You know, I've set my eyes on Mass Communication since the age of 15. When I first saw that brochure, I thought to myself, "I definitely must get in there!" And I worked hard for it, and here I am today, in my final semester of my three academic years.

Throughout these three years, I've come to realize that some of the reasons why I picked Ngee Ann included the fact that they had the hip hop dance club, New Revolving Age (NRA).

I went through all the tough trainings just like the rest, and even though I stopped NRA after a year (due to my overwhelming school work), I still enjoyed the times that I danced. I learnt a great deal of things from the seniors and these aren't just lessons that you can learn anywhere. Some of them teach you a little bit of life lessons here and there, and you get to see things from a different point of view. And you have to admit, the fact that NP has over 100 CCAs for you to choose from is amazing. That means you're spoilt for choice and you won't have worries like, "Oh what am I gonna do? There's nothing I like here..." because it practically covers almost every category of activies.

Now the next reason why I'm glad I picked NP, is the fact that I got to go overseas to study. Even though it was for a month, my stay in Wuhan has really taught me a lot. The experience was extremely pleasant and I believe my friends and I have picked up a skill or two about photography from our lecturer, which led our techniques to improve by leaps and bounds. Here at NP, every student gets to go overseas for at least once during your 3-year diploma, so widen your horizons by travelling abroad with us!

Last but not least, I always liked how there's so many events going on in school! Some of which included the Halloween event, Scarefest, organized by Stage52. It's events like this that makes the students in school go crazy because we all get to enjoy ourselves very much. You would think that a Halloween event organized by students would be meh, but no, these kids prove you wrong. And it was a successful event, which ran for 2 years, and if anything, the queue got longer instead.

The aforementioned were the main reasons why I'm glad I picked NP. And if you want to find out some of the other reasons why some of my friends picked NP, click the image below to find out!

Now you know our reasons, so what's yours?

Ideawerkz has launched their annual competition yet again. This year's competition is called the Ideawerkz Innovation Challenge 2011. Students participate by forming a team, or by working solo. What they had to do is to come up with ideas for the betterment of the school, at the same time fulfilling these criterias:-

1)  What can you do to make campus a livelier and cozier place?
2)  What initiatives can you mount to help students manage stress?
3)  What can you do to encourage students to be innovative? 

With so many inventive ideas, here are some of the ideas our students have contributed! Congratulations to our winners!

Shawn Tan's Proximity Sensors is pure genius. This way, I dont have to go on a Scavenger Hunt for tables and seats for lunch! With that, this makes him the Winner of Ideawerkz Challenge 2011!

Now this I find pretty cool. This will keep my feet dry! Normally, if you're wearing just socks and shoes during a rainy day, your socks will get wet, and then it will wrinkle up your toes, and you don't want that.

This movement will be great for budding musicians! Entertaining too!

This is really cool, considering there aren't enough seats available during lunch time in school.

The first time I walked past this contraption, I thought it was pretty annoying. But after seeing the reaction on the people's faces after passing this station, it's actually pretty entertaining.

Having a food delivery service in NP would totally help beat the queues during lunch hours.

I would be so thrilled if this actually happened. I could use a mini foot spa everyday after school!

Congratulations once again to all the participants!

Aside from the sightseeing, there had work to be done of course. Afterall, this was what this trip was all about - to serve the Cambodian community.

The project required us to teach English and Oral Hygiene to Cambodian Children. So off we went to our first stop in this town - the rural Old Piek Snaing Village! This village was very far out from the main part of town, and due to that - supplies were hard to come by, which resulted in many being malnourished. Besides that, there was a problem of head lice infestation among the children. So we spent the afternoon killing the pesky head lice and cooking up a nutritious meal of rice-soup consisting of rice, carrots and pig's blood for them. Sadly, the kids only get to eat the same meal twice a week, every week.

With their tummies filled, we taught them how to brush their teeth next. It was difficult at first because of the language barrier as there was only one interpreter, but we managed to pull through. Then, we gave out toothbrushes and toothpastes for everyone of them.

After visiting that village, our next community service activity was at the Kompong Khleang, The Floating Village. This village was very special because the children there are able to maneuver a sampan to their desired places in the village. It was heart warming when we saw one of the kids, after eating, immediately went to try out his new toothbrush.

Here are some of the many pics I took:

Old Piek Snaing Village, kids all lined up waiting to be de-liced.

Girls of the village.

Courtesy of Aaron Leong: Boys in a queue, waiting to be scrubbed. 

Courtesy of Aaron Leong: Big smiles from Johnson and Nicholas. "Muay, Pi, Pai!" Which means, One, two, three! It's a countdown for the icy water to reach their skins, as they brace themselves.

Courtesy of Aaron Leong: Had to tie up my hair into my cap for I was afraid the lice could jump to my hair. I had fun giving them a good scrub and a free head massage. 

Courtesy of Aaron Leong: Keefe & Jonathan.

Courtesy of Aaron Leong: They enjoyed my free head massage.

Courtesy of Aaron Leong: Rice Soup, with carrots and pig's blood.

Singing as they await their meal.

Serving them slowly..

The Lunch Ladies.

Rachael Ho, distributing the bowls.

She was the last one to finish, because she savored every bite of the soup, while others had seconds. 

Cute isn't she? Pity she's malnutritioned. 

On our way to The Fishing Village, we stopped for a bite. That's glutinous rice with beans, Cambodian style of the Malay 'Lemang'. Our boys here said it tasted sweet. 

They set up their own stalls along the road, and all of them sold the same glutinous rice with beans cooked in a bamboo roll. 

Welcome to The Floating Village! 

We've reached their Floating Church.

Us teaching them the correct way to brush their teeth.

This cutie pie on the left fell asleep shortly after I took his picture. 

Applying what she's learnt.

That's one happy baby.

Precious

Sleepy boy.

Awaiting their meal.

Azira on their Sampan.

Very caring, they are. After they had their share of the rice soup in a bowl, they 'tapao' some soup into a plastic bag to share it with their family members.

Class dismissed! 

Like a boss.

Til we meet again! 

Our efforts paid off! 

Hope you enjoyed this one, and maybe one day you'll be able to travel to Cambodia too! 

Photos courtesy of Aaron Leong, Keefe Wong & Fatin Halina