Author: Jackson

Hello everyone! I’m Shawn. 19 weeks of fun has passed at Jurong Frog Farm and my internship has come to an end. Working at the farm has been a pleasant experience. For my first few weeks, I was lucky enough to be working with Jackson, Caleb and Herman. As I was new at that time, I took some of the easier jobs like guiding people to the shop and telling them where to park their cars. I also learned how to host a tour for the farm. However, near the end of April, I had to go for a surgery for a condition I had and was out of commission for a month.

I came back after I felt much better and was welcomed back by my colleagues, which I am grateful for. It was the June Holidays period when I came back, though because of the Covid situation it was relatively empty. Still, I had to learn how to operate as a cashier as well as relearn the points of the tour as well as what to say for certain items. I learned a lot about farms and how much goes in to maintaining one (I cannot imagine how much morebusier the farm could have been!)

Apart from doing tours and working the cashier, I also helped to create graphics for the farm. Through feedbacks from Chelsea, I was able to reinforce my knowledge on what was needed when designing graphics. Through this internship, working with my colleagues, supervisors, and the workers, I had a lot of fun working at the farm and learnt many things from them and I am grateful for having the opportunity to work at the farm.

Croaking away,
Shawn Lim Zi Wei

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*Croack*, Herman here talking to you about my experiences thus far.

Sadly, this is my last week of my internship. After 19 weeks of exciting memories, the time has come to take my leave…

Waking up in the morning has always been a struggle to me. However, walking to work where the morning sun hits the flora and fauna by the road hits differently from our city lifestyle where most of what we see are buildings.

The first week of my internship had to be the most challenging week as it falls on a March holiday, where there were constant crowds coming in everyday (TIRED!!). However, this really pushed me to adapt and cope faster so that I can help my colleagues.

Doing tours, cashiering, packing, preparations for farm’s operations, ensuring having the correct setup for farm tours etc, were among one of the many tasks I did. That led me to understand more about having a farm and the challenges faced in sustaining it. Many challenges arose especially during the heightened-alert phase which had then severely impacted the farm in terms of visitors. Hence the increase in demand for virtual tour programs.

The internship had also made me discover my hidden passion which is product photography. It started when I was tasked to take a picture of the Hashima Ginseng for poster design. Soon after, I was taking multiple photos of the products in the shop which some of it is on the company website, FB or Instagram.
Examples of the photos taken:

Honestly, I enjoyed my time here because most of the work is not repetitive, which makes it fun unlike lab work which was one of the choices I had been offered. It’s always a ‘New day new me’ kind of moment working at JFF.

The last month of internship had been an amazing experience as it was something which I had not been able to do in School which is work more towards marketing and I have learnt how having a good marketing skill will really help bring life to a product.

Before I croak myself out, I just want to thank my supervisors and the other interns. Chelsea, Jackson and Caleb and ZiWei for guiding me to be a frogologist I am today. I will definitely visit the farm often even after my internship ends.

Ohh feeding time?, okay got to go… (Hops away)s

I did my internship at Jurong Frog Farm during the period of 19th June 2019 to 4th August 2019. When I told my friends that I was going to do an internship on a farm and what’s more, a frog farm, they were clearly amused. Some questioned my decision to work there, while others even asked whether my job scope included slaughtering the frogs. Since I wanted to occupy myself during the summer break and try something different from an office environment, I applied for the programme. Truthfully, when I turned up for the interview and saw many pairs of frog eyes staring at me, I had cold feet. Nonetheless, I trusted my instincts and had an eye-opening, unique and enriching experience. I had the opportunity to explore one of the more rural areas in Singapore, learned more about the local farming sector and even gained insights into some of the decisions undertaken to stay relevant as a farm and as a small medium enterprise in Singapore.
As a marketing intern, one of my main responsibilities was to create, refresh and modernise marketing collaterals on the farm. Some of the projects I have undertaken were designing the farm menu and creating a product list brochure showcasing the various products offered by the farm. I also had to design posters for the Farmers’ Market and other roadshows, featuring some of the local farm products and farm activities. Other projects were designing interactive information boards to be used during tours and also creating posters to promote activities like “Catch a Frog” and “Frog Quest Explorer” that children can participate in.
It was a challenge creating these many posters, but it was a rewarding experience as well. I relearned Adobe Photoshop and also figured out how to use Adobe Illustrator to create digital illustrations, a skill that I have always wanted to pick up. I also have a newfound appreciation for graphic designers as I realised that it is not easy to make an aesthetic yet effective design. Behind every design is a long thought process about design factors like the colour scheme and type of font to use, and even the hierarchy of design elements that can impact the effectiveness of the message.
One of the more challenging projects was designing the product list brochure, which took many rounds of revision before the final version was done. We even had to do a mini product photoshoot, which was an interesting experience. However, the final printed version of the product list brochure turned out rather different from what I expected. The colour was a little dull and there were some design mistakes that could have been avoided had I printed a coloured copy to check. Nonetheless, I still enjoyed working on this project.
Apart from creating marketing collaterals, I had to conduct tours during the internship too. Public speaking has never been one of my strengths and initially, it was an uphill struggle giving tours to students of different age groups. Some of the students were even as young as three years old and it was tough getting their attention. I also received feedback from my supervisors that I could be more engaging by incorporating more rhetorical questions and varying my tone. Also, I just had to enjoy the process of sharing about the frogs and farm. Towards the end of the internship, with enough practice, I felt more confident and found myself interacting more with the students.
I also had the opportunity to learn about the day to day operations of running a retail shop. Initially, I was overwhelmed by the number and range of products that the farm offered, as well as the different number of tours on the farm. There were many things to prepare too, even more so when there were tours, such as stock taking, restocking products, cashiering and basic housekeeping. Basic retail had its challenges too. The first weekend of the internship was both physically and mentally draining. Servicing customers was not an easy feat, and I found myself energetically drained while trying to provide consistent customer service to everyone who stepped into the shop. Nonetheless, it was a fulfilling experience as there were many customers who appreciate your service, and who genuinely want to know more about the farm. Additionally, I had the chance to meet people from different walks of life, and thus learned how to communicate with different customers and deal with unexpected situations.
Lastly, working on the farm was an eye-opening experience which got me thinking about the importance of food sufficiency in our country. Before this internship, I rarely thought about the issue of food security in Singapore. However, I have come to realised that it is as important as water security. With the government’s move to increase local food production to 30% of our total food needs by 2030, it is indeed imperative to raise awareness of urban farming and the agri-food tech industry in Singapore.
To conclude, I had a really fun and unique internship experience, and other than the peaceful mornings on the farm, I liked that I was only seconds away from nature whenever I wanted a break from work. Through this internship, I also found out more about myself and discovered some of my strengths and weaknesses. Lastly, I would like to thank my two supervisors, Chelsea and Jackson for their guidance and generosity, not forgetting Darren, Puppy and the frogs for being my source of encouragement during this internship.