2022 Year 2 World Readiness Programme Symposium

Singapore is a small country with scarce natural resources. As such, one of the main issues that plague our Little Red Dot is the sustainability of our environment. We were fortunate enough to be presented with the opportunity to learn more about the topic of ‘Environment Sustainability and Singapore’ when we attended the Year 2 World Readiness Programme Symposium with our schoolmates, as well as other students in the Joint Integrated Programme from Catholic High School and Singapore Chinese Girls School. This year, we were able to attend it physically at the campus of Singapore Chinese Girls School. The inter-school interactions were definitely enjoyable as it was something we have longed for since the start of the pandemic.

The programme commenced with an opening address by the Principal of the Chinese Girls School, Mrs Linda Chan. After a warm welcome, she proceeded to share on the importance of sustainability in Singapore. Afterwards, she introduced the Keynote speaker for the symposium, Dr. Stephen Tay, who has a PhD in the field of Materials and a B. Eng in Materials Engineering (First Class Honours).

Throughout the course of the presentation, he shared many insightful information on several topics regarding sustainability, ranging from the Singapore Green Plan, which is set to be implemented in 2030, to his field of work, Solar Energy. We gained a lot of valuable knowledge from learning about the real world scenarios shared as well as his personal experiences working in the field. 

Despite the lengthy presentation, he still managed to capture our attention. This was mainly because he injected humour throughout the presentation and would make use of relatable examples to explain concepts to us. For example, in order to convince us of the true power of solar energy, instead of using terms like Watts that we may not have been able to picture, he explained the solar energy generated in one day in Singapore could produce 34000 plates of chicken rice per Singaporean! As he gave a relatable example, it was an amusing way for us to deepen our understanding on the magnitude of the solar energy produced.

At the end of the presentation, he gave us a hands-on experience by inviting some students to ask him questions regarding his presentation. “The speaker-audience interaction engaged the audience,” described Ho Rae Tung Caitlin from 2 Purity. Furthermore, she also emphasised that the speaker “seemed very passionate” during the Q&A and was especially intrigued by the sharing of his “ interesting experiences working in the sector”. Though only a few questions could be asked due to time constraints, the answers given definitely helped to aid us in learning more about the Solar Energy industry. 

Soon after, to test our knowledge gained from the informative talk, we played a Kahoot quiz. The whole atmosphere was tense with excitement as students scrambled to answer questions as quickly as possible to clinch the win for their school. Incessant chatter everywhere, it was heartwarming to see the students’ enthusiastic responses to the questions. Eventually, the top three winners proceeded on stage to receive their prizes and take pictures with the principal and the guest of honour. 

On the WRP as a whole, Iva from 2 Loyalty stated that her “overall impression of the talk is that it was genuinely really amazing and interesting as compared to the WRP symposium we had last year which was virtual! The speaker himself was really charismatic and the entire experience was rather immersive with him also interacting with the audience often.”

Overall, we found the presentation highly enjoyable and extremely fruitful. It provided us with insight on living sustainably and piqued our interest in the possibility of joining the Solar Energy field in the future. As sustainability is going to be increasingly relevant to us in the future, it was definitely the right move to educate us on the topic and encourage us to instigate positive change!

Wee Yun Qi Avelyn 2 Loyalty

Lee Kicia 2 Purity