ZEST 2019

The ZEST of Helping Our Community

Written by: Siah Xiu Yan (3E2)

Charity begins at home. That was what the students of Zhenghua Secondary School were busy with on 6th July. The ZEST carnival, which was open to public, aimed to raise funds for the Community Chest, as well as commemorate the school’s 20th anniversary. Students, staff and alumni of the school had been involved in the carnival preparation for months.

In particular, secondary three students were tasked to work with external organisations to set up booths as part of their Values-in-Action (VIA) projects. Students of 3E2 worked with the Samaritans of Singapore (SOS) to raise awareness on suicide prevention through the sale of handicraft items such as paintings.

The public also showed their warm support at the many games and food booths, student performances, rides such as the viking ship, and the dunking tank. It was good to see students stepping out of their comfort zones and working together for a good cause. When interviewed, one student said, “It was heartwarming to see my schoolmates performing their hearts out and running their booths together. This is definitely an experience that I will never forget.”

The Abandoned Asylum

Written by: Tee Chin Shian (3E1) & Ellisya Sabrina (3E1) For ZEST this year, our class participated in the carnival by setting up a game stall - “The Abandoned Asylum”. The class was united in bringing the best haunted house experience for visitors. Even down to the last minute, we were working as a team to make sure that the decorations and music were perfect.

One of our favourite parts was the scaring. We noticed that rather than us scaring them, the visitors were actually scaring themselves. We also experienced a great sense of accomplishment as there seemed to be a long and never ending queue outside our booth at the Rifle Range! From the planning to the preparations and to packing up, we learnt to work as a team, and enjoyed ourselves as a class.

Don’t Rain on my Zesty Parade

Written by: Muhammad Ahmad Khan (4N1) Everyone had a blast at this year’s ZEST Arts Festival and Carnival, which was on a much bigger scale than last year’s due to it being Zhenghua’s 20th anniversary. It was not just a festival full of music and art, but also included a huge carnival where visitors were thrilled by the amazing games and rides that were in store for them.This attracted many visitors and alumni came down to celebrate with us in this joyous occasion.

Personally, I enjoyed the festival very much. I was not only a spectator, but a performer too. It was an honour to be picked as one of the chosen few to perform. Since the theme for our 20th anniversary celebrations is Dreams, Joy, and Heritage, I picked a musical number, ‘Don’t Rain On My Parade’ by Barbara Streisand to start the festival with a huge “BANG”.

It was such a magical experience as I was singing a song about the Joy of living our lives to the fullest, and I believe everyone should. It is not everyday, you see a shy boy singing a musical number. What made the night truly magical was the pride and emotion that was shared by the performers during their performances.

One of our students, Haiyan from 3E4, said, “This is my first year in Zhenghua Secondary, and it is my first time attending ZEST. It is such a unique experience for me as I have never attended something like this before.” Our Food and Nutrition teacher, Mdm Sharifah said, “I am fascinated by the talent that we have in our school!”

Celebrating With Bookmarks and Keychains

Written by: Lee Xiang Jing, Javier (2E2) The Library Club participated in the ZEST Arts Festival and Carnival by setting up a stall to sell items to raise funds for the Community Chest. After much brainstorming, we decided to sell custom keychains, as well as bookmarks and key chains of popular books and anime to attract customers, as these were very popular with students.

I thought it was going to be smooth sailing at first, but we had a lot of issues with the products. We had to rule out many ideas to ensure that we would not make a loss, so that we could raise funds for charity.

On that day, we realised our location in the hall did not attract as large a crowd compared to stalls on the ground floor. We discussed as a team and decided to advertise our stall by going around the school to tell guests what we were selling. We told many teachers, students, and guests the location of our booth. This was a great strategy and boosted our sales greatly.

However, this also meant that it was excruciatingly tiring for many of our Club members as we had many orders, and many of the Club members had to do two shifts to complete them. Nonetheless, we persevered and managed to fulfil all the orders.

Through this process, I learnt that teamwork is very important and I tried my best to help our chairperson and other Library Club members to the best of my abilities. It was a real pleasure working with everyone to complete this project. We are very thankful for the support of all our teachers and school librarian. I would also like to thank the school for giving me an opportunity to do something for those less fortunate than us.

