Posted on: Monday, July 26, 2010
Posted at: 10:40 PM
Posted at: 10:40 PM
This post was posted as a note on facebook:
Disclaimer: Any text below will not subject me to any serious actions as it is not meant to defame or offend anyone or anything. :) I am only revealing this because I am stepping down and will no longer hold the pres position with effect of tmr & for personal reference.
A long way to becoming President of 7th Student Council.
2007.
Although this year may not be of great significance for me to Student Council, it was one where I was introduced to the various roles of being a student councillor. When I first stepped into Zhonghua, I had the mentality that i wanted to be a councillor for I was a prefect in my primary school days and wanted to have an upper edge over the others.
I admired greatly the councillors of Zhonghua at that time. Those were of course the early months of my first year in school. I remembered Leona, who was 1E5 class attachment councillor, Regina who was the PA member, Alan the famous councillor and so on.. I wanted rather greatly to be a councillor.
Then came the Sec 1 Orientation camp, when at that time. the camp was organised by the Student Council. My impression of student council deepened. Then was Lynn who was the President of the 4th Student Council, whom I also held great admiration for.
When the council interview came, I had perhaps overly prepared myself such that the interview was full of "textbook answers" and much stuttering and forgetting. My interviewer was Ms Lea that year. It had turned out that I did not make it into being a councillor that year. I had then given up my dreams of being a Student Councillor.
Later that year was Music and Movement which I had been selected as Emcee, together with Nisa. Wearing the blazer and tie was a pride for me. Ironically, JiaYi commented, "You had better wear your blazer properly hor. I don't even think I have the chance to wear it in future!"
2008.
Life passed with the usual stuffs. I signed up to be in the debate team in a bid to improve my English argumentative skills. But that's beside the point. The annual student councillor elections came again. I crossed votes with Kai Seng and Ryan from the debate team, which means to say we voted for each other. As for the teachers side, I'm not too sure. The list was up, and I was in. Elated, but not as anticipating as before since my previous failure had demoralised me.
I almost did not manage for the interview due to a school field trip. However, I approached the Vice-President of 5th SC, YiMei who told me that she will request a make up interview from Ms Ong. I remembered clearly that it was a usual afternoon when I was eating opposite with Kenan and some other 2e5 guys. Next thing I know, I was abruptly disturbed from my lunch and both of us with JinX ran across the zebra crossing to school to have our make up interview. Ms Ong was waiting there and normal procedures. We fill up the form, answered a few questions and left. This time, the interview was more natural and informal.
Hallelujah, I made it into the Student Council, together with the other Sec 2s who went for interview. First was council camp. For duties, I was attached to Regina who taught me some PA stuffs. Brandon was in PA too. So most mornings were spent in the general office or else the podium. Being in PA was something I held honour about. Recess duties, there were ppl like Bryan and Gretel in which we all went up and close the doors and chase ppl out of class rooms.
Oh and at that time, I loved council so much that I could cry for it, at times when I remembered what we all did. I look forward to any council activities and stuff. Every time the EXCOs call names for duties, I was wishing my name would be called out. Most of the times, yes it was called out. Most duties were foyer ushering. One of the particular one I would never forget is Mid Autumn Festival. Maybe its due to the evening and night environment. I remembered Brandon was claiming to block Melody from the sun (due to their contrast in height) and we were having much fun.
Council was my life. So was the tie.
That year I had spent much time studying in the library and mugging for the streaming exercise. Surprisingly, I did not treat council as a waste of my time. There was NACLI camp which I was honoured to be selected. It was very memorable, especially the nights when we would play strip poker secretly and one in particular, had to strip to his undergarments. It was hilarious and interesting. Even watching the pictures that Yi Heng kindly sent us months after the camp, made me tear of the memories. I may seem serious, but yes I do have feelings. Again, I held great admiration for the President then, Keziath who was ill for months.
