About education

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Swee Yean has been a full-time storyteller for 15 years and involved in the storytelling scene both in Singapore and overseas. She was the exchange Storyteller representing Singapore to the BeSt (Bengaluru Storytelling) Festival 2018. She is currently the President of the Storytelling Association (Singapore) and the Creative Director of the 398.2 Storytelling Festival 2019 held annually at the National Library of Singapore. 

Swee Yean’s storytelling skill and experience is diverse because of the wide range of people she has worked with. They include children, secondary students, young adults, adults, senior citizens as well as teenagers with specific learning abilities ranging from low ability to highly gifted. She is able to vary her style to engage and influence. Her manner of storytelling is warm, inviting and non-didactic, stirring up empathy and creating gentle positive change.

Swee Yean has performed commissioned works for the Singapore Land Authority, the Urban Redevelopment Authority, Malay Heritage Centre, Singapore Heritage Festival and more.  She has also provided customised workshops for organizations such as the Ministry of Education, Singapore Discovery Centre, National Library Board, pre-schools, government schools and churches.

Swee Yean has also advocated the value of storytelling in organizational change. She has conducted workshops on harnessing the power of storytelling in the workplace for organizations like Toastmasters, Housing Development Board, National Technological University, Yale-NUS College, Nanyang Polytechnic, the Ministry of Education, and Singapore Discovery Centre. 

Being fluent in the Mandarin, Swee Yean has taught storytelling skills to pre-school Mandarin teachers and performed in neighbouring countries like Malaysia and Taiwan. Recently, she worked with senior citizens in a Silver Arts Project commissioned by the National Arts Council to preserve the oral heritage of the Chinese community. She is still involved in programmes to derive stories from senior citizens for community building.