ICS has given so much to me!

Cindy attended this year Walkathon and Fall Festival

Cindy at her University - Savannah College of Art in USA

I came to ICS in 2006. I chose this school because of the flexible program that allowed me to focus more on art and also because a variety of classes are offered in the curriculum.

ICS has given so much to me - I definitely wouldn't be who I am today without ICS!

I made many good friends at ICS, and the teachers were friendly. The classes were flexible, allowing me to focus on art. Mr. Meyer's intensive art program has taught me so much valuable knowledge that will definitely stay with me for the rest of my life. If I could go back into time and change one thing during my stay at ICS, it would be to take more of Mr. Meyer's amazing art classes! ICS has really encouraged me to use my talents by giving me the opportunity to design the ICS Green logo, the 2010 High School Camp T-Shirt, the 2011 Jazz Cafe Posters, the 2011 Annual Report Cover, and most recently the Red Packet Design and this year Walkathon’s publication.

Please enjoy some of Cindy's works!




Cindy designed this year ICS Walkathon & Fall Festival logo 

Cindy's work was selected to be on a cover artwork of a book

 

Cindy designed a pair of Lai See Packet of ICS



 

ICS offers a nurturing Christian environment

Carmen Kirschke (Class of 2012) with her parents serve as missionary in Hong Kong

When my parents and I moved from the US to Hong Kong in 2009, they wanted a school that was not only international but also offered a nurturing Christian environment. After our family toured various schools, the decision was made for me to attend ICS. 

When I first came to ICS, I found the place to be very positive: I noticed a level of mutual respect among peers. ICS encourages a friendly atmosphere which helps students to come out of their comfort zone and socialize. It provided the meeting place and right climate for my friendships to blossom. Many of my teachers are caring, compassionate, and committed to teaching. Through bible classes and chapels, I learned more about the nature of God and the people who taught me the most about a relationship with Christ are my teachers and classmates. 

ICS challenged me to analyze and think critically about different aspects of life. I always had the opportunity and encouragement to ask questions when I wanted to learn more or was confused about something. Through the diverse clubs and electives ICS offers, it allows everyone an opportunity to discover their talents and interests. I discovered my talent for acting through drama class, and ICS has offered several opportunities for me to perform onstage for performances and public speaking.

To this day, I still enjoy anything related to theater or acting. ICS definitely raised the bar in terms of academic expectations and standards. Now I am equipped with the higher level thinking skills that will help me in college.  



20th Anniversary - ICS milestones

This is a one minute video clip of a ICS student sharing her testimony with the audience at the Renaissance Banquet. Her name is  Allison Woo currently in grade 8, a lovely girl who is going to tell you how she learned to be humble and to serve others at ICS.  

Below are some snapshots of the Renaissance Banquet. Please enjoy them!   

Love One Another

We Three Kings by ICS Boy Ensemble

In 2011, ICS students and families went to serve others around the world.
They built facilities for the poor, visited the weak, raised funds for the needy,
 all because of God's love for all of us.



Our Special Needs students spent time with elderly to show their care



Our High School students visited patients to share God's blessing through Christmas songs



The Show Choir sang and danced at its annual production to raise funds for the needy

Our students and their families went to the Philippines
to build toilets, bamboo footpaths and church buildings

 

Our Middle School students taught English at a village school
 in Cambodia during Week Without Walls trip



ICS facilitates me to reach my goal

Emmanuel (3rd from left) with other students participating in Model United Nations (M.U.N.)

God has always been watching over my life
My name is Emmanuel, I’m in grade 11, and I’ve been in ICS for 5 years now so I’ve been since middle school. First, I want to share about how God has always been watching over my life. Before I was even born, doctors suggested my parents to abort me because they detected hormonal disorders in me. Since then I've also been through asthma, concussions, fractures, pneumonia, collapsed eye muscle, scabies, and amazingly I am alive and well. God has carried me for my entire life through and today I can do all that I can because of His providence for me. God has been protecting and guiding me all my life and education is no exception.

For all of primary school, I studied at another Christian international school that virtually gave me no academic stimulus. My parents paid the tuition and I went to school every day since that’s the law! But I basically learned everything at home. When I began to reach higher grades, my parents began to be worried about my education and wanted to move me to ICS because of its strong academic program and Christian setting. The waiting list was already very long back then, but my parents prayed and somehow I got in.

ICS lets me ask questions without apprehensions

Through these five years, I can see why God chose to put me in this school. ICS is a community where I can experiment and ask questions without apprehensions. I am naturally cynical and inquisitive, so I like to challenge things before believing them; especially religious topics. If you propose something - PROVE IT!

