Hello SOTA!

SOTA Open House 2015 is officially over. Thanks to the organising committe for making it so great and successful this year. Did 5 tours today! Total of 13 tours done so far at SOTA :) Thanks to joseph @kerynacat @nicolethewholockian for being my tpur partners :) Thanks also to @yihui for helping to organise :) Great job this year, hope to see success like this again in the years to come! :)

A photo posted by HornRay :) (@horn.ray.bazooka) on Apr 11, 2015 at 7:44am PDT

It's coming to month that I'm in SOTA. So many things to learn and so many opportunities here. To compare with my previous job, of course there's like long list of things I would like to share but first of all what is SOTA?

SOTA or School of the Arts was established in 2008 and was the first per-tertiary arts school in Singapore. It was initiated by Ministry of Information, Communication and the Arts and now took over by Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth (MCCY). It is an independent school (not MOE) and they have IB programmes such as Diploma programme based and Career-path programme. Currently, they focus on 4 art faculties: Dance, Music, Theatre & Visual Arts. They will open up Literary Arts next year. Fees are from $390 onwards.

So what do I do? I'm the admin assistant for Faculty of Dance (ballet & contemp), majorly in schedules and programmes such as AEPs, enrichments, masterclasses and more. Oh and the teachers/instructors' pay. Now after 2 weeks being here and they see that I'm capable of doing things, I'm gonna take the bandwagon of Faculty of Music. Music consist of wind, brass, percussions and voice which is like A LOT! I wonder how the lady before me can handle so much. huhu.

Working culture is totally different compared to PRSS coz the people here are so corporate comm and the office tends to be so quiet that they don't mingle around or like scared to (idk). Not like bubbly PRSS peeps. Here the people are friendly (the irony) and caring especially my ROs, I love them loads! Work load different eh coz handling CCA and curriculum subject is wayyyy different. The processes and all, got exams and tests that I need to handle. hahah amek kau! but okay lah, so far so good. Bearable.

Makan wise, of course here is a little bit expensive especially eating out, so I usually resort to eat at the canteen or just buy munches. Canteen food also abit more expensive then PRSS, coz skola anak org kaya katakan.

Benefits in SOTA are beyond rainbows which I really2 like. Dah mcm teacher kat MOE nye benefits with secondary and flexi benefits total up to $1k. Alhmadulillah3. And pay of course lagi better and I will get 2 months bonus after my 1st year contract ends. yeayness!!

SOTA Open House today! You can catch free shows and ice creams!  At times, u planned so many things, and so detailed but He has the best plan for us. Alhamdulillah, His plans are the most perfect. Trust Him and His plans. #sotaOH2015

A photo posted by Fiza Aw (@fiza_licious) on Apr 10, 2015 at 9:43pm PDT

The best part about SOTA is that they are hand in hand with Madrasah Aljunied to help out their IB programme. Now I understand why Aljunied wanted to do the Azhar 2.0. MUIS didn't explain clearly to us the society. I really2 hope the boss, kak Su will get me involved with them. That time I asked myself, how do I contribute to the community & society working in this "elite" school? Alhamdulillah, he answered my prayers.