Looking at DBIT Year 1 student Tan Hui Yee’s cherubic face, you would be hardly surprised to be told that she was often pinched and ‘wooo-ah’ by adults when she was a toddler and pre-schooler.
Indeed, she still has the ‘cute baby' face’ that won her – gasp, a child-modelling opportunity when she was four years old! We will talk about this modelling experience of hers later in the blog, but for now, let’s find out more about the life of this cheerful girl when she was in secondary school!
Her primary and secondary school days
Hui Yee was from both CHIJ St Nicholas Girls’ School (Primary and Secondary).
“Spending ten years in the same school is definitely not an easy thing. Imagine having to eat the same old canteen food for ten years and also wearing the same uniform year after year? Having said that, I actually miss wearing the blue pinafore now. To me, St Nicks will always be my second home and I’m very grateful to St Nicks for nurturing me to what I am today.”
During her primary school days, she joined Hockey and was in the school’s Hockey team.
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| Hui Yee with her Hockey team-mates at Saint Nicholas Girls |
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| Hui Yee's Hockey Tee -- Number 26! |
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| Some of the trophies she has won over the years. |
In secondary school however, in consideration of the heavier workload,
she did not continue to join hockey as a CCA. Instead, she joined the Infocomm Club. She was in the robotics and programming section and she learnt how to build and program robots using LEGO Mindstorms.
“I always find a sense of achievement when I am able to program the robot to do what I wanted it to. Although I have participated in robotics competitions before, I did not win any due to the lack of experience in robotics. However, I take each failure as a learning experience and a stepping stone to success.”
In secondary school, her favourite subjects were Mathematics, Chemistry and Chinese.
“I did not like English Literature the most as I don’t enjoy writing essays.”
Talent scouted at four!
At the age of 4, Hui Yee was talent scouted by a modelling agency. With her adorable looks, she was asked to model for a departmental store’s newspaper advertisement for children apparels. Sadly, the department store that she modelled for no longer exists in Singapore. During its existence, the store was known as SOGO and located at the strategic location of Raffles City, occupying several floors of tenanted space.
Here's a copy of the advertisement she appeared in!
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| The cute 4 year old Hui Yee in the SOGO advertisement! |
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| Studio photo when she was a pre-schooler. So CUTE! |
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| Her adorable looks won her the third prize in the Ribena contest and many more other contests! |
Her secret to performing well
Hui Yee does not think she has been performing exceedingly well since young though she admits that her results were above average in primary school.
She remembers the time when she was in lower primary, she was always weak in Chinese and Mathematics. However, her parents arranged for many tuition classes for her, let her do countless of assessment papers and she improved tremendously.
Her Chinese improved so much that when she was in Secondary Two, her performance in the subject was good enough for the school to offer her to take up Higher Chinese in Secondary Three. This meant a lot to her as she would be able to have extra 2 bonus points for entry to JCs. She took the Chinese ‘O’ Levels at the end of Secondary Three and Higher Chinese at the end of Secondary Four and scored distinctions for both! Ironically, she chose the polytechnic route so she did not make use of the bonus points. ;)
“I guess there really isn’t any secret to success. Hard work is definitely a must and you must be sure of your own goals then work towards them step by step. And in this process, there are bound to be obstacles here and there. But these obstacles are just part and parcel of the road to success. Without them, you will never know the feeling of succeeding. You must also have the determination and perseverance if you want to succeed.”
Things she wished she had done
Since young, I have always enjoyed playing in the bathtub. So when I was 6, I began to take up swimming lessons. Within a few months, I achieved my bronze award in swimming. I went on to pursue the silver award. However, due to time constraints, I did not have time to complete the gold award and this was something I wished I could do.
"If I could go back in time, I wished I had preserved a little more and continued learning how to play the piano. I started learning when I was about 5 but gave up learning it as I did not like it at that time and felt that I did not have any musical talents. Now, looking at how well some of my friends play the piano, I admire them and wished I could play as well as them." Her hobbies
Hui Yee enjoys swimming, cycling and roller-skating.
