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LUMEN | JOSEPHIANS
A
Late Bloomer
By Gillian Chai
From being perpetually tardy and even labelled a failure when in SJI , Joel worked against the odds due to the belief SJI teachers placed in him .
Once a perennial late-comer , Joel Liew , from the class of 2011 , has since gone on to , not only be accepted into the notoriously competitive law faculty in National University of Singapore ( NUS ) under a scholarship , but also be part of the prestigious Officer Cadet School in the Singapore Armed Forces .
Joel shared with Lumen that he was so often late for school that he had a personal page in the late-comers booklet just for himself ! He was from the class 426 , loosely considered to be the academically weakest class in the entire Secondary Four level . Despite the fact that , on the surface , he seemed like the sort of person who had no future in anything academically related , what struck a chord in him , and prompted him to want to share with present Josephians , was the patience and dedication that the SJI teachers showed him throughout his graduating year .
Mrs Josephine Lee made a particular impression on him . She wholeheartedly went the extra mile to help her Secondary Four students by voluntarily staying in school till late in the evening to conduct extra lessons in spite of her family commitments . She mothered the boys , constantly encouraging them , teaching them about more than just Chemistry , imparting valuable , intangible life lessons to her surrogate sons . Despite Joel ’ s irreverent attitude towards school rules – he once brought his lunch into her lesson , and answered a phone call in the middle of a class – she never gave up on him , which gave him the confidence to believe that he could do well . Eventually , she worked with him to pull up his Chemistry grade from a perpetual fail to a B .
Mr Alan Johnson , Joel ' s form tutor , also played a large role in changing his attitude towards education . Never failing to make time to give him consultations near the final ' O ' level
examinations , Mr Johnson constantly encouraged him to keep trying to improve , not to give up , and to give his absolute best .
It is not possible to talk about the impact SJI left on Joel without talking about the rest of the people in the school . The friends that he made during his time in the school played an important role in shaping who he is today . While they played hard , and did many things only boys their age would dream of doing , when it came to the crunch , they helped each other indiscriminately , teaching , learning , and sharing together . The SJI songs , something distinctive about the SJI culture , left a lasting impression on Joel , who described his school experience as “ something ( he ) will never forget ”.
Despite the fact that he had been labelled as something of a failure in secondary school , Joel still went on to do remarkably well at the A levels , where he finally found his niche in the Arts stream . He realised that one examination does not determine one ’ s fate , and urges present and future Josephians to step out of their comfort zones and try things out . He strongly believes when you find your passion , pursue it relentlessly ; do not let other people dictate what your life should be like .
This page ( left ): Joel ( last row , third from left ) with his classmates from class 426
This page ( top ): ( Fifth from right ) Joel and fellow officers from the Officer Cadet Course