A former KISC principal, Grace Penney (now Grace Knight), visited KISC in with her husband, Alan, in February 2025. Grace first came to Nepal in January 1994 and after five months of full-time language and orientation, she started at KISC at the beginning of August 1994. She was the Grade 6-12 Geography teacher for six years and then took over as Principal in 2000 until she left in August 2004.

Grace joined KISC when it was at the Jorpati site but during her time, the school moved sites twice, first to Satobato and then to Naya Baneshwor. It was a turbulent time during her period as principal, as she was heading up the school during the Maoist insurgency, the royal massacre, and 9/11. As well as all those seismic events, Grace had to lead the school through the trauma of Zuala’s death. There were good times as well, one highlight being the first MSA accreditation, something that the school still proudly holds to this day. 

Grace shared lots of memories of her time in Nepal, the musical performances that the students and staff presented, activity weeks, and electives. She also remembered the times when, after she had created a climbing wall up the side of one of the buildings at the Naya Baneshwor site, she would surprise her Geography classes by entering through the balcony door, having scaled up the wall. 

She and Alan were impressed with the current site. Grace said that the best thing is the amount of space for everything - classrooms, sports, hanging out, assemblies, and other events, and offices.  It is much more fit for purpose than any of the previous sites, with great facilities. 

Elizabeth taught in Primary from 2013 to 2016 at the Dhobighat site, and she returned in 2018 as part of the Student Support team until they left in 2020. Elizabeth now lives in Pokhara with her husband and son, where she helps out two days a week at the INF Pokhara Study Centre. Annakah is living in Milwaukee, USA, and is studying a Master’s in Political Psychology. Annakah spared the time to step in and speak to a Grade 12 Psychology class during her visit to KISC. Thanks, Annakah! Both Elizabeth and Annakah were clearly enjoying catching up with old friends and reminiscing about their days in KISC.

They also gave an update on the other members of their family, Selah and Emmalyse, both former KISC students. Selah is working in a laboratory in the USA, and Emmalyse is studying Interior Design in Italy. 

Rob was in Nepal from 1992-98 and attended KISC 1996-98 when it was at the Satobato site. He recalls:

“Gerald Harley was the head and Nirvana and Tupac were big in the playground - music and MTV were big cultural reference points back to the UK and US. Funny memories include the socials - they were the highlight of the social calendar! Touch rugby out in the back fields during the monsoon season, dodging massive puddles and buffaloes. Organised school treks, where we would go off for what felt like months with the bestest of friends. I loved those years - the school was small, 10 or so per class and 5 classes so maybe total students were like 50. You revered the older classes but you knew everyone.

Today, I look back on my Nepal time with increasing distance of time, but always fondness.  I have a one-year-old daughter, and I live in South-East London with my partner Faye, and I am a Landscape Architect. The foundation I had at KISC has served me well, and my identity as a designer was definitely crafted in some way in Helen Eikeland's art classes, or Grace Penney's Geography lessons, and of course on the basketball court!

Currently, I am working on the UK's second-largest man-made reservoir that will provide London and the South East with a drinking water supply from 2040. It will hold 150 million cubic metres of water, and is a project of national significance for water security, population growth, and climate change. Aside from the functional aspect of the reservoir, there will be visitor experiences provided through fantastic opportunities for leisure and water sports, getting lost in forests & wetlands, and integrating rivers that will need to be diverted around the new reservoir. Other roles I hold include a professional review group member for the Landscape Institute (UK professional body) at Kingston University, which involves acting as a critical friend to their Landscape Architecture course, offering a link to the professional world, and advising on current landscape practice. I am also a member of the Quality Review Panel for the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham, where I critically review the design for development proposals within the planning system - alongside architects, engineers, and urban designers. In an ever-changing world, Landscape Architecture is being used as a meaningful tool in the fight against Climate Change.”

David was in Nepal from April 2015 to December 2020 and served as Head of Secondary during that time.  David and his wife, Elizabeth, lived through some trying times while they were in Nepal. They arrived just 12 days before the 2015 earthquake and left as COVID gripped the world.

The other major event that David was involved in was to help oversee the move from the previous site in Dhobighat to the current Thecho site. Transferring and establishing the Secondary School in the new buildings in Thecho was a serious effort! He says he is very happy to see how things have developed on this site over the years since they left. 

David and Elizabeth live in Melbourne, Australia. They are happy spending time when possible with their family: children and grandchildren. They are involved in their local church and on the church council where David is responsible for governance policy. David is also on the board of the Australian Institute of Archaeology. Together they enjoy spending time in their garden and looking after their bees and hens. 

David and Elizabeth are also involved in running a Melbourne-based prayer group for Nepal. This group, which meets monthly, has been running since 1911, and they feel privileged to be part of it now, carrying on a long-standing tradition of prayer for Nepal in Melbourne. Currently, there are about 10 people meeting regularly to pray.

