Category Archives for Temasek Poly

Studied in Temasek Polytechnic, graduating with a Diploma in Hospitality & Tourism Management. I’d say: It’s true indeed how this institution has brought education to life and life to education.

Remembering T’s Magazine Featuring SHINN


Open the above picture/link and you can see it full sized

On the 8 June 2012, upon arriving at Shanghai, China to begin my second internship journey, I received a kind e-mail from Temasek Polytechnic’s Corporate Communications department if I would like to receive a copy of T’s Magazine which has an article featuring yours truly. T’s Magazine is a publication by Temasek Polytechnic, especially focus at sharing students and graduates’ experiences with the prospective TP students and O level students. It has been a pleasure chatting with them about my life back then in Temasek Polytechnic, how many opportunities the institution exposed me to, how I managed to end up in EHL for my university education and etc. I really loved the way they did a vector of me in one of my favourite t-shirts. I certainly hope this article featuring me has at least sparked some inspiration and confidence in the younger ones, urging them to always take all opportunities that the school has for them, like how I did and graduated proudly from Temasek Polytechnic :-)

My Magical 2011

2011 was lovely, it really was. Not just lovely, it was crazy, wonderful, educational, fun and all the positive adjectives that could describe it fits well here. It is indeed hard to believe that the time has come for us to say goodbye to the year 2011 and welcome 2012 in a few days’ time.

1. I had the best time of my life with Four Seasons Resorts Seychelles and Seychelles, no matter was it for internship or for holiday with the family. Seychelles Memories



2. A short trip to http://madeofballoons.com/category/travel/hong-kong/”>Hong Kong to get the family together once again was much appreciated.

3. Going around hunting for cafes or restaurants to dine at! Hatched, Strictly Pancakes, Food for Thought, 2D1N Soju Bang, Riders’ Cafe, The Knolls, Prego, Rochor Beancurd, Sing Ho Chicken Rice, Muthu’s Curry, Oomphatico’s, Old School Delights, Salted Caramel, Roti Prata House, Bedok 85 etc. Foodiefreak

4. Participating in Spotlight Singapore in Cape Town was an eye-opener! Stepping into the Africa region was new to me for certain!

5. Being part of Project Yume in Japan, Iwate and Fukushima prefecture was one magical trip. The fact that I left home to spend that precious one week in Japan to do what I’ve never expected myself to do, I did it. Getting to know a lovely bunch of friends in Japan, running all around the touristy attractions, rushing for trains, carrying the heavy luggage up stairs, lugging the camera everywhere I go and most importantly, eating the best meals of my life, meeting the most adorable kids and witnessing them drawing to change the world =)



6. Learning a language was never this fun, until I went to French Toast to pick up French!


7. Discovering the restaurant of my life: Red Pig Korean BBQ… Don’t mind having myself soaked in the fragrance of samgyupsal because my love for it never dies (at least till today and now that I am still penning this).

8. Graduating from Temasek Polytechnic with the Diploma in Hospitality & Tourism Management, and even though being the almost valedictorian already meant a lot to me. Sharing my future plans with my course manager and lecturers, at the same time hearing their points of view and advices…



9. Submitting my application for EHL, going all the way to Switzerland for selection day, family and friends who gave me so much support, and finally seeing myself in Lausanne since September as an official student of Ecole Hoteliere de Lausanne, also the first graduate of Temasek Polytechnic HTM to have applied there. It was one huge step nearer to dream :-)

10. The early arrival of En certainly added overflowing joy to the L family just right before I left for my studies in Switzerland

11. So fortunate to have met a wonderful group in school: members who enjoy working with one another so much, so cooperative, so thoughtful. May we continue to work well in the brand new year!

12. A memorable 20th birthday spent in Lausanne and Zermatt, Switzerland the winter wonderland! Surprise Surprise, Shinn you’re 20 years old / Birthday Trip to Winter Wonderland



This year 2011 has been magical. Thank you for friends who let me into their lives and thank you friends for coming into my life. Family and friends who shared their most magical moments with me, thank you. Family and friends who shared their most disappointing moments with me, thank you as well. I love growing up year by year, it feels like I build more blocks of education, maturity, fun, excitement, happiness, experiences, thoughts, inspiration and etc into this life of mine and that it gets even more precious day by day, week by week, month by month, year by year.

Cheers to the arrival of 2012!

