Jenny Bichsel & Helen Nicole Hill

During last year’s virtual alumni decade reunions, Jenny and Helen were thrilled to see so many school friends involved in the health and wellness industry. They enjoyed the opportunity ever since the reunions catching up with friends and continuing conversations about their common interests. They have noticed, in this COVID time, the need for connection and would like to share with other ACS alumni some of the health and happiness-boosting techniques that have supported them during this past year.

In the spirit of our former beloved ISSTs, Helen and Jenny would like to invite the ACS alumni & friends community to join them for a one-day International Feel Good Festival on Saturday March 20 2021. They will be offering a series of online yoga, meditation, and relaxation classes for all ages, levels and abilities. For more information and to sign up please click here
 

Jenny Bichsel, ACS Hillingdon, class of 1993

One of the most valuable experiences during my ten years at ACS Hillingdon, was growing up in such an international community. Every day in school, I was surrounded by people from all corners of the globe. I had friends from Greece, Sweden, France, Italy, Germany, America, Libya, Japan, and South Africa, to name just a few. What this gifted me, was not only an understanding and appreciation of different cultures, but a sort of ‘global family’ – a network of friends in various different parts of the world.

In 2005 when a job offer came up in New York, I leapt at the opportunity. My best friend from high school was already living out there and let me move in with her until I found a place of my own. I worked for several years as a 3D animator in the visual effects industry for film & TV, took up yoga as an antidote to all the hours spent hunched at a computer and completed my yoga teacher training at the Integral Yoga Institute in New York in 2011.

In 2013 I received an invite for the ACS Hillingdon 20-year reunion. I flew back to London and spent a wonderful day meeting old friends and teachers and enjoyed wandering around the beautiful campus. I felt so incredibly lucky for that experience, to have such fond memories of school and have made lifelong friends. Not many people can say that their years in high school were the best of their lives and that they are still in touch with friends from their teenage years.

At the reunion I also happened to meet my now fiancé. We had both attended ACS but had lost touch after graduating. He was a German national living in Italy, while I was a Swiss national living in New York. After two years and countless trans-Atlantic flights, I eventually moved to Rome, learned Italian and now teach yoga and English full-time. The recent virtual ACS decade reunions brought some much-needed joy to what has been a challenging year for us all. It also rekindled many friendships, one of which is with Helen Nicole Hill. We played basketball together at ACS Hillingdon. Turns out she’s now a yoga teacher too, living in New York.

Yoga means ‘union’, and for me the past year would be unimaginable without it. Teaching yoga online has reunited me with friends around the world and given us all a way to regularly connect and support each other. It is with this spirit of ‘Global Connect’, that Helen Hill and I have decided to host a one-day online International Feel Good Festival on Saturday, 20th March 2021.

 

Helen Nicole Hill, ACS Hillingdon, class of 1992

The nine years I spent at ACS Hillingdon taught me to be nimble, adaptable, to be a global citizen and ambassador of humanity, and to have compassion for others. These qualities were instilled in me through experiences such as being on an art trip to Paris and having two companions detained by French authorities, or listening to the BBC news with an Iraqi, an Israeli and me, an American, as the Gulf War raged on. Our home countries were at odds while we, high school students, were at peace within our school community.

This quality of immersing into any given culture led to success in college and the career paths I have created. I excelled in painting at St Michael’s College which I attribute to the influence of the excellent art program at ACS Hillingdon. I was awarded with recognition for leading my senior group and still have my large abstract painting hanging on campus. Soon after, I enjoyed a fruitful career in marketing and advertising as a Studio/Production Manager and took on other roles.

Outside the office, yoga saved my body after years of tennis, skiing, scrambling up mountains and running races in Vermont. The havoc to my knees and limbs was corrected and I soon found the deep serenity and focus a daily yogic practice brings. Since having children, I received my yoga teacher training and I have been able to work full-time. I’d love to see as many ACS friends join at our International Feel Good Festival on Saturday March 20th. Please visit our website here to sign up and find out more.