Claudia Botero ('82) reflects on her years at the American School of The Hague, where she found belonging, freedom, and lifelong friendships. A true third culture kid (TCK), Claudia embraced ASH’s open-minded culture, which helped shape her worldview and future career in international education. From riding her brommer through Wassenaar to leading university tours in Colombia today, Claudia shares how ASH's global spirit can have an imprint that can last wherever life takes you.

 

 

I attended ASH from 1980 to 1982. After a rather humbling year at 't Rijnlands Lyceum in Wassenaar (where my Dutch language skills came back to me but I barely survived academically), ASH was heaven. As a third culture kid, I had started school in Amsterdam, moved to Tokyo, and returned to The Hague at 15, naïvely thinking I could slide right back into Dutch school life – yeah right. But the moment I joined ASH as a junior, with other TCKs who just got it, I knew I had found my tribe. ASH was its own little universe set against the wonders of The Hague and Wassenaar. It was a time of freedom, adventure, and friendships that have stood the test of time (and distance!). We took our ‘brommers’ everywhere and owned the city, fueled by an endless supply of patat, kroket, and stroopwafels. And thanks to the wonderfully open-minded Dutch culture, no topic was off-limits - we grew up without taboos and with a healthy dose of independence. To this day, I carry those memories (and possibly an enduring love for everything Dutch) wherever I go.

 

 

One of the most valuable things I took from ASH was the incredible sense of freedom - both academically and socially. Growing up in The Hague with ASH as our backdrop felt like having the world at our doorstep - quite literally. Not only was MUN the place to be seen and heard (Mouin Rabbani dancing on the table and being thrown out of the General Assembly comes to mind), but one minute you were playing soccer in Frankfurt, and then the following weekend you would be singing with the choir in Paris. This mix of intellectual curiosity and real-world adventure taught me that no dream was too big, and no destination was out of reach – I say this now with hindsight, back then, it was just another normal weekend we took for granted.

 

 

The Dutch belief in acceptance and openness was everywhere, and at ASH everyone had a story worth hearing. That openness left a deep impression on me and led me to major in Political Science and a Master’s in International Relations. Math was not for me, computers even less – so I am certain MUN played a major role in this decision as I loved every aspect of it. ASH taught me the importance of being adaptable and understanding others’ points of view – an essential skill when working in education and teaching high school students. After growing up in the Netherlands, nothing fazed, shocked, or scared me, so opening students’ minds to the world felt innate.

 

 

Absolutely – besides the mild terror of the "senior heater" and the gamble of walking past it, the arctic-cold bathrooms (seriously, why were they always freezing?) with the possessed doors that would swing open and smack you when you least expected it, the smoke filled senior lounge, and the “no bell” prize (coined by Matt Hoye when the bell stopped working for the rest of the school year), ASH was full of unforgettable moments. But apart from this and the stairway chaos, it’s the incredible teachers who left the deepest mark: Dr. DeWitt’s dive into Dante’s Inferno still makes me question which circle I’m destined for, Mr. McGuire’s sharp humor is still vivid in my mind, and the delightfully eccentric Ms. Bartholf who turned learning French into a pleasure. But what truly remains in my heart are the friendships and the sense of belonging to something special. That feeling was so powerful that, after organizing a pandemic Zoom class reunion, an amazing group of 80’s ASHers came to my hometown, Medellin, Colombia for our 40th anniversary reunion in 2022—a dream come true and proof that once an ASHer, always an ASHer!

 

 

Today, I still carry the ASH spirit with me as I work in education, helping students find their own paths. I loved being a school-based college counselor, and even though I’m officially retired, I can’t quite stay away. Through JCT4Education, I continue to guide international students and families and lead university tours across Colombia.

 

ASH has a funny way of staying in my life, though - like when I ran into Peter Loy, a former ASH counselor, at a university event in France. So, much like those international weekends of days gone by, what goes ‘round comes ‘round and proves that it really is a small world after all!

On June 6th, American School of The Hague proudly celebrated the graduation of the Class of 2025. The ceremony honored 121 graduates surrounded by friends, family, and faculty, with a live stream allowing loved ones across the globe to join in this milestone moment.