Barker Family

A family reunion, in which 5 members are KISC alumni, took place in Nepal over the Christmas 2024 holidays. Siblings Gemma, Rhys and Carl, along with Tete, were all KISC students during the early 2000s when the school was at the Naya Baneshwor site. Rhys and Tete married in 2007 and are living in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, where they both teach at an international school there. Silas was teaching at KISC Dhobighat site during 2016-17, when he met Gemma, who was working in Kathmandu at the time. They married in 2018 and now live and work in Seoul, S. Korea, where Silas is a teacher at an international school and Gemma is an education consultant. Carl lives with his family in Colchester, England, and he is a science teacher at a secondary school.

As they reflected on their time at KISC, Carl said, “The thing that will always stick with me was the togetherness. There wasn’t the same teacher-student divide as other schools, and friendship groups contained people of all ages. As cheesy as it sounds, it really was one big family.”

Rhys included some memories of his own. A sentimental one: When I was 13 years old, I sneakily passed a note to my friend Simon during Geography class. I asked him to ask the girl next to him if she liked me. He passed one back a few minutes saying yes, she did.

That evening I plucked up the courage to call that girl and ask her on a date! She said yes! She became my first ever girlfriend. 25 years later and that girl is my wife, we have 2 beautiful kids together and couldn’t be happier. Safe to say, that is the best note I ever wrote! And thankfully I still passed my Geography IGCSE, despite the occasional note passing misdemeanours!

A fun one: Once a week, the teachers took it in turns to deliver a whole school assembly. It was largely up to them to decide what to talk about and focus on. My French teacher told me it was his assembly next week, and that he wanted me and a couple of my mates to put together some sketches poking fun at other teachers! It was a riot! We had so much fun coming up with the mini skits, and they all went down well with both the teachers and students. I am now a teacher myself, and have worked in many schools. I realise what a special and unique situation that was! Not many high schools in the world would allow a group of students to roast the teaching staff in front of the entire school. Amazing!

Gemma added, “It was so great to see the new KISC site! So nice to see how KISC is evolving and expanding the outdoor provision. It goes without saying that I’m proud to be part of the KISC alumni and have so many happy memories from my time there.”

My family moved internationally a fair bit during my upbringing, and consequently, I went to many schools - both in my passport country (Canada) and internationally. Other than KISC, the schools I attended were mostly mono-cultural, and because I was an international kid (a Third Culture Kid), my time at KISC were the only school years I felt like I truly shared culture with my classmates. In Canada, I may have looked like I belonged, but I knew I wasn’t of the culture, and had to learn how to fit in, but at KISC, so many of us shared the Third Culture cultural characteristics so I didn’t need to ‘learn’ culture there. Because of this, KISC will always hold a special place in my heart.

I attended KISC for Classes 4 and 5. English class with Mr. Backler was probably my favorite class - I still remember many moments from his classes, even after 22 years! Other favorite memories were socials, both on school property and off. End-of-year functions were wrenching for the teenage heart - saying goodbye to a set of classmates and knowing it was probably the last time we would see each other. 

Becoming a teenager with my international friends in this precious country was a highlight of my youth. My final memory of KISC is unforgettable - we had to write our IGCSE’s in the midst of the unprecedented upheaval of June 2001. Because of city-wide curfews, our whole class stayed at the Summit Hotel for a few days in order to be able to write our exams. I remember studying by the swimming pool with my classmates in the quiet hotel courtyard - enabling us to shut out the turmoil temporarily to focus on the exams.

Where Am I Now? 

I am living in Osaka, Japan, doing ministry focused on God’s ways for our sexuality and relationships. 

In the area of God's ways for boy-girl relationships, I went my own way, actually beginning during my time at KISC. When I was 18, I decided to follow God again.

Later, I found out how much my parents and also some of my KISC classmates were praying for me, and the impact of their prayers. I knew that God was calling me to follow in my parents’ footsteps and live in a new country - Japan - the last thing I wanted to do, and specifically work in the area of relational and sexual wholeness. For those who know how God calls us, His plan for me became my desire, and it became the only thing I wanted to do! 

After a very difficult life event, my resolve to follow God in the area of relationships was shaken and I again went my own way. In 2010, I realized once and for all that His ways are the very best ways, and I have followed Him ever since. 

In 2018, I moved back to Japan for the third time. Settling in Japan has been anything but easy - the language, the culture, the challenges of trailblazing work, the loneliness of living far from family… but even five years in, I still can’t believe that I am actually doing the work I dreamed of doing since high school!  

