At Leysin American School, students develop friendships that last well beyond their student years. In June, LAS welcomed three generations of alumni for a weekend celebrating the school’s 61st anniversary. Over 1000 former students, staff, and friends returned to the alpine campus to participate in activities, share mountain-hut fondue, reminisce on fun memories, and, most importantly, enjoy one-anothers’ company.
The alumni who returned to campus for the celebratory weekend commented on the sense of homecoming that they discovered the second they stepped back onto the “Magic Mountain”. For many of them, LAS provided the sense of place and belonging that they weren’t able to develop in their childhoods, not to mention a core community of friends who became family during their time at LAS.
The LAS residential life program creates unique opportunities for students to develop close-knit relationships with their peers and faculty that last decades beyond a student’s time on campus. Faculty Families have played an essential role at LAS since the school’s founding. All students are assigned to a family consisting of faculty “parents” and fellow students, encouraging students to make new friends beyond their classroom peer groups through fun, family-style activities like family dinners, weekend trips, movie nights and more. During the 61st anniversary reunion weekend, many groups of faculty families reunited for the first time in decades, including the former faculty parents who are beloved by their now-full-grown “children”.
Beyond reuniting friends and faculty families, the reunion weekend demonstrated the incredible diversity of the 7000+ strong LAS alumni network. LAS alumni go on to do amazing things in their local and global communities. Even after they graduate and become leaders, movers, and shakers all around the world, they continue to be a part of the LAS family. Throughout the weekend, LAS alumni networked with their peers and made new industry connections that will serve them well in the years to come.
At Leysin American School, we strive to change the lives of our students who will, in turn, change the world. The reunion weekend was just a small piece of the bigger picture of how innovative, compassionate, and responsible citizens of the world LAS alumni truly are.
