Help out with Surprise for Teacher's Day

HI everyone! YES! Teacher's Day is coming and it's on the 1st of September. Celebration will be held in school on the 31st August. Prelimnary information said that the celebration could be held in the morning. Well, it SHOULD be in the morning.

As part of the alumni, we have decided to give the teachers a nice surprise. As i've said, it's a surprise. so i wont be saying out what is it. However, we would really appreciate if people reading this could help out on the 30th Aug in sch. time is probably 7pm plus. yes... it's a surprise so we have to wait till the teachers go home before we take action!

i'm so sorry but i'll be having an important event to attend to. So i wont be able to lend my support to the team to help out in the surprise. But nevertheless, i'm willing to do what they want me to do. eg. buying of materials and so on.

it would be great if we all can take this opportunity to thank our teachers in gratitude of what they've done so much for us.

Happy Teacher's Day!

Review of Speech at 19th Student Council Investiture

Friday, August 11, 2006

Aik Fong's Speech at the 19th Student Council Investiture on 20th July 2006

Eighteen years ago, when some of you were not even born, I took the pledge to serve the college as a Student Councillor.
Here I am today, as the President of the SRJC Alumni Association, sticking to my pledge to serve the college.
I am not trying to scare both the incoming and outgoing student councils. No, you are not bound by any contract to serve the college for the rest of your life.

However, it was through my tenure in the Student Council that I learnt to serve.

It was not easy to be a pioneer Student Councillor and it still won’t be easy for you to be in the 19th Student Council.

Back when the college just started, the major task at hand was to build a strong college identity and spirit. There were just around 20 students who had applied to Serangoon JC as their first choice college.

So, what did we do to gel over 600 students who didn’t want to be in SRJC in the first place? We had a rather long orientation programme. Instead of a college day, we had a college month. After the promo examinations, the entire school went on a college picnic at Pasir Ris Park. We had a lot of fun, but we also knew that we had to study. Considering the fact that we had our lectures in Technical Workshops, considering the fact that we had very little amenities for a junior college, we were not surprised by the casualties amongst us along the way towards the college’s first GCE ‘A’ level examinations. Nevertheless, we also managed to produce students with good ‘A’ level results.

Do we have a strong college identity now? How’s our college spirit? Well, the challenge is for you, every SRJCian, especially the student leaders, to work together to bring Serangoon Junior College to greater heights and to make everyone proud of being an SRJCian.

There are various ways for you to become proud of SRJC – you can achieve top academic accolades or you can excel in your CCA – what’s most important is for you to leave SRJC knowing that you have become a better person. You have to develop your character: learn to serve the college and the community. But, do not become subservient; do not become a blind follower. Give feedback whenever you see something not right. Be able to accept the views of others. Initiate changes where necessary. Be willing to embrace changes. Don’t shirk from leadership position and don’t feel bad when you have to step aside for others to take the lead.

I will now try to share with you some of my experiences that exemplify the values I learnt from SRJC.After graduating from SRJC, I enlisted for National Service as required of all male citizens. However, I must confess that I am not an army freak. Nevertheless, I believe in the importance of National Service and I can spend a whole day talking to you about National Service, but I will keep that till I get invited for Total Defence Day.What I would like to relate to you about my NS stint is one particular incident. About 6 months into my NS, during a dialogue session just before I graduated from my vocation training to be a Military Policeman, all the trainees were given the opportunity to speak their mind about the training. Nobody spoke for a while despite the officers’ encouragement for feedback. Then I raised my hand. I spoke up for a fellow trainee who was not allowed to graduate due to his health problem. Unfortunately, the bureaucratic rule then did not allow the officer-in-command to change his decision. While my speaking up did not help my fellow trainee, it was still a righteous act that I never regretted. Why did I speak up in the first place? It was because of a sense of righteousness which was cultivated from the injustice that I had seen and felt simply because no one spoke up for us.

My first year at NUS was uneventful except for the fact that I was the only guy in a class with twenty-one girls and, at the end of that first year, I was asked to take on a leadership position in the next orientation programme – the chairmanship for the Rag-and-Flag committee. There were a few of committees set up to run a series of orientation activities, but nobody wanted the job of Chairman for the Rag-and-Flag committee – a job with no fun and lots of hard work. I knew I could do the job and accepted the offer on the condition that I was the vice-chairman even though I would perform the roles of the chairman. It would seem a rather stupid decision to most people. Well, if I could turn back the clock, I would still make the same decision. Why? Because I knew that my weakness then was the fact that I wasn’t really very active in the faculty club and I needed greater authority to run such a tough committee. So, in name, a more prominent fellow undergraduate was appointed the chairman, knowing that I would be the one running the committee. We managed to raise a record sum of money for charity and retained the Overall Rag-and-Flag championship trophy for that year. Knowing my own strengths and weaknesses was a very important contributing factor to my success there, but a bigger factor was the experience and attitude I brought with me from my involvement in the 1st SRJC Student Council.

I won’t say that being in the Student Council had made me a great leader. But it was through the Student Council that I had opened my eyes to both good and bad leadership qualities in myself and in others. To be able to appreciate the good leadership qualities of others and also be able to admit the flaws of one’s own leadership skill, is critical to a truly great leader – learn from the good and change the not so good.“Desere Servire - To Learn To Serve” became my personal motto. I never stopped learning even after I graduated from University. I don’t have enough money for an MBA yet, but I do have enough money to continue to learn through books and, most importantly, through self-reflection. My work experiences in my earlier careers were extremely valuable to me, but they did not give me the satisfaction as compared to my current career – teaching, an almost sacred service to the community (I am sure your teachers will agree with me). Passing knowledge to my students gives me a high, but it is nothing compared to helping my students discover themselves and develop into better people like how I discovered myself and became a better person during my two years in SRJC.

