Nearer the Sky: Passion

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Passion Passion provides purpose and direction, the motivation to overcome daunting obstacles and the grit to persist in the face of sometimes abject failure.

Among the many illustrious old girls of SCGS, a shared trait is passion. Thanks to a school culture that emphasised the arts, more than a few old girls had their love for the arts and performance kindled in school. SCGS nurtured their talent, encouraged them, trained them and gave them the hours of practice that led them to fame, if not fortune.

Old girls who got their start in the arts and entertainment industry include Janice Koh, the actor,

Passion is a strange thing, however.

Some people discover their passion at a young age. Yvette Cheak, for example, discovered a passion for the Girl Guides as a six-yearold. Some six decades later, she is still involved in the movement.

Tong Wenfei has been mad about animals ever since she was a baby.

Her passion for the natural world led her to obtain a PhD in biology from Harvard.

Then there are those who discover their passions a little later in life.

Cheryl Chan volunteered to work in the grassroots movement in her 20s and then discovered a passion

for it. After 10 years as a grassroots volunteer, she decided to run for office and was successfully voted into Parliament. Lawyer-turnedcorporate-titan Chew Gek Khim found her passion in keeping her grandfather’s legacy alive. Sabelle Kee’s passion for dance gave her the discipline and focus to drive a new found passion for waterskiing that has led to SEA Games medals.

Finally, there are the old girls whose passion for the school fuels their effort to conserve 37 Emerald Hill, the old premises of SCGS. What these women demonstrate is that when you are driven by passion rather than a pay cheque, a daring adventure awaits.

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former Nominated Member of Parliament and activist; Denise Tan, deejay and actor with a talent for musical theatre; Gina Tan, modelturned-singer and now actor; and Farisha Ishak, a singer with a big voice and a big heart.

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Courtesy of Janice Koh

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Janice Koh

Crazy, Not-So-Rich, Asian

When Janice Koh (SCGS: 1980 - 1989) decided to audition for a part in the 2018 romantic comedy, Crazy Rich Asians, she had very low expectations.

“When I auditioned for this movie, I had little confidence that there would be a part in it for me.”

The movie involved a conflict between two generations, and having read the book, Janice figured that she would either have to be in her 20s or her 50s to get a part.

However, this is one instance where Hollywood’s ageism worked for her and they decided to cast a woman in her 40s to play a role of a much older character.

Fortunately, the producers agreed to write her out of that one scene, but kept her in the rest of the movie. Janice had no idea all this was happening though. She only found out much later when the movie’s director, Jon M. Chu, told her about it.

The story of how Janice almost did not get to be in one of the biggest movies of 2018 illustrates the challenge of working as an actor in the film industry. Success is not always guaranteed, even if you have the skills or talent.

Sometimes you simply need a stroke of luck and good timing.

However, an actor who is driven by a sense of passion, purpose, and dedication to the craft will always find the work joyful and meaningful. Fortunately, Janice embodies such passion.

Despite the challenges involved, Janice has been acting since 1993, and is a veteran of both stage and screen. In addition to performing, Janice’s passion for the theatre also led her to be the voice of the arts community when she became a Nominated Member of Parliament between 2012 and 2014.

looking back, I realise she was an excellent teacher who wanted us to perform to the best of our potential,” recalls Janice. Mrs Fok had made the class of Primary Two girls memorise the poem Daffodils

by William Wordsworth.

“She made us perform all the images in the poem. To this day, I remember standing in front of the class, tossing my head in the breeze like a daffodil! She brought literature to life and fired up our imagination. To me, that’s the best kind of teaching.”

The other way SCGS shaped Like many old girls who end up in Janice was in giving her the arts, Janice’s time in SCGS was opportunities to perform. “Every foundational. The school played a Teacher’s Day, Children’s Day, and at every possible school seminal role in nurturing her love celebration we were encouraged of literature and the arts. Janice to organise our own concerts and pointed to one example of how performance at assembly.” the school impressed upon the girls the power of poetry. This was In fact, her first foray on stage was for a performance on Teachers’ a lesson taught by former Senior Day when she was in Primary Two, Assistant Mrs Fok. “To a Primary a story in which Mrs Fok again School girl, Mrs Fok seemed like played a significant role. the fiercest teacher in the world.

We were so scared of her. But,

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Although Janice aced the auditions, she almost did not get to be in the movie. She had been cast the role of Felicity Young, the sister-in-law of Eleanor Young (played by Michelle Yeoh), and was expected to travel to Malaysia to start filming. However, there was one scene which Janice was not able to shoot, as she was performing in a play in Singapore at the time.

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In the production, Janice was given the role of a father. One day, during rehearsals, Mrs Fok dropped in, saw what Janice was doing and was appalled. She told Janice, “No, no, no. This is not how a man behaves.”

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“She promptly showed me how to sit and read the newspapers like a father would, and even how to smoke a pipe!”

“On the day of the performance, I did my bit exactly as she taught me - and I got a standing ovation!

In the middle of the scene, she stood up and clapped and all the teachers had to stand up and clap with her!”

Although she would go on to act in numerous class productions for school events, Janice described herself as shy and only took on bit parts. She never even joined the drama club and in secondary school, she was a librarian and played tennis.

However, her love for literature led her to take up Theatre Studies and Drama as an A-Level subject at Victoria Junior College.

She thought at first it would be similar to studying Literature, but it turned out to be much more. “To me, theatre classes were so intellectually stimulating, liberating and fun. I couldn’t believe this was considered work!”

“I worked on as many theatre projects as I could with local theatre companies, especially Theatreworks, in order to learn the ropes and gain some practical knowledge and exposure,” she recalls.

She did everything in the “It was refreshing for me to finally theatre – assisting in wardrobe, discover a subject which I enjoyed stage management, acting – and as such, managed to immensely. I instinctively knew amass plenty of practical that this was what I wanted to do experience to supplement her with my life.” theoretical foundation.

After her A-Level, Janice desperately wanted to go abroad Janice subsequently earned to study theatre and performance. a Public Service Commission scholarship in 1996 to do her She successfully applied Masters in Theatre Administration to various overseas theatre programmes, but there were very at Goldsmiths College in London.

After six years of working in few arts scholarships available then. Her parents would not have the theatre, she became aware of how nascent the arts scene been able to afford the high cost in Singapore was. “We have of an overseas education. good artists. But we lacked the infrastructure back then Fortunately for her, the National for a thriving arts industry, and University of Singapore (NUS) sufficient people with the right had just started its theatre skills and experience to help it studies programme. As it was an expand further. I really wanted to academic course, Janice contribute to the scene beyond enrolled in NUS, and decided to get her acting experience outside being an actor.” of school.

Image credit to Suhaimi Abdullah, Getty Images

During her time, Janice developed the concept paper to transform the old Parliament House into an arts centre. She was part of the original team who drafted the Renaissance City proposal that secured a significant injection of government funding to the arts.

Meanwhile, the Singapore theatre scene was growing and opportunities to work in television had increased due to the formation of Mediaworks.

Companies were beginning to hire more full-time actors and projects abound.

Therefore in 2002, Janice decided to plunge into acting full-time, and has not looked back since. In her stage career, she has performed in over 60 theatre productions, both in Singapore and abroad. In 2003, she won the Life! Theatre Award for Best Actress for her performance in David Auburn’s Proof. She has also been

nominated for that same award for her roles in Loo Zihan’s With/ Out, Alfian Sa’at’s Optic Trilogy, Pangdemonium’s production of Rabbit Hole, as well as Ovidia Yu’s Hitting (On) Women. In 2016, together with the rest of the cast, she received the Best Ensemble Award at the Boh Cameron Theatre Awards for Another Country by Wild Rice.

Janice has also toured with many productions to international festivals and venues, including the Edinburgh International Arts Festival. In 2016, she toured Sandaime Richard, a work commissioned by the Singapore International Arts Festival and the

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She returned to Singapore in 1997 and worked in arts funding and strategic planning at the National Arts Council. She looks back on that time with a lot of fondness. “It is hugely rewarding to be able to see and feel the direct impact of your work on the sector.”

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Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre, to several cities across Japan. She also recently travelled to France to perform in Theatreworks’ Reunification of the Two Koreas in Paris.

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to be a representative of the arts in Singapore, which is why she accepted the offer to be a Nominated Member of Parliament in 2012. She was encouraged to apply for the position two years before, but declined at the time On television, she is known for her because she was not sure she role as ambitious lawyer Angela had the ability or the time to do Ang on the Channel 5 legal drama a good job. But when she was The Pupil, which earned her an asked again, she stepped up.

Asian Television Awards 2010 nomination for Best Performance “I came around to the idea that by an Actress in a Leading Role. this was a kind of National Service, She has also had roles in Channel and there’s no good time for me 5 and Channel 8 dramas like to do it.”

C.L.I.F., Zero Calling and Fighting Spiders. In addition to acting, She felt she had to step up she hosted Channel News because she wanted “to provide Asia’s The Art of Conversation, a a cultural lens to the issues and documentary series following the policies discussed in Parliament, journeys of Singapore’s emerging and ensure that Singapore’s creative talents. creative potential, our cultural life, our artistic legacies, and our On the silver screen, apart from heritage are also taken care of.”

Warner Brother’s Crazy Rich Asians, Janice has appeared in As the representative of the Arts Ken Kwek’s Unlucky Plaza; the in Parliament, she spoke about Hollywood action flick Hitman: the arts so much that even Prime Agent 47; and Kelvin Tong’s film, Minister (PM) Lee Hsien Loong The Offering. noticed. “At one point, PM said to me, ‘Janice, why do you always Being an actor and mother of talk about the arts?’ I told him: two boys is hard work, yet Janice ‘PM, nobody else does. I have decided that it was also important a backlog!!’”