Starting during my time at KISC, I began journaling my questions, thoughts and prayers regarding topics of sexuality. My current project has been taking excerpts from my journals to make a Bible plan for people who want to discover God’s heart on this topic of sexual purity - not simply just hearing rules, but hearing from Him how His instructions ARE His love… and experiencing the total restoration available. 300 women have gone through the 55 day Bible Plan so far, and we are in the process of submitting it to YouVersion (the Bible App). 

My parents are still in Nepal, and I can’t wait to visit again (my last Nepal trip was in 2019). There are 25 Nepali restaurants in my city alone, and probably 100s in my region, so I can have a piece of home in the form of Japanized curry anytime I want! I will forever treasure my time in Kathmandu.

If you’d like to get in touch with Rae-Anna, please contact alumni@kisc.edu.np and we’ll connect you.

Dawa Steven Sherpa:

entrepreneur, mountaineer, adventurer and KISC alumni! It was a pleasure to catch up with Dawa recently when he visited KISC.

Dawa spent his secondary school years at KISC when it was based at Satobato and then moved to Naya Baneshwor. Having completed his A-levels in 2002, he went to Heriot-Watt University in Scotland, where he studied Business Administration. After gaining an honours degree, he returned to Nepal in 2006 and took over as Managing Director of Asian Trekking, his father’s established trekking and adventure company.

Growing up in Kathmandu near the hotel that his mum and dad ran, which catered for a lot of climbing groups, he says he has always been fascinated with climbing and mountains.

His first ever rock face climb, however, was at age 11, when he went with the then KISC Geography teacher, Grace Penney, to Balaju. Since that time, he’s gone a lot higher, having scaled Everest, along with several other mountains in Nepal and elsewhere.

“The first mountain I climbed was Cho Oyo. I didn’t tell my dad, but I just went off and climbed it.” he said modestly. “But when I got home from the first Everest ascent, my uncles said I should slow down and stay in the office more.” That suggestion led him to design and build the now well-known Astrek Climbing Wall in the heart of Thamel. “I wasn’t going to slow down that easily,” he smiled.

And clearly, he hasn’t slowed down much at all, having been up Everest twice more since then, and has become an environmental champion, highlighting the effects of climate change in the Himalayas.  “Even in the 15 years I’ve been climbing in the region, I’ve noticed so much change,” he points out. “Retreating glaciers, changing seasons.”

Of his memories of his time at KISC, he says it was great to be part of a multi-cultural community. Even though the school didn’t have much in terms of facilities or equipment at the time, he remembers the passion and commitment of the teachers, which taught him modesty and the ability to appreciate what he has.

And what does the future hold? He got engaged this month, and the wedding is planned for next year. There will be more adventures and more mountains, he says!

Congratulations, Dawa. The KISC alumni wish you all the best!

Nathaniel (Nate) Loper, a graduate of the class of 2020, is now in his third year at Samford University, Birmingham, Alabama, USA, where he is studying Sociology. I grabbed him for a chat while he was in KISC recently. He was on vacation in Nepal visiting his family.

Although only young, Nate clearly remembers being at the official opening of the then new KISC site in Dhobighat in 2007. Nate spent his entire school life in KISC, firstly at the Dhobighat site and then at the current site in Thecho. He took an active part in the KISC community, especially in sports where he was a member of the football and basketball teams. He starred as the Beast in the school production of Beauty and the Beast and was a member of the School Council.

Asked what abiding memories he has of this time in KISC, he smiles and says that he can’t remember just one. After some thought, he decides that the whole, all-round experience of being part of a loving, supportive community where everyone mixes with everyone without cliques and divisions, is what sticks in his memory most.  He loved being at KISC and loves the school.

Mr Colville is the teacher who had a big influence on not just him but his whole class. Nate says that Mr Colville embodied all that was good about KISC and was a great role model who pushed the class to be better people.

Having had two years in the USA, Nate isn’t sure where ‘home’ is anymore. Having spent his whole life in Nepal, two years ago, he would have told anyone that Nepal was home. But since he has begun to invest in life in the USA, he is probably more confused now about where home is. He admits that the first year at college was tough and he realised that he was almost scared to begin to feel comfortable in the USA.

So, what advice would he give to this year’s graduates? Accept that it’s going to be way tougher than you expect to settle into your passport/home country! Be open to making new friends and realise that you can’t wish you were back in Nepal all the time. Accept too that it’s OK to be in your home country and feel comfortable there.

And any advice as we get the Alumni Programme up and running? Nate is quick to answer and says we need to create ways that alumni can give back to KISC, especially financially. He says that he, and many others, would want to continue to have opportunities to invest back into the school that made such an investment in him.

And what’s next for Nate? After finishing uni, he hopes to do some theological studies but he’ll definitely be coming back to Nepal as well, even if his family aren’t here by then!

Thanks, Nate, and we wish you all the best as you head back to the USA to start your next year at uni. We will see you in Nepal again.