Bring Your Parents to School Day

By Noah Brooks

The open house isn't an average thing that schools do, but Dalat International School does. It is an event where a student brings their parents through their entire schedule and allows their parents to explore the school. 

On Friday, August 18th, students hang out after school with their parents, bringing them to class. When teachers talk to the parents about what the students will be doing for the year or semester, some parents will end up in fitness class and see the types of workouts that students will be doing, or home economics and what students cook and sow. Those are some of the courses the parents will walk through, whether in the castle, middle school, elementary, or the Harbor.

What class would be your favorite, and what class would be your child's favorite? Parents answered across the school: Mrs. Boyd (parent) answered with, "Bible and any Social Studies are my favorite kinds of classes as well as my kids. My kids enjoy the PE and sports at Dalat too." 

Not every class has to be the hardest or the most fun to make a parent happy. What matters might be the atmosphere in the renovated library or the Harbor or how the teacher can give data to the students.

From a teacher's perspective, you might expect them to be a little stressed meeting all of their student's parents. Instead, Pastor Bob Wright thought the opposite: "Stress isn't probably the best word – I think both can be challenging, but I enjoyed meeting the parents – and I enjoy having conversations in class with my students. So it's about the same." So students don't have to fear the teacher saying something nice about them in class because they also think 'I want their parents to like this class.' 

At the end of the Open House, parents had a better idea of what their student's classes were like—meeting their learning expectation of hardness and atmosphere, with teachers meeting their student's parents and understanding how to help them more.  

Store of the Year

By Josia de Jager

The new juniors are trying hard to get the store up and running. Off to a slow start with a few days’ delay to the store opening, things are starting to pick up. They are working hard and dealing with this new responsibility.

One change the juniors this year decided to make is the price of freezies. Despite the class of 2024 having a freezie price of two ringgit, the class of 2025 decided to change it back to one ringgit.

The decreased price is not a blind move from the juniors; they have thought it through. By attracting people with those sweet and delicious freezies, they expect the customers to buy other snacks as well.

To the shock of Danny Pham (12), the senior, the grape candies that he loves are more expensive now. This might be to balance out the decreased price of the freezies. On the other hand, he hasn’t complained about the freezie prices.

Another incredible sight is that Uncle Anthony (Auntie Claudia’s husband) is still serving strong to help the Junior Class Store, especially since he has been serving there now for many years. Both he and Auntie Claudia are the anchors of the Junior Class Store. They keep it from going shipwrecked!

In order to promote a more equal workload between students, a new policy has been made, requiring juniors to work at least 30 hours. This should help out with the big load put on the shoulders of the Excom and on Auntie Claudia and Uncle Anthony.

When asked the question, “How would you describe the junior class store?” Andy Tan (11) said, “It’s a bumpy road, but we’re getting there.” Despite the difficulties and responsibilities involved in being a junior, it seems there is hope for the year.

Overall, the juniors will need some practice and trial and error to figure out how the whole system works, but hopefully, they will all work together to get the work done and to figure out the problems that come up.

Negative Effects of Having a Principal with Military Training

By Isaac Beaman 

Running through the forest away from your paintball gun-wielding principal isn’t a typical way to start the school year, but this was the situation the Leadership Development (LD) class found themselves in. 

On the afternoon of August 5th, several students found themselves in a paintball game against some Dalat faculty, getting flanked by Mr. Scott Uzzle, emotionally traumatized, and drawing blood.

On the first day of school, Pastor Bob Wright told the LD class that we would be playing a game of paintball on our leadership retreat. Shouts of cheers erupted immediately from the three boys in the class while the six girls expressed their fear. Kathryn Boyd (12) said, “I don’t want to be bruised.” 

Yet the news that caused the greatest reaction was the announcement that Mr. Uzzle was coming to play paintball with us on the retreat. The class was concerned about his military training and was worried he would dominate the paintball game. After being asked how she felt about Mr. Uzzle playing, Boyd (12) responded, “Terrified.”

After the first game started, Mr. Uzzle hid until the very end, when he snuck back to the other team's base and shot over half the team, securing the win for his team. In the second round of the game, Mr. Uzzle got pinned behind a rock by three people on the opposing team, distracting him long enough for Noah Brooks (12) to end the game by running into our team base. 

In the end, the real threat of the day was Brooks (12); he had a combined eight kills in both games. When asked about his favorite moment in the game, Brooks (12) said, “The best part about paintball for me was shooting Aileen Kim (12) two times and marking up her leg.” (pictured below)

In the end, the class just got closer together, and the only real loss was when  Mr. Uzzle fell on his phone and shattered the screen.

Gearing Up

By Joyce Wan

Various shades of blue swarm campus–navy high school and baby blue senior shirts filling the recently-empty grounds. The campus is much the same: beige buildings, open spaces, and construction fences from the end of last year blocking the precious sea view. The people, however, have changed. An influx of new students and staff accompanies the ascension of grade levels. Both excited vibrancy and tiredness emanate across campus. 

