Empowering the Sixth Formers

I had returned to the Penang Free School last Thursday (06 Sep 2018) to give a presentation to about 50 of the Upper Six boys and girls. That's about two-thirds of their current student population in the Upper Six classes this year. Although this was a solo initiative, I viewed it as a continuation of the Student Leadership Workshops to empower the PFS students for the future. Lean Kang came along to give me some moral support and say a few words of encouragement to the attendees.

My presentation to them consisted of two talks. The first was on taking inspiration from some prominent Old Frees who had made names for themselves on the national and world stages. Basically, this was an expansion of my talk to the Lower Sixers at last month's Student Leadership Workshop without the accompanying videos on Wu Lien-Teh and Cheah Cheng Hye.

I had felt that it was important that the Upper Sixers - especially those who had joined the school in Lower Six - should appreciate the long and rich legacy of the Free School.

My second talk could be of more relevance to them. Here, I touched on the principles of writing their resumes properly in preparation of their entering the job market in the years to come, with an emphasis on the importance of improving their soft skills. This was an adaptation and an update of my original material which I had used during my JobStreet.com days.

Although I didn't quite notice it, Lean Kang tells me that he saw several of the pupils jotting down furiously as I was talking. Good for them if they did.