Students learn to design, create graphics for cookbook - in 3 days
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ITE College Central students (from left) Kaitlyn Ong, Fitri Hailysya Mohd Haidil and Ang Xin Ling designed the graphics for the Hari Raya cookbook featuring 21 recipes by Ang Mo Kio town residents for traditional dishes.
PHOTO: ITE
Eleanor Katharine Yeo
Three first-year Institute of Technical Education (ITE) students learnt to use software and create graphics for a 94-page Hari Raya cookbook in just three days.
Those were the only days that Kaitlyn Ong, Fitri Hailysya Mohd Haidil and Ang Xin Ling, all 17, were in school as ITE was conducting home-based learning amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
The visual communication students told The Straits Times this week that they learnt to use the software from their lecturers and completed the bulk of the work during those three days in early May.
The cookbook features 21 recipes by Ang Mo Kio town residents for traditional dishes like lontong, ayam masak merah (spicy chicken) and ondeh ondeh.
It was an initiative by the Malay Activity Executive Committees of the Ang Mo Kio, Kebun Baru and Yio Chu Kang constituencies.
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, who is an MP for Ang Mo Kio GRC, launched the cookbook virtually at the constituencies' Hari Raya celebratory event last Friday.
The event had been postponed from May 23 as Singapore tightened Covid-19 restrictions from May 16. The format also switched from a hybrid to a virtual one.
The three ITE College Central students were asked to design the cookbook's graphics, with the constituencies providing the materials.
Ms Terrez Tam, the students' senior lecturer and class adviser, said she chose the three students for the project because of their keen appetite for learning.
Xin Ling said: "We did not know anything about the Adobe InDesign software beforehand. This is a subject taught only in the second year of our course. Hence, we had to learn everything from scratch."
As they could be taught how to use the software by the lecturers only when physically present, the students would stay an extra four to five hours on campus each day.
Kaitlyn said: "We had the advantage of learning the software faster than our peers with our lecturers' help, and I think we handled the project and pressure well."
The trio were also pleasantly surprised when they found out that PM Lee was to launch the book. Fitri said: "I felt surprised and honoured. I told my parents and they were proud of us too."
PM Lee's launch of the cookbook was preceded by seven food videos featuring its recipes.
The Hari Raya event on Facebook saw 2,900 people tuning in for a variety of programmes like performances and informative segments on Hari Raya traditions.
