Today, our Teen Group Semester 3’s Open House (zoom details in the link) happens at 11am. Check out the teens featured today, their works and personal statements. Participants to the Open House will give a grade to each teen based on the rubric here.
Luqman released his Youtube Channel based on his research interest. Check out his video on The Psychology of Overpopulation, the first of 4 parts. What is Luqman’s reflection on his process of making the work?
Luqman’s Personal Statement
My name is Luqman Hakim. I am 14 this year. My top 3 interests are social sciences, anime and basketball. I like learning about the social sciences because it helps me understand how to interact with the social world. I have been to many countries: Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, America, Australia and the Middle East. Travelling has helped to widen my perspectives. Going to places like homeless shelters and food banks changed the way I look at volunteer work and the homeless people themselves.
This is my third presentation for the Teen Module for Little U. I have previously presented my personal research projects on Minority studies and Opinion Formation in the age of social networks. For this semester, my classmates and I have been tasked to market a product based on our talents. Initially, I planned to do what I usually do for my final presentation for the Little U open house, which is to present my research on a certain topic. I planned to take a course on Coursera, apply it to Singapore’s context and make my course based on that but I soon realised that I didn’t have the time and experience to achieve it. After agonising about what to talk about, I finally decided on a topic, which is “The psychology of overpopulation” with a focus on Singapore. I decided to upload the videos on YouTube instead of paid platforms like Patreon as I do not think that this is something that could be easily marketed as a product. Instead, I merely want to share what I have learnt with as many people as possible.
I’m starting this YouTube channel, in part as an assignment for a homeschooling module that I am taking. As a homeschooler, I have a lot of time to explore subjects that I am interested in. Psychology and Sociology are my two top favourite subjects. My father is a Professor in Sociology at Nanyang Technological University Singapore. He helps explain some of the concepts in Sociology that I come across. My mother helps me navigate the courses and readings that I get online.
This channel features my personal research projects and playlists of videos related to the social sciences. I just want to share what I have learned, and I hope to learn from you through your comments too. Hope that you will enjoy my videos! Like, share and subscribe for updates.
Caylen created a Grafitti Workshop. Did his workshop turn out well? As Caylen is currently in the UK, he is unable to join us. But he has sent his pre-recorded video for us to enjoy.
Caylen’s Personal Statement
Hey! My name is Caylen Chew, age 16. One of my interests is grafitti. My other hobbies include drawing, listening to music, and watching videos on Youtube. I am a dreamer who lives in a world of my imagination.
The project this year required us to sell a product or provide paid service to for profit. I at first thought to do a Lego shop, selling original creations and accessories made of Lego bricks. But this was something I had already done in the past (@CaylensShop on Facebook), and I wanted to try something new and challenging.
I finally decided to provide workshops to teach graffiti on paper. I chose this because it’s one of my strong interests. I fell in love with graffiti when I saw it on an animated series of “Subway Surfers”, as well as “Spider-man into the Spider-verse”. I was fascinated by the color schemes, the way the art is portrayed. I experimented with drawing grafitti art, using paper and markers. Beside my love for grafitti, I also wanted to experience teaching, which was something I had not done before. It was a good challenge.
In the workshop, I wanted participants to learn about grafitti, and explore personal expressions of their own styles. During the workshop, I gave examples, and helped my participants to look for their own examples online which they could use as references. I also did demonstrations, and gave critiques and suggestions for how they could improve their pieces.
In my video presentation, I will share how I went about preparing for the workshop and the ideas I taught. You will also see examples of my participants’ works as they progressed. At the end of the video, you will see two testimonials from the participants, sharing what they have learned. I have enjoyed conducting this workshop, and been been pleased by my participants’ abilities and progress. It was a joy to teach!
Through this project, I have learned how to organise a workshop, and to share my love for graffiti. I hope you will find my presentation inspirational and enjoyable. If you wish to conduct a workshop on graffiti you can contact me.
Li Ann tried getting art commissions for her work. Did she succeed? Why or why not? We let Li Ann tell her story.
Deborah loves drawing. Her personal project involved getting art commissions. Did she get what she set out to achieve? Support her at her Ko-fi store if you are interested.
