Personal Story (written for SAJC DSA Application)

Please tell us some of your interests and activities, and how you think these can help you contribute to St Andrew’s Junior College

‘We all die. The goal isn't to live forever; the goal is to create something that will.’   Chuck Palahniuk, Diary (author of ‘Fight Club’)

Similar to the quote, I too would like to create something that will stay forever with as many people as possible or at the very least, impact one person meaningfully.

As President of the CHIJ Sec Toa Payoh School Choir and together with my Student Conductor and Vice-President, I am privileged to be able to serve our 45-member  team. I have been in the choir since primary school. I rose from the ranks in secondary school, being in the Choir Committee for three consecutive years as Pianist, Section Leader and now President. I am able to sustain this commitment to the Choir mainly due to my passion in music and to bring glory to the school. Our Choir is proud to have attained the Gold with Honours Award at the Singapore Youth Festival in 2011 and Distinction in 2013. More importantly, I felt most satisfied that together with my Committee, we were able to lead and carry on the tradition and culture of love and friendship, tampered with the right dose of discipline and respect among all choir members, as inculcated by our seniors.   Based on website research, SAJC in general and the Choir also seem to embody these values of character, servant leadership and even more. I hope to have the opportunity to contribute as well as learn and grow even further in SAJC. 

Besides music, my other passion is raising awareness for environmental issues and garnering support for the conservation of the environment. After observing that many of my classmates were throwing recyclable materials into the trash bins as the school’s recycling bins were not conveniently located, I mooted the simple idea of having a recycling bin in my classroom. I persisted in encouraging my classmates to use the recycling bin and felt happy when the initiative was eventually successful. I was also pleasantly surprised when the other classes followed suit. As a result of this good outcome, my teacher nominated me to be the Earth Hour ambassador or spokesperson during Earth Day on 23 April 2014. I felt honoured to be given the opportunity to address and rally the whole secondary cohort of almost 1,000 students to Save Gaia through simple acts of recycling. I would like to contribute towards similar social causes in SAJC as well.

I was also fortunate to be offered a place in the Young Leaders Summer Programme at Trinity College, Melbourne from 1 to 15 December 2013. I was placed in the Arts stream which focused on psychology. It was an enriching experience. For the first time, I conducted a social experiment to gauge the response of the public i.e. whether herd mentality or individualism prevailed, when members of different ethnicities dropped some items (indirect cry for help). We concluded that people in Melbourne were most helpful to Asians and least helpful to aboriginals.  I would like to share this overseas experience perhaps in class discussions in SAJC on racial preferences and associated social issues as well as learn from friends in SAJC on their respective experiences. 

In conclusion, I would greatly appreciate a chance to be considered for a place in SAJC. I have also heard a lot about SAJC from my elder brother and his wife who are both alumni. Thank you for your time in reading this.