50 Stories for 50 Years: Ingrid Savage, ASSIST Board of Directors & Parent of Alum '89

To celebrate our 50th anniversary year during 2018/19, we collected stories and profiles of people and institutions that have helped us build our organization, which first began as one person's dream in 1968. We will feature one story per week on our blog. Please enjoy these “50 for 50” profiles featuring ASSIST's dedicated board members, dynamic staff, welcoming host families and enthusiastic ASSIST Scholars.

Ingrid Savage
ASSIST Board of Directors & Parent of Alum '89

I guess my destiny to be involved in International student opportunities began during my childhood when my parents exposed our young family to “the big wide world” just after the end of World War II.

We journeyed from Seattle, Washington to Sweden in 1948, where my father was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship to teach at Uppsala University. I was almost four when we left Seattle and that long-ago experience imbued in me a love of travel and experiencing life in a culture far less comfortable than my life in the States.

Though Sweden remained neutral throughout the war, it had still suffered much—and during the lenses of my young eyes, I was living in “the olden days.” Our young family walked everywhere, or rode our bicycles like everyone else. There was no milk delivery at our front door as there had been at home in Seattle. Every morning it was little me, going down four flights of stairs and crossing the road to the creamery, where I was assigned to have our tin cream and milk pails filled, and gathering several wax paper- and twine-wrapped butter cubes. Horse and buggies were common.

There were some cars, no supermarkets. The weather was dark for months each year, and we wore heavy coats, mittens, and wool hats except during the fleeting summertime months. I walked across a field to preschool in my royal blue jumpsuit (my school-issued uniform) and made friends with neighbor children. Electric lights were used sparingly, and candles flickered around our apartment in the evenings. My bed in the corner of the second bedroom was a long painted storage trunk embellished with classic Scandinavian designs. Looking back now, I truly did live in an era of the past.

This was my first experience living abroad, and throughout my youth I had the opportunity to visit Sweden several times to spend time with friends and cousins. One summer in my teens, I lived with a Swedish family at their cottage on the shore, and I studied at the University of Stockholm part of my junior year of college.

After my husband and I launched our three children into adulthood, our own travels continued, and I always enjoyed being in countries and cultures where I felt I was experiencing the kind of life I remembered in the 1940's in Sweden. I have always felt a kinship with people in developing countries, like China in the 1980's, India in the 1990's, eastern Europe and Africa, Southeast Asia, South America, and Mexico. With time on my hands and a curiosity to help the underserved, I began to volunteer and support a few humanitarian aid NGO's which offered me experiences in Moldova, Africa, India, and elsewhere.

My time volunteering in Romania and Moldova (helping in orphanages and hospitals) was rewarding. I felt as though I was reliving the same sort of environment as I had in Sweden as a 4 and 5 year old.

Fast-forward to about 4 years ago, when I was approached by ASSIST board member Andrew Wooden, asking if I would like to join the ASSIST Board. Our daughter-in-law, Pippa Bond from Australia (ASSIST class of '89) had been serving as an ASSIST board member for several years. After marrying our son and moving to Los Angeles, Pippa's board term was up and her busy career and the demands of raising a family required more free time.

Andrew learned from Pippa at their first board meeting together that her husband, Stanley Savage Jr., and his younger brother Walker, had attended and graduated from Choate Rosemary Hall. Andrew and his wife, both in the admissions office at Choate, knew our family well. We had kept up with one another through our mutual Choate friends, and they delighted in the “small world” coincidence that an ASSIST alum from Australia, who studied at Taft, continued with college in the East and earned her law degree in NY ended up married to a Seattle boy from Choate with a different last name than Bond.

Pippa informed Andrew that I had been to Moldova several times, volunteering in the orphanages and hospitals. I had made some contacts there, and since ASSIST was actively recruiting ASSIST Scholars from Moldova and I had a bit of familiarity with the country, Andrew inquired of my interest in joining the Board.

I am honored that I was given this amazing opportunity, gathering twice a year with a group of educators and dedicated people who wish to offer students from other countries the opportunity to study in our country.
My time interviewing young Moldovan scholars has been very rewarding. Moldova's country coordinator, Julia Moldovan, and her late husband, Professor Dmitru Moldovan, have been extremely hospitable to me and my fellow interviewers. I have learned much about the country, and I find great pleasure being there as the environment rekindles so many memories of the atmosphere of my early life in Sweden.

During January interviews, the days are short, the streets are crowded with walking “bundles” of wool coats, scarves, and mittens, crunching snow and ice own the sidewalks, dim lights show the way, lively markets sell beeswax candles, honey, cheeses, and pickles… meanwhile in the interview rooms, 48 bright, energetic, and hopeful scholarship candidates present their best selves in flawless English with wonderful stories, great ideas, talents, and high hopes to be a part of ASSIST and all of the adventures an ASSIST scholarship offers.

About Ingrid:
Ingrid attended the University of Stockholm in Sweden and the University of Washington, where she received a B.A. in Art and Scandinavian Language and Literature Studies in 1967. Today, Ingrid lives in Seattle, WA, with her husband, Stan. She is also the mother-in-law of Pippa Bond, former ASSIST board member and ASSIST Scholar at the Taft School (1988/89). Ingrid serves on the Development and Alumni Relations and Governance Committees of the ASSIST Board.