[1] The school was established in 1998 to provide a North American, college-preparatory education from a Judeo-Christian worldview to expatriate elementary, middle, and high school students in the Shenyang, Liaoning area of Northeastern China.

Originally a member of the International Schools Consortium (ISC).

In 2017, the SYIS collaboration with ISC was dissolved, and SYIS partnered with Transformation Academy (TA), which operates schools in Shenyang and Shanghai, to form Shenyang Transformation International School (STIS).

The majority of the teaching staff are from the United States, but there are also instructors from New Zealand, South Africa, the Philippines, and China.

The school began with only eighteen students and three foreign teachers.