation in the international teaching community. We are known for having outstanding students, supportive parents, excellent facilities, and adequate resources. Although some of the other large Asian and European schools pay more, our salary and benefit

Re e e e e e challengeBY ALAN KNOBLOCH, DEPUTY SUPERINTENDENT, PUXI CAMPUS

package is very com-petitive, largely due to the Board’s commit-ment to implementing a three-year compensa-tion plan for teachers. Finally, our new mis-sion resonates with the candidates. They want to work at a school whose goal is to inspire students to have the courage to live their dreams. More than 80% of the teachers who are offered posi-tions at SAS agree to work here.

My conclusion in the 2007 Parent Talk article is even more relevant today. Given the importance of the role of the teacher, we need to make hiring and recruitment a priority. We must be committed to keeping our salary and benefit package competi-tive and we must be committed to giving the administrators the time they need to recruit the best teachers in a ever increas-ingly competitive market. To maintain our position as being one of the leading schools in the world and Asia, it is essential that we continue to have highly effective teachers.

ReferencesDarling-Hammond, L. (1997). Doing what matters most: Investing in quality teaching. NY: National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future.

Keeling, A. (2012). International Schools Market Keeps Growing. The International Educator, 27 (2), 1.

Marzano, R. J. (2003). What works in schools: Translating research into action. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. Strong, J.H., Ward, T.J., Grant, T.W. (2011). What Makes Teachers Good? A Cross-Case Analysis on the Connection Between Teacher Effectiveness and Student Achievement. Journal of Teacher Education, 62 (4), 339-355.

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Maslow's hierarchy of needs

realized that he could only keep this sense of belonging if he continued to score winning baskets. Sound familiar? Do our children at SAS only feel like they belong if they have high grades? Good test scores? Great college acceptances? Sports championships?

Kunc suggested that this approach is crippling and does not meet our needs as humans. It is at the root of our children’s stress and high rates of depression. Not only are our children not happy, but they are blocked from reaching that ultimate level of self-actualization where they can be what they dreamed of as a child. I call it the “realm of genius and true creativity.”

I believe strongly that we must first feel like we belong in our com-munity or family, exactly as we are, faults or not. This sense of being loved and accepted then gives us the self-esteem we need to move on to the next step in our develop-ment by accomplishing things that not only make us feel good about ourselves, but that support and enhance our precious community and the world beyond. Only then can we move into the experience of reaching our full potential as hu-man beings.

My work with students and my own children has been revital-ized since shifting my attention away from what I call the “end

game,” and focusing more on my relation-ships with students and peers. I make eye contact; I reach out more. I avoid jump-ing right into the task, pausing to con-nect first with the person. When I come home from work I resist asking first about homework or test results, but give plenty of time to let my wonderful children catch me up on the moments of their day so I connect first with their sometimes bitter, sometimes sweet life moments so that they know genuinely that my love for them is unconditional and steady, no matter what happens in their lives.

As a father of two, nothing was so pure as

the childlike wonder and curiosity my two kids had when they were very young. The sky was the limit and I could see in their eyes the potential of them growing up to be Einsteins, Da Vincis, or anyone else they dreamed of being. These days, with them both in middle school, I sometimes feel I have lost sight of the dream. What were once days of exploration and delightful learn-ing have become nights of plodding homework, work-

sheets, and deadlines. I know from my work as a counselor that many parents feel the same way.

This last fall we at SAS had the privilege of hearing Norm Kunc, a well-known educational speaker, who — despite having a severe physical disability — has devoted his life to challenging and guiding schools to be rich havens where all students, no matter what challenges face them, can become happy and successful human beings. He truly inspired me and encouraged me to reassess the way I thought about my pur-pose as an educator and parent. Kunc told heroic and poignant stories about his jour-ney and the journeys of others who have battled against the many barriers schools can put up to block students from reach-ing their full potential. I was particularly struck by Kunc’s interpretation of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. It made me realize that many good schools — including our own — may be unknowingly denying the basic needs of our students and preventing them from reaching their highest potential.

Remember those five progressive needs, outlined by Maslow, from your own psychology courses? Here they are:

Step 1: Basic physiological needs Step 2: Basic safety needs Step 3: Basic sense of belonging and of being lovedStep 4: Self esteem through gaining prestige and a sense of accomplishmentStep 5: Self-actualization and the sense of reaching our full creative potential

Maslow’s basic premise was that these steps build on each other and the absence of one can prevent the development of the next level. Kunc took this basic model of development and applied it to his experi-ence in schools. He felt that many schools are suffering from chronic problems because

Mee ng a c h an nee e ha e ac a BY KIRK MITCHELL, HIGH SCHOOL COUNSELOR, PUXI CAMPUS

they ignore basic human needs as defined by the hierarchy. He explained that at the root of many school’s problems is that they flip Step 3 and Step 4.

Kunc said that in many schools today, students do not feel a sense of belonging or community unless they achieve results at a high level. He told the story of a high school basketball player who never felt like he belonged in his school until he scored the winning basket in a championship game. Suddenly he was a hero and loved by every-one. The boy felt fantastic, but this feel-ing was soon replaced by anxiety when he

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The revolving door of Eagle editors continued to turn last month, as former managing editor Kathy

Vitale left SAS to relocate to the United States, another casualty of the “trailing spouse phenomenon” — an unfortunate fact of life in the expat community. Kathy brought new creative energy and ideas to the publication during her five-month stint at the helm and we wish her the best in her new life. We are currently interviewing for the Eagle position and hope to have someone in place soon.

In the meantime, I would like to use this space to update parents on a major initiative in the SAS communications and marketing worlds — the development of a new website. SAS has purchased a new content management system that will en-able us to build a completely new site, with a fresh new look and feel and many new functions that are becoming standard on the best school websites but not available through our current system. The primary purpose of the new site will be to market the school to prospective parents and students, and in this we will be working closely with our colleagues in Admissions and Marketing to present the best face of SAS to the world and give incoming families the information they need. But the new system will also provide an opportu-nity to enhance our communications to current SAS families, and to integrate some of the many online systems that SAS uses.

We know that the number of differ-ent systems they must navigate has been a source of frustration to many parents. More than 300 SAS parents responded to a recent survey on the SAS website, and this was one of the clear themes from the data — parents want a more streamlined

Editor’s note: Parent survey will help drive new websiteBY STEVEN LANE, COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR

The new site will not solve every is-sue, of course, and competing priorities and preferences. One of the challenges of building a web site is to provide enough information so that people can find what they need but not too much so that it becomes overwhelming. SAS is a large and complex school, and not every system can be integrated.

But this is an opportunity to take some major steps forward. By this summer SAS should have a really fresh new website that will help market our wonderful school to prospective families, and provide cleaner and better-organized access to all the information that a busy SAS parent needs. Stand by and thanks for your patience.

and integrated website, with easy access to PowerSchool, teacher blogs, and the other sources of online information.

Another issue mentioned by many parents was the calendar system, which is currently dispersed across many areas of the school — all six divisions, activities offices, PTSAs, and many more. Our new web system will include an integrated cal-endar module that will allow us to pull to-gether many of the school’s calendars, and give parents options to customize them. The new site will also include many more photographs, interactive features, a new di-rectory, and a virtual tour, and provide the colorful and compelling online presence that a school of SAS’s caliber deserves.

B a Mee ng a e Board Meeting #7: Monday, March 25, 2013 @ 6:30 PMPudong Campus, High School Library Garden Room

Board Meeting #8: Monday, April 29, 2013 @ 6:30 PMPuxi Campus, New High School Building, First Floor Conference Room A103

Board Meeting #9: Monday, May 27, 2013 @ 6:30 PMPudong Campus, High School Library Garden Room

Board Meeting #10: Saturday, June 8, 2013 @ 8:00 AMKerry Center, Jun He Law Offices, 32 F No. 1515 Nanjing W. Road

Agendas and minutes of all Board meetings are available through the Parent Portal of Powerschool under SAS BoardPages.

Breaking News — SAS Students in Elite CompanyAs the Eagle went to print, two newsworthy stories were received — too late for fuller coverage, but worth a mention as just a couple of the superb achievements that SAS students routinely pull off around the world.

Presidential Scholar FinalistSAS Puxi high school student Kiffa Conroy has been named one of 3,000 finalists in the 2013 United States Presidential Scholars Program, out of more than 3.2 million high school seniors graduating this year. Kiffa has a chance to be one of 141 presidential scholars when the Commission meets in the spring. Kiffa joined SAS this year from the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Virginia.

Vote for SAS Pudong Science Team!Three Pudong 9th graders, Rishab Chander, Michael Shen, and Sidd Chandra, are part of Team RADIANS, which has been selected among the top 20 teams out of the 235 teams that competed at the initial stages of the 2012-2013 Spirit of Innovation Challenge. The team will travel to Houston in April to compete in the finals.

In the meantime, from March 18 to March 29, the public will have the oppor-tunity to select the People's Choice Award winner by viewing finalist team videos and voting on their favorite innovative product. To review each team and their projects, visit http://www.conradawards.org/groups. Vote for SAS!

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Parents and teachers who grew up in the United States in the 1970s and 1980s may be familiar with

the catchy songs and short animated musicals that used to play on Sunday morning television show called School-house Rock. The short episodes covered topics like grammar, math, and history with songs like “I’m just a Bill” and “Conjunction Junction.”

This year, Schoolhouse Rock came to life in the Performing Arts Center (PAC) when the grade 5 drama class per-formed a musical based on the TV series for fellow students and parents. This is one student, Jonathan Shih’s, experience:

In 5th grade drama class, we started doing something called OMG — a theater game based on the idea that the people are trapped in a TV. At first we don’t know what this game was for, but every class we worked on OMG and we made it perfect. Then Ms. Lewis, elementary music teacher told us that this is a part of a performance and we were really surprised about that news. We started working on the songs. For the first few days we thought we were just going to sing, which made us disappointed because we chose drama because we like acting. Everyone was happy to hear the news that we are go-ing to dance and act, besides singing.