Deborah’s Personal Statement
Hi, I’m Deborah, a (turning) 14 year old hobbyist aspiring to become a full (If I get good enough to quit working under someone else)/part time professional artist.
My hobbies/interests are watching youtube, playing minecraft, drawing, listening to music and true crime. I love chicken (especially cutlet) rice, water chestnut juice and ice cream. Yum. If you have trouble with finding stuff to spend your money on, you can come to me.
In this personal statement, I’ll be presenting my art and promoting my commissions. Nice art for a cheap price!
It started out in 2018-2019 when I wanted to start a slime business. Of course, I needed a logo (aka fansign) which I had no money to commission so I decided to draw my own, digitally.
After seeing other people do better and drawing characters in their fansigns, I wanted to as well. They were pretty terrible, so I kind of stopped for a while and worked on fansigns alone (I got a few commissions too!). Then I started drawing characters again. Overtime, my style changed and my work got better although the drawings still looked bad. Drawing turned from something I did for fun into a mix of a hobby and something I did because I wanted a skill. Now, the reason I draw is a mix of a hobby, a will to be good at something and me not wanting to have to get a degree.
I’m aspiring to become as well known as digital artists like Sara Faber or Sam does arts (google them) and to be able to make money off patreon subscriptions/merch instead of commissions.
I really like drawing. I really want money. You really like cheap prices. You REALLY want art. It’s a win-win situation then!
Art progression:
My early 2021/late 2020 art:
My later 2021 art:
Yael’s work this Semester 3 involved creating his own events. He designed his own history trail. Find out more in the Open House how it went!
Yael’s Personal Statement
I am Yael Quek, 15. A home-school student who is trying to study consistently for O-Levels, which is due next year. When I am not studying, I am usually using the internet and playing video games which, I myself find to be very unproductive unfortunately. You can also find me doing some of my hobbies like learning art and playing video games as well. I also show an interest in digital related things like computers, tech, etc.
At the open house, I will be showcasing what I did for a History Trail at Labrador Park that I organised for my personal project. The project was officially called the Labrador Park History trail. During the trail, I brought kids ages 9-13 to walk around Labrador Nature Reserve in a guided tour to see the various historical relics found in the park. You will hear more on what I did at the open house as I describe the steps I took, how I progressed while organising the trail, as well as my thought process while I worked on the project over the last few months since January.
This season, me and my classmates were required to provide a paid service or sell a product and earn money from it. When we were assigned this, I thought of organising a paid event of some sort. After looking through my options, I settled for either a nature trail or a history trail situated at an outdoor location. But since I did not know much about biology and wildlife, I decided to organise a history trail instead since it was easier to research and learn in a shorter period of time. Although I looked to our teacher Aunty Dawn and my parents for tips and suggestions, organising the trail alone required me to figure out the time, date, location of the trail, ages of the participants, method of advertisement as well as the content I would include as I taught the participants. While doing the research, I even had to travel over to Labrador Park physically to conduct a recce, rehearse and look at the locations covered in the trail.
In the end, I hope it helped to educate the participants on the topic and develop an interest in history. I felt that it was also a good way for the kids to connect more with their heritage and gain general knowledge. Organising the trail definitely helped me to practice planning an event and delivering it well to a physical audience. Interestingly, as I researched the content, I also seemed to gain a bigger interest in history and topics covered, including a sense of thankfulness for the peace our country has had after everything that happened in the past.
I hope you will be able to understand how I organised the trail and the steps involved in its development. Even though I may not be a perfect example on how to organise anything similar to what I did, maybe you will learn a thing or two on how to organise an event smoothly and relate to me in some way.
Today, our Teen Group Semester 3’s Open House (zoom details in the link) happens at 11am SG time.
About the Teen Groups program at Little U
TEEN GROUPS is a four year program for teens and advanced tweens that culminate in a portfolio for :
‣ Workplace Readiness
‣ Confidence in the Marketplace
‣ Portfolio Creation
Teens commit to the semesters they sign up for. Semesters 1 and 2 are 8 sessions, Semester 3 and 4 are 10 sessions.
Whatsapp Dawn Fung at +65-85506536 if you are interested to find out more about Teen Groups.