Monday, April 15, 2013

The MetroDBITan student series : Issue #020 - Anu

Hello everyone!

Is this the first time you are reading this blog? If you are, then you are most likely one of our Year 1 freshmen who has just joined the big family of DBITans this 2013! If so, a big welcome to you! :)

Glad that you have chosen to spend your three years of learning journey with your fellow DBIT coursemates and seniors, and we hope that you would enjoy every step of these 3 years here!

3 years may seem a long time, but life is often so busy in SP that, in a wink of an eye, you find one moment, you are a freshie here, but in another moment, you are now a "senior"!

Let's chat with one such student today, Anu! Last semester, she was a Year 1 just like many of you reading this blog.  Today, she is officially a proud Year 2 DBIT student!

So, let's zoom in and find out more about this cheerful and motivated Year 2 gal!



Anu, congrats on being promoted to Year 2!  Let's start off this interview by giving a description of yourself with four different words


Hi everyone! My name is Anu and here's four words that describe me :-)

Easy-going: I am an easy-going person. People only realize it after they talk to me. Almost all of my friends told me that I looked very anti-social and fierce at first, until they talked to me.

Brave: I do not really know about this quality. It is a quality that my friends say I possess

Quiet: I do not really talk much to people who I do not know. I only talk to someone if they take the initiative to do so.

Emotional: I get too emotional at times. This usually happens when I am too stressed. I think about unnecessary things and make myself get an emotional breakdown. This is a period when people do not want to near me because I look really very fierce and do not wish to talk to anyone.

Tell us more about your school days in primary school and secondary school

Primary School

I was from Shuqun Primary School.

I was a really very quiet student during my primary school days. I did not really talk much to anyone. I always hung around with two of my friends and only talked to them. I did not like to open up much. My report book was always filled with teachers' comments like “Anu is a very quiet girl”, “Anu should talk more”, “Anu should open up”. Even my parents were sick and tired of receiving the same feedback from the teachers at the parents meeting!

My favorite subject was Mathematics.

For my CCAs, I had a lot of them in Primary school. First, I was in choir. Then I went on to gymnastics, and then to swimming, and then to dance, and then finally art club. But of all the CCAs, swimming was the best. However, the longest CCA I was in was dance. This was due to the SYF performance. I performed over 10 times in many stages. This helped me overcome my stage fright. We won Gold with honors for our school 2 times. I also have got the "Best Performance in Studies Award" two times in my primary school.

This was my primary school Dance CCA.
I am the one in the middle, among the orange color dressed girls.

Secondary School

I was posted to CHIJ St Theresa’s Convent.

I was not really happy with the result. I did not feel good about going to a girls’ school. I thought that the atmosphere will be weird. I had never studied in a girls’ school previously. I thought that I will remain as very quiet girl there too.

But I was wrong! I was too wrong.

After I entered that school, my quietness disappeared on the first day itself.

All of the girls were so friendly and loud. I do not talk with loud people at that time. But I don’t know why, I felt a strong sense of belonging with the surrounding. I never thought that I would be so loud in the first day of school itself.

My mom was expecting to hear the same thing about me being quiet at the very first parents meeting. But she gave a very shocked face when my class teacher told her that I should stop being so talkative. I can never forget that expression of hers!

I did very well in my secondary school. My favorite subjects were Maths and Biology. I hated Chemistry and Literature. Those were my weakest subjects. I was the one of the toppers for Geography and the topper for Higher Tamil. After all the late-night studying, I scored 12 points for my O’ levels.

For CCA, I was in Dance. I did not really like my CCA in secondary school because it was not my desired CCA. Hence, I was not really an active member of my CCA. I would attend CCA, but then I do not dance. I would go to a corner and do my own work. I would reserve to be ‘reserve’ for the dancers. This is how I escaped from the dance practices and also receive CCA points at the same time.

Sec school final year class photo



Share some memorable moments of childhood with your family or friends!

Memorable moments of my childhood are during my swimming lessons.

If we really cannot swim properly, my coach would bring us to the deepest part of the pool and ask us to swim from there ourselves. I thought it was funny when he did it to the other students. I only felt that fright when he did that to me. But then that was how I learnt swimming.


