May 16th, 2009, the NWCS celebrated its 40th Anniversary with a full day of events ….
On Saturday, 5/16/2009, many volunteers arrived at school early to help with the preparation for the day.
At 9:15 am, Dr. Paul Chu and Dr. Ifay Chang, both current Board members, summarized the reasoning process behind the Board’s decision regarding NWCS' location for the next two years. They stated that the Board feels that the NWCS should accept BMS’ offer while seeking input from the NWCS community before casting the final vote. In addition, the Board has also decided not to increase tuition for 2009-2010 academic year. The audience expressed understanding and applauded the board's decision. The Board will announce the decision through an email.
At 10:00 am, the Open House started promptly. Ms. Linda Lee helped at the reception desk, welcoming and signing in our visitors while answering questions about our school. Many teachers show cased their class work on the reserved tables in the middle school cafeteria. There were compositions, arts, and much much more. Our principal, Mr. Wai Wong, school counselors, Mr. Kenny Soohoo and Mr. Mike Lee, conducted several class tours for the new families who visited the school. Some parents of past graduates also visited the school and offered some excellent ideas to continue to make NWCS the best Chinese School around.
Our current and new registrars, Mr. Jeffery Ho and Mr. Douglas Thomas, were also busy registering students for the upcoming school year. The Breakfast Club, as usual, was busy serving up snacks and drinks for students and visitors.
Also at 10:00 am, the two seminars organized by Dr. Ifay Chang, one reflecting on NWCS' 40 years of history and one focusing on the NWCS teacher’s experiences, were being held in the middle school theatre. The speakers, Ms. Jane Sun, Mr., Ziliang Chou, Dr. Lorng kuo Liu, Dr. Shu Ping Chang, Dr. Tien Jen Cheng, Mr. Wai Wong and Dr. Shiwa Fu, Ms. Daisy Rose, Ms. Jiaoran wang and Dr. Ifay Chang enthusiastically presented their recollections and views which also included a memorable slide show and a very informative power point presentation. The sessions were recorded so that DVDs could be made available for those who missed the seminars.
At 12:00 noon, close to 100 adults and children joined us at the High School Cafeteria for lunch before the performances. Our Vice Principal, Ms. Shiao-Lan Haines and Treasurer, Ms. Vivian Yu, decorated the cafeteria with cheerful and colorful table clothes and balloons, while serving the delicious lunches. Mr. and Mrs. Kuang Yao Lee again donated “egg custard tarts” as dessert for all to enjoy. The lunch was festive and everyone had a good time. One of the past principals, Ms. Ellen Zer took the time to visit with us and join us for lunch. She met with the current administration and offered words of wisdom and encouragement. Ms. Zer was the vice principal for the school year 1989 – 1990 and principal for the school year 1990- 1991. Her two children, Darren and Phyllis, graduated from NWCS in 1991 and 1999 respectively.
At two o’clock, the performance started ….
The Chair of the Board Director, Dr. Shiwa Fu, gave his heartfelt remarks on NWCS’s achievements over the past 40 years and its tireless efforts of carrying on the tradition. He strongly believes that NWCS will continue for several more 40 Years … with excellence in education. Following Dr. Fu was the NWCS Principal, Mr. Wai Wong. He stressed that the success of the school can be attributed to the special group of individuals, our volunteer teachers who continue to be the integral part of the NWCS. He thanked them for their effort and congratulated the school for this significant milestone. Mr. Wai then introduced our guest of honor, Dr. Fran Willis, the superintendent of BCS. Dr. Fran Willis welcomed the NWCS family and Dr. Willis said nothing pleases her more than to see the youngsters’ excitement in wanting to learn. She said it is the shared appreciation of “tradition” of excellence in education that has brought the two schools together. Everyone applauded Dr. Willis in agreement.
Ms. Siewleng Chuah and Mr. Benson Louie, current board members, and Ms. Shiao-Lan, vice principal, spent many hours reaching out to past volunteers, principals, officials of the school. Ms. Chuah also collected many pictures and artifacts. She spent many hours putting together a slideshow which took everyone down memory lane. It is amazing to see that the school started 40 years ago in a teacher’s living room with 23 students … We have come a long way… and we will continue the journey that our predecessors have laid for us.
The first performance was the chorus which consisted of many NWCS parents. They performed three songs. The songs were titled “The Spring”, “A traveler’s song”, and “Azela”. Dr. Hui-Mei Lin, the conductor, explained the meaning of the 2nd song, “A traveler’s song”. It is a poem written by a son who was about to travel afar. On the days before his departure, the mother’s was busy with needle and thread, sewing garments for the child to keep him warm on his journey. She worked hard while secretly praying for the early and safe return of her child. The poem ends with … “ We, the children, are like the little grass, how could we ever expect to be able to repay the love of our mothers, whose love is like the beacon of the Spring”. Dr. Lin said the song is dedicated to all mothers. It was a touching and appropriate gesture since we just celebrated the Mother’s Day the Sunday before. I have to admit the harmonic voices, carrying the meaning of the song brought tears to my eyes. I know many of our NWCS teachers had left Taiwan or China and came to the United School to pursue graduate degrees. Although many of them have settled down in the United States, they still have elder parents in their hometowns. This song probably touches them more than some of us can ever imagine. For that, we thank them for volunteering their time at the NWCS even more.