Schoolhouse Rock Jr. is a musical

about a teacher called Miss Meiser. She wakes up very early in the morning on her first day of being a teacher. She is worried that the students will pick on her. She decides to watch some TV and when she switches on the TV some characters from the Schoolhouse Rock Jr. came out and sing songs with her. They sing songs about history, grammar, and math. Afterwards she feels better because she is more confident. At the end of the play, the characters run back into the TV and then she goes to school.

After Christmas, we started work-ing on this play. We had one week to work on the stage. I was really excited because this was the first time I had performed in the PAC. We practiced in the morning from 8:30 to 9:30 for three days before the play and after school from 3:00 to 4:30 for the week before our performance. We had to learn how to dance, act, and use costumes and props in one week, which made us really tired every day. On the first day we used props and practiced in the PAC, we began playing with the props backstage. Ms. Lewis told us this was really noisy and the audience would not be able to hear the singing. It took us a few days to learn how to act with the props backstage. My friend, Kyle Tien, said, “the practice was really fun, but hard. It is hard because we were really pushed.”

h g a e c he ch lh eG

BY JONATHAN SHIH, GRADE 5, PUXI CAMPUS AND GENEVIEVE BARRONS, EAGLE STAFF

We performed the play twice, once for pre-K to second grade and once for 3rd to 5th grade and parents. The play went well but sometimes we messed up the props and didn’t know where they went, so we ran around the backstage looking for them, which made us really tired. Sometimes, we were too excited and forgot some words that we had to say or we sang the song off beat. Most of the time, the stage was really bright and the rest of the PAC was really dark, but when the stage blacked out we couldn’t see where we were going. Thankfully, Miss Lewis stuck some glow-in-the-dark tape on the edge of every corner.

My mom came to watch the play. I asked her which song was her favorite and she said every one. My teacher, Mrs. Sweeney, said, “I was really im-pressed and I enjoyed the performance immensely.” Even our vice principal, Mr. D’Ercole, came to watch. He said, “I absolutely loved the Schoolhouse Rock performance! The students did an excellent job performing some really challenging songs! I feel so lucky to be in an educational community where students are provided the opportunity to participate in such high level per-forming arts activities.” We were really relieved after the show because we didn’t have to practice anymore!

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Puxi 8th grader Matthew Tung, second violin section leader, poses with his instrument as orchestra director Stephen Venema takes a photograph.

T en e le ne e alA

BY KENDRICK TAN, GRADE 8, PUXI CAMPUS

As the 26 Shanghai American School students basked in the glory of cheers and applause from the audi-

ence after a two hour long concert — the result of 16 hours of nonstop rehearsal — we thought, Wow, I can’t believe it’s over.

For the first time ever, the Association of Music in International Schools (AMIS) combined two middle school ensembles: the Asian Middle School Honor Orchestra (AMSHO) and the Middle School Honor Mixed Choir (MSHMC). The festival was held January 23-27 in Beijing, with 190 students representing 23 schools participat-ing in the event. It attracted two amazing guest conductors: orchestra conductor Jonathan Mann, a young man from Wales who hopes to inspire a new generation of conductors, and choir conductor Darlene Elkins, who currently teaches at the Saudi Armco Schools–Dhahran, Saudi Arabia.

In reference to Jonathan Mann, a student from the International School of Beijing, William Xiao, said, “Man(n) oh man(n) ... he sure knows how to get us going.” All participants were very pleased with the enthusiasm and dedication of the conductors, and believed they played a huge role in the successful concert.

AMIS is a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting music among international students who have a passion for playing difficult repertoire with only the best musicians. The organization spon-sors annual music festivals for international schools in Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, in hopes of developing more understanding, knowledge, and apprecia-tion of music in students and teachers. Over 60 schools are connected to AMIS, which was founded by Richard Bassett, an Oberlin Conservatory graduate who currently teaches at the American School in London.

Auditions were submitted last fall. Audition materials were posted online and students who wished to participate recorded themselves and submitted a tape of their recording, with the help of their school directors. These tapes were sent to the UK, where judges selected the partici-pants. As a result, 21 Puxi students and five Pudong students were selected to be part of

the AMSHO, including Sabrina Tang and Angie Zheng, the top two violinists in the orchestra.

“Twenty-one students — the high-est number of students any school has ever brought to one festival. This was an incredible feat, I’m very proud of my students,” said Mr. Stephen Venema, the middle school orchestra director on the Puxi campus.

In Beijing, working relentlessly for more than six hours a day, students worked together to polish their repertoire under the attention of the amazing conductors. Despite the long hours of practice, which made students want to go home and rest, the experience was unforgettable. Students grew closer throughout the five days, and new friendships bloomed. The AMIS experience wasn’t only about music, but it also brought together a group of kids from different backgrounds sharing the same passion, giving attendants an amazing social experience while stressing the idea of music as a universal language.

“The best part about AMIS was

spending time with other talented musi-cians and making new friends,” said Angie Zheng, 7th grade participant, Puxi campus.

Students worked hard prior to the event and continued to work industriously, perfecting the pieces during the festival, and put together a wonderful final product. The concert ended with a special grand finale featuring both ensembles perform-ing a commissioned piece, “I Choose the Light,” written specifically for this group of students by famous American composer Ken Berg.

Yeon Jun Kim, another grade 8 partici-pant, was very pleased with the finale: “The commissioned piece was the highlight of the event, the choir made playing in an orches-tra an even more enjoyable experience.”

“It was an amazing opportunity for people from all over Asia to come together and make beautiful music,” said Candace Wang, grade 8 participant, Puxi campus. “Because music has no language, it is a lan-guage. It is a language that all of us spoke, and together, we spoke of it at the 2013 AMIS Festival.”

PHOTO BY NICHOLE CHEN

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between our Audrey II and Shanghai — sleek, sexy, and sprawling. Or, maybe she really is just a singing, rockin’ alien plant trying to overtake the world. Either way, it’s one heck of a garden party!

L le h h a hangha Pudong high school brings new perspective to a classic musical

BY LISA ROSS, MUSIC TEACHER, PUDONG

The dark musical-comedy Little Shop of Horrors tells the story of Seymour, a clumsy florist who

discovers a fly-trap-esque plant, Audrey II, that brings him fame and fortune, but requires blood to survive. Eventually, the plant urges Seymour to kill for it, resulting in not only his own death but the death of the woman he loves.

Many associate Little Shop of Horrors with the B-movie genre, giant plant pup-petry, or at the very least, Rick Moranis. Last month, the SAS Pudong High School brought a new twist to the old show, taking a small shift from its earlier, iconic versions. From the South Bund Fabric Market to the hardware stalls of Beijing Lu, our little shop was constructed with local textiles in order to reflect the megalopolis we live in. Audrey II — typically portrayed in other productions by a puppet — took on a new, more visceral role in Shanghai, lending both body and voice on stage to the vora-cious vegetable.

As they get lured into economic and personal success, the characters in Little Shop discover that such advancement comes at a price. Shanghai, like much of modern China, seems to be finding itself at

a similar crossroads. Burgeoning infra-structure begets more expansion, a pattern seemingly without end, and the opportuni-ties and consequences of which are yet to be determined.

Perhaps there is a relationship

Above: The dentist (John Lee, 12th grade) holding a drill to the patient's (Albert Xu, 9th grade) mouth. (Note: The dentist in this play enjoys causing pain.) Top: Scientists taking clippings from Audrey II in order to grow new Audrey II's.

PHOTOS BY MAXWELL MODIEN

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In late January, John Jacobson visited SAS to work with students and teachers on music, song, and dance. Here are some impressions from those who had the opportunity to collaborate with him:

le ea n h he a eRenowned music educator and YouTube personality visits SAS

Mr. John Jacobson is a dancer, singer, and composer. Does his name sound familiar? He is also the brother of our famous super-intendent, Dr. Kerry Jacobson. When he was younger he was in-spired to sing and dance. Unfortunately, he was not very good so he was put in the back holding a flag. After he practiced dancing he was better and got put into the front. He worked for Disney and danced in front of the princess castle. He visits our school every year and teaches our students how to dance and sing. He is a famous dancer and does the Double Dream Hands/Feet dances that are famous on YouTube.

choral choreographies, which help bring out nuances in the music. With his help we prepared choreography for the song “Blue

Skies.”Another song we chose was the Chinese “Jasmine Song,” which — as we were performing for Chinese speakers — we thought was fitting as a way of honoring the Spring Festival. The third piece was “Narnian Soliloquy,” written by our own Sam Wu, with lyrics by Bernard Yue. On the day of the concert, we spent two hours solidifying the three pieces. For Sam’s piece, we had to collaborate with the “Youth, Music, Love Orchestra,” which was an educational moment for all of us as people were giving great sugges-tions that worked well together on stage. As a result, we nicknamed our choir the “Double Dream Choir.” The audience at the Huacao center was very appreciative of our performance. Footage of our rehearsal is available on the Eagle Online. In our final master class, Mr. Jacobson worked with us on a piece called “Touch the Future,” which he wrote with Mac Huff. In one class, he not only taught the music but all the movements for a 20-page Octavo. Bravo to John Jacobson and the High School (“Double Dream”) Choir!

