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April 2026
From a well-deserved spring holiday and an Opsahl Global Service Program trip to Thailand to Elementary School Book Week and celebrations of academic, athletic, and co-curricular successes, we take a photo-driven look at the past month at TASIS.
On March 28, the TASIS campus closed for a full two weeks. Most students spent the time traveling with family or preparing for upcoming exams while one High School Service Learning group traveled to Thailand on an Opsahl Global Service Program trip.
As mentioned above, 20 High School students and four faculty chaperones spent their two-week spring holiday on an Opsahl Global Service Program trip to Kanchanaburi, Thailand, where they worked closely with OurLand, a conservation and education center located near the Salakphra Wildlife Sanctuary—a region deeply affected by habitat loss, environmental degradation, and human-wildlife conflict. Working alongside the local community, TASIS students took part in a variety of service projects, including building check dams, making sustainable bricks, participating in environmental cleanups, helping out at an elephant sanctuary, and engaging in language exchange with children at a local school. See more photos.
After a restful two-week holiday, students and faculty returned to campus on April 13 excited to reconnect with friends and tackle the remainder of the academic year.
At the High School Spring Academic Awards Ceremony on the morning of April 13, Head of High School Dr. Mark Abisi announced that eight students from the Class of 2027 have been inducted to the TASIS Cum Laude Society chapter in recognition of their exceptional academic achievements. The TASIS chapter, which was established in 2017 and remains the only one in Switzerland, now totals 83 members. Learn more.
On April 15, the members of the newly formed Elementary School Track and Field team had a fantastic showing at their first competition: the UBS Kids Cup at Centro Sportivo Collina d'Oro. Out of the 14 students who participated, six earned a top-three finish in their age categories.
Led by coaches Tom Lill, Hugo Bonk, and Julia Davis, this new program offers students in grades 3–5 who love competition and athletics the chance to develop their skills in running, jumping, and throwing through targeted weekly sessions.
TASIS’s High School prefects gathered for a special team dinner with Dean of Residential Life John Gordon in Villa de Nobili on the evening of April 15.
On the evening of April 15, Danelle Kritzinger and Natalia Staniscia's 5th-grade students dressed up like citizens of the Incan, Mayan, and Aztec civilizations and turned the Kay Hamblin Terrace into a living history museum—a wonderful way to cap off their Core Knowledge history unit about Mesoamerican and Andean societies. The students took on different personas and did a great job teaching their guests what it was like to be a part of these cultures. See more photos.
Laura Fox Pearsall’s 3rd-grade students compared the structures of expository and narrative nonfiction biographies during Literacy class on April 16. See more photos.
A pair of Middle School students reviewed homework outdoors on April 16.
Led by Opsahl Global Service Program (GSP) Director Ania Shields and Director of Operations Paola Sguazza, five High School students spent the weekend of April 18–19 in Val Malvaglia on a newly formed service trip designed for 11th- and 12th-grade students who were unable to attend another trip this year. In partnership with the Alpine Foundation for Life Sciences, the group helped clear a meadow, built a stone terrace, and learned about alpine ecology and the importance of service to community and land stewardship. See more photos from this exciting local addition to the Opsahl Global Service Program.
TASIS’s Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award candidates successfully completed their Practice Adventurous Journeys in April. Bronze and Silver Awards candidates hiked and camped near Locarno, and Gold Award candidates completed an 85-kilometer bike-trekking trip in Val Leventina. See more photos.
TASIS’s spring athletic teams competed in ISSL tournaments across Switzerland on April 16–18, with the Varsity Track and Field team in Basel, the Varsity Golf team in Zug, and the Varsity Tennis team staying close to home in Agno.
TASIS teams took the top two spots at a Padel Tournament organized by Franklin University on April 18 at GoAcademy in Agno. Communications Assistant Vitor Mendes and Diego Foglio ’26 were champions while Athletic Director Masa Yo ’04 and High School English and History Teacher Bill Dalton finished second in the 24-team field.
Each spring the High School Faculty selects three students in grade 11 who have demonstrated an exemplary commitment to service and recognizes them with the prestigious Junior Awards, which were announced at a High School assembly on April 20. Learn about this year’s recipients.
In 1929, Hermann Hesse—who settled in Montagnola in 1919 and remained here until his death in 1962—published A Library of World Literature, a volume offering practical advice on how to curate one’s ideal personal library. For the third straight year, the TASIS English Department collaborated with Museo Hermann Hesse Montagnola to offer the community a literary colloquium entitled "Hesse Now: A Library of World Literature.” Moderated by the poet and philosopher Stella N'Djoku, this year’s discussion was held in the museum’s Sala Boccadoro on the evening of April 23 and included interviews with three TASIS IB students—Gaia Giuliani ’26, Anastassia Smyslova ’26, and Gáspár Habony ’27—and High School English Department Chair Dr. Chris Love. The eloquent group explored how the global literary landscape has evolved over the past century and proposed works that are essential for a diverse, contemporary library.
During the week of April 20–24, the Elementary School celebrated reading and writing with lots of exciting Book Week activities. Students dressed up like idioms, definitions, and their favorite literary characters; heard from guest readers from all over campus; “dropped everything” and read outside; perused a book fair; met with guest author Jason Chin, winner of the Caldecott Medal in 2022; and more. Learn more about the week.
TASIS’s Varsity Golf team competed in the SGIS Championship at the beautiful Montreux Golf Club on April 24. See more photos.
During the High School Academic Awards Assembly on April 27, each High School department chair handed out awards to students who have demonstrated academic excellence throughout the 2025–2026 academic year. See photos of the award recipients.
Middle School advisory groups—small cohorts of six to eight students led by a faculty mentor—met for group photos in April. The supportive groups meet regularly to navigate academic progress and social-emotional growth. See more photos.
With just 30 pieces of dried spaghetti, hot glue guns, and masking tape, High School students in Thomas Wong’s Architecture and Design course were challenged to build structures that could support as much weight as possible. See more photos.
The Middle School Fun Coordinators Service Learning group hosted a lively round of competitions for sixth- and seventh-grade students on the outdoor basketball courts on April 29. See more photos.
Headmaster Christopher Nikoloff delivered his fourth Introduction to Philosophy seminar to 8th-grade students in the Palmer Cultural Center on the afternoon of April 29. The Middle School sessions build on the successful High School philosophy seminars he delivers to Grade 9 (Truth, Goodness, and Beauty), Grade 10 (Freedom, Equality, and Justice), and Grade 11 (Political Philosophy) each year.
Following a strong performance at the VEX IQ Robotics Qualifying Tournament in Basel back in February, the TASIS Tigers Middle School Robotics team earned the right to travel to St. Louis, Missouri, for the VEX Robotics World Championship on April 28–30. The Tigers are the first team to represent Switzerland on the world stage in the VEX IQ category.
The Middle School VEX IQ team is new to TASIS this year and was formed on the heels of the incredible success of the High School Robotics Program, which sent teams to the VEX Robotics World Championship in Dallas, Texas, in 2023 and 2025.