The performances were MC’ed by our 6th grade students, Kevin Chang, Kevin Louie and Catherine Chung.
The first program was the PK class and they definitely did not have “stage fright”. These adorable PKers were actually “fighting” for the microphone. The audience couldn’t stop laughing … the class performed the following songs: “Big Head”, “Two Tigers” and “Head, Shoulders, Knees & Toes “. Their teachers, Ms. Wong and Ms. Shang, obviously had their hands full and definitely earned the “most patient” awards.
The Kindergarten’s program consisted of four songs: “Phonetic Song”, “Little Stars”, “One, Two, Three, Four, Five” and “Sparrows Jump”. They sang, they danced and jumped right and left … they earned a round of applause from the audience. You could see their teachers, Ms. Wang and Ms. Chen watching their students’ performance proudly.
The 1st graders, led by their teachers, Ms. Weinstein and Ms. Chen, performed two songs, “The First Grade” and “A Snail and a Yellow Parrot”. The smiles on the students’ faces were reflected in the audiences’s appreciation.
Next up was the 2nd graders, by far the largest grade, led by teachers, Ms. Shung and Ms. Chao. The class sang loud and clear the song “Do Re Me”. You could see the relief on their teachers’ faces after the students’ excellent performance.
The 3rd grader performed two songs. The teachers, Ms. Chung and Ms.Chen, joined the class in the first song, “Flying Train”. One group of students formed a cave while the second group of students “the flying train” rushed through the cave. The students then all held hands while singing “When we are all together” to conclude their program.
The next program was the “Fan Dance” taught by teacher Ms. Murray. The Fan Dance, as expected, was beautifully done, the coordination amongst the little “dancers” was just perfect. Everyone loved the performance and you could see that the students were quite happy as well.
The 4th graders performed a lovely song called “a Smiling Sun”. The teachers, Ms. Wong and Ms. Su joined the class at the bottom of the stage directing the students.
The 5A students, led by their teacher, Ms. Tu, performed 3 comic skits. The first was “A cheap person”. It started with an old man begging a lady for some food because he was very hungry. The lady, who was obviously making a lot of food, lied that she had no more food. She then hesitantly agreed to make the old man some “pancakes” after the old man begged some more. She made a nice size pancake then she changed her mind, and said “oh, that’s too big” and kept on making it smaller and smaller … finally the old man got fed up and said “I can’t believe how cheap you are. The pancake is now smaller than a quarter. I am actually a guardian angel sent to see if you have a good heart … I will have to make you into a black bird “, and with that, the old man made the lady into a black bird and she flew away. The moral of the story is that we should help those who are in need of help.
The second skit was to portray the differences between the traditional and simplified Chinese. Although we do teach simplified Chinese at NWCS to the higher grade students, we believe that we should not lose sight of the importance of traditional Chinese.
Highlight of the 3rd skit:
A teacher asked “Who can tell me where eggs come from? “
A student answered: ” The eggs are from the refrigerator”.
The teacher “No …. they are not from the refrigerator, silly. Who else knows where eggs are from? “
Another student eagerly offered “ I know, I know, they are from A&P”.
The Audience, those who can understand Chinese, chuckled.
Last but not least, the celebration performance ended with a pumped up, energized dance performed by our 8B students, Shannon Louie and Megan Chu. Choreography was by Shannon Louie. It was so nicely executed and earned a round of warm and appreciative cheers.
Vice Pincipal, Ms. Shiao-Lan, thanked everyone for attending the celebration and said that we are looking forward to another 40 years! Yeah! She also reminded everyone that there was NO school next Saturday, May 23. We will see everyone on May 30th … Don’t forget to register for the next school year and our upcoming picnic on June 6.
As everyone exited the auditorium, Ms. Vivian Yu was surrounded by students seeking balloons, laugher filled the hall way.
Kudos to all the teachers who have worked so hard, and proudly presented their students’ hard work, both academic and in the “talent” show … Just like what the principal said, it takes someone special to do what they do. Thanks, teachers!!!!!
Thanks to Mr. Rong Chang, our incoming vice principal, and Mr. Eric Wu for recording the events throughout the day. Thanks to Mr. Benson Louie who worked back stage throughout the whole show, but then again, he probably had the best view of all the performances.
Thanks to our volunteers who NWCS can always count on to work as a team and make things happen. Let’s not forget our custodian, Marcus, who has become a permanent fixture in the NWCS community.
Special thanks to our distinguished speakers who took the time to share with us the valuable lessons learned. Special thanks to Ms. Ellen Zer for joining us in celebrating this wonderful 40th Anniversary.
What a day! Let’s get ready for another 40 years!!!!! Go NWCS!