20 Saturday, May 15 2010 ●

THE NEW PAPER

News

Students go
BATIK
ethnic for
MAKEOVER:
(From left)
Students
Christina
flea market
REPORT: KENNETH GOH chase products to sell at their stall
Shantini, Nurul kengohsz@sph.com.sg at Millenia Mart (MI Mart).
Syazwani, Nur With the $200 earned from
Hidyah and

O
VER two weeks, first-year cleaning homes, they went around
Rajeleetha Millenia Institute (MI) stu- Chinatown to source for products
Rajanthiran with dent Dylan Ang, 16, and his to sell, such as hand-held Chinese
frames and classmates cleaned the toilets, fans and chopsticks with Chinese
notebooks made mopped the floor and ironed zodiac signs.
with batik cloth. clothes at his friends’ homes – all These products are some of the
for a good cause. ethnic goods on sale at 20 stalls in
TNP PICTURE:
LUKE YAN They were raising funds to pur- MI Mart, which will be held at Ju-
rong Point today.
This one-day, ethnic-themed
flea market will be opened from
11am to 10pm and entry is free.
In its fifth year, MI Mart is an
annual flea market run by first-year
Business and Arts students.
The projects allows students to
apply their knowledge from their
A-level subjects such as Economics
and Management of Business.
Students will have to buy the
raw materials, set up the store and
market their products.
“This event is designed to give
students an experiential learning ex-
perience of the subjects taught in
classrooms,” said Mr Lee Kok
Kiang, 29, teacher and organiser of
MI Mart.
Students have to attend lectures
on marketing their products, buy-
ing raw materials and negotiating
skills prior to setting up the stalls.
But they will not be graded for
the project.

Prizes
There are prizes like Best Deco-
rated Store, Best Accounting Prac-
tice and Most Innovative products.
One team came up with the idea
of wrapping photo frames and note-
books with batik cloth.
Rajeleetha Rajanthiran, 17, said
that her team chose batik as it is
“synonymous with Malay culture
and the colourful material come in
unique designs.”
“On some days, I stayed up as
late as 2am to wrap the photo
frames, while doing my home-
work,” she said.
Students can keep their earn-
ings, after contributing a fixed sum
of $50 to the school’s fund for
needy students.
For Dylan, the experience has
given him first-hand exposure to
managing people and finances.
Being his team’s leader, he had
to juggle the challenges of sourcing
for products, getting the stock on
time and ensuring that everybody
in the team contributed.
“I have to ensure that my team
members move around to actively
promote our products and not sit
and wait for customers on that
day,” he said.