“My intention was always to serve one term. So when I entered Parliament, I counted how many sittings there would be in my term, and how many questions I couldn’t ask. I was not going to waste any of them.”

Of her time in Parliament, she described it as being “extremely meaningful. It was rewarding to see some of the issues I raised being supported.”

As a veteran in the arts scene, she regularly has young people ask her for advice about entering the industry. “I tell them two things.

First, do what you are passionate about. Start when you are young, energetic and with a greater appetite for risk. Unlike in the corporate world, the path of an artist can be uncertain, and when life starts to take its hold – by that I mean marriage, mortgage, kids – the decision to choose a career in the arts becomes that much harder.

Second, if you do not have the stomach for the excitement of a freelance arts career, and prefer to take the tried and tested path, that’s okay too. No guilt.”

With/Out (2017), commissioned and presented by Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay, Singapore for The Studios 2017. Photo Credit: Tuckys Photography

“Nothing comes without practice and hard work.

Your innate ability and talent, while wonderful, will not be fully realised if you’re not willing to put in the hours of practice.”

Janice certainly practises what she preaches. She has worked very hard and made numerous sacrifices to get where she is today. Some people might question her decisions and call her crazy, and she is certainly not private banker rich because of her career choices. However, her sincere dedication to her craft, her courage in taking the road less travelled, her generosity of spirit in speaking up for what she believes in, and her service to the nation as an actor, an NMP and an activist, make her someone that Singapore, and SCGS can be proud of.

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“I do believe the desire and hunger to communicate artistically and creatively still emerges somehow. I don’t think it can be so easily extinguished. It is a human need to express yourself, and if you are so lucky to find your voice and talent — whether through painting, writing or performing — believe me, few would be able to suppress it!”

However, she cautions,

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Yvette Cheak

Being prepared for life, and for a Lifetime

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Courtesy of/ Yvette Cheak

This is what passion looks like: a grandmother of five who volunteers to go on a five-day, four-night camp because by adding to the number of adults attending the camp, more girls get to attend the camp as well.

Passion also looks like this: a woman who has spent over six decades, almost her entire life, being part of the Girl Guides movement.

In short, passion looks like Yvette Cheak.

Yvette started as a Brownie at the age of seven, became a Girl Guide as a teenager, and then a Ranger, a version of the Guides for older girls. When she became too old to be a Ranger, she

Courtesy of Yvette Cheak

The coffee shop was a roaring success. “The kopitiam was filled with people all the time,” she says proudly. Trefoil members made and sold food and drinks, and the money raised was donated to the association. Yvette herself contributed a banana walnut cake.

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The ability to solve problems joined the Girl Guides Association send teachers for the camp, which creatively, honed by decades of and eventually rose to become experience as a Girl Guide, also meant that the Guides from Chief Commissioner, the highest came in handy. One of the Trefoil those schools would not be able executive post possible. Today, volunteers had wanted to make to attend. in her late-60s, she is the Vice sambal udang (a spicy prawn President of the Singapore “A decision was made: let’s stand dish) but had forgotten to bring Trefoil Guild, a group of veteran the assam (tamarind). They were in for the teachers.” Because of Girl Guides. briefly stumped until Dr Eileen Yvette and other volunteers, no Aw, another Trefoil volunteer one lost the opportunity to join It was partly thanks to Yvette and suddenly said: “Wait! Wait! I saw a the camp. other Trefoil members that a belimbing tree in the MOE camp!” major Girl Guides camp held in (The Ministry of Education’s While it was no Club Med, the 2017 was so successful.

Adventure Camp was just next camp proved to be plenty of fun door to them.) Dr Aw then went for the Trefoil Guild members.

The camp, which was held in over and “liberated” some sour Among other things, the Trefoil November, was organised to volunteers ran a coffeeshop at the belimbing fruits to stand in for the celebrate the 100th anniversary camp and Yvette was in charge of missing tamarind. Recalled Yvette: of the Guiding movement in “It’s very much like the Girl Guides it. “I was the kopitiam boss,” she Singapore. However, some laughs. She even bought a Good to react like that, to find creative schools in Singapore could not solutions to problems.”

Morning towel for the occasion.

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Yvette’s passion for the Girl Guides was sparked in Primary One at Anthony Road Primary School. “I saw the older girls running around the toadstool and I wanted to be part of it.” (‘Running around a toadstool’ is a Brownie tradition before starting meetings.)

When she joined SCGS in 1963, becoming a Girl Guide was the natural next step. Being older, the Guides could do much more than they could as brownies. “As a Guide, we had a lot of fun. We learnt skills like tying knots and cooking outdoors.”

After leaving SCGS, she went on to Raffles Girls School, and then the University of Singapore.

However, she never stopped being a Guide. Upon starting her pre-university course, she became a Land Ranger under the Open Company, which was not associated with any school.

As a Ranger, she continued the outdoor activities she enjoyed as a Guide: the camping, the hiking and the campfires. She even joined a marching band where she played the bass drum.

Courtesy of Yvette Cheak

Being a Ranger was not all fun and games; community service was also very important. For Yvette, that involved volunteering at the School for the Blind, where she helped to convert books into Braille. Yvette, together with other Rangers, even led a Boys’ Club at Cairnhill Community Centre for a while. However, perhaps her most important contribution was helping to set up and run the Second Company at SCGS. This was in 1967 and Yvette had just left SCGS, having taken her O-Levels the year before.

Miss Beatrice Wee, the teacher in charge of the Girl Guides at the school, asked her to come back to help start the Second Company. Guiding had become so popular that the First Company was forced to turn away girls who were interested. A company could only have 40 girls, so once this threshold was reached, no new girls could join.

Miss Wee, who was passionate about Guiding, approached Yvette and two other old girls — Tan Choon Hwa and Ng Swee Miang (who later became Sister Angela)

Image Court

“Miss Wee said it would be so sad if they cannot come in.” The girls gladly agreed. “We just enjoyed guiding and we wanted to pass it on. ”The three ex-SCGS Girl Guides joined as Lieutenants and the Second Company was born.

Yvette would spend her Saturday mornings at school with the younger girls, and then rush off to her Ranger activities in the afternoon.

Image credit to Ministry of Information and the Arts Collection, Courtesy of National Archive of Singapore

One of her proudest achievements at the time was being made deputy camp commandant for a camp organised by Miss Wee. It was a big deal at the time because it was the first outdoor camp organised by Miss Wee and involved about 60 girls from both Guides companies.

“It was a very big responsibility for me at the time. I was nervous; I wasn’t sure if I could carry it out,” Yvette recalls.

The camp was held at the school field of Jurong Primary School, in, what was then a rural part of Singapore. What made it extra memorable was that the field was just next to Bulim Chinese Cemetery.

Fortunately, the camp went well.

“The girls enjoyed themselves and we enjoyed ourselves.”

Yvette served as a Lieutenant at the Second Company for about six years and only stepped down after she started her first job in 1973, which was with the Monetary Association of Singapore. By that time, there were enough teachers involved with the Guides and Yvette’s departure did not hurt the Second Company.

Although unable to serve at SCGS, she continued being a Ranger until she reached the cut-off age of 25. She then joined the executive committee of the Girl Guides Association where, among other things, she served as a General Administration Commissioner and as Deputy Chief Commissioner.

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— to ask if they would come back to help set up another Girl Guides company in the school.

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In 1998, she became Chief Commissioner, a post she held for six years. Later, she joined the Trefoil Guild but took a break from holding office until 2016 when she became the Vice-President of the Guild.

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Inspired by her example, her three sons joined the Boys Scouts and two of them eventually became President’s Scouts, the highest scouting rank possible.

Courtesy of Yvette Cheak

Despite devoting so much time to serving the Guiding movement in Singapore, Yvette did not neglect her career. After eight years in the Monetary Association of Singapore, she moved to the commercial sector, where she held senior positions at the Industrial Commercial Bank, Overseas Union Bank, Standard Chartered Bank, and Ernst and Young before joining BNP Paribas in 2000 as Regional Head of Compliance for Southeast Asia.

Her determination to keep active extends to her life in the Trefoil Guild; being in the guild is not

merely about running coffee shops. She still attends campfires and was recently in a speed boat keeping a watchful eye over Guides who were canoeing.

Yvette and the other members of the Trefoil Guild still embark on hikes as well. In July 2018, some guild members, together with a group of veteran Scouts, walked through Kampong Lorong Buangkok and then made their way to Punggol MRT station, an expedition that lasted about five hours and involved walking in the

rain. After enduring the elements for a few hours, they decided that for the sake of some of the older Guild members on the hike, one of whom was 84-years-old, it might make sense to use public transport for part of the way. They took the bus and then the MRT to eventually reach the Waterway Point mall for lunch.

Looking back, Yvette said that her experience in SCGS was instrumental in shaping her into the person she is today and singled out some teachers for praise, such as Mrs Jean Chan, Miss GC Teo and Miss Beatrice Wee. “The teachers showed us by example what commitment, passion and discipline meant.”

Her experience as a Girl Guide at SCGS was also critical.

“We learned responsibility.

We learned that we had to do things, and do them properly.“ “Girl Guides forever: A sisterhood that’s lasted over 50 years” Source: www.channelnewsasia.com | CNA Insider | Published 5 August 2018

Overall, she said, “I am very blessed to have had all those experiences at SCGS.”

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Although she has retired from full-time employment, she still continues to be involved with the financial services industry. She is an advisor to the Association of Banks in Singapore, an adjunct associate professor at the Wealth Management Institute at Nanyang Technological University, and she runs her own consultancy called Ace Compliance.