While he is best known for dream hands, reality television competitions and commercial cameos, what people may not know about John Jacobson is his ability to motivate and enthuse any age or group of kids. I was thrilled to host Mr. Jacobson in our choir classes again this year, as he brings with him endless amounts of energy, passion, and joy in music. Through choreography, Mr. Jacobson teaches ensembles how to move with intention, how to look like a performer, and even how to listen better. Beyond the "double-dream hands," John Jacobson is a gifted music educator whose vivacity is proof that music is meant to move us all.

music teacher

During his time in Shanghai, John Jacobson was invited to come and visit with our three pre-kin-dergarten classes. Our student had a performance prepared for our special guest: they had taken one of their favorite songs and choreographed dance moves to it! The students taught him the moves, and then he danced it with us. They were so excited to have an expert dance with them and praise their hard work and efforts.

The High School Choir had an exciting opportu-nity to work with John Jacobson during his visit in a series of three master classes dubbed “China Sings.” We collaborated with Mr. Jacobson to prepare a mini concert to perform at the Huacao Retirement Center. Mr. Jacobson is famous for his

PHOTOS BY LISA ROSS AND KAROLINA PEK

Music and dance educator John Jacobson brought his enthusiasm and technique to students of all ages on both campuses during a visit to SAS in January.

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DATE WITH DAD!Mark your calendars for the second annual Puxi Elementary “Date With Dad!”

This is a wonderful opportunity for busy dads to spend time with their elementary-aged children. Activities will include music, art, library, photography, and PE. Sign up sheets will be sent home through classroom teachers.

PHOTOS PROVIDED BY JOSEPH HILL

a Ma ch

Meet in the Puxi cafeteria

EAGLE SHOP AD PHOTO CONTEST WINNERS

Congratulations to all of the students who entered the Eagle Shop Ad Photo contest on the Pudong campus! Stop by the Eagle Shop to check out the winning designs.

PHOTO BY TAYLOR HAYDEN

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Many SAS students already know about the writer Jeff Stone, who was our visiting author in

January. He has written the Five Ancestors books, a Kung Fu series about five young orphaned monks, which are very popular in our library. In the books, each of the monks is named after a specific animal and is learning a kung fu style martial art based on the animals’ characteristics. I love his books and I was very excited for the chance to meet him.

Jeff Stone happens to be my favorite author and I have the privilege of meeting him face-to-face when he was here. I was elated to find out that Jeff Stone had a few minutes to sit down with me and answer my questions.

When I read a good book, I like to play a little game. I try to find out if there is a connection between the author and me — something we might have in common. For example, is the author’s birthday the same as mine? Does the author come from the same country or state as me? Does the author have pets, likes to travel, play sports, do kung fu, practice an instrument? You can see where I’m going with this, right? When I do find a connection with an author it’s as if we are members of a pri-vate club — a club for writers only. When I first read the Five Ancestors series I knew that this author and I must have similari-ties, because each book he wrote was as if it was written with me in mind.

This is my interview with Jeff Stone, which lasted 45 heavenly minutes.Emma: What type of genre do you enjoy

e ng a ice a riterFinding my connection with Jeff Stone

BY EMMA BOURQUIN, 6TH GRADE, PUXI CAMPUS

reading?Jeff Stone: Fantasy(Connection #1; I like fantasy books too!)

Emma: What made you become an author in the first place?Jeff Stone: I love to read and wanted to read a long martial arts fantasy series, but there weren’t any books written for me to read.(Connection #2; I like anything that has to do with martial arts)

Emma: Who or what interested you in writing?Jeff Stone: Good books made me inter-ested in writing and I enjoy long fantasy adventures like Lord of the Rings.(Connection #3; I too like long fantasy adventure books)

Emma: Once you come up with your story idea, what is the next step?Jeff Stone: I always create an outline first and think about the most interesting conflict to think about.Emma: What encouraged you to write about monks and their behavior?Jeff Stone: Well, first … monks are cool! I respect their attire and their dedicated life style.(Connection # 4; I think monks are cool, too)

Emma: Is there anything juicy that is coming up in your new series, “Out of the Ashes”?Jeff Stone: Really, really bad, bad guys, and questionable good guys with lots of exotic

locations such as San Francisco. The next book will be coming out soon; it’s called Lion. Emma: Awesome, I can’t wait to read it.

I also got to ask him some personal questions:

Emma: What is your favorite color?Jeff Stone: My favorite color is red, because I’m Polish and red is one of the national colors of Poland.(Connection # 5; Red is my favorite color too.)

Emma: How did you meet your wife?

Jeff Stone: My wife is Cantonese from Hong Kong and I met her at a friend’s-friend’s birthday party in Detroit, Michigan. Emma: What made you think of the names of your two dogs?Jeff Stone: Ricky looks like a Ricky because he is such a mellow and calm dog, and Roxie looks like a Roxie because she is hyper and fun.(Connection # 6; I too have a hyper and fun dog name Roxie!)

Emma: What do you most care about other than your family?Jeff Stone: I care for nature, animals, and the environment. (Connection #7; all three are important to me too.)

Emma: If you could say in one sentence that would inspire your readers, what would that sentence be?Jeff Stone: I would tell all my young readers to embrace who they are and learn to focus on their strengths.

I think I may have found my connection with Jeff Stone. He has inspired me to work hard, stay focused and follow my dreams of becoming a writer. All of a sudden, I’m overwhelmed by the thought that one day I may actually write a book just like Jeff Stone. I already have two dogs and one is named Roxie, so I’m half way there.

Early this year the 4th and 5th grades and middle schoolers enjoyed meeting an excellent visiting author, Jeff Stone. He wrote the Five Ancestors series based on his own life experiences. These books are

a different type of kung fu, based on their personality. These books are packed full

passions of Jeff Stone.

i i ng uth r e t ne

Emma Bourquin and Jeff StonePHOTO PROVIDED BY EMMA BOURQUIN

MARCH13 Feb24.indd 14 2/25/13 1:19 PM


chose the SEI was more personal. Accord-ing to Hannah Mo, they chose it “because it is very close to Shanghai American School and because then we could go there and help them.” The students were planning to board a school bus with their teachers after Chinese New Year to go and see whom exactly all their hard-earned money had helped.

When asked if they thought one per-son could make a difference, the students answered with an enthusiastic, “yes!”

A few weeks ago, Diane McWilliams, academic support teacher, posed a question to her 4th and 5th

graders: can one person make the world a better place? Her students spent several weeks studying the issue, doing research on young people who had accomplished amazing things, and making posters about these “real life super heroes.” And then they set out to test this theory in their own community.

The students chose to focus on the Shanghai Education Institute (SEI), a local charity that provides support to disabled infants. At first, according to William Shao, “we had a lot of different ideas.” They worked together to figure out the best way to help these infants. Eventually, they decided that what they should do, as An-gelica Dimal put it, is “make cards to sell to people to get money so that the babies could have enough.”

But they knew they couldn’t do it alone. So each of the five students went back to their classes and asked for help. Berkley Chiu remembered, “we had to go in front of our class and talk about kids making a difference, we asked our friends to sell the cards and make money for the Shanghai Education Institute.” They explained to their classmates what they had learned, and asked them to do one thing:

an i change the rl F

BY GENEVIEVE BARRONS, EAGLE STAFF

sell a single card. They knew that if every person did this one small thing it could add up to something amazing.

Sure enough, their classmates rose to the challenge. In total, they managed to raise over 6,000 RMB in less than a week. Thinking back on the experience, Ryan Wei commented that this “made us feel good.” As Mrs. McWilliams said, “it is really about the effort, if everyone makes a little bit of effort and we put all of our effort together we can accomplish something big.”

The other part of the reason they

Academic Support class – grade 5 students: Hannah Mo and Berkeley Chu from 5JK; grade 4 students, William Shao, 4JP; Ryan Wei, 4SF; Angelica Dimal and William Arnold, 4KS.

We’re getting social @ SAS!

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N L la er encNdamukong Suh, Detroit Lion

BY ETHAN TEO, 8TH GRADE, PUXI CAMPUS

SAS Puxi middle school students met one of the toughest men in the world on February 1, 2013. Standing at

1.93 meters tall and weighing nearly 150 kg, Ndamukong Suh, who currently plays for the National Football League’s Detroit Lions, is one of the best defensive tackles in the league. Like all of us here at SAS, he had a dream to fulfill, and he achieved it in style!

Suh was in China promoting the Super Bowl. He visited Shanghai Ameri-can School to help inspire us to pursue our aspirations and dreams. One member of the SAS community, middle school principal Mr. Latzke, even got to fulfill his dream of arm wrestling an NFL player at the assembly.

Suh was always considered one of the more athletic students in his youth. His father had played semi-professional soccer in Germany, and Suh also took an interest in that sport. However, he admitted that he was very aggressive and was often shown yellow and red cards for fouling his op-ponents. It wasn’t until the 8th grade that he first played football, but the moment he started playing he immediately “fell in love with the game.” “Football is a really unique sport because it involves strong physical contact in every play of the game, and I’ve always been more on the aggressive side,” he said.

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c urage tu ent t li e their reaons defensive tackle, visits SAS

Despite the aggressiveness required in football, Suh also pointed out that “foot-ball is 90% mental and 10% physical. It’s a mental grind.” Throughout the course of his football career, he has learned skills that make the sport less physically demanding, but force him to be more mentally pre-pared in games. He believes that the most important thing to remember in com-petitions is to learn how to look at both wins and losses in the right perspective. Although it’s great to win games, it’s really about being disciplined and organized, and being able to deal with loss. “You’re not going to have everything go your way,” he said. “The game is about how you handle (bad) situations.”

Suh also shared with us his journey of becoming the football star he is today. According to Suh, he never really imag-ined that he would become a professional athlete until college, which is when he finally felt he was good enough to work his way into the NFL. There was no doubt that there were sacrifices to be made. Being a football player in college, he wasn’t able to see his family often, and frequently dealt with injuries. “These obstacles were never really a depressing thing for me,” he said, “they were often just motivations that made me a better and stronger person, and what got me to where I am today.”

