2009 Graduation Ceremony a Success

On Wednesday, June 10, 2009, the Hsinchu American School community celebrated the middle-school graduation of four students completing another rite of passage in life. The graduating students included: Alvin Lai, Grace Wu, Jean Swart, and Ryan Tsai. Evening festivities included food, congratulations, and entertainment as well as the diplomas. The faculty-selected achievement honours were also awarded.

Students who demonstrated significant abilities in each of the core curriculum fields for the year also received recognition. Faculty chose specific students who showed differential achievements in Math (Grace Wu), English (Peter Liao), and History (Wilson Hung). (Peter Liao subsequently received a second award in Science on the following Monday.) Two other students received honours for making extraordinary amounts of progress in a single year. Alvin Lai and Antina Chen received the Special Achievement awards from the entire faculty.

While some of graduating students already take high school level courses this graduation ceremony

marks their official advancement from the eighth grade to high school. The entire graduation ceremony’s schedule included pre-ceremony catering, and welcoming remarks from the chairman, Mr. Glory Yeh, and HAS principal, Mr. Darin Murphy, entertainment, and the distribution of diplomas. Evening entertainment included performances by the drama and dance clubs, awards, as well as music selections. After all the entertainment, the awards and graduation ceremony concluded the evening. The principal, Mr. Darin Murphy announced the awards recipients and the graduating students calling each onto the stage individually. Parents, teachers, and students in the audience took photographs.