Shared Stories, Shared Seas: TAS Film and Music Students Learn Through Storytelling and Service in Palau

A group of twenty-five Upper School Film Production and Music Production students from Taipei American School recently returned from Palau with lived experience shaped by collaboration, responsibility, cultural exchange, and storytelling grounded in real relationships. 

The trip brought students into close partnership with Palau Community College (PCC), the Micronesian Voyaging Society, and Palau Pledge. Across classrooms, canoes, studios, and community spaces, students applied their creative and technical skills in service of meaningful work while learning directly from Palauan educators, navigators, and students. 

At the center of the experience was a documentary project focused on traditional voyaging knowledge. Students worked closely with master navigator Sesario Sewralur and his crew, who recently sailed the Alingano Maisu canoe between Palau and Taiwan. Through filming and conversation, students explored celestial navigation, Indigenous knowledge systems, and the responsibility of preserving and passing on living traditions. The project revealed deep Austronesian connections between Taiwan and Palau, with voyaging, education, and respect for the natural world serving as shared threads. 

Students approached the work as collaborators rather than observers. They adapted their creative decisions in response to the people and stories they encountered, learning that meaningful storytelling requires listening, patience, and care. The process asked students to think critically about how stories are told and who they are told with. 

Alongside a short documentary, students will now move into post-production, editing their footage into a range of professional media pieces for local partners. Music production students are composing original scores and sound design to accompany each film. Planned deliverables include a promotional video highlighting Palau Community College and its new voyaging program, as well as a series of short vignettes for Ol’ Au Palau, a platform that encourages responsible tourism across the islands. 

Service learning was woven throughout the trip. TAS donated sixteen iMac workstations to Palau Community College (PCC), and students worked alongside PCC staff to set up two new computer labs that will significantly expand the college’s creative and technical capacity. These labs will support a new film club currently being developed and will continue to receive mentorship from TAS faculty and students. 

Students also led hands-on workshops for local high school and college students, guiding them through filming and editing short promotional videos for PCC. These sessions fostered leadership, collaboration, and shared learning as students taught, learned, and created together across cultures. 

Beyond filmmaking and workshops, students engaged deeply with Palau’s environment and cultural life by filming coral reefs, traditional performances, and culturally significant sites. Near the end of the trip, the group was honored to meet Tommy E. Remengesau Jr., Paramount High Chief Reklai (Raphael Ngirmang), and other community leaders who expressed appreciation for the students’ work and their respectful engagement with the Palauan community. 

The experience will culminate back on campus with a museum-style exhibit at TAS featuring short films, installation pieces, and visual storytelling in April. The exhibit will invite the wider school community to reflect on the students’ learning journey and the connections formed between Taiwan and Palau. 

For the students involved, the trip offered the chance to use their skills with purpose, build lasting partnerships, and experience learning that extended far beyond the classroom. It was work that demanded curiosity, care, and collaboration, and learning that will stay with them long after the cameras were packed away. Stay tuned as these stories continue to take shape through film, music, and a forthcoming exhibit on campus!