YAY SPECIAL PROGRAMMES

Today I attended the Special Program briefings. The students were offered a choice of 5 briefings to attend, and could choose a maximum of 2. The different briefings were SMTP (Math), SMTP (Defense Science), LEP, HP and BSP. As I knew my math and science weren't too good and I probably couldn't cut it if I joined SMTP in Sec 3, I decided to choose the BSP and HP briefings, because I felt that my literature and history were two of my strongest subjects and I had passion for these two subjects. Also, I was considering BSP because I thought it would be good to learn more about China's culture and history. After all, I think the main thing that differs Hwa Chong from the school in Bishan (god I hate using this horrendously overused comparison) is the emphasis on Chinese culture.

The first briefing was the BSP one, and the students' presentation was basically about the different events and immersion programmes offered for BSP students. One thing that stood out was the prominence of Chinese in all these events. Although this shouldn't be too unexpected of BSP, I still found it pretty surprising that there was such a dominance (is this the right word to use :/) of Chinese in the program. To be absolutely honest here, I walked away from the briefing not really feeling too excited about joining BSP. Although I was still very much interested in learning about China and its culture, and despite the fact that Chinese is an important aspect of the Hwa Chong curriculum, I was left in a dilemma of whether BSP was actually the "surefire" way to go.

The next (and last) briefing was the HP one, and it left a pretty big impact on me. The presenters were really good, and they really managed to liven up the atmosphere and make the audience feel welcome. I don't think I really need to elaborate much on what was mentioned in the presentation, so I'll cut to the chase here. Basically, the Humanities Research Paper (HRP), Humanities Research Symposium for Youths (HRSY), Humanities in Celebration (HIC), the University of Melbourne course-cum-exchange program, and the curriculum in Year 3 and 4 was talked about during the presentation. As I was more of a lit and history guy, I felt genuinely interested in HP as it really felt like it catered to my interests. And to be honest, the part where participants of HRSY get to travel to Brisbane also caught my interest too! xD

At the end of the day, I think that HP is the most preferable program for me. The curriculum seems extremely interesting and it really feels like I will be able to pursue my passion in this program. However, I do know that there are standards to meet in order to be in this program, and hard work is nevertheless required of me. For now, I think the best thing to do is to just study hard, and try to attain desirable results so as to be able to make it to the program of my choice, in this case HP. It really seems like a fun and enriching experience, and I am sure that if I am able to make it to HP, I will definitely enjoy my 2 years in it! What Special Programme do you want to join?

Cheers,
Roystan