FROM AVERAGE STUDENT TO THRIVING ENTREPRENEUR

Wednesday June 8, 2005 How one ITE graduate found hope amid the economic gloom

Chow Penn Nee pennnee@newstoday.com.sg

WHEN Ms Rachel Howe graduated in June 2001, the lacklustre global economyhad barely recovered from the dotcom bust, when it was plunged into gloomby the Sept 11 terrorist attacks in the United States a few months later.What Ms Howe, who graduated from Institute of Technical Education (ITE)Bishan that year amid an employment slump, did then is an inspiration toall budding entrepreneurs.Armed with little more than well-intentioned prodding from her principal,Ms Howe started upon the unknown, but in territory that was familiar toher. She started an Internet cafe in her alma mater's campus at EastMacpherson.Four years on - and one award later - Ms Howe said that her I-Net Cafe wasa gruelling lesson in entrepreneurship for her, but a rewarding one noless."I never thought that I would set up a business," she said."As a fresh graduate lacking in work experience, I had problems handlingthe accounting specifics of the business," said the 27 year old.Fortunately, help came from ITE Technopreneurship Incubation Centre (TIC),which mentors and guides young business start-ups among graduates, staffand students, by providing physical facility support, technology expertiseand dispensing advice.There was, of course, the business opportunity right at her doorstep.From her own experience, she knew that ITE students had few options whenit came to food at school, and that they would like the idea of hangingout at a trendy cafe which serves fast and affordable food such asburgers, chicken wings and cappuccino.The ready pool of clientele-students was a plus, as well as her own
So together with three partners and a total start-up capital of $30,000,Ms Howe started her Internet cafe, which turned profitable in 2003.Currently, the cafe - which has six terminals for free Internet surfing -rakes in about $600 daily in food and beverage revenues, with profitaveraging about $1,000 per month.Such success helped Ms Howe to pick up an award in 2003, when shereceived a merit award by Shell LiveWIRE. (See story on next page).The ITE graduate in business studies has since managed to get past herinsecurities over her academic performance.She used to think she was a "failure because I didn\'t do so well in mystudies", she confided.But the one-woman show has turned so successful that she can now afford tohire help. A few months ago, she roped in a friend and a student to helpher out with the operations of the cafe.That freed some time for Ms Howe to start another business in July lastyear. Her new baby, an events management company, already counts a foreignbank as its customer. "Running a business is not like working for someone and getting stuck ina dull routine", she said of her business experience. "Every day isdifferent."Ms Howe\'s next stop: Setting up similar cafes in other ITE campuses, suchas the new campus in Simei, and to replicate the business into a chain ofcafes outside of school. "Sometimes I do think about working for someone else, but there areabsolutely no regrets in running my own business. The experience you getfrom trying out your own thing and not being accountable to anyone is verysatisfying."); part-time working experience as a barista at Starbucks.So together with three partners and a total start-up capital of $30,000,Ms Howe started her Internet cafe, which turned profitable in 2003.Currently, the cafe - which has six terminals for free Internet surfing -rakes in about $600 daily in food and beverage revenues, with profitaveraging about $1,000 per month.Such success helped Ms Howe to pick up an award in 2003, when shereceived a merit award by Shell LiveWIRE.

The ITE graduate in business studies has since managed to get past herinsecurities over her academic performance.She used to think she was a "failure because I didn't do so well in mystudies", she confided.But the one-woman show has turned so successful that she can now afford tohire help. A few months ago, she roped in a friend and a student to helpher out with the operations of the cafe.That freed some time for Ms Howe to start another business in July last year.

Her new baby, an events management company, already counts a foreignbank as its customer. "Running a business is not like working for someone and getting stuck ina dull routine", she said of her business experience. "Every day is different."Ms Howe's next stop: Setting up similar cafes in other ITE campuses, suchas the new campus in Simei, and to replicate the business into a chain ofcafes outside of school. "Sometimes I do think about working for someone else, but there areabsolutely no regrets in running my own business. The experience you getfrom trying out your own thing and not being accountable to anyone is very satisfying."