At the end of the year, there was the organisation of the 2008 November Council Camp. Surprisingly, I was selected to be the AIC of the camp, together with Beatrice. Shaun, the president and IC of camp, met up with us during the holidays and we discussed through the planning of camp. It was memorable as well. Both me and Beatrice organsied some minor activities and came up with proposals and schedules. On the camp night, both of us and YiHeng had even went out of school to buy the graduating gift materials. We had to climb over the school gate.
2009.
A new class, a new beginning. Being in 3E2 had also been my dream, which was one of the motivations to work hard in sec 2. Guess it paid off. That year, being seniors of the school, tgt with the Sec 4s, I was more aware of the surroundings and stuff. I also became more bold. I also stuck much around with Beatrice due to council stuffs, which got me introduced to councillors like Xin Hui, Eugenia, Jia Yi.
In early months of 2009, me, Beatrice and XinHui went to Hwa Chong Council Investiture. The facility was nice and thus another memorable investiture. I, together with the sec3s, were put in charge of more events and was involved with higher status like ICs. I continued my morning duty at PA and other than the ins and outs of PA members, nothing much changed.
Then was the EXCO interview. To be honest, I had never dreamt of being an EXCO considering that I had joined in Sec 2. Still, the interview went on and I convinced the teacher advisors and HODs on my interest and passion in Student Council. One fine morning, I was innocently taking my newspaper and abruptly got called up. A few of us Sec 3s stood there, and Ms Ong announced that we had passed the EXCO interview. I was rather elated, but had mixed feelings as well. She pointed at 5 of us, and said we were to go to the President and VPs interview. I was speechless.
In any case, I did not have the great urge to be the President for having a position like that would bring about great responsibility and be constantly observed by the students of the school. Thus, I insisted greatly that if I had to take a position, it would be Vice-president. Also, Beatrice seemed to be a great competitor and Jetaime was no far behind. Bryan opted himself out of the interview, also his blog posts had pointed against him.
On the day of the interview, I was also called to the Drama Studio for ELDDS meeting. The eldds members voted for the ELDDS EXCO. I had no intentions to be the P and VP of ELDDS either for knowing I would attain a rather high position in council. I was voted 3rd position in ELDDS - Secretary. Being rather joyful, I proceeded down to the EXCO interview which faced Principals and Vice-Principals and HODs. We talked, we gave feedback of the school and we left. Shortly after, it was announced Margaret took position of Publicity and 3 of us went for the school elections.
We presented our Presidential election speech to the school. Results were not announced. The 12 EXCOs were selected by then and we proceeded with Investiture preparation which lasted 3 weeks of the June Holiday. Beatrice and I was also selected to be emcees of the Asian Youth Games Exchange Programme Opening Ceremony. Throughout the investiture preparation, we the excos, got to know more about each other. On the last week of June, in the midst of preparing investiture, we were called up and Ms Ong made the grand announcement. She said, "The new president is... Xavier!" I was stunned and my mouth was agape, seriously. The applause I heard was muffled in my head.
Being the president had changed quite alot of stuff. I put on a stern face and things got rather serious. The EXCO was soon falling apart, as described by Bianca, due to a number of internal conflicts. I could not do much. In fact, I was one of the main cause of it. That year was the H1N1 year thus there was no guests from other schools and meetings were rare and hard.
Through the process, I had thought about the EXCO thing quite a lot and at times, well on a daily basis. Sometimes, I would be on the brink of tears. As we trained the councillors for Investiture, things were not easy too. Investiture came and I frankly did not enjoy much of it, considering the huge grey cloud above me.
Fortunately, I called for a Trash Out Session, as suggested by Shaun, the previous President. It was held in the Council room. I was rather the target of comments and criticism. There were other 1-to-1 pointings and shoutings. Many cried then. So did I. I got to learn the real reason behind them not accepting me, in particular being unable to think on the spot and being flicker-minded. I also reasoned with them and allow them to understand me, how much hurt and tiredness I was going through. The session ended with an big EXCO hug.
Things changed. I force myself to improve by reminding myself to think on the spot and make firm decisions. When I implemented that on my self, I received commendations from Jia Yi, saying that I did remarkable improvements. From the trash out session, things were going up. At Least, my side was resolved. Another trash-out-session was held for another conflict.
