August 30, 2007: We were excited to receive another visitor: Dave D'aranjo '02 was on campus visiting Theater Engineer Paul Koebnick (current faculty) before moving to New York City in September.

 

During his time at SAS, Dave and several friends set up IPAU, a contemporary music performance club. With Mr. Koebnick's help, Dave and his bandmates from student band 'The Old Kings' were able to record several albums at SAS, and despite being in different countries, continued to record together after graduating fromSAS.

 

Dave is a practicing freelance musician in Singapore. He has a final Singapore gig at the Crazy Elephant Bar on Clarke Quay on September 5th, 2007. When he moves to New York, he plans to further his music career and work with several former SAS musicians. We're looking forward to catching up with Dave and his fellow musicians in the June 2008 issue of Journeys.

 

 

Friday, August 24th, was a big day for our Alumni Relations office, as we had two visitors enjoying their first look around the Woodlands campus after several years away from Singapore.

 

In the morning, Vanessa Misenheimer (Santoyo) '97 dropped by with her mother, Yolanda Shoemaker. The Shoemaker family attended SAS from 1989 to 1994. Vanessa now lives in Texas with her husband Rick and their beautiful daughter Alayna, who will celebrate her first birthday next month.

 

Yolanda and Vanessa were eager to try out Mr. Hoe's cafeteria food again after a long absence. While having lunch in the Intermediate/Middle School cafeteria, they were able to visit with Mr. Ho, Primary Deputy Principal Ken Schunk, and Middle School Deputy Principal Brian Combes.

 

 

On Friday afternoon, Allison Franz '98 stopped in on her way to town after driving down from Kuala Lumpur, where she was on vacation with family.

 

 

As her father and his wife continued on to the Orchard Road area, Allison hopped in a taxi to the Woodlands campus, where she was able to look through her old memory books, update us on the classmates she keeps in touch with, and have a tour of the high school.

 

Allison attended SAS Ulu Pandan and King's Road campus until her freshman year of high school in 1994-1995, when she, her sister Kelley '97, and her brother Stephen '02 moved to Alabama. All three siblings attended Auburn University. Allison was able to discuss the Alabama-Auburn football rivalry with fellow Alabama native Josh Nobles '99, who is now a sports trainer at SAS.

 

We were amazed by Allison's incredible memory for names and faces, and her wonderful ability to actively keep in touch with former classmates. She's met with several alums in Texas, where she now lives and works as an engineer.