The Best Decision I Have Ever Made

Written by: Valerie Chua Jie Qi (4E3) ZEST 2019 was a fun and unique experience as I was given the opportunity to be involved in the planning of school events. Joining the ZEST media team was the best decision I have made as it gave me the opportunity to unleash my passion for design into creating posters and Instagram posts to reach out to our school mates and the public. This experience has also exposed me to work on publicity campaigns on new media platforms. It has also widened the job options that I would consider taking on in the future.

Being in the media team was very tiring due to the amount of work and number of hours we had to put in planning and preparing the publicity materials. This includes taking photographs and videos during the rehearsals. Thankfully, with the help of my friends and teachers, I was able to cope with the workload and produce work that I am proud of.

An important takeaway from this experience is communication. Throughout the 3 months, many meetings were held to ensure that there was no miscommunication among members of the team as there were many things happening at once. I am very grateful to have such a rare opportunity to apply skills that are needed in real life and would happily do it again if such opportunities appear in the future.

Learning the Behind-The-Scenes of Events

Written by: Joline Chong Zhi Xuan (4E3) I first signed up to be a part of the ZEST Media Team as I felt like it would allow me to pursue my interest in design, photography, and event management. Being a part of the ZEST Media Team has allowed me to try many different things that I have never done before. For instance, I helped to manage the ZEST Instagram account, which was used as a platform for us to communicate with the public.

I also learnt about what happens behind the scenes for such events, as I attended rehearsals, planned and prepared the publicity efforts, filmed performances, and more. I was also able to experience what it was like to be in-charge of a school event.

At ZEST last year, I volunteered to work as a student photographer and a backstage helper. I was impressed by how my seniors helped Ms Constance throughout the preparation process. As ZEST Arts Festival was such a huge success last year, I was worried about whether or not we would be able to meet the high standards set by our seniors to make the event equally successful.

Throughout the 3 months of preparation, even though it was challenging, it was fun as I got to learn many skills which are applicable in both the workforce and in real life. I overcame the various challenges, such as tight timelines, with the help of my friends and teachers. Through this experience, I was also able to apply and improve on skills that I hardly had the opportunity to do so in my studies or CCA, such as designing of posters and photography. I am very grateful for this opportunity which provided me so many learning experiences and am happy to be a part of the media team.

Rewarded by Our Media Team Effort

Written by: Tabitha Lim Xin Ying (4E3) Being a part of the ZEST Media Team has provided me with many opportunities to gain valuable learning experiences outside of the classroom. I was able to try out new things and learn new skills such as videography, publicity & marketing, and creating promotional content, which I believe I can use in the future.

Aside from gaining new skills, I was also able to hone skills such as communication, critical thinking and adaptability. We were willing to tap on each other’s strengths and helped each other overcome challenges. There were times when we had to work around the clock, especially closer to the day of the event. These situations were really stressful, but I was grateful that with the rest of the team working together, and the teachers supporting and guiding us, we managed to get everything done in time.

At the end of the day, seeing students, teachers, alumni, parents, and visitors gathered together and enjoying their time at ZEST Arts Festival & Carnival was the most rewarding to me. ZEST 2019 was only possible because of the tremendous amount of dedication from everyone who was also involved, from performers to AVA members, teachers, and many more. This experience makes me more appreciative of the efforts put in planning and preparing such events.

The Satisfaction of a Smile

Written by: Claire Ng (4E3) Being a part of the ZEST media team has taught me many things, such as the importance of communication. Communication is crucial when managing and promoting an event like this, and it is a basic skill that is needed when working in a team to manage events.

It has also given me a sense of satisfaction when I captured the smiles on people’s faces through the camera, as I can see that they have enjoyed themselves at the festival and carnival. Overall, I had a really fun and rich learning experience as a media team member.

精彩纷呈的ZEST嘉年华会

记者：CHUA GWYN 蔡宇萱 (2E4) & JIANG YUJIE江雨洁 (2E4) 为了庆祝学校成立20周年，学校举办了ZEST嘉年华会，今年嘉年华会筹得的现金将全部捐给公益金慈善机构(Community Chest)。

今年的摊位是由中三同学和各课外活动承办的，我们所在的合唱团卖的是自己做的笔记本；铜乐队卖的是文具，这些文具卡通味十足，深受小朋友的喜爱。学生会卖的有小熊、气球和特别的衣服——专门为正华20周年而做的衣服。篮球队做的是一个游戏摊位，得分点越多，就可以兑换越好的礼品。童子军用木头做成秋千，让小朋友玩……各课外活动为了吸引大家，各出奇招，“生意”也都不错。

