important important chapter in my life

Yes

Jackson Wang the kpop celebrity that is currently gaining phenomenal success

If you turn on the TV, you're bound to see him on one of the channels

With his busy schedule, there's almost some things that he has to do every single day

Being an international celebrity and also means that he has to travel to countless places on a regular basis

including Korea, China

Thailand and the US

Although he has traveled to many places

He has not forgotten his roots Hong Kong in the one place that he keeps dear to his heart AIS

Jackson was an AIS student for six years from a fourth grade elementary school student to an 11th grader high school junior in

In this particular school. He has made many memories with his community, especially his friends classmates and teachers

How was Jackson like in school?

What type of student was he?

Jackson was

Very humorous. He had a pretty big personality. He was pretty outgoing

he was

Able to you know communicate well with lots of people he was yeah

He was I wouldn't necessarily he was the strongest academically, but he was definitely a social

strong student that way he could communicate well with people

Jackson as a student was very caring and always had a great smile charismatic personality and someone that

Students really took really enjoyed being around and was well-liked

Jackson had a great

ability to be able to be friends with others and

We knew that Jackson was going places. He even early on he's a very cheerful

Student active. Yeah, and

Friendly lots of friends. Yeah

He was fun-loving he was a

Student that was definitely a strong athlete knew what he wanted

And pursued his dreams and

Sort of got by with his studies and he was he was doing well and

His school stuff but it wasn't ever gonna be top of the class. He was a student

That was very keen on his own dreams and pursuing them and doing well sports

And in those kind of areas, he was outstanding

As an AS alumni Jackson Wang came back to visit after seven years on the 18th of August

2018

He spent time walking around the campus and chatting with his teachers

He had a conversation about how he felt when he had to leave everything behind and start a new life in Korea

He was afraid nervous and mostly excited

but how that the teachers feel about this decision initially

Were you shocked when he said he was going to audition in Korea

Yeah, we were all shocked. Actually. We were not expecting that. Yeah to come along so very surprised

Yeah, big surprised that he actually left us this one more year to go before he graduated

Well, I'm very skeptical about his decision of leaving

College I mean high school before going to college and to do something else

It's like he should have fulfilled what was supposed to be as a basic education before he can do something

So well, I'm not looking forward to what he's doing. You know when you leave us here

when his decision came about

Auditioning for kpop. It came with a great surprise. No doubt

I think we were all amazed at such a great opportunity for him and we wondered

Particularly, I wondered about his education and wanted him to be able to know whether they would provide

Him opportunities to finish high school and to go through and even have the options of going to college

Once I knew that that was possible

I was very happy to be able to tell Jackson and encouraged Jackson to go for his audition and the follows passion

yeah, it was I

Remember, I remember it. Well, I can still visualize myself

Having a sit-down meeting with Jackson and his parents. He'd sent me an email saying mr. wing

I need to arrange a meeting to chat

It sounded important. So I said what's what's it to do and he said its to do in my future and i thought oh dear what's going on?

And we talked and he told me that he had an opportunity to go into

music and dancing industry and

he was gonna leave and this was in February of 2011 and

He was still in grade 11, so he still had another year and a bit to go. He wanted to leave that summer

And so I said to him are you sure you're making the right choice? It's a very competitive industry

i think it's a big risk Jackson

Unfortunately, he didn't listen to me

Look at him now. I remember the conversation while his parents were anxious, but they supported him

And in the end at the end I did see he was determined to do it

So I was saying look if anyone can do this probably it could be you Jackson because you are absolutely determined to achieve your goal

But I was surprised because at the time he was dreaming about going to London in the Olympics and 2012

He was gonna be top athlete with fencing

So he was suddenly changing paths and it all happened quite fast. So yeah, it was a surprise.

i was very shocked and the main reason why was was because

Jackson was a very successful fencer and he was an Olympian level fencer and he competed at asian games and had done very well there

he was ranked at the time in the Junior Olympics as fifth in the world for Saber and

I remember thinking he was at he was due to go the following year to the Olympics in London

And I remember having a conversation with him saying you know you are you really sure you want to do this?

It's very hard to make it as an Olympian, you know

Not very many people get to do that and it's something you'll be it's a lifelong ambition and you you are a good fencer

and you've got a good chance of doing well

So I was kind of shocked I and I thought it was a bit a bit of a risk personally, you know

I thought he would have done it after

He became a fencer

Um I heard that he had a fencing club,

Do you want to say something about that

Yeah, he did have a fencing Club and it was something that he set up he

Spoke to mr. Wing from what I understand prior to moving up to secondary school

And he was saying he wanted to do fencing so he set that up

Yeah, and he got quite a few students involved in it

And it was it was something that he got going and it worked while he was here

But there was no one who took it on after he left. Yeah. Yeah Jackson came to me

early in his time in high school

and he said he wanted to set up a club and he wanted to run a fencing club, but

Fencing is tricky because it requires a lot of specialized equipment

And I guess it's quite a specialized for and not many people have ever done before so who was really gonna be interested in this?

