In Conversation with Alumna

Twenty two years ago the AISHK community was still settling into the Norfolk Road campus, which opened just two years previously. The students and teachers at that time were creating new traditions and setting the course of things to come.

Jessica Phillips and Vegas Puels, are Year 11 students and leaders of the Allies Club, a friendship group that meets every week to help give students a space to feel more comfortable, welcomed and supported at the school. They caught-up with Jessica Yuen, Class of 2003, to ask what students were focusing their attentions on twenty-two years ago.

Phillips: Tell us about your school days?
Yuen: The school moved three or four times in the early years. I remember everybody just sort of mucked in together. I remember we [the students and teachers] painted the walls of the classrooms soon after we moved into this (Norfolk Road) campus.

The dynamics of the school changed over the years.
I remember that a lot of students went to boarding school in Year 9 and in Year 10 there was an influx of new students. And things changed during SARS.

Puels: There was a similar change during the pandemic. Families went overseas and some have come back. But we are a bigger school now, what was it like being at a smaller school?

Y: Yeah, AISHK was a small school in the early 2000s.
When I was in year 7, there was no Years 10, 11 and 12. We could fit the whole of the secondary school in one classroom. That’s how small we were. So we were very close-knit and everybody knew everybody. The teacher to student ratio was quite low so it was easy to get to know each other well. I guess it still exists today but there were very, very academic students, the go-getters. And the shy students and the sporty students, the normal mix.

Pu: What were some of the student roles you had when you were at school?
Y: I was on the basketball team and a House Captain and a member of the Student Representative Council (SRC).

Ph: Inclusion and student wellbeing are important to us. Were they priorities for students when you were at school?

“AISHK was a small school in the early 2000s. When I was in Year 7, there was no Years 10, 11 and 12. We could fit the whole of the secondary school in one classroom. That’s how small we were.”

Y: The SRC pushed for things that brought students together. I remember that the Year 12 common room was one of the things that we started, because there wasn’t one up until that point. Whilst it may not have been a priority at the time, it became one of my favourite places to spend time with friends.

Back then we were aware of the issues, but our focus was on creating a campus that felt like ours. Also we were still finding our feet. The Prefects were a new thing and the head boys and head girls came later. The other thing we pushed for was a Formal. I am not sure if there was a Formal before our year group. We booked the Hong Kong Football| Club and went there for our end of year party.

Pu: Our Formal is next week! I am looking forward to it. What were the other community events and projects that students could get involved with?

Y: We did a lot of socialising at school. Things like the welcome barbecues and the school fète were big!
We had the school musicals. My mum Sandra, was the accompanying pianist, along with Music Teachers, Jennifer McLachlan and Chris McCorkell. Mr McCorkell| brought mum into school to play the piano.

The Pirates of Penzance was the big one (musical) and Bye Bye Birdie, I remember my mum practicing and playing the music at home. I felt like I was listening to it all the time.

The student that was supposed to play the lead in the Pirates of Penzance got chickenpox so Mr McCorkell ended up taking the lead.

Pu: That is so funny. Mr McCorkell is still at the school. Are you into music and performing?

Y: Not really, mum is. Are you musical?

Pu: Yes, I like singing. There are a lot of Extra Curricular Activities (ECA) at school, sports every day. We have Creative Curricular Activities and I have signed up to acrylic painting classes and cooking classes.

Ph: The activities are really cool, but it also means it takes time away from school work. We kind of need those extracurricular activities. Good grades aren’t enough to get into university, or a good university.

We have to find a balance between how many extracurriculars we do and classwork. How much time do you get to spend together as friends and how much time did you spend doing Extra Curricular Activities?

Y: Yeah, that was probably to my detriment, because I was involved in too much. I was involved in basketball at that time. We hadn’t had a basketball team very long but we practiced a lot. I was a House Captain, we used to have to run House Captain meetings. I remember doing that with Head of Waratah House Mr. Paul Carroll. I remember trying to encourage the house spirit.

Ph: Did students have phones at school?

Y: No, we didn’t have phones at school. I discovered Facebook in 2003. Mr. Phillip O’Connor, Mathematics Teacher will tell you stories, that when I discovered Facebook all my studies went out the window. I was lucky, Mr. O’Connor and Mrs. Dooley, who was my English teacher at the time, helped me catch up on work I missed. I am glad we did not have phones, they would have been a massive distraction.

Pu: What did you do after you left AISHK?

Y: My father always had a rule that I should study overseas. He wanted my sister and I to get out of Hong Kong to live and see a different world. I started out doing a BA. in Asian Studies and Political Science but decided within a year that it was not for me. One of my friends said I should go into education. I always wanted to be a teacher. I ended up graduating from the University of Ballarat with a Bachelor of Education (Hons).

Jessica Yuen, Education Consultant and Charity Founder

Jessica Yuen regularly comes to campus. She supports a child at AISHK who has refugee status.
The student is just one of 23 children across seven international schools that is supported by Yuen’s charity, the SEA Charitable Foundation.

Yuen works with NGOs including, Christian Action Centre for Refugees, Branches of Hope and the Zubin foundation to identify families that need help navigating the Hong Kong school system. This mirrors| Yuen’s profession as a migration and education consultant. Yuen’s business the Specialist Education Advisory (SEA) predominantly assists families looking for international schools in Hong Kong or migrating and studying to Australia or New Zealand.

A few years ago, a friend of Yuen’s from the Christian Action Centre for Refugees suggested that they could try placing just one student at the American School, with nothing to lose. That student just started a Mechanical Engineering Degree at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

Jessica Phillips and Vegas Puels are founders and leaders of The Allies Club. It welcomes anyone wanting to make, develop and support friendships. They meet almost every Wednesday at lunchtime in Room 609B.