Ten Photo Stories is a community project initiated by Flagship Creatives to showcase the collective SMU experience in conjunction with SMU’s 10th Anniversary. On the 10th of each month, a series of 10 photographs centering on a particular theme will be chosen and showcased here. Ten Photo Stories aims to give an insight into the SMU community, and photos with a journalistic style will be chosen to reflect the relevance to the month’s theme.

August: Graduation
This month, the theme of graduation is something that is much more personal to all the contributors, as three of us are newly crowned fresh grads, and the other, well, was addressing the entire cohort. From the time one files for graduation to Commencement, the exit process itself feels like a rite of passage for the soon to be alumnus.

The final moment of the Commencement ceremony, showered upon the graduating class of 2010. Photo: Reuben Ong \ Flagship Creatives

Photographers:

Reuben was shocked to find his SMU pass expired, and then realises how powerful his friends are.  

Prof Winston attended his seventh Commencement at SMU, and delivered his first Commencement Speech in July. He sends his best wishes to the Class of 2010, and looks forward to hearing about their adventures in the years ahead.

Shaun almost had to turn his geek card in this month, as he still isn’t quite on the Starcraft 2 hype train.

Huazheng’s Macbook got fried, iPhone went dead, and his iMac screen started to flicker. He experienced a brief moment of cognitive dissonance towards Mac, but found himself queuing for an iPhone 4 soon enough.

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Ten Photo Stories is a community project initiated by Flagship Creatives to showcase the collective SMU experience in conjunction with SMU’s 10th Anniversary. On the 10th of each month, a series of 10 photographs centering on a particular theme will be chosen and showcased here. Ten Photo Stories aims to give an insight into the SMU community, and photos with a journalistic style will be chosen to reflect the relevance to the month’s theme.

July: Food Culture
Much like the rest of Singapore, SMU is, too, crazy about their food. From the President’s lunch with students, to CCAs proudly proclaiming ‘Free Food’ at their events, this month we take a look at some of the idiosyncrasies of the culture of food in SMU.

Pick Your Poison. No matter where one is on campus, coffee is never too far away. When it comes to their morning coffee, people in SMU are spoilt for choice with no fewer than 10 outlets selling their morning cuppa to meet every taste and budget. Photo: Shaun Yap \ Flagship Creatives

Photographers:

Still buzzed by all the coffee consumed for this months story, Shaun currently expands that energy blowing an imaginary vuvuzela.

Take a hop and a skip across SOA to National Museum of Singapore to view Huazheng’s work that won him the top title at Singapore Young Photographer Award 2010.

Prof Winston has been pounding the trails of Macritchie and Bukit Timah this month, training for The Northface 100 race, and thinking up new nature themes for future photography projects.

Reuben has apparently spent too much time at beer halls watching Germany win that he can only shoot the pubs this month.

 

click on this link to visit page:

http://www.smu.edu.sg/10/photo/index.asp

 

 

Ten Photo Stories is a community project initiated by Flagship Creatives to showcase the collective SMU experience in conjunction with SMU’s 10th Anniversary. On the 10th of each month, a series of 10 photographs centering on a particular theme will be chosen and showcased here. Ten Photo Stories aims to give an insight into the SMU community, and photos with a journalistic style will be chosen to reflect the relevance to the month’s theme.

June: Summer in SMU
Summer is a time where many students and faculty take a break from the routine of the semester. Assignment deadlines and project group meetings are swapped with overseas community service trips, internships and trips back home for our international friends. But alas, the city campus still remains a bustling center of activity, this month we take a look at some of the things that go on during the summer of SMU.

Students from Project Balloons of Bliss (CSP programme) making balloon sculptures in hopes to raise funds for En Community Service. Their first lesson of the project - to learn to make Elmo balloons. Photo: Reuben Ong \ Flagship Creatives

Photographers:

Shaun spent the the month wondering where all the dancers that used to camp out at the concourse disappeared to.

Reuben is happy to have his first photo published here and promises to shoot more stuff next month.

Now photographing the beautiful sights of South Korea, Prof Winston Koh is taking a breather from his busy schedule and ultramarathon training.

This month, Huazheng finally decided to read his camera instruction manual because he suspect his camera has a mind of its own.

click on this link to visit page:

http://www.smu.edu.sg/10/photo/index.asp

I was initially attracted to SMU-SIS (School of Information Systems) because of its interactive seminar-style teaching methodology and flexible IT-Business curriculum. Indeed, SMU-SIS presented me with a stimulating environment that engaged me in my studies, as well as allowed me to chart my own unique learning experience. I discovered that students in SMU-SIS had access to a team of knowledgeable and passionate instructors who do not hesitate to go the extra mile in helping students. Learning started to take on a whole new dimension, as I was able to turn to my professors for advice and mentorship on academic, professional and other matters in general.