Overall, Suh wanted to tell SAS

NFL defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh visited SAS Puxi Middle School in February. Left: Suh comfortably reaches the top of the SAS sign. Top, from left: Suh talks to middle school students about the courage to live their dreams, arms wrestles principal Brad Latzke, and shows students some line techniques. Above: Carter Mott gets an autograph.

students that the biggest reason why he ac-complished his goal was because he had the courage to live his dreams. “Whatever your dream is, make sure you attack it with full force. If you have the determination, effort, and the right mindset, nothing should ever stop you.”

PHOTOS BY DAVE MENTION

Check out more about Ndamukong Suh on the Eagle Online: www.eagleonline.org

MARCH13 Feb24.indd 17 2/25/13 1:19 PM


Science students make best use of Edge For Excellence grantStudents from both campuses begin long-term projects at Lake Tai

BY COKE SMITH, HIGH SCHOOL SCIENCE TEACHER, PUDONG CAMPUS

In the fall of 2012, two SAS science teachers, James Linzel and myself, de-cided to apply for grants from the Edge

for Excellence fund and interestingly both of us independently came up with basi-cally the same idea. We both wanted our students to have more real-life educational opportunities in the sciences. We wanted our students to learn and practice real sci-ence in the field, outside the boundaries of the traditional classroom. So we designed designed proposals and submitted applica-tions to the Edge for Excellence program for funds to pay for students to get out in to the environment and do real science. Now keep in mind, neither of us knew the other was doing this!

Well, both of us were awarded gener-ous grants and have since teamed up to make the best use of these resources. And during the weekend of February 1, James and I took nearly 70 Pudong and Puxi students to the shores of Lake Tai for two solid days of real-life science in the wilds of Jiangsu province. For the field day, we were joined by Puxi science instructors Tom Horton and Dharmendra “Dan” Dubay, as well as Pudong’s Sivaporn “Som” Smith, to make an invincible science team to lead our students!

Early in the planning stages for the project, a team of James, myself, Superintendent Kerry Jacobson, Development Director Cindy Easton, and Pudong High School Vice Principal Tonya

Parham made an exploratory trip to Wuxi to investigate various sites and opportuni-ties for our students. Jeanee and Brian Linden, of the Linden Center, and the city of Wuxi graciously hosted the team.

After a fascinating and educational in-troduction to the greater Lake Tai region, we decided on a site called “Gengwancun,” located on a mountainous peninsula on Lake Tai’s north shore. Gengwancun was once a tea plantation town and silkworm farm but is now being turned into a tourist village. The development is currently in its early stages and we saw this as an op-portunity for long-term ecological studies involving our students.

One of the primary goals of our grant proposals was the funding of long-term longitudinal studies on the environmental impact of human development, to be car-ried out by successive generations of SAS students. And with the cooperation of the Wuxi government and the assistance of the Linden Center, the Gengwancun site provides such an opportunity.

On February 1 and 2, our students broke ground on our long-term studies. The objective for this two-day block of time was to collect as much baseline data as possible so that we can eventually track the impact of the tourist village develop-ment project on the surrounding environ-ment of Gengwancun.

Several students from Puxi and Pudong teamed up together to collect data on plant biodiversity using transect and quadrat methodologies. Five locations in the area were selected to run 100-meter

transect lines where the students surveyed the plant biodiversity by counting and identifying the various species present in randomly selected 4m by 4m quadrats. The data were then brought back to the lab for further processing.

Other groups of students were the of-ficial “bird watchers” of the project. They were stationed at specific locations and were tasked with counting and document-ing as many species as possible in the time allowed. They did pretty well too — we nailed at least 30 species of birds over the two days there!

And still other groups were involved with collecting water and soil quality data. Two streams crossed the study area and transects were designed to allow students to collect water quality data from the stream source in the hills down to the mouth of the stream near the Lake Tai shore. Some of these data are to be part of the IB students’ Independent Assessments as well as for use in the overall study itself.

My team was in charge of document-ing the mammalian fauna of the area. Using specially designed traps, we were able to find two species of near-endemic rodents as well as evidence of two of the area’s major top carnivores: Siberian wea-sels and raccoon dogs. The students were amazed at the end of the two-day with how biodiverse Gengwancun was.

As one of the teachers involved, I was very impressed with our students’ enthusiasm for the project and its objec-tives. Students got to work and performed their tasks with pride and ownership and

the seriousness of real scientists. When informed that they were the ones completely in charge of the entry-level data for this long-term project, there was a palpable feeling of excitement and pride among our students.

“So you are saying the data we collect today will actually be used by others doing real science?” one of our students asked. Another responded, “In other words, we’re actually doing real science!” I only smiled, but they knew the answer.

MARCH13.indd 18 2/25/13 2:56 PM


PHOTOS BY COKE SMITH

Left, top: science teacher Coke Smith shows students one of the rodent species captured in a special trap. Bottom: students running their plant biodiversity transect. Below: The old bridge in Gengwancun.

MARCH13 Feb24.indd 19 2/25/13 1:19 PM


find common ground in their desire to survive,” said Ms. Chernoff. “[They] learnt to appreciate each other even though their values are so vastly different … The Jewish people gave up everything to get to Shanghai, but they didn’t let their identity get buried.”

The museum is located just off of subway line 4 and student tickets are only 10 RMB.

For history buffs, curious tourists, or high school students who want to take what they’ve learned to a whole

new level, the Shanghai Jewish Refugees Museum provides a fantastic learning experience.

Last month, the National History Club of SAS Puxi took a field trip to visit the museum. The tour began in the former Ohel Moishe Synagogue, a recently reno-vated building with a gray-and-red brick exterior. Inside the large, austere room, the guide explained the history of the building and of the Jewish flight to Shanghai during World War II.

The plight of Jewish people during World War II has been well publicized, garnering attention through movies like Steven Spielberg’s Schindler’s List and books like Lois Lowry’s Number the Stars. However, a less-known fact is that, even as Allied countries around the world were turning down many pleas for help from Jews, Shanghai allowed thousands of Jewish refugees to enter, escaping the Holocaust in Europe. About 20,000 of the refugees lived in Tilanqiao area of Shang-hai alone, and although life was difficult in a new country, most of them survived. The Shanghai Jewish Refugees Museum documents details of the entire period, from Chinese government officials defying orders and issuing visas to the refugees to the love stories of the survivors.

“The museum was very well done,” noted senior Tina Zhu. “The tour guide was very knowledgeable, and had great English and Chinese.”

The students also watched a docu-mentary video on plight of the Jews and their difficult immigration to Shanghai. Following the short film, the students wan-dered through the exhibition halls, reading about the steps that Jewish immigrants had to take in order to live in Shanghai, and stories about life in China from a Jewish perspective. Preserved pictures and documents — such as a snapshot from a family’s home, or early 20th century visas — gave a concrete feel to the tales related by the museum.

“It was an intellectually broadening experience,” commented Katie Wu.

Ex eriencing the olocaust in ShanghaiPBY YVONNE YE, GRADE 12, EAGLE WRITER

While the group passed through the museum, they noticed compelling stories of Shanghai citizens or even Japanese of-ficers who aided the Jews in escaping from Europe, and a cameo mention of Shanghai American School itself: one of the signs on the wall mentioned a girlfriend “educated at the American School of Shanghai.”

“I think it was remarkable to learn about some of the Japanese people who helped and the Chinese people who went out of their way to help the Jewish people,” said Ms. Chernoff, social studies teacher.

Lastly, the students visited a third-floor exhibition on the Holocaust itself. The sobering displays were made all the more grim and momentous by the barbed wire backgrounds.

“Most of the trip was pretty uplifting, [actually],” said Lexing Tong, “except the third floor.”

Everyone in the group walked away with a deeper appreciation of Jewish cul-ture in Shanghai.

“Before, I didn’t even know there was a prominent Jewish community living in Shanghai,” said Zhu, “but now I know. We saw the brightness of humanity despite the darkness of the Holocaust.”

“I think it’s fascinating to understand how two different cultures — the Chinese culture and the Jewish culture — could

Above: National History Club students outside the Shanghai Jewish Refugees Museum. Above: An old synagogue door in a shikumen wall.

PHOTOS PROVIDED BY YVONNE YE

MARCH13 Feb24.indd 20 2/25/13 1:19 PM


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grounds and even experience the culture of a Middle Eastern nation personally.

Outside the forum walls, the SAS delegates spent their days walking the streets of Qatar, a very open and clean city with many buildings under construction. With our spare time, we were able to tour the traditional souq market as well as experience a captivating ride on the Qatar sand dunes, as the sun set beyond the horizon. We also visited the Museum of Islamic Art, where students were actively intrigued by the history and artifacts of Islamic culture.

More than 1,000 high school delegates representing 72 nationalities came together in

Doha, Qatar, at the end of January to attend the Second Annual THIMUN-Qatar Model United Nations (MUN) Conference. The Shanghai American School Pudong MUN team in attendance consisted of 19 delegates and three chairs, chaperoned by MUN directors Mr. and Mrs. Parker, and Mr. Hall.

This was a real life experience of working and collaborating with interna-tional students from all around the globe, sharing ideas and debating with 1,200 other individuals; a true example of lifelong learning.

The MUN conference was held in the Qatar National Convention Center for three full days. The debate created not only rich learning opportunities, but also memories to cherish. Everyone was left with a sense of satisfaction after days of research, writing up resolutions, and mem-orizing speeches. The preparatory work for the delegates was not an easy process, but throughout the conference, all students showed great energy and active engage-ment in the discussions, holding their placards representing India and Costa Rica

Ex loring orld issues in an interna onal ciPBY CATHERINE KWON, GRADE 9, PUDONG CAMPUS

up high and proud. Discussion topics in-cluded the curbing of small arm and light weapon trafficking, protecting child rights, enhancing women’s rights for education, and the development of sustainable tour-ism. Throughout, all delegates maintained flawless professionalism, regardless of the rigors of the schedule. The late nights and preparation prior to this conference really paid off as, out of 19 delegates, 13 were either main submitters or co-submitters of resolutions and all contributed to the overall debate in the conference.