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Courtesy of Denise Tan

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Denise Tan

A Deejay with Stage Presence To say Denise Tan (SCGS: 1982 ­- 1991) is a multi-talented entertainer is an understatement. She is a stage actress perhaps best known for her many roles in musical theatre, entertains listeners daily on the radio and has hosted TV shows Memento Singapore, Denise Likes the Arts and LOL. Her most challenging role yet, however, is as the creative director of SCGS’ 120th Anniversary Production Being: Glad That I Live, a production that featured some 300 performers from the performing arts CCAs of both the primary and secondary school.

Denise describes her job as creative director as being “the most difficult thing I have ever done so far in my life.” It involved everything she has done during her career, but on a much larger scale. “When your job is to pull the show together and you have to make the big decisions and make sure you see the big picture, as well as zoom in on the nitty gritty, it really gives you new insights and enormous respect for the many people who work quietly behind the scenes. It really does take an army of dedicated labourers to pull off something like this.”

The success of the event, held on February 23, 2019 at the MES Theatre at Mediacorp, is a tribute to the hard work of everyone involved, including, of course, Denise.

Denise’s contribution to the event is, in part, a way of paying back to the school, which played a significant role in making her the talented performer she is today.

In fact, her first introduction to the theatre was through SCGS when the school invited Act3 to perform for the girls. “I was like, ‘mind-blown’”.

Mrs Goh wanted to start a choir in the school, so she sought out talented girls who might be interested. Denise had taken part in the school talentime and had sung in three-part harmony so she was talent-spotted to join.

This was the very start of the SCGS choir and it was an exciting time.

All the girls in the core group became heavily invested in the Denise joined the English Literary effort. It was not just about the singing but the whole process Drama and Debating Society of starting up a brand new CCA. (ELDDS) in primary school and Among other things, the girls would repeatedly volunteer designed and made fliers to to write and perform skits at recruit more singers to join and assembly. She continued acting eventually, a sizeable number did, with the ELDDS until Secondary including Gina Tan, who would Three, when Mrs Angela Goh (then Miss Angela Ong) joined the later be discovered by veteran Taiwanese singer Tracy Huang. school and started up the school choir. In Secondary Three, Denise Denise found the discipline of “defected” from ELDDS to being in the choir extremely the choir, and began to lay helpful. She had been assigned to the foundations for her sing alto, so she had to learn how subsequent career. to harmonise with those singing the melodies. It trained her to listen “Miss Angela Ong was this pretty carefully to others. young teacher. She was new and exciting and closer in age to us.

We all enjoyed her teaching style.”

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Looking back at the experience, Denise says that “there was elation, huge relief and also a little disbelief that we accomplished something that seemed almost impossible to do at first.”

She also enjoyed the whole effort of blending their voices so that no one voice would stand out.

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“You work together and you get a beautiful sound. It’s so satisfying.”

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The time in the choir turned Denise into a better singer, thanks to all the practising and the opportunities to perform.

“My singing training came from these opportunities.

The school nurtured the raw ability which later went on to help me professionally.”

Image credit to Singapore Repertory Theatre

In 1998, Theatreworks was poised to commemorate Dick Lee’s musical Beauty World with a 10th Anniversary re-staging.

Denise had recently returned to Singapore from the University of Leeds, having majored in English Literature and Theatre Studies, and was facilitating drama workshops for school children.

She heard about the auditions and decided to throw her hat in the ring.

“I was the last person on the last day of the auditions. I remember I felt very stupid. I put my hair in braids and I wore a samfoo.

I went in. I read. I sang. Then I set it aside because I didn’t think anything would come out of the audition.

“Then I heard from Casey Lim (the director) who told me that unfortunately, they didn’t have a role for me.”

A few weeks later, he called back and said, “I really couldn’t stop thinking about how I enjoyed your singing so we’ll try and create something for you.” She ended up getting the role of a cabaret singer with two songs to perform.

That was her first big break on the Singapore stage.

As exciting as it was to be in the theatre, it was also tough because the scene was still relatively young at the time. It was the 1990s and theatre was still largely an amateur scene. Actors were badly paid, if at all. After two years as a full-time actor, Denise decided that she couldn’t continue only doing the theatre productions to make ends meet. “I had to be smart and look for other sources of income.”

Image credit to Singapore Repertory Theatre

with Mediacorp as a deejay.

Today, she is a regular voice on Mediacorp’s Gold 905 and she has now found a happy balance being both a deejay and an actress.

While she has been cast in a number of non-singing roles, she is perhaps best known for her work in musical theatre. She has performed with Sebastian Tan in various stagings of his “It’s about how you draw musical stand-up comedy revue, people in. It’s very similar Broadway Beng. In 2008, to theatre - you’re painting she was again involved in a pictures in people’s minds.” re-staging of Beauty World, this time commemorating the She left radio briefly in 2005 and 20th anniversary of the original made her return to theatre, but since 2008, has also been working production. She played the part

of Lulu, a villainous cabaret singer.

In addition, she was also one of the lead characters, Bee Lean, in the other iconic Dick Lee musical Fried Rice Paradise in 2010.

One of the hardest roles she has taken on is replacing the late actress Emma Yong in the comedy cabaret trio, the Dim Sum Dollies.

It was a bittersweet experience for her because stepping into a revered friend’s shoes just one year after her death was emotionally draining, yet also fruitful and rewarding. Denise recalls, “I am so grateful for having been able to be a part of that legacy.”

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In 2000, she got a full-time job with SAFRA Radio’s Power 98 and launched her radio career on Valentine’s Day, while the theatre is very visual and radio is not, they are not polar opposites. There are many similarities between radio and theatre, says Denise. “It’s just another aspect of performance.

There’s a certain amount of skill, theatrical artifice, that is involved.

“There’s also improvisation if you’re working with a partner. And if you are working alone, there is the script that you write.

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To some, Denise looks like she is living the dream. She works in a glamorous industry, and she has the chance to follow her passion in theatre. However, Denise is quick to point out that it’s not all wine and roses. “You feel, when you reach a certain age, that this is a game for the young, the beautiful and the shiny.”

This is an industry that requires passion, but there was once when Denise felt like, “I cannot do it anymore. I have lost the plot. It frightens you so much because this is your first love.”

How then do you rekindle that fire?

“You need to find a way to renegotiate, and figure it out. You have to start wondering — why am I doing it? And if you don’t have a good answer, then you have to investigate, or relate to your chosen path in a different way, or maybe even think — is this my chosen path? Or can my path change?”

This explains why she became involved in the school’s 120th anniversary production as its creative director, a job that she

had never taken on before.

However, she is very glad that she undertook a role that sparked off a new discovery. “Giving back is always going to be part of my future. The experience was a reminder that there’s no use keeping your skills to yourself — you grow more and learn more if you share and impart what you know to others.”

To girls who are dreaming of a career on stage or showbusiness, Denise is encouraging, but with reservations. “If you had asked me 10 years ago, I would say ‘go for it’. But now I’m a little bit more cautious. Follow your dream but know that the road to your dreams may be rocky.

“There’s going to be highs and there’s going to be lows. Your dream may also be attained and be taken away. It’s about you being dogged about getting it back.”

“I feel you should always follow your passion. But I think that has to be tempered with practicality and discipline. Are you talented enough? Are you hardworking enough?”

“I won’t say I’m the most talented person in the world but I have a very strong work ethic. I work very, very hard. If I can’t get the dance move, I’m there practising 10 million times while everyone has gone home.”

That is why Denise believes the stability that family and close friends provide is essential.

“You need to have a very strong support network who will spur you on.”

The other thing about following your passion in the arts is that this may not be the path to riches.

“When you’re young, you know this but you don’t care. You live in the moment, for the present, and the future is always very, very far away. When you get older, you realise you need to be practical about paying the bills, making ends meets and planning for the future.”

Looking ahead, she says she wants to “keep choosing projects carefully, doing things that I love, things that really speak to me, that I will enjoy or that will teach me something new.”

Courtesy of SCGS Courtesy of Denise Tan

“I’m not in a huge hurry or race to fame and fortune.

I just want to make sure I stay in the game for as long as possible without burning out and to feel like what I did had meaning and purpose.”

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Tong Wenfei No Bird Brain

Whenever you go hiking in bear country, bring bear spray.

Bear spray — which is like pepper spray, but for bears rather than muggers — is so important that according to Tong Wenfei (SCGS: 1989 - 1998), when she is out hiking, “I might not always bring water but I will always bring bear spray.”

Wenfei’s advice comes not from her Harvard PhD in evolutionary biology, but from her experience as a nature guide in the US state of Montana.

Her closest encounter with a bear was while doing a bird survey. She heard scuffling in a tree and then saw two bear cubs climbing the tree. While it was sensational to see them, she said, her first instinct was to leave the scene.

“I just backed off slowly and looked at the cubs through binoculars.” This is not because bear cubs are dangerous but because mother bears are.

Courtesy of Tong Wenfei

“My mother and I acquired our instructed the girls to dissect the love for reading and the English fish, pointing out different organs language from my grandmother, like the swim bladder.

Lee Seok Tin, who taught literature at SCGS,” she notes.

“It was just really nice

A passion for animals is one thing, but the desire to classify, study and understand them is something else altogether. As “My parents have this funny story a young girl, she memorised about how I was going ‘baba’. My dog breeds and practised father was thrilled that I was finally by identifying pet dogs she calling him papa. I was not. I was encountered. However, it was just pointing at a sheep on only when she discovered birds the wall.” that her love for nature really took flight. She was about 12 when a Today, Wenfei is a professor pair of bulbuls decided to nest teaching biology at the University in a potted plant outside her of Alaska in Anchorage, a post she bathroom window. That sparked assumed in August 2018. Along her interest in all things avian and the way, she studied mice in she became an avid birdwatcher.

