SAS head of school long enamored with China

Having lived in the city for more than two years, James Nelligan, Shanghai American School's Head of School, considers Shanghai the safest city he has ever visited, which is very important for him as an educator.

"At the personal level, I love the culture of Shanghai, and at the level of a head of school, where I worry about student safety, this is easily the safest city I've ever been in," he said. "We have just shy of 3,000 students. It's really important to me that every night they get home safe."

Nelligan, from the United States, arrived in Shanghai in 2022 to take up the role with the school, and made Qingpu his home.

He lived in Asia previously as a young man, so his interaction with China started as early as his undergraduate years when he took a number of courses in Asian philosophy and in Chinese history, as well as martial arts. Therefore, when he was offered the position of Head of School of SAS, he accepted it without hesitation.

"I was very enamored with China, and was excited not only at the prospect of coming to China, but also coming to Shanghai specifically."

It was the first time for him to live in the city on a long-term basis, which offered him the opportunity to explore its culture and deeply engage in the local community.

He said he enjoyed how easy it was to commute in Shanghai and appreciated the beauty of the city.

"It's run so very well. We can move across the city of nearly 28 million people here pretty easily with the infrastructure. Everything – about the city the museums, the food culture, the Bund is gorgeous at nights – there's so much to love about the city," he said. "But most importantly, the people. They are quick to smile, it's just lovely. It makes me feel honored to be here."

He often walks around the streets with his wife to better understand the city, but still feels he has seen "hardly any of it yet."

"It's so big and every little nook and cranny seems to have something new to explore. Everywhere you go, there's this interesting mix of history. You get to see 200 years of history and all these dynamic periods when so much was going on that that made China then vibrant and today so vibrant."

"Shanghai is such a worldly city – the legacy of all of the trade and cultural interaction is here, you get this deep sense of China and how it was changing over time. So it's a very powerful experience when you walk around. Of course, it's easy to pull off on a walk and sit down at a little café and it's a very lovely experience."

Nelligan said SAS encourages its students to engage deeply with the local community.

"It's important that even if they're from somewhere else, we are good partners, we try to deeply commit ourselves to be a member of the community," he said.

"There was a phrase that was recently said to me by one of our board members at the school that 'Shanghai American is our school, but really it's Shanghai that's our campus.'"

He said many of the students were engaged in different activities all around the city, such as a group of students performing during the Olympic Qualifier Series in Shanghai in May, and other students doing philanthropic activities to support local charities.

"We want them to be doing that and we want SAS to be a part of it," Nelligan said.

A big fan of "children helping children," Nelligan and his colleagues toured the Shanghai Children's Home recently and donated musical instruments to help with therapy for the students there.

"We will be coming back in Fall with students to work with and to support the children. We'll do some tutoring and some art and music, but we'll also learn quite a bit from those kids."