Learning to Live in a World of Perspective

By Chad Laws (AES Communications Specialist)

What does an international education give you that lasts long after you leave school?

For seven American International School/American Embassy School (AIS/AES) alumni spanning the Classes of 1969 to 1972, the answer is not simply knowledge. It is a way of seeing the world, and a way of being in it.

In recognition of International Peace Day, alumni Kitty Thuermer ’72, Taka Yamanouchi ’70, Tina Thuermer ’69, Siddiq Wahid ’70, Bronwyn Fry ’71, Dan Richardson ’71, and Sarah H. Bohr ’70 returned to AES to speak with Middle and High School students about their experiences growing up in an international community and how those experiences shaped their lives.

Their careers took them in remarkably different directions: education, international business, law, veterinary medicine, academia, humanitarian work, and public service. Yet their reflections shared a striking common thread.

They learned to listen. To question. To understand differences and to see the person beyond the label.

In many ways, their stories offer a living illustration of what AES seeks to cultivate today: students who are engaged learners, compassionate community members, thoughtful global citizens, and people who understand that their choices and actions can make a difference.

Learning beyond the classroom

For Kitty Thuermer, an education at AIS/AES was never confined to textbooks or classrooms.

Reflecting on the range of experiences available to students, from drama and architecture to art, psychology and field trips, she remembered an approach to learning that encouraged students to engage directly with the world around them.

“They taught us that education and learning are so much more than sitting and memorizing a bunch of facts… You have to interact with other things, learn from other people.”

That lesson stayed with her. After college, Kitty spent a year in Madagascar making shoes for people affected by leprosy, joined the Peace Corps in Mali, worked with Catholic Relief Services in Tanzania, and later contributed to worldwide AIDS prevention efforts and community development work in Zanzibar.

For her, an international education created both the curiosity and confidence to keep crossing borders—geographical, cultural, and personal.

A school where the world was in the classroom

Taka Yamanouchi arrived at AIS from Japan in 1960, when the school was becoming increasingly international. By the time he graduated in 1970, students represented more than 20 countries.

Looking back, he sees that diversity as one of the school's greatest gifts.

“This is the most important thing about being in an international school. We have learned about other countries… and this will help you in life.”

That preparation became particularly valuable during Taka's 50-year career in international business, which took him around the world and included postings in New York and Hong Kong.

“Being in an international environment and being comfortable with people from other countries… helped me very much in my career.”

For today's students, he offered a simple message: take advantage of the opportunity they have right now to learn not only about India, but about the many countries and cultures represented in the AES community.

The people around you are part of your education

For Tina Thuermer, one of the most memorable aspects of AIS was the opportunity to engage directly with India—including studying Hindi and taking village trips with her Indian teacher.

The international education she received at AIS also helped shape a lifelong commitment to education and service. After college, she joined the Peace Corps in Zaire and later spent 31 years as a teacher and administrator at Washington International School in the District of Columbia.

Kitty and Tina's experiences point to something particularly powerful about an international school: your classmates become part of your education.

As Kitty reflected:

“Your knowledge is not just what you get out of your classes, but the people around you.”

That may be one of the defining characteristics of an international education. The world is not something students encounter only through a textbook or a geography lesson. It sits beside them in class, speaks different languages, celebrates different traditions, and brings different histories and perspectives into everyday conversations.

Learning to see the sameness in difference

Dan Richardson remembers arriving at AIS and experiencing what he describes as culture shock. But that discomfort eventually became something transformative.

“It opened my eyes wide open, and I feel like I changed so dramatically that over time, where I started to not see differences, but see the sameness, and have friends from all different countries and cultures.”

That perspective stayed with him through a career in veterinary medicine, research, and international academic leadership, during which he worked with universities and colleagues around the world.

His advice to current students was grounded in that experience:

“The education that you are receiving here will really help you understand different people, different cultures.”

For Dan, understanding difference did not mean ignoring it. It meant becoming comfortable enough with difference to look beyond it.

Learning to listen before deciding

Bronwyn Fry's international upbringing eventually led to a career built around international connections and travel. She later raised her own family across Asia while her husband worked in Thailand, Sri Lanka, and the Philippines.

Living abroad, including three years in Sri Lanka during its civil war, reinforced lessons she had first begun to learn at AIS.

“I learned to sit on fences. And try to look at both sides.”

But perhaps her most important lesson was even simpler:

“It taught me how to listen, how to listen to every opinion, every side, and not jump to conclusions or tell people what they should think.”

For Bronwyn, listening is not passive. It is a way of building understanding.

That idea resonated strongly with the alumni panel's broader reflections on peace: not forcing our ideas on others, but developing the capacity to listen, understand, and engage with perspectives different from our own.

Global citizenship begins with questions

Siddiq Wahid's career as a historian, professor, and scholar of Central Eurasian and Himalayan cultures has taken him deeply into questions of identity, history, and cultural interaction.

Looking back, he believes AIS prepared him for that work long before he had language for it.

“It prepared me for global citizenship in a way that we could not have predicted.”

For Siddiq, that preparation begins with curiosity.

“The biggest task before you is to ask questions. Fundamentally and basically.”

Questions create space for understanding. They encourage us to look beyond assumptions, examine the stories we have inherited, and become curious about perspectives that may initially seem unfamiliar.

That is also where international education can become an education for peace: not by giving students all the answers, but by giving them the confidence to keep asking better questions.

Turning perspective into service

For Sarah H. Bohr, her years in India helped inspire a career centered on helping people who might otherwise struggle to have their voices heard.

After years of providing free civil legal aid to low-income individuals, Sarah went on to a distinguished career in Social Security law, including arguing and winning a landmark U.S. Supreme Court case.

Reflecting on her work, she connected justice and peace in deeply personal terms:

“I feel like I helped, in my own little way, with peace, and representing low-income people who do not have access to free, legal services, by giving them a voice and helping them to achieve justice.”

Her story is a reminder that global citizenship does not necessarily mean traveling the world or working internationally. Sometimes it means recognizing an inequity in your own community and deciding to do something about it.

Peace starts with how we see one another

Across the two alumni panels shared with MS and HS students, conversations about peace repeatedly returned to the same ideas: listening, understanding, questioning, empathy, and inner confidence.

One reflection captured the starting point:

“I think it begins with inner peace—with your sense and the comfort level with yourself.”

Another described peace as:

“Being able to listen and understand each other, and not force your ideas on everyone.”

And perhaps the most powerful message for today's students came from the recognition that their influence extends far beyond what they may realize.

“Don’t underestimate your influence.”

The seven alumni who returned to AES represent different countries, careers, generations, and life experiences. Yet their stories reveal a remarkable continuity.

They left AIS with an education that encouraged them to engage with the world rather than retreat from it. They carried friendships across borders. They learned from people whose experiences differed from their own. They developed careers that took them into classrooms, courtrooms, laboratories, businesses, and communities around the world.

And, in different ways, they used what they learned to contribute.

Perhaps that is one of the most enduring gifts of an international education: learning that the world is bigger than any one perspective—and that we each have a role in shaping what comes next.

For today's AES students, the opportunity is now theirs.