Tour in Ngee Ann

When to Ngee Ann Poly's "Poly Experience For Parents" today. I registered to go under School Of Humanities and Social Sciences (HMS) so that was the first one I visited. Upon reaching Ngee Ann, there is a group of students that led us to where the shuttle buses are. The shuttle buses will take us around the interior of the campus. There are different stops that we can alight depending on which school we are interested in or want to know more about it. At first one of the student asked us what school we wanted to go, I was like what do you meant by school (in my mind) ? Then I said my secondary school name and he go 'huh'. Each student will accompany us in the shuttle bus and they will be giving us brief descriptions of their school. Like look to the right now look to the left in front of you... so on. Our bus guide was a guy called Ryan or Bryan, he spoke rather fluently (which I am envy of) and he told us about a building that is undergoing renovation which is able to accommodate thousand of students at a time which is a rather large number.


HMS was located at the most far end of the bus route and the students of HMS whether they are first, second or third year they are all in yellow attire with their school written at the back of their t-shirt. Surprisingly, throughout the entire tour of schools, each and everyone of them were all really friendly and approachable. When you asked them a question they will have lots to say and  they will just patiently wait for you to bomb them any question. The students also shared with me about their experiences and I did cleared some of my doubts through my interaction with them. Once we alight at our respective stop in the morning around 9 plus, we went into a room of HMS, where the lecturers/students would tell us more about their courses. We went in like 30 minutes late as it was supposed to start at 9 so we awkwardly walked up the stairs to the seats at the highest level it looked something like my secondary school auditorium just that the arrangement was a bit different. Like the chairs it was rather cool, its fixed but not totally fixed as there is this spring-like thing fixed to the chair where you can pull it out to sit on and when you get up it will spring back itself or you just need to give it a slight push. There was a Question and Answer session at the end of the talk. They told us that at the 7th Floor there is a exhibition where we can go and have a look at the specific courses. They have their stuffs displayed on a table for each course. There was a total of 2 rooms I went to the one with 3 courses inside (Business and Social Enterprise, Early Childhood Education and Child psychology and Early Education), I stopped at the CPEE first, where the year end project of students was placed on the table. It include a model of a house or playground model and some things that the students came out with that is able to help the children. They are all handmade by the students and I also came to know that it does not necessary means that studying this field meant that you have to work in places for children with special needs. A 3rd year student told me that there is many job opportunities like therapists, or one of their friends who worked in an animal shelter published a book for the children to learn something. At the 2nd year of CPEE, we have two pathways to go one is go to becoming more of  an educator while the second path that we can opt for is I think more to psychology. On the other hand, Early Childhood is more of a one way path that you can choose to become a kindergarten teacher or opening your own centre. The students also came out with games that they created in order to allow the children to learn things in an interesting way. I saw one that have many sets of ingredients to made a hamburger and they told me its to tell them how many cheese to put inside the burger, sort of thing. They also made card games for bonding. Furthermore, I moved on to the next station BZSE, where they come out with their own products to sell and then using the sum of money they earned to help the people living in poverty. They too have the opportunity to go overseas, one of them gone to Sri Lanka and the other gone to Cambodia. The guy told us so that it can be sustain as they earn their own money and help these people. Some of the seniors, designed a slipper that is given to the children in China. After the exhibition, we went on the tour in the HMS areas where students learn and work in. There is many rooms, there is a room where it is filled with children's toys, a counselling room where it can be seen through another room where the students observe to what is happening inside through the footage of the cctv shown on a screen or a transparent rectangular glass where only the students in another room that is observing at look into the counselling room without the people in the room knowing. As from their side (counselling room) they are unable to see the room next to them. There was this particular room that I find it rather cool as there is this small recording studio where you see singer wearing a headphone with a fixed mike, singing, all the professional looking equipment.

After that we went to Film and Media Studies (FMS) where I get to go into a floor which cost 10 million dollars as it is a place where there is a control system for live shows and events such as the President Star Award and another room where interview of stars and celebrities happened. When we were in the FMS room for a short talk, there were students as photographers snapping shots of us at any moment. There was only one FMS photographer with us during the HMS. When we stopped at certain stop, one of the student that is in his first year came to approach me a few times and ask me what I am interested in and how I think of this so far etc. I even asked him questions like does this course need to have a good command of English and do you require to be very confident? The answer he gave me was rather reassuring as he told me that his English is not really good and his English actually deprove LOL and he told me that you need not need to be confident to be able to get in and he shared with me his experience as a new student that was him being awkward at the start. He told me that initially he felt shy but the lecturers were all really friendly and the people were nice and he found himself there. Like he knew he belonged there. I told him that I am not really sociable and he told me that its ok. HA and one girl from FMS, came forward to me and said : I like your shirt ! Me : Thanks ! *Putting my right hand up* then shortly after she said that she say i know its very random then she turn away feeling slightly embarrassed. She told me that she was unsure of what she wanted but because she knew her command of English was good so she entered Mass Communications as it has many genres and have a very wide range. Occasionally, some of them will asked me if  i had made up my mind and I always said no. I also asked some of the students about presentations, projects and their first day of school. At HMS, i asked one of the girl how is it like to be on her first day of school like its a totally new environment (she is a 1st year btw). She said it was actually fine as there is 4 weeks for them to adapt and there are camps too.

Last stop i went to School Of Engineering where i went inside a room and a woman which i think is a lecturer asked me what i am interested in but i told her that i suddenly forgotten about it. She told me that if i am unsure i should definitely choose this course. :l Then a student share with us that during the first year students are being exposed to different types of engineering so they will get to know what they really want. Our topic moved on to Red Camp, when he asked : Are you going for the Red Camp? I answered yes and he said good, i will get to see him on Tuesday. But he said Red Camp is rather vague and he recommended holiday activities during December which give us an a clear explanations and more in depth specifically covering all the engineering courses and the guy friend came along and said this was really very useful and he is now an engineer ! LAST one that i visited was the Audio-Visual Technology the lecturer (another course lecturer of AVT) said this is very hot when i said i want to go and see this course. I get to see some of the equipment they used for the lightings and sounds. Many events or MVs and many kind of places require AVT. There are short of people who work in this area. There was once someone needed 4 of their AVT students but the lecturer said he can only give them one. They only take in 60 students in a year and its not easy to get in. I requested to touch some of the equipment but some of them say cannot then after that they said can so i tried pushing the light buttons !! Some I cannot really see the difference and I only tried a few buttons as I am actually not allowed to touch them. My name was asked by one of the engineering student and lecturer... dangerous don't know what they will do..... After I left the room I went back again to take pictures !

There were refreshments given too after each talk. Sandwiches, bee hoon, fried wantons, coffee, tea and bottles of plain water. Overall, I think its a good experience and I discovered that all the students have lots of creativity in them ! This event was held on a Saturday but the students sacrifice their time to guide us and take us on a tour round their school. Thanks!!!