American International School of Vienna

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American International School Vienna
"Our Mission is to provide a culture of educational excellence, a nurturing environment, and an atmosphere of open communication. We aim to prepare a diverse student body for higher education; to inspire our youth to realize their potential; to foster life-long learning, tolerance, personal integrity, and democratic values; and to prepare our students to become responsible adults, with respect for different cultures and beliefs."
Location
Vienna, Austria
Information
Religion None
Director Ellen Deitsch Stern
Enrollment

730
Type Private
Campus Suburban
Athletics 9 sports, 25 Teams
Athletics conference ISST & SCIS
Mascot Knight
Color(s) Green/Black
Established 1959
Homepage www.ais.at

The American International School Vienna is a not-for-profit school international school made up structurally of the parents of each student at the school, and located in Vienna, Austria. The school operates, in part, under the sponsorship of the United States Ambassador to Austria and awards the American Diploma, which all graduates receive. In addition, students can also earn an International Baccalaureate Diploma and/or an Austrian Matura by fulfilling extra requirements. AIS Vienna has an enrollment of approximately 730 students, from pre-kindergarten to twelfth grade. The school was founded in 1959 by the American and Canadian Embassies in Vienna, with the United States Government allocating $468,000 the following year. At the time there were 247 pupils.[1]

Contents

[edit] Graduation requirements and courses

View from the eastern entrance onto the grounds of AIS Vienna.
View from the eastern entrance onto the grounds of AIS Vienna.

Full-year courses at AIS Vienna earn one credit each, while semester courses earn half of a credit. A high school student must earn 24 credits to graduate. The following subject areas were being offered as of the 2005-2006 school year, most in various levels, including IB and AP.

  • English
    • General English Classes
    • English as a Second Language
  • Languages
    • German
    • French
    • Spanish
  • Social Studies
    • Western Civilization
    • Modern World Problems
    • Early Modern European History
    • United States History
    • Austrian Studies
    • Economics
    • Model United Nations
    • Psychology
  • Arts
    • Visual Arts
    • Theater Arts
    • Fine Arts
    • Concert Choir
    • Concert Band
  • Mathematics
    • Algebra
    • Geometry
    • Statistics
    • Pre-Calculus
    • Calculus/IB Mathematics
  • Sciences
    • Biology
    • Chemistry
    • Environmental Science or Geoscience (alternating years)
    • Physics
  • Electives
    • Computing and Computer Science
    • Yearbook
    • Theory of Knowledge
  • Physical Education


A full documentation of requirements and courses offered can be found here.

[edit] Campus

View from the southwest corner of the campus, across the sports field. The Upper Gym is visible, with the Elementary School above it.
View from the southwest corner of the campus, across the sports field. The Upper Gym is visible, with the Elementary School above it.

The school is essentially a cluster of buildings that are interconnected. This is due to several expansions, and the fact that the grounds are very uneven. The original building is a historic residence known as the “Villa.” It contains the middle and high school’s art, music, English as a Second Language, and foreign language programs. Nearly all of this building’s rooms have been renovated to look similar to the school’s other classrooms.

The high school building and the middle school building contain many of these divisions’ classrooms. While their hallways are narrow and their classrooms are small, this does not cause too much of a problem as the classes are small and the school only has a total enrollment of around eight hundred.

The middle level of the high school building connects to the secondary library and the lower gym. Here a stairwell connects to a common area, which is used by all grade levels. The health office, cafeteria, and a student lounge (traditionally “belonging” to the senior class) are located here. A hallway connects to another set of stairs, which leads to the upper gym, and another stairwell, which leads back down again to locker rooms and an activity room. The common area also connects to the elementary school, which is located on another two levels above it.

Finally, between the Villa and the high school sits a modern science building that was opened in the fall of 2000. Its top floor was extended onto the roof of the high school building in 2004, giving the high school a third level, which has larger classrooms with modern teaching equipment. All in all the school has eleven different levels, yet because of the complex connecting patterns of the different buildings and the hillside, the individual buildings only have two or three floors. In addition, three additional structures, a large sports dome and two small huts are freestanding on the school grounds. A twelve-bus parking lot, two faculty lots, a playground, short track, and a soccer field with an adjacent basketball field fill up the rest of the fenced-in property.

[edit] Public transportation

The school is a short walk from the Salmannsdorf terminus of the Wiener Linien's 35A bus, which provides connections to the Vienna U-Bahn and Vienna S-Bahn. There is also low-frequency bus service to the Hütteldorf railway station, line 35B.

[edit] Notable alumni

[edit] Additional facts

Green dot indicates the location of AIS Vienna in the northwest of Vienna
Green dot indicates the location of AIS Vienna in the northwest of Vienna
  • *NSYNC's music video for their song "Here We Go" was filmed in the Upper Gym of AIS Vienna.
  • The campus lies in two districts of Vienna. The buildings lie in the 19th district of Vienna, Döbling, while the sports field is on the territory of the 17th district, Hernals. Approximately forty meters from the campus's southeastern corner is the border of the 18th district, Währing.
  • Canadian singer/songwriter Bryan Adams attended AIS Vienna while his father, a military diplomat, was stationed in Vienna in the mid 1960s.
  • In the morning hours of September 20, 1995, a group calling itself the "Cell for Internationalism" threw a molotov cocktail into the high school building. The fire was discovered by the head of the kitchen staff in time to be contained before causing major damage. The group was protesting NATO involvement in Bosnia and Herzegovina.[2][3]
  • In 1987 Clayton Lonetree turned himself in to American authorities, revealing himself to be a spy for the Soviet Union. His admission came days after he gave a speech to the students of AIS on what it meant to be a Native American.[4]
  • In December 2006 the comedian Sacha Baron Cohen visited the American International School

[edit] References

  • About AIS Vienna. AIS Vienna. Retrieved on 16 June, 2005.
  • AIS Vienna. Kai Brinker's Reviews and Articles. Retrieved on 16 June, 2005.

Endnotes

  1. ^ Staff Reports. "U.S. aids school in Vienna", The New York Times, 1960-05-01, p. 120. Retrieved on 2007-02-11. 
  2. ^ Cell for Internationalism attacked Educational Institutions target (Sept. 20, 1995, Austria). MIPT Terrorism Knowledge Base. Retrieved on 26 April, 2006.
  3. ^ Staff Reports. "Ungeklärter Anschlag auf American School", Die Presse, 1995-09-23. Retrieved on 2006-04-23. (German) 
  4. ^ "Espionage Cases 1986-1987", Defense Personnel Security Research Center

[edit] External links

International Schools in Austria
Salzburg: American International School
Vienna: American International School | Danube International School | Vienna Christian School | Vienna International School