Thursday, April 24, 2014

Awfully Entrepreneurial - A Visit from the Founder of Awfully Chocolate

10:17 PM Posted by Anonymous No comments
Awfully Entrepreneurial
A Visit from the Founder of Awfully Chocolate

On 24th April of 2014, Mrs Ho Lyn Lee, founder of “Awfully Chocolate” came down to SST to give a talk based on the story of the success of her chocolatey franchise. The speech was given as to inculcate the entrepreneurial spirit within us, and to motivate students towards the fruit of passion and effort, at the final weekday before the Common Test.

Mrs Lee tells the story of how they started- a single chocolate cake sold in an outlet that hardly looked like a chocolate shop. In fact, it looked clinical, with a white counter, and a cleric seated behind it. When one walked into the shop, the cleric would take out the cake and start talking all about the cake. This unique way of presenting their products has become tradition, and is still carried out today.

Mrs Lee had a vision-to bring back the cake amidst the age of french pastries - everything but cake, in 1998. And through this one outlet, she expanded outwards, putting her time and effort into the development of her business while studying in university. But that was not her only limitation - she did not advertise, she did not display her products extravagantly. There was not even a menu. Mrs Lee wanted customers to discover Awfully Chocolate in their own little ways.

The passion and efforts of Mrs Lee and her dedicated team drove Awfully Chocolate to its international success. The story behind the franchise inspires the spirit of entrepreneurship within our hearts, to keep on striving, to put in all your effort and passion, in order to reap the sweetest of fruitful results. To overcome limitations, to think out of the box. To find opportunities in even the most unlikely of places, and grab onto them, and use them towards our advantage. To keep working towards perfection, but never loosing sight of our ideals. 

Several students, inspired by Mrs Lee’s story, stayed back after her speech to ask her about her tough journey through her entrepreneurial career. These eager students learned quite a bit from her expert advice. 

Awfully Chocolate is truly a story we can all learn from, and reflect upon.

Written by: Athiyah Tamanna Azeem (S307)

Tuesday, April 22, 2014

MTL Fortnight 2014 - A visit to the Jurong Regional Library

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On April 11, the Malay students visited the Jurong Regional Library for their learning journey. Firstly, the students were given 40 minutes to complete a quiz on malay culture. After that, the speaker went through the answers and also shared many stories of the different events and festivals that he went through.This intrigued the malay students deeply, as they listen and pose questions to the speaker. They learnt many unique ways of gaining inspiration and writing better works than before.

Next, the speaker shared how Malay history, stories and culture still affect people today, especially writers to write compelling and interesting pieces of work. The speaker also shared many useful websites, that provide valuable information for both students and teachers. One of the websites hosts newspapers dating back to the 1900s as a viable resource of history for the students. Another website was an archive of information that are considered to be trusted as proper factual content which would certainly help the students with their individual projects in school.


The journey concluded after a short tour around the Jurong Regional library. The facilities were both comfortable and useful. The students took away many important lessons and motivation to spur them on to improve their Malay Language. Finally, they ended their enriching journey with a group photo. 

Written by: Zahid Aziz (S306)

Saturday, April 19, 2014

Mother Tongue Language Fortnight 2014

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On Monday, April 7, 2014, SST started its Mother Tongue Language (MTL) Fortnight for the year. Over the span of two weeks, all students would be participating in various events related to their mother tongue languages and learning more about them.

On April 9, the Malay students had participated in a ‘Cultural Fiesta’. Many stations, with different traditional games unique to the Malay culture, were set up for the students. Before all the fun and games, the students were seated down for a talk about their current knowledge of the Malay culture. After which, they embarked on their games. Most students were delighted to try out the various traditional games planned out for them! Many of them walked away with fantastic prizes too. Lastly, they were given the pleasure of eating delicious malay food!

On April 10, the Chinese students set off to Chinatown for their cultural camp at ‘Tea Chapter’, where they were introduced to the origins and legends of Chinese tea. They learnt about the many different types of tea, and also the traditional way to brew them. The students were very fascinated and participative during the whole process. Soon, they were given the opportunity to brew the tea for themselves! Most students were very eager to embark on their tea brewing journey. Like kings and queens, they enjoyed their self-brewed tea with a tea biscuit and herbal tea eggs.

As the Chinese students were enjoying their tea brewing session, the Secondary 1 Tamil students were having their own cultural camp back in school. They participated wholeheartedly in the game of Tiger and Goat, a traditional board game native to India. Other students learnt and made their very own flower garlands. And lastly, the students were taught to draw beautiful Kolams, which are used for house decorations during the festive season.


Tamil students making their very own flower garlands in school.

These were only some of the many wonderful and fun activities put up for the MTL Fortnight. The students not only learnt more about their cultural heritage, but also forged a strong sense of belonging to their mother tongue and joyful memories with their friends!


Written By: Klaudia Oey (S1-04)