Humans of RI, Opinion, Student Features, Student Issues

Letter To My 17 Year Old Self
Reading Time: 4 minutes

By Tara Sim (26A01C)

(For the full reader experience, kindly listen to “Letter To My 13 Year Old Self” by Laufey before/while reading.)

Your time in JC could be some of the most fulfilling years of your life, or nothing like the Teenage Dream. And to be frank, with J1 long gone and more than a quarter through J2, I’m still not sure which of those two categories my RI life falls in. 

Aptly put by American Songwriter in their article explaining Laufey’s “Letter To My 13-Year-Old Self”: 

“You don’t know who you are and thus everything about you feels wrong.” 

This quite perfectly captures my JC experience so far, and with the high of orientation over for J1s and the rigor of JC and CCA in full swing, although scrolling through r/SGExams might provide you with some good—albeit dated—tips on how to survive JC, here’s 3 things I wish I knew when I was in J1. 

Continue reading “Letter To My 17 Year Old Self” →
Multimedia, School Life, Videos

Project Poisson: An In-Depth Look into RI’s Latest Environmental CE01 Project
Reading Time: 6 minutes

By Georgia Ong (26S03O), Kunchur Bharat (26A01B), Looi Ee Xin (26S03M), Tomi Peh (26S06P) 

In the last term, RI has received many new guests to its school wildlife ecosystem. Small as they may be, they’ve made their presence otter-ly known; in fact, they’ve managed to create quite the spectacle whenever they show up at the ponds. 

Not an uncommon sighting in Singapore, the otters have finally made their way onto the shores of Marymount and shaken up the lives of many—a joy for students to see, yet the worst nightmare for the fishes at our Biodiversity pond.  

The hungry otter stands on guard, ready to attack any brave fish who try to stick their head above water. Unfortunately, all the fish have perished.

As such, four students — Filomena Litani (26S03L), Ian Poh (26A01A), Sarah Ashley Tan (26S03L) and Hannah Tang (26S03M) — put their heads together to develop Project Poisson, a school-based CE01 aimed at keeping Raffles Institution’s beloved fish population thriving in a conducive habitat. 

Continue reading “Project Poisson: An In-Depth Look into RI’s Latest Environmental CE01 Project” →
Multimedia, School Life, Videos

Carpe Diem: Orientation 2026
Reading Time: < 1 minute

By Looi Ee Xin (26S03M), Tan Yan Qi (26S06M) and Tomi Peh (26S06P)

Carpe diem. Seize the day, boys. Make your lives extraordinary.

Mr Keating, Dead Poets Society

Carpe diem, or “seize the day”, encourages us to bask in the present moment, and worry little for the future. This year’s orientation theme was one of adventure and decisiveness, and both were delivered. Stepping into unfamiliar ground, surrounded by unfamiliar faces, you had 3 days to make the most of your time.

Continue reading “Carpe Diem: Orientation 2026” →
Commentary, Op-Eds, Opinion, Raffles Reviews

Filmhouse, The Projector, and the Struggle of Staying Indie
Reading Time: 6 minutes

By Nithilan Balachander (26A01C)

At about noon on 19 August 2025, long-time cinephiles, arts scene enthusiasts, and performative (fe)males alike started discovering, devastatingly, that The Projector was closing down. Actually, it wasn’t even “closing down”— it already had, they were just announcing it. The only cinema in Singapore dedicated to indie film was in so much debt that it had to enter liquidation, and had to do it so suddenly that it could not even announce it in advance. 

On 12 January 2026, the Straits Times reported that a new cinema called “Filmhouse” was to take over the space, and on 3 February 2026, Filmhouse started screenings, retaining many of the personnel and a lot of the interior furnishings from The Projector. Everyone rejoiced, some reposted the Straits Times/Mothership/CNA Instagram post, and a few even went to watch a movie or two…

But, wait. That’s really all it took? 5 months and 15 days, and indie cinema in Singapore was saved?

Continue reading “Filmhouse, The Projector, and the Struggle of Staying Indie” →
Features, Humans of RI, Student Features

A Level Features 2026: Balancing Research, Service and Academics
Reading Time: 6 minutes

By Kunchur Bharat (26A01B) and Sophie Sim (27S05A)

For most, research is another bullet point used to pad a resume. Felicia Tan Ee Shan (25S02A) and Low Li Ying Amy (25S06F) live and breathe it. Between the two of them, they have achieved everything a student researcher could dream of. 

Continue reading “A Level Features 2026: Balancing Research, Service and Academics” →