Vol 14 October 2016 The Alumni Magazine of UWC South East Asia JAXA Astronaut Akihiko Hoshide returns to UWCSEA Graduation 2016 Updates and Profiles (c)JAXA/NASA Our alumni community Albania, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belgium, Benin, Bermuda, Botswana, Brazil, Brunei, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Cayman Islands, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Curaçao, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Dutch Caribbean, Egypt, Ethiopia, Falkland Islands (Malvinas), Faroe Islands, Fiji, Finland, France, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Guam, Guatemala, Guyana, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Jersey, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Laos, Lebanon, Luxembourg, Macau, Madagascar, Malaysia, Maldives, Malta, Mauritius, Mexico, Monaco, Mongolia, Morocco, Myanmar, Namibia, Nepal, Netherlands, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Russia, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Serbia, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea, South Sudan, Spain, Sri Lanka, Swaziland, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Tanzania, Thailand, Timor Leste, Trinidad And Tobago, Turkey, Turks And Caicos Islands, Uganda, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay, Venezuela, Vietnam, Zimbabwe Alumni services Every student who leaves UWCSEA, by both UWCSEA and our alumni. Watch The UWC Hub regardless of how long they were the alumni website for updates and Launched in September 2016, the UWC enrolled, automatically becomes a details, and let us advertise your events! Hub is a web platform and mobile member of our alumni community. Alumni and Parents of Alumni eBriefs app that brings together the UWC Some of the services we offer include: These are emailed to alumni and community around the world. One°North parents of alumni throughout the year, Old Interscols The alumni magazine is published containing news and information to Let us know if you would like a soft copy annually. Please send contributions and/ keep you updated and informed. of your Interscol(s). or suggestions to: alumnimagazine@ Mentor opportunities uwcsea.edu.sg. Visits, tours and other requests Volunteer to be listed in the mentor We are happy to help in any way we can. Alumni website and mobile app section of the alumni site if you are If you are in Singapore and would like to Our password-protected alumni website willing to be contacted by current drop in for a visit or a tour, we would be and mobile app allow you to maintain your students or other alumni for information more than happy to show you around, own profile, search for and contact other or advice regarding your university or any time. Send your requests to us at registered members, stay informed about career, or visit the pages if you have [email protected] or just drop in! news and events and more. questions of your own. Reunions and get-togethers Career services Alumni website: A reunion of the 40, 30, 20 and 10 year Check this section of the site for career http://alumni.uwcsea.edu.sg October 2016 anniversary classes is held each August opportunities or candidates, or post Alumni email: in Singapore. Additional class reunions your own job opening or resumé. You [email protected] and alumni gatherings are held in various can also set up alerts to be notified of OneºNorth 2 locations throughout the year, planned new postings. Please stay connected! Contents Message from the Head .......................................... 4 The path to happiness in a forest monastery Pramoad Phornprapha ’85 ............... 18 Note from the Alumni Office and physical changes at Dover .............................. 5 From Engineering Physics to Visual Artist My post National-Service experience Elaine Kuok ’95 ...................................20 Nitin Natrajan, Ethan Barnes and Vinay Mitta, ’13 travel to South America ...................................... 6 Recent alumni events Worldwide alumni get-togethers and Reunion 2016! ............................. 22 An interview with Dr Kling Chong ’79 One of only three full-time Paediatric Neuroradiologists in the UK .............. 8 From UWCSEA to Entrepreneur in two years! John Nnamchi ’14 creates an Graduation 2016 interactive and intuitive degree- 500 students across both campuses graduated planning tool at McGill University ...................... 24 in May with an impressive average IB score! ..... 