Thoughts on Spotlight Singapore in Cape Town

This came a little too late but I was reminded of my trip to Cape Town in March 2011 once again. It was all thanks to a school tutor, Ms S Goh’s e-mail invitation that was sent from Singapore to Seychelles (virtually) that made us all itching to go then.

Ever since we stepped foot into Seychelles, we were all hyped up about travelling to the different parts of the world. And there came the chance by Spotlight Singapore which after months of efforts, they were more than happy to announce the arrival of Spotlight Singapore in Cape Town.

Just a few months ago, I did a presentation to the new bunch of freshies at Temasek Polytechnic’s School of Business, to share with them of the student learning opportunities that they have been offering me. At the School of Business, I have had the opportunity to visit educational institutions and diploma specific sites of interest. In addition, I did not hesitate to apply for the Overseas Internship Programme that thankfully gave me the best times of my polytechnic life in Seychelles. It was where I was nurtured into a more independent and global individual. And in the recent years, they have been introducing overseas educational trips for students to embark on to interact with the locals and exactly feature how learning outside of classrooms mean!

I remember I was still sharing with the freshies about Spotlight Singapore being an international exchange programme, and how it has gone a reasonably long way from Hong Kong, Tokyo, Moscow and to Cape Town this year. In 2012, they are even intending to go to… (inserts destinations in) destinations that are so so so exotic and totally making me drool. Though Spotlight Singapore initially started out as a cultural and economic gateway to new and emerging markets overseas, this time round for the one I’ve been involved in, the learning component was included.

Never have I imagined myself stepping foot into Cape Town yet because like I’ve always said, how I’ve not even finished venturing my own region – Asia. But it was really nice, first for OSIP in Seychelles made me even more interested in the African culture. Now Cape Town, that chance was right in front of me then!

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The Almost-Valedictorian Speech by Shinn

Today as I’ve just had my Graduation Ceremony dated 24 May 2011 (Tuesday). I have a little piece to share, something I did not manage to, but perhaps could do it through this avenue.

As some may of know or some may have not, I have had the privilege to be one of the nominees to be a Valedictorian this year, representing my batch of fellow coursemates from the Diploma in Hospitality & Tourism Management. Well, I have indeed learnt quite a bit throughout this process – speechcraft, pronunciation of words and it isn’t all that simple when it comes to reading a speech. At least I managed to be the reserve valedictorian.

Here I present my speech (no it isn’t all fancy and filled with great English quotes) but it’s at least filled with my sincerity and heartfelt thoughts I have for these 3 years in my dream course:

Mr. Tony Soh, President, Chief Corporate Officer, The Ascott Group Limited, Mr. Boo Kheng Hua – Principal & CEO of Temasek Polytechnic, Board of Governors; Deputy Principals, Directors, Distinguished Guests, Parents, Graduates, Ladies & Gentlemen;

Good afternoon.

Seeing everyone seated here in the Temasek Convention Centre reminds me of 3 years ago, our first day as freshmen, all of us were sitting here, looking at one another with awkwardness and afraid to strike conversations with unfamiliar faces.

Upon receiving my ‘O’ level results, I was more than happy to realise that I was finally a step nearer to realising my dream from secondary 3 days. On the 19th of February 2008 – the day of our posting results, I opened my eyes wide from my sleep at 8 in the morning, I prayed hard that I’d see the text message alert which read “Temasek Polytechnic – Hospitality & Tourism Management”. Dreams do come true and that is exactly what happened to me. The journey began. I need not dream about service, hospitality, tourism, hotels, resorts, events and so on because they were all going to come true.

As a student of Temasek Polytechnic, we are often given opportunities to fill our polytechnic lives with vibrant colours. It is not always about lectures and tutorials. It was that and also about discovering ourselves through course modules with practical training – like how doing projects made us realise that perhaps she’s good at marketing, he’s good at tourism planning and I am good at events programming. There were cross-cultural exchange programmes such as Global Citizenship that allowed me to journey to China and return to Singapore with eye-opening experiences. I would never forget how picking up cross-disciplinary subjects gave me the chance to learn additional knowledge and skills on Sociology and the Japanese language.