Shell Live WIRE Young Business Start-Up award

empowering (exotic) dances

EXOTIC DANCE CLASSES AT CCs FULLY BOOKED
Shake your booty, sexy madam

By Zubaidah Nazeer
ST, June 05, 2005.

THEY gyrated their hips and swivelled in sensuous, tantalising moves, flicking their hair seductively now and then.
Auditions for Crazy Horse cabaret?

No, just ordinary Singaporeans getting a taste of Exotic Dancing, right in the neighbourhood community centre.
Mostly office workers in their early 20s to their late 40s, the 20 women paid $28 each for a 75 minute trial.
Though Exotic Dance has been around since last February when instructor Linna Tan, 30, began her first lessons, it was the first time that this saucy dance is hitting the heartlands.
And the women are lapping it up.
Classes in several community centres are fully booked and the People's Association is planning to offer more sessions.
Nee Soon East CC, Yuhua CC, Kreta Ayer CC, Hougang CC and Bishan North CC are starting full six-classes sessions from this month.
More trial sessions are also being slotted at CCs like Toa Payoh CC, Pasir Ris Elias and Bishan North CC and Thomson CC.
At Bishan North CC last Tuesday night, the women were eager to shed their inhibitions and try out the seductive moves (sorry, no males allowed).
To the pounding beats of Beyonce's Naughty Girl, Madam Melanie Chng, 43, and Ms Raine Goh, 25, thrusted their chests forward, sucked in their tummies and wriggled their booties.

SOME SELF-CONSCIOUS
Some of the women muttered 'Waah' as instructors Ms Tan and Ms Audrey Ho, 31, demonstrated the Hooker Walk - sashaying sexily with the hips swaying from side to side.
And there were giggles when they were shown the Figure Eight, a move in which they had to grind their hips in a figure eight motion while lowering themselves in a squat.
Next, they were coaxed to run their palms upwards from their pelvis while doing the Figure Eight.
Ms Yeo, a human resource executive, said: 'I just felt self-conscious because of the seductive and suggestive moves, and I could not coordinate well.'
But seeing Madam Chng, a mother of two, gamely moving spurred her on.
The last routine which required them to bend down and slowly raise their heads while touching their inner thighs, ending with a body wave, got them all excited.
A few covered their mouths and some blushed, saying 'Oh My God'.
But no-one walked out - a few even wore a sexy pout while dancing.
Ms Felicia Ong, 43, a book-keeper, and her friend Jennifer Tan, 44, an administrative manager, were among the few who stayed back to ask Ms Tan for more demonstrations.
Said Mrs Tan, a mother of two teenagers: 'It's a good way to occupy my time and work up a sweat.

'This kind of dancing makes me feel feminine and young.'
Others like Madam Chng, who knows belly-dancing, just wanted to try something different.
She said: 'I don't think it makes anyone feels slutty. The instructors helped us feel sexy about ourselves and look graceful.'
She said her husband had asked if she was attending a gym session.
'I didn't tell him much. I thought I'll just surprise him on his birthday!'
Grooving into self-confidence - that's hot

BBEING sexy is hard work.
At the class held at Bishan North CC, I self-consciously kept myself at the back.
Sure, I love dancing, but what would I need those sexy moves for, I thought.
I thought it was somewhat risque to stick my behind out, wiggle it from side to side, and perform other Salome-type moves.
But the instructors saw things more positively.
The dance will build more self-confidence, improve the posture and deportment but most of all, empower the woman.

Wow! Inspiring, I thought.
So I willingly plunged into the calisthenics.
The instructors told us to be open and energetic. Self-expression, they exhorted.
But I felt a bit squeamish.
Squirming inwardly and feeling uncomfortable and self-conscious, I moved my hands up awkwardly up from my pelvis, in one sequence, and closed my eyes as instructed, to 'feel the move'.
I cheated and peeked into the mirror in front to see how ridiculous I thought I looked.