Some students attend retreats to learn the value of leadership, some begin hitting the court and field, and others attend the first meetings of unique clubs. Campus is a special place– from this beginning of the year– home for learning in all sorts of spaces, for all sorts of interests. While nothing groundbreaking has occurred yet, spirits and emotions vary all across the board: some are already worn out, but others are high in anticipation of the upcoming school year. 

Amanda Lim ('26) thinks for a moment before nodding, declaring that though she is “tired,” she is "excited for later on" in the year: numerous activities, school events, trips, and more stack up in neat piles on the school calendar. There is much to be excited about. For now, however, students have a little more time to sit back– in this first full week of school– before homework piles up exorbitantly. 

"I wanna go back on break," Anya Shanmugabalan ('25) laughs, stretching out on a sofa in the newly-renovated library. The soft chairs are a small comfort as the typically stressful but fulfilling junior year lies in wait. Many feel the same, whatever grade or position they’re in, dreaming of procrastination without consequences and a decent sleep schedule. To all those eagerly awaiting the next holiday every time school comes back in session: let’s hope they hold out till the next time of relaxation rolls around. 

It's going to be a long year, but it's going to be a good one. Students and staff alike fall into the rhythm of school, ready as the new school year raises anchor to rush onwards at full sail.

New Bricks In The Wall

By Josh Morrison

Welcome back! It’s the first week of school! Time to finally try out that new sport or challenge yourself with a class you know nothing about! It’s time to get out of your comfort zone and live a little…It’s time for new schedules! New clubs! New friends!   

The biggest challenge of the first week is always re-embracing routine. Summer is over and everyone is gearing up for another year of school whether you’re a teacher, staff, or student. We’re all in the same boat. But what about a new routine or maybe a new class? This year Dalat is offering half credits for Impact Trips as well as three brand new courses for students to take including AP Comp Sci Principles A, African Literature, and European Literature (courtesy of Ms. Weidemann and Mr. Jens).

Whatever your routine is, don’t be afraid to make a change! We’re all faced with countless decisions regarding academics, social lives, and future careers. Thankfully Dalat makes it easy for us to customize our schedules around friends and classes that click, so it’s to no one’s surprise that Mr. Dobson saw over 60 schedule change requests on the first two days alone (me being one of them). 

According to Mr. Dobson, “The record this year for closest schedule change was two minutes before the deadline.” 

How about welcoming change? In the opening assembly, we saw the return of Mr. Scott Uzzle and his family. We also welcomed new faces like Mr. Ulmer, Mr. Schmidt, and Mrs. Craig.  To all the new staff, students, and teachers, we can’t wait to see how you change the school!

I was once told that the first week of school was the most important of all because it’s a week of turbulence. It's a week where no one has a set plan and everyone is down to try something new. The new swing of things takes time for students to get used to, so if you want to join a new table, DO IT! If you want to talk to that someone you haven’t talked to before, DO IT! New friend group, new sport, new club DO IT! I know I sound like a Nike commercial, but if there’s something/anything that you know you could do to make this year more memorable and exciting for you, TRY IT! 

Light Pink to Baby Blue

By Aurelia Bernier

Wednesday, 2nd of August. The day we have all been excited for (or maybe even dreaded) since the end of last school year. Many familiar and unfamiliar faces make their way to each building. The halls fill up with baby blue shirts where light pink ones used to be. And classes start with students eager to learn and excel in this new school year. 

Dalat has gone through and is incorporating many new changes this August. One being the obvious transition of grades and senior colours. Another being the new and improved library where people feel more comfortable and studious in. These changes are enough to make those from last year's senior class envious. With Anna Phuah (Alum) saying, "Ain't no way they gave them a nicer library; we should've had it!"

Dalat also welcomes new (and returning) staff members this year, such as a new athletic director, AP Chemistry and AP Physics teacher, an AP Statistics teacher, and many more. Including our new high school principal, Mr. Uzzle, who's worked at Dalat before and decided to return with his family. He says, "We came back because we love Dalat and felt God was leading us back here. The thing we love about Dalat IS the community. We love the closeness of staff and since the class sizes are small you really get to know your students. The thing I am looking forward to this year is being a junior class sponsor. I love how the class becomes close during this time together." Welcome to all the new staff members!

New and old clubs are also being brought back to the X-Block schedule, such as Food Science, The Dalat Scoop, and ECHO! All ran by our outstanding seniors!

Tia Moore (12) and Heeeun Bang (12), leaders of the new Food Science club, which will be held on X-Blocks Fridays, state: "We made this club to spread the love of food as well as science combined because we feel that the Dalat community doesn't recognise the importance of it yet." Our clubs at Dalat are an excellent way to join new groups and learn many things to be passionate about. We hope that many of you sign up for them!

Lastly, the senior class of '24 will probably be the class going through the most changes this August. With more privileges on campus, and this year being the year that determines the next chapter of our lives beyond high school. All the best to everyone with college applications, internships, and going through the last year of being kids (soon-to-be adults). I'll end this note with what one of our fellow senior classmates, Leyla Lee, has to say; "I'm so excited to have all the senior privileges now, like going out to eat yummy chicken rice!"