One of the unique aspects about this MUN conference, in particular, was the location. Qatar, which has a rich Middle Eastern culture, was without a doubt a very new and unfamiliar experience for many of the MUN delegates. It was definitely an opportunity to interact with individuals from different cultural back-

don t ant to get on this lane back to Shanghai e memories here are ones that will ne er be forgo en

“It creates em ath in ou and the abili to understand wh someone is thinking the wa the are and wh the react the wa the do

View more photos and story about the MUN trips on the Eagle Online: www.eagleonline.org

MARCH13 Feb24.indd 22 2/25/13 1:19 PM


a wide array of ideas and solutions were presented and given to forums as workable solutions to worldwide issues. Keeping in mind the conference theme of “En-ergy and Sustainability,” the participants were encouraged to engage in an “energy revolution,” by engaging in environmen-tally friendly practices, implementing sustainable and energy friendly policies and practices in their homes and schools, and keeping their world sustainable for the next generation.

The conference cemented a passion for critical thinking and politics that will likely stay with these delegates for a lifetime. “THIMUN encouraged me to continue MUN in college,” said Nam, who intends to pursue a degree in international relations. A keystone of SAS Puxi’s MUN program, THIMUN displays the very best elements of diplomacy, law, and govern-ment and inspires the global leaders of tomorrow.

For most of the SAS delegation, The Hague was their final high school confer-ence abroad — and they were determined to make it their best. “The Hague was the pinnacle of my MUN career,” said Zhu. “I can’t think of a better place for my last conference than the international city of peace and justice.” As a senior and MUN veteran, with a self-proclaimed love of justice and international politics, I (Kay) could not agree more.

The air was icy and the sun was barely peeking over the tops of the trees, but there were already

students making their way in the crisp cold, through the bicyclists and the crunchy snow, from their hotels to the World Forum at the Convention Center in Den Haag, Netherlands. The students were gathering for the 45th annual session of The Hague International Model United Nations (THIMUN), held this year from January 28 to February 1.

Nine SAS Puxi students, chaperoned by Mr. Israel and Mrs. Wentworth, attend-ed. As the oldest and largest high school MUN conference in the world, THIMUN draws nearly 4,000 students from across the globe to the parliamentary seat of Hol-land; the diversity, debate, and the length of its waiting list are unparalleled.

Among the 74 student officers who gathered in the Everest Room of the World Forum were Tina Huang and I (Kay Lee), both SAS students who were appointed as the president of the Environment Com-mission (EC) and the deputy president of the Economic and Social Council (ECO-SOC), respectively. Heading 100-person committees, we facilitated the discussion of issues like the development of sustainable agricultural practices and the gap between the UN and various grassroots movements.

Student officers are a vital part of the conference as they manage, run, chair, and essentially oversee forums that can be as large as 300 people. “Being a student officer is an extremely important appointment,” says Zareen Has, one of the assistant presi-dents from the Disarmament Commission, and a student at the Zurich International School. “It means that if you don’t do your job, your committee won’t be productive and it doesn’t make for fruitful debate. Be-ing a student officer requires complete dedi-cation before and during the conference.”

This January, nine MUN veterans par-ticipated fully as delegates, appointed ex-perts, judges, and student officers. Seniors Natalie Chan, Anny Hu, and Katie Wu represented UNICEF (the United Nations Children’s Fund) in the Human Rights Council and General Assembly — lobby-ing with some of the best and brightest

from around the world; New York, Cairo, Santiago, and Nairobi were only some of the cities that sent participants. “I’ve never heard so many different accents in one room,” said senior Helen Yang.

Seniors Ryan Nam, Helen Yang, and Tina Zhu were experts in the Advisory Panel, where they considered the economic, social, and political issues of the African Sahel region. Clashes between ide-alistic and practical proposals and between opposing national philosophies made com-promise critical — something that Nam took to heart when passing six clauses and 10 amendments in his panel.

The Hague, known as the Interna-tional City of Justice, is home to some of the most renowned courts in the world, such as the Peace Palace, the International Court of Justice, and the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugosla-via, which I (Catherine Li), as a member of the Model International Court of Justice, got the chance to visit. Behind a glass win-dow, we observed the ongoing trial of the “Butcher of Bosnia,” Radovan Karadzic.

The THIMUN experience extended to a brief visit to nearby Amsterdam, where we basked in cultural attractions such as Anne Frank’s house and the Pancake Bak-ery, where we chose from over seventy vari-eties of specialty pancakes. In The Hague, we toured the Dutch parliament, and the Escher museum, and enjoyed Dutch culinary treats like stroopwafels, breakfast poffertjes, and local specialty of mayonnaise fries. With 4,000 international students also touring Amsterdam and The Hague, it was hard not to bump into fellow delegates and friends as we traveled.

Back at the conference, with such an international population represented,

S S in the ci of eace and us ceBY CATHERINE LI, GRADE 11, AND KAY LEE, GRADE 12, PUXI CAMPUS

PHOTO PROVIDED BY CATHERINE LI

SAS Puxi MUN students and chaperones get a new perspective on things at the MC Esher museum in the Hague.

MARCH13 Feb24.indd 23 2/25/13 1:20 PM


nd Season P Results PuxiBasketballBoys: APAC champions! Beat Brent International School in the final, 69-62, and had a 6-0 record overall. Congratulations to coaches Mark Hefte and Matt Kuykendall. Girls: APAC champions! Beat International School Beijing in the final, 39-37, and had a 5-1 record overall. Congratulations to coaches Michael Branch and Jay Shuang.

Table TennisGirls: APAC champions! Congratulations to coaches Gregg Kerr and Jeff Thompson.Boys: 2nd place. Congratulations to coaches Thanh Pham and Curtis Powell.

SwimmingBoys and girls: 3rd place. Congratulations to coaches Corry Day, Jerry Koontz, and Jon Biros.

Forensics Finalists: Emily Zheng and Joanna Xue. Extemporaneous: Michael Tang and Tim Yin. Debate — quarterfinals: Tim Yin and William Liao; Speaker Awards: First Place: Tim Yin. Congratulations to coaches Christine Doleman, Margaret Haske, and James Mikkelson.

Puxi teams bring home three P o hiesBY STEVE DOLEMAN, ACTIVITIES DIRECTOR, PUXI CAMPUS

e P Su er TournamentThese achievements were especially notable this year because APAC was hosting Super Tournaments. This is a format in which all 12 boys’ teams and all 12 girls’ teams compete in separate same-gender tourna-ment, unlike the normal APAC events that are run as two dual-gender, six-school tournaments. These Super Tournaments are only run every three years and, as such, take on special significance. Congratulations to players, coaches and parents who worked hard all season to achieve their dream result.

What a fantastic weekend of APAC sports for the SAS Puxi teams in early Febru-ary! The boys and girls basketball teams

are both Super APAC champions. This is a history-making achievement for teams from the same school to have won their respective Super Tourna-ments. The boys’ team were also presented with the APAC Sportsmanship Award, which proves that it is not against the rules to be tournament champi-ons, as well as being great sports along the way. We are particular proud of winning both these awards as it indicates Puxi teams can win with dignity.

Our girls’ table tennis team also came out on top as APAC champions. And we saw wonderful performances from our swimming and forensics teams — and from every student who competed. You can read more about the achievements of all our athletes in the stories on the following pages.

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The SAS Pudong varsity teams all did themselves proud during APAC season two tournaments in February!

Our swim teams both placed second at the APAC Swimming Championships in Beijing, a tremendous achievement in a very competitive meet; SAS PD swimmers also won the Sports-manship Award.

Our girls basketball team did very well to reach the semifinals of the Super APAC tourna-ment, finishing 4th out of 12 teams, while our boys team finished 8th out of 12 teams.

In table tennis, our boys and girls played very well, with our boys finishing 3rd overall and our girls bringing home the silver medal. Curtis Xuan won the boys singles title while Sharron Wu finished second in the girls singles. In the doubles, SAS PD was also strong with Dianna Li and Tina Chen placing 2nd while Sharron Wu and Annie Chen took 3rd place. Our boys also medaled in the doubles competitions; placing third overall were Curtis Xuan and Wesley Tian.

Well done to all competitors, who played hard and fair, and congratulations to our friends on the Puxi for their successes in the APAC championships. We look forward to meeting again on the courts!

A new formatThis year’s super tournament saw a change in the format structure. In the past, during the 12-team super APAC tournaments, the format saw the teams play

division played a round robin and the top teams from each division squared off for the championship, while the second-place teams played for third place and on down the line. This year’s structure consisted of four groups of three teams playing a round robin, on which seeds were based for a 12-team double-elimination tournament. This ingenious system allowed all teams to have a chance to win the championship, while ensuring that the champions rightfully earned their place atop the podium after six games of stiff competition.

Pudong athletes la hard and fair at PBY TODD PARHAM, ACTIVITIES DIRECTOR, PUDONG CAMPUS

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we were simply people that had come together and bonded over our mutual love of table tennis.

From the bottom of my heart I’d like to thank all the coaches and activities co-ordinators who always encouraged us and made the tournament possible this year. APAC Table Tennis is one of the experi-ences I’ll miss most after I graduate — to be part of it is truly something special.

