SPEECH BY ARIFF B. ABDUL AZIZ
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School of Applied Science - Best Student (1st)
Centre for Innovation & Enterprise People Management Youth
Award Winner
Centre for Innovation & Enterprise Best Overall Student
Lien Foundation Scholar
Good morning Professor Low Teck Seng, Principal and Chief Executive
Officer of Republic Polytechnic, our Guest-of-Honour, Miss Indranee Rajah,
MP for Tanjong Pagar GRC, Members of the Board of Governors,
distinguished guests, parents, ladies and gentleman.
One year ago, whilst shopping for a polytechnic after leaving Kranji
Secondary School, I was faced with 2 choices: one, to take the safe route and
join an established poly; or two, to be a Pioneer, explore new frontiers, and
begin an exciting adventure in learning!
I chose to be a Pioneer, and that has been the Best Decision of my Life!
Let me tell you why. Let me share with you what the past one year has been
like for me and my fellow school mates at Republic Poly.
But first let me say that I am just an average Joe - no different from all my
friends at RP. But the urge to be the best has always been there since
kindergarten. I had 3 friends from primary school who went on to Kranji
Secondary School with me. They all had better PSLE scores than me. So I
motivated myself by setting a target – I must ‘beat’ them in my studies in
secondary school! Did I do it? Well, I beat 2 of them, except for one – he went
on to become Kranji’s Top Student!
My biggest challenge when I came to RP was to learn how to adapt to an
entirely new way of learning. It was a sudden transition from the “teacher
talks, student listens” conventional classroom situation to RP’s ProblemBased Learning approach. No more set textbooks or boring lectures, no more
mindless memorization without understanding. Suddenly, we are required to
work closely with other students, argue our cases, and present our findings…
Suddenly there are no right or wrong answers!!!
I reflected on the differences between both types of learning – the
conventional method and the unconventional PBL way. With the traditional
method of learning, it is the people with the strongest “memory power” of a
few “terabytes” who excel and do well in exams. However, in RP, I’ve learnt
that in order to succeed, it’s not about having Jimmy Neuron’s brains … it’s
about how to think critically, how to use the information. And that is the
training we get here.
One of the most valuable Life lessons I have learned so far concerns
knowledge-sharing. I realize that when we share information, for example, if I
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were to explain a difficult concept to someone else, the person who benefits
most is me, the ‘giver’, not the ‘receiver’ of that knowledge. This sharing and
working with others is something that we do on a daily basis at RP, so I am
continuously improving myself, as well as helping fellow students at the same
time.
Another thing I am very grateful for is the chance to work with other people –
the good, the bad, the ugly - just like in the real world out there. Here, we work
in teams of 5. When we first started school last year, I had a very challenging
group! I shall not reveal their names for the sake of my own safety! There was
A, someone who always did the minimum. I was frustrated with A because I
had to nag and nag – just like a mother - before he did his share of work! But
he was vocal and had fantastic presentation skills, so he was valuable to the
team! Then there were B, C and D, who preferred to learn at their own pace.
The quality of their work did not meet my high expectations, but I was happy
that that they showed great interest in learning by asking questions, clarifying
problems and working together to solve the problem as a team. This was
indeed a memorable experience – my skills in dealing with difficult people and
different personality types have improved tremendously! No textbook can ever
give you that experience!
I’m proud to declare that my poly life in RP is the most exciting part of my
student life. I cherish the ups and downs … the excitement of the first
Christmas Party, my first D grade for a Test last year, the mad schedule of the
first open house, the craziness of getting the student newsletter out on time,
the pure adrenalin of the debate competitions …And through it all, friends
have come along to make my life more meaningful.
Let me end with a quote from Winston Churchill: He said, “Success is the
ability to go from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm.” To
my fellow Pioneers, let this be a reminder when we face obstacles … Let’s
look up to the sky and say to ourselves, “Regardless of the sun’s heat or
stormy weather, I’m going to embrace my new destiny!”
Has it been easy for me? No. But in the words of George Reeves, a famous
actor in the 1940s, “You can if you think you can!” All the best to you, fellow
schoolmates, for the next two years and beyond!
Have a good day ahead!
END OF SPEECH
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