Results of the Grade 11 Senior Council Elections, 23 March 2009

The top six candidates with the highest total votes (in alphabetical order by last name)are:

Amanda Ang Qi Qi
Petrus Bosa Layarda
Bradian Muliadi
Shobha Padmanabhan
Benjamin Teo Zhong Yu
Christopher Yuen

They will join the six Grade 12 elected councilors to form the 12-member Senior School Council.

Fireside Chat with Dr Stephen Riady

On 19 March 2009, the students of the Senior School spent an hour with Dr Stephen Riady hearing from and discussing his views on doing business, managing and motivating people, as well as service to community. Dr Riady is President of the Lippo Group of Companies who has many philanthropic projects in the region, especially focused on building schools and hospitals in rural areas. This is the second in the series of fireside chats, which present opportunities for the Grade 11-12 students to hear personal tales from successful people and to be inspired by them. It also provides them opportunities to seek the views of the guests in their respective fields and interests.

Council Updates

Hi Everyone,

Here's the councils' first update to keep you all abreast of stuff. As all of you would know, the first term has been a flurry of activity, events, and school work. So pardon us for the tardy update. But I can assure you we are working hard to try and make this school a second home for all of us, something that we can be proud of.

Here are some of the projects we are working on:

Wireless Internet Access
The lack of legitimate wireless internet access has left many students annoyed and flustered, especially with such a large proportion of students using laptops, but the school does have its reasons for restricting access.

1. A lot of the school's bandwidth is being used up by students, leaving the networks very sluggish and slow, especially when some errant students abuse the netwwork by downloading large files.

2. Some students have been accessing distracting sites during lessons, leading to class disruption and annoyance for teachers.

3. Some students have not been using the internet for the best of reasons.

However, we do know that the mistakes of a few students should not penalise the rest of the Senior School population, who genuinely need the wireless access to do their work and access the vast amount of resources that is so vital to coursework. Therefore, we have written a proposal to Mr Bennett, to ask for wireless internet access, on the basis of responsible usage by students. We have proposed that everyone will be given an individual account with which to access the network. That also means that any abuse of the network will be logged, and the offending student will have to be responsible for his actions.

On the bright side, it is very possible everyone will have access to the network, just that responsibility is the key to ensuring continued access for everyone.

So please be patient, we're working on it as much as we can, because we too know how frustrating not having wireless access can be. (:

Fireside Chats
1 done, and an upcoming one with Dr Stephen Riady coming up tomorrow, please be there! The first Fireside chat was an enlightening and engaging one with Mr Tan Tee How, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of National Development. From the chatter so far, it seems everyone has taken away something important from the first Fireside chat. The upcoming one with Mr Riady will be a Chat I'm sure all students can benefit from, especially economics students, seeing as how his business is still fluorishing in this economic climate. On the other side, Mr Riady's well-known philantrophy echoes the Lasallian values we so often hear in school; of sensitivity the the last, the lost, and the least in our community. Please continue to support the Chats!

Founder's Day Dinner
We're organising a dinner to celebrate Founder's Day, the dinner will include cultural and band performances, as well as a speech by our Guest-of-Honour Prof Tan Chorh Chuan, President of the National University of Singapore. We will also be investing the Senior Council of 2009. It is going to be a night for the senior school to come together and celebrate our Lasallian heritage, and we are working hard to make sure it is so.

Subway Deliveries
We know of the dissatisfaction with the canteen's food, so we thought we'd continue this project from last year to allievate some of the gastronomic stress, and also to add a sense of vibrancy to the community, something to look forward to! We hope you guys have been enjoying it, so do please feedback to us, or specifically Wei Jin if you have been enjoying the Subways. Judging from the response, it has been something we all look forward to! Please do thank Wei Jin with a big hug (Wei Jin likes hugs rmb! :D) if you appreciate the Subways as he's the one responsible for making sure we all get our Subways.

Movie Night
The organisation of the Movie Night was made possible by none other than our Social Secretary David Menon. The night was a relaxing one in the midst of the sea of work we had. I'm sure everyone enjoyed the screening of the Godfather with the plentiful popcorn and hotdogs that were available. The next Movie Night will be held next term, and this time you guys will have to bring your own food, but we won't be charging $2 like we did at all.

X-Campus Run
See below for more details!

Night Study for Grade 12s
We Senior School-ers are a REALLY hardworking lot (what with some of the torture devices the teachers employ like IAs :D), so Thiru and Savy have been at 1t1 every night to ensure that Grade 12s have a conducive atmosphere to study (trust me, having friends to share in your loneliness amidst the avanlanche of work is helpful!) It's slowly developing into a very warm and cosy group (:

Notice Board
If you guys noticed, the notice boards on the second floor foyer had been taken over by us (Mrs Teo gracefully gave us the notice board on the left, thank you!), and has been overtaken by a whole array of notices!
IMPT: Every student CAN post a notice on the student notices section, to put up Lost & Found Notices, Surveys, and to bring attention to important school or world issues. Remember, it is for everyone to see, so please observe decorum (:

So these are the updates thus far.

Do drop us any feedback at sjiiseniorcouncil@gmail.com

Best of luck for the rest of the term everyone!

Ora et Labora,

Ian Chai
President
SJII Senior Council

Grade 11 Krabi (Thailand) Expedition 2009

A week of action, adventure, nature, service and cultural immersion awaits as the Grade 11 students embark on the Krabi Expedition in the first week of the June holidays (7-12 June; subject to flight confirmation). The expedition will have students trekking, rock-climbing, sea kayaking, snorkeling, as well as taking part in a service project (mangrove swamp rehabilitation). Through these experiential activities we hope to impart new skills, bring students outside their comfort zone, and enable them to grow in leadership, teamwork, responsible risk-taking, and self-confidence.
The estimated cost of the expedition is $700 inclusive of flight, meals, accommodation, all activities as well as licensed professional instructors. Interested students should get a registration form from Michelle Aw of the school office and return it together with adeposit for $200 (cheque made out to ‘SJI International”) by Wednesday, 25 March 2009.

