2014

SJI alumnus Chong Fah Cheong, widely acknowledged as one of the pioneer sculptors in Singapore, was conferred the Cultural Medallion for visual arts – the nation's highest cultural award by President Dr Tony Tan.

An art teacher until 1978 when he became a professional artist, Fah Cheong began his career carving in wood and soon progressed to working with marble, granite and other stone as well as casting in bronze. Over the last 30 years, he has participated in numerous art exhibitions, symposiums and workshops locally and overseas, and received several national awards. Fah Cheong was also the pioneer batch of lecturers at the LaSalle College of the Arts when it was founded in the 1980s, and is also a founding member of the Singapore Sculpture Society.

Fah Cheong has a number of prominent commissioned public pieces around Singapore, one of which is “First Generation”, the iconic sculpture of five boys jumping into the Singapore River near The Fullerton Hotel Singapore. One of his bronze art pieces - Ora et Labora, a bronze plaque commissioned in 1988 graces a wall of the Administration Block in the SJI Malcolm Road campus.

Fah Cheong having a ride on "Good fun!" – a bronze sculpture, for Interlace at Alexandra	Ora et Labora, a bronze plaque commissioned for SJI in 1988

Past recipients of the Cultural Medallion include SJI alumni Dick Lee and Jeremy Monteiro.

View the news report by Channel NewsAsia - Cultural Medallion winners: A poet, a sculptor and a theatre director:

Br. Kevin taught English Literature in SJI in the 1970s. He is fondly remembered by old boys for his Literature lessons. Dr Euan Muragasu (Class of 1978), our Guest of Honour at SJI’s 162nd Speech and Graduation Day on 27 September, had fond memories of Br. Kevin teaching him Graham Greene's Brighton Rock.

During his time as principal at SJI from 1979 – 1991, Br. Kevin was instrumental in the school’s transition from Bras Basah to Malcolm Road in the 1980s. Part of this work focused on SJI becoming an independent school.

Mrs Tan Eng Hong, teacher at SJI, in her tribute to Br. Kevin, said “ Brother was a Brother blessed with gentle manners. He was calm in the face of stormy seas. His reassuring ways would win him the support of friends and respect from his foes. He had a deep perception of people and was well-loved by all. He was ready to help everyone in anyway he could as a Principal. He was a Brother, a scholar and a gentleman .”

Many old boys remembered and cherished Br. Kevin for his gentle but firm care as our teacher and his quiet but good leadership as our principal. Some who had worked under him in the past or who have been his students will remember these aspects of a Brother who truly lived his Lasallian charism to the full.

Click here to read the special feature about Brother Kevin Byrne, when he retired as principal in 1991. (Source: SJI Josephian Annual 1991)

The Artsfest concluded with a concert-cum-party dubbed ‘Spectrum’ that featured performances by multi-talented Josephians. Notable acts included Chowdhury Arya (LE301) who popped and locked his way into everyone’s hearts with his robotic dance, and a soothing acoustic performance of Coldplay’s “The Scientist”, by Ng Zhi Wei Eugene (FN403), Shawn Yeap Wei Zhi (MN401) and Tan Jian Hui (LE403). SJI Senior School’s very own band, Mutton Curry, also belted out several familiar rock anthems that left the crowd pumping their fists and stamping their feet towards the end of Spectrum. SJI Artsfest: Prelude was truly an amazing opportunity to present the arts scene in SJI in an exciting, fun-filled manner.

This is the 28th year YMCA is running this competition, which is recognised as THE competition of the year to showcase excellent orators from schools in Singapore. The boys won the hearts and minds of the judges and audience with their convincing orations, living up to the profile of Josephians as effective thinkers and communicators.

Check out the videos of their orations via the links below. The videos with the most number of "LIKES" will win the "Most Liked Speech"! Contest ends on 18 September.

When the ArtScience programme for 2014 began in January with the theme “Energy of the Future”, it seemed like a serendipitous coincidence. Not only was SJI embarking on its third year in this programme in a brand new campus, this is also the first year where the pioneer batch of students from the Integrated Programme are taking part in this competition. Hence, to be working with ideas about “energy of the future” seemed not only apt but also a good sign of things to come for the ArtScience programme.

