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One Perk Of Having Dennis Chew As Your Ngee Ann Poly Classmate — He Will Send You Home After School

And yes, he doesn’t mind sending you to school for morning classes too.

Dennis Chew is a very busy man. But you’d probably expect that already, seeing how the 48-year-old is currently juggling his work responsibilities (hosting Love 972’s ultra popular morning radio show The Breakfast Quartet every weekday morning and other showbiz commitments), while being a super conscientious first-year Chinese Media & Communication student at Ngee Ann Polytechnic. 

Oh, and also ferrying his classmates to and from school daily. We’d kill to have a classmate like Dennis, honestly.

But anyway —  when 8days.sg finally manages to catch up with Dennis for a quick chat over the phone about life as a student, it’s no surprise that the call is scheduled at 7pm on a Friday night 'cos that’s the only time he is free.

As we begin our chat, Dennis asks apologetically: “You don’t mind if I have my dinner while we’re chatting, right?”. 

We don’t mind at all, of course. Dennis then goes on to share that though it’s his first semester, assignments and deadlines are already piling up.

Snapping that perfect shot for school.

“I’ve been super busy,” he said, adding: “All our assignments and projects are kicking in now. So, yeah, there's a lot of things to do.”

"Right now, I have three thesis papers that I have to prepare to write, one English and two Chinese. And I have at least 40 pictures to submit for my Visual Communications [module],” he continued, when asked about his workload.

Dennis is not complaining though. As tired as he may be — all his fatigue evaporates the minute he steps into school.

"My classmates are really cute, once I see them, I'll feel happy,” he smiles, referring to his fellow Year 1 students, who are all aged between “17 to 22”. 

They really do get along swimmingly.

8DAYS: You mentioned earlier that you’ll be slightly late for our chat 'cos you’re sending your classmates home. Is this something you do every day?

DENNIS CHEW: Yes, if I can, I'll do so (laughs).

But you don’t drive right? So do you call a Grab, or do you get someone to drive everyone? 

I ask my brother [Dennis’ close family friend] to send them back.

How do you decide who to send home? 

Yeah, those who live near me. Sometimes I'll send four back, but for the most part, it's just one or two classmates. It happened that I found out that there was a classmate who lives quite close to me, so I offered to ferry her to and from school, [and it continued from there].

How was your first time meeting with your classmates? Was it awkward?

I was all prepared. I knew they're all between 17 and 22, so I'm actually like their father. I accepted the fact that they're younger and can be very different from how I'd expect a teenager to behave. So I felt that when I first saw them, it was fine. I just didn't know how they'd feel when they see me.

Jumping headfirst into student life.

You mentioned that you’ll be exempted for some modules, right? Will your diploma still take 3 years to complete?

Yes, radio presentation and radio production. I'll only be exempted for these two modules, so it would still take 3 years to complete as there are other stuff that I'm not very familiar with.

How about the internship during your third year? Would you have to do that as well?

I'll return to radio for that. Yeah… but it'll depend on whether they'll accept me (laughs).

You must get recognised a lot in school.

Sometimes. I'm very happy when they recognise me 'cos it does feel pretty satisfying. It shows that they do listen to the radio, and that they do follow my social media and still watch local television.

Work's gonna be on the back-burner for now

How did your bosses react when you first told them you were going back to school?

They were like: "OMG, are you... is this for real?" (laughs). But I wouldn't joke about something like this. They were very happy. The company was very supportive of my decision.

You mentioned that you turned down a couple of jobs in order to focus on school. Do you intend to continue doing so for the next three years?

To be honest, I think I might reject even more jobs next year 'cos I feel that the second year will be the toughest [in terms of workload]. I may even have to ask to go on a sabbatical.

You mean take a break from The Breakfast Quartet?

I don't know if I can cope, but if I cannot, I'll just take a break.

There's a number of celebrities (like Suhaimi Yusof) who graduated from university recently. Would you want to continue on and pursue a degree as well?

Of course! That's like my dream. If I could get a degree after my diploma, of course, I would be very happy. But maybe not immediately after graduating 'cos I still have to apply for it and all, and that'll take time. 

Watch this #JustSwipeLah video to see what Dennis' classmates think of him, and what a typical lesson is like for Dennis.

 

Photos: Dennis Chew/Instagram

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