Listless and can’t Handel the grind of school? Then piano ensemble’s the CCA for you.

You may be wondering – why bother putting up with these lame musical puns? Why join a CCA with 25 pianos playing simultaneously? Why surround myself with a group of professional classical musicians engrossed in their own world, spewing musical jargon from their mouths?

If that’s you, you can’t be more wrong as the whole of PE batch’14 was with you in our first, fortunately not-so-accurate, impressions.

We’re just a bunch of people who are dedicated to sharing our love for music with anyone who’ll care to listen.Though we might not be able to stage a 25-something hand masterpiece, rest assured that we certainly do more than the usual solo playing! In their two years here, members are given the opportunity to perform duets and even trios with other like-minded piano enthusiasts. Musicianship is something we strive towards, more so than merely demanding a certain level of technical standards to be met or a quota of classical pieces to be played. After all, what’s the point of practising an instrument tirelessly without being able to fully appreciate the beauty and texture of the music? On this note, we are looking for people with a heart for quality music, a willingness to take their piano prowess to the next level and an openness to new experiences. And we promise a fun and fulfilling time ahead!

What you can expect is an exciting line-up of events and activities for the budding pianists, where all members are given as much exposure as possible. Our annual concert, competitions or smaller-scale recitals are not be missed, with our CCA members consistently clinching the gold award in Vivace, the pianistic equivalent of SYF, since participating in 2005. This ensemble’s creative energy is also reflected in its innovative concert themes, which include “for Euridyce” (2005). “Child’s Play” (2009), “Legende” (2012) and for the upcoming concert, “Carnival of Animals” (2014). Our passion for music and sharing has also found expression in the area of community service, where our CCA undertakes different types of projects with different beneficiaries, depending on the batch. Last year, it saw us giving weekly piano lessons to children of Chen Su Lan Methodist Children’s Home and Beyond Social Services. This year, one highlight would definitely be the collaboration with an anime pop pianist to further expand our repertoire.

And what can you expect from our weekly CCA sessions? Besides the usual coaching sessions, musical sharing, rehearsals and even the much-feared pre-concert Quality Control checks, be prepared for a strong sense of community. Just as much, if not even more time will be devoted to batch planning, discussions or bonding time. Given how this CCA ultimately gives its members a fair amount of freedom to decide what they want to pursue, these meetings are precious in setting direction as well as launching into spontaneous conversations and practices alike with your fellow batchmates.

In the words of Richard M. Nixon, “If you want to make beautiful music, you must play the black and white notes together.” Just as how life consists of ups and downs, so will your journey in RI PE but at the end of the day, you’ll experience the joy of friendships and producing beautiful music alongside people who are unafraid to do what they love best.

Seeking to showcase and develop your talents or simply just keen to further your interest and enjoy the synergy of working with fellow enthusiasts? Then look no further!!!

Do you enjoy a good hike in the Central Catchment Nature Reserve, the sight of migratory birds overhead at Sungei Buloh, or the waves that lap against seagrass lagoons along Changi’s coast? Don’t doubt it – all of us have an instinctive connection with nature. If exploring your love for our environment and conserving such places for our future is your kind of thing, then Raffles One Earth is the CCA for you.

As a designated Service Club, we have two main objectives. Firstly, to create regular environment-related service opportunities for the school population. Secondly, to advocate on pressing environmental issues so as to raise awareness on the significance of environmental conservation. Under this framework, we hope that our contributions towards the cause would go a long way in making our Earth a more sustainable place for future generations to live in.

We meet once a week on Fridays from 3.30-5.30pm, with club sessions usually involving planning for service activities. Such activities include going down to primary schools to carry out environmental outreach, spreading the message to primary school students through interactive activities like terrarium making, handicraft sessions involving recyclables, and clean-ups at the Kranji Marshes. School-wide activities are also among the list of what we do. Highlights for the year ahead include recycling campaigns, photography exhibitions featuring Singapore’s ecology and facilitated workshops that put the spotlight on contentious environmental issues.