SLINKY? I WADDLED
Hip Rolls and Figure Eight were easy for me as I had done those in belly-dance class before.
I floundered at the Hooker Walk and flicking my hair. I was waddling in an unstable manner like a penguin.
But seriously, doing sexy moves in this class may have seemed daunting and hard, but it wasn't impossible.
I had learnt moves which would make any woman love herself for having curves. I now can move a little more lithely and stand a little straighter and taller.
Most importantly, knowing that I could move slinkily without inhibitions has empowered me.
Now THAT is sexy.

Witty, smart and sexy...writer cooks up a storm on TV

Straits Times 6 .Jun.05 Queen of gastro porn

Forget the Naked Chef. TV chef Nigella Lawson makes cooking look as sexy as a striptease.

By Teo Pau Li. FOOD CORRESPONDENT

BY HER own admission, Nigella Lawson's TV cookshows are like 'gastro-porn'. Onscreen, the British celebrity cook's voluminous dark hair is always loose, untied and gets in the way a little too much.

She habitually licks cream and sauces off her fingers, throws her face skywards and dangles pasta over her open mouth, and, sometimes, leaves a pot to stew and returns in a satin robe to complete the garnishing.
But anyone who watches her with dirt on his mind could do with some detergent.
'I had no thought that the show would be seen as sexual,' she protests over the phone from London. 'I think I was being earthy. I have a certain amount of reserve. I'm certainly not trying to be coquettish or provocative. The thought horrifies me.'
Gastro-porn, she clarifies, refers to the delicious close-ups of food being chopped, cooked, plated and - with an unapologetic appetite that has made her every foodie's heroine in Britain - devoured on the show.
'If you like,' she illustrates with relish, 'I'm the pimp, not the hooker.'
Her messy, yet passionate style of cooking has propelled her to the top ranks of British food evangelists, alongside Jamie Oliver and Gordon Ramsay. But unlike the two, who were successful restaurant chefs before they clinched TV and book deals, Lawson is completely untrained.
A former journalist, she wrote her first cookbook, How To Eat, in 1998, and then How To Be A Domestic Goddess (2000) and Nigella Bites (2001).
In 2001, she launched her TV career with the series Nigella Bites. Since then, she has put out two other books, Forever Summer With Nigella (2002) and Feast (2004).
Privilege and tragedy
IT HAS been an unexpected career for someone born of uppercrust political pedigree, whose childhood ambition was to become a novelist.
The second of four children, her father is Nigel Lawson, former Chancellor of the Exchequer, and her mother was Vanessa Salmon, heiress and socialite beauty.
An Oxford graduate of medieval and modern languages, Nigella, 45, rose to the position of deputy literary editor of the British Sunday Times in 1986, and wrote food columns for The Spectator and British Vogue magazine in the 1990s.
Her older brother, Dominic, is the current editor of the Sunday Telegraph.
She defends her lack of formal culinary training with the assertion that 'food is not the province of chefs and caterers'.
'You don't need to be a specialist,' she says in a syrupy, aristocratic tone like a younger, warmer Margaret Thatcher.
'In a sense, specialists know nothing about the real history of food, like how your grandmother cooked, or what food you remember as a child, which is what interests me.
'I would never have gone into food writing if it was just a question of printing a formula of eggs and flour. I love the story of food. I love the social history of food,' she stresses.
Aided in no small part by her covergirl looks - smoky brown eyes, perfect teeth, alabaster skin - she has become a household name in Britain, where some consider her as having stepped into the void left by the late Princess Diana.
Like the princess, Lawson's life is marked by both privilege and tragedy.
By the age of 34, she had lost her mother and younger sister to cancer. In 2001, her first husband, journalist John Diamond - with whom she has two children, now eight and 11 - also died of throat cancer after an agonising four-year battle.
British tabloids have trailed her every move with a mixture of pity, awe and slander, especially in 2003 - just 2 1/2 years after Diamond's death - when she married his friend, multi-millionaire advertising mogul Charles Saatchi, now 62.
No weighing scale
STILL, her audience, which she says is equally male and female, has responded to her persona, which is more brainy Mum than glamourpuss.
'I think they get my point quite a bit, that you can be a perfectly intelligent woman who's interested in the world and in matters outside the home, and yet don't feel it's demeaning to want to cook,' she says.
She thinks she's too old to enjoy being TV cookery's first, and possibly, only, female sex symbol. She doesn't keep newspaper cuttings of herself. She doesn't own a weighing scale. And she can only describe her famously Rubenesque figure as 'a small frame with quite a lot of flesh on it'.
She speaks with a kind of hearty eloquence that comes from maturity and grace.
'I think people worry too much about how they look,' she says. 'The only man who's ever told me to lose weight was a boyfriend I had who turned out to be gay.'
When asked what food she would cook to seduce her husband with, she replies, self-assured and with a giggle: 'If I need to use food to seduce him, I'd be in trouble. I wouldn't want to be with someone who wasn't already mad about me.'
If more women thought like her, there would be more happy women and bankrupt slimming centres around the world, one suspects.
As for opening a restaurant, she says she has no plans to do so as it would take her away from her home in London's posh Belgravia, where she writes, cooks and spends time with her family.

