Details are in the attachment. To sign up for the event please return the registration form to rlhartung@stanfordalumni.org by 21 November 2008.

The Stanford Club of Singapore invites you to join us and Morgan Stanley’s chief economist Chetan Ahya on the 19th November, Wednesday at 7.00pm.

More details are in the attached reservation form. To register, please send the registration form to liewweylin@gmail.com or rlhartung@stanfordalumni.org by 10 November 2008.

Applications are being sent to all of Singapore’s 21 pre-university institutions.  Applications shall be submitted by January 30, 2009.

For full details please download a copy of the 2009 Application.

This year’s book prize winner, Ho Zhi Hui, reflects on her trip in this essay. It’s an enjoyable look at the campus through the eye’s of a young Singaporean. Needless to say, she was impressed.

Click on the link below to read the full article.

Setting off + touchdown:

Having just finished my drama production in school, and with the workload beginning to pile up, I was absolutely thrilled to have won the Stanford Book Prize. Just cutting loose and going overseas for ten days for a brand new experience was honestly the best thing that could have happened to me at that point in time.

It barely felt like months since I first sent in my essay entry, and I certainly remembered the whole process like it was yesterday.

When I’d first sent in my essay, I’d sent it by express mail – and the post office had not delivered it by the specified time. (Never trust Singpost again!) I spent ages agonizing over whether the Stanford Club had received my entry, until Mr Donald Huse emailed me to come for the interview. What a relief that was!

The interview was truly interesting – I’ve sat in interviews for other scholarships and prizes before, and I can confidently say that a forty-minute interview never went that quickly before. And when I was told to attend the dinner as one of the book prize winners, I was insanely nervous. I sat throughout the entire dinner with my heart in my mouth – and when I was announced the Grand Prize winner, it was just incredible.

The rest of the next couple of weeks passed in a flurry of organizing – buying air tickets, travel insurance, emailing Silvanus to iron out the details of my visit, settling missed lessons with my teachers in school.

So May 10th saw me leaving Changi Airport, almost brimming over with excitement at my first solo trip overseas, and my first trip to America.

(A word of advice to future winners: bring books! The flight is long and arduously boring.)

I landed at San Francisco International Airport, and made it safely through Immigration – though there was this little old lady who only spoke Spanish and needed help filling out her immigration card, and I had no idea how to tell her what was going on.

It can be quite embarrassing to raise your voice to ask, ‘Does anyone here speak Spanish?’ and have lines and lines of people stare back at you blankly.

So I set off to look for someone instead: and thankfully found a member of the airport personnel who did speak Spanish. After that slight delay, I met Silvanus and Shin Eik. It was already pretty late by then, so we went straight to campus.

And thus started my ten-day stay in Stanford!

The Campus Environs:

Firstly, Stanford is huge. I’d been told that before, but honestly, as a Singaporean it’s just very difficult to grasp the idea of massive, sprawling open space dedicated to a university campus. While the National University of Singapore is fairly big, it’s also very cramped together, with high-rise buildings all clustered together. Stanford, on the other hand, is very much spread out, and the architecture is beautiful and Romanesque, unlike the functional modernist styles of Singaporean buildings. There’s a lot of open space, and it might be a psychological effect, but somehow, I breathe easier there. (Of course, that could be because their air is better – clean and crisp with just a hint of coldness.)

And if there’s one thing that Stanford has put on my to-do list after my A Levels, it’s to learn to ride a bicycle. When I sheepishly tell people that I can’t ride a bike, they generally react with an open mouth and rounded eyes, after which, for the next ten seconds they look at me as if I were a throwback to an earlier link in the human evolutionary chain: Cannot Ride Bicycle.

Walking’s fine, though: it just takes longer.

In the ten days I was there I wandered over a good deal of the campus. Being a bookworm, I went around the various libraries – such as the Green Library, which houses an impressive collection of books (I managed to get a good head start on my research paper for A Levels!) and many lovely study areas with really comfy couches, and Meyer Library, where students gather to do their studying. (Meyer Library is open 24/7, for those who are desperately trying to finish a paper, or worse, a thesis!)

