Film
Cultural Convention (CulCon) is an opportunity for students to showcase their brilliant talent and hard work, creating pieces through various media such as photography, painting, drawing as well as film. The 1985 yearbook records that IASAS CulCon derived from the Southeast Asian Forensics Tournament which was originated by Dr. Gail Schoppert, with the help of Patti Buck. In 1980, the IASAS Board felt a cultural convention was needed to balance the experience in extra-curricular activities. This goes to show that in addition to athletics, IASAS tournaments exhibit and embrace exciting new artists and academic leaders season after season! For the 2021-2022 virtual IASAS CulCon event there were 21 Art and Film delegates that represented ISKL. From the IASAS Film delegates, five creative short films were featured throughout the three-day event.
Art
Cultural Convention (CulCon) was a single event hosted at the same school in the early days of IASAS combining Dance, Drama, Debate, Forensics, Music and Art. In the school year of 19881989 the event split into two conventions: Art and Music in one location and Dance, Drama, Debate and Forensics at another. IASAS Culcon continued to redefine itself in 2012, it became three events and finally in 2019-2020 Art and Film became its own event taking place in November with the other three conventions (Music, Dance, Drama, Tech, and Debate and Forensics) taking place in March. CulCon is an excellent opportunity for our students to demonstrate their abilities and knowledge while also learning from and connecting with delegates from other IASAS schools.
Model United Nations
ISKL’s first Model United Nations (MUN) IASAS team consisted of only four members and traveled to compete at Singapore American School in 1985. ISKL hosted Model U.N. for the first time in 1989. The General Assembly involved approximately 150 students who role-played as delegates from 58 member nations of the real U.N. The most recent 2021-2022 annual IASAS Cultural Convention (CulCon) for Art, Film, and Model United Nations (MUN) went virtual with a total of 35 students from Grades 9 through 12 representing ISKL. Model United Nations (MUN) provides a foundation of international understanding and sense of global cooperation on which a safe and secure structure for world peace and harmony can be built. Showcasing his worldly perspective on current events and world history as well as keen sense of diplomacy is ISKL’s very own Richard Martin, High School faculty who was recently awarded the ‘Spirit of IASAS’ award in November 2021 for his 16 years of dedication to the MUN Program. The award is presented to a member of the IASAS community (individual or team) that exhibits outstanding sportsmanship, courage, spirit or a selfless act during an IASAS convention. Mr. Martin portrays all the above and beyond to all his MUN delegates and the school so we thank you!
Volleyball
The first IASAS Volleyball tournament was hosted in ISKL from December 11th to the 13th the year 1982-1983. Pictured above is the very first Varsity Girls Volleyball squad to hit the courts. This team put up a good fight and though they did not succeed in winning the tournament, they did win a lot of Panther crowds. With returning players the following year, the team had potential to achieve great things! Fast forward nearly 20 years, “001 where emotions ran high as the Varsity Girls Volleyball team led by Coach Shelley Smith, rejoiced, and won their first gold in ISKL IASAS Girls Volleyball history! ISKL made appearances in the four final games for four consecutive years and to break this cycle on home turf was just an ace! The Varsity Boys lost in 1983 during their first participation in the IASAS Volleyball Tournament to strong opposition from Singapore American School (SAS). The first time the ISKL Boys Volleyball won gold was also after prevailing in the finals against SAS in 2011! Coach Sinbald Cheng said “This was the fourth time in six years that the two rivals had met up with ISKL runners up the previous three times&until this time! SAS had no answers for the power hitting and defense of Jeremy Getz (11) and Till Gruning (11), the consistent setting of Ameer Syed (11) and solid team defense laid the foundation for what was truly a team victory.
Soccer
1983 marked the first IASAS Soccer tournament hosted by ISKL. The Varsity Boys Soccer team walked away with the gold and what a feat to have done so on a very muddy field! The image of the team pictured was set at the old Ampang Campus (Jalan Kolam Air Lama) with Coach David Hagan, when the one main field was still fresh grass. The second image is of the 2019 Varsity Girls team geared up in the infamous navy blue and yellow of ISKL walking on the “Turf field” on the brand new Ampang Hilir Campus, opened in 2018. The new campus features three pitches; two made of astro turn and one of fresh grass.
Coach Al Daniel, faculty alumni ‘68-’05, led the ISKL Varsity Girls Soccer team to their first ever IASAS victory in 1987-1988. The team awards given that year went to Isolde Birdthistle (‘89) and Andrea Dawson (‘88) as Most Valuable Players, Gina Lee (‘88) for Most Improved, and Jo Osmond (‘89) as Most Inspirational.
Though ISKL was not crowned champions for the most recent 2019 IASAS Soccer Tournament, four athletes won IASAS All Tournament Awards. An award given for most sports during the closing ceremony to the athlete or athletes who stood out during the three-day tournament. It’s a coveted achievement in high school sports. The most recent accolades go to Geonyeong “Elvis” Park (‘20) and Yannick Blackburn (‘20) for Varsity Boys and Sarah Balsamo (‘20) and Olivia Allum (‘21) for Varsity Girls.
Cross Country
ISKL debuted its first Cross Country team led by Coach Peter Forsgren at the IASAS Tournament in the 1996-1997school year. Troy Welker (‘00), one of the freshman runners known to the team as Mr. America expressed what made this sport special stating “Because our girls and guys trained together, we really got to know the other half of our team. Not many sports consider boys and girls to be on one team; that’s why cross-country is so unique”. Scott Griffiths (‘98) and Hayley Munro (‘99) who were also part of the first ISKL Varsity Cross Country team in 1997 described what the experience was like, putting us in their shoes “Waking up at 5:30am cramming on to a non-air-conditioned, miniature bus for an hour, running some ungodly distance and then settling down for the mouth watering roti canai brought us UNBELIEVABLY close”. The sense of support through teammates, families, classmates and faculty is an on-going element of what makes these occasions memorable.
Due to the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic the majority of the athletics clubs were affected in 2020 by canceled meets. To keep the spirit alive under unprecedented circumstances IASAS came up with an innovative way to make competition possible with the 5k Fun Runs. Even though they could not gather, all five international schools competed against each other to gain the most points in categories such as the Top 5 Fastest times, the Most Creative Team Photo and the Farthest Away From Their School. ISKL and Taipei American School (TAS) tied for second place overall.
The 2021 Season 1 Cross Country teams from all five international schools that competed in the 5k Fun Run on home ground still felt the spirit of IASAS through their supporters, coaches, families, alumni and faculty whether physically or virtually.
