ISL alumni celebrate anniversary school reunion
Hundreds of people from around the world returned to Luxembourg on Friday to celebrate the International School of Luxembourg's (ISL) 50th anniversary.
Among the 300 or so former students who returned were a handful who were there at the very start of the school's incredible story.
Barbara Snavely's mother, Marcia Batten, essentially founded the school for younger children in the dining room of her Strassen home in 1962. “They had arranged for the children to be bused to Bitburg to school. Every morning I would wake up with a stomach ache,” she told wort.lu/en, adding: “My mother took matters into her own hands and said she was going to start a school for the younger children. At that time there were seven of us.”
Ms Snavely, who was ten when she came to Luxembourg in 1962, recalled the feeling of living in a “fairy tale land.”
“I would like the people of Luxembourg to know how much they've given us,” she said.
Other pupils recalled the life-changing impact the experience of living and learning in Luxembourg had on them. “I went back (to the US) after the seventh grade where everyone was in turmoil, going through puberty and there were all these pressures. But having been here it gave me perspective on life. And that's stayed with us,” said Grace Patterson, who now lives in South Carolina.
JC Timberlake from Nashville, Tennessee, lived in Luxembourg from 1964 to 1969 and remembered the freedom of being able to skateboard in the Pétrusse in the summer and cycle from his home in Hesperange to the French border. He said: “We felt more at home in Luxembourg than in the US. When we got home to the US, we felt like foreigners.”
Among the alumni who attended the reunion tour of the current International School in Merl, there was a sense of happy surprise at how the school had flourished from a class of seven pupils to a place of learning for one 1,183 young people.
“We didn't know the school would last as long as it has,” said Patti Christians, who left Luxembourg in 1967. “We thought, when the Americans moved back, the school would close. But, it grew into this.”
Friday's reunion visit and gathering at the Big Beer Company formed part of three days of alumni activities organised by the ISL.
ISL Upper School Head Nicki Crush said: “It's fantastic to see all these people. We've got folk here who were actually at the school in 1963, which I think is tremendous. I think we've been pretty overwhelmed by the response in a very positive way.”
(more pictures: http://www.wort.lu/en/view/isl-alumni-celebrate-anniversary-school-reunion-51c56fd9e4b0649fb29367b9)
Among the 300 or so former students who returned were a handful who were there at the very start of the school's incredible story.
Barbara Snavely's mother, Marcia Batten, essentially founded the school for younger children in the dining room of her Strassen home in 1962. “They had arranged for the children to be bused to Bitburg to school. Every morning I would wake up with a stomach ache,” she told wort.lu/en, adding: “My mother took matters into her own hands and said she was going to start a school for the younger children. At that time there were seven of us.”
Ms Snavely, who was ten when she came to Luxembourg in 1962, recalled the feeling of living in a “fairy tale land.”
“I would like the people of Luxembourg to know how much they've given us,” she said.
Other pupils recalled the life-changing impact the experience of living and learning in Luxembourg had on them. “I went back (to the US) after the seventh grade where everyone was in turmoil, going through puberty and there were all these pressures. But having been here it gave me perspective on life. And that's stayed with us,” said Grace Patterson, who now lives in South Carolina.
JC Timberlake from Nashville, Tennessee, lived in Luxembourg from 1964 to 1969 and remembered the freedom of being able to skateboard in the Pétrusse in the summer and cycle from his home in Hesperange to the French border. He said: “We felt more at home in Luxembourg than in the US. When we got home to the US, we felt like foreigners.”
Among the alumni who attended the reunion tour of the current International School in Merl, there was a sense of happy surprise at how the school had flourished from a class of seven pupils to a place of learning for one 1,183 young people.
“We didn't know the school would last as long as it has,” said Patti Christians, who left Luxembourg in 1967. “We thought, when the Americans moved back, the school would close. But, it grew into this.”
Friday's reunion visit and gathering at the Big Beer Company formed part of three days of alumni activities organised by the ISL.
ISL Upper School Head Nicki Crush said: “It's fantastic to see all these people. We've got folk here who were actually at the school in 1963, which I think is tremendous. I think we've been pretty overwhelmed by the response in a very positive way.”
(more pictures: http://www.wort.lu/en/view/isl-alumni-celebrate-anniversary-school-reunion-51c56fd9e4b0649fb29367b9)
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