'I do have a secret desire to be a singer though,' she lets on cheekily. 'But unfortunately, my voice is so bad that I've had to mime Happy Birthday songs. So I don't think it's going to happen.'

Her audience might just forgive her anyway.

Nigella Bites is on Discovery Travel & Living (StarHub Channel 16) every Thursday at 8pm. Forever Summer With Nigella follows from June 30 in the same time slot.

VA-VA VROOM BIKERS (Le Femme)

TRAIL BLAZING WOMEN BIKERS
June 06, 2005


THEIR figures are steadily growing.
And we're not talking about waistlines.

More women are taking to riding motorbikes, both for fun and competition.
And some opt for powerful machines such as Harley Davidsons.
Today, women are seen lifting fallen motorcycles during riding classes at Singapore Safety Driving Centre, said riding instructors.
Motorcyclists here have always been the most vulnerable group on the road.
But the three women The New Paper on Sunday spoke to show an unflagging passion for motorbikes despite this risk.
One biker said her skills in competitive dirt bike races have helped her better avoid accidents on busy Singapore roads.
VA-VA VROOM BIKERS
Women turn heads as they ride on their mean machines
HE is 1cm shorter after fracturing her spine. She has broken her knee, received bruises, suffered sprains and nearly had her navel ring ripped off.
Yet Ms Janelle Koh's passion for motorbikes remains as powerful as some of the machines she rides.
The 1.7 m tall global sales consultant with a telecommunication company was, until recently, a dirt bike racer who has taken part in competitions here and in Malaysia.

