Effective reading remains an essential and critical skill for success in society, and many studies continue to explore how reading literacy might be better taught to and acquired by children at a young age.

The GCE “O” Level Exam is a major event in the life of secondary school students in Singapore. Each year, about 2,000 students have results that seem to leave them in a flux – the results are not good enough to get to where they want to (e.g., Junior Colleges or to their desired course at the Polytechnics) and yet are too good to for a chance to repeat a year in their secondary schools.

In light of the phenomenon of the aging population in Singapore, it is increasingly important to understand not just the needs, but also the assets of the elderly in our community. “Assets” of the elderly would include the skills, knowledge, and expertise, as well as the inherent relationships among people in the community.

When we first started our Capstone project on the community of foreign domestic workers (FDWs)in December 2014, we sought to find out more about the issues-at-hand for this community. This culminated in a collaborative project between us and the team at Center for Culture-Centered Approach to Research and Evaluation (CARE), led by the esteemed Dr. Mohan Dutta.

With an initial interest in improving eating habits among secondary school students, the Capstone team collaborated with the Health Promotion Board (HPB) to discuss how the Capstone project could be beneficial to both parties— for the team to apply academic theory to an area of interest to them, and for HPB to get some insights into HPB’s Healthy Meals in School Program that was newly introduced to Clementi Town Secondary School’s (CTSS) canteen.