Share some memorable moments of your teenage years

The most memorable moments of my teenage years were during our practice sessions for 2010 Singapore Youth Olympic Games.

In Secondary 3, my school was chosen to perform at the Singapore Youth Olympic Games closing ceremony. The practice days for the closing ceremony were the best days of my secondary school days. We missed a lot of classes to practice for the dance. Even two of our major exams were cancelled by MOE, since our study time was too little.

We only went back home at 2am after practices. The next day will be declared as a holiday for us. The practices were for 6 months and those 6 months were the most memorable moments. After the final performance, almost everyone in our school cried badly.

Even till today, when I meet up with our secondary school friends, we always talk about our moments in YOG.

That’s us in the main stage




Why did you choose DBIT course?

The reason I chose DBIT was because, I can study both Business and IT.

When I looked at all the courses offered, the only course which sounded different was DBIT. It is an interesting combination of Business and IT. When it comes to business, the only one thing I can think about is presentations, which I know I can do well in. For the IT part I was really very interested to learn about website and mobile apps creation.


Share your likes and dislikes!

My hobbies are reading the novels of Sophie Kinsella and Meg Cabot.

Their stories are based on romance. When I read their books, I will go into the story itself.

Another favorite series of books of mine is Diary of a Wimpy Kid. I can relate my life’s story with this series of books. Every single problem faced by the kid in the book is the same as mine.

I like to watch the Twilight series. I am a Twilight fan. It is sad that the movie ended. But then I never get bored of watching it continuously

For music, most songs I listen to are Tamil songs. My favorite band is Green Day.

I do not really like to eat. That is something that I do not like from when I was a baby, as said by my mom. I do not eat much and the only thing my parents scold me for is not eating properly.


What do you plan to do after graduation from SP? What is your ambition in life?

At present, my only thought is becoming an IT Business Analyst.

I need to experience all the modules in DBIT before I can make any conclusion.

Right now, I am confused with which one to choose, either business or IT. Whether I want to work in Business or IT field requires me to get an experience with all the modules of SP first.

To achieve this dream, I need to have a GPA of above 3.7!

Three things or people that inspire you

The #1 person who inspires me is Mother Theresa.
The #2 person is Albert Einstein.
The #3 person is Billie Joe Armstrong

Mother Theresa: “I alone cannot change the world. But I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples.” This is the most inspirational quote for me of her. I like the fact that she do not differentiate and treat everyone the same. Only because of her, I got interested in Red Cross and community service.


Albert Einstein: He is my inspiration because of his hard work. I wonder how he made use of his brain so much for his inventions. He uses over 25% of his brain while normal people only use 1%. No matter how popular is he, he did not show it off to people. He behaved like a normal passer-by on the road. That is one quality I admire of him.

Billie Joe Armstrong: The reason why I consider Billie as a role model is because he always speaks the truth and is straightforward. He does not care about gossips about him or anything. I think that it is cool. Not everyone would have the courage to be like that. That is the quality that makes him my inspiration.


Have you travelled anywhere before? Which countries have you been? Which country do you like most?

I have travelled to Malaysia, Vietnam and India.

The country I like the most is Vietnam. This is because for Malaysia and India, I travelled there with my family. So it’s just like a family trip. However for Vietnam, it was a two week OCS trip with some of the DMIT students.

Anu with her friends on a boat in Vietnam!
Beside her is Wei Xuan.

I did not know any of the people in that trip, except my friend, Wei Xuan. I was quite scared because all of them in the trip knew one another except me. I thought I was going to have a hard time there, making friends.

But then I realized I was wrong. All of them in that trip were very amiable.

I was surprised actually because I never thought that I can make friends with them so easily. I also got a lot of Vietnam friends through this trip. This trip was quite adventurous. We went out at 1am, Singapore timing. I have never been out that late before. I also got to travel in the motorbike, at a very high speed with my Vietnam friends. We are still in contact with each other through Facebook.

These are my group mates in the Vietnam trip. ☺

Group mates in Vietnam


What are your favourite modules in SP?