She recently sold her 400cc KTM dirt bike. She has also owned two 200cc dirt bikes.
She is among a small but growing group of women here who handle powerful bikes.
Said Ms Koh, 27: 'I'm independent and stubborn. I will go all out if I really like something.
'I ride because I don't want to depend on a boyfriend to pick me up.
'Without a bike, I'm handicapped.'
She said she started racing in 1998 and participated in at least five races before she stopped racing two years.
In one race held by the Singapore Motor Sport Association, she came in first in the women's category, riding a two-stroke 200cc dirt bike. She also was third overall against male riders. There were at least 10 riders in that race.
On weekdays, she is no different from the many women who work in Shenton Way. She is always dressed in business suits.
She rides to work daily.
On weekends, she is a different person altogether, ditching her work clothes for something more appropriate for motocross.
And she's not afraid to compete with the boys.
Said Ms Koh, the youngest of three siblings: 'I can't beat the guys in terms of strength. But I can beat them with my persistence. Guys who race sometimes give up when they think they don't have a chance to get the top three positions. I just continue until I see the chequered flag.'
Her determination has earned her victories and respect.
'When girls race, spectators automatically cheer for you,' she said.
'I've never crashed on the road. But I've crashed many times on the dirt track. I was out of action for six months when I broke my knee.'
The tattoo enthusiast also enjoys trail-riding (riding dirt bikes on rugged terrain) in Malaysia with her male friends.
The price of a dirt bike ranges from $7,000 to $14,000. Head to toe safety gear can cost as much as $1,000. And racing bikes have to be serviced more, said Ms Koh, who does it herself.
'Racing dirt bikes is about powersliding, brakesliding and fanning the clutch when blazing out of rutted corners,' she said.
Anybody can go fast in a straight line. But to go fast on uneven terrain and tear into tight corners, while preparing for jumps, takes a focused rider.
She doesn't find it funny to be asked by men how fast she has gone on the road.
'I never ride fast on the roads. It's the wrong place to speed. I tell them if you want to get my attention, why not come and race me on the dirt track. If you win, I'll date you.'
She says she has friends who have died riding. Some of her non-biker friends have discouraged her from riding. Others, like her Caucasian boss, her aunties and mother, say it's cool to ride.
'They only want me to be more careful,' she said. Her mother even helps her clean the muddy motorbike after a race.
'Riding a motorcycle is seen as dangerous. For a woman to ride, I think some people see it as socially unacceptable,' said Ms Koh.
Yet she believes her off-road riding skills have helped her survive on Singapore roads.
'If I skid on the road, I'm not likely to panic. Skidding is second-nature to dirt bikers.'
What she cannot accept sometimes is the behaviour of some road users.
'Some guys acknowledge you as a fellow rider. But there are idiots on the road who will try to disturb you. They will speed and come very close to you. Sometimes I ask them to stop and I'll give them a piece of my mind.'
She gets thumbs-up from men
PERHAPS riding a thunder bike like a Harley-Davidson commands more respect, especially if you are a woman.
Unlike Ms Janelle Koh, Ms Tina Soo-Tho (below), 36, a Harley rider, hasn't been harassed by other road users.
Instead, they have always given her the 'thumbs-up sign', said Ms Soo-Tho.
Some men even left name cards and handphone numbers on her motorcycle in the hope of befriending her. She said she never responds to such moves.
One male driver even called a local radio station and described her as a 'distraction on wheels with a pretty face'.
Said Ms Soo-Tho, who rides to work daily from Holland Road to Telok Blangah where she works as an executive secretary in a logistics firm: 'I get people who stop their cars or motorcycles beside me and say 'cool bike'.'
Maybe the men are curious about how she is able to ride the heavily chromed American steed of steel.

Her current Harley-Davidson 883cc Sportster weighs about 250kg - about seven times the weight of this petite rider who tips the scale at 37kg.
But don't be fooled, she is able to handle the motorcycle with ease.
She admits that her height is one of the reasons why she chose to ride Harleys. Harleys have low seat heights unlike dirt bikes.
After passing her class 2 riding test in 2002, she bought her first Harley bike, a much bigger 1,200cc Sportster.
The test required a student to raise a fallen bike to its upright position - those who couldn't would fail.
'I managed to put the bike to its upright position. It's about technique, not size,' she said.
Ms Soo-Tho loves the roar of the Harley.
She said: 'I like the raw feel of riding it. Riding a Harley is also aboutcamaraderie. It's as though youbelong to a brotherhood orsisterhood of bikers.'
More women get ticket to ride
MORE women are turning up at the Singapore Safety Driving Centre (SSDC) to learn to ride bigger bikes.
Said Mr Ramani Muthu, SSDC's Executive (Operations) for motorcycling: 'Compared to 10 years ago, more women riders now return for their class 2A and class 2. Previously, women riders rarely took lessons after passing their class 2B.'
This class of licence allows a rider on a motorcycle with an engine that does not exceed 200cc.
Mr Muthu, 44, added it's now common to see more women riding bigger bikes on Singapore roads.
Women spend on average of 46.6 hours on training before getting their class 2B licence.
Men take 10 hours less to get the same licence, he said.
Said Mr Muthu: 'Perhaps women take a longer time to complete the lessons because of their build. Skills-wise, guys tend to be slightly better.'
In March, there were 146 male students who graduated with a class 2A licence, compared to seven women.
In the same month, there were 69 male riders who passed class 2, and two women.
So who is the safer rider?
It's hard to say, Mr Muthu said.
Accident statistics are sobering.
In 2003 and 2004, there were 94 motorcyclists killed each year.
In 2003, no women were killed.
The following year, one woman rider was killed.
Said Mr Muthu: 'You can't really say women are safer riders because there are fewer of them compared to male bikers. But female riders are generally more cautious and patient on the road.'
At present, there are 21,000 woman motorcycle licence holders (inclusive of classes 2B, 2A and 2) as compared to 658,000 men, said Traffic Police.
But not all motorcycle licence holders ride, said Mr Muthu. Some do not ride after passing their licence.
Said a spokesman for Traffic Police: 'Although the number of female riders involving in traffic accident forms a small percentage, these figures are not an indication that female riders are better or worse riders.
Undergrad kept bike a secret from family