Bulgaria, delivered lectures in the Galapagos, and dodged In SCGS, Wenfei’s interest was bears in Montana. nurtured by teachers. One “Growing up, any book with an animal on the cover, I would want to read.” That lead her to reading Animal Farm in Primary One because of the book’s title, she recalls. Her mother subsequently explained communism and allegories to the young and slightly puzzled animal lover.

memorable science lesson took place in Primary Five and involved Mrs Ng Leng Eng, the VicePrincipal of the primary school.

At the time, Mrs Ng was filling in for the regular science teacher.

Mrs Ng felt that the girls needed firsthand experience with the natural world, so she went to the wet market and bought enough fish for every student. She then

because little girls don’t often get encouraged to deal with what might be slimy or disgusting. She was so matter-of-fact about it and we had so much fun poking around with these things.”

In secondary school, Wenfei fondly remembers her form teacher, Miss Audrey Tan. Miss Tan would let her sit next to the window so that she could watch the birds flying around the old trees behind Dunearn Road.

“She would let me say in the middle of class, ‘The kingfishers!

The kingfishers have arrived!’

And she would go, ‘Oh girls, the kingfishers are here!’ And everyone would go to the balcony and look at the kingfishers.”

The school also helped cultivate her artistic side. “I did a lot of drawing and much of this was encouraged by SCGS, such as when my friend Jiejun and I sold the few stickers I designed to raise money for SCGS.” She also designed numerous class t-shirts

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Some people discover their passion late in life, after trying out different pursuits and experimenting with new things.

Not Wenfei. From very early on, she loved animals. As an infant, after her first words calling out to her mother, her next words were the words for different animals.

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over the years. She has since though graduated to watercolours of birds and other animals that she now sells online.

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Ironically, this Harvard-trained biologist did not study biology in SCGS. Only the sole top class in the school, could take physics, chemistry and biology, and Wenfei had not done well enough to qualify to be in that class. She does not see this as a loss, however.

“I looked at the biology syllabus and I realised that I wasn’t very interested in it because it was mainly human physiology and it was all geared for people who want to be in medical school.”

As Wenfei grew older, her interest in birds eventually became an interest in evolutionary biology.

This was boosted when Dr. Shawn Lum, one of her mentors from the Nature Society and now a professor at the Nanyang Technological University, gave her the book, The Beak of the Finch, which is about a couple who studied finches in the Galapagos and who demonstrated the power of natural selection.

Around this time, Wenfei began toying with the idea of becoming a vet because she wanted to work with animals. She had applied to different vet schools in the UK but inspired by the book, she also applied to Princeton where the couple featured in the book, Peter and Rosemary Grant, worked. It was at Princeton that she eventually discovered that a person who likes animals could pursue a career as a biologist, and On these tours, people get to not just be a vet. see wildlife like bison, bears, elk, pronghorn, deer and foxes.

From Princeton (where she graduated summa cum laude), she moved to Harvard where her PhD thesis was focused on mound-building mice found mainly in Eastern Europe. While at Harvard, she also had chance to visit places such as the Galapagos and Tanzania, where she travelled for free in return for delivering lectures to wealthy Harvard alumni on tour.

That was followed by a two-year stint in Cambridge before she was offered a research job at the University of Montana. It was in the open spaces of Montana that she started a company called Big Sky Safaris providing nature tours.

“The bison are in herds of hundreds so it is quite spectacular to see them,” she says.

While she has a deep and abiding love for animals, that has not stopped her eating them. In fact, she rather likes eating meat, and is partial to organ meat like the heart, liver and tongue.

In fact, she also hunts as well. It is not the killing of animals that she enjoys, but the eating of them.

“I do think it’s important to try and eat animals as ethically as possible.”

That passion for birds will be translated into a book that she is “I think it’s better to eat a deer now working on. Titled Bird Love, that’s running around happy, killed cleanly, and is not damaging the book will look at the love life and family life of birds, which to the environment, than to eat are more interesting than most a cow from a feedlot. Besides people realise. which, hunting pays for a large proportion of habitat conservation The book will feature birds from – often more than what birders all over the world, including and photographers contribute.”

Singapore. Apart from the red junglefowl, which is the ancestor Alaska, with its abundant wildlife to the domestic chicken, other and wide open spaces, is an birds that readers in Singapore ideal place for someone like would recognise include the Wenfei. In addition, it was a Asian koel, and many migratory good professional opportunity shorebirds. It will not be an as it allowed both her and her academic work, but rather a husband a chance to work in the work of popular science. “It’s same university. She is looking forward to learning to fly a plane, hopefully something you will get for Christmas for someone who going hunting, and doing lots of likes animals.” cross-country skiing in Alaska.

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Courtesy of Tong Wenfei

SINGAPORE CHINESE GIRLS’ SCHOOL

Courtesy of Tong Wenfei

She is also anxious to do plenty of birdwatching. “The bird watching will be fantastic, partly because the migratory birds breed up in Alaska.”

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Source: Berita Harian © Singapore Press Holdings Limited.

Reprinted with permission

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Farisha Ishak

No Problems being Heard

It is obvious to anyone who hears her sing that Farisha Ishak (SCGS: 2007 - 2010) has talent. She has a warm, soulful, room-filling voice and tremendous stage presence.

Farisha demonstrated that talent amply when she became the inaugural winner of the reality singing competition ‘The Final 1’ in August 2013. Farisha has since gone on to record an album and sung in live shows and concerts.

But raw talent alone is not enough to ensure success. It needs to be spotted, cultivated, encouraged and given the chance to blossom. Farisha found all that in SCGS.

such as learning to sight sing.

“Mrs Goh taught us how to do that and subsequently, in my career, I picked up melodies and harmonies quickly because I was able to sight sing.”

“When I joined SCGS, I didn’t really want to do sports so I looked up the SC choir.”

Then there was just the constant opportunity to practise and to be around other people who loved to sing. Farisha loved the choir camps in particular. “We would sing all the time. We once had a session in the school amphitheatre at 10pm.”

Unfortunately, she had missed the auditions because she had been dithering about joining. However, having decided to join, the then 12-year-old decided to give it a shot. “I went to the choir room and l asked Mrs Goh if I could still audition for the choir.”

Mrs Angela Goh told her to go ahead and Farisha sang Angels Brought Me Here by Guy Sebastian.

“Mrs Goh didn’t give any indication for how the audition went. Needless to say I was worried! But the next thing I knew, I made the cut for SC Choir - the best thing that happened to me in SCGS.” Being in the choir was tremendously helpful for Farisha.

She picked up important skills

It was thanks to the musical theatre element of the choir that

Courtesy of SCGS

Farisha got the opportunity to sing a solo part for the first time.

While she was in the choir, Farisha also teamed up with four other girls to form an acappella group.

That group went to audition for a ChildAid concert organised by The Straits Times and they sought Mrs Angela Goh’s help to write out the scores for the harmonies for the songs Summertime and Feeling Good that the group, Rhythmist V, would perform.

“That was the best time ever.

We would always meet up after school and practise again after

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Growing up, Farisha had always loved music but she never thought of joining her school choir in primary school. In fact, she almost did not end up in the school choir in SCGS either.

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222

choir practice. We would sit on the After leaving SCGS, Farisha swings at the amphitheatre and went to Victoria Junior College we would just sing together.” but decided not to join its choir because while the choir there was She recalled how Mrs Angela Goh very good, “the one thing they was always ready to lend a hand. didn’t have was musical theatre.”

“Mrs Goh was a big help. Before She did continue performing, the audition, and leading up to however, and won third place in a the concert, she was always there music festival in VJC. to refine the harmonies.”

One day, after the A-Level Being in the SC Choir was examinations were over and she important to Farisha, who became was just waiting for the results, the Chairman of the choir group. she saw a TV commercial for The “My time in the SC Choir played Final 1. She sent in an audition a big part in giving me a sense of belonging.

“Whenever school got hard, I would always look forward to choir practice. You could just sing your heart out and be yourself.”

Mrs Angela Goh was a big part of what made the experience special. “Mrs Goh was always there for us. She was more than just a choir conductor. She was a mentor and an inspiration to many of us.”

“After choir practice, if I had any questions, I would talk to her and she would willingly stay back to answer questions.”

Courtesy of SCGS

Her family was with her throughout the journey. Her older brother, especially, worked with her closely. They would discuss how she should approach each song, and he would watch her practise and offer advice on how to improve. Farisha’s family was sitting in the front row of the audience, and as they were announcing the results, she said she just focused on them all the time. “I was just looking at my family. I just wanted to make them proud.”

When the results were announced, the news didn’t register immediately. “It felt so surreal, but when my family started celebrating, I immediately broke into tears. The achievement felt overwhelming.”

Courtesy of Farisha Ishak

Winning the competition meant a record deal and a cash prize as well. Those were the upsides. The downside was that Farisha had to put her plans for university on hold. She had just won a major music competition, she was riding a wave of publicity, and her label strongly advised her to focus solely on her music career.

She had a place at the National University of Singapore but decided to take a two-year leave of absence to focus on her music career.

The decision was not an easy one because she already had her future planned out: she would join a hall, immerse herself in university life, and pursue her interest in international relations.

Embarking on a career in music was a very sudden change of direction.

Being a public figure also posed new challenges. Apart from the pressure to record songs, she had to be careful about her appearance all the time.

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SCGS

tape, as did more than a thousand other people. Her talent shone, however, and she was picked to be among the original 60 finalists.

