Mr Azhar Amin
After graduating from the National University of Singapore in 2013 with a Bachelor of Arts (Second Upper Honours) in History, I continued to pursue my fascination with the discipline by joining the National Heritage Board (Malay Heritage Centre) as a researcher.
The vocation enabled me to co-curate various exhibitions and programmes that connect with audiences on different platforms. Cultural performances in the style of flash mobs were strategised to attract casual observers and lectures with expert speakers from the Southeast Asian region were organised for those who sought a more cerebral engagement. Masterclass dance and art workshops were also developed for those who preferred a hands-on approach for an immersive experience in History.
I eventually realised that my greatest enjoyment came from stimulating discourse with visitors that may first begin with History but later evolve into discussions about movie reviews, favourite makan places, or even personal aspirations! The epiphany I came to have was that History merely functioned as a vehicle I enjoyed deploying, beneath my blossoming desire to experience treasured conversations and build relationships with people. The call to teach, where such encounters take place on a daily basis, revealed itself as a no-brainer!
Soon, I was granted the opportunity to experience teaching for nearly a year in a secondary school and then another year in a junior college; these two institutions blessed me with exposure to brilliant and generous colleagues as well as willing students who enriched my eventful journey before my admission and convocation from the National Institute of Education. Now, as a teacher at Eunoia, I aspire to inspire Eunoians to embark upon their own life journeys to discover their respective passions, no matter how elusive they may seem in adolescence.
Despite the linear trajectory suggested by my degree specialisation and former role in heritage education, I had actually capitalised on my summer vacations in university to explore various career possibilities as an ambitious, yet intensely curious, intern in different industries. Dabbling with online journalism with publication POSKOD.SG and corporate branding with Spikes Asia were notable experiences among my other forays in diverse fields, including my National Service as a firefighter! A fiery willingness to explore, experiment, and learn, enables my perennial relish for a challenge: an inclination that was also demonstrated during my own college days as a student in the Science stream engrossed with Physics and Maths despite my strengths lying in the Arts.
Equipped with these experiences, I look forward to enable students to lead conversations centred upon their journey of self-discovery.
So, as I begin my dream to be a skilful teacher, I hope to empower Eunoians to find, if not fuel, their own nascent dreams and build the legacies they have yet to realise has already begun.
Azhar joined the college as a pioneering member of staff in 2017.