Even though i wasn't labelled as the ICs for events, I still coordinated the events and ensured that they turn out successful, fulfilling my role as a President. Things were getting better. My sec 3 of being President was tiring indeed, but I persevered on. Controlling a group of 100+ councillors is not a joke. Fortunately, I had my EXCOs at my side. We were strict on council discipline, everything that we had to step in, we stepped in. We confiscated ties, scold councillors and stuff.
Meanwhile, I also worked on my proposal for vending machines and mobile phone hot spots. Vending machine proposal was sent around late 2009. However, there was no reply to it. I was OIC of the 2009 November Council Camp, managing the council camp and turning it into a success. There was still a little friction between the EXCO though, and we tried to resolve it under the stars on the 1st day of the camp.
2010.
This year. The start of a new year. My picture was published in the 2009 school magazine, many slides, school website and student handbook. Being Sec 4s, we grew more matured and stopped quarrelling over small matters. Ms Ong said its always like that, when the exco come to sec 4, they become more matured. Maybe its cause we met less and had lesser time to bother about these stuff. Anyway, by sec 4, there was no major conflicts in our EXCO. Everything was stable. We had groomed the councillors to be more behaved students.
The year was a less hectic and tiring year. In fact, I had enjoyed what much effort put in at sec 3. Its from the corner of my eyes that I do know some sec 1s hold admiration for me, just like how I had held great respect for the President in my sec 1 and 2 years. But thats beside the point. Things were more smoother and because less time was used to manage the conflicts, I approached the principal and VP2 and VP Admin with regards to the proposal of vending machine and mobile phone hotspots. I had made frequent trips to their offices to discuss with them over the matter. Ultimately, instead of inclusion of vending machine, they decided to open 1 canteen stall until 5pm and improve the queue system of canteen vendors. Thats' a fair compromise, i guess.
Then, I decided to do other stuffs to the school. So I proposed a Valentine's Day selling of roses, which was reverted to Valentine's Day Talent Performance. Proposal was accepted by VP1 and I carried out to make speech for gathering crowd and performers. With only 1 grp of performers on hand, I thought it would be a failure. In the end, many groups came to sign up for the performance. The talent performance was a great success and there was a huge crowd that clapped and sung joyfully to the guitarists. For the lower sec performance, there were some ups and downs.
Apart from that, many events were soon handled gradually to the sec 3s to handle for we also had to study for our Olevel. Playing the role of a mentor was easier although a bit of time was still taken up in guiding them. Its worthwhile after all. We guided them through the 2010 March Induction camp and introduced changes like night activity as camp fire and morning exercise as walk to Kovan for breakfast. I also took part in dialogue sessions, in particular the sec 3 one.
My EXCO had much fun together. We went out quite a number of times for lunch, birthday celebrations and movie. It was rather different from last year indeed. They had also joined me in serving detentions when our DM pointed at me alleging me of 3 detentions for not teaching the councillors which caused the sec 4 classes to come down late (which was apparently not my fault). Then investiture preparation came. With the birth of the new EXCO, we had less active roles which was good in the sense that we have more time to do our hwk and study considering we're sec 4s. Investiture preparation, as I saw the stuff that the new EXCO were doing, the stuffs that happened last year flashback. They too had their fair share of trash out session.
Tomorrow is the Investiture day, and after all these that we have gone through, we will take the walk off stage and leave student council. Although we will come back at times, it will never be the same.
In conclusion, I would like to THANK greatly all my 11 EXCO members for really supporting me through this. Council has really let me learn alot. I would also like to GRATIFY Ms Ong for patiently guiding me through. I would also like to WISH ALL THE BEST to the new 8th EXCO and hope their path will be one of joy and happiness.
This is not a speech, but a text. I remember the quote that I had used for the investiture speech last year, "Leaders are not born, they are made through hard work and determination". Ms Ong said she disagreed. Ironically, it had appeared quite alot in like council vid and stuff this year. I believe in the quote, and I believe that I had proved her perspective of the quote wrong.
