LAUNCH OF THE SJIOBA “SPIRIT OF THE LASALLIAN MISSION”

Brother Michael Broughton

Brother Area Director and

Supervisor of Christian Brothers’ Schools in Singapore

Mr. Noel Hon

Chairman of the SJI Board of Governors

Mr Lui Seng Cheong

Principal of SJI

Mr. Philip Yeo

Chairman of the Council of Fellows

Mr Michael Sng

President, SJI Old Boys’ Association

Mrs Goh Sin Tub

Fellow Josephians

Ladies and Gentlemen

When St. Joseph’s Institution was founded in 1852 by Rev Father Jean Marie Beurel, a French priest of the Paris Foreign Missions, he called upon the De La Salle Christian Brothers to be teachers of the school. The Christian Brothers, founded some 200 years before the establishment of SJI by St. John Baptist De La Salle, had but a simple mission in their ministry within the Roman Catholic Church: To teach boys who would otherwise be left to fend for themselves because their parents could not afford to educate them.

From 1852, Father Beurel made several journeys going to and from France from his position in Singapore as a priest in what was then the Church of the Good Shepherd. His trips were made to seek funds to build a Catholic school where his church stood in Singapore. His mission too was simple: To provide good Catholic education for the children of the expanding Catholic Community in Singapore.

SJI today exists in a vastly different context in modern Singapore. It was among the first schools to go independent under the leadership of the late Mr Goh Sin Tub, an old boy of SJI, who was the Chairman of the SJI Board of Governors of SJI from 1987 to 1998. Amongst its alumni are also many other distinguished personages, including the late Mr Wong Kok Siew, Deputy Chairman of the SJI Board of Governors from 2002 until his passing in February this year.

The common bond between Goh Sin Tub and Wong Kok Siew, even though they existed in separate contexts in their own chosen fields, was that they both had very clear concerns for students who might have missed the opportunity to be in SJI if not for financial assistance.

It is fitting therefore that the SJI Old Boys’ Association (SJIOBA) has created three initiatives to support the mission of education upheld by the Christian Brothers through their alma mater, SJI, to support poor students and perpetuate the memory of both their pre-eminent fellow old boys Goh Sin Tub and Wong Kok Siew.

The SJIOBA Student Adoption Scheme

This SJIOBA Student Adoption Scheme will be carried out through collaboration between the OBA network, the La Salle Brothers in Singapore, and Lasallian schools overseas. Two LaSallian schools, St Joseph’s High School in Bacolod, Negro Occidental in the Philippines and St. LaSalle High Sec School in Tuticorin in South India have been identified for this Student Adoption Scheme which is expected to get underway by the end of this year.

SJI Endowment Fund - Goh Sin Tub Literary Award for Best Short Story

Goh Sin Tub was well known for his many publications of short stories. Many, if not all, were of anecdotes within the context of Singapore from his early days while growing up and even up to his untimely death last year. SJI, through the SJI Endowment Fund, has set up the Goh Sin Tub Literary Award for Best Short Story to be given to a student with the best short story each year, beginning in 2005 later this year. The award will grant the winning student the equivalent of one year’s tuition fees in SJI.

The Wong Kok Siew - St. Vincent de Paul (SVDP) Fund

Wong Kok Siew was a prolific businessman and most closely identified with Singapore Technologies and Sembawang Corporation at the time of his passing. Wong Kok Siew also had a very warm heart for the poor. His support for poor students was evidenced through the work of the St. Vincent de Paul Society (SVDP) chapter in SJI. The SJIOBA will recognize Wong Kok Siew’s concern for the poor in SJI by promoting the Wong Kok Siew - SVDP fund. Proceeds from donations to the Fund will be used to help pay for pocket money, text books, tuition fees and other needs of the poor studying in SJI.

The Spirit of the Lasallian Mission

By the concerted efforts of the SJIOBA and the school herself, this spirit of the La Salle Brothers, founded by St. John Baptist de La Salle more than 350 years ago, will find greater width and depth through the above three new initiatives.

The Lasallian Mission in SJI, which is to enable youth to learn how to learn and to learn how to live, and empowering them to become men of integrity and men for others, will find a new spirit of growth and perpetuation.

I congratulate SJI and her old boys, through the actions of the SJIOBA, on these new initiatives to raise more opportunities for the Lasallian students through education, both here in Singapore as well as abroad, by their efforts to champion the Lasallian Spirit.

It is so heartening to hear that, even before the official launch of the Lasallian mission, the SJIOBA has already received more than $100,000 in donations and pledges from old boys of SJI. I am sure many of you will welcome this opportunity to repay our Alma Mater for the gift of the Lasallian education. I would also like to thank Mr Philip Yeo for his support of his alma mater by making this event possible.

I now have the pleasure officially declare the launch of the SJIOBA “Spirit of the Lasallian Mission”.