I also visited the Cantor Arts Center, and realized that Stanford houses a very impressive collection of the works of the sculptor Rodin, not only in the Center itself but also in the garden outside, where you can actually reach out and touch the work itself. And I personally think that touch and texture make a very different impression when it comes to sculpture, because it’s not like a painting, where a 2D appreciation is the main point. When it comes to sculpture, it’s worth touching the statue to really feel the depth of the detail that went into making it so amazingly lifelike.

Another absolutely extraordinary thing about Stanford, though, is their sky.

I was exploring one day and I just flopped down in the middle of the Oval (this big grassy patch where Stanford students sprawl and slack off) and stared up at the sky, which was just this completely pure blue for as far as the eye could see. Not a single cloud. Just blue, an intensely light blue that I previously thought was only possible in photoshopped pictures. The sunshine was absolutely perfect.

And at night? For every one star you manage to catch a glimpse of in the Singaporean sky, you see another five at Stanford. I shan’t try and describe it; to call it beautiful seems like a weak platitude.

It does highlight the fact that in Singapore, to sprawl out and look at the sky seems like a faintly ludicrous notion. We’re all so focused on keeping our feet – and eyes – firmly on the ground that we never really spare the sky more than a glance. The only time I find myself flat on my back and looking upwards is when I’d staring at my own bedroom ceiling, which, let’s face it, isn’t exactly inspirational. It was only in Stanford that I experienced that sort of atmosphere – not exactly relaxed, but more of a willingness to take things at one’s own pace rather than getting rushed along in the slipstream. I think that was my first glimpse of understanding into the Stanford motto: the wind of freedom blows.

Weather-wise, I’m fairly sure that California has the best weather in the States. When I got there, I was pretty cold (which led to my purchase of a comfy blue Stanford hoodie as soon as I could), but it’s worth noticing that I’m a small Singaporean girl who has very little insulating fat, and I can get cold even in Singapore, so I’m not the best judge of weather. I’m also told that the East Coast weather is much, much worse, so I shall count my blessings. We were hit by a heatwave in the middle of the week, where temperatures were close to 40 degrees Celsius. I was told that it was a record high for California, but I felt pretty okay – especially because it’s not humid at all, so you don’t feel sweaty and disgusting like you do in Singapore.

The Dorm Experience + Food:

I’m told Stanford has good food, as compared to other schools, and I don’t doubt it. The dorms offer a wide range of foods – on Sunday brunch there’s even a fairly authentic porridge with century egg, and a wonderful selection of fruit and vegetables.

A word of caution, however: there is a side effect to all this good food. It’s called the Freshman Fifteen. You gain fifteen pounds when you enter freshman year – and that translates to about seven kilograms. For me, I get horrified whenever I see the weighing scale tip even a single kilogram to the right, so the thought of seven kg sends shivers down my spine.

Personally, I’m not too worried, though, cause I wasn’t very much into the food. But this (much like the weather) is again a personal prejudice, because I’m the sort of person who needs white fluffy rice (absent), and also because I eat very little and the type of food I eat in Singapore tends to be lighter. As such, I wasn’t used to the huge portions and the heaviness of the food there. I think I might even lose weight.

Besides that, I also had dinner in Palo Alto a couple of times: once at the Cheesecake Factory, and the other time at this Singaporean restaurant called Shiok! It’s immediately obvious what the Cheesecake Factory is known for – and the cheesecakes there are absolutely fantastic. I am a huge fan of cheesecake, and these were just incredible. Very filling, but so good. Everyone ordered different cheesecakes and we all shared, so I got to taste Godiva chocolate cheescake, raspberry cheesecake, and classic cheesecake. I ate till I was completely replete.

Shiok! was also good, especially after a few days of American food. I don’t think I’ll ever be completely used to American food, but it’s good to know that there’s somewhere I can eat if I want a taste of home.

With regard to the dorm experience: I stayed in Branner with Samantha at first, and about halfway through my trip I moved across campus to stay with Yuxin in Lagunita. Branner is a freshman dorm, and I had quite an amusing experience there.