Disclaimer: Any text below will not subject me to any serious actions as it is not meant to defame or offend anyone or anything. :) I am only revealing this because I am stepping down and will no longer hold the pres position with effect of tmr & for personal reference.
A long way to becoming President of 7th Student Council.
2007.
Although this year may not be of great significance for me to Student Council, it was one where I was introduced to the various roles of being a student councillor. When I first stepped into Zhonghua, I had the mentality that i wanted to be a councillor for I was a prefect in my primary school days and wanted to have an upper edge over the others.
I admired greatly the councillors of Zhonghua at that time. Those were of course the early months of my first year in school. I remembered Leona, who was 1E5 class attachment councillor, Regina who was the PA member, Alan the famous councillor and so on.. I wanted rather greatly to be a councillor.
Then came the Sec 1 Orientation camp, when at that time. the camp was organised by the Student Council. My impression of student council deepened. Then was Lynn who was the President of the 4th Student Council, whom I also held great admiration for.
When the council interview came, I had perhaps overly prepared myself such that the interview was full of "textbook answers" and much stuttering and forgetting. My interviewer was Ms Lea that year. It had turned out that I did not make it into being a councillor that year. I had then given up my dreams of being a Student Councillor.
Later that year was Music and Movement which I had been selected as Emcee, together with Nisa. Wearing the blazer and tie was a pride for me. Ironically, JiaYi commented, "You had better wear your blazer properly hor. I don't even think I have the chance to wear it in future!"
2008.
Life passed with the usual stuffs. I signed up to be in the debate team in a bid to improve my English argumentative skills. But that's beside the point. The annual student councillor elections came again. I crossed votes with Kai Seng and Ryan from the debate team, which means to say we voted for each other. As for the teachers side, I'm not too sure. The list was up, and I was in. Elated, but not as anticipating as before since my previous failure had demoralised me.
I almost did not manage for the interview due to a school field trip. However, I approached the Vice-President of 5th SC, YiMei who told me that she will request a make up interview from Ms Ong. I remembered clearly that it was a usual afternoon when I was eating opposite with Kenan and some other 2e5 guys. Next thing I know, I was abruptly disturbed from my lunch and both of us with JinX ran across the zebra crossing to school to have our make up interview. Ms Ong was waiting there and normal procedures. We fill up the form, answered a few questions and left. This time, the interview was more natural and informal.
Hallelujah, I made it into the Student Council, together with the other Sec 2s who went for interview. First was council camp. For duties, I was attached to Regina who taught me some PA stuffs. Brandon was in PA too. So most mornings were spent in the general office or else the podium. Being in PA was something I held honour about. Recess duties, there were ppl like Bryan and Gretel in which we all went up and close the doors and chase ppl out of class rooms.
Oh and at that time, I loved council so much that I could cry for it, at times when I remembered what we all did. I look forward to any council activities and stuff. Every time the EXCOs call names for duties, I was wishing my name would be called out. Most of the times, yes it was called out. Most duties were foyer ushering. One of the particular one I would never forget is Mid Autumn Festival. Maybe its due to the evening and night environment. I remembered Brandon was claiming to block Melody from the sun (due to their contrast in height) and we were having much fun.
Council was my life. So was the tie.
That year I had spent much time studying in the library and mugging for the streaming exercise. Surprisingly, I did not treat council as a waste of my time. There was NACLI camp which I was honoured to be selected. It was very memorable, especially the nights when we would play strip poker secretly and one in particular, had to strip to his undergarments. It was hilarious and interesting. Even watching the pictures that Yi Heng kindly sent us months after the camp, made me tear of the memories. I may seem serious, but yes I do have feelings. Again, I held great admiration for the President then, Keziath who was ill for months.
At the end of the year, there was the organisation of the 2008 November Council Camp. Surprisingly, I was selected to be the AIC of the camp, together with Beatrice. Shaun, the president and IC of camp, met up with us during the holidays and we discussed through the planning of camp. It was memorable as well. Both me and Beatrice organsied some minor activities and came up with proposals and schedules. On the camp night, both of us and YiHeng had even went out of school to buy the graduating gift materials. We had to climb over the school gate.
