Class act: Five steps to moulding a star

Class act: Five steps to moulding a star

Besides Temasek Secondary's high-profile alumni, CHIJ Katong
Convent is also a star-maker.

Past students include actresses Melody Chen, Neo Swee Lin,
Andrea De Cruz, Michelle Saram, model Charmaine Hahn and news
anchors Glenda Chong and Cheryl Fox.

Principal Lysia Kee, 52, thinks this is due to the school's
long tradition of emphasizing the performing arts and the English
language.

"We've had very passionate English literature teachers here
who infused a love of the language into the girls, and the annual
Book and Music Week has been a school tradition since the 1970s,"
she says.

So what makes a school an incubator for the stars of tomorrow?

* Make your own schoolhouse Broadway

Kit Chan was one of Singapore's first regionally successful
pop stars, and the 32-year-old powerhouse crooner credits her
success to her days in Raffles Girls' School.

"The school environment was like a mini arts circle," she
says. "Everyone would get all geared up for the annual An Evening
of Music and Drama, which was an RGS tradition usually held at
Victoria Theater. I performed on a public stage for the first
time for this occasion in Secondary 2, and the adrenaline rush
was amazing."

CHIJ Katong Convent alumnus Melody Chen, 26, also attributes
her love of performing to the school environment.

"The arts was always regarded as quite important in my school,
and there were a lot of activities that required us to express
ourselves creatively."

The Fly Entertainment artist remembers "forming my own little
Spice Girls group" during Book and Music week to perform covers
of songs by En Vogue and Wilson Phillips.

* Sprinkle alumni stardust liberally

Jacelyn Tay, 29, Star Search 1995 winner and Cedar Girls'
Secondary alumnus, remembers her first brush with showbiz well.

When she was in Secondary 2, old girl Teo Ser Lee, who was
Miss Singapore-World 1988, came to give a talk on her modeling
and pageant experiences.

"It really brought the entertainment world one step closer,
and I suppose it was one of the factors that led me to join Star
Search later," says Tay.

Teo, 38, still goes back to her alma mater to give Cedar girls
deportment and etiquette classes. "The girls are very warm, and a
couple even ask me for tips on how to win beauty pageants," she
says.

* You're never too young to start learning star style

Ask the always stylishly dressed Andrea De Cruz, 30, if her
fashion sense is a matter of nature or nurture, and this ex-
Katong Convent girl is quick to credit her secondary school style
mentors.

"Teachers usually have a very dowdy image, but I had a lot of
good-looking female teachers. They were just beautiful, with
immaculate dresses and make-up. It really made an impression,"
she says.

* Find your calling, and stick to it

It's no surprise that singer Tanya Chua, 29, was a choir
member during her secondary school days.

"I was fascinated by how a few different melodies put together
could create this almost '3D' effect to the main melody. Oh, and
I really dug the applause," she says.

The CHIJ St Nicholas Girls' alumnus says she constantly found
myself being called up on stage by the principal "to sing as a
form of punishment for playing truant".

"But instead of getting stage fright, I was actually enjoying
that form of 'punishment'."

* School values can come in handy when the going gets tough

There's no business like show-business, and sometimes no
better source of strength for stressful showbiz times than those
values learned in school.

Jacelyn Tay, a former National Police Cadet Corps staff
sergeant, is famous for having won the 1995 Star Search contest
with an infected eye, and for having faced her financial troubles
head-on.

She says that during those troubled times, the words of her
Cedar principal guided her well: "She always told us to dare to
dream, and to persevere. Basically, now nothing can bring me
down."

Jaime Teo, 26, Miss Singapore Universe 2001 and a St Anthony's
Canossian Secondary alumus, was the drum major of her school's
military band .

She credits her confidence and self-discipline to her school
days, and can still recite the slogan of her former band teacher:
"Do it, that's it, no ifs, no buts". -- The Straits Times