OR a month in February, undergraduate Nadya Abdullah kept a secret from her parents.
Every time she returned from classes, she would quietly park her motorcycle at a nearby multi-storey carpark and stash her helmet in a box on her bike.
But a month later, her father spotted her with the bike at the carpark in Jurong. She feared it would be the end of her riding days.
Said Ms Nadya, 22, who passed her class 2B licence in February: 'My dad asked me why I was riding. He wanted to know how long I've been hiding it from him.
'He said he would never expect his own daughter to do something like that because of the danger riding involves. I remember he said: 'Please make me happy, don't ride any more'.'
Nobody in her family of four owns a bike. But she wasn't about to give up riding.
'It's not as though I've done something illegal,' she said. 'I've always wanted to learn something new and be independent. Besides, I think riding is cool.'
She revealed she had already bought a DR200 Suzuki dirt bike even before she passed her riding test.
She spent $3,500 for her six-year-old motorcycle.
And she's already considering her next machine - a sports bike, like the 400cc Honda RVF.
Fortunately for her, her father has not told her mother about her riding.
She said: 'If my mother finds out, she will skin me alive. She will nag and blame it on my boyfriend, who also rides. But my decision to ride a motorcycle was never influenced by my boyfriend.'
Ms Nadya said her father has come to terms with her love of riding.
'He asked me to be careful when I am riding,' she added.
'I think now, he is trying to be more understanding about the whole issue.
'Or he could be using reverse psychology on me. If he is doing so, it's not going to work. I'll still ride.'