 

In keeping with ASH tradition, the event included tribute videos from teachers who had known the students since their early days in kindergarten, to those who had taught them until their last day of high school. Their messages of encouragement offered a positive send-off, reminding everyone of the strong community that defines the ASH experience. It was a beautiful ceremony, rich with emotion and filled with the joy of accomplishment and the promise of what’s to come.

 

The day before graduation, the school held its High School Awards Ceremony, recognizing students for exceptional achievements in academics, the arts, athletics, and leadership. Notable honors included the Teacher’s Association Scholarship awarded to Benoit Laroche, who will pursue Music Education at Bishop’s University in Canada. The Principal’s Award was shared among Fope Adwo (Princeton University), Catherine Heigle (Worcester Polytechnic Institute), Eskil Bocciarelli (Stockholm School of Economics), and Amalia Klasen (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven). The Henry Aronson Leadership Award was presented to Jurgen Westerhof (University of Pennsylvania), and the J.F. De Witt Academic Scholarship went to SeongYun Lee (Maastricht University).

 

This year’s graduating class has already earned impressive university placements. Students will be heading to Ivy League schools such as Princeton, University of Pennsylvania, and Cornell, as well as top institutions across the U.S., U.K., Europe, and Canada—including the University of Amsterdam, Pennsylvania State University, McGill, TU Eindhoven, New York University, Durham, Bocconi, McGill, and many more.

 

As the Class of 2025 prepares to embark on new adventures, they carry with them the spirit of ASH: empathy, curiosity, and a drive to make the world a better place. Congratulations, graduates!

Meet Iván Fernández González, Class of 2018, who was our Artist in Residence during the week of April 28 - May 2. Ivan is a talented singer, dancer, actor, choreographer and creator. He's a genius at editing videos, creates his own music and has a huge TikTok fan base. He came back to ASH to work with our students across Middle and High School, leading group workshops, giving students personalized individual feedback, and sharing his knowledge as a West End musical theater professional.

 

I joined ASH in third grade, so I was at ASH for my Elementary, Middle and High school studies and graduated in 2018. I was always involved in everything artistic, performances, and videography. I was in every single musical from 5th grade - 12th grade, I was able to do some of the high school musicals whilst I was still in middle school. I also took part in some of the high school plays, helped out with tech in some of them, and my focus was definitely on the musical theater side. I also participated in A Night To Remember, Extravaganza - basically, everything that was performing, dancing, acting, singing - on stage or on video filming it, live stream, in any sort of format. It all came organically as it was what I wanted to do and how I wanted to spend my time.

 

I had intended to do the full IB program, but committed to taking an artistic career path in my junior year. So I changed paths a bit, stopped doing the full IB and during my senior year only completed the full IB courses that I required to focus on the arts. I needed more time to work on my audition material as I was flying out to London for every audition and recall for drama schools during my senior year, and I could only focus on IB courses that were helpful to me in my professional industry.

 

After ASH I went to the Guilford School of Acting, which is known in the UK as one of the top musical theater schools. I had a conservatory style training for three years, while there I studied everything from ballet to jazz to tap dancing to singing and all sorts of styles of acting and performing. I didn't write a single essay or typical “school work” for three years, as it was all practical training, and I came out of it with a university degree - it really fit what I wanted to do.

 

The COVID pandemic happened during my second year of conservatory experience, and my dad was still living here for work. During that time I spent 5 months in the Netherlands studying at my conservatory remotely, and doing all my coursework at home - like tap dancing in my kitchen! In my third and final year, the third year students were able to come back to campus first, as that is the year students get noticed by casting directors and we really have to make our first steps into the industry (which is extremely competitive in London).

 

In third year you take part in around 5 musicals throughout the school year, all which are attended to by important people to get scouted and signed into agencies. But with COVID, our performances were recorded, so the agents could watch them afterwards. On one hand we missed those live performances, but on the other it allowed scouts to watch all of the videos - even if it was of a performance they had already seen 30 times over (like West Side Story). I was very lucky as I left the conservatory early as I was the first in my year to book a job on the West End, and went straight into the West End show before I finished my studies. That was also strange, as we were one of the first theaters to open after COVID, so we performed to a third of the audience capacity and were all masked. Three months in, the theater was filled but all masked - I really experienced it during my studies, and I started my career at a time when theater was restarting again.

