On September 12, 2019, SASPD hosted its annual alumni panel during that week’s community meeting. This year, the alumni consisted of three students of the Class of 2009– Hamish McKenzie, Lennart Schwung, and Mike Chan.

Unlike last year, the universities of the alumni this year span from Europe to Australia, as well as the United States. There was also a wider range of career paths that were presented–namely, teaching, marketing, and finally STEM management.

Aside from the usual questions regarding the college application process, life after high school graduation, and college courses, students felt that the perspectives of the alumni this year were more engaging and reflected on a wider variety of topics–among others discussed were mental illness, student loans, and values that form upon living internationally.

“I thought it was more engaging,” says Lacie Rich, sophomore. “They knew we don’t really wanna talk about school in school, so they broke it up with other topics.”

On life after graduation, Schwung, after leaving an international school for a university in Barcelona, shared the building feeling of “not wanting to admit [he had] lived oversees.” This was echoed by Chan, who later emphasises the process of learning “how it feels to not have a home, but also a home everywhere,” and how he learned to be “appreciative of the constellations of friends and family [at SAS].”

Rich adds that she found the talk of mental illness helpful to the student body. “It’s good to know that everyone went through an episode where they were depressed, but reached out for help,” she says. The alumni also admitted to “battling with depression throughout high school,” along with sharing their experiences with anxiety and depressive thoughts.

On dealing with student loans, Chan recommends being “as aggressive as possible” with earning money and shares an analogy on weighing part-time jobs. “Think of your time as money,” he says. “You wouldn’t waste money on bad purchases, so don’t waste your time on jobs that are a bad investment in the long run.” The alumni also put the reputation of SAS into perspective when applying for jobs. “You’re all in quite privileged positions,” says Schwung. “Good companies will want to hire you simply because you’ve attended this school.”

Naturally, questions from the student body moved towards dealing with stress and future career options. Chan empathised with the fast-paced high school mentality surrounding preparing for the future. “A lot of the time we are rushed to think, ‘what’s the next thing I need to check off the checklist?'” Throughout college, however, he liked to imagine the defining moment for knowing what to choose for his career path “as a big funnel.” Year for year, course for course, the funnel began to narrow down, until several possibilities became clear.