Project Acknowledgement - "The Blessing in Our Stars"

Project Acknowledgement is a project intended to get the student populace to recognize the efforts and contributions made by the non-teaching staff. The theme for this year's event is "The Blessing in Our Stars". A series of activities have been conducted within a period of two weeks (from end August to early September) to engage the student body in expressing their appreciation for the non-teaching staff through various means. 

               Hand-written cards of appreciation done by student body for the non-teaching staff

                                 Students meticulously penning down their thoughts of gratitude


As part of the Project Acknowledgement task force (PATF), I learnt a very important lesson which was to be able to adapt to changes. At the later part of our project, we experienced some major changes to our plans and as a task force, we had to respond quickly to the unheralded changes before the event kicks off in just a couple of weeks. We had to figure out how to reduce the workload for PATF without losing the impact and importance we wanted to achieve - which was for the student body to appreciate the non-teaching staff.

Another lesson I learnt through PATF was the importance of finding a balance between making the project appealing to the audience (in order to garner their participation) and to have purpose of this project well-conserved.

On the day of the project's implementation, PATF struggled to keep track with the participation of the entire student cohort. This has taught us that when dealing with a massive number of participants, there is no guarantee that everyone will adhere to our instructions. Henceforth, we must always have backup plans in place beforehand in preparation for unforeseen circumstances.

Nur Aqilah
5th Saints Advocate

JC1 Service Learning Day - Lumos

JC1 Service Learning Day is a day where the entire college of students is mobilized to be involved in community engagement programs outside of the campus. Held on teacher's day every year, Saints gain a better insight of society's needs through various activities such as the "Big Sweep" - an event initiated by the Metropolitan Youth Men's Christian Association.  

"Big Sweep" is a meaningful program which aims to improve the living conditions of the destitute, elderly and needy families by cleaning and refurbishing their homes, making their homes a much better place to live in. 

   
                                                          Batch photo with the elderly 

JC 1 SL Day was a really good experience for me, from the planning to the event itself. One very important lesson I learnt was the need to communicate with clarity when working as a team as miscommunication can happen easily and this would lead to many other complications. It was heartwarming to see the JC ones participating in the activity and taking care of the elderly during the event itself. Some of them felt reluctant to come but many of them felt blessed by the event after, which made me feel really happy.

Rachael Ng
5th Saints Advocate

                                         
                                                                    The 5th Advocates

Service Learning Day was successful despite some crisis that we faced on the day itself.

The performance was one of the things that turned out pretty well despite majority of the performers being from Advocates itself. However, the preparation for the performance was a bit rushing due to time constraints. We could have attracted more external performers so as to minimize our workload in preparation for both SL day and the performance at the same time. Better publicity for performance should be expected for next year’s SL day in order to attract more participants.

Unfortunately, during the sing-along session with the elderly - our main target audience, it turned out that they were not responding well to this program that was specially tailored for them. As a result, they were not entirely engaged and were "left out" when the Saints were singing together, linking their arms. The Advocates reacted quickly to this situation and tried to interact with the elderly and encouraged them to join in the singing of National Day songs. Upon reflecting on this matter, i felt that  more could have been done to prevent this from happening. One possibility is to include Chinese songs in the sing-along. This problem should be raised next year so that this project can be of a greater success. 

Vincent Setiawan

5th Saints Advocate 

Hair for Hope 2014

Back for the 12th consecutive year, Hair for Hope 2014 is a signature fundraising event under the Children's Cancer Foundation. It is the only head-shaving event in Singapore which serves to raise funds and awareness of children cancer. In the month of July this year, students from our college together with those from Raffles Junior College, have collaborated to participate in this event, where the latter was the hosting college in which the event had taken place. 

Through this event, participants shave their heads for a purpose - to express their empathy, and at the same time, show their support for children who had lost their hair in the process of undergoing cancer treatments (e.g. Chemotherapy). It was heart-warming to see many Saints volunteering themselves to have their heads shaved in support for children with cancer. What was even more surprising were the handful of courageous girls who stepped out of their comfort zone to participate in this event, breaking the stereotype that only males would be willing to have their heads shaved. 

Narthana Anandan

5th Saints Advocate