So I challenged him quite a lot and you came back to me and he managed to get stuff from the Hong Kong

Fencing Association. He got a few of his friends who were keen to join as well

So it was clearly a membership potential

It was clearly a club that was gonna run and we had to teach them as gonna vice and it was fabulous

We're off the ground

But I said to him in Jackson. Why do you think this is gonna be popular?

why should we do this and we actually had a fencing club playing against other schools and things like that and he said

You know what? I'll get people to come mr. Wing

Tell them it will help them become a good dancer

and I think that is quite funny when you look back on it because obviously at that stage where he was 14 15 16

Jackson was all about fencing but he knew that

fencing was going to help him to get skills that were going to be really important socially or

Potentially for his future in entertainment which is what ended up happening. He's a pretty good movie on the dance floor

Maybe that fencing paid dividends

So it was just uh at the end of school one day and he was playing basketball and

This media company was on campus and saw him move

And thought he stops he got some moves and they went up to him and said have you ever thought about a career in?

dancing and music maybe

It was a bit of a surprise and they asked him to try out at one of their auditions

He went along and he was signed up

and that launched his opportunity to go to Korea train and develop his career as it is today and get into got7 so

He was pointing out the very spot where it happened, which is a popular spot amongst high school students still today

Playing basketball or near the lockers. You never know

It could happen to you. I

Think it is the right decision now

Obviously he went and did it and actually having had a conversation with him when he was in on the weekend

What I didn't realize at the time was was that he had an opportunity and it was a limited time opportunity

I sort of knew that but it was really clear on the weekend when he came in there

He couldn't afford to wait until after the Olympics and it was something he was passionate and about and he really wanted to do so

Yeah, it was the right decision. He's obviously been very successful. He's doing incredibly well and

he's obviously got a bright future and he set himself a lot of goals and targets and things he still wants to do and he's

Enjoying it. That's the main thing I got from when I spoke to him on the weekend. He's enjoying it

He's very busy, but it's an enjoyable busy. So I think yeah, it is definitely the right decision now, yeah

I was very happy to see Jackson succeed a few years later

He came back to the school and thanked me for encouraging him and being one of the few people that really demonstrated

support at that time

but definitely

Jackson was one that really had a strong desire to do this for himself, and he made these things happen and

Yet it was great to be able to see that then and continue today

So definitely, I think that it's been the right decision for him

You can find seeing how much joy he's had in the music profession. And how much happened is he's experienced since he's left our school

And we all see the young young man that he is. Today's is in tribute for his

Dedication to his craft and becoming a great musician musician and an entertainer

I'm very happy to know that Jackson's been a success well after looking at what he has done his success

I think he chooses the right path and he has fulfilled his dreams and chasing his dreams to be

One of the Entertainer I think yeah, this is the right choice for him. I'm happy for him

yeah, he's he's got a

Very likeable personality and people enjoy watching him and that has helped him in

His band to be a fun character and it's why I think he's popular on social media

YouTube

and

He is clearly very successful. So he's got a good bright future ahead of him

And I was pleased to see I think he is remaining

Rounded he's he's still someone who knows where he came from and hasn't forgotten

His family and his people around him and I think that's an important step wherever you go in life

You've you need you need good foundations and hold on to that run think you can do it yourself

Recognize the family and the friends around you and they're always the same people. You're still the same person

You're probably if you can keep that together, you're more likely to

To be able to cope with whatever

fame brings you

Yeah, I think Jackson is an interesting one to

Talk about he he's obviously like I said, he is a very determined young man

and I think sometimes that's very hard to see it's really interesting knowing Jackson from as a

student and

Seeing the public persona. I

Think a lot of people don't see the hard work that's gone on behind the scenes

There is an incredible amount of hard work. These had to put him he works incredibly hard

He's doing incredibly long hours. One of the things he was saying to me was

To sleep a lot of the time he's sleeping when he's flying to new destinations. He's sleeping on the play

He's not getting much sleep because when he turns up at a venue he's got to do

You know promotion work he's got to do, you know venues he's got to do this. He's got a practice

He's got to go to him. He's got to eat right he's got to do this. He's got to do that

So there's an awful lot that's going on in his life

And I think you can do that if you have that determination

in place to do it and that Drive and I think that's the key thing that people need to understand is that

The the image you see on TV and the image. You see that doesn't show the hard work he puts in

He puts an incredible amount of hard work into what he's doing. He is he is a

very easy person to

communicate with he's

Confident and

He just wants to have fun and that's what I see when he's in front of the camera

and you saw when we work with him the other day now I

said to him about all the dancing that he does and all the flips and I said

I just want to see the flip and so straightaway. He he wanted to perform the flip and that's him

He he doesn't pull back he will

Entertain and that's why he's successful

Yeah, I was speaking to Jackson on the weekend about this and and what are the key things he says and I agree with him

on this completely and I know is this when I was away that when I left last year was