Letter to Wanbang Students 
by Dr. Walters

The summer has ended.  School is starting.  My emotional connection to Wanbang remains strong.  Miri, a senior in the Wanbang international program, visited my daughter Emma in August.  We spent a fun day at the San Diego zoo.  Speaking of Emma, she just left for her first year at Calvin College – now Calvin University in Grand Rapids, Michigan.  Emma will be studying Chinese.  Her dream is to work in China as an English teacher.  However, she is also entertaining the idea of working as a University recruiter or an Embassy employee.  Emma’s dream was established when she studied at Wanbang in 2017.

In the United States, we use the Latin phrase “alma mater” to reference a school we have attended and that has taught us valuable information.  The English translation of the phrase “alma mater” is “loving mother.”  Clearly Wanbang has been and continues to be an “alma mater” to Emma, to me and to my family.  Given our personal experiences, I know that over the course of this year, the Wanbang teachers and staff will be your “alma mater.”  Therefore, I can with confidence say that the lessons you learn this year will impact you today and beyond.  More important I know that the lessons you learn this year will help you become a person who will make our world a better place.

I believe that one of the important lessons Wanbang will teach you can be connected to the American acronym ETA.  Americans use this acronym when they are trying to guess when an important person will arrive.  Within the context of Wanbang, this acronym describes the steps the teachers and staff will take to nurture you into a person of impact.  In other words, the type of person who makes me excited, thrilled, and honored to welcome into my home.
 

The ETA process starts with the letter “E” which refers to excellence.  Each teacher and staff member will push you to achieve excellence.  This can at times be upsetting.  The extra homework assignment, the extra morning exercises, and the extra effort to be kind to and supportive of your roommates or classmates can all be overwhelming.  Yet, it is the extra work that will shape you into a person who will change the world.  So, I encourage you to welcome the extra.  Strive to view each challenge as an opportunity to grow.  Remember becoming excellent in head and heart is the greatest way to show your thankfulness to the Wanbang teachers and staff.
 

The idea of influencing others is connected to the letter “T” which refers to transform.  We live in a time where interacting with people on an international scene is normal.  We can use these interactions to get our own way or we can use these interactions to bring peace.  Joy and happiness are the outcomes of peace.  Helping others is the first step toward bringing about the transformation that will impact the world.  Remember each teacher and staff member is committed to training you to become a leader who will influence the future in a bright and prosperous way.

Embedded within the idea of transformation is the letter “A” which refers to agile.  Agile relates to being open to change.  It is not change for personal excitement or wealth but rather change as a means of helping others.  Please remember that each time a faculty or staff member corrects you or challenges you they are pushing you to be agile.  Following your teachers’ lead will ensure you are prepared to leverage forces such as artificial intelligence rather than being left to respond in fear.  Becoming an agile leader will guarantee you are prepared to make a positive impact in your city, your province, your national and our world.  I can share that I look to the future with optimism because I know Wanbang is preparing you to be the next generation of wise and discerning leaders. 

As I close this letter, I want to send you my blessings for this new year.  If you believe, I know you will find many exciting and life-changing opportunities this school year.  Listen to your teachers.  Embrace their wisdom.  Finally, seek to fulfill their vision for you.  Trust your “alma mater” as they use ETA to teach you each and every day.  You will feel the impact today and throughout the rest of your life.  Enjoy the journey.

Belief

Yunji Lee(12th grade)

Throughout three years in SAP, we have been guided by the people sitting near, right behind you, as always. Looking back on my time here, there were all types of guidance from them, our teachers.

I still remember Mr. Yun coming every break time to wake us SAP 10, the people who were the youngest but who loved to sleep the most, and leading wake-up exercise. I thought I was back at Kindergarten.

During SAP 11, there were bunch of assignments to find “who I am,” and “what I like.” There was an assignment to find three adjectives that describes me and to present it in creative ways. I thought it was a waste of time, because I wanted to start my college research. But, I decided to work on it wholeheartedly, and thank you Ms. Sarah, I didn’t know then that it would help me show myself so much during college interviews and my personal essay.

And finally, during SAP 12, we are guided even further to jump out of Wanbang, and to take the first big step away from adults’ protection, but still under their guidance.

Through all the guidance, we begin to find that the guides here are somehow different. They want us to be honest in any situation. They want us to stand up by ourselves when we fall down. Just think about it, who says “I’ll let you drown” to the poor students who are worried about all those college applications and AP courses scheduled at the same time? Only Mr. David would. But through it all, I realized that they wanted to give us something that was “best for me,” and not simply “the best.”

Because, these guides are different and unique, do we feel just wonderful and admire it? No. We doubt it. And I doubted it too because the guidance I received seemed so different from what other students like us received anywhere else. It definitely wasn’t easy to believe and follow something so different and so abnormal while there were other guidelines out there, that were regarded to be “right.”

The guidance in Wanbang and in SAP tells us to keep our values and mottos with us anytime and anywhere, no matter what happens to us. Sometimes, I didn’t like this. Because many times, what I really wanted didn’t always match with the school’s values. Many times, it seemed like it was better not to follow the values because it felt like a waste of time and cost, and at times this was true.

But, because I was in Wanbang, I trained and learned to eventually hold onto the school’s and my personal values through the hundreds of choices and decisions I made - from small actions to big choices, such as college. And as I leave here (finally!), I realize how thankful it is to be able to leave this school as a grown-up individual who is able to make decisions consistent with my values.

Imagining myself in the future, walking step by step consistently within my value, I’m already proud of myself, and I know that I couldn’t have felt this if I wasn’t guided by my teachers.

