NEWS – BeyondClassrooms – Enabling Opportunities for Our Students

Since the start of the BeyondClassrooms Programme in 2021, close to 15 partners (and still counting!) have officially signed up to support us in offering opportunities for our students.

These unique opportunities help our students gain real-world experiences so they can make decisions for their future careers. Once the COVID-19 restrictions were eased in 2022, we fulfilled many activities that had to be put on hold prior, enabling multiple eye-opening experiences and limitless learning for our students from primary to high school. Among these unique experiences were industry talks, internships, site visits, event deployment, career counselling and more.

All these valuable experiences are made possible by our supportive and committed BeyondClassrooms network, whom we are very honoured to collaborate with to continue creating opportunities for our students.

Here’s an overview of what was made possible with our BeyondClassrooms programme in 2022!

INDUSTRY VISITS

Our high school students were invited by urban air mobility pioneer Volocopter to visit their VoloCity exhibition and learn more about their future plans. The highlight of this visit was our students experiencing their VoloCity air taxi, well before its commercial launch slated for 2024.

Our primary school students had a blast at BASF Kids’ Lab at National University of Singapore (NUS). Employees from BASF and student volunteers from NUS’ Department of Food Science & Technology led our kids through eye-opening experiments, unravelling discoveries about nutrition and healthy eating, such as identifying Vitamin C in fruit juices. 

Another group of primary school students visited ALBA W&H Smart City’s waste management depot in Tuas, hosted by our Daimler Commercial Vehicles South East Asia. After being introduced to the concept of waste management in class, they could finally see what happens to our daily waste. They even had a chance to operate and ride behind a garbage truck – to experience the work of many on-ground workers who clean up after us!

Siemens hosted another group of GESS students at their Advanced Manufacturing Transformation Centre (AMTC), located at Tuas. The first of its kind, we had a glimpse at the manufacturing expertise of the hybrid competence centre aimed at supporting companies in Southeast Asia.

A different business nature was presented by State Street Bank and Trust Company, Singapore branch, who hosted our high school students and shared valuable insights on investment management and trading.

Our high school students interested in science and engineering benefitted from our partnership with TÜV SÜD, as they had the chance to visit the company’s new premises and learnt how the company upholds sustainability and safety management.

One of our newer partners onboard, T-Systems Singapore hosted our coding CCA students at their Customer Experience and Security Operations Centres and presented Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its applications to our captivated audience.

INDUSTRY TALKS

We had the pleasure to welcome Professor Raine Dumke from the Centre for Quantum Technologies, Nanyang Technological University (NTU) Singapore to our campus. Professor Dumke shared insights on Quantum Computing with our Grade 11 and 12 students, and this was followed by a visit to NTU’s Quantum Laboratory some weeks later.

BMW Group Asia’s Managing Director, Lars Nielsen was another guest speaker who visited our campus to conduct an industry talk on the challenges of globalisation for our Grade 11 and 12 students. This was a very relevant topic for the students who participated enthusiastically in the Q&A segment.

INTERNSHIPS, INDUSTRY DEPLOYMENT & CAREER COUNSELLING

The very first BeyondClassrooms internship was also provided by BMW Group Asia, undertaken by Alessandro Weifenbach, our Grade 12 student. Visiting the young man at his one-month-long summer internship with the Finance team, we were proud to hear from our partner that, “Alessandro was candid, resourceful and diligent! We hope this experience helps him to grow academically and professionally”.

Learn more about Alessandro’s internship here.

We are pleased to share that in April 2023, our grade 9 students will start their 9-day internships at their choice of company among our BeyondClassrooms partners.

At the end of last academic year, GESS hosted a Careers Information Exchange event, gathering our 11-graders with partners who shared insights and tips on career planning. We are very proud that this session gave our students inspiration for their next chapter after GESS. An extension of the activity was our partners conducting mock interviews with our high school students to coach them for university and job applications.

About 70 GESS students had the opportunity to be involved as volunteers at the Asia Pacific Conference of German Business (APK), which took place on 13 & 14 November at Raffles City Convention Centre. Dedicating their entire weekend and more for the event – graced by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and German Vice Chancellor and Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Action, Mr Robert Habeck – our students earned compliments from the organisers, for their involvement as ushers and event guides.

Separately, two of our students had the honour to be emcees at the Day of German Unity reception at Raffles Hotel Singapore. Poised and confident, they managed the event’s flow professionally and flawlessly through the evening.

SPORTS COLLABORATIONS  

Lily Dreier, our grade 11 student had the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to play basketball at ALBA Berlin, one of the largest and most notable German national basketball clubs.

Read about Lily Dreier’s passion in basketball here.

Another sport event we celebrated was made possible by Borussia Dortmund (BVB in short) Football Club. Not only did three players come to GESS to meet our football girls under 14 team, in the evening, our boys under 18 team had the opportunity to see the footballers in action at their open training. The next day, almost 80 members of our GESS community were at the Jalan Besar Stadium to watch BVB pit against Singapore’s own Lion City Sailors. 11 of our primary school students were chosen to escort the BVB players on-field.

COMMUNITY & SERVICE  

Building on the festive Christmas cheer at GESS, our high school students organised and hosted the second Love, Nils activity on campus! Children and parents were invited to GESS for a cosy Christmas movie, colouring, a cookie decorating session and more.

In relation to GESS’ Christmas celebrations, a dedicated group of students had been working hard to organise the second annual Giving Tree programme, resulting in 130 items donated to Love, Nils, HEART @ Fei Yue and Sengkang Family Service Centre (partnered with AMKFSC).

Another of our long-time community partner, It’s Raining Raincoats worked with our students to pack goodies and delivered to foreign workers.

DIPLOMATIC & PARTNER RELATIONS

For the second year in a row, GESS was invited by European Chamber of Commerce (EuroCham) Singapore to produce a video for their Sustainability Awards 2022. What made it even more special this time was, our students featured in the video were invited to the Awards – graced by Singapore’s Minister for Sustainability and the Environment Grace Fu – to share their perspectives on sustainability and why it matters. We are very proud of Hannelore, Jasmin and Jonas who were well poised and confident onstage.

Watch the GESS Sustainability Video 2022 here.

At the book launch event for “Germans in Singapore – Deutsche in Singapur”, held at National Museum of Singapore, two of our GESS students had the opportunity to read from the book by Sabine Hein. It was a lovely evening full of stories about the relations between Germany and Singapore.

For Gardens by the Bay‘s 10th Anniversary, our Danish students performed for over 500 guests, including the President of Singapore Halimah Yacob, Danish Ambassador Sandra Jensen Landi, and government officials. We are privileged to be the only school performing for this prestigious event!  

We were also honoured to be visited on campus by Dutch Ambassador Anneke Adema from Embassy of the Netherlands in Singapore and Brunei, who spoke to our students and teachers.

Jenny Egermark, Counsellor and Deputy Head of Mission representing Embassy of Sweden in Singapore also visited and addressed our Swedish high school students. A speech was given about Nobel Peace Prize 2022, followed by a prize-giving session to nominated students.

As part of German Unity Day festivities at GESS, we also welcomed a visit by German Ambassador Dr Norbert Riedel, who took time to meet and speak with our students.

In an international community of almost 70 nationalities and more than 70 languages spoken, the support we get from embassy partners and friends is deeply valued!

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If you want to learn more about the BeyondClassrooms Programme or if you or your company would like to partner GESS in this programme, please contact Kirsten Moench, Head of External Communications and Relations (kirsten.moench@gess.edu.sg).

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