Charles Lee, Tommy Zhang, and Dylan Ley placed second in the team event and second in both the singles and the doubles. Freshman Curtis Xuan from SAS Pudong was first in the singles event. All teams would like to thank the site manager, Craig Tafel, and his wife, Hai Sam Mai, for creat-ing and running a very tight schedule.

Over 600 games, 48 young table tennis players on 18 tables competed for the annual APAC

table tennis tournament, hosted this year by Shanghai American School, Pudong campus. The schedule consisted of a team competition, single and double events, and mixed doubles. The girls’ team of Min-nie Wu (captain), Cecilia Chu, Emily Ye,

Contrary to popular belief, table tennis takes a lot of skill, precision, and training. We don’t just whack

balls around and hope they happen to hit the table. We serve and slice and spin and smash, and it's as much mental as it is physical. In every match, there are two games going on: one on the table, and one in the mind.

This sort of intensity was present in every single one of the 600 or so matches played at the second APAC Table Tennis Tournament. Held at our very own SAS Pudong this year, the event saw a reunion of many familiar faces and the addition of a new school. A large portion of the SAS

Success at P table tennis tournament BY GREGG KERR, VARSITY GIRLS COACH, PUXI CAMPUS

APA table tennis a la er s ers ec e BY DIANNA LI, GRADE 12, PUDONG CAMPUS

Above (left to right): Emily Ye in the singles, Tommy Zhang and Tom Wang in the doubles, Csingles. Second row far left: Minnie Wu placed third in the singles. Middle: Boys’ captain Austin Chan in action. Left: Alex Zhou spinning the ball.

PHOTOS PROVIDED BY GREGG KERR

community came to spectate, and hopeful-ly we were able to display skill and passion worthy of our sport.

Although the level of competition had grown since last year, it didn’t stop us from forging new friendships and renewing old ones. The atmosphere of the tournament seemed surreal to me — competitors hug-ging after their matches against each other, players from different schools gathered on the bleachers talking about their lives outside of table tennis. During the award ceremony, we all crowded in one section of the bleachers and cheered loudly regardless of whom was receiving the award. It didn’t feel like we were separate schools. Rather,

Savannah Wu, Megan Sang, and Rachel Yao were the champions in the team competition, with 12 wins and no losses. Cecilia won the singles event with Minnie placing third. Cecilia and Minnie also won the doubles event. Freshman Sharron Wu from SAS Pudong campus came second in the singles event. The boys team of Austin Chan (captain), Tom Wang, Alex Zhao,

View more photos and story about the APAC Table Tenis on the Eagle Online: www.eagleonline.org

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the SISAC championship for the first time in SAS Pudong history. Defense and hard work were the cornerstones of this team, as they took great pride in frustrating op-ponents and making it difficult for them to score.

The team fought hard and played fantastic basketball against a few of the strongest teams in APAC to reach the semifinals at the Super APAC tournament in Hong Kong, and finished in fourth place out of the 12 teams that were invited. The competition was strong and the expe-rience invaluable for a team that included nine underclassmen. Haley Beebe and Jessie Wang were honored as part of the All-APAC Team for representing SAS well both on and off the court.

We coaches would like to thank our team of amazing girls, their parents, Todd Parham and his staff, and our trainer Joe for the collective effort that went into such a successful season. It was a fantastic expe-rience that we hope to build on to achieve even more success in the future. Great job and Go Lady Eagles!

Eagle ride on threeBY CHRIS RUSSELL AND TIE WATKINS, GIRLS VARSITY BASKETBALL COACHES, PUDONG CAMPUS

The SAS Pudong Lady Eagles varsity basketball team added a lot of new faces this season to complement a

small but strong core of returning players. Junior Haley Beebe, sophomores Jessie Wang and Chandler Cooper, and senior Regan Plekenpol were eager to welcome eight new players and two new coaches to this year’s team. The new faces were junior Brianna Goulding; sophomores Ellie Campbell, Allison Fu, and Vivian Xu; and freshmen Isabelle Lao, Jackie Liu, Samantha Perez-Menendez, and Nora Tao. This young group was tested early and tested often, and throughout the season’s highs and lows, tough victories and heart-breaking losses, they bonded into a unique and light-hearted team that was truly excit-ing to watch.

After two early losses to a tough and talented Concordia team and the APAC champion SAS Puxi team, the Pudong Lady Eagles won 15 of their next 16 games, holding opponents to an aver-age of only 20 points per game during that stretch. This streak culminated in a 17-point victory over Concordia to win

PHOTOS PROVIDED BY TIE WATKINS

Clockwise from top, SAS Pudong players in action: Ellie Campbell, Isabelle Lao, Sam Perez-Menendez and Jessie Wang.

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Both the boys and the girls from SAS High School, Pudong campus, swim team placed second at this year’s

APAC swimming championships held at the International School of Beijing. This was probably the fastest APAC swim meet ever, with some extremely fast times. SAS Pudong swimmers came first in nine events and broke six APAC records.

We were all very worried about the polluted air going into the meet, but on the second day, the skies cleared up and the air was cleaner than Shanghai or even

SAS P swimmers break records show s ortsmanshiBY GEORGE CARPOUZIS, AQUATICS DIRECTOR, PUDONG CAMPUS

Hong Kong. I personally want to thank all the par-

ents who were there supporting our team. Thank you to our coaches, Sandy Elder and Ryan Yan, for all their help.

This was my first year coaching the varsity swim team and I am very proud of their efforts in the pool, but also on the deck. We were awarded the Sportsmanship Award on top of our runner-up positions, showing that we demonstrated a united team effort as well as acknowledging other teams’ performances.

Our gold medal winners were:Michael Grenon – 50m breast, 100m breast, 100m fly, 4x100 freestyle relay, 4x50m medley relay (all APAC records)

Charles Yang – 50m backstroke, 4x100m freestyle relay, 4x50m medley relay (all APAC records)

Jens Bollesen – 4x100m freestyle relay (APAC record)

Daniel Lin – 4x100m freestyle relay (APAC record)

Khoi Pham – 4x50m medley relay (APAC record)

Mike Lee – 4x50m medley relay

Meghan Ingram – 100m freestyle, 4x100m freestyle relay

Winnie Jiang – 100m breast

Carina Seah – 4x100m freestyle relay

Tessa Hart – 4x100m freestyle relay

Jimin Lee – 4x100m freestyle relay

Left: 2013 APAC Swimming Championships, the record-breaking 4x100m freestyle team: Jens Bollesen, Daniel Lin, Charles Yang, and Michael Grenon from SAS Pudong.

PHOTOS PROVIDED BY GEORGE CARPOUZIS

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The Puxi Aqua Eagles arrived in a Beijing to record levels of air pollution and icy cold weather —

not exactly an awe inspiring way to start their APAC championships. But they were bound and determined to let nothing get in the way of their goals. With a record number of seniors on the team this year, both the boys and girls were looking to end this year’s Championships with a bang.

Mike Tyson once said that “everyone has a plan until they get hit.” On the first day that is exactly what happened to both our teams. At the end of day one, we found ourselves sitting not so comfortably in third place. Two places back of where the boys hoped to be and one back for the girls. However, one shining moment of the first day came when G Ping Lee swam the 50 meter fly faster than any APAC swim-mer before him and captured the team’s first gold and the first of his eventual three APAC records of the swim meet.

Day 2 brought better results, but for the boys there was little movement in the standings. The girls, however, who had found themselves tied with Seoul Foreign School the day before, put the pedal down and were 100 points up on SFS by the end of the day. Led by great swims from Michelle Xu, and Angela and Julia Cai, the girls never looked back and tried to close the gap on the second place SAS Pudong Eagles. The boys earned two more

In a ool of great swimmers rd lace is goodBY CORRY DAY, HEAD COACH, PUXI CAMPUS

gold medals, from G Ping Lee and Tristan So, but could still not gain any points on either ISB or Pudong — who, to their credit, were not giving up an inch and swam incredibly in every race.

Day 3, which was scheduled to be our strongest day for both the girls and boys started out just the way it was planned. Thirty of 32 swimmers fought their way out of the preliminary heats and into the finals, clearly giving both teams a chance to catch up valuable ground on second place. But even with Michelle Xu and Angela Cai only narrowly missing the podium in the 200 IM, the Pudong girls were swimming just too well to catch. The girls would comfort-ably capture the bronze medal. The boys on the other hand had now clawed their way back to within 8 points of Pudong and were looking to move ahead after the 100 freestyle race. But even with a gold medal from our captain G Ping, the Pudong boys put the silver medal out of reach by coming in 1, 2, and 3 in the B final.

With both results all but written in stone, the final relay teams would be swimming for pride. And in the end, it was pride they achieved. All four girls on the 4x50 relay team (Claudia Lee, Peggy Li, Julia Cai, and Angela Cai) swam under 30 seconds in their respective legs of the race, a feat that had never been achieved by any Puxi girl in the history of our team. For the boys, there was still a small chance of mov-

ing ahead, but they would have to place first in the relay and Pudong would have to finish 5th. Pudong had already placed first in the other two relays, so this was not likely to happen. But with the swim of their lives, Tristan So, Fabien Ma, Timothy Shen, and G Ping Lee broke the APAC record, finished first and then watched as Pudong took the bronze.

With the goal of APAC being to meet new friends, enjoy relationships with your fellow competitors, and compete at your best, both teams were full of smiles as they walked up on stage and accepted their third place trophy and medals — a success by any measure for any coach. Vist the Aquatics Center blog for result details at http://teachers.saschina.org/ sasaquaticscenterpuxi.

Bottom (left to right): Puxi swimmers Yu Han Liu, Tristan So, Karen Hsu, and G Ping Lee.

