A Departing Student Reflects

My name is Steven Eng, and I’m an American who has been a student here at AISG for the past two years. In my last Beacon article, I want to reflect on my time at AISG.

AISG, man where do I start? There are so many of what I would call unique, good, and bad aspects of AISG that I have been able to experience over the last two years during my time here. For me, attending AISG has been quite a different experience from anything else I have ever experienced. There are some features I like about it and at the same time there are other things I don’t.

Upon my arrival to AISG I immediately noticed that there were many differences from typical U.S. schools. The most glaring difference I noticed was the various countries that the student body represented. Being an American International School I expected a lot of different nationalities, but also many more Americans as well. This was a huge difference as the U.S. schools I’m used to have few or no international students. With the various countries that were represented I also noted the extremely high Asian population of students. U.S schools are very diverse and have many Asian-Americans and other races and ethnicities, but to see such a high percentage of one ethnicity of students at the school as well as so many different nationalities, was a bit different for me. Of course seeing as how AISG is in Asia I was definitely expecting more Asian students and nationalities but not this many. One other thing about AISG that is very different from U.S. schools is the schedule. The four block schedule was new to me and a bit different from the seven or so periods in many U.S. schools. I have found the extra long classes to be both good and bad. Some days the long periods can take forever while other days it allows you the extra time to take tests. One aspect of AISG that is very different from U.S. schools is the combining of the middle and high schools. I get that there are not enough high school students to have just them, so I understand why it is how it is, but it was something I guess I did not expect to affect me that much. Just to touch up on the campus and facilities I will say that AISG is similar to U.S. schools in that aspect minus the rather isolated location. I would say that U.S. schools tend to have larger campuses though and slightly better facilities. But overall there is not that much of a difference.

My transition from the U.S. to AISG was both easy and hard for me. Overall, attending AISG is pretty simple and a large portion of my adjustments might have been more about moving to a new city and country. I found that, probably, the hardest adjustment for me was adapting to the distinct curriculum that AISG has. This was in particular the IB. From the time that I got to AISG in 10th grade until now, classes have all been about IB or prepping for IB. For me that was new because IB is mainly an international thing and I had never encountered or even heard of it before I got to AISG. The various different IB-style assignments and tests were something I had to get used to. At first I had trouble with adapting to and understanding what these assignments wanted. Of course knowing that the IB was really probably not going to be useful to me later I sometimes did not have the best attitude towards it. There is nothing wrong with the IB and I found that it is actually a fairly good curriculum, but it was just very different and hard to adjust to it. A few other minor adjustments were the usual ones that come with moving to a new school such as not knowing anybody. This was easy to fix as the AISG student body is very kind and welcoming and I made a lot of nice friends here.

As far as my transition back to the U.S. goes I don’t see that many major adjustments for me. I am still very much accustomed to the U.S. and moving back home will be great, as I am much more comfortable there. Some adjustments, though, with my new school will be the isolated location, the high level of basketball, and the fact that it is a boarding school. This last fact will be quite a change for me as it will be my first time living on my own. High-level basketball is something I more or less have missed while attending AISG. Apart from APAC, the competition level is very low and has not challenged me as much as I would have liked. However, my new school has a very good basketball team and program. It is one of the best basketball schools in the U.S., and will definitely challenge me greatly. This is something I want but will also be something to get re-accustomed to. Really, the last adjustment I think I will have at my new school is the isolated location. It is literally located all by itself with nothing much in the nearby surroundings. Of course, coming from Guangzhou which is almost a megacity, this will be quite different.

From my time at AISG there were many great things I learned and did. Not only that but I met a lot of great people. Through all of that there were some highs and lows. Some of my highlights/best memories from AISG would be hitting a game tying buzzer beating three-pointer against the eventual Super-APAC champions, and being named All-APAC my junior year. Both moments were great, and I had a phenomenal time with both teams. I am proud of what the teams and I were able to accomplish and hopefully the team will continue to build off of what we did this year. As far as some low points go they are something I would rather not share. My time at AISG is something that I will remember and the highlights I created here were great.

As I leave and look back on my time here I just want to thank all of my teachers, coaches, friends, and classmates for all they did to help me enjoy AISG and learn and grow as a student and as an athlete.