Apr 29, 2018 By Harry Funk staff Writer hfunk@thealmanac.Net 6 min read

For a change, someone has complimented an aspect of Pittsburgh that draws complaints from the rest of us.

“I’m really impressed at the traffic,” visitor Pongpith Ruksutakarn observed, saying that in his native Bangkok, Thailand: “If you travel 10 miles, it would take about two hours.”

That occasionally might be the case involving the Liberty Bridge or Squirrel Hill Tunnel, but for the 13-year-old and his fellow teen travelers, getting around town and beyond has been relatively smooth sailing.

About Thai Night

The 13th annual Thai Night Gala is scheduled from 5 to 9 p.m. May 5 at Boyce Middle School in Upper St. Clair.

Admission is free for cultural demonstrations, stage performances, exhibits and a Thai marketplace.

Tickets are available for a dinner of Thai cuisine, at $10 for students, $15 for adults and $12 for those 65 and older.

For more information, contact Luck Groves at Thai-USA@comcast.net or call her at

412-221-4816 or 412-932-8888

The Thai-USA Student Cultural Exchange Program was established in 2006 by the joint effort of top high schools in Thailand and Upper St. Clair School District.

To date, 1,691 students and teachers from Thailand and Upper St. Clair have participated, including 471 exchange students, 971 Upper St. Clair students as ambassadors for visiting students, 256 host families and 43 teachers sponsored by the exchange program.

Since 2006, Upper St. Clair High School’s Thai-USA Student Cultural Exchange Program has provided opportunities for youngsters and educators from each country to learn firsthand about their respective cultures.

For 2018, 23 students and three teachers are participating from two of Thailand’s top schools in a five-week stay, highlighted by the 13th annual Thai Night Gala, scheduled for 5 to 9 p.m. May 5 at Boyce Middle School. Members of the community are invited to take in various aspects of the culture, including performances by the visitors.

“The gala is a big event for them,” exchange program director Luck Groves said. “The students practice for months. They start planning what they want to perform, and they have an arts and crafts teacher help them prepare.”

Helping from a hosting standpoint are Upper St. Clair High School student ambassadors, who organize various components of the visit and make their Thai counterparts feel welcome. Claire Kohler, a junior, is on board again after serving as an ambassador last year.

“It was really great, especially during Thai Night,” she recalled. “Most of the time, we shared our culture with them. But Thai Night was really the time when we actually saw their culture. I thought it was really cool to meet such a large number of students from a country I’ve never been exposed to before.”

For those who also like to learn, Thailand is in the heart of southeastern Asia, bordered by Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia and Myanmar. With more than 68 million people, Thailand ranks 21st among world nations in population.

As the visitors have noticed, their country and the United States have plenty of differences, especially when it comes to the school experience.

Piyapatchara Supthavichaiyakul, for example, commented on the lack of regulation uniforms at Upper St. Clair. And where she attends, the rules are strict.

“In Thailand, we cannot dye our hair. We cannot wear nail polish. We cannot wear makeup,” she said. And for those who have long hair: “We have to make ponytails.”

As is the case with traffic, school lunches tend to draw more complaints than compliments. But Tatchai Sirichotvithyakorn enjoys the Upper St. Clair menu.

“Here, we have the choice of pasta or a burger or pizza or a hoagie, but Thai, usually just one meal per day,” he said about whatever happens to be prepared for students.

Many of the students are interested in learning more about the nuances of the English languages, and Suchanart Suksucharidporn has made some observations about Americans.

“After you sneeze, you say, ‘Bless you.’ That’s new for me,” she said, as is the custom of naming a family’s first son after the father and calling him “junior.”

The Thai teachers find the differences to be of substantial educational value, both in this country and at home.

“This is my first time here in the USA, so I can learn many new things about your culture from this program,” English teacher Sudtida Srichan said. “And I may use this experience to apply to my class in my country.”

On the other side of the exchange, Upper St. Clair junior Claire Leonard, who is serving her third year as an ambassador, observed about the visitors:

“They’re a bit more reserved.”

She spoke about the relative lack of diversity that characterizes Upper St. Clair and some other parts of the South Hills.

“In our ‘bubble,’ we don’t really have much exposure to Eastern Asian culture. So I thought I’d try it out,” she said about becoming an ambassador as a freshman, “and I ended up making 40 friends that year. And I still talk to a lot of people.”

That type of attitude reflects the purpose of the program, according to faculty adviser Gerald Groves, a Duquesne University professor and Luck’s husband.

“What we basically want to do is reduce the ‘air’ between the cultures,” he said. “Instead of judging others, it’s much better to look at what you can learn from them, and ultimately, everyone’s a global citizen.”

The participatory component of the Thai Night Gala provides added value in that regard.

“Some members of the community don’t have a chance to travel. They’ve never been abroad. But it doesn’t mean they don’t appreciate other cultures,” he explained. “It’s a matter of opportunity.”

The opportunities provided by the Thai-USA Student Cultural Exchange Program come at a price. But, as Luck Groves emphasized, the financial responsibility stays in-house.

“The most important part of the program is that it’s self-funded,” she said. “It’s not part of the school budget or from school taxes. We take care of our own expenses.”