PHOTOS PROVIDED BY CORRY DAY

Find more information and photos from the 2013 APAC swimming meet on the Eagle Online: www.eagleonline.org

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1980 minutes of practice time 512 minutes of game time basketball36 suicide sprints12 spectacular teammates3 losses to ISB in just 14 days9 points forming the total margin of victory in 3 tough wins Equals1 Super APAC championship

On February 2nd, 2013, the SAS Puxi Lady Eagles beat the Inter-national School of Beijing (ISB)

Dragons in the final game of the Super APAC tournament, hosted by the Hong Kong International School (HKIS).

In an improbable run to the title, SAS had to run the gauntlet of #1 seeds — first beating HKIS, then taking down Brent, and finally earning their first victory over ISB in two seasons.

The magical finish to the 2012-2013 season began on Thursday morning when the Lady Eagles faced off once against their rivals, the ISB Dragons, in the round-robin portion of Super APAC. For the third time in just under two weeks time, the ISB Dragons beat SAS by the score of 42-30. However, it wouldn’t be the last time these two teams would face off.

The girls played a second time on Thursday, beating the Canadian Academy of Japan by 22 points, 42-20. With this victory, SAS finished second in pool play, and began to build some momentum.

The start of elimination play on Friday featured SAS facing off against the United Nations International School (UNIS). This proved to be a solid victory for SAS, with 10 different players scoring, as they easily beat UNIS 38-12.

With that victory, SAS faced HKIS in Friday evening’s quarterfinals. HKIS was a number one seed coming in, having won all three of their previous games, and feeling good playing in front of the home crowd in their high school gym. The Dragons started strong and built up a substantial lead against SAS. Leading by 13 at half time, and by 10 points mid-way through the third quarter, the HKIS Dragons felt like they were in control of the game. They were wrong. SAS dug deep,

Bracket Busters I

BY MICHAEL BRANCH, GIRLS VARSITY BASKETBALL COACH, PUXI CAMPUS

found some fire somewhere deep within them, and started chipping away at the lead. In the closing moments of a tight game, Jessica Lu made the go ahead basket on a killer jump shot from the right base-line, and gave SAS the points it needed for victory. It was this half that firmly empow-ered each SAS player with a confidence and swagger not seen prior to this spectacular comeback.

With that quarterfinal victory over HKIS, SAS Puxi went head to head with the tournament favorite, and the lone undefeated team in Super APAC, the Brent International School. Brent was the most fundamentally sound team in the tourna-ment, featuring a strong team of excellent players. However, they were not ready for the intense man-to-man defense that SAS plays. This defense stifled the vaunted Brent run-and-gun offense, and the Lady Eagles jumped out to an early 14-point lead in the first quarter. This lead did not

last, however, and the two teams battled it out until the end. The early lead was just enough cushion, as SAS upset Brent with a score of 32-28.

And so SAS was left to face ISB in the final championship game. Unlike each of the previous three games against that team, SAS held its own, and built an early eight- point lead that would last until the fourth quarter. Over the period of the game, SAS lost two girls to ankle sprains, and three girls to fouling out, leaving only seven players to close out the game. But those seven were enough to hold off a late rally by ISB and SAS won its first ever Super APAC championship in girls’ basketball!

The SAS girls want to thank all the parents, the fans (including superb vocal encouragement during the final game from SAS Pudong and Concordia players), and the SAS faculty and staff for all their support this season.

Amazing!

PHOTO PROVIDED BY MICHAEL BRANCH

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The APAC tournament is the culmination of every varsity sport’s season. APAC championships are

what matter; and in the event of a Super APAC (12 team) tournament — as it was this year — the prestige and competition are amplified.

The SAS boys’ varsity team traveled to Daejon, South Korea, with immense focus after being upset two weeks earlier by the International School of Beijing (ISB) at the China Cup tournament.

The opportunity for redemption presented itself immediately, as the Eagles squared off against ISB in their first game of the tournament, a game they had to win to secure a number one seed. The Eagles took control early; however, as is always the case, ISB refused to be defeated easily, and stayed close due to some timely three-point shooting and a stingy 2-3 zone defense. But in the end, the Eagles were able to redeem themselves from their China Cup stumble and defeat ISB 52-46.

Next up in the group was Canadian Academy (CA). The Puxi Eagles were very familiar with this CA team and thus were ready to defend their two key players and score against their 2-3 zone. The Eagles’ 15-point defeat of CA would be forgettable if it wasn’t the beginning of Daniel Lai’s absolute assault on the international schools of Asia. Lai finished with 16 points and 12 rebounds, leading SAS in both categories.

The victory earned SAS the coveted number one seed and the right to play another group’s number one seed: in this case the heavily favored Brent International School of Manila. The winner would be allowed to choose which half of the bracket they would be placed in.

SAS jumped out to an early lead, but Brent came shooting back behind their two best players, Matthew Hettel and Jenning Leung, both of whom are going on to play university basketball. Terrence Lau was charged with slowing down the Kenyon College recruit Hettel, while Bobby Roche was given the formidable task of keeping Leung, traditionally the toughest guard in Asia, in check.

The Eagles maintained their lead in the second quarter, but went down as many as

Puxi bo s bring home Su er APA cham ionshiefeat Brent International school Manila

BY MATT KUYKENDALL, BOYS VARSITY BASKETBALL COACH, PUXI CAMPUS

seven in the third. Senior Tom Claassen pro-vided a much-needed injection of offense, scoring 14 points on a remarkably efficient 7-10 shooting to enable SAS to retake the lead in the fourth. The game seesawed back and forth until the final buzzer sounded with the score tied at 69.

In the overtime, it was all SAS. The Eagles held the potent Brent offense to only five overtime points, and the final score was SAS 81, Brent 74. Junior Daniel Lai contin-ued his offensive assault, finishing the game with 27 points on 11-of-15 shooting.

SAS then chose to avoid Hong Kong and instead elected to take on CA in the quarterfinals of the lower bracket and meet up with Beijing in the semifinals.

CA put up quite the fight in the quarterfinals, but SAS persevered, in part thanks to Daniel Lai scoring 30 of SAS’s 64 points. The semifinals weren’t so easy. Beijing once again got hot from behind the three-point line and continued to deny penetration against their zone. SAS led the majority of the game, but breathed a massive sigh of relief when, up three points with only three seconds left in the fourth quarter, ISB had a desperation three-point shot ricochet off the side of the backboard as the final buzzer sounded. Terrence Lau scored 11 big points on 5-6 shooting and grabbed five rebounds. We were going to the championship!

Brent defeated HKIS in the other semifinal game to set up a rematch for the championship. The game went the way a championship is supposed to go — back and forth throughout. The difference was that the Eagles were not making the

same defensive mistakes they had in the first matchup, yet were continuing to be absolutely surgical offensively. Senior Jason Chow, a four-year varsity player who has scored over 1,000 points for his career, dropped 21 points, grabbed five rebounds, and dished out three assists in his final game as an Eagle. Junior Bobby Roche scored SAS’s last 12 points in the fourth quarter as it became apparent that neither he nor any of his teammates were going to be denied what they had worked so hard for.

Roche finished with 23 points, five re-bounds, and four assists. Daniel Lai cooled off slightly from his frenetic scoring pace and ended the game with “only” 14 points and eight rebounds. Senior Tom Claassen had five points, two assists, and two steals to go along with his six rebounds, three of which allowed the Eagles to clinch the victory late in the fourth quarter. Senior Terrence Lau, the shortest player on the court, had seven rebounds, two steals and two assists helping the Puxi Eagles to secure their 69-62 victory.

The flood of emotion that followed the final buzzer was indescribable. This championship would not have been possible without the outstanding leader-ship of the seven seniors: Jason Chow, Tom Claassen, Mai Kai Koh, Lawrence Yuan, Michael Gao, Daniel Lee, and Terrence Lau. Thank you also to all the devoted parents that supported our team all year, especially to those that traveled to Beijing and Korea. Your cheers, support, warm smiles and encouragement gave us the energy to persevere to greatness.

PHOTO PROVIDED BY MATT KUYKENDALL

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It was another great and a busy week-end for the swimmers of Shanghai American School, Puxi campus, at the

Nanjing International School (NIS) Invi-tational Meet in January. After a successful pilot meet last year involving six interna-tional schools, this year looked even more promising and exciting with 10 schools competing. With second season under way there was an opportunity for some of our less experienced swimmers to shine. And they did very well, even with a few feeling under the weather due to seasonal bugs. The team showed great dedication and support for one another during all the races. And when the water was placid once more the Puxi Aqua Eagles stood proudly in second place behind our sister campus Pudong.

Traveling on three buses went smoothly and with a very well prepared army of parents we arrived at the modern, clean and comfortable Novotel with an entourage of 125!

With over 300 swimmers participat-ing, the meet ran well and on time. Praise is due to the NIS organizers; they did an

A second to be roud ofBY BOGDAN SORICA AND FANNY LIU, AQUATICS DEPARTMENT, PUXI CAMPUS

awesome job and we know how tough it is to manage such a big event! I must men-tion the enthusiasm and happiness on the organizers’ faces all the time.

Puxi swimmers achieving personal best times (PBs) in all four individual events were: Kevin Chang, Keith Chan, Roxanne Chao, Hudson Chung, Megan Fan, Jessica Qian, Elle Sochacki, Evelyn Tang, Lucas Winter, and Jaden Zou.

Swimmers with PB’s in three out of four events were: Beatrice Cai, Benjamin Cai, Callista Chan, Henry Chen, James Li, Brian Lung, Angelesia Ma, Julia Markmann, Julia Nellis, Cherry Wu, Allen Xia, Alex Yan, and Ian Zhang.

With 64 swimmers, 55 parents, five coaches, and one trip coordinator all doing their part, this was a successful travel meet with many individual and team successes.

