In October 2019, Priscilla Wang ’12 competed in the Miss World America pageant as Miss Oklahoma. In her day job, however, Priscilla is a software engineer at J.P. Morgan. Although she had never seriously considered entering a pageant before, Priscilla began competing this May and ended up placing in the Top 25 in the Miss World America pageant. Today, she aims to use her platform in pageantry to further her efforts to provide technical education and career opportunities for both boys and girls from underrepresented minority groups.

Derek Chen ’99 and Chantal Chen never pictured living in the remote jungles of Papua New Guinea, but in 2018, their calling in Christian ministry brought them to the island country where they built a home among a local tribe and began to learn their local language. Though they recently came back to stay in Taiwan, Derek and Chantal are hopeful to return to their work in Papua New Guinea soon. In this interview, the couple reflect on their journey so far and what brought them to Papua New Guinea.

For most people, running a restaurant and a design studio would mean taking on two separate full-time jobs. For Caroline Chou ’02 and her husband Kevin Lim, it is a serendipitous combination that enables them to fully flex their creative muscles as co-owners of OPENUU Design Studio and Mean Noodles. This year, their hard work and creative innovation bore fruit when Mean Noodles was awarded the 2019 Will Ching Award by the International Interior Design Association (IIDA).

In the world of 2019, start-ups are now ubiquitous. In Silicon Valley, Hong Kong, and right here in Taipei, there are successful start-up organizations changing the face of industries like technology, manufacturing, transportation, retail, and hospitality. But what does it really take to be an entrepreneur? How do you keep a business going month after month, year after year? Five TAS alumnae are speaking out about their journey as entrepreneurs and sharing their dreams, motivations, and challenges. They want to inspire but also inform young men and women about the path that lies ahead. Here are their stories.

In spring 2019, upper school film production students had the chance to create short creative videos, mini-documentaries, and video advertisements by working with real-life clients. Upper school faculty Film Production Coordinator Brett Barrus set up three collaborations for his advanced students to exercise their own creative vision. Two of those projects were with alumni companies, providing alumni Brenda Lin ’94 and Jay Cheng ’97 with a unique chance to give back to TAS students.