- By Ng Xiao Hui, PCS Year 2 student

On 27 July 2010, PCS students and staff came together to celebrate the inaugural PCS day 2010! This is a day specially planned to commemorate the uniqueness of the PCS diploma, forge stronger friendships between students and staff, and give back to the community.

Leading up to PCS day, PCS students took up The Denim Challenge to collect old jeans and raise funds for World Vision One Life Fund.

On PCS day itself, students in each of the three cohorts were engaged in various activities.  The Year 1 students sold merchandise for Watoto Children’s Choir, a choir comprising children from Africa whose parents have died due to war, poverty and disease. The Year 2 students had a cultural exchange with the staff from Watoto. The staff taught the students Swahili words and phrases, and learnt how to greet in local languages in return. For the Year 3 students, they organised an appreciation tea for over 50 internship supervisors, who mentored them during the recently concluded 5-month internship module.

At 7pm, all the students gathered in LT68E for the highlights of the PCS day. The programme started with the presentation of award to the most number of jeans collected. The award went to T01 classes from Year 1 to 3 who collected over 200 pairs of jeans.

Next on the programme was the much anticipated fashion show modelled by Mrs Choo Cheh Hoon, HMS Director, and 8 PCS lecturers! Donning specially designed denim pieces such as a big hat with silver roses and military jacket with structured sleeves and silver buttons, Mrs Choo and the lecturers strutted the stage confidently to the loud cheers of the students. The denim pieces were meticulously sewn by Year 1 PCS student, Lee Jia Qian, who had to produce nine designs in less than a day. “I felt like I was on Project Runway. It was challenging but I think that it was a really refreshing idea to use the collected jeans to produce these pieces,” shared Jia Qian.

HMS Director, Mrs Choo Cheh Hoon, modelling a denim hat with silver roses.

HMS Director with 8 PCS lecturers and PCS   Year 1 student designer, Jia Qian, on stage.

Finally, it was time for the evening’s highlight - the performance by Watoto Children’s Choir. In the darkness, the beat of drums started to echo in the theatre. With lights slowly coming on, the children ran towards the stage. Their brightly-coloured costumes and sweet voices transported the listeners to sunny Africa.  Through songs such as “I am not forgotten”, the children shared their touching stories of poverty and hope. The concert was not just music to the ears but also food for the soul. At the end of the performance, everyone in the LT rose and gave the choir a standing ovation. It was a befitting ending for this first ever PCS day as all of us are reminded of how we could make a difference to the society with the knowledge and skills that we are learning in PCS.