2009.
A new class, a new beginning. Being in 3E2 had also been my dream, which was one of the motivations to work hard in sec 2. Guess it paid off. That year, being seniors of the school, tgt with the Sec 4s, I was more aware of the surroundings and stuff. I also became more bold. I also stuck much around with Beatrice due to council stuffs, which got me introduced to councillors like Xin Hui, Eugenia, Jia Yi.
In early months of 2009, me, Beatrice and XinHui went to Hwa Chong Council Investiture. The facility was nice and thus another memorable investiture. I, together with the sec3s, were put in charge of more events and was involved with higher status like ICs. I continued my morning duty at PA and other than the ins and outs of PA members, nothing much changed.
Then was the EXCO interview. To be honest, I had never dreamt of being an EXCO considering that I had joined in Sec 2. Still, the interview went on and I convinced the teacher advisors and HODs on my interest and passion in Student Council. One fine morning, I was innocently taking my newspaper and abruptly got called up. A few of us Sec 3s stood there, and Ms Ong announced that we had passed the EXCO interview. I was rather elated, but had mixed feelings as well. She pointed at 5 of us, and said we were to go to the President and VPs interview. I was speechless.
In any case, I did not have the great urge to be the President for having a position like that would bring about great responsibility and be constantly observed by the students of the school. Thus, I insisted greatly that if I had to take a position, it would be Vice-president. Also, Beatrice seemed to be a great competitor and Jetaime was no far behind. Bryan opted himself out of the interview, also his blog posts had pointed against him.
On the day of the interview, I was also called to the Drama Studio for ELDDS meeting. The eldds members voted for the ELDDS EXCO. I had no intentions to be the P and VP of ELDDS either for knowing I would attain a rather high position in council. I was voted 3rd position in ELDDS - Secretary. Being rather joyful, I proceeded down to the EXCO interview which faced Principals and Vice-Principals and HODs. We talked, we gave feedback of the school and we left. Shortly after, it was announced Margaret took position of Publicity and 3 of us went for the school elections.
We presented our Presidential election speech to the school. Results were not announced. The 12 EXCOs were selected by then and we proceeded with Investiture preparation which lasted 3 weeks of the June Holiday. Beatrice and I was also selected to be emcees of the Asian Youth Games Exchange Programme Opening Ceremony. Throughout the investiture preparation, we the excos, got to know more about each other. On the last week of June, in the midst of preparing investiture, we were called up and Ms Ong made the grand announcement. She said, "The new president is... Xavier!" I was stunned and my mouth was agape, seriously. The applause I heard was muffled in my head.
Being the president had changed quite alot of stuff. I put on a stern face and things got rather serious. The EXCO was soon falling apart, as described by Bianca, due to a number of internal conflicts. I could not do much. In fact, I was one of the main cause of it. That year was the H1N1 year thus there was no guests from other schools and meetings were rare and hard.
Through the process, I had thought about the EXCO thing quite a lot and at times, well on a daily basis. Sometimes, I would be on the brink of tears. As we trained the councillors for Investiture, things were not easy too. Investiture came and I frankly did not enjoy much of it, considering the huge grey cloud above me.
Fortunately, I called for a Trash Out Session, as suggested by Shaun, the previous President. It was held in the Council room. I was rather the target of comments and criticism. There were other 1-to-1 pointings and shoutings. Many cried then. So did I. I got to learn the real reason behind them not accepting me, in particular being unable to think on the spot and being flicker-minded. I also reasoned with them and allow them to understand me, how much hurt and tiredness I was going through. The session ended with an big EXCO hug.
Things changed. I force myself to improve by reminding myself to think on the spot and make firm decisions. When I implemented that on my self, I received commendations from Jia Yi, saying that I did remarkable improvements. From the trash out session, things were going up. At Least, my side was resolved. Another trash-out-session was held for another conflict.
