The American School in Taichung (AST; ) is an international school in

Taichung Taichung (, Wade–Giles: ''Tʻai²-chung¹'', pinyin: ''Táizhōng''), officially Taichung City, is a special municipality located in central Taiwan. Taichung has approximately 2.8 million residents and is the second most populous city of Taiw ...

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

offering grades one to twelve. The school, founded in 1989, was previously known as Lincoln American School. It is fully accredited by the

Western Association of Schools and Colleges The Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) was an organization providing School accreditation, accreditation of public and private universities, colleges, secondary school, secondary and elementary schools in California and Hawaii, ...

(WASC) and hosts the annual Taiwan

Model United Nations Model United Nations, also known as Model UN or MUN, is an educational simulation in which students can learn about diplomacy, international relations, and the United Nations. At a MUN conference, students work as the representative of a count ...

(TAIMUN) conference, which is attended by schools from across Taiwan and Asia. One of the school's founders, Anna Lee, is a daughter of former President

Lee Teng-hui Lee Teng-hui (; 15 January 192330 July 2020) was a Taiwanese statesman and economist who served as President of the Republic of China (Taiwan) under the 1947 Constitution and chairman of the Kuomintang (KMT) from 1988 to 2000. He was the fir ...

. The school's current director is Dr. Colin Brown.

History

In 1989, Anna Lee and Esther Hanna established a new American school for expatriates' children in Taichung. The school was located in a town house with three bedrooms. Due to its limited resources and facilities, the officers of the

Ministry of Education An education ministry is a national or subnational government agency politically responsible for education. Various other names are commonly used to identify such agencies, such as Ministry of Education, Department of Education, and Ministry of Pub ...

(MOE) and the

American Institute in Taiwan The American Institute in Taiwan (AIT; ) is the ''de facto'' Embassy of the United States of America in Taiwan. The AIT institution is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the federal government of the United States in Taiwan with Congressional oversi ...

(AIT) were hesitant before agreeing to establish the school. Eventually, the school moved outside what were at the time the city limits of Taichung, into an area that would become the Dakeng Nature Reserve. This location ensures that the area surrounding the school will not become urbanized, thus preserving the existing ecosystem that proves beneficial to supervised student exploration and scientific study. A new gym was added to the school campus on August 8, 2013.

Academics

The required courses at American School in Taichung are English, Mathematics, Science, History, Physical Education and two years of a Foreign Language (Spanish or Chinese). AST also has drama, art, and music programs (choir ensemble, violin, and hand bells). There are two concerts during the year, one in the spring and one in the winter. Currently (as of the 2012-2013 school year), AST offers eight

Advanced Placement Advanced Placement (AP) is a program in the United States and Canada created by the College Board which offers college-level curricula and examinations to high school students. American colleges and universities may grant placement and course ...

courses: AP Statistics, AP Biology, AP US History, AP Calculus AB, AP Literature, AP Chinese, AP Physics and AP Language.

Sports and clubs

Athletics
American School in Taichung offers many sports for both middle school and high school boys and girls, including:

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

softball Softball is a game similar to baseball played with a larger ball on a smaller field. Softball is played competitively at club levels, the college level, and the professional level. The game was first created in 1887 in Chicago by George Hanc ...

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

, and cross country. The AST teams participate in tournaments that involve other international and bilingual schools on the island.

Organizations

Activities and organizations vary from year to year, but consistently include the following: Middle School:
Student Government (STUGO), Middle School Model United Nations (MUN), participating in TASMUN and other Taiwan-based MUN conferences, Carnival, Camp Taiwan, Robotics, and Drama. High School:
Student Government (STUGO), Model United Nations (THIMUN-Singapore, IASAS MUN, and TAIMUN, which is hosted at AST) Model United Nations (MUN)
AST has successfully developed an MUN program, Taiwan Model United Nations (TAIMUN). TAIMUN was begun in 2005, and is organized by all high school students at the American School in Taichung, though not every student acts as a delegate; students not acting as delegates participate in administrative and press teams. Schools from across Taiwan and Asia attend AST's TAIMUN Conference. AST has also attended MUN events in Singapore, Russia, China, and Greece. Robotics Club - Team AST-onishing.
AST has recently added robotics elective classes to the middle school(2017) and high school(2019). Members from the AST robotics club were the

FIRST LEGO League The ''FIRST'' LEGO League Challenge (formerly known as ''FIRST'' LEGO League) is an international competition organized by '' FIRST'' for elementary and middle school students (ages 9–14 in the United States and Canada, 9–16 elsewhere). Each ...

Champions in 2019 Into Orbit competition, they went on to represent Taiwan at the FLL International Open, Ismir, Turkey where they placed 2nd in the Mechanical Design category. They have also qualified for the VEX World Championship in 2019 and 2020.

References

External links