She loves the feeling of wind blowing strongly against my skin whenever she cycles. Somehow this gives her a feeling of freedom. What is really commendable is that she recently taught her younger sister how to ride a two-wheel bicycle. The teaching process went quite smoothly and her sister learnt fast. Within the first 2 hours, her sister managed to master cycling. She had a great sense of accomplishment after teaching her sister how to cycle!
"I haven’t been cycling much due to the heavy workload and exams being round the corner. Hopefully after my exams, I will be able to bring my sister to East Coast Park for a ride :D"
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| Memories of her sister learning to cycle |
Her favourite foods
Chicken rice, fried hokkien mee, satay
People who inspire her
Dr William Tan - He is a person with great perseverance. Despite his disabilities, he did not give up and worked his way to become a medical doctor and a neuroscientist he is today, helping to heal lives in his profession. He also has not forgotten about the needy and unfortunate around the world. He has helped to raise funds for charities all over the world through participating in marathons on his wheelchairs. I admire him for his perseverance and determination to eventually become a doctor and to complete every single marathon. He sure is an inspiration to many.
Links to Dr William Tan:
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| Picture from ChannelNewsAsia |
Liz Murray- She managed to graduate with a degree in Psychology at Harvard despite her background and being homeless at the age of 15. I admire her undying desire to study. She has managed to overcome all odds and achieve such excellent results. To some, it may seem almost impossible to go to school, what more graduate from Harvard when you’re homeless. As such, I really find her an inspiration to spur me on when I’m troubled and stressed out.
Links to Liz Murray
Wiki
Liz Murray shares how she managed to overcome her family problems and graduated from Harvard
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| Picture from Guardian News |
Ben Underwood- He is one amazing teenager who ‘sees’ with his ears. Ben was diagnosed with retinal cancer at age two. As a result, he had both eyes removed. However, Ben did not succumb to his disability and mastered echolocation. Using echolocation, Ben could do things any other kid his age could such as skate-boarding, cycling, playing football and basketball. I admire him for his positive attitude towards his situation. He is definitely an inspiration to many, especially teenagers. Ben’s story has also taught me cherish the ability to see with my eyes.
Ben Underwood's website
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| Picture from Ben Underwood.com |
Places she has travelled to
Hui Yee is a seasoned traveller! She has travelled to many countries in the past 17 years of her life. She remembers her parents telling her that she has been to Australia when she was about 2 or 3. Other countries she has visited with her family include Bangkok, Korea, Hong Kong.
Besides travelling with her family, Hui Yee also went overseas on her secondary school school immersions programmes.
"Most of the school immersions I went for were in China. When I was in Secondary 3, I went on a school immersion to 3 different cities in China namely Nanjing, Shanghai and Hangzhou. I had a really great time there! I liked Shanghai best as it was pretty much a bustling city just like Singapore. And Shanghai’s city skyline at night is just so awesome!"
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| Collage of her School Immersion Programmes in China |
Why did she choose DBIT?
"I chose DBIT because I was interested in Business and IT at the same time. I also believe that DBIT will prepare me for the 21 century where things are constantly changing and everyone is so connected in cyber space."
From the course, she hopes to be able to learn new things and pick up useful skills and knowledge that will benefit her in the future.
Her favourite modules in Singapore Polytechnic
Her favourite module in SP is Social Media Marketing (SMM).
"I really enjoy learning what Social Media Marketing is all about and how it works. In fact, I am so interested in this topic that I wish that we can learn more about other kinds of social media platforms that are not so common in Singapore and explore further into them!"
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| Hui Yee and her team-mates with her Social Media Marketing Assignment Client |
Her Year 1 Poly Assignments
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| Digital Imaging Collage Assignment 1 |
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| Website Design Assignment |
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| HTML Assignment |
More memorable photos from Hui Yee
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| Hui Yee and her equally cute-looking younger sister |
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| Happy days with her St Nicks classmates |
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| Hui Yee with her SP classmates |
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