Top in their age group: 8 & U: Girls – Elle Sochacki, 1st place,

Beatrice Cai, 2nd place, and Abby Nellis, 3rd place Boys – Kevin Chang and Hudson Chung, 1st place, Jaden Zou, 3rd place (Coached by Vivian Wang and Kristen Klein)

9-10: Girls – Roxanne Chao, 1st place, Madison Yeung, 2nd place and Jamie Liu, 3rd place Boys – Heon Lee, 1st place, Calvin Chau, 2nd place, and Ian Zhang, 3rd place (Coached by Andy Jin and Tony Cai)

11-12: Girls – Roseanne Chao, 1st place, Julia Markmann, 2nd place, Boys – James Li, 1st place, Austin Yeung, 2nd place (Coached by Bogdan Sorica, Jon Biros, and Maria Velasco)

13-14: Girls – Cecilia Markmann, 1st place, Julia Nellis, 2nd place (Coached by Bogdan Sorica)

Clockwise from top: Julia Liu in the

the team gather for a photo.

PHOTOS PROVIDED BY PUXI AQUATICS CENTER

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Clockwise from top right:

William Xu calibrates his team's robot.

Seungho Yang and Michael He survey the competition board.

Amogh Patil makes some adjustments during a practice session.

Coach David timing and scoring the competition.

Team Blackhawks from SAS consult with Evan Weinberg, coach from HIS, Hangzhou.

Maggie Chang and Sophia Zhang planning strategy.

Overall winner Team NXT Generation celebrate a successful and fun tournament.

ated with aging and proposed a robotics-based solution ranging from power-assist lifting devices to nanotechnology solutions for combating macular degeneration.

In keeping with the values of coopera-tion and teamwork, the successful event was a huge community effort involving over 40 volunteers — parents, teachers, students — acting as organizers, judges, scorekeepers, and interviewers, as well as countless hours from coaches to make the day run smoothly.

What did the kids take away from the day? Samuel Jung of Team Hydra said it best, “I learned to work as a team, think as a team, and have fun!”

Is there anyone who hasn’t dreamed of having an army of robots at their com-mand? Better yet, an army of robots

built with Lego? On February 2, teams from the Shanghai area converged on SAS Pudong to do exactly that in the Shanghai International School FIRST Lego League Robotics Invitational. Over 80 students from four schools — Shanghai American School, Hangzhou International School, Shanghai Community International School, and Concordia — have been pre-paring since early September for the event. Sixteen teams competed in two divisions and were judged throughout the day in the areas of robot design, research presenta-tions, demonstration of the core values, and scoring at the competition tables.

FIRST (For Inspiration and Recogni-tion of Science and Technology) is an orga-nization founded in 1989 to develop ways to inspire students in the fields of engineer-ing and technology, and is centered around the core values of teamwork and collabo-ration. The terms often used to describe these core values are “gracious professional-ism” and cooperation — encouraging the notion that you can successfully combine competition and cooperation into the same event. Teams compete for overall points, and are in direct competition during the robotics challenge; however, the complex scoring during this section of competition requires that teams communicate and work together on some tasks to maximize points. During the process of preparing for the

actual competition, input from all team members into the design and program-ming is critical. Maggie Chang of Team Drabbits had this to say: “Every single person has their own talents. Recognize and use those talents.”

There were plenty of high fives, cheers, and some intense focus as the teams squared off at the competition boards during the head-to-head portion of the tournament. The teams had four rounds of a mere two and a half minutes each to complete tasks of varying point values. This is where the strategy, cooperation, programming savvy, and ability to stay calm come into play. One competitor said, “I learned not to freak out when some-thing goes wrong.”

While much of the action of the day centered around the intense scene at the competition tables, this only represents one slice of a FIRST Lego League (FLL) event. Points are awarded for teams demonstrat-ing the core values: teamwork, gracious professionalism, and team spirit. Team spirit is particularly evident as many teams are decked out in matching outfits ranging from black three-piece pinstripe suits to tinfoil tunics, shields, and two-meter-long PVC tridents. “You pretty much feel like a boss … it just feels good to stand out, even if you look silly,” said one member of Team Blackhawks. Another big component of the competition were the team presen-tations on robot design and the research around the central theme of the competi-tion; this year the theme was “Senior Solu-tions.” Teams conducted interviews with senior citizens to identify problems associ-

Lego

MBY KEVIN DAVID, MIDDLE SCHOOL SCIENCE TEACHER, PUDONG CAMPUS

PHOTOS PROVIDED BY KEVIN DAVID

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Summer Academy @ SAS — June 24 to July 26Come and explore the Arctic this summer with Students on Ice – an incredible opportunity to experience the culture and environment

saschina.org. and intensive Mandarin. Find out course details and how to register at www.saschina.org/SummerAcademy

Summer on Ice

with SAS

MARCH13 Feb24.indd 38 2/25/13 1:20 PM


Summer Academy @ SAS — June 24 to July 26Learn and explore in Lushan this summer on a four-week language and cultural excursion and earn 6 credits from Nanjing Univerity – part of the Summer Academy @ Shanghai American School. Other great opportunities include sailing, swimming, science, literacy, and intensive Mandarin. Find out course details and how to register at www.saschina.org/SummerAcademy

Summer in Lushan

with SAS

YOUR NAME HEREMajor gift opportunities available now, including the naming of the new Pudong PAC. Contact Development Director Cindy Easton to discuss your gift at 6221-1445 ext. 2256.

MARCH13 Feb24.indd 39 2/25/13 1:20 PM


The effects of poor posture in children and adolescents:

What parents need to know BY DR. DAVID JONES, SPORTS MEDICINE SPECIALIST, DIRECTOR OF IWS CLINICAL OPERATIONS

Neck and back pain are an increasing problem in modern society, particularly for young-

er generations. With the increas-ing use of technological gadgets and time spent slumping in front of computers, poor posture is on the rise. Recent research shows that children are using computers and gaming devices more than ever be-fore and many children are spending unhealthy amounts of time glued to

understand that spending too much time at a computer can have adverse effects on a child’s posture; however,

how this may affect children as they enter adulthood.

As children grow and develop, it is important that they keep active and stimulate various muscle groups in their bodies. According to the Nielson Company, a leading US research

sends 3,339 text messages each month. Inactivity decreases calorie burning and muscle condition. When children spend prolonged periods sit-ting, they tend to overdevelop certain muscle groups while under develop-ing other groups. For example, when children spend too much time sitting at a computer, muscles in the top of the shoulders and hips tend to

become very tight whilst core stability muscles in the neck and spine be-come weakened, resulting in a poor posture that can lead to early onset of conditions such as disc degenera-tion and repeated strain type injuries.

these conditions until they cause pain or discomfort, meaning children can be damaging their developing spines without even realizing it. A recent article completed at Boston Univer-sity and published in the Journal of Ergonomics showed that more than 50 percent of university students re-port pain attributed to computer work. One in seven students reported that their pain occurs after just one hour at a computer.

Poor posture in children and adolescents can also affect athletic performance. Many activities require

coordination, particularly sports such as football, tennis, baseball, and basketball. “A poor posture often results in tight muscles, reduced strength as well as reduced agility and coordination,” explained pediat-ric sports medicine and orthopedic surgeon Dr. Jeffrey Guy, an Institute for Western Surgery faculty member.

sporting ability. This is frustrating for the young athlete who cannot

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understand why he is slowing down. As frustration grows, the athlete tries to run faster, but compensatory strategies can result in muscle tears, enforcing time away from his or her sport.” Dr. Guy adds: “Sadly, I have seen eight-year-old children perform worse in sports testing than 60-year-old adults.”

Unfortunately there is no magic solution to improving a child’s pos-ture. Essentially children need to keep active with sports and exercises while minimizing spare time spent in front of a computer or game console. Regular breaks are essential.

Another common contributing factor to poor posture is the use of a laptop computer; it is virtually impos-sible to maintain a healthy posture when using a laptop by itself. A simple way to improve posture when using a laptop is to purchase a dock-ing station. This is essentially a stand that elevates the notebook so the top of the monitor can sit at eye level. A separate mouse and keyboard must be purchased as well, which makes the notebook a virtual desktop and greatly improves posture. Children should always work at desk and must have a chair with an adjustable height, back, armrests and sway. As children grow, their chair and desk height must be continuously adjusted to ensure they can maintain a healthy posture.

As time goes by, we are likely to experience a greater shift towards using electronic devices in everyday life, making it more challenging for children to maintain and keep a good posture. While a poor posture is seldom the direct cause of life- threatening illness, it can far too often lead to conditions that detract from the enjoyment of life. Provid-ing advice and guidance at a young age may help save children from the unpleasant experience of back and neck pain as they enter the rigors of adulthood.

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WWW.EAGLEONLINE.ORG 41SAS has a partnership with the Institute of Western Surgery (IWS) through the services it receives from Caleb Lott and Joe Panchella,

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Chinese New YChinese New Y

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PHOTOS BY CINDY SHIN AND FREDRIK JÖNSSON

Year AssembliesYear Assemblies

Students from all divisions participated in a variety of activities during the Chinese New Year celebration week at SAS, from Feb 4 to Feb 8, including writing spring festival scrolls and couplets, singing Chinese folk songs, and performing lion and dragon dances.

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Help SAS reach for excellence Give today!

Goal: US $250,000

How to give: Visit www.saschina.org/giving

Above: Students on both campuses have been using iPads, iPods, and Kindles this

year paid for by Annual Fund dollars.

Purchase the SAS ring and support the SAS annual fundThis beautiful stering silver ring is a replica of the 1933 SAS class ring.

Suitable for either gender, this ring is a great gift for students, faculty, graduating seniors, and alumni.

Order yours today at the Eagle shop or contact Cindy Easton at [email protected] for more information.

A portion of the proceeds will go to the SAS annual fund.

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eagle march 2013

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