The Foreign Service Journal, December 2005

D E C E M B E R 2 0 0 5 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 95 S CHOOLS S UPPLEMENT the organization. Kodaikanal and Woodstock have a monthly alumni lunch in Washington, but this dinner had an ulterior motive. The guest speaker was Kodaikanal International School interim principal Eleanor Nicholson. She was there to talk about the different alumni-spon- sored programs at the schools. Glenn Conrad, who graduated from Wood- stock in 1968 and is executive director of the Winterline Foundation, was also in attendance. (The Winterline Foundation was founded by Mahen- drajeet “Jeet” Singh, Woodstock class of 1981, and makes grants to Wood- stock for special programs at the school.) The amount of money raised reg- ularly by alumni is impressive. For example, the Kodaikanal class of 1954 raised about $16,000 one year, which supported a special creative writing project at the school as well as establishment of the Middle Years Program that prepares students for the IB curriculum. Annually, KIS alumni have raised about $50,000. The Woodstock School alumni have already raised over $7 million as part of a 3-year capital campaign for the school’s 150th anniversary. Nor does one have to wait to be a graduate to give back. After the Asian tsunami in 2004, students at the Kodaikanal school, together with a teacher, filled trunks with rice, money and other essentials, and these trunks were distributed to the victims. It may be that the harder the post- ing, the closer and more bonded the community. For those who attended school in Kabul during the 1979 Soviet invasion, this is true. They also have strong emotions to work through. As one alumna says, “Kabul was a special place because the school was very small, the interna- tional community was very close and the place was an extreme hardship post. So we all tended to be very bonded and close to each other. The second Kabul reunion in 2002 in San Antonio was very intense: lots of emotions and very positive. People want to do something to improve the conditions in Afghanistan and many of them did, in fact, go to Kabul on trips and get involved in NGOs.” Continued on page 96 It may be that the harder the posting, the closer and more bonded the community.