Of course, learning was not just limited to the classroom, as I soon found myself being given the opportunity to travel all around the world. In 2006, I was involved in a community service trip to Shanghai, where I helped improve the teaching facilities of a public school. The year 2007 saw me travelling to Silicon Valley in California, USA, to be part of a Business Study Mission that investigated reasons for the region’s sustained level of innovation. I was also given a chance to visit Hong Kong, in 2008, to interact with student leaders of the top universities in the country, exchanging ideas regarding issues of student activity, governance and leadership. Educational value aside, each of these trips offered me a chance to indulge in some shopping adventures as well!

Due to my good academic record, I was invited to apply for the SMU-CMU fast track masters programme at the end of my second year. This programme allowed me to complete the final semesters of my undergraduate degree in CMU, while concurrently pursuing a Masters degree from CMU. Naturally, I jumped at the opportunity to study in a world-renowned institution like Carnegie Mellon University. While studying and living overseas in the U.S., I was exposed to many diverse ideas and viewpoints that helped me develop a more varied and critical approach towards problem solving. I also learnt not to take the consistency and efficiency that we get, in a small country like Singapore, for granted.

Joining SMU-SIS certainly opened the doors to many opportunities for me, making each step of my education journey an exciting and memorable one. Ever dreamt of picking at the brains of senior executives from Apple, Google, Hewlett-Packard and Oracle, all within the compounds of their fancy corporate headquarters? Well this was just one of many fulfilling experiences that I had, during my journey with SMU-SIS.

Ten Photo Stories is a community project initiated by Flagship Creatives to showcase the collective SMU experience in conjunction with SMU’s 10th Anniversary. On the 10th of each month, a series of 10 photographs centering on a particular theme will be chosen and showcased here. Ten Photo Stories aims to give an insight into the SMU community, and photos with a journalistic style will be chosen to reflect the relevance to the month’s theme.

May: Sports Culture in SMU
While SMU might only be ten years old, its sporting fraternity has not only provided a strong sense of camaraderie, but has also been highly competitive at both IVP and international levels. But what most do not realise is the amount of work and preparation that goes on behind the scenes. From organising logistics to long training hours, much of what is done goes unnoticed, and yet is critical for the moments of glory. This month we celebrate the culture of sports in SMU.

Click on the image above to visit the Ten Photo Stories page.

Photographers:

Hardly one to be content with being the Interim Dean of the School of Social Sciences, Prof Winston Koh is also an accomplished triathlete, having completed an Ironman race and  several ultramarathons. He is also an avid photographer whose online photography gallery is in the works right now.

Lionel Ng, a third year student currently reading economics and marketing, is soon off to capture the sights and sounds of Asia for the rest of the year - under the guise of an internship and exchange.

And this month, Shaun wished he had the discipline and physique to take part in competitive sports.

Now done with his undergraduate studies, Huazheng hopes to get an underwater camera rig as his graduation gift, so that he can start an underwater photography studio.

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A narration of someone’s life is never complete without the mention of those few major incidents which took place to permanently change an individual. Often for the better or for the worse. I’m not yet old enough to be recounting my life for an author to write a biography on me. But, contrary to what people think, one does not have to wait to be 30 or 40 before a major event re-shapes a person. At least, not in my case.

Coming to SMU for me, has been that life-changing experience. Those who know me will probably describe me today as someone who is opiniated (in a healthy way I do hope), confident (and I can confidently say that too) and with a good treasure chest of global knowledge. I am not asserting here that I did not possess these qualities before coming to SMU. Rather, I have seen these develop in me further, upon coming to SMU.  I love the concept of a learning environment where speaking up is highly encouraged. While some may oppose components like class participation, I think it does us a lot of good. When I was in Year 1, I did find myself commenting in class on issues which I felt I had some knowledge of. Therefore, in classes where I felt that I did not have the necessary knowledge for me to say something useful, I found myself keeping mum. However, after being in SMU for the fourth semester now, I don’t find myself facing that difficulty anymore. It certainly isn’t because I have suddenly acquired a chest load of knowledge about every possible discipline. Rather, it’s just the idea that listening to others talk, makes me want to learn more and contribute more to certain topic, which would otherwise seem ‘foreign’ to me. And as cliché as this sounds, I am not afraid of making mistakes when asking questions, because I have discovered the secret behind why is it almost impossible for any question to qualify as a ‘stupid question’ if  a thought process has been involved in the formulation of the question. Well, it could always be that the professors are ever ready to entertain my numerous questions for them!

