Vietnam

Antarctica will always be one of the most amazing trips of my life. This year has been incredible with lots of stories, adventures and jaw-dropping moments but this piece will be about the White Continent. Apparently it’s a thing to reach all of the continents. I didn’t know this, but I’ve done it now.

There is no place like Antarctica and the guides will tell you this and they also work up in the Arctic circle. This trip was fun, exciting, educational and eye opening. We spent Christmas and New Year on the boat.

When you travel to Antarctica you live on the boat, unless you are heading to work in a research base. You make landings to hang out with penguins and other animals. It’s not just the wildlife that takes your breath away, it’s the landscape and the colours. How many blues are there in the world and how many of those are only in Antarctica. Moving through the icebergs was like floating, literally, through an art gallery.  With about 70 to 90 percent of an iceberg is below the water it’s otherworldly looking down into the clear blue ocean at the icebergs below. Getting close is not a good idea because they melt and flip over, and you don’t want to be on the side where the ice is about to surface.

Some of the mountains in Antarctica are over 3000m high. The scale is unbelievable but you need a ship to have any idea of this because to just look at the mountains is deceiving to the eye. Being white and white and white and then some more white you can’t make comparisons and estimates. Humbling to think of Shackleton and the other "Heroic Age Explorers” tackling this continent over a century ago, their journeys were epic in nature.

Every day we had lectures we could attend to learn about what we were were seeing and experiencing. Yes optional school. We went to almost all of them. The guides knew their stuff, there were geologists and biologists with different fields of expertise - ice, rocks, birds, whales, mammals. They were all excellent teachers.

We saw whales, dolphins, seals, penguins, albatross and so many more animals. Penguins were my favourite. Always funny to watch and their social behaviour is much like humans. No we don’t collect pebbles to make our homes and baby beds but they interact with each other in similar ways.

We wrote more about the experience in our blog. If you would like more, head to http://unitcamp.org/tagged/antarctica/chrono. The captions under the photos along with our journal piece provide much more than I could ever describe here.

My overwhelming emotion was gratitude that I was able to visit this special place and to learn more about it and how important it is that we take care of it for us and our planet. So many times I thought of students and teachers from UNIS that would have loved to have been where I was. One of the science research stations we visited would have made UNIS science teachers and students cry because they would have been so happy to be there surrounded by data, machines and science in action.

If you get the chance, go.

Melissa Griffin
Former MSHS teacher of Mathematics, I.T. and Humanities.

Follow @UNISHanoiAlumni //!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src="http://www.unishanoi.org//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script","twitter-wjs");//

On Sunday 21 April, the UNIS Smile Club organized their second annual ‘Smile Charity Concert’.

This year’s special venue - the Hanoi Opera House. The concert, under the name "The Gift of Smile” was a charity event designed for the purpose of raising money and awareness to support Operation Smile, whilst providing an opportunity for students all over Hanoi to interact with each other, cooperate and showcase their talents.

The show began with a special performance from the Hanoi Youth Dancing Group, followed by participating acts meticulously prepared by students from a variety of different schools, including Hanoi Amsterdam, Hanoi International School, Singapore International School, Viet Duc High School, Yen Hoa High School as well as some of our very own talents from UNIS. Some highlights from the show included the outstanding dance performance by UNIS’ beloved dance group ‘Pixelated’ who brought a massive amount of energy into the Opera House; the mesmerizing classical guitar performance by Duong Nguyen (Grade 10 UNIS); and several other solo acts.

Weaved into the program were several special guest performances by famous Vietnamese singers, most notably Tran Hong Nhung, and Luu Huong Giang with her husband Ho Hoai Anh. The well-loved artist Thuy Chi, known for her soft angelic voice, also made an appearance to support the cause by performing two songs. The representative of Operation Smile in Asia also gave a brief speech about Operation Smile, its goals and mission.

The concert was an outstanding success and raised approximately 100,000,000 VND to be donated to Operation Smile so that children all over Vietnam could be given the ‘gift of a smile’.

Follow @UNISHanoiAlumni //!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src="http://www.unishanoi.org//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script","twitter-wjs");//

Linnea Niklasson - current Grade 6 student - has been chosen as Swedish Hero 2012, one of the highest honours in Sweden, for her project Heart of Linnea.