My favorite modules in SP are Teamwork and Communication Skills, Social Media Marketing, Maths and Web Client Development. The reason behind is because I like presentation-based modules. That is something that I am good at. For Maths, as I said, it was my favorite subject from primary school. Web Client Development was something that I was interested in and looking forward to when I joint DBIT.

What are you hoping to learn in Year 2 and Year 3?
I hope to learn more about website creations, mobile applications and also more presentations! Presentations are fun!

Share your experience and tips about transiting from secondary school to poly and from poly year 1 to poly year 2 to your juniors

So far I have only transited from secondary school to polytechnic.

It was quite difficult for me to adapt to the study system in poly.

In secondary school, every subject was memorizing based. There were no assignments that are computer based. There was also homework given by teachers.

But in poly, it is completely different. Assignments that are due at the end of the term are assigned to you on the first week of school itself. At first I thought that I will have a lot of time to study and complete the projects. But I was completely wrong. You never have enough time to complete the assignments much earlier before the deadline.

When I was in secondary school, people always told me that poly life is very easy and so on. I believed their words and stepped into poly. But then now it feels like they trolled us. Poly life isn’t easy at all. You have to do the same hard work that you did in your secondary school.

Personally, I feel that poly life is harder than secondary school life. Computer based assignments are that something that I was not used to at all. But now I had to adapt to those types of assignments. I do not know if poly second year would be different or not. But I hope it would be less stress than year 1. They have to be prepared for all these.


Do you have a CCA in SP? Describe your experience with this CCA.

I have 2 CCAs in SP. One is Red Cross and another is sign language club, which is a new CCA.

Red Cross is something that I was interested in since a very young age. However, I did not get a chance to join it when I was in primary or secondary school. So in poly, since I got a chance to join it, I made use of that opportunity. I volunteer in first aid duties and other community trip programs organized by Red Cross. I was elected as the Treasurer of the CCA at first. And then, I was promoted as the Secretary of Red Cross. Hence at present, I am the Secretary of Red Cross. It is not an easy job as a secretary. I have to go to DSD often to submit forms and meet our in-charge regarding proposals and forms. This made me very stressed. It clashed with my studies. Hence for the upcoming year, I decided to quit the CCA. However, the president did not like the idea of me quitting it and he wanted to assign me with something that I am interested in. Hence, he appointed me as the webmaster of the CCA for the upcoming year. I think that this will not make me get stressed as the secretary post.

Another CCA of my interest is Sign Language Club (SPLC). I knew about this CCA through Facebook. It is a new CCA and I should say, it is a really very fun one! Every single member in the CCA is very friendly! It is a good idea to create these kinds of CCAs. Not everyone will have an opportunity to learn sign language. This CCA also have term-based exams! We would be a certified as professional sign-language known person after then end of our whole lesson. I attend this CCA with my classmates, Joey Ng, Joleen , Joey Foo and Terence. Joey Foo is the webmaster of SPLC.


Do you have best / good friends in SP
Joel and Anu (photo by their classmate - Efan)

One friend that I was close to since the first day of poly was Joey Ng. She knows everything about me and is someone who never fails to make me laugh in times of stress. Joleen and Lim Ming, Joel, Hui Min, Hafeez, Choon Kiat, Efan, Wei Xuan, Imran, Terence, and Shi Hao are also my very good friends. These are the people who I can trust and share all my problems with. ☺

Looking cool with her good galfriends  -  Hui Min and Joleen


Do you work part-time while studying?
No, I do not work part-time. I wish to, but then my parents do not allow me to work.

Pls share 3 pictures of your past projects / assignments

This is my Web Client Development assignment’s home page (personal website)

DVDE (Photoshop) assignment


This is my Java game done with Joey Ng



This is my TCS project, done with Wei Xuan, Joey Ng and Shi Hao.



Are you currently attached with a boyfriend / girlfriend?

I am not attached with anyone and I am not really sure about the qualities that I want my partner to have. But overall, I like someone with good humor.

And here are more photos of Anu! :)


This is with my younger brother.



This is with one of my Vietnamese friends


 



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