Those contestants, over the next few months, would be whittled down, stage by stage, until just two finalists were left to battle it out head-to-head.

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She was with Hype Records for two years and then struck out on her own. Being an independent artiste meant the freedom to decide one’s musical direction, but also it meant that she no longer had access to resources. Musicians need to use social media to publicise themselves, and music videos on YouTube are an important platform as well. Being a talented singer is important, but not enough.

While music fills half her heart, her passion for learning fills the other.

She resumed her undergraduate studies at the National University of Singapore (NUS) and majored in Global Studies specialising in Policy Making, with a focus on the Americas.

Still, Farisha’s passion for music means that she did not give up on singing. Even as an undergraduate, she was performing, which meant crazy things like performing at a live concert on a Friday night and sitting for a Political Science examination the next morning.

“I had my notes and I was trying to study while getting my makeup done.” She ended up not sleeping at all that night, having gotten home at 2am. She still

managed to do relatively well for that examination.

Farisha also sang the National Anthem for the 2016 Singapore Formula 1 Grand Prix and the 2017 National Day Parade, both highlights of her music career. Additionally, she sang for President Halimah Yacob (a SCGS alumna) at a community lunch tribute, and performed a set at the SCAPE Invasion Tour 2017. Of course, she has also performed at SCGS. Her music career had also paved the way for hosting and acting opportunities. In 2014, she hosted an educational documentary which took her across the border to trace her roots. She has been given English and Malay acting roles on TV as well.

Farisha is not content with just performing, however, she wants to use her platform to inspire others and she speaks on panel discussions and at career guidance fairs. In 2017, she spoke on a panel organised by the Singapore Muslim Women’s Association to talk about social media and its impact on young women today. In the panel, she described how social media made

her focus on her appearance and image, and how hard that was. As an artiste and a young woman, she has had her fair share of being criticised on social media and over time, she had to learn to ignore the negativity.

“You get to a point where you just can’t let yourself get affected by it. You develop a newfound confidence that fuels a positive nonchalance for what people think about you.”

“Of course it takes time, and I am still working on developing that confidence.”

Farisha graduated from NUS with an honours degree in May 2019 and is now working full time for a market research company.

She is also actively involved with the Africa-South East Asia Chamber of Commerce, where she interned in her last semester at NUS. She remains involved with the organisation through report writing and case research, allowing her to fulfil her passion for international relations.

Despite being a full-time working professional, Farisha still has her sights on music. She has written

Courtesy of Farisha Ishak

to that. “Then I called her up on stage. Her face was so red but her reaction was so heart-warming it made me tear up!”

Farisha began writing her own songs in 2015. She had just released her debut album the previous year and was itching to write more original songs.

Farisha had loved coming up with melodies but was hindered by her limited ability to play instruments.

Naturally, the first person she called for help was Mrs Goh. With no hesitation, Mrs Goh invited her over to her home for piano lessons and lent her books to guide her. Within a few lessons, Farisha was well-equipped

with chord progressions and arrangement styles on the piano. This also motivated her to self-learn the guitar, using the same skills she picked up from lessons with Mrs Goh. Since then, she has written all her songs on the piano and guitar.

The regard that Farisha has for Mrs Angela Goh can be seen in the Teacher’s Day performance at SCGS in 2016 when Farisha made a surprise appearance on stage and sang the song Flashlight by Jessie J that she dedicated to her.

Farisha talked about how much she enjoyed being in the choir and how Mrs Goh was central

“I’m beginning a new chapter in my life and I’m so excited for the many opportunities that lie ahead in my professional career and my music. I enjoy the flexibility of being an independent artiste, but I am aware that it takes a lot of discipline and hard work to balance work and music.”

“Nonetheless, it’s never about choosing one over the other.

As long as music makes me happy, I will always, always pursue it in whatever capacity I can.”

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songs in both English and Malay over the years, and plans to record them professionally before releasing them as an independent artiste.

Thanks to her singing and now songwriting prowess, Farisha is looking forward to the freedom of being an independent artiste.

“I’m very thankful for how the system works now. You have a lot of control over how your music is produced and released. I plan to take advantage of this, and fully enjoy the process of music-making.”

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226 “12 Cabinet members voted into PAP’s CEC” Source: www.todayonline.com Photo: Ooi Boon Keong Published 8 December 2014

Cheryl Chan

A Voice of the People

Some people discover their passion as children, whether that is dance, animals or the Girl Guides. Others, on the other hand, only discover their passion a little later in life.

Cheryl Chan (SCGS: 1983 - 1992) belongs to the latter group.

She was in her mid-20s when she discovered a passion for grassroots work. Starting as a volunteer, she became increasingly involved in helping residents and began taking on greater responsibilities, such as becoming the Chairperson of the Community Club Management Committee (CCMC).

Her passion for helping others was taken to a whole new level when she was unveiled as the People’s Action Party’s candidate for Fengshan Single-Member Constituency (SMC) during the 2015 General Elections.

Being a Member of Parliament (MP) was not something she had planned on doing. “When I started out as a volunteer, I never thought about getting into politics. I only wanted to help people.”

Her entry into grassroots work began around 2005 when she read an article about underprivileged children. The article was about how the PAP Women’s Wing had been helping these children. Inspired, she emailed them to say she wanted to volunteer with them. Rather than ask her to sign up, they directed her to her MP. “They said: ‘If you want to help people, please look for your MP, Mr Raymond Lim.’”

particularly tough. “All kinds of people walk in. Some are abusive.

They don’t see you as a volunteer.

They think you are part of the party that they elected in and they expect you to help them regardless of what their problem is.”

visits. She remembers the case of a man in his late 30s who had two sons. The man was unemployed and they had no money, so the boys were living on bread alone.

Their three-room flat was bare. “I saw a completely empty home.”, she recalls.

While some volunteers get disheartened by these conditions, Cheryl persevered because she felt she was able to make a difference.

The grassroots volunteers helped the man find a clerical job and they put the kids on a meal programme so that the boys could get proper, regular meals.

One of the early cases that left an impression was that of a mother of four children. Her husband was in jail and one of her children was physically handicapped, so the woman could not take on a fulltime job. Her eldest child could not continue school because she could not afford his school fees.

Over time, she became more and more involved in grassroots activities and in 2012, was asked to become the Chairperson of the CCMC. As Chairperson, she started a children’s club for disadvantaged children in the area. These were children who lived in rental flats, or who came from single-parent homes.

The woman came to the MPS to ask for help and Cheryl wrote to all the different agencies to obtain assistance for this lady. In the end, they helped her find a part-time job and the boy eventually made it to university.

That is how she ended up volunteering at Mr Lim’s Meetthe-People sessions (MPS). Even in the best of times, volunteer work, in general, is not glamorous. As a grassroots volunteer, she also accompanied Mr Lim on his house Volunteering at an MPS is

Each month, the club volunteers would teach children a new craft, taught by volunteers.

The club would also organise birthday celebrations for these children. This is something the children really looked forward to, especially if their parents struggled to afford luxuries like birthday parties.

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She won and since then, has been juggling her full-time job at gas and engineering company Linde, with the responsibility of representing the residents of Fengshan, which is in Bedok.

Courtesy of Cheryl Chan

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leader, but she was content to be able to just volunteer and play a supporting role to the MP of the area, Mr Lim. However, in 2014, Mr Lim unexpectedly asked if she would be interested in standing for elections.

“Mr Lim broached the topic after one of the house visits and I looked at him in shock.”

228 Apart from the children’s club, she also started a programme for senior citizens. On her watch, the CCMC established a tie-up with Bedok Green Secondary School where students would befriend the elderly in the district. The befrienders and other partners would bring meals to elderly residents and talk to them, to make them feel that there are people who care about them.

Outings would also be organised for these seniors.

For about a decade, she steadily rose up the ranks as a grassroots

She took a month to think it over. Being a private person, she knew that if she entered politics, she would be in the glare of the media. In addition, she wanted to continue her private sector job as well.

On the other hand, she knew that as a politician, she would be in a position to help more people than she could if she was just a grassroots leader.

When she asked her parents for advice, they were not immediately receptive, but remained encouraging. It helped that there was already a precedent in the family. Her aunt, Mdm Chan

Courte

Cheryl also spoke to senior executives in her company, a German multinational, obtain their blessing.

Courtesy of Cheryl Chan

In the end, she agreed to stand for elections, motivated by a desire to pay it forward. In addition, she felt that as an MP, she would have the ability to truly make an impact. “If you are a responsible politician, you really can make changes.”

At the 2015 General Elections, the party put her up as a candidate in her old stomping ground of Fengshan, which was carved out of East Coast Group Representation Constituency into

a Single-Member Constituency.

From the outside, it looked like an odd move to put a relative unknown into a single-ward hot seat. While perhaps unknown to the rest of Singapore, thanks to her decade-long history of grassroots work there, she was well-known in the area. In the end, she won handily, winning 57.5 per cent of the votes cast.

As a lawmaker, she now has even more power to influence policy.

Apart from commenting on bills tabled in Parliament, she also gives feedback to the different ministries even as the bills are being drafted. This is because she is a member of a number of Government Parliamentary Committees (GPCs) to scrutinise policy and provide feedback.

Cheryl is a member of the GPC for Finance and Trade and Industry; Manpower and National Development (MND).

With her position on the GPC for National Development, for example, she was able to shape

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Choy Siong, had been a pioneer People’s Action Party (PAP) MP between 1959 and 1970. In fact, Mdm Chan played an important role in Singapore’s history. She had started the Women’s League within the PAP and as an MP, was one of the prime movers of the 1961 Women’s Charter.