Linnea’s mother, Malin Nikalsson said: "We are so proud of her. The project at UNIS started as an exhibition for Grade 5, where Linnea wanted to know more about her heart. During that work she realized that the heart surgery that she as a Swedish child got for free at home, someone in her new home country could never afford. So she decided to give to someone who could not afford it the heart surgery they needed to save their life.” <?xml:namespace prefix = o />

That is when Linnea started organizing some fundraising, and set up her own booth at the students’ exhibition event to spread out the awareness. In three weeks’ time, Linnea was able to collect $3200, enough to afford two heart surgeries for two poor children in Vietnam.

With that money, a child, named Bui Duc Trung, could finally have his open-heart surgery, and it was a success! He is now out of hospital and is able to go back to school and to help his family.

With what was left from the donation money, another child named Phu Gia was also helped to an operation. He was in a really ill condition and needed an operation as soon as possible, but couldn’t manage to afford the expensive treatment.

This journey is far from over for Linnea is determined to help more, so that more children in Vietnam could have access to medical treatment they need, despite of their financial condition. Find out more about Linnea continuing project here.

Follow @UNISHanoiAlumni //!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src="http://www.unishanoi.org//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script","twitter-wjs");//

As you know from the Winter 2012-13 edition of the Alumni e-News, Bryony Rickard, a current Grade 10 student, has been collecting stories for her personal project called Getting In Touch to make the history of UNIS more alive for our current community with help from our alumni.

The project is now completed and was one of the most successful in the Grade 10 Personal Exhibition evening with a grade of 7 out of 7.

Please find below the Thank you message from Bryony to the Alumni Community for all the help:

Dear UNIS Hanoi Alumni,

Thank you so very much helping me out with my Personal Project! I really appreciated all the responses I received over the past year and I hope I have done you and your stories all justice through my project.

I am pleased to inform you that your response has been uploaded to my website and that the UNIS community is enjoying reading it! The link to the website is below. On it you can see all the responses I received and links to the 13 Tin Tuc articles (UNIS Hanoi's Weekly Newsletter) that feature some of your fellow alumni.

Website: http://bryonyrickard.wix.com/personalproject

Thank you again and please feel free to contact me with any questions you may have about my project! 

Bryony Rickard - 10TP

On another note, in the evening of the Grade 10 Personal Exhibition evening Bryony met one of our alumni Ida Gade (Class of 2002). From Bryony’s Getting In Touch project Ida had found and asked to be put back in touch with one of her former classmates Thomas Faunce (Class of 2002), whose heart she allegedly broke in Grade 7 (according the Thomas’ interview). Ida and Thomas had lost connection since they left UNIS Hanoi nearly 15 years ago and UNIS Hanoi Alumni was more than delighted to put them back in touch with each other.

Should you wish to get back in touch with any friends or teachers from UNIS Hanoi, do not hesitate to email [email protected] and we will try our best to help you.

More pictures from the Grade 10 Personal Exhibition evening:

Follow @UNISHanoiAlumni //!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src="http://www.unishanoi.org//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script","twitter-wjs");//

UNIS Hanoi experienced another memorable moment in its history this past week with the visit to our campus and presentation in a student assembly by American Folk-Singer Ms. Joan Baez.

For the students, I believe it was an important opportunity to hear from such an icon of a different era with some definite history here in Vietnam. Aside from the stories and songs from Ms. Baez, the students own contribution to the assembly were extremely impressive. The singing of the High School Vietnamese Class students brought tears to everyone’s eyes including Ms. Baez. I had to go find her more tissues! The students’ questions to Ms. Baez were insightful and thought-provoking, and their delivery was articulate and clear. The choirs and instrumentalists for the last song were at their best and inspired Ms. Baez to join in.

Also having Mr. Nguyen Hoang Son, one of our parents, come forward to join us on stage was most appreciated. As a young child, Mr. Son, the son of a Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs official, was in the bunker with Ms. Baez back in 1972 because of the bombing. His presence made our connection with Ms. Baez even stronger.

Ms. Baez herself commented to me afterwards at how impressed she was with the whole event.

This was another one of those events that made me feel so lucky to be a part of this community.

Respectfully,

Dr. Barder, Head of School

Follow @UNISHanoiAlumni //!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src="http://www.unishanoi.org//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script","twitter-wjs");//

Launched on the International Peace Day, the momentum of our Birthday celebration has been unstoppable with UN Day and a serie of 25th Birthday Alumni Reunions in five countries, leading up to the highlights of the year with the SCO Spring Fair, the 25th Birthday Ball and last but not least, the 25th Birthday Alumni Reunion in Seoul.

