Name
Mark Busch
Time at GESS
2000-2002, Grade 9 – 10
What has your learning journey been like after GESS?
After leaving Singapore, we moved to The Hague in the Netherlands, where I joined the city’s German School. We moved there because my dad worked for Shell, which is headquartered in The Hague. Interestingly, a lot of people at the German School in the Hague either knew people from Singapore or Hong Kong schools and also the German School of London, the school some of my former classmates from Singapore moved to. The global network was truly apparent even then. In 2005, I graduated from the German School in The Hague and moved to South-Germany, to Karlsruhe, where I studied at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. I started with my Diploma in Organic Chemistry, then finished with a PhD at the KIT, followed by a small exchange with the Boston University in Massachusetts before concluding my educational journey at the global chemical company BASF and Collège des Ingénieurs in Paris, Munich and Turin with an MBA. I graduated in 2015, just before joining Wacker, the company that I currently work for. I am happily married with two young boys who were born here in the US.
Occupation and Family
I started working for Wacker Chemie AG back in Munich in 2015 and just a year later while I was busy working on a number of global projects, my wife and I moved to Pennsylvania, US, . Our first son was born back then in 2018. End of 2018, we moved to Ann Arbor in Michigan where our second son was born at the beginning of 2020, just before the Corona pandemic started. So none of our family members and friends from Germany have been able to see him yet, unfortunately. At Wacker, I am a director responsible for one of the four divisions for the entire Americas region. What is really exciting about my current role and the business that we operate in is that we produce natural sugar-rings, so called cyclodextrines and such really unique molecules are currently utilised in the fight against Covid-19, especially in Remdesivir, the pharmaceutical drug that recently received emergency approval in Singapore. Quite exciting times for sure.
What is your favourite memory of your time at GESS?
Honestly, I thought hard about this, there are so many, it’s unbelievable. It was a great time! Looking back, it was just two years, but the older you get the quicker time flies by. Back then there were so many memories. Just highlighting two: I was really proud and fortunate to join one of the Southeast Asia Games which were held in Jakarta back then. It was so great that so many students came together from all the other German schools in the region. This event was mentored and facilitated by Thomas Teichert. He was a fantastic mentor, a fantastic person and I met him years after at Newton hawker over a beer, a really great guy! The other great experience was when my Chemistry teacher back then asked me to hold a class for my fellow classmates to teach them about the periodic system. He was sitting at the back of the class while I jumped into the teacher role. He was a major contributor to my education and career in Chemistry so it was a really exciting time!
What do you miss most about your time at GESS?
What I miss most and what I appreciate now in hindsight is the diversity on campus, in the classes, but also in Singapore as a whole. In Germany, if you compare it, you have class sizes of 30 people sometimes. Back then I think we were just 9 people in one class so it’s a tight team I would say and we had a supportive network among students and teachers throughout the entire school. The teachers themselves are highly capable, skilled and also motivated to really bring out the best in us. Believe it or not, this was the first time that school was actually fun for me. Previously, before moving to Singapore, we were in Germany and it was a horrible experience for me. My grades were really bad and my parents were a little bit worried about my wellbeing and my educational career, but Singapore and GESS changed that, so I’m very fortunate and thankful!
What do you miss about Singapore and your life here?
First of all, definitely the weather, it’s always hot and always humid in Singapore, which I like actually. A lot of people hate it, but I like it. I still remember our first day, stepping out of Changi airport into this humid environment and the air felt so thick, it was really an experience. Apart from the weather, all the travel possibilities. Singapore is located so centrally in Southeast Asia – you have so many great opportunities to just take a 2-3 hour flight to so many different countries and places, that’s phenomenal. I miss the people in Singapore, the diversity that you see. In the end, however, I must say I’m a foodie, so it all comes down to the food that I miss the most, a nice Roti Prata, or a nice coconut, 100plus, all things that I unfortunately don’t have these days anymore.
Do you think your time at GESS and in Singapore has impacted your (future) life?
Yes, I would just like to emphasise what I briefly touched on in the beginning: it’s the interaction with all the different people and their different backgrounds. I think this is unique and you don’t get to appreciate that while being there, it is just daily life, but learning together with students from different cultures and different backgrounds is phenomenal as it broadens your horizon. This will help you a lot later on in your career. In the end, as I mentioned, my grades improved and I had motivated teachers who greatly contributed to my future career.
What did you learn during your time at GESS that you could not appreciate yet during your time there, but that you consider a valuable lesson now?
It’s maybe a funny thing: living in Singapore and then also travelling through the region, you are getting exposed to a lot of Asian English accents. Obviously, Singlish, but then every country has their own English accent and this helped me a lot in my professional career. I did a lot of projects in Southeast Asia with Wacker. So this helped me to better communicate with people in Asia. But also, looking at my school time, back then when we went on a lot of fantastic class trips, many times we were just annoyed by the class trips and having to hang out with each other. Going to nice islands like Tioman, for example, now in hindsight is phenomenal if you compare this to let’s say German class trips in Germany during which you will maybe go to Prague or Trier or some other city but not getting this exposure to the neighbouring countries with different cultures, it’s just fantastic.
Is there any piece of advice or any experience you would like to share with current GESS students?
Please enjoy this valuable time that you have while you are still young and worry-free. Unfortunately, the older you get, the faster time flies by and unfortunately you will also have a lot more responsibilities that you have to shoulder. Don’t take anything you have for granted, really cherish the people around you, the people who support you. Sometimes – and I know this from personal experience – it’s pretty hard when good friends move away, please keep in touch with them. These days that’s really easy, you have so many digital tools at your disposal. Back then we used to write faxes, with paper and pen which I then sent with a fax machine to my grandma, because international calls were still pretty expensive. I remember my Singtel bill was always really high and I got complaints from my parents. I encourage everyone to make new friends during the time you have, also reach out to the other international schools that are great, like UWC, American School and so on. Sometimes you may think that your parents or your teachers are annoying and they are upsetting you, but keep in mind that everyone wants the best for you, they really care about you, they want to support you and really make you the best person you can be. I guess to summarise, I can just say: Be curious, don’t be afraid to ask anything, be open-minded, open to new things, to trying new things, open to each other, be respectful, be mindful. Everybody has a different background so be supportive and help each other. With these skills and this attitude you will be successful in life.
You are a GESS Alumni and would like to share your memories of GESS with us? Please email us at alumni@gess.sg. We would love to get to know you!