Even though i wasn't labelled as the ICs for events, I still coordinated the events and ensured that they turn out successful, fulfilling my role as a President. Things were getting better. My sec 3 of being President was tiring indeed, but I persevered on. Controlling a group of 100+ councillors is not a joke. Fortunately, I had my EXCOs at my side. We were strict on council discipline, everything that we had to step in, we stepped in. We confiscated ties, scold councillors and stuff.
Meanwhile, I also worked on my proposal for vending machines and mobile phone hot spots. Vending machine proposal was sent around late 2009. However, there was no reply to it. I was OIC of the 2009 November Council Camp, managing the council camp and turning it into a success. There was still a little friction between the EXCO though, and we tried to resolve it under the stars on the 1st day of the camp.
2010.
This year. The start of a new year. My picture was published in the 2009 school magazine, many slides, school website and student handbook. Being Sec 4s, we grew more matured and stopped quarrelling over small matters. Ms Ong said its always like that, when the exco come to sec 4, they become more matured. Maybe its cause we met less and had lesser time to bother about these stuff. Anyway, by sec 4, there was no major conflicts in our EXCO. Everything was stable. We had groomed the councillors to be more behaved students.
The year was a less hectic and tiring year. In fact, I had enjoyed what much effort put in at sec 3. Its from the corner of my eyes that I do know some sec 1s hold admiration for me, just like how I had held great respect for the President in my sec 1 and 2 years. But thats beside the point. Things were more smoother and because less time was used to manage the conflicts, I approached the principal and VP2 and VP Admin with regards to the proposal of vending machine and mobile phone hotspots. I had made frequent trips to their offices to discuss with them over the matter. Ultimately, instead of inclusion of vending machine, they decided to open 1 canteen stall until 5pm and improve the queue system of canteen vendors. Thats' a fair compromise, i guess.
Then, I decided to do other stuffs to the school. So I proposed a Valentine's Day selling of roses, which was reverted to Valentine's Day Talent Performance. Proposal was accepted by VP1 and I carried out to make speech for gathering crowd and performers. With only 1 grp of performers on hand, I thought it would be a failure. In the end, many groups came to sign up for the performance. The talent performance was a great success and there was a huge crowd that clapped and sung joyfully to the guitarists. For the lower sec performance, there were some ups and downs.
Apart from that, many events were soon handled gradually to the sec 3s to handle for we also had to study for our Olevel. Playing the role of a mentor was easier although a bit of time was still taken up in guiding them. Its worthwhile after all. We guided them through the 2010 March Induction camp and introduced changes like night activity as camp fire and morning exercise as walk to Kovan for breakfast. I also took part in dialogue sessions, in particular the sec 3 one.
My EXCO had much fun together. We went out quite a number of times for lunch, birthday celebrations and movie. It was rather different from last year indeed. They had also joined me in serving detentions when our DM pointed at me alleging me of 3 detentions for not teaching the councillors which caused the sec 4 classes to come down late (which was apparently not my fault). Then investiture preparation came. With the birth of the new EXCO, we had less active roles which was good in the sense that we have more time to do our hwk and study considering we're sec 4s. Investiture preparation, as I saw the stuff that the new EXCO were doing, the stuffs that happened last year flashback. They too had their fair share of trash out session.
Tomorrow is the Investiture day, and after all these that we have gone through, we will take the walk off stage and leave student council. Although we will come back at times, it will never be the same.
In conclusion, I would like to THANK greatly all my 11 EXCO members for really supporting me through this. Council has really let me learn alot. I would also like to GRATIFY Ms Ong for patiently guiding me through. I would also like to WISH ALL THE BEST to the new 8th EXCO and hope their path will be one of joy and happiness.
This is not a speech, but a text. I remember the quote that I had used for the investiture speech last year, "Leaders are not born, they are made through hard work and determination". Ms Ong said she disagreed. Ironically, it had appeared quite alot in like council vid and stuff this year. I believe in the quote, and I believe that I had proved her perspective of the quote wrong.