Spring Fair

Spring Fair at UNIS Hanoi has always been a fun family day for the entire community with food, games, shopping and entertainment. This year, as part of the 25th Birthday Celebration, there were wonderful new activities including:

• The UNIQUELY UNIS Silent Auction – our celebration of community talents with 25 unique items such as Back to School with Head of School, Handyman for the day with Director of Operations, His and Her's Trainer with Director of Activities...;
• World Passport Quiz and Prize Draw for children;
• "Masterchef" Competition with KOTO and Middle School High School students working and competing together for the coveted title and others 

Middle School High School students also hosted a group of students of Sin Chai Primary School from Sapa to join celebration.  

25th Birthday Ball and the Birthday Gift Fund

The highlight event of the 25th Birthday Year was held in the magnificent ballroom of the Intercontinental Hanoi Westlake – the lead, platinum birthday sponsor, themed and decorated by our team of volunteer parents and reproduction of Middle School students’ artworks to take guests into the heart of the Hanoi’s Old Quarter 36 Streets.

We were also honoured to have Dr Francis Rhodes (4th Head of School) who built the school as it is today in Ciputra, as well as  former Heads of School Dr Alice Ann Winner (1st), Jim Ambrose (3rd) and the current Head of School at UNIS New York, Sal Uy joining the list of special guest.

Not only was it a wonderful evening full of entertainment and fine dining with distinguished guests, the 25th Birthday Ball also laid the foundations for our Birthday Gift Fund, which will be the School’s birthday gift back to our host country.

With funds from the UNIQUELY UNIS Silent Auction, the sales of Birthday Souvenirs and the 25th Birthday Ball, the Birthday Gift Fund raised in excess of 35,000 USD.

Through our Service Learning charity partners, the Fund will support projects helping those most in need in Vietnam, which demonstrate:

• Sustainability
• Meaningful Student Engagement and Learning
• Expanding our sense of Community

We hope that the projects the Birthday Gift Fund will support, will transform lives for the next 25 years.

And it was the students, in their own words who shared the power of their Service Learning experience at UNIS Hanoi and built the dream for our shared future.

The last but not least celebration

If you are living in -or travelling to- Seoul, be sure not to miss the last but not least 25th Birthday celebration:

The 25th Birthday Alumni Reunion in Seoul

Saturday 11 May from 6:00pm in COEX

Over 50 alumni have confirmed to join the exciting evening. Email [email protected] to sign up or click here for details.

Follow @UNISHanoiAlumni //!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src="http://www.unishanoi.org//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script","twitter-wjs");//

In the past few months through a series of focus groups, members of the UNIS Hanoi community, including students, parents, faculty, staff, admin and alumni have provided their views about the values that are important to them. It is clear that the UNIS Hanoi community has risen to the challenge of helping the Board to articulate the School’s values and beliefs and we now have a wealth of data to guide the preparation of the final statements.

Thanks to everyone who has participated so far – more than 350 people at last count. Our special thanks to Aizzudin Hares (Class of 2003), Andrea Law (Former Faculty 2003-12), Cheon Sub Sim (Class of 2000), Julia Karpati (Class of 2009), Julie Shaw (Former Faculty 2004-09), Luyen Shell (Former Parent 2004-12), Malena Akester (Former Parent 2004-12), Nadia Engelbrecht (Class of 2006), Tuula Mellin (Former Parent 2000-12), Vinod Chockalingam (Class of 1993), Zahir Abidin (Class of 2001).

We know that more work lies ahead of us before we can finalise the statements; watch out in the Alumni e-News for more updates in the coming editions.

Craig Burgess, Chair of Values and Beliefs Task Force

>> More about UNIS Hanoi’s Values and Beliefs work

Follow @UNISHanoiAlumni //!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src="http://www.unishanoi.org//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script","twitter-wjs");//

Click here if your browser does not support Issuu viewer.

From Dr. Chip Barder:

On Saturday, 30 March, Emma Silva and I had the privilege of hosting our first ever Alumni Reunion in Tokyo, Japan. Over 70 Alumni gathered at the Mariners' Court Hotel for a few hours of reconnection and celebration. I was once again struck by the intensity of feeling that former students and parents have for our school. In speeches and individual conversations, people shared testimonial after testimonial regarding UNIS Hanoi. Much of it was centered on teachers and administrators who had an impact on students’ lives.

Click here to see who have attended the 25th UNIS Hanoi Alumni Reunion in Tokyo. Email [email protected] if you would like to get back in touch with any of your friends from UNIS.

Together we will keep growing alumni activities for UNIS Hanoi!

Follow @UNISHanoiAlumni //!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src="http://www.unishanoi.org//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script","twitter-wjs");//