The Alumni Call

It was just a call away.

Justin dropped by to say hello. But I saw the potential in him. Fresh out of school, he told me that Friday was a free day for him and he wanted to say hello. That was sweet of him. I took a further step and gently asked him if it were too much of trouble to gather some ex-seafieldians through the dynamic fb for the purpose of setting up an alumni.

I love his positive attitude and his willingness to help. He did not for a moment hesitate. That was a part of his headship training in school plus all the Pendidikan Moral plus all the Civics lessons grilled through him. Not bad. Putting lessons in action.

Not sure of the response from the public, he gingerly started a group site and began calling in his cronies. But it did not take long before the fire spread. We were overwhelmed by the hunger of the Seafieldians in all walks of life to want to come together and to have an identity connected to their alma mater. Of course the ones who have just left responded faster. But there were some older ones responding too.

Take Aaron Cheah for a start. I know his group of friends pretty well as I taught them in the late 90s... Chai Yen, Cherry, Baljeet, Jun Liong, Teik Chiang ...hopefully one day they will catch up with us and tell us of their stories.

Then Candy Moy, Low Pek Wan, Angeline Khoo and Kenneth Sim all in the same group as Nizar, Reuben, Anthony connected through this group call too. I am so glad to learn from Pek Wan that she is well and happy serving the church ; her highest calling.

After all these years they still have some feelings for their alma mater and hopefully when the alumni is officially established, they will somehow come in to assist.

I also see a potential in Keith Tay; our very own boy of 2007 ? One day when things are more settled we will invite him in too to head in some aspects.

The Alumni aims at not only gathering the old students for party purposes... but to continue the process of life long learning and making reliable citizens out of the protege of the school. We hope to see contributions in the field of education, social needs and maybe business if the group decides so. I was just talking to a group of Malaysian citizens belonging to a Japanese alumni AOTS who actually confirmed that they have a building of their own in town making tons of money through rentals. The school teaches from the core of education; that each and every child will endeavour to be responsible ones wherever they may be ; that they may me good seeds. The strings of As is not everything; it is character formation. This is confirmed through an article I read this morning in the NST when the IMU president Tan Sri Dr. Abu Bakar Suleiman reiterated that

... the essence of being a doctor is to serve. Just because you are a bright student doesn't make you a good doctor. You must have other attributes such as being interested in people, the desire to help others, patience and the independence of thinking and learning...

and added that he had come across cases of intelligent students not doing well in their medical exams because of a lack of interest.

Wow education has such a high calling. Now you not only prepare the students to have straight As to the delight of the stakeholders but you also have to make meaningful characters out of them.

So on most Saturdays, the gruesome task of drilling the students come in for perseverance and patience through the societies. Most who are leaders of such groups turn out to be leaders in their vocations; I am quite sure.

See, no play, play.

I was impressed that the seniors led the juniors... all attentive.

The Eco rangers had a camp yesterday and the responsible teacher tagged along seeing to their demands and making sure all is well... and when they go home the next day; the teacher goes back to school on Monday for duty again. We hope that the students will understand what it means to be helped by the sacrifice of a teacher. No weekend for the teacher all in the name of character building.

The boys and girls having fun ; a fun that will be etched in their memories and hopefully recalled one day. We teach and lead to see them lead too.


The supreme love and care of teachers are also seen here.

The removal of unwanted materials and garbage to make space for a new venture in the curriculum of the school for the next year done on a precious weekend.

The initiative of someone who cares will see to the culmination of the vision ; to set up a new culinary portfolio for the school...

So, the school is too truly a space for all forms of development...ambition, sacrifice, love and care, patience, perseverance and many, many more. We hope the stakeholders will also love us and make do with some shortcomings here and there.

The Alumni is targeted to gather all who have been a part of the school to make good the vision and mission of their alma mater; that meaning to life is brought to its epitome after all their learning here.

We will continue to work on the legalisation of the body till it comes true.