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"A handful of parents established the Singapore American School (SAS) in 1956 in a private home with just 105 students to meet the educational needs of a burgeoning expatriate community.  Today, SAS is an independent, non-profit, co-educational day school offering an American-based curriculum for preschool through grade 12. There are more than 3,800 students from more than 50 nations, and approximately 70% hold U.S. passports.  SAS... is the largest single-campus international school in the world."

I have long admired SAS for its innovative spirit, willingness to change and desire to be a world-class school.  Whenever the school asks me to participate in a student activity -- whether it's assisting the AP Art class, delivering the keynote address at the Model UN conference or speaking about photography to the Yearbook class -- I am always happy to oblige.

So when Vanessa Spier, the Director of Communications at SAS, approached me last year about photographing the school's latest brand and advertising campaign, themed 'SOAR', I was extremely excited for the opportunity.

In working through the broad creative idea with Vanessa and her colleague Kristina Doss, I learned that through a series of discussions with administrators, principals, and teachers, several overarching themes emerged.

Extraordinary care is a consistent, longstanding thread recounted across faculty, staff, parents and students -- not just for students in their learning, but in their lives, as well as for families as a part of the SAS community, and faculty in their support of one another.

Vanessa also explained to me that a second well-known indicator of SAS's success is a culture of excellence. However, she was careful to clarify that although this culture was promoted very well internally, it wasn't always portrayed as well externally.  Vanessa described how SAS has one of the top AP programs in the world, its younger students deliver some of the highest test scores in the world and its older students attend many of the world's top universities and colleges.  Excellence is definitely a part of who SAS is, but not always part of the story SAS tells.

And finally, Vanessa described SAS's desire to promote its culture of possibilities, emphasizing the wide choices that students have in their course selections, activities and clubs.  She wanted to show that every student, no matter what their age, learning style, interest or strength can find a place at SAS where they can succeed and achieve amazing goals.

In our early meetings, Vanessa shared with me SAS's most recent advertising campaign: "Be engaged. Be challenged.

Be inspired. Be you."  SAS began identifying students who had unique stories to tell or were able to pursue their passions and achieve levels of excellence.  Throughout this process, Vanessa explained, she and her colleagues often recounted how these students were able to "soar".  As Vanessa said to me, "It just all fit together that 'SOAR' should be our campaign theme.  It's who we are.  It's what we want our students to do.  It's what our faculty does on a daily basis.  It's where we want to go as an organization." And so the campaign's big idea was born...

What was unique about this commission was that I worked directly with the client (and not via an advertising agency) who offered me a true hand in the photographic idea generation and throughout the entire creative and production process.  In fact, Vanessa, Kristina and I spent a day together touring the SAS campus, brainstorming possible 'SOAR' photographs and how to execute them.

My favourite photographs from this campaign are the ones that feature students whose passions, nurtured at SAS, are leading them to success in the real world.

One was Alex Fortmann, a high school senior whose beautiful short film, "Flight" -- that Alex wrote, directed, filmed, scored and starred in -- resulted in his acceptance to the prestigious Tisch School of the Arts at

NYU.  We made Alex's portrait in the SAS film studio surrounded by lights and cameras while projecting a scene from "Flight" onto Alex himself, essentially using Alex as a canvas for his own art.

Another was Devon Reagan, a young woman who wished to integrate her passion for horses into her senior project. Devon decided to work alongside the Riding for the Disabled Association of Singapore, volunteering regularly and mentoring one student while studying the bond that has been known to develop when the handicapped learn to ride horses.  During this process Devon became certified with the British Horse Society and successfully gained entrance into Equine Science program at Colorado State University.  We photographed Devon alongside a beautiful horse at the Bukit Timah Saddle Club where she volunteered.

High School junior Kartikye Mittal designed and engineered the quadcopter we photographed on the SAS soccer field. He is one of the founding members of the SAS Robotics Team and has participated in several competitions around the world.  Interestingly, Kartikye is also a Google Glass student developer helping to Beta test Google's latest technology.  This photograph was a lot of fun (if not extremely challenging) to make, involving a Genie lift, some technical challenges and some very patient pilots and

and teachers.  (Read a behind-the-scenes account of this shoot on Singapore American School's 'Perspectives' blog).

Finally, there was Colton West, who transferred to SAS a few years ago.  Colton and his family were concerned that he would not be able to fully pursue his deep passion for ballet at a high school here in Singapore.  However, teacher Tracy van der Linden's dance program is not only flexible, but also of a quality and rigour that allows students of all abilities to excel.  Colton has continued to soar at SAS; last year he won the prestigious International Competition du Grasse in France, one of the most important classical European dance competitions.  Colton trains two and a half hours every day after school, and six hours a day on weekends.  He graduates this year and his goal it to attend the famous Juliard School to study dance next year. Colton's was a very enjoyable photograph to make, as I collaborated closely with him and three of his ballet peers to make certain we captured his pose perfectly.

Together we made a total of 15 'SOAR' photographs for SAS to roll-out in press campaigns, publish online and display across campus throughout the current 2014/15 academic year.  I am always excited to see my work come to life, but because of my close relationship with SAS and its faculty, it feels a little more special this time.

Special Thanks to SAS Administrators and Faculty

Chip Kimball, Vanessa Spier, Kristina Doss, Mona Stuart, Mimi Molchan, Tracy van der Linden, Barbara Harvey, Peter Cuthbert, Alison Cuthbert, Wendy Liddell, Anne Westrom, Paul Koebnick, Anthony Wong, Barton Millar, Meredith White and Jim Ryan.

Credits

Client: Singapore American School

Production: Ugly Duckling Projects

Executive Producer: Annette Fausboll

Hair & Make-up Artist: Andrea Claire

Photographer's Assistant: Zam (Stills Network)

D.I. Artist: Agnes Teo

See the 2014/15 'SOAR' print media campaign and read more about these inspiring students' stories here.