The first night, I managed to lock myself out of the room at three in the morning, when I went to use the restroom. Calling Sam produced no response, so I went to the couches in the lounge to sleep instead.

I was about to fall asleep when someone approached and asked, ‘Why’re there sticks on the floor?’

My very intelligent response: ‘Huh?’

Him: ‘I’m not a faculty member, just trying to find out.’

Me: ‘Uh, sorry, I have no clue.’

But he was right! There were sticks/small tree branches mysteriously scattered around (one directly under the water cooler, for some unknown reason).

And then, I fell asleep. At five am, however, I was rudely awakened by the sound of two people who were playing foosball.

At five am?

It was rather hilarious, really. And while I was told the next day that I could have gotten the Resident Assistant (RA) to open Sam’s door for me, I wouldn’t have had that rather eye-opening night out in the lounge otherwise. Lagunita, by contrast, was quite tame – but that may have been because I’d figured out the door mechanism by then, and never got locked out.

In Stanford, every undergrad is guaranteed four years of on-campus housing, and you either get a double, triple or a quadruple. Yuxin’s room was a double, and that’s quite cramped, with beds and desks in one room. Triples and quadruples get a separate sleeping room and study room, but of course there are more people. I think the dorm experience varies quite widely depending on which dorm you get, but apparently Stanford does ask for your personality/preferences when assigning you a dorm and roommates, so it should all work out fine.

Intellectual Atmosphere:

I attended quite a few classes while I was there – mostly in the humanities (e.g. a class on gender, a class on moral philosophy), because as an arts student I’d probably be hopelessly lost in a science class. And the intellectual atmosphere at Stanford is just amazing.

The class that struck me the most, though was a class on comparative literature taught by Professor Andrea Nightingale, where they were discussing Virgil’s The Aeneid. I’m lucky I’d read it before, otherwise I’d have found it difficult to keep up. But what struck me was the intellectual intensity in the room – the students all spoke up and weren’t afraid at all to defend radically different points of view. For instance, we were discussing Aeneas’ behavior with regards to Dido and the way he took leave of her, and one of the male students attempted to defend him. Another female student immediately began to argue the opposite, and I must admit that I was eventually drawn into the argument as well. But although I agreed with her, both sides were well-argued and there was a genuine difference of perspective that I wouldn’t find in a Singapore classroom. There were also other observations made about the text that really made me think, ‘Wow, I never thought of it that way,’ so I was really impressed by the diversity of views that came from the students.

Besides that, I also caught a film screening of Soldiers of Conscience, which presents an intriguing story of conscientious objectors in the US army, with in-depth glimpses of how US soldiers are indoctrinated, for lack of a better word. As a Singaporean girl, I don’t have to do National Service, but I’m not sure whether in the Singaporean army, they have their teenage recruits yelling ‘Kill! Kill! Kill the enemy!’ It was really interesting, and it’s interesting to see how some soldiers arrived at the decision to reject all wars, while others fight on because, in the words of one major, he’s protecting their right to even be conscientious objectors.

I’ve personally always been anti-war. I can acknowledge that there are forces out there who want nothing more than to destroy others (terrorist groups leap to mind), but I cannot accept that invading another country is the way to proceed. War may solve some problems, but almost immediately creates an entirely different set, and in the long-term, may even come to exacerbate the issue. For a Southeast Asian example, let’s look at Myanmar, whose government is, by most standards, a complete failure. But I would never advocate armed intervention in Myanmar, because the destabilising effects are likely to hit the innocent locals hardest. Rather, I believe that countries like that are best changed through exposure and dialogue – which is why I am a firm believer in the ASEAN decision to continue to engage and interact with Myanmar.

Nonetheless, I came out of that film understanding that many people who fight wars have thought out their positions just as strongly and have genuinely grappled with the moral dilemma of killing someone, even if that someone is another combatant, and I can understand their own pride in upholding their own ideals and standards, even if it is painful. Similarly, the conscientious objectors have faced a lot of criticism and hardship in making that decision, and its enlightening and empowering, to see their own fortitude in the face of a great deal of pressure from peers and even superiors.