Since there are no strict guidelines on the type of projects members can initiate, some may also choose to organize community service opportunities such as coastal cleanups for the school population. This provides firsthand experiences at environmental service, allowing participants to better appreciate the importance of environmental conservation through the service experience. For club members, there will also be the occasional outing to places such as Bukit Brown and guest speaker sessions as well.

Join us and you can look forward to fun activities such as mangrove salvaging and horseshoe crab rescue, taking you to places you’d otherwise never see! Make new friends, and more importantly get to know like-minded people with a passion for nature and the environment.

Do indicate your interest to join us when filling in your CCA options. The selection process is only a short interview and there are no prerequisites. We look forward to seeing you!

by Lee Chin Wee (14A01B)

Opinions are rather strange things. Trapped and stewing within the confines of our head, they are but isolated thoughts. Spoken and shared with a few close friends, they start to gain some character – sharpened by dissenting views and polished over time. But when broadcasted to a wider community, that’s when opinions really come into their own – they gain the power to persuade, to entertain, to wound, and to move. After all, the world doesn’t owe us a duty to listen to what we think.

As the official student journalism society of RI, Raffles Press aspires to be a platform where our members can make their voices count. We meet once a week, from 2.00-3.30 pm on Wednesdays. While our training schedule may seem low-intensity, rest assured that our reach is anything but! The annual RI yearbook features dozens of event write-ups from our very own members. The revamped Rafflesian Times, a collaborative effort with the Communications Department, goes out to thousands of alumni all around the world. Word of Mouth, our online publication, reaches out to over 2,000 regular readers on a daily basis – we regularly hit more than 60,000 views a month!  Who knew that contemporary accounts of student life could be so popular?

But honestly, beyond the self-congratulatory statistics, there are many significant intrinsic benefits that can be reaped by joining Raffles Press. As a club, our philosophy is that the rewards you reap should be commensurate to the work you plough into the CCA. The more articles and projects you’re willing to participate in, the more fulfilling your time as a Press member will be. Don’t just take our word for it – think about the last good article you’ve read on the internet. Perhaps it inspired you to take action, or at least encouraged you to think more about a particular issue. We’re giving you the chance to touch someone’s life instead. It could be a poignant feature on a former Rafflesian drug addict, an Appreciation Week piece on one of our cleaning staff, or simply a heartfelt article about a service learning trip – it’s all up to you to decide.

After all, Press is a CCA that seeks not to compete but rather to collaborate. We’ve forged strong working relationships with the Communications Department, the Students’ Council and the Photographic Society (just to name a few) in order to enhance the Rafflesian Experience. Through our CCA Previews, we have given traditionally smaller and less publicized CCAs a platform to bring their message across. Through our Please Mind the Platform Gap series, we provide crucial information to ease the transition to Year 5-6. Through our involvement in the Rafflesian Times, we have injected a strong student voice into an otherwise corporate magazine. Many of the initiatives that Press has spearheaded over the past two years have been founded on the simple premise that student voices matter the most. We firmly believe that Raffles Press provides the dialogue needed for a stronger sense of Rafflesian community.

Here at Raffles Press, we also take the personal development of our members very seriously. Members can expect their training sessions to be occupied by external workshops, internal lectures and the occasional field trip – the last one was to the Wee Kim Wee School of Communications at NTU! This year, we plan to invite a number of prominent journalists and mainstream media experts for the purposes of club enrichment. Better writers will also get the chance to mentor less experienced members from both Press and Publications (the Year 1-4 equivalent), honing their writing skills in the process.

This year, we intend to hold selection trials for the club, which will take the form of a simple English competency test as well as a short interview segment – hopefully not too daunting a prospect, especially because we intend to accept over thirty new members in 2014. Do look out for scheduling details on the CCA registration page itself.

Consider joining Press if you have a flair for writing. Consider joining us if you’ve always wanted to be a journalist. Consider joining us even if you simply want to play a part in shaping the school community. Join us so that one more voice can be added to our chorus of opinions.