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the amendments on the Building Maintenance & Strata Management bill that was tabled in Parliament in 2017.

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Now that she is their MP, she is the face that residents want to see, and it is a job that she enjoys, despite the gruelling hours. She said she is enjoying her time as an MP. “When you see someone smile, that is the biggest reward.”

“There were things that were supposed to go into the bill that were excluded because of what we told them.”

“There is one lady who hadn’t stepped out of the house in three Cheryl is also active in Parliament. years, after her spouse died.

In the 2018 debate on the Now she attends our community President’s Address, she suggested activities. This to me is priceless — ­ a range of ideas that covered a reward I will not find in my education, manpower, housing, day work.” senior care and women.

Among her residents is her former In all these, she has been helped Additional Mathematics teacher, by her many years of grassroots Mrs Fong, whom she works closely work in Fengshan. She has seen, with because the former teacher up close the many challenges that is an advisor to the management ordinary Singaporeans face, and committee of the PAP Community this informs her work in Parliament. Foundation, which runs the PAP Part of her input to MND on childcare and kindergartens. the bill regarding strata title properties came from working While Mrs Fong Yoon Fah is a with the residents of the ten concrete reminder of her time in condominiums in Fengshan. She SCGS, a more intangible imprint had heard enough from those has been the values inculcated by residents to know what would or the school. would not work.

“The school motto — sincerity, courage, generosity and service — truly has become part of me.”

She attributes this to the teachers at the school.

She still remembers Mrs Fok, her Mathematics teacher with the fearsome reputation for tossing badly-done work out the window.

Even though her remit was to teach mathematics, Mrs Fok also took pains to teach the girls about right and wrong.

“The teachers constantly drilled into us how to behave, and that moulded me into the person I am today.”

Courtesy of Cheryl Chan

SINGAPORE CHINESE GIRLS’ SCHOOL

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Gina Tan The Model Student

Many old girls who enter the entertainment industry credit SCGS for honing their natural talent in acting and singing.

However, few of them can say that it was SCGS that directly launched their career.

Gina Tan (SCGS: 1982 - 1991) is one of those few people.

The model-turned-singer and now Mediacorp actor got her big break thanks to good genes and SCGS. It was 1989 and as part of the school’s 90th anniversary celebrations at the Westin Stamford, there was going to be a fashion show. The show was sponsored by old girl Tan (nÊe Wee) Beng Yan of Tyan Boutique, who was a loyal supporter of the school.

A number of girls were shortlisted for the show and Beng Yan herself decided who would make the final list. Gina, who was 1.72m tall and in Secondary Two at the time, was among those who made the cut.

Courtesy of Gina Tan

Jazreel was impressed by Gina’s natural ability and asked if she would be interested in taking up modelling. That got young Gina excited but her mother, was a little more cautious. She felt that someone needed to keep an eye on her daughter if she were to go into the industry at such a young age. Fortunately, Gina’s mother had friends who were models in Carrie Models and so that was how Gina signed up with one of Singapore’s top modelling agencies.

Courtesy of Gina Tan

Her career took off almost immediately and the people who wanted to work with her would work around her school schedule.

When she was in Secondary Two, the secondary lower session was in the afternoon. Hence, she had to do all her photoshoots either in the morning or in the evening.

Modelling is a famously tough career but Gina obviously had talent and made a big impact very early on. “My first big show on the catwalk was for Karl Lagerfeld,” she recalled. He had come to Singapore in 1989 and held his first show at Hyatt Hotel. “Everyone was going for him to get autographs and I was like, ‘Who is that?’ because I was only 14, and I didn’t know how big he was and who he was.”

Gina continued modelling in Secondary Three but her efforts tailed off the next year. “In Secondary Four, I had to stop because Miss Heng called me into the principal’s office and said ‘This year is Secondary Four.

I think you should stop your modelling and focus on your O-Level Examination.’”

So that is what she did. It was only after taking her examinations, that she resumed her modelling career, but not exclusively. By this time, her career began to take off in a different direction thanks to two highly unlikely events.

The first unlikely event involved golf — specifically, a hole-in-one. A distant relative had managed this unlikely feat and held a celebratory dinner that Gina was invited to.

The second unlikely event occurred at the dinner. Gina, who was in Secondary Four at the time, ended up being seated next to veteran Taiwanese singer Tracy Huang.

Of course, Gina knew who Tracy was. “We chatted. And she said, ‘Do you like singing?’ And I replied, ‘I love to sing!’” As a girl, Gina could sing the theme songs for all the Channel 8 dramas. In fact, Gina not

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None of the girls had experience on the catwalk, of course, so they needed training. The 14-year-old Gina was the only one from that level to be picked and as a result, she recieved one-on-one catwalk lessons with old girl Jazreel Low.

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Courtesy of SCGS

only loved to sing but was also good enough to join the newlyformed SCGS Choir. Although Gina loved singing, she had never considered singing as a career up to that point. “I thought I would be a lawyer or join the CID!” Tracy took Gina to a recording studio to record an audition tape and Gina sang Hopelessly Devoted To You because she was a big fan of the movie Grease.

Tracy wanted to work with Gina immediately but Gina had to turn her down. “I told her, ‘I can’t commit to you now because I need to finish my O-Levels.’”

In 1992, Gina was 16 going on

17, and the world beckoned. She had completed her O-Levels, and had done well enough to qualify for a three-year pre-university programme. However, she felt that there was so much happening in her career, that she would put her studies on hold.

For the next two years, Gina alternated between modelling jobs in the region and shuttling between Singapore and Taiwan to record her first album with Tracy Huang’s music production company Inner Music. Gina then signed with Rock Records Taiwan which released her first album — Sister You Are So Beautiful — in January 1994.

After she signed with the record label, they persuaded her to drop her modelling career to focus on her music, which she reluctantly did.

Thus far, Gina’s life had a fairytale quality. Thanks to a series of lucky breaks, she had ended up with an enviable place in the entertainment industry. A fashion show for a school event turned her into a model at 14; her first big show was for Karl Lagerfeld; she was featured on magazine covers, and to top it all, she had been discovered by Tracy Huang.

Then her luck changed.

It turned out to be less than strategic decision because while she did release a second album, she never managed to get traction in Japan. Disappointed with how things turned out, Gina got herself out of her contract and decided to try her hand at business development for her uncle in Singapore.

It was during this period that she met the man who would end up becoming her husband, and the father of her two children.

“It was blessing in the end. If I had signed with Rock, my career would have taken off, but I would never have met my husband.”

When her daughter, and then her son, came along, Gina’s passion for the entertainment industry was replaced by a deeper passion for something more important — her

family. For the next 10 years, Gina put her entertainment career on hold as she focused on being a good mother to her two children.

In 2017, however, her career began to flicker back to life. An interview on the Chinese radio station Love 972FM led to her becoming a guest deejay for a few months.

She signed up with an artiste management company and obtained a gig hosting a talent show. At the show, she met people who felt she had more to offer and they ended up writing a new song for her. The song, Sister, You Are Still Beautiful, was released as a single in May 2019, together with a music video.

The model-turned-singer also began exploring a new creative side to her — acting. Gina snagged a role in Season Three of the Channel 5 drama, Lion Mums, which aired in April 2019. She plays a villain in the show, which is something she really enjoys.

She will also star in a movie which has yet to be released, with local comedian Mark Lee.

Gina is hoping that acting opportunities in Taiwan, Hong Kong and China will come along, but being a mother means her children come first, so she cannot be aggressive about getting roles.

It is a trade-off but one that Gina gladly makes.

Gina’s daughter is now in SCGS, and among other things, is a prefect. “She accomplished something I couldn’t achieve,” laughs Gina. “It’s something many people dream about — to put on the white bolero.” While the girl likes to sing and dance, badminton is currently her favourite activity.

Gina’s career in the fickle entertainment industry has been full of ups and down and that has given her a long-term perspective on what success and what failure means.

“If you don’t get the results you want, don’t be too sad. It’s not the end of the world. When one door closes, another one opens.”

“You always have to think positively.”

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After the contract with Rock Records ended, they wanted to renew her contract but Gina’s mother figured that a bigger Japanese label would give Gina more opportunities.

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Courtesy of Sport Singapore

Sabelle Kee

Grace on Land and in Water

Not many people would associate dance with waterskiing.

While both activities require grace, balance and dexterity, one is performed on very solid ground while the other involves being fogged at high speed over churning waters.

In the person of Sabelle Kee (SCGS: 2005 - 2014), however, both these disciplines come together in one powerful package.

Sabelle is one of Singapore’s top young female athletes, having won Southeast Asian (SEA) Games medals in 2017 and 2015 (silver and bronze respectively) in waterskiing.

Her medal haul is impressive given that she only began waterskiing competitively after Secondary Four. Her older sister, Kalya, had begun competing and she wanted to give it a try. “I thought it would be fun to compete together.”

She was part of the school dance troupe and would regularly take part in the Singapore Youth Festival as well as international competitions such as the Barcelona Dance Competition.

Sabelle started dancing in Primary One and had never stopped moving. She picked up ballet and tap in primary school, and then jazz and Chinese dance in secondary school.

By the time she was in secondary school, she was so dedicated that “even during recess, we would come to the dance studio to practise.”

They did not just practise during recess, either. Dance was such a serious thing for the girls that they would practise after school, five days a week for three hours each day.

Given the amount of time she spent on dance, time management was one of the many lessons she learned.

Sabelle even gave up having a social life in order to juggle studies and dance.

Asking a teenager to give up her social life is a big deal but Sabelle loved dance and she found friends who supported her.

“The people in dance kept me going.” Mrs Jean Chan was also important. “She’s like a motherly figure. Even though she would admonish us, it was out of good intentions.”