So, in short: all this was my experience of the second aspect of the Stanford motto: the genuine urge to explore different aspects of the subject and the fearlessness with which the students engage with each other’s different viewpoints, and the willingness to engage with potentially controversial topics.

Social Life:

I actually went partying on the very first night I got there. Silvanus and Linus smuggled me into Sunset Splash using another student Stanford Student ID – and that was my first taste of the American college party scene.

Silvanus warned that it might be a bit of a culture shock. And when you get a warning like that, you pretty much know what to expect, of course, and since I did go there wanting to experience every aspect of campus life, I told him: ‘I’m game!’

My observations:

Firstly: don’t worry, you don’t need to know how to dance. There’s no space to really dance, and no one else really knows how to dance anyway. You just need to squeeze yourself into the crowd and sway with it. Also, wear covered shoes – you get stepped on often.

Secondly: there is drinking. However, if you don’t want to drink, you don’t have to do it. The boys did tell me a lot of hilarious stories about getting drunk, although I shall not publish their infamy here.

If you’re not the party type, though, there are lots of other things to do around Stanford! If you just walk around campus, you’ll see lots of posters put up everywhere – most often taped to the road, actually. You can also check the Stanford Daily, which is the student-produced newspaper. I went there with a fairly fluid schedule, so I just went for whatever caught my eye at the time.

I’m a member of performing arts groups in Singapore – I play the harmonica, and I was in drama, and I also play the piano and sing a little. So I know the kind of effort it takes to put on a performance, and I know the kind of effort it takes to put on a stellar performance – which is why the student body at Stanford just blew me away.

I attended Fleet Street Conquers the Moon at Dinkelspiel Auditorium (isn’t that a lovely quirky name? I love the sound of it – ‘dink-el-spiel’) with Samantha the first Sunday I was there, and it was awe-inspiring. Even taking away the fact that the acapella singers had absolutely amazing voices, the effort they put into designing the set (there was this massive moon hanging from the ceiling! It was really detailed and probably took a lot of effort) and the costuming and the way they interacted with the audience was really entertaining and engaging. Even the programme booklet was amusing, with lots of bad jokes like ‘In case of alien attack: think really hard about being diseased: aliens are telepathic and terrified of human illnesses.’

Besides that, I also caught a performance of A Midsummer Night’s Dream in the Old Union Courtyard at night, for free. It was brilliant – there’s no better way to stage that play than on a midsummer’s night (okay, so it was spring, but the atmosphere was the same!), and having come fresh from a drama performance, I keenly appreciated the effort that the actors must have put in to deliver all their lines perfectly and with such emotion.

And the programme booklet begins: ‘Welcome to 1950’s Athens, USA.’ Which describes it perfectly – the cast is dressed in a mix of suits, college jackets, and frou-frou dresses, but it all fits seamlessly, doesn’t try too hard to adhere to Shakespeare’s time (can you imagine how nastily difficult the costuming would have been?) and doesn’t seem at all out of place, which indicates real vision on the part of the director. There’s also an interestingly feminist slant on the play, which was also refreshing and intriguing.

What was also really amusing was what happened the day of the heatwave. I was on my way to the Stanford Bookstore when I was approached by a horde of people carrying water guns, dressed in swimwear, and with instruments in hand. It was the infamous Leland Stanford Junior University Marching Band – and they proceeded to strike up an inpromptu concert at the fountain (probably because of the heatwave). For me, it wasn’t only great entertainment, it was also an example of the spirit of spontaneity and verve that Stanford has. I can’t imagine the staid school bands in Singapore ever doing something like that – and it was all the more impressive because it was probably unplanned (the heatwave was only announced a short time ago).

In short: wow.

San Francisco:

I must confess: I’m an urban girl. I love cities, so I went to San Francisco several times over the ten days (once with Linus and Ming, once with Yuxian and Tri Hung, and once with Sil), and I had a great deal of fun there.

Firstly: San Francisco is hilly. I’d seen that fact in all the guidebooks that I checked up before leaving, but much like the size of Stanford, it’s not something you can comprehend until you actually see it. For a Singaporean, our world is generally quite flat.

