Written by Form 3 Ka Ue Lu
Thinking about how to wrap up this academic year? Well here comes the most exciting way for our student leaders. Seven student leaders from CSS went to the 28th Student Leader Convention (SLC) at Hwa Chong Institution, Singapore with student leaders from across Asia.
The SLC is an esteemed annual event organised by Hwa Chong Institution aimed at providing a platform for delegates to discuss global issues. It was initiated in 1995 as a local one-day event, but has since grown into a three-day convention. Distinguished political leaders such as Mr. Tharman Shanmugaratnam attended the convention.
This year’s topic was Change or Continuity: A False Dichotomy. With events occurring at an unprecedented rate recently, change is inevitable. Within human society making change has already been a constant, so as student leaders we should all recognize that the world that we’re growing up in will be totally different than the world that we will be leading in the future. That’s why this convention helps to set students’ minds to ponder about the future, thinking about how we can facilitate change that does not come at the expense of continuity, and hence this helps to gain both insight and preparation for our endeavors to come. This is just so meaningful for student leaders to discuss.
Within the programme’s five days, we got to strengthen our skills. Participant Anne (F3Ca) told me “As this is a leadership event, I obviously developed and bettered my leadership skills. I also learnt how to communicate better with others and also presentation skills, and for this convention, we’ve done concept discussions and lots of presentations.” Students were put in small and larger groups for activities to work on topics including holistic education, technology education, and pollution. After the discussion, we needed to come up with a proposal and create our own exhibition for other groups to read and learn from.
After all these challenges it was nice to have fun with the final night fiesta where we got to show off our talents and just be ourselves. Random songs were played and we could just run up to the stage to dance or just simply cheer and support our friends and sing together. Apart from that, the grand finale was also when we wrapped up this journey where every school that participated in SLC prepared a performance to inform and to spread happiness. Stapy (F3Ca) found the conference very enjoyable saying “I got to know new friends from different countries and I got to bond more with my friends at school. Overall, best experience!”
I agree. This Singapore exchange tour was just so memorable and valuable and those few days were just so meaningful, and we placed them in an important place inside our hearts.
