Pre-University Seminar 2008 - A Student’s Experience
Thursday, June 26, 2008
With 11 other students, Victoria was part of the "In Conversation" ceremony that kicked off Pre-U Seminar 2008.
If I had to sum up my experience at the 2008 Pre-U Seminar in one word, I would say that it was an eye-opener. The event kicked off with a big moment for me, because I was one of the twelve students selected to join the guest of honour, Dr Vivian Balakrishnan, Minister for Community Development, Youth & Sports, on stage for the “In Conversation” session during the opening ceremony.
To prepare for this, we had the opportunity to meet the Minister for lunch before the Seminar itself. Over lunch, we brainstormed ideas for what we could discuss at the session, bearing in mind the Seminar’s theme “Global City, Home for All”. During the session, Dr Balakrishnan responded not only to our exchanges on stage, but also to questions posed by the enthusiastic audience from the floor and through SMSes.
Current affairs, approached creatively
I also had the chance to hear from invited speakers, as well as my fellow students during the parallel presentations. The presentations drew on weeks of research and effort to put together creative and sometimes radical proposals to tackle current affairs. The two most memorable presentations for me were Serangoon JC’s “Baby Steps: Towards Target 2.1” and Ngee Ann Polytechnic’s “Hollywood, Bollywood Singawood? Developing Singapore’s Film Industry”.
Ice-breakers helped the Pre-U Seminar participants get revved up for the five-day event.
SRJC’s presentation used an entertaining skit to raise individual concerns about the Government’s pro-natal policies. What struck me most was how the scenarios were very similar to how I imagined I would react to this situation when I’m older. Ngee Ann Polytechnic’s presentation was also very entertaining, with some ideas that were both thought-provoking and quite wacky! This included the possibility of having a “Singawood” in Singapore, and questioning the qualities that make a film a “Singapore film”.
Speaking of film, I also enjoyed the Asian FilmFest segment of the Seminar, where I saw the very moving Philippine film The Blossoming of Maximos Oliveros, which raised issues like corruption and bribery in the Philippines, as well as topics like homosexuality. During the interaction with the film’s co-scriptwriter Mr Raymond Lee, we found out that Filipinos are one of the happiest populations in the world, despite being relatively less economically privileged. That got me thinking, would one be better off uneducated but happy, or educated but cynical? I’m still mulling over it
Finally, I think one of the most eye-opening and fun-filled experiences of the Seminar was the Sandcastle Challenge held at East Coast Park. My group was in charge of building the education sector of the Red Zone and we built buildings in the shape of a flower pudding, a book and a tower for primary and secondary, tertiary and university education respectively.
Building sandcastles - not in the air, but to learn about life skills.
Our facilitators tried to integrate the teaching of life skills together with teaching us how to build sandcastles. For example, our facilitator asked us if it was possible to build a tower with a narrow base and wider top. The answer? “I don’t know, but let’s try it!” Later he added, “If you fail to take your first step forward, you will never succeed. In life, just remember the Nike slogan: Just Do It.”
All in all, the serious and fun aspects of the Seminar gave me a new perspective on some of the important issues facing Singapore today, while I also got to learn from my peers from other schools. Sure, there was the nitty-gritty of the numerous briefings, photo-taking sessions and occasional quibbling over the shower cubicles - but in five short days, everything we heard and did was an eye-opening experience indeed!
Contributed by:
Victoria Ong
Student
Meridian Junior College