Talisa Kaur Dhaliwal - 2nd year student from the School of Social Sciences  

Approximately one year ago I was in your shoes. And by in your shoes, I mean sitting at a laptop, writing an emo blog post, and trying to figure out which university to spend my next formative years in.

Yes, I knew what subject I wanted to study, and that I wanted to study in a local university. Sadly, the extent of my self-awareness stopped there. I was very lucky to have the luxury of choice, but decisions had to be made – and soon! – and I had no idea where to begin.

So like your regular confused person, I went looking for help. I went to the open houses, check. I read all the shiny brochures, check. I asked my seniors about their experiences, check. I visited the Brightsparks online forum, check.

But I realized that it wasn’t enough to know more about the different universities – I had to know what I wanted. Whatever my choice, the experiences that I would go through, the lessons that I would learn, the friends that I would make, these were all going to shape who I would become. And if it was going to change me and help take me to wherever I’d be at the end of the day, it would take a bit of thinking about what I wanted from my education, before I could choose the university that I knew would help me to achieve my dreams.

This year, I’m still sitting at my laptop and writing another blog post. Except this time the difference is that I’ve found out where I want to go (places, and far!), I’m in the university that I believe can take me there, and I’m enjoying the ride!  

Christine Teo – 1^st Year student from the School of Social Sciences

Ten Photo Stories is a community project initiated by Flagship Creatives to showcase the collective SMU experience in conjunction with SMU’s 10th Anniversary. On the 10th of each month, a series of 10 photographs centering on a particular theme will be chosen and showcased here. Ten Photo Stories aims to give an insight into the SMU community, and photos with a journalistic style will be chosen to reflect the relevance to the month’s theme.

April: Starry Starry Night

Starry Starry Night is a time for celebration. It occurs on each last day of the SMU semester and signifies the successful passing of another semester having gotten through all 13 weeks of class. Now in its tenth year, Starry Starry Night is a successful musical extravaganza, with the local bands of Sound Foundry coming together to showcase their talents to fans who turn the SMU Big Steps into a musical performance venue, if only for a night.

Click on the image above to visit the Ten Photo Stories page.

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(Law: mock court on repeal of Section 377A - one interviewee argues for , one against, one “the judge”)

Q. So what you do think of this interview?

A. I like it. Is class going to be like this?

Q. You bet, and more!

A. I like it here! <Smiles>.

It seems that this sort of interactive learning, looking at, analyzing and arguing issues from different perspectives has done our Law students a lot of good. Good enough as a first time contestant to beat 20 international teams in an international moot competition. And when you do this ‘everyday’, you cannot but sharpen both the hard, knowledge skills and soft, people and communications skills to do well in this discipline. Let me share with you the newspaper report and the ad that we used to launch SMU’s legal eagles – students that make a difference.

Click on the above image to read article

Click on the above image to read article

Cheers,

Alan Goh

Director, Office of Undergraduate Admissions

From time to time, every undergraduate will ask: Why am I here? What made me choose to pursue my education in this university, instead of going somewhere else?

Earlier this week, I asked myself that very question. A friend had asked for my opinion on what university she should apply to, and why. I must admit that having a looming deadline for a research paper on my mind didn’t make any particular recommendation easy. On the contrary, it was very tempting to tell her to migrate to England and to take me with her, so we could bask amongst green grasses and lead a simple life rearing sheep under a beautiful blue sky. But then I saw something on Facebook that made me stop and think a bit more.

Some classmates of mine had just posted a video that they had made for a class project. For the 8 minutes after I clicked ‘play’, my eyes were glued to the screen. In those 8 minutes, I’d smiled at recognizing familiar faces, rolled my eyes at cheesy lines, gaped in amusement at assorted antics and laughed out loud at witty jokes. In those 8 minutes, I had my answer. I was reminded of why I love being in SMU.

After all, where else is the normally dreaded task of group projects elevated to ‘high art’ on such a regular basis? Where else would we be given such liberty to present material not as we were taught in textbooks and notes, but in unique and creative ways that engage our professors, classmates and selves?

So I got back to my friend after, and all I had to say was this: Choose SMU. You’ll graduate as a highly valued professional, and be halfway to the Oscars to boot.

Remember, at SMU, the red carpet’s waiting for you.

Fu Haoren - 1st Year student from the School of Law