An Overview of Extracurricular Activities at LAS

Here at Leysin American School, there really is something for everyone in our activities program! Our community aims to create an inclusive environment where students can try new things and push themselves out of their comfort zones. In doing so, students develop bonds with friends, gain new experiences, and create memories in our beautiful Alpine landscape. 

This year we welcomed our new Athletics Director, Joey Shafiq. This will be Joey’s 8th year at LAS, and he is looking forward to stepping into this role with new ideas and dynamism! As the previous IB CAS coordinator and a PE teacher, Joey is fully committed to the extra-curricular program here and loves nothing more than to encourage students to be active and explore new opportunities for growth. Practicing what he preaches, in his spare time you'll likely find him mountain biking, snowboarding, golfing, or planning his next surf trip. Alongside his new role, he will also be coaching the badminton team! 

At LAS, students must engage in at least one active and one creative or service-oriented extracurricular activity each week. Luckily, we have a wide range of fun activities to choose from, so students always find it easy to maintain this schedule! Trying out new things and learning skills and knowledge outside of our academic curriculum is something we value very highly at LAS. This has allowed students to grow as a whole rather than in just one area, and develop resilience and teamwork skills that will serve them later in life.

Students have a wide range of activities to choose from at LAS. Our sports teams are incredibly varied, including volleyball, football, cross country, golf, and swimming. Our active extracurriculars are also a lot of fun and include yoga, dog walking, stand-up paddle boarding, and mountaineering. In addition to these active options, students can choose from various creative and service-oriented activities such as rock school, dance, Dungeons and Dragons, and theatre. We were thrilled by the enthusiasm and courage of our students who have tried out these activities over the past two weeks!

Even if students aren’t sure which clubs they want to join, they have had the opportunity to try various activities and see what they feel most suited to. This year, we have also had a range of new activities, such as robotics and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, and we’re looking forward to running these this fall. In addition, this semester, we had 200 student tryouts for sports teams, a record number! We can’t wait to see how our teams get on in their first matches! 

Well done to all our students so far for signing up for their activities! Now that tryouts have finished, students are committed to their activities for session one of this year. This means they can choose new activities for session two in October. Good luck to all our sports teams, and we hope students feel excited to learn and grow throughout the semester!