In San Fran, the hills are at a close-to-forty-five-degree incline. I can’t help the twinge of apprehension I feel whenever I see cars parked all the way down the hill. I can’t help but wonder why they don’t all come tumbling down (especially since I’m a clueless arts student who knows next to nothing about traction and friction) like a stack of dominoes.

I went to Fisherman’s Wharf and the Golden Gate Bridge – and for me, the Golden Gate Bridge reminds me of the passage in The Great Gatsby where Nick Carraway talks about crossing the bridge into the city and seeing the city spread out beneath them, full of its infinite possibility, which was highlighted by the fact of Gatsby himself – and for me, that’s part of what embodies the American spirit and makes it so attractive to me as a place for undergraduate study. It’s been a long time since the streets of London were paved with gold, and America has become the new land of almost legendary opportunity.

I also explored the different areas of San Francisco – Union Street (which is shopping heaven – I bought myself an iTouch and an iPod Nano for my brother, since the exchange rate was in my favor), Chinatown (which threw up some very interesting questions for me about the Chinese diaspora worldwide), and the Castro (I’ve always been a huge supporter of gay rights, so that was really interesting as well). And again, I’m struck by the diversity of America, and I love the sense of exploration and possibility, of being in a new place that’s just begging to be discovered.

I hit the Museum of Modern Art with Sil, and spent the better part of an afternoon there. I adore museums. I spent ages in the Tate Modern while I was in London, and I’ve always had a love/hate relationship with modern art in particular. While some pieces intrigue me and challenge my definition of art like nothing else, some pieces just strike me as completely ridiculous. And yet, all this is our century’s art, the art of our time. So what does it say about our culture?

Besides that, I also attended a Japanese rock concert in a club, Slim’s. The artist is 雅-miyavi-, and given that I’ve always been a huge fan of his, I was really lucky to be able to secure tickets and watch him live in a small venue. I spent two hours with my hands in the air screaming, but besides that, I also made friends with two other concertgoers on the way back – Alex and Nina (he mixes cellphone ringtones and she’s working in architecture). We made it back to the Caltrain station at about eleven and the last train was only coming at midnight, so we chatted about J-rock and J-pop. That’s one of the best things about traveling, in my opinion – meeting random people and making new friends.

On the Caltrain ride home, I also struck up a really interesting conversation with one of the train staff – this nice old man. When I told him I was from Singapore, he mentioned that he’d heard that our subway services were really efficient – which sparked off a conversation about the subway systems of the world, and what made a good subway system tick. It’s another aspect of America and Americans in general which I really like – how willing they are to just have a friendly conversation with strangers, which would never happen in Singapore.

Coming home:

As the week drew to a close I grew sadder and sadder. It was partially the thought of the massive workload that was waiting for me when I got home, but also of returning to my humdrum life after the incredible fun I’d had at Stanford, and all the interesting people I’d met.

Shin Eik, Linus and Sil sent me off at the airport, and on the way back, I couldn’t help but think back over the past incredible ten days, all the interesting things I’d done and all the people I’d met. It definitely reinforced my desire to study overseas and to see new places and meet new people, and it was a rare opportunity to really understand what it means to study in a university – the intellectual openness, the diversity, the academic challenge, the independence it breeds.

It was a milestone in my life, and I have so many people to thank for making it absolutely amazing.

Many thanks to:

The Stanford Club of Singapore, for making this entire incredible experience possible.

Mr Donald Huse and the Book Prize Committee, whose experience in organizing the Book Prize helped me immeasurably.

All the people who hosted and helped me at Stanford:

Silvanus, for all the email correspondences and organizing and effort he put in to make sure my trip was enjoyable.

Samantha and Yuxin, who hosted me for the duration of my stay! Thank you for letting me impose on you!

And of course, all the other people who hung out with me, took me to SF, went partying with me, took me to restaurants, drove me around and otherwise helped me: Linus, Ming, Yuxian, Tri Hung, Shin Eik, Yong Liang and Mak! And not forgetting all the wonderful Singaporeans I met and talked with: Charmaine, Qinghua, Wang Ning, Chuang Sheng, and anyone else I may have inadvertently left out.

Thank you for making my trip so absolutely incredible!