The Asia Pacific Activities Conference^[1] (APAC) is an extracurricular athletics and arts program for international schools in the Asia-Pacific area. APAC was founded in 1995 with the purpose of providing an "interesting, well-rounded extra-curricular program for international schools in the Asia-Pacific area". For the years that the APAC events have taken place, there have been sports tournaments and arts exchanges involving international schools from China, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, and the Philippines. Every year a different school in different locations in Asia and the Pacific will host various APAC tournaments, thus students from international schools get the opportunity to travel within Asia-Pacific to not only compete in athletics and in the arts, but also experience new cultures and destinations. Being selected as part of the APAC delegates of a school is a privilege and the chosen participants are usually part of a school's varsity team or the like.

History

In 1993,^[2] activities directors from Brent International School Manila and Canadian Academy met. They discussed the prospect of friendly international competition between their schools. This conversation led to the founding of the Asia Pacific Activities Conference in 1995.

This international extra-curricular program started with sports and five schools. Seoul Foreign School joined Brent, Canadian Academy, International School of Beijing, Shanghai American School-Puxi, and Osaka International School as the sixth member in 1997.

APAC has strived to offer a well-rounded range of events since its start. First came volleyball, basketball and soccer tournaments. Choir became the first non-competitive event in 1997. The organization added more athletic competitions and performing art exchanges in the following years. (See competitions and performing arts below).

APAC events were great opportunities for arts and sports exchange between the schools involved. It garnered the attention of many international schools in the Asia-Pacific area. In 2008, APAC welcomed Hong Kong International School, Shanghai American School-Pudong, Taejon Christian International School, Western Academy of Beijing, American International School of Guangzhou, and Concordia International School Shanghai into the fold. The United Nations School in Hanoi joined in 2010, completing APAC's expansion to a 12-school format.

Participating schools

Several times every year each school will either send a team to another international school (for a specific APAC competition) or host an APAC competition. The hosting school will usually provide accommodation for the visiting APAC teams through homestays, a process where visiting students are assigned to a host-student's house.

Each of the mentioned international schools compete in various athletic, arts and music competitions (all called APAC) throughout the school year (August – June). Each competition is hosted by a different school every year, and often because there is such a large number of schools competing in APAC, the tournaments are broken into two tournaments hosting six schools (instead of one tournament hosting twelve schools).

APAC divisions

For most of the activities, there are two divisions: the Asia and Pacific division. The schools in a division are different every year, so participants will have a chance to meet other people from different schools. Every four years there is a "Super APAC" conference including all participating schools for the activities where there are two divisions.

Competitions and Performing Arts

Visual and Performing Arts (Non-Competitive)

These activities are non-competitive and do not involve special recognition or awards for outstanding delegates. It is a culmination of two and a half days of rehearsals and the final performance held on the third day. In theatre, the host school assign participating schools a theme in which they are required to write and act out the script. Dance has a similar system, where the directors of a participating school choreographs a dance. For orchestra, band and choir, a selection of music from different genres, mostly classical will be performed along with the other participating schools. In addition, for choir, each school also performs two songs of their own choosing. Host schools invite conductors from around the world to lead the delegates in their repertoire.

Athletics (Competitive)

Results of all APAC tournaments.

APAC and corresponding time of year

Every year the next APAC is planned at least a year in advance, therefore even though each APAC may not be on the same exact dates as the ones before, they will be around the same time of the month. The following times for APAC are by month because there is not usually a concrete date for each and every APAC that will be held, although they always occur within the same month.

The corresponding time for APAC for all sports in the first season is October (e.g. Rugby, Volleyball and Tennis), APAC for all sports that are in the second season occurs in February (Basketball), and APAC for all third season sports is in April (e.g. soccer/football and badminton).

External links

• Asia Pacific Activities Conference

References