I've always had strong doubts about God growing up but now my faith is firm. The school doesn't just force Christianity upon us, they downplay facts, testimonies, theories, and traditions in every class, especially science class, to allow us students to analyze the truths about God for ourselves. This humanistic approach to comprehending God encourages us student to be critical thinkers, which also explains the academic competitiveness of our school. Furthermore basically everyone tries their best to love each other. I believe that is most important because most schools can brag about building knowledge, but ICS can brag about building friendships and character.

Emmanuel playing music for kids during his High School Week-Without-Walls service trip in the Philippines



ICS facilitates me to reach my goal
As for my future, I want to get into a good university, marry a girl and make her the happiest woman alive, become a doctor, and just heal people. Not only physically, but also spiritually, emotionally, and in whatever way I can, because I see a lot of pain in this world, and I don’t like it. I've obviously experienced some of it myself, and I know it’s my calling from God to be a healing hot spring for him. And yes – ICS facilitates me to reach this goal.

ICS: God’s Instrument to Shape my Life

"May God continue to use this school as a tool to shape the next generation, and may this school continue to glorify God in all it does." Erica Leung (ICS alumna - Class of 2008) likes to share her thoughts about how ICS has impacted her life.  

No institution is perfect, least of all ICS, and as a student, I did my share of complaining about every single fault I could find. Looking back now, however, I can see so clearly that the teachers and the weekly Chapel services were used very powerfully by God to shape me into the person I am now.



Every Thursday, all of the students would gather together within their respective age groups for a time of worship, and also to listen to a message delivered either by one of our teachers, or by a speaker they had specially invited. I first accepted Christ during one of those Thursday chapels, and the many speakers the teachers invited throughout the years instilled in me a desire to live for something greater than myself.

Erica (4th from right) met up with her former ICS classmates

The single greatest blessing God gave me, however, was the teachers. Truly, they were not just teachers to their students, but also mentors and friends. I remember trading jokes with some of them just as though they were my friends, and I remember one-on-one meetings with my homeroom teacher in which he sat me down, then asked, “How has your walk with God been?” I approached so many of these teachers over the years with questions I didn’t feel comfortable asking my parents, and they taught me so much about loving God and following him. Looking back now, especially as I now currently study at a very big public university in the States, I am so appreciative of having had such teachers who truly and so very genuinely cared about my well-being, spiritual or physical, throughout high school. Even now, three years later, when I meet up with them, I can feel their genuine care and concern. One teacher I met up with even told me that on the occasion that he prayed for me, he prayed that I would not put too much pressure on myself, something I had struggled with back in high school, and still struggle with now. Even if, in the seven or so years since he had taught me (he had only taught me in middle school), he had only prayed for me once, that already demonstrates to me the genuine concern that God has placed in his heart for his students, and this is just one example of the amazing teachers I have met here.

Erica (in the middle) with her former High School teacher and her classmate at a banquet

Because of the foundation of faith that ICS had laid out for me, the first thing I did when I stepped foot on the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, was find a church. All the desires and prayers for God to use me, and to allow me to experience of living for something bigger than myself, that the speakers during Chapel times had birthed in me have been answered beyond anything I could have expected in college through the local church ministry I became involved in. I still don’t know where exactly I will be going from here (I still have one more year of schooling left), but I know that, through the academic and spiritual foundation ICS had given me, I will be ready for whatever I end up doing.

2 Corinthians 4:7 – “But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.”

Confessions of a Senior

Tiffany (2nd to left) was serving the Advancement Office during Week Without Walls 2011

Tiffany Cheng (Class of 2011) transferred from a local school to ICS three years ago, a relatively short time compared to a lot of the lifers around here. She always find it hard to explain when asked about the reason since she is not too sure herself. It was a rather whimsical decision— she got really attracted to the swimming pool and the fancy art room. However, it was also due to the fact that she is not sure about her future yet. "I didn’t have a clue about what I want to major in college and hence wanted to try out all possibilities", said Tiffany.

At ICS, Tiffany got the chance to take a wide range of classes spanning from graphic design to human anatomy; some of which she couldn’t even imagine herself taking at her previous school. As a whole, it had been a challenging and rewarding experience, especially the APs, and through this trial and error process, she is beginning to find where her true interests lie.

Another thing that struck Tiffany when she first came was how highly religion is valued. She have been in Christian schools all her life but ICS is unique in that the Christian faith permeated every single aspect of school life. Students are not afraid to proclaim their own faith or pray outside of class, and they actively participate in chapel worship every week. The teachers are very approachable and have encouraged her to reexamine her own faith. ICS has given her the opportunity to reflect on her own beliefs and open up myself to new ideas. Community services, such as the Make a Difference project and Week Without Walls were also thought-provoking experiences. As she head off for college next year, she would always treasure memories she had at ICS.