Eunice Olsen Nominated Member of Parliament Link >>

May 2005 Eunice Olsen became the youngest Member of Parliament at 27, when she was appointed one of nine Nominated MPs in late November. In an interview with Asia Inc, Olsen explains her new role: “It is a good platform for me to help the youth of Singapore. I want more youths to come out and speak their minds. This can be done by organising forums in schools to get more feedback on what youths want and to see if any of their ideas can be implemented. I am here to help them with their various projects and see them through to the end.” Even before Parliamentary sittings have started, detractors are already accusing Olsen of being just a pretty face with nothing to offer. One online chat room even labelled her a “Bimbo in Parliament”. But Olsen, a political science and philosophy graduate from the National University of Singapore, takes the criticism in her stride. In her usual poised manner, she says: “I cannot stop people from criticising me. I have to tell myself to put all that aside and to focus on my work with the youth. Adversity is a part of life.” Despite her busy schedule over the past four years as Omega’s Singapore ambassador, Miss Singapore/Universe 2000 and Singapore’s version of Vanna White in TV game show The Wheel of Fortune, she made time for volunteer work, a concern that is close to her heart. She started her counselling stint at the Toa Payoh Girls’ Home and Andrew and Grace Home for troubled teens. Olsen, the only child of a Chinese mother and Swedish/Portuguese father, also volunteered at the Eurasian Association until 2003 and then became one of the committee members of Kebun Baru Youth Executive Committee, which is part of the People’s Association Youth Movement. She is also actively involved in PAYM’s other organisation known as T-net, a club for kids aged between 11 and 16 to help them develop their creativity through fun and games. Olsen wants to encourage the younger generation not to be “driven by materialistic concerns” but to pursue their dreams — something she is all too familiar with as she has just recorded an English-language album called Believe. It was produced in South Korea as she was told the Singapore market was just too small. “Doing this album was a personal journey for me and I want young Singaporeans to know that dreams can be fulfilled if you put your heart in it. People told me I couldn’t do it and I am glad I didn’t listen to them and give up.” The album, which is not yet available in Singapore, comprises cover versions of contemporary songs and a piano solo she wrote called Believe. Olsen is not only an accomplished pianist but an actress as well. Her debut in MediaCorp’s TV drama A Child’s Hope got a lukewarm reception but her fluency in Mandarin was applauded. Ask the former beauty queen whether she wants world peace and she rolls her eyes, saying: “I think I’ll start addressing issues at home first. I want to start small, think big and act fast.” — By Audrey Simon Nominated MP Eunice Olsen appointed Youth Volunteerism Ambassador by NVPC Link>> Miss Olsen's first task is to lead 700 volunteers at Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon on 5 December – International Volunteer Day In conjunction with International Volunteer Day on 5 December 2004, the National Volunteerism & Philanthropy Centre (NVPC) announced the appointment of Nominated Member of Parliament (NMP) and former Miss Singapore-Universe Eunice Olsen as its first youth volunteerism ambassador. Miss Olsen, 27, is the youngest Singaporean ever appointed as an NMP since the scheme was introduced in 1990. Considering that Miss Olsen intends to use her newfound NMP position as a platform for raising awareness about youth issues and volunteerism, the decision to appoint Miss Olsen as NVPC's youth volunteerism ambassador was a logical and appropriate one, says Mrs Tan Chee Koon, Chief Executive Officer of NVPC. "Since her Miss Singapore-Universe days, we have seen Eunice getting increasingly involved in volunteer work. She is a true-blue volunteer and her track record as a volunteer is excellent. Her passion for volunteerism, coupled with her intention to raise awareness of youth issues and volunteerism in her position as NMP makes her an ideal choice as our very first youth volunteerism ambassador." Parliament ...Eunice's CV Mediacorp article Social entrepreneurship>> Singapore: Citibank-YMCA Launch Social Entrepreneur Program “Youth For Causes”

quotes

___From a NYAA card___

DREAM: "To dream is to live one's life bravely.." (Kit Chan)

COMPETITION: " Better to be the 10th in a world-class fleet, than to be first in a mediocre fleet. Don't be afraid of competition. Welcome it, face it, enjoy it." (Dr. Ben Tan)

INSPIRE:" Make a difference and inspire yourself to improve the quality of life of everyone regardless of ability or disability." (The aquatic programme for disabled individual unit)

PASSION: "The attributes which I would like to foster in myself is to have a balanced and optimistic outlook in lifem to retain a childlike wonder and curiosity to the world around us, and to pursue any interest with passion and integrity." (Dr. Mansoor)

DO IT RIGHT: " I don't want any regret when I retire. Thus I shall treasure the present moment and just do it right!" ( Dr. Kenny Yap)

CONFIDENCE: "You may not win with confidence alone, but without confidence, you will never win." (The National Women's Table Tennis Team)

AIM HIGH: " If you aim for the moon, even if you don't reach it, you might get near it and that is still something." (Douglous Foo)

UNLEASH POTENTIAL: " There's a giant inside me-- I can drown him with sorrowful tears over my disability or unleash him to maximise my potential." (Dr. William Tan)