Contents Message from Mrs Chong 1988 - 1997 Arijuna Arichandran Katherine Ai Kudo 1998 - 2007 Chung Ru Jae Cassandra Nicole Thomazioz Sarah Quek Wei Ting Tham Tse Leng Yow Keat Tham James Liam Russell Audrey Quek Wei Wen Prem Anand Vasudevan Andrew Choi Eun Sung Deborah Lee Jinhyun Roseanne Dawn Seok Daniel Shan Aris Mokhtar Bin Johan Mokhtar Jonathan Benjamin Thomazios Raymond Gerson Halim 2008 - 2017 Cassandra Foo Pi-Theng Hari Vijayshanker Ravidran Ayesha Halima Ismael Fariz Hema Surendranathan Divya George Christopher Chalmers Karuna John Sugumaran Krishnasamy Rachel Quek Wei Lin Ashley Chan Alyssa Wong Li-En Johannes Jacobus Kotze Amanda Shiew Ai Min Victoria Louise Brown Message from Dr Ingersoll Mrs Poh 1 elc International School Alumni News 2018 Message from Mrs Chong A t the end of each year, we say goodbye to yet another graduating class of Year 11s. It is with a tinge of sadness to see them leave as young adults on the edge of realising their dreams to conquer the world in their own fashion. Nonetheless, we are also happy for them as we see them as boys and girls whom we have nurtured for so many year, for some of us, and for whom we wish great things. As such we are always delighted to have our former students drop by the school when they are back in the country, and most certainly, we are always very proud of what they have achieved. As you look through these pages of this issue, you will see a diverse range of people from various countries and cultures who had come together for a ‘brief’ moment in time in our school. Despite living in some far-flung countries now, our former students share one thing in common - the values of elc. They are a testament to our school and gives us teachers the determination to continue upholding the ethos of which elc is well known. It is always good to re-connect with former students through social media websites, and even more so when we see how much they have grown as a person. As told to them at their graduation that ‘the world is their oyster’, the graduates of elc have indeed made their mark on their part of the world with their ambition, courage and energy. We are proud of each and every one of them. This collection of ‘news’ of our alumni is a project that has been a long time coming. It is timely as this first issue commemorates the school’s 30th anniversary. So with 30 being the magic number, it was our target to get 30 contributions to this project. So here it is finally, and we are very happy to introduce our first issue of Present Perfect @elc (for those who need the clarification, the present perfect tense is used to indicate a link between the past and the present). This first issue showcases just some of our alumni who took time away from their busy lives to share with us their memories of elc and photographs of school, friends and family. Enjoy! elc International School Alumni News 2018 2 Arijuna Arichandran While at elc Studied at elc from Nationality Any memorable stories you would like to share of 1987 - 1989 Malaysian your time at elc? I was the pioneer batch at elc in 1987, and there were 4 Give 3 adjectives to describe how you feel about students in Form 4. The school was a wooden shack but elc it was fun. We were a very close knit group with a Warmth, Caring and Fun Environment maximum of 15 students for the entire school. Did elc give you any valuable life lessons that shaped Favourite subject, and why the way you conduct yourself today? Maths – I had a wonderful Math teacher -Mr Low, who Mrs Kaloo had a sense of discipline and kept a close and taught me how to think of Maths as an art, and to have watchful eye on the quality of the education with a a very pictorial and logical way of how to solve wonderful teaching staff. There was a sense of problems. He had a major impact on me and got me to openness and personal touch in everything we did at who I am today as an engineering graduate. school, which moulded me to be more responsible in my actions and take ownership for whatever I did, which is valuable. Life after elc College/University If you could go back in time and return to elc, what University of Wales – College of Cardiff would you do differently? As one of the Pioneer Batch, we were all a big part of the Course Studied school taking responsibility and making things happen. BEng Electrical and Electronics Engineering Any advice to the current elc students? Current location I used to call it Elite Learning Centre (ELC) so make the Kuala Lumpur best of your time in the school and immerse yourself in all tasks given to you. What are you doing now? Senior Associate in Engineering Consultancy Firm 3 elc International School Alumni News 2018 Katherine Ai Kudo While at elc Studied at elc from Nationality Any memorable stories you would like to share of 1992 - 1995 Venezuelan/Japanese your time at elc? I have so many happy memories from my time at elc. Favourite subject, and why Back then the school was a much, much smaller We had a group of fantastic teachers, that prepared us establishment in a two storey building. Most classrooms well. Back then History was my favorite subject. I were partitioned by thin walls and you could see and supposed I liked a good story and with English not being hear into other classrooms. I won’t mention who, but I my first language Shakespeare was too hard to was recently reminded of being able to overhear when a understand! I loved to read and was particularly certain someone got a black mark! We were therefore all fascinated with Russian and Chinese history. mingled together, we all knew each other, and it was great fun. Did elc give you any valuable life lessons that shaped the way you conduct yourself today? Give 3 adjectives to describe how you feel about elc There were many valuable lessons I learnt during my Grateful, happy, warm time at elc. Perhaps the most significant was through the privilege of attending a school with students and teachers from all over the world, with such diverse backgrounds and cultures. I believe to be a more open minded and respectful individual and, lead my life with integrity because of the lessons and friendships I built there. Life after elc College/University If you could go back in time and return to elc, what College - International School of The Hague would you do differently? Academy - Royal Academy of Art, The Hague I am positive I made a lot of mistakes as an elc 12 – 15 year old student, but given the opportunity, I don’t know Course Studied that I would do things differently. I think all the experiences, good and bad were learning curves and College - Bilingual International Baccalaureate shaped me to be who I am today. Academy – Bachelor of Graphic & Typographic Design Any advice to the current students? Current location elc Enjoy your time at school, make lots of friends, treasure Tauranga, New Zealand them and work hard. What are you doing now? Today I work part-time at an advertising agency as a senior graphic designer and part-time freelancing under my own business - Kudo Design. elc International School Alumni News 2018 4 Sarah Quek Wei Ting While at elc Studied at elc from Nationality Any memorable stories you would like to share of 1993 - 2004 Malaysian your time at elc? Oh there are so many but some of the most memorable Favourite subject, and why (in no particular order) would be: O Levels History – I love stories and it is very interesting 1. The musical concerts we used to have and the fun we how history tends to repeat itself. We humans never had practising and performing for our parents and seem to learn! I also really enjoyed analysing the actions friends. of our predecessors and in particular learning about the 2. Our Year 11 English class project – each of our two two World Wars and China’s history with communism. classes had to create an entire news programme complete with stories of the day, advertisements, sports However, I think I enjoyed History mostly because of Ms and weather reports. I would say this was certainly one Sheela. She was strict but reasonable. She made history of the funniest and most enjoyable projects that we had classes fun and she taught us to question the status at school and as a class we really bonded with one quo. I will always remember her telling us to remember another and learned a lot about how difficult it is to put that history is subjective and that ultimately it is the together a complete news programme! story written by the winners. Hence, we should always 3. Our graduation trip to Langkawi. This was the perfect consider all perspectives before coming to our own way to complete our time at elc. It happened after our conclusions. O-Levels ended and for 3 days we just bonded, played games and had fun. Did give you any valuable life lessons that shaped elc 4. The school fun fairs and selling raffle tickets during the way you conduct yourself today? Chinese New Year so that my sisters and I could win the It’s important to have a good work ethic and to respect ‘top selling’ prize.