Australian High Commissioner Hosted Alumni Reception

Australian Alumni Singapore (AAS) received another strong boost from His Excellency, Mr Doug Chester, Australian High Commissioner to Singapore, when His Excellency hosted an alumni reception at his residence on Thursday, 24 June 2010.

A total of over 104 alumni members and representatives from Australian Universities and education institutions listened intently when HE Mr Doug Chester delivered his welcome speech, before Mr Loh Hoon Sun, AAS’s President delivered his keynote address.

At 55 this year, AAS has not lost its fervor nor the main reasons for its existence, but is aggressively engaging its alumni members with a host of events and activities: vital and relevant not only in the business communities but as an umbrella body for members of different Australian Universities to mingle, fellowship and network. Its wholesome list of activities and events are rolled out at monthly intervals.

In his address, Mr Loh mentioned ten (10) institutions had joined AAS as institutional members:

Asiaco Pte Ltd (South Australia Government Commercial Representative in Singapore)
Bond University
CPA Australia Ltd
James Cook University Australia Singapore Campus
Ngee-Ann Adelaide Education Centre Pte Ltd (The University of Adelaide Australia)
Swinburne University of Technology
The University of Queensland
University of Western Sydney
UON Singapore Pte Ltd (The University of Newcastle Australia)
Victoria University

Cognizant of good governance principles and an excellent system of self-renewal of leadership, AAS Committee Members now serve a two years’ term. Adopting excellent strategies provide the roadmap with directions to the present committee:

  1. To increase Membership. It has embarked on inviting its current pool of graduates to join as individual members, and enticing the Australian Universities, professional bodies and corporations to be Institutional Members. On the card is the reciprocal membership with the business sector, such as Australian Chamber of Commerce or AustCham in short.
  2. To increase connection with members. Held bimonthly, these events are rolled out to individual members through its medium of communication, which would invite them to participate in educational talks, current affairs, career opportunities and social networking.
  3. To increase business networking opportunity and relationship building. Intertwined with its prized membership, it creates a platform for a concerted link with the Australian High Commission, Australian Trade Commission or AusTrade, AustCham and CPA Australia and other Australian University alumni from Australia and other institutions of higher education from other countries.
  4. To increase communication. Through its AAS website, AAS strives to communicate through its pages of news and events; and to solicit constructive feedbacks from concerned members.
  5. To increase AAS presence. As an umbrella body for all Australian University Alumni Associations in Singapore, it seeks to provide the following:
    1. Mentorship and pre-departure study and career guidance assistance;
    2. Seminars on job-hunting skills for graduating students;
    3. Conferences both local and international;
    4. Link with other professional bodies.

With strong reasons aforementioned, graduates and existing alumni should bond together by joining as ordinary members of Australian Alumni Singapore, as this umbrella body has a mandate to lead and to help you meet your professional needs through its regular events.

By invitation by then AAS President Simon Ho, Christina Tan accepted the invitation to be a co-opted member of the Australian Universities International Alumni Convention (AUIAC) Committee in 2008. That year, AAS was instrumental in hosting successfully the AUIAC in Singapore, which was represented by other 900 Australian Universities graduates from the Asean countries, China, Hong Kong, Great Britain, Australia, New Zealand and many more. After the convention was over, Christina served in the AAS Committee Member because AAS’s open holistic approach provides her with opportunity to network and to widen her circle of friends and as a member of the Organizing Committee, she works closely and proactively with her fellow alumni members to organize numerous events that also benefit many alumni members professionally. Personally, she has reaped many benefits – both tangible and intangible and like other AAS members, she would like to invite you to join AAS today!

Looking forward to seeing you on board!

By Sunny Lai

Welcome by HE Doug Chester, Australian High Commissioner
Address by AAS President, 
Loh Hoon Sun