Apart from time management, dance taught Sabelle many other valuable lessons. “Dance provided a lot of core values Courtesy of Sport Singapore

like discipline, staying driven, staying committed. If you’re going to do this item, you do it wholeheartedly.”

The competitive nature of dance at SCGS under Mrs Jean Chan meant the girls had to put in their heart and soul if they wanted their time in the spotlight.

“If you wanted to get a role in a performance, you had to work for all these things and you had to work for yourself.”

This is the same lesson that Sabelle has applied to her sport.

“If you want to do well, you have to put in the hours and practise.

You can’t give up, you have to put your whole heart into it.”

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Prior to Secondary Four though, if you had asked Sabelle, she would have said that her passion was not so much for waterskiing but dance, something that she cultivated during her ten years in SCGS. “When I think back on my SCGS days, all I can remember is dance.”

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Practising is, of course, important in both dance and waterskiing, as it is in any sports. However, Sabelle says that dance also taught her resilience and the ability to move on from failure.

As it was so competitive, and because there were so many dance items, it was impossible to get into into all items, no matter how badly you wanted it or hard you practised. From this, Sabelle learned that you have have to “move forward from your setbacks.”

That resilience is a necessary quality in an athlete. No athlete can succeed at every event and so they have to pick themselves up after failing to try for the next competition.

Sabelle experienced this in 2015 when she first started waterskiing seriously. ”I went for a competition, I fell and placed last,” she recalled. The experience affected her confidence at a crucial moment because it was just before the SEA Games.

However, she did not let the incident get her down and discourage her.

She worked with her coach on the technicalities and she treated each training session as a competition so that she could get used to the pressure.

Thankfully for her and for Singapore, that experience strengthened Sabelle and she came away from the SEA Games

with a bronze in the women’s tricks category, a remarkable achievement for one of her first competitions.

While Sabelle is undoubtedly gifted in the sport, her success is due to hard work. Sabelle was introduced to the sport at an early age as both her parents have deep ties to the sport. Her mother, May Lwin-Kee, set a national waterskiing record in 1992 (which Sabelle broke in 2015).

Although Sabelle started the sport early, she only did it recreationally and thus did not put in many hours of training. However, once she started taking the sport seriously, she began putting in the same focus and hours she used to put in for dance in SCGS and that dedication and hard work paid off.

Now an undergraduate at the Singapore Management University, she is still balancing her studies in Accountancy with sports. She was captain of the university’s wakeboarding club and continues to ski.

Courtesy of Sport Singapore

Although waterskiing was not chosen as a sport in the 2019 SEA Games in Manila, Sabelle is still actively competing in the sport.

She will be taking part in the 2019 International Waterski and Wakeboard Federation (IWWF) World Waterski Championships in Kuala Lumpur in August and the 2019 Singha IWWF Asian Waterski & Wakesports Championships in Thailand in September.

College (ACJC) where she picked up contemporary dance and also began doing choreography.

She is now actively dancing with Indancity, a contemporary dance group in SMU. She has definitely not forgotten her alma mater. In 2017, she returned to SCGS to dance in the alumni item. She Even as her sporting career has also been back to ACJC has progressed, she has not twice, where she was involved in neglected dance and has been performing and choreographing constantly developing herself in ACJC’s annual production the discipline. After leaving SCGS, Bailamos along with other alumni. she went to Anglo-Chinese Junior

Her advice to her juniors still in school is, “Do what you enjoy. You don’t just want to come out with just a certificate or a grade.”

This does not just mean making it to the school dance group or winning SEA Games medals, either.

“Quality time with friends can be an achievement itself,” she says.

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Source: The Straits Times © Singapore Press Holdings Limited. Reprinted with permission

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Chew Gek Khim Corporate Lawyer Turned Corporate Titan

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Corporate life in Singapore, in general, is relatively sedate. Most of the time, companies get on with their businesses, issue quarterly reports and, if necessary, engage in mergers and acquisitions that are sometimes successful, and sometimes not. What is rare in Singapore is to have companies openly tussling over proposed acquisition targets.

That was exactly what happened in 2008 when the Straits Trading Company became the subject of a battle between two major business families — that of Tan Chin Tuan, one of Singapore’s pioneer bankers and the former Chairman of OCBC Bank, and the Lee family, whose patriarch Lee Kong Chian had also been a former Chairman of the bank.

Courtesy of Chew Gek Khim

Both companies attempted to outbid each other for Straits Trading but in the end, the Tecity Group, the company founded by Tan Chin Tuan, won.

Having obtained a majority stake in the company, Gek Khim became the Chairman of Straits Trading and thus one of the few women to head a public-listed company in Singapore.

As proof of her corporate prowess, she subsequently was named Businessman of the Year in 2014 by The Business Times.

What is the source of Gek Khim’s passion for business? Much of it stemmed from her desire to uphold the legacy of her late grandfather.

As the chairman of OCBC from 1966 to 1983, Tan Chin Tuan had helped the bank to acquire large stakes in many household names, among them Fraser & Neave, Malayan Breweries, Robinsons, United Engineers and Straits Trading. This group of Companies were commonly referred to as (the OCBC stable).

However, from around 2000, the Monetary Authority of Singapore started requiring banks to divest their stakes in operating companies to under 10 per cent. That meant that OCBC had to unload its shares in these companies. “By 2000, he could see his whole life’s work broken up and he wanted very much to keep something,” Gek Khim recalls.

would be wrong to not respect his wishes. After all, he made the money and he said, ‘Can you please keep something I built?’ I think it’s only right I follow his instructions.”

The company the late Mr Tan Chin Tuan started, Tecity, attempted to acquire any one of these companies — United Engineers, Raffles Hotel, Robinsons.

However, all these attempts failed.

Therefore, when Straits Trading came up for grabs, Gek Khim, who by then was helming Tecity, was determined to get a prize.

“He had put me in charge, and it

Gek Khim may be very much a corporate titan now, but this was not the life she had originally envisioned. She had graduated with a law degree from the National University of Singapore and then joined Drew & Napier.

One side-effect of Tecity owning a majority stake in Straits Trading is that the latter is among the very few companies from the OCBC’s stable that remains, in local hands.

Her grandfather had asked her to join Tecity even when she was in practice but she declined initially.

Courtesy of Chew Gek Khim

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The person behind that very public tussle over Straits Trading was Chew Gek Khim (SCGS: 1968 ­- 1977), the granddaughter of Tan Chin Tuan and the woman now running Tecity.

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Courtesy of Chew Gek Khim

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It was only after three years that she decided to make the switch.

Among the reasons was a desire to be part of the action, rather than being on the sidelines. “I was in the front line watching people do business. As a lawyer, you are not doing it yourself; you are always watching.”

The switch from corporate law to corporate leadership was not an easy one. She had to learn to read accounts and forced herself to read the financial pages of annual reports every weekend to understand them.

What made it easier was that her grandfather had drilled in her the idea that anything is possible if you applied yourself to it. In fact, he would get angry if he was told that something could not be done.

During the Asian financial crisis, Tecity had sold off a lot of shares and was then cash rich. At that point, he told Gek Khim and a colleague to start doing foreign exchange.

“My colleague looked at him and said, ‘I’m not trained in that!’

Grandfather glared at us and said, ‘Can’t you learn?’”

And so they did. While Tecity does not do a lot of forex business now, at the time, they did and it was stressful, recalled Gek Khim.

“He lived through the Great Depression and World War 2. To live through that, you did what you had to do. That experience created that kind of mindset.”

One of the projects she had to undertake after acquiring Straits Trading, on the advice of her consultant, was for a Malaysian subsidiary to convert a lead smelter to a tin smelter.

I said, “What’s so difficult? It’s the same process. You add heat to the raw material to extract the metal.”

What she had not realised, until His philosophy was, “If you have the process was almost complete, the means and you’re not stupid, was that no other company in the world had ever pulled off a similar you can find a solution”. conversion before.

Gek Khim learned not to tell her grandfather “It can’t be done” and has applied this to her corporate life as well.

The willingness to try new things comes with a willingness to experience failure. This was another lesson from her grandfather — that if you make a

“People here are afraid of making mistakes. I believe you can always make a comeback.”

That is one way in which real life is different from life in school. “In school, I used to get very worked up about making mistakes.

In business, mistakes are a recognised as a fact of life.”

While school might have been stressful, it was also the source of many happy memories, thanks to her friends and dedicated teachers. She recalls her primary school teachers — Miss Siong, Miss Ng, Mrs Tay and Mrs Fok — with gratitude.

However, she says the person she felt she owed the most to was the Principal, Miss Tan Sock Kern, who would regularly hold talks at assembly. On one occasion, she spoke about how she had turned down an offer for a new site for the school in Toa Payoh because most of the girls lived around Emerald Hill and it was more important to have an old building

close to home than new facilities far away. “I was taken by how she had chosen to treat us as adults, and to explain her decision to us in turning down what appeared to be a better building and a larger site in order to cater to the existing students. Implicit in the explanation was the teaching of values and the reason certain choices were made.”

In school, Gek Khim particularly enjoyed her time in the Girl Guides where she made good friends and which she said helped her come out of her shell.

As a Guide, she made friends and was well liked and even ended up being voted ‘Best Guide’. That helped build up her confidence.

Her Guiding days were so enjoyable that when she was asked, much later, if she would join the Girl Guides Singapore Council, she accepted.

The story of how she ended up on the council is also a good one.

She had asked Ernst and Young to help computerise Tecity and to train the staff to ensure they could use the new systems. The person she worked with at Ernst and Young turned out to be SCGS

old girl Yvette Cheak, the Chief Commissioner at the time. After the computerisation project was over, Yvette persuaded Gek Khim, on the basis of her being both a former Girl Guide and being from SCGS, to join the council and Gek Khim ended up serving for about five years.