Proceed to the Gallery for more photos of the Krabi Expedition last year.

X-Campus Run!

Event: X - Campus Run~!!
Date: Friday, 20th March 09
Time: 1630 - 1830 Hrs
Fees: N/A

Other Important details

Reporting Time: 1610 Hrs
Reporting Place: School Fountain

No-event situation: Lightning (The event is ON, even if it is raining. Only if it is lightning would the event be postponed.)

The SSVH service group will be selling drinks to raise funds for their service!

Recommended Gear:

- Good pair of shoes with firm ankle support and a rough base. (no sandals/slippers/barefoot! allowed)

- PE Kit

- A towel

- Please do not carry valuables while running

If at any point of the event, you feel sick or feel like taking a break, please do so and let either one of the route marshals, medics, Savy or Jose know. Safety is always first.

On the event date, after 4 pm the parking to the left of the zebra crossing and the road leading down to the elementary school gate will be closed (refer to run route below). However, parking on the right (nearer to the school office) will be open.

- "Some people create with words or with music or with a brush and paints. I like to make something beautiful when I run. I like to make people stop and say, 'I've never seen anyone run like that before.' It's more than a race, it's a style. It's doing something better than anyone else. It's being creative." - Steve Roland

- "Every morning in Africa, an Antelope wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the fastest Lion or it will be killed. Every morning in Africa, a Lion wakes up. It knows it must outrun the slowest Antelope or it will starve to death. So it doesn't matter whether you are a Lion or an Antelope... when the sun comes up, you'd better be running." - Anonymous

- Savy

Cross-campus relay, Friday 20 March

The Senior Student Council is organizing the inaugural Cross-Campus Run for the Senior School on Friday, 20th March from 1630-1830 hrs. The race will bring competitors on a course that spans both the elementary and the high school campuses for a distance of approximately 750 metres. The run will comprise of three sections: (a) individual category; (b) students' relay category; (c) teacher's relay category. The individual race will see competitors run five rounds on the course, while the 5 competitors in each of the tutor groups’ relay team will run a total of ten rounds. Both relay categories will be held at the same time. It has been estimated that 100 people will be participating in the run. All participants are to report at the school fountain at 1610 hrs. Please note the road on the elementary school side of the campus will be closed to traffic from 4.20-6.30pm.

Australian University Fair, Thursday 19 March

A group of Australian Universities will be visiting SJI International on 19 March 2009. The universities represented are: Curtin University of Technology, Edith Cowan University, Griffith University, Macquarie University, Monash University, University of Adelaide, University of Melbourne, University of New South Wales and University of Tasmania. They will be in the Assembly Hall from 3-4pm. Students and parents of 11 and 12 are invited to explore university options in Australia at this fair. As Grade 10 and FIB students are beginning to look at their IB subject choices, they are also welcome to attend this fair with their parents.

Fireside Chat with Dr Stephen Riady

In the second Senior School Fireside Chat this year, Dr Stephen Riady will be meeting the Grade 11-12 students on Thursday, 19 March, 6pm to discuss “How businesses can make a difference to the world”. Dr Riady is Deputy Chairman of the Lippo Group, and has been involved extensively in philanthrophy, especially in support ofchurches and schools in Indonesia, Hong Kong, China, Vietnam and Singapore. In 2007, the Lippo Group donated $21 million to the NUS Business School. This fireside chat coincides with the official opening of the school library which is being named the Stephen Riady Library in recognition of Dr Riady’s generous donation of $1million to SJI International.

Grade 11 Senior Council Elections

Nominations for the Grade 11 Senior Council Elections closed on Wednesday, 11 March, and a total of 21 candidates are standing for the six elected posts in the Senior Council. The voting will take place on 24 March during the Grade 11 Assembly. The results will be posted on the Senior School webpage (www.sjiiseniorschool) on 25 March. The elected grade 11s students will join the Grade 12s elected in January to form to 12-member Senior Council.

Extended Essay First Full Draft

By the time this bulletin is sent out, all Grade 12 students should have submitted the first full draft of their Extended Essay to their supervisors. This draft will be returned to them by 27 March, so that they can work towards a key milestone in their IB Diploma course – the final submission of their Extended Essay by 13 April.

Inuagural Senior School Fireside Chat

On the 25th of February, some 20 students from the senior school attended the first-ever fireside chat with Mr. Tan Tee How, the permanent secretary of the Ministry of National Development. Mr Tan spoke to the students on the topic ‘Good Government – Reflections of a Civil Servant’. His discussions included the experience of being a civil servant, the differences between the private and the public sector, the learning journey in the civil service and he answered questions, among which were the entry requirements for the civil service, achieving the balance between maximum social benefit and minimum government expenditure, overcoming the challenges of corruption and self-interest and more.
The fireside was more than a purely academic discussion. Mr Tan discussed the values and attitudes that a person should have and uphold, regardless of his/her position and he emphasized that people should embrace values they claim to believe in. Mr Dennis Tang, who was also present during the chat, pointed out that Mr Tan had retained and enhanced the values that he had learnt and developed at SJI, where he completed his secondary education.
As a concluding point, Mr Tan emphasized the importance and need for humility, no matter how much one has achieved, accentuating the fact that a humble person is one who is open to learning and open to knowledge.
The students who attended the chat not only benefitted from it, but enjoyed some drinks and donuts at the end of it!
By: Thiruneeran, Culture Secretary