I believe it was also after we embarked on our internship and completed it after 20 weeks that we realised how we could finally apply our summarised knowledge, technical and soft skills to reality. What impacted me the most was to proudly be part of the co-curricular activities that spiced up my polytechnic life with much more excitement. By being part of the PACEsetters’ executive committee, representing the school as an official student ambassador, these were platforms for me to sharpen my organisational and people management skills. In all, it evidently showed that Temasek Polytechnic has indeed brought education to my life and life to my education. It was a life that did not revolve just simply on purely academics, but education in terms of personal and professional development as well. I had to take charge of my own learning and juggle it with co-curricular activities at the same time. Now, 3 years later, I can safely say to myself that Temasek Polytechnic has indeed elevated my knowledge and personal development to a whole new level.

Today, my dream of graduating with my diploma in a place I proudly call my second home has officially come true. At such a juncture as we step out of this second home which has shaped us into such confident individuals, some of us may continue the academic path of our chosen fields of interest; some may decide to venture to other industries to seek a wider range of experiences and yet others may decide to venture out alone into setting up their own businesses. Whatever the case may be I think the lessons we have learnt here will be the launchpad to new adventures for us.

In the end we each owe a duty of thanks to so many people who have stood firmly with us as we ventured on this journey. I thank my course manager, my lecturers and tutors for putting in the effort in sharing their knowledge, expertise and experiences with us. I thank my fellow course mates whom I have forged friendships with – I know we will remember all the specific moments that made our lives special and significant. Lest you think I have forgotten to thank a very important group of people, let me tell you, I have not. Dad and Mum, thank you for just being our pillars of strength as we went through the ups and downs of academia.

Let us continue the TP spirit in staying connected as alumni as we live on our splendid, and brilliant lives, no matter where we are and no matter how much we have or not have. May we continue to support one another in our future endeavours and perhaps this farewell is not exactly ‘the hardest goodbye’ because I know that it would be a ‘see you soon’ as our paths cross in life.

It has been great honour for me to give this speech so thank you, ‘see you soon’ and have fun in life!

Congratulations.

I’ve had a splendid 3 years, I really did. It wasn’t all that smooth-sailing and filled with success, I’ve earned hard for them and as I’ve done my best and placed in my efforts in them, I therefore am proud to announce that

I’M A OFFICIAL GRADUATE OF TEMASEK POLYTECHNIC; SCHOOL OF BUSINESS – DIPLOMA IN HOSPITALITY & TOURISM MANAGEMENT!!!

Temasekpoly.sg

Temasek Polytechnic was my dream school then, it was my school and now that I’m almost graduating, I’m glad I’ve stepped foot into Temasek Polytechnic, took up the Diploma in Hospitality & Tourism Management and that it brought me quite some learning opportunities in that 3 years.

A few of us representing each FS property were interviewed by Fabian, the writer behind the Temasekpoly.sg blog of Temasek Polytechnic. They’ve now got twitter to have live feeds and updates of students’ lives in the school!

Just had an interview with Hospitality & Tourism students... on Twitpic

We had fair share of fun sharing our experiences, reminiscing those times where we had fun yet worked hard. Maldives, Mauritius, Seychelles, Hangzhou.. those exotic destinations we never thought of ourselves flying there just for that once in a lifetime experience.

We had seasons in the sun;

Muthu, Ah Hung & Rochor

To the CYA 5th batch peers who were more than willing to start off with…

Muthu’s Curry at Race Course Lane (Farrer Park MRT Exit F)

I quite like Muthu’s Curry and this shall be yet another to-go restaurant for the curry-lovers! The free flow of papadum and vegetables, choice of Masala Chicken? Tandoori Chicken? Butter Chicken? The best of it our dearest Curry Fishhead! Service is quite fast and efficient, 15% off for AMEX cardholders so that makes it a yes yes for me and maybe you!






then move on to Ah Hung Durian at Geylang Lorong 13 in 3 cabs,




finally walked a super duper long way for Rochor Beancurd along Geylang as well.




Stomach was too full, guess we could even curb hunger for 2 days at least.

We are such foodiefreaks! So tell me, what’s next?

Changi Youth Ambassadors Alumni 2nd AGM

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Changi Youth Ambassadors Alumni 2nd AGM
A great initiative, with big dreams, daring pursues, strong networks, it’s ongoing.
It’s Not Work!

A great day to catch up with fellow seniors from Changi Youth Ambassadors once again, more indepth understanding into the work of the Alumni initiative, been insightful and fruitful, seeing myself supporting this initiative for as long as I can (for as long as I’m staying in Singapore, that is). Well well.. the people who made up your polytechnic life….