【推荐1】Fancy spending your summer break improving your skills and preparing for your first jobs? We have gathered the best summer programs in Singapore in recent years. Now you will be able to narrow down your choices and make a decision.

Standout Global Summer Program

At Standout Summer School, one of your missions will be to work as an intern with leaders in the business world who have plenty of years of experience in the field. Through this program, you can boost your knowledge by interacting with experts in fields like digital marketing, entrepreneurship, investment, etc. Wherever you come from, the school will welcome you in their all-inclusive program.

NTU Summer School Program

Nanyang Technological University will take you on a unique experience in their summer camp. In NTU’s summer school, you will be able to enjoy your favorite business track out of five different options. Each track will lead you to an internship at a top-ranked company lasting from 3 weeks to two months.

NUS Summer School

The National University of Singapore offers one of the leading summer camps in Singapore. The program is designed for students who are from its partner universities located all around the world. With passion as one of the university’s core values, the NUS Summer School guarantees continuous development for its students.

SMU Global Summer Program

With its third Global Summer Program starting in July, Singapore Management University offers international students an unforgettable opportunity: 4 weeks of learning in Singapore, with a week spent overseas in another Asian city to merge in an unmatched experience.

Get in touch with us to get all your questions about global summer programs answered!

【推荐2】In some research carried out in the UK, it was found that only four out of every five employees were happy at work. Surprisingly, it wasn’t the pay or the love for the work that made people happy. Instead, friendly, supportive colleagues and a good manager have been found to be the primary causes of happiness at work. So how do you develop a sense of joy on the job? Here are some suggestions.

Happiness is a state of mind, so staying happy at work is completely based on a positive attitude towards your job. Focus on the bright side of the work rather than keep talking about what makes you unhappy.

Challenge yourself and take charge of your own growth in your career. Boredom is one of the primary factors that cause people to change jobs. Find new challenges and it’s a great feeling to take control over what you do and see a task through.

Having co-workers you like and enjoy working with is a feature of happiness in the workplace. Talk to people, get to know them and try to get along well with them in the workplace. Meeting new people and getting fresh views can help you to keep yourself interested in your work.

Complete your tasks, no matter how disagreeable or tough they might be. This gives you a sense of achievement and encourages you to work towards your goals in future.

Sitting and staring at your screen all day long isn’t going to help you. Instead, take breaks and go outside for some time. For example, go out for a few minutes to feel the breeze (微风). Eat your lunch outside or work for a few minutes during that hour, which helps you stay happy at work.

【推荐3】If you make list of the world’s top ten most challenging jobs, chances are that being a teacher will not make the cut. But think about the discouraging task millions of educators face each day as they try to shape group of often bad-tempered, wild kids into intelligent, well-rounded individuals. That surely has to be the toughest job in the world, especially given that there is no promotion or bonus awaiting them even if they are wildly successful!

What if these all-important individuals that we often take for granted disappear from our lives? That was what Project Ed and Participant Media’s Teach campaign asked filmmakers of all ages to imagine in their recently-held competition Entitled “A World Without Teachers”, its purpose was to inspire more young people to become teachers. However, the 62 amazing video submissions also serve as a reminder of how horrible things would be if we didn’t have these selfless individuals guiding us through life. What was interesting is that even the youngest   participants did not appear to be happy at the idea of not having anybody telling them what to do.

High-school student Savannah Wakefield reflected if art as we know it today would have been different without teachers. Would Monet have discovered his talent for impressionism? Los Angeles-based Miles Horst, who won the 1000 USD prize for the best adult submission imagines a world where teachers are replaced by a “brain box” in his fun lively entry.

Youth category winner Marina Barham’s video represents a fact we all know but often forget. Teachers don’t just teach, they inspire-something that no electronic device, no matter how smart, can do! So the next time you think your teacher is being “mean” for trying to channel you in the right direction, imagine life without him/her. We have feeling it will not appear as rosy!

【推荐1】In the UK, most children have their midday meal at school, but in many schools, parents can choose what their children eat. The children can have a school lunch—a hot, cooked meal; or they can take a packed lunch with them, which usually includes cold food like sandwiches.

Often parents prepare lunches on the basis of what their children want. Cathy, a mother of three children, told us, “My children have packed lunches, because they say they hate school dinners. I make 3 packed lunches every morning, so we’re like a sandwich bar in our kitchen in the morning.”

However, another mother, Susan, made her choice based on the nutritious value of the food. She said, “My daughter always has school dinners. I think she probably gets healthier food by having a cooked lunch at school than she would if I made sandwiches.”

But how healthy are school dinners? Kaz, a father, wasn’t impressed with them. “Fizzy (有泡沫的) drinks were offered and I think there were a lot of chips.”

The question of how healthy school food is was brought to Jamie Oliver, who launched a campaign to improve children’s nutrition, after spending a year working in a school kitchen. The TV series about the campaign won an award this week.

He was horrified (惊恐的) at the junk food he saw being served, which included burgers, pizza and chips.   He decided to ban the junk, and started cooking good stews (炖菜) and curries for the children instead.

Jamie improved the school dinners in that particular school, and trained the dinner ladies to cook healthy food. Then he put pressure on the government to improve the standards of school food across the country. And it looks as if the changes have begun.

【推荐1】Shirley Raines makes the homeless community in Los Angeles’s skid row (贫民区) neighborhood feel human. She is the founder of Beauty 2 The Streetz, a nonprofit that provides free food, clothing, hair, and makeup services to the homeless. And Shirley is now the CNN Hero of the Year!