While she is Chairman of a company that was founded in 1887, Gek Khim is very much focused on the future. She believes that with developments like artificial intelligence and robotics, there is a danger that many skills learned today will become obsolete.

As a result, she believes that certain values, specifically “the ability to think independently, creativity, grit, perseverance and a balanced attitude to life (which is necessary when things go wrong, which it invariably will) will be most useful for the future.

“One of the key advantages that we have over robots today is our humanity – which is empathy, compassion, understanding and emotions. These we must never lose.”

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mistake, as long as it does not kill you, it is alright. Mistakes, in fact, are important. “If you don’t make a mistake, you are not going to learn,” says Gek Khim.

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The Keep 37 Emerald Hill Team Working to Preserve a History and a Legacy

Driven by a desire to preserve the site of the former Emerald Hill school campus, these old girls worked furiously over many months — conducting archival research, taking the pulse of the community of old girls, talking to concerned citizens, and meeting with the authorities — to produce a detailed 143-page report that has been submitted to the government, setting out the merits of conserving a place that was home to SCGS girls for close to 70 years.

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Source: The Straits Times © Singapore Press Holdings Limited. Reprinted with permission

Image credit to Joan Leong

The whole movement began because of an email someone had sent. Sarah Lin (SCGS: 1990 - 1999), who was then working for the World Bank as an urban planner, recalls, “A fellow old girl wrote to the alumni: ‘Did you know there is no conservation status for the school? Can anything be done?’”

Once she knew that the buildings were not protected and thus vulnerable to being torn down, she decided to take action.

“There’s no question you have to do something about it.” Sarah roped in some friends and after a few months, the effort began to gain momentum. While there is no imminent danger of the old school being turned into a condominium, they did not want to wait till it was too late, which was what happened to Methodist

245 Girls’ School, where a group of old girls had also tried in vain to stop the old school’s premises on Mount Sophia from being sold and redeveloped.

late. It’s already been decided that the site would be sold.’”

A core group of seven old girls came together to carve out the work needed — Sarah and “Just from looking at the Urban urbanist Lim Swee Keng (SCGS: Redevelopment Authority’s (URA) 1986 - 1989) were the main master plan, you cannot tell what’s prime movers, Jackie Lin (SCGS: going to happen. Chatsworth 1992 - 2001) took care of social (the international school currently media outreach while Daphne using the premises) is going to Yuan (SCGS: 1997 - 2001) led the be there for a while. But we didn’t research. Natalie Kwee (SCGS: want to end up in the situation 1995 - 2004) was the graphic where they say, — ‘Sorry! It’s too designer and worked alongside

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The email was forwarded to Sarah who was taken aback to learn the news. “I was surprised. I just assumed that it was obviously going to be there.”

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Melisa Chan (SCGS: 1987 - 1996) on the design and planning component of the proposal. Joan Leong (SCGS: 1993 - 1996) was the photographer and helped with communication and outreach.

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All of these arms were important.

Research was vital if they were going to persuade the URA that the buildings were worth conserving on the basis of architectural or historical merit.

Community outreach, marketing and communication were necessary because the group also needed to show that the buildings were important to people.

The mission to save 37 Emerald Hill launched a story in The Straits Times in September 2018. Within 24 hours, the online petition recieved over 1,600 signatures.

After four months, they received 11,500 signatures and decided to end the petition.

The Straits Times story helped the group get the word out to old girls and heritage buffs. That was followed by two workshops in November 2018 to reach interested people. About 60 people attended and they shared ideas about what to turn the site

Courtesy of The Keep 37 Emerald Hill Team

into, as well as what the buildings meant to them.

The workshop yielded ideas such as using the buildings as a museum, a place to teach Peranakan cooking, a restaurant for Peranakan food, a space for arts groups, an educational space, and a hub for female entrepreneurs. “There was also an idea just to keep it as a park — a respite from busy Orchard Road,” recalls Daphne.

People were unanimous that the buildings should not be turned into a clubhouse for a condominium or a shopping mall.

The organisers also conducted a survey to find out which of the five buildings people were most attached to. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the primary school block, the Principal’s House and the Song Ong Siang block were selected.

After the workshops, the group held meetings with other bodies such as the Emerald Hill Conservation Association, a homeowners association, as well as the URA. People started volunteering their personal photographs as well, which led to the group to obtain a unique photo of SCGS in camouflage colours taken during the Japanese Occupation.

The group then began the research and writing process, once again leveraging on volunteers. These included current SCGS girls as well as at least one man who was interested in the project. The research

Courtesy of The Keep 37 Emerald Hill Team

involved scouring the National Archives for maps, photographs and newspaper features, digging through old school reports, going through the Heritage Room and reading all the books that have been written about SCGS. One of the volunteer researchers, architect Wong Shujun (SCGS: 1996 - 1999), made a significant contribution by helping to make a case for the architectural significance of the buildings.

Shujun, who has experience in heritage projects, studied the design features of each of the buildings on the campus and also uncovered the architect behind two key buildings: the primary school block and the Principal’s House. From her research, she found that the primary school block had been designed by Seah Eng Choe (the son of Seah Liang Seah and the grandson of Seah Eu Chin) from local firm S.Y. Wong and Co. The building was completed in 1925 at a cost of $60,000 and was designed in the Early Modern style, with Arts and Craft and Art Deco influences. E.C. Seah, as he styled himself, also designed the Principal’s House and the Loke Yew block.

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One proposal that generated a lot of chuckles was to turn the Principal’s House into a mahjong teahouse-den like the shophouse mahjong scene in the movie Crazy Rich Asians.

The research showed that the twostorey Principal’s House, which was built in 1930 in the Arts and Crafts style with adaptations for Singapore’s tropical climate, had most of its original architectural features preserved.

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The community engagement, the hours of research in archives and libraries, the time spent writing and re-writing, culminated in the report that was submitted to the URA in May 2019.

The report — which outlined out the historical, architectural and social merits of preserving the

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Courtesy of The Keep 37 Emerald Hill Team

site — laid out three important principles that the group felt should guide any effort to redevelop the site. It highlighted that the history and heritage of the site should be retained, that it should be accessible to the public and should involve the public, and that it should be a breathing space for Orchard Road.

The paper also made three proposals for the site: The Commons - A Modern Community Club; Spice Gardens - Celebrating History and Heritage and No.37, Creative Park.

The vision for the community club proposal is for the space to continue the legacy of 37 Emerald Hill as an institute of learning, and as an amenity for a broader community to access and enjoy.

It would be ‘a space that brings people together to learn, to gather, and to enjoy being away from busy adjacent roads and curated, inward-looking mall environments.’

The primary school block, as well as the Song Ong Siang and Lee Kong Chian block’s would be turned into learning spaces, childcare centres, seminar rooms, a makerspace and a library.

The basketball court would be turned into a community garden while the field would become a lush, landscaped hideaway — an escape from busy Orchard Road.

There would also be space for restaurants in the old canteen and the Principal’s House.

Courtesy of The Keep 37 Emerald Hill Team

The Spice Gardens theme, on the other hand, envisions the site as a Peranakan Heritage Centre, a ‘living experience of Peranakan culture, beyond just artefacts in a museum.’

“Visitors learn about the intertwined culture of the school, its illustrious founder and the Peranakan community, and are given a glimpse into the progressive mindsets behind the school’s inception.”

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There could also be a Woman’s Hub in the primary school block that could have functional offices or co-working spaces and meeting rooms on the upper floor, as well as a venue for symposiums and seminars in the old school hall.

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The landscaping would take its cue from the spice trade.

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In this proposal, the Peranakan Museum, or perhaps a children’s museum, would use the primary school block. The Song Ong Siang block would be turned into a boutique hotel while the Principal’s House would become a Peranakan restaurant. As in the first proposal, the green spaces would be preserved for use by visitors.

The last proposal, turning it into a creative park, is about turning the site into a place for aspiring designers and design aficionados.

‘It appeals to designers for its creative commons vibe, and to visitors who desire an authentic experience on the pulse of Singapore’s local design scene.

The site serves as a platform for the business of design and the arts, as well as an insight into designers’ process.

Most of the site would be dedicated to creative makerspaces, including fashion, craft and even the performing arts. Rather than high-end or

mass fashion, it would focus on the uniquely local, ‘providing spaces for bespoke ateliers and workshops for makers in various fields, from clothing to accessories and lifestyle products like furniture.’

There would also be space for traditional forms of professional craft, combining the old and the new. Tenants would be required to open their doors to visitors and hold regular salons and workshops to foster dialogue and impart skills.

The report concludes, ‘It is our view, and that of the community whom we have engaged, that the site should not become yet another shopping mall or condominium.

Instead, 37 Emerald Hill can be something that honours and celebrates its past as a pioneering institution for the education of Singaporean girls, while also adding a unique and inviting new use of an otherwise homogeneous commercial street.’

‘Our hope is that the future owners or tenants, whatever the final use is determined to be, will engage our community to weave the SCGS story into the site, and fully consider the views of the students,

alumni, and neighbours in the planning and programming of 37 Emerald Hill. In the meantime, we intend to continue the conversation with the school and the Alumni on how the heritage of the former SCGS can remain a part of every student’s school experience.’

It may be too early to judge how effective the report is, but if the effort to conserve 37 Emerald Hill succeeds, in whole or in part, it will be thanks to a small group of passionate, thoughtful, committed old girls who believed that they could make a difference.

Courtesy of The Keep 37 Emerald Hill Team

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