Whenever I had gatherings with my classmates from SRJC or meet fellow SRJCians through the Alumni, we would still talk about our principals, vice-principals, teachers and even some of the non-teaching staff here. We became a family when we joined SRJC and I am very glad to know that all of you are now part of my extended family.

With that, I would like to wish the 19th Student Council a fruitful year ahead and the 18th Student Council a bright future as they embark on the next phase of their lives.

Thank you.

By Tan Aik Fong

President of SRJC Alumni Association

Review of Speech on 2006 Graduation Ceremony

Friday, October 13, 2006

Speech at the 2006 Graduation Ceremony on 12th October

First of all, I would like to congratulate all of you on the completion of your SRJC education.
Let me relate to you my experience preparing for the ‘A’ level.

In 1988, the year when most of you were born, I joined SRJC as one of the pioneer student of the college. In 1989, I took the GCE ‘A’ level examinations. It seems like a long time ago, but I can still remember those days vividly.
Like many of you, I was kept very busy with CCA throughout the first half of my JC 2 year. When I finally got down to the actual preparation for the ‘A’ level examinations, I was not very confident. I had some doubts and pressure especially as my elder brother had just received the Top Commerce Student award at Nanyang JC. That burdened me as I knew that I had never been as hardworking as my brother and yet I was expected to perform as well as him.

So, what could I do? Work harder, of course!

However, with a very noisy home, I had to find a place to study. Some of my classmates went all the way to Changi Airport to study, but a few of us decided to study in school even during the weekends when the school was closed. We, not just the guys but girls as well, would climb over the walls and crawl under the gates just to get into the school compound to have a quiet corner to study together.

That solved the logistical problem. But it definitely wasn’t the end of the obstacles that I had to face during the period.

After spending many hours together in a study group, I soon realised that I had a crush on my classmate. That’s quite normal especially for teenagers. However, the knots in the stomach made me lose appetite and sleep. With just a few weeks to the ‘A’ level examinations, the distraction was too much and I wasn’t able to concentrate on my revision.

Once I realised the problem, I had no choice but to stay away from my study group and studied on my own. I knew that I could either wallow in self-pity or I could remain focused on the examinations. It wasn’t an easy choice and it required a lot of effort, but, thankfully, my family, classmates and teachers constantly reminded me of the impending examinations and kept me on my toes with the preparation.

Like me, I am sure some of you are facing some obstacles at this stage.

The preparation for the GCE ‘A’ level examinations is not just about picking up a book to study. You are probably facing both visible and invisible pressure from around you. Well, remember, the examinations will start soon and it will be over just as soon. After so many months of preparation, I am sure you can persevere till you put a full stop to your answer of the final examinations paper.

I can’t say that I understand how all of you are feeling now with the ‘A’ level just a few weeks away, nevertheless, I hope all of you will also understand that you are not alone. Your family is behind you. Your friends are behind you.

The entire extended SRJC family is also behind you.Finally, I would like to remind you that your ties to SRJC do not end after the ‘A’ level. You will forever be an SRJCian and, in order for us to stay closer together, I hope you will join the SRJC Alumni Association. Complete the form that we have left on the chair and we will try to keep you in touch with each other.

With that, I wish you all the best for the ‘A’ level examinations.

By Tan Aik Fong

President of SRJC Alumni Association

TEACHER'S DAY CELEBRATION

any comments if we, the alumni do a singing performance during the celebration of the Teacher's Day? I'm thinking of writing the lyrics and making it into our own song. So it's more targetted to the teachers in SR and it's a more presentable way of showing our gratitude.

i'm not sure. if you guys want to have a simple song by other singers i'm ok. Or even a speech oso can.

scoots off~

sorry!!!

I'm so sorry guys! it's wednesday 20th June 7 to 830pm for the BADMINTON!

BADMINTON ON WED 21ST JUNE

Greetings earthlings! Yee Lee is here to update! (joking!)

Regarding the application form to download, pls do email us at serangoonjc_alumni@yahoo.com.sg

any queries regarding any upcoming events, do email us so we can attend to your questions per se.

BTW, This coming WED, 21st JUNE 2007, 7PM to 830PM @ SRJC HALL!

we will be having a BADMINTON gathering, or rather, exercise or play or ,get together....watever you say!

It's a platform to keep in touch and know pple from all over the place! Mix around and who knows, you might bump into a guy/girl u like, or a potential client of your biz!

Do lend your support to this 'gathering' because it will be a start to string pple tgt and bring back memorable times!

PS: to current Alumni members, we would really hope to see u guys participate(physically playing or physically socializing!) We are hoping that alumni is always a place to put our interest in sch tgt!

As for non-alumni members, we really do hope to see u guys there too! we will WARMLY welcome you to participate too! Do consider being an alumni member because of what i said for the 1st post!

See you there! Ciao~

Welcome welcome!

Hi all, this is Yee Lee speaking, the running head of Publicity for SRJC Alumni. As you can see, the previous blogspot for alumni is not really in function, i've created another blog to further update on the activities of the alumni.

hopefully, throught this blogspot, the alumni will be able to reach out to more SRJCians, be it current or ex. All are very precious to us as alumni is where you will still be in touch with SRJC.

Alumni is a place where you can contribute in the name of ex-student and you can be assured that, joining the alumni can bring to you happiness and fulfillment in helping the current batches to excel in either their CCAs or their studies.

It is also an avenue to make new friends, know some people who are in the field of your job prospect. This not only widens your circle of friends but who knows, be partners with them in work next time!

I will be uploading the application form in the next post. Those who are interested in helping their Alma Mater to be successful, do download the application form and fill them up!

Do check out our blog frequently for updates! Adios!