So trust me (sorry to tell you to believe me when I myself struggled to believe, but I know that to you right now, we, the graduates, seem more believable than those people in the back. So again, trust me). Those of you who have been skeptical of what is happening here at Wanbang and in SAP, start believing and trusting this place. A school that will push you and guide you towards what not just the best, but what is truly best for you.

Wholehearted

Sunyoung Park(12th grade)

Dearly beloved, teachers, friends, and fellow juniors and sophomores! Thank you all for being here today, and I must say that it’s such an honor for me to stand here and deliver a speech. Since this is the first time for me to graduate a high school, please understand if I get too nervous and start to stutter in the middle, or even suffer a heart attack.

Today, I’m going to share a story, and this is not going to be any kind of advice regarding academics or college application. If you need help in this kind of aspect, don’t ask me – just go ask teachers. I guarantee that they will give better advices than I could ever make.

Anyways, it was a hot summer day, and I was sitting in front of a fourth grade boy. He was crying because one of the classmates told him not to eat popcorn, which was supposed to be shared with everyone. He sat by the corner, and with eyes full of tears, told me that he wanted to go back home. I sat in front of him, gently held his hands, and tried my whole best to make him smile again. I told him how happy I am to be with him, and how it means a lot for me to have him in the class. By the time I saw a small smile on his face, I knew that this is why I’m here for: to be with him in this moment.

Now you might wonder what on earth this story has to do with this commemoration. Don’t worry – I’ll explain.

This story is an example of moments that are unforgettable for me. They are unforgettable because they mean a lot to me, and they are meaningful because I was profoundly engaged in all those moments. I personally have dozens of these kind of moments throughout my life in Wanbang, and these scenes created one story of myself as a high school student. And I know for sure that this story will endure time, stay in my heart, and give me joy and purpose whenever I look back.

Being wholehearted means to be authentic. It also means to be who you are and give everything you have no matter how good or bad the situation. And I believe this is the key to collect special moments hidden in our life. True. Being wholehearted can be lonely sometimes. There will be times that you might feel that you are not receiving back as much as you poured out. You might doubt yourself when nobody acknowledges your genuine love and passion for things that you believe is precious. Yet, you should remember: just because you don’t get rewarded, just because there is no one giving applauses, it does not mean that your efforts and passion were worthless.

I’m here today to encourage you to embrace the risk and have courage to be wholehearted. I want you to be brave enough to love someone with your whole heart, pour all your effort to whichever subject you are studying, and trust your teachers and don’t be afraid to follow their guide. When you participate in any kind of activities, and even when you say “hi” to someone on the hallway, be who you are, and share your genuine heart with those next to you. And I wish that from those events, you will find your moment that could touch your heart, and ultimately become part of your story that you will never forget.

When you truly engage into your life, you’ll understand how wonderful it is to see a child’s smile, how grateful to have a teacher telling you to go eat dinner, and how it is like a miracle to have a community that you belong and have friends to walk with.

Thus it is my only hope for you to cherish all the moments you live and discover those scenes waiting for you. When you find those moments, don’t hesitate to love them. The more you do, the more you care, the more your story becomes special and meaningful to you.
 

Thank you.

The majestic first image of the black hole by the Event Horizon Telescope project was released and viewed by millions this past week. The Event Horizon Telescope project involved hundreds of scientists around the world and had to utilized a global network of radio telescopes to be possible. It was an astonishing achievement accomplished by the development of modern technology to track and observe the black hole (roughly the size of a quarter on the moon seen from Earth). But in the most ironic way, this dreamy image would not have been possible without the help of traditional technology like the computer hard drives since the five petabytes of data gathered from the telescopes would have taken years to travel through the internet.

The use of typical hard drives in achieving the scientific breakthrough of imagining a blackhole came at an interesting point in time, when the reliance and increasingly faster shifts towards newer and better technology is observed throughout the world. New phones, computers and technology is annually released and continue to attract people’s interest under the claim of being modern. In most cases, newer does mean better and should be embraced; however, when it comes to raising a child and educating them, newer isn’t always better.

At Wanbang, we base our way of nurturing our students on traditional values and methodologies. As an example, our school’s motto, “Diligence, Honesty and Loving Others” are at the core of each lesson and interaction teachers have with students and are taught not by the latest technology but through the time and effort of our teachers modeling them for the students. Instead of FaceTiming with students after class, our teachers spend face to face time eating, playing and teaching. Instead of focusing on instant gratification, our teachers encourage and guide students to achieve long term goals and build their confidence throughout the process. With this traditional values and teaching methods as our foundation, we begin implementing new methodology by offering computer classes, utilizing newer class models like flipped classrooms and incorporating the newest pedagogical methods suggested by neuroscience research in our daily classes. Ultimately, it is when the values we believe to be true are the focus of our education and the latest methodology and technology merely a supporting tool that we are able to nurture our students to be astonishing and accomplished - just like image of the black hole.
 

The ‘6th National Arts Festival’ was hosted at Suzhou this year and was held from April 15 to 21. The arts festival also known as “Youth Olympics for the Arts” is held every three years and is the biggest art festival for Chinese teenagers with more than 10,000 final contestants participating throughout the six-day event. In the past two festivals, our Wanbang School Choir received the honor of 1st place both in 2013 and 2016. This year, performing on live TV broadcasted throughout China, our choir team once again won the honor of 1st place for their choir performance. Moreover, the choir team was invited to perform at the closing ceremony, a stage reserved only for the top of the 10,000 performers from the festival.