And so it proved to be. After six months of venturing into the unknown and unearthing of dormant talents, the efforts of the students and their dedicated mentors culminated in an unforgettable night on 7 August when IDEA 2014, the finals of the ArtScience competition, took place.

From the inspiring opening speech by Singapore Polytechnic’s Deputy Principal, Mr Hee Joh Liang, to the prototype exhibition and the group presentations, it was a night that was the living, breathing epitome of what ArtScience is all about. Although the participants hailed from many different schools including SJI, Guangyang Secondary, CHIJ, St Patrick’s School, Anderson Secondary and ACS (Barker), the programme has brought all the students together, united in the spirit of creativity and innovation. From the eleven presenting groups, two groups comprising students from SJI and Anderson Secondary emerged as winners, earning the privilege of taking part in the Global ArtScience workshop in Boston.

The boys across Secondary 1 – 3 put up a close fight till the end for the Inter-Class Badminton tournament of their respective Levels. Sportsmanship rang throughout the games amongst the players and the supporters, and kudos to the all the players for being great sportsmen.

The results for the Secondary 1 classes: 1st: FN102 2nd: ML103 3rd: MN102 4th: LE102 5th: ML102 6th: LE101 7th: FN103 8th: LE103 9th: FN101 10th: ML101 and MN103 (tie)
	The results for the Secondary 2 classes: LE202 clinched the championship from MN202 by a mere 2 points! 1st: LE202 2nd: MN202 3rd: ML203 4th: ML201 5th: FN202 6th: LE203 7th: FN201 8th: LE201 9th: FN203 10th: MN203 11th: ML202 and MN201 (tie)
The results for the Secondary 3 classes: 1st: LE304 2nd: FN302 3rd: LE302 4th: FN303 5th: ML303 6th: LE303 7th: ML302 8th: ML301 9th: LE301 10th: MN302 11th: MN301 12th: FN301 and MN303 (tie)

Students marked Racial Harmony Day on 22 July, with three stunning performances by the various cultural societies, and members clad in ethnic clothing made for an informative viewing session for everyone. The Chinese Cultural Society put up a play, educating us on the Chinese Mooncake Festival. The Indian Cultural Society enlightened us with some facts of the Indian Culture, and ended with a novel tabla (Indian ethnic drum) performance. Finally, a student from the Malay Cultural society passionately narrated the Qur’an, or Muslim Holy Book, accompanied by a short skit. The Racial Harmony Day performance was capped with a refreshing poetry recital by a Vietnamese scholar who wore a traditional straw hat. Indeed, it was a rewarding experience for the Josephian community.

For the first time in the school’s history, more than 200 Josephians camped in school since Sunday night to catch the faceoff between Argentina and Germany at the World Cup Finals 2014. Organised by the student council with the help of the Parent Support Group for Football, this is the first time a ‘live’ screening of one of the world’s most highly anticipated sporting event was held in the school campus, to cater to the football fans who would be staying up late for the match. The SJI Community of students, their family members and alumni bonded over food and drinks prepared by the PSG as they watched intensively on the giant screen for more than 113 minutes before Germany finally scored the winning goal to claim its title on the World Cup 2014.

SJI's screening of the World Cup 2014 was also featured in TODAY.

Music student William Cartie Halim (FN 402) won the Audience Choice Award for the Solo Category 2014 with his solo piano piece, and Andree Hansen Wibowo (403/2013) was awarded the Certificate Of Recognition, Special Mention (top category) at the SYF Art Competition 2014.

Watch the performance by William.

Entirely planned and run by the Badminton CCA boys, the Sec 4 students led a wonderfully organized badminton competition on 30 June for their fellow classmates from the graduating cohort. Congratulations to the Champion class ML402, the defending champions from 2013!

For the 3rd consecutive year, the boys from SJI Robotics Club brought home the Overall Championship at the 8th National Robopreneur Carnival. Competing against 12 other schools, Lee Tze Wei Alex Joel (LE302), Senthilkumar Magil (ML302) and Randy Golardi (FN302) also came in 2nd for Research Journal Award and 3rd in Robot Performance, in this annual competition organized by the Nanyang Polytechnic.

The boys spent almost a month to design and build a robot that can carry out several tasks in a hospital, such as dispensing drugs and moving the beds and patients around in the shortest time possible.