中三的各班级都有自己的摊档。其中3E1搭建的“鬼屋”特别受大家欢迎，队伍太长，好多人只能望“队”兴叹。这个“鬼屋”让大家进去后摸黑行动，体会盲人的不便，也增强我们日后对他人的同理心。

尽管天气炎热，但访客和学生都在尽情地玩着，或购买订制商品。此外，学校邀请的校外贡茶摊位、小吃摊位也非常受欢迎。Dunking Tank游戏摊位前尖叫连连，校长和老师们为了慈善，也勇敢地坐在圆桶上，等着“扑通”一声掉进水里，成为落汤鸡的一刻！在岩壁区，有一个小型的网络攀岩课程，让孩子们尝试爬到顶部。很多人都很害怕，但也有一些人试着爬上去，当他们到达顶部时，他们高兴地尖叫起来。由于有恐高症，我没有像别人一样攀岩。但是我很希望我能像他们一样那么勇敢。游戏太多，我们不能体验完所有的游戏。在经历了令人心跳加速的北欧海盗船之旅后，我既害怕又兴奋！

傍晚时分，学生表演开始了，从舞者到歌手，应有尽有。精彩的表演赢得大家阵阵喝彩。

在图书馆里，有金色和银色的飘带和蓬松的小球装饰在墙上和书架上。很多校友聚集在这里，师生互动，生生互动让这个空间变得温馨无比。那里还有一个照相亭，你可以和家人和朋友一起拍照，定格美好的瞬间。夜深了，礼堂里歌声已进入尾声，灯光如梦如幻，同学们、家长们、附近居民们仍聚在这里不忍离去！相信精彩纷呈的Zest嘉年华会，一定会让这里每一个人铭记于心！

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Karnival ZEST 2019

Oleh SITI RAHIMAH BINTI ZULKIFLI (2T1) dan ELLISYA SABRINA PUTRI JASNI (3E1)

Karnival ZEST pada 6 Julai yang lalu telah membuka pintu kepada ramai tetamu bagi meraikan ulangtahun ke-20 sekolah kami secara besar-besaran. Para pelajar bukan sahaja dapat mengambil bahagian sebagai penghibur tetapi juga ramai di antara mereka juga perlu bekerja keras untuk menyiapkan dan menjaga reruai masing-masing.

Kreativiti serta daya keusahawanan para pelajar dapat dilihat melalui aktiviti-aktiviti permainan dan penjualan pelbagai makanan, minuman dan cenderamata di reruai mereka. Aktiviti yang menarik ialah di Abandoned Asylum oleh kelas 3E3 di mana kami perlu beratur panjang menunggu giliran untuk masuk ke dalam bilik gelap yang dihiasi dengan prop menyeramkan dan penuh kejutan.

Hari tersebut khususnya memberi peluang kepada pelajar yang ingin menonjolkan bakat seni mereka dalam nyanyian, tarian ataupun bermain muzik. Salah seorang daripada penghibur ialah Ellisya Sabrina daripada kelas 3E1. Ikuti laporan seterusnya tentang pengalaman Ellisya menyanyi di hadapan khalayak ramai.

Festival Seni ZEST tahun ini amat saya nanti-nantikan kerana ia adalah pesta yang meraikan keunikan bakat seni para pelajar sekolah saya. Malah tahun ini acara ini diadakan dengan lebih istimewa lagi kerana ia bersempena dengan sambutan ulangtahun ke-20 Sekolah Menengah Zhenghua.

Saya berasa sangat teruja apabila perlu bernyanyi di atas pentas di hadapan orang ramai. Maklumlah para penonton bukan sahaja terdiri daripada rakan-rakan atau guru-guru sekolah saya sendiri tetapi juga orang awam yang hadir untuk menikmati persembahan-persembahan dan melihat reruai-reruai yang ada. Terdapat tiga lokasi persembahan bagi menyemarakkan lagi suasana muzik di sekitar kawasan sekolah. Ada persembahan nyanyian, tarian dan alunan muzik tanpa henti sepanjang acara tersebut.

Sebagai salah seorang penghibur, saya berasa bangga dapat mengambil bahagian untuk menghiburkan semua penonton. Seronok juga saya melihat kawan-kawan saya meraikan hari istimewa ini bersama-sama. Saya harap ini akan membuat lebih ramai pelajar sekolah saya ingin mencuba membuat persembahan di dalam acara masa akan datang.