Monday Memory: The ISB School Song
By Sam Wong, ISB Alumni Relations, and Nick Yates, ISB Communications
From many countries we all come,
But here we all unite as one,
As Dragons in the sky we soar,
Wearing blue and white for evermore.
International School of Beijing (ISB) community members will have heard these lyrics sung during music classes or while walking around the campus. They’re the words to the ISB School Song, which was composed and adopted during the 2000-2001 school year.
The project was organized by performing arts teacher Cindy Bulteel. The music and chorus were written by ISB music classes, with the Elementary, Middle, and High Schools responsible for a verse each.
One of the student contributors back in 2000-2001 was Owen Fidler, who is now a High School social studies teacher at ISB. His two children are students in the Elementary School.
Mr. Fidler (pictured, with daughter, Mia) said he still has fond memories of composing the ISB School Song with classmates and Ms. Bulteel. He also shared that the tune remains very popular in his family. The junior Fidlers learned the School Song in music class and can often be heard humming their dad’s composition from more than 20 years ago at home!
Composers of the ISB School Song included…
Elementary School – Jessica Lee, Cammie Teo
Middle School – Jenny Chang, Owen Fidler, Heeson Han, Camilla Kamsvag, Rotem Medan, Alex Nedellec, Joyce Pang, Keren Shemer, Andrew Tan, Karen Wu
High School – Alice Baskouos, Daniel Chiang, Gabby Cretz, Sean Dwyer, Jeremy Ellis, Chunman Fong, Yi Hong Sim, Amy Lee, Ryan Loong, Jackie Ng, Justin Tsang, Xiyi Wang, Jonathan Wei, Jin Young Seok
The song is being heard regularly as ISB celebrates its 40th anniversary this year. In 2020-2021, everyone is invited to help mark the occasion of the anniversary through a range of events. Check out the Celebrating 40 web page for more details. Thank you to everyone who submitted photos and memories of ISB and made this series of articles possible. Look out for some of the photos and memories being included in the upcoming Celebrating 40 Exhibition.
ISB is an extraordinary school, made so by a tradition of educational excellence spanning 40 years. Establishing, nurturing, and growing such an exceptional learning community has been and remains intentional; we work hard to build strong relationships so our learning is at its best.