 

I am really enjoying my career and have been working ever since - and things keep going up. I’ve done several shows since, the most recent show is the same musical I did the first time around but this time I was cast in a leading role, and cover for the leading man as well. So last year I got to play a leading man on the West End for the first time, that was really exciting. I've toured the UK several times, I've performed in Toronto a few times which is where they test out new shows for Broadway. And I've also been really lucky to be asked to participate in original musicals and new works that are trying to be the ‘next thing’, so I've gotten the chance to originate a lot of characters in musical theater.

 

Most recently I've signed to play a role in the original musical adaptation of a major blockbuster movie, starting rehearsals in August. I am also part of this company called Pros from the Shows, which is a London based company run by Layton Williams - a UK actor who is a big name in film and shows. He runs this company with a roster of West End “stars” and we get booked for lots of workshops and master classes. Usually I get booked for London or major conventions (Musical Con), sometimes I'm leading master classes for 100 people, and sometimes it's for regional local classes with just a few kids who are excited in musical theater. More like what I was doing at ASH - it's inspiring to be able to talk to the students while the learning is happening.

 

I have stayed in touch with Anthony Cunningham - I see him several times a year since I graduated, I also keep in touch with Katrina Middleburg. They were both extremely supportive throughout my entire upbringing and they were really good at fostering and nurturing my passion for the arts - to the point where I took it seriously as a career path. They were extremely supportive and helpful during my audition process for drama schools, with all the work that I needed to put in. At the time when I was at ASH, I could see how just inspired all the other kids were as well by them and what they were doing. It is why I wanted to come back and spend a week with the kids, as I only really decided to pursue musical theater as a career path when I saw professionals come to ASH. I realized, oh, this is a career!  You can always figure out which direction you want to go - not just musical theater, there are so many ways to take those skills. My goal this week was to try to nurture that passion and excitement early on to explore it early on during their experience.

 

I was working with everyone from 7th graders to seniors this week at ASH. They were really excited, even though those students were not showing outwardly, kind of hiding it, which was nice. Even after the classes, just walking down the hallways I've had so many of the kids that I've been teaching this week just been so excited and like “Hey Ivan! How are you? I looked you up on TikTok, Insta, can i get my picture with you?”

 

I think it's extremely important for the kids to get exposed to not just their teacher, but someone who is a third party- not someone they have to perform for, but they can be themselves around. I was inspired by other graduates who came to ASH from other schools to perform. So the fact that I'm sort of living proof, of someone who has come out of ASH and is living that career path, I think that hopefully it will be really inspiring as well. I've come by to visit ASH before but just to say hi - this is the first time I've been teaching workshops - stage combat, choreography from west end shows, telling them about my experience in drama school and in the industry, all subjects including musical theater, but also the world of influencing and content creation, spotify and album music and releasing music - as I do all those things as well.

 

Obviously Anthony and Katrina: Katrina who directed the musicals and Anthony as my teacher throughout my theater classes. There are also loads of teachers in Middle School that were fostering me and nurturing me as well, like Ms. Mignon, she was my movement teacher, and she was choreographing the musicals I was in growing up, my choir teachers - some teachers who aren't here any more but all had a part in raising me.

 

A catalyst moment from my time at ASH and the moment that made me actually consider art professionally was when graduates from Central School of Speech and Drama came to ASH to perform the monologues that they had devised for their schooling, and they were really incredible pieces of theater. They were solo 20 minute performances of just someone 21 years old, something they had written, they were all incredibly moving pieces of theater. I could tell that the skill set and the level of artistry they showcased came from spending three years at a conservatory and taking it seriously as a career path. It was right there and then, in the ASH theater, that I realized that I wanted to be able to do what they were doing. Before that moment, I had only ever done the school stuff and seen people at the most elite level performing, so it was nice to see someone at that in-between stage, who had just just graduated and just started in the industry. I'm a bit further along than what they were when they came to perform, but the fact that I am from ASH is a big plus cause I can describe the whole journey. I just hope to do everything I can to encourage the arts to flourish and inspire the kids to get excited about theater!