10 Alumni giving Adapting Permaculture in Ubud Thanks for the support! .........................................26 Roku Fukui ’07 introduces a venture by Nathan Pflaum ’07 and Inochi Fukui ’10 ...................................12 The human cost of fossil fuels Savannah Carr-Wilson ’08 embarks on a book about the human impact These Circuses that Sweep Through the of fossil fuel extraction .....................28 Landscape Tejaswini Apte-Rahm ’91 describes her creative writing journey ..............14 In Memory of Kay Louise Everett ’91 A tribute to an amazing human rights lawyer and humanitarian ......30 Cover story JAXA Astronaut Akihiko Hoshide ’87 Upcoming reunions returns to UWCSEA Don’t miss out! .........................................................31 and speaks to almost 3,000 students ............15 Year in review A sample of the huge variety of events and activities that take place at the College ..............16 One°North is published by UWC South East Asia anually for alumni, staff and friends of UWCSEA. Reproduction in any manner is prohibited without written October 2016 consent. Send your address change to [email protected] and/or update your profile on the UWCSEA alumni website or through the alumni app. We welcome your feedback; please send comments to [email protected]. Please send your articles and/or suggestions for articles, for the next issue, to [email protected]. OneºNorth Cover photo: The ‘selfie’ taken by JAXA astronaut Akihiko Hoshide ’87 Editor Brenda Whately outside the International Space Station. Design Nandita Gupta Photo credit: (c)JAXA/NASA MCI (P) 156/07/2016 3 Message from the Head A few weeks ago I was sat in Harvard Back at the ranch we are this year University’s Graduate School of opening Ideas Hubs on East and Education as part of a UWCSEA team. Dover, sipping coffee in a seriously We were explaining to Harvard’s world cool Heritage Centre on Dover (East’s renowned Professor of Cognition and equivalent will be up and running Education, Howard Gardner, what we before the year is out) and basking for had been up to in terms of our work the moment at least in another set of on assessing just what impact a UWC tremendous IB results. (Conveniently— education has on students and the for me at least—the two campuses world into which we send them. The managed to secure virtually identical meeting was another step of a journey averages, and thus a line of furious we are on to move from anecdotal to parents is kept at bay for another year). research based evidence so that when I’m constantly told we are the biggest we are asked “What’s the big deal international school in the world (I’m about UWC?”, we can do more than sceptical as there always seems to be tell stories. something bigger in China if you look hard enough) but the great thing is it But sometimes stories are best. They just doesn’t feel like that. The UWC make real what research shows merely spirit seems to make the campuses, to be true. And so I wish I’d had this indeed the wider world, not small magazine when I was with Professor exactly, but connectable. It’s no village Gardner. Yes, in terms of our extensive school, but neither is UWCSEA a alumni diaspora it represents only a few leviathan: our intimacy is not borne of people, but I suspect it has measured small numbers but rather a prevailing the pulse of that larger demographic bias for ethical action in the furtherance very well. Rich, varied and riveting, of the mission. we have here tales of art, forest monasteries, asylum seekers and much Thank you for staying in touch. We more. The accounts are shot through appreciate it. Do check out those with passion, deep thinking, empathy funky campus cafes when next you and success. UWC alumni don’t have all are in Singapore. I recommend the the answers, but you’re asking essential mushroom quiche. questions. I am enjoying and learning from my meetings with you. I’m not a UWC graduate, so these encounters mean a great deal to me as I try to understand Chris Edwards your UWC experiences and extrapolate Head of College how those experiences have affected your own ethical dispositions in later years. If truth be told, though, most alumni prefer sharing the hairy rule breaking episodes that all of us look back on with greater clarity than any lessons or lectures. Current students listened in wide eyed disbelief as some alumni at our recent reunion shared October 2016 tales of derring-do that would most likely now lead to dire retribution. OneºNorth 4 Note from the Alumni Office Welcome to the the foreseeable future. The alumni office The UWC Hub, an online networking October 2016 moved into the new High School Block in platform for alumni of all UWCs, was issue of the alumni November—we are now much easier to launched on UWC Day, 21 September magazine. find. We also have a two-story Heritage 2016. We hope you have, or will sign Centre on Dover where we can buy you up and take advantage of the news, Another academic a coffee and by January will have one on year has begun for the events, networking and mentoring East as well. nearly 3,000 students opportunities therein. at Dover and approximately 2,550 at East We’ve met quite a few alumni on We are looking forward to seeing many Campus, Graduation saw another 500 campus in the first week of classes, of you at upcoming alumni events this students across both campuses become settling their own children into the academic year.