In 1990, Raines’ 2-year-old son Demetrius passed away from accidental poisoning while at his grandma’s house. This event created a lot of pain for Shirley Raines. The pain lasted for many years. And she did not know what to do about it. She struggled to understand what her purpose was in life. Until one day ...

Six years ago, Shirley visited skid row with a friend from church who asked her to volunteer. She met a lot of homeless people and realized how much help they needed. Not just in finding a home, but in finding themselves and their own worth and beauty.

Shirley started to volunteer each Saturday. As she got to know the homeless, they often praised her makeup, hair, and style. She started to offer to “make up” the homeless. They loved it, she loved it, they loved her and she loved them. She found purpose. So she started an outdoor beauty salon to serve the homeless, which took most of her spare time.

Raines started sharing her efforts on Instagram with photos and even live-streaming some of her events. Things took off. She formed her nonprofit, Beauty 2 The Streetz, and her followers quickly began donating to grow Shirley’s impact. Her followers grew to over 200,000 people, including many beauty professionals such as licensed hairstylists, barbers, make-up artists. Many of them regularly donate money to keep the services rolling. Others donate their time to help Shirley serve the homeless.

Shirley’s boldness, caring, courage, consistency (连贯性), and desire to take action have led to making a real impact on people’s lives. And she also served as a role model and inspiration to others.

【推荐1】Three brown bears in the distance catches Charlie Russell’s eye. When they get a metre or so away from him, the huge animals slow down. The leading bear holds her face very close to Rusell’s. She touches his nose with her own and Russell breaks into a smile. “Hey, little bear,” he says.

Rusell, now 70, has spent more than ten springs and summers living with brown bears in the   eastern-most part of Russia.“No question, bears are dangerous,” says Russell, but he also argues that fearing them prevents us from recognizing their intelligent, playful and peaceful nature. “They attack us because we abuse them.” he insists.

“What I want to do now is work on the human side of the problem,” Russell says. In Canada —a country where cities spread deep into the rural landscape and hunters kill about 450 bears annually, he is determined to change the way we treat our neighbors.

Russell was raised with the idea that “the only good bear is a dead bear.” His father, a hunter, shared stories of cruel brown bears with his five children. However, when the family’s hunting business declined in the early 1960s, Russell joined his father on an expedition to film brown bears in Alaska. Russell couldn’t help but wonder why bears behaved aggressively towards people carrying guns, but left the film-makers alone. “I suspected they didn’t like cruelty,” he says.

In 1994 he tested out his theory in British Columbia’s Khutzeymateen Inlet, where he took tourists on bear-viewing tours. One afternoon, while resting on a log between guiding trips, Russell sat still as a female brown bear casually approached. “I knew if I did not move, she would keep coming,” he later said. “I had decided to let her come as close as she wanted.” Russell spoke to the bear in gentle tones and she sat down beside him. She put her paw on his hand and Russell responded to the gesture, touching her nose, lip and teeth. These were the iron jaws featured in his father’s campfire stories, now no more threatening than the nose of a little dog. If he could repeat similar moments, Russell believed he could prove that “just by treating bears kindly, people can live safely with them”.

【推荐2】When I met her， I had a lot of anger inside of me. I've lived my whole life in Spanish Harlem， but in my neighborhood， there are shoot﹣ups（枪击）all the time. I know kids who have been shot or beaten up I have friends who ended up in prison. I could have ended up that way， too. but Ms. Clark wouldn't let that happen.

Ms. Clark worked long hours， making sure I did my work. My grades rose. In fact， the scores of our whole class rose. One day， she took our class to see The Phantom of the Opera， and it was the first time some kids had ever been out of Harlem. Before the show， she treated us to dinner at a restaurant and taught us not to talk with our mouths full. We did not want to let her down.

Ms. Clark was selected as Disney's 2015 Teacher of the Year. She said she would draw three names out of a hat； those students would go with her to Los Angeles to get the award. But when the time came to draw names， Ms Clark said， "You're all going. "

On graduation day， there were a lot of tears. We didn't want her class to end. In 2016. she moved to Atlanta， but she always kept in touch. She started giving lectures about education， and wrote a bestselling book based on her classroom rules， The Essential 55. In 2018， Ms Clark took some of us on a trip to South Africa to deliver school supplies and visit orphanages （孤儿院）. It was the most amazing experience of my life.

【推荐3】POETRY CHALLENGE

Write a poem about how courage, determination, and strength have helped you face challenges in your life.

Prizes

3 Grand Prizes:Trip to Washington, D.C. for each of three winners, a parent and one other person of the winner’s choice. Trip includes round-trip air tickets, hotel stay for two nights, and tours of the National Air and Space Museum and the office of National Geographic World.

6 First Prizes:The book Sky Pioneer:A Photobiography of Amelia Earhart signed by author Corinne Szabo and pilot Linda Finch.

50 Honorable Mentions:Judges will choose up to 50 honorable mention winners, who will each receive a T-shirt in memory of Earhart’s final flight.

Rules

Follow all rules carefully to prevent disqualification.

■Write a poem using 100 words or fewer. Your poem can be any format, any number of lines.

■Write by hand or type on a single sheet of paper. You may use both the front and back of the paper.

■On the same sheet of paper, write or type your name, address, telephone number, and birth date.

■Mail your entry to us by October 31 this year.