Home & Beyond
Monday 8 October 2007
 New Student Interns in PETA Mekong Partnership Project

Recently, two interns from Ngee Ann Polytechnic (NP), Singapore, have joined us at the PETA Mekong Partnership Project for a five-month Overseas Industrial Attachment Programme (OIAP) organised by the school.

On 17 September, Avie Mercado and Nurun Nisha began their five-month internship programme in Bangkok with PETA. The girls flew in from Singapore a few days prior to the internship programme to take in the new environment and adapt to being outside their comfort zones. Both interns are going through this internship programme for their final semester assessment to complete their Diploma in Mass Communication in March 2008.

Through the OIAP, students will undergo a comprehensive training plan set by PETA to provide them with the essential knowledge and fundamental experience of the working world before they graduate. While final year NP students were given the choice of completing their final assessment locally or abroad, Avie and Nisha have opted for the latter.

Through a meticulous and long selection process, the liaising officers in Singapore short-listed the girls for the internship positions available with PETA, where the Supervising Officer, Lea L. Espallardo, was prudent in making the decision of finding suitable interns for PETA.

As part of the training programme, Avie and Nisha will be part of the Secretariat Team for the 3rd Mekong Performing Arts Laboratory (Cambodia Laboratory 2007) in Cambodia from 25 November to 16 December, 2007. As both interns have never visited Cambodia, this experience will truly be an eye-opener and provide them with the opportunity of having a fortifying experience during their training.

Apart from that, the girls will also be following the Bangkok team to Manila come January next year to complete their OIAP at the PETA Head Office in the Philippines. Upon completion of the five-month training programme, Avie and Nisha hope to gain a broader perspective of the dynamics of working in an organisation dedicated to the arts and education.

Profiles -



Nurun Nisha (on the left) is going through her last stretch of her academic year in Mass Communication with absolute excitement about being in Bangkok. Prior to coming to the land of a thousand smiles, she was gladly missing out on social life to major in her three favourite electives; Documentary Production, Advanced Advertising and Creative Advertising. She worked in various industries since she was 16, from serving tables at hotel ballroom functions to being an intern at a film production company based in Singapore. Although she claims that she has never really understood art, Nisha is seriously considering getting to know the arts scene better as she has never really “took the time to appreciate the deeper meaning of life”.

Possessing a keen eye for photography and design, Avie Mercado is anticipating the endless days of being surrounded by the picturesque sights in Bangkok. Having spent most of her growing years in Singapore, she is psyche to learn about the working world abroad and experience various cultures, at the same time, getting in touch with her roots, which is the Philippines. A jack-of-all-trades, she took up Public Relations, Print Journalism and Photojournalism for her final year electives. She also has had experiences in various companies while working part-time during her academic years. When asked about the 5 month overseas exposure, she says, “I hope I would be able to learn as much as I can and that I would be able to make a difference, no matter how small, to the people I work with and to the countries I would pay visit to.”


PETA SEA Group
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Welcome to PETA - Home and Beyond Blog

Dear PETA Members & Partners of the PETA Mekong Partnership Project,

We are happy to introduce to you the newly created blog site of the PETA Mekong Partnership Project… Home and Beyond

About Home and Beyond -

Home and Beyond is an integrated communication tool for the PETA members, staff and partners of the PETA Mekong Partnership Project. It consists of a weblog and occasional e-newsletter containing project news updates, reflections, journals, messages written for internal reading/sharing of members and alumni of PETA and its Project partners. Members can share their thoughts and reflections on our practice of theater and cultural work within and beyond the boundaries of our “homes”.

Home and Beyond provides avenues for a more informal exchange and open dialogs among performing artists, theater/drama practitioners, and cultural workers from the Southeast Asia Region to encourage critical reflections and sharing of insights on theater and cultural work.

This also aims to maintain closer communication links and relationships between and among PETA members and Project partners through the sharing of personal experiences, opinions, feedbacks, and reflections on our respective roles as artists.

Members, staff, and partners are encouraged to post short articles, their encounters or thoughts on theater praxis and cultural work, and share photos on the weblog.

We request that members, staff, and partners who own Gmail accounts to email us at peta.sea.group@gmail.com, so that we may add you to the list of Contributors. If you are not familiar with posting on a blog, you may also send them via email to peta.sea.group@gmail.com and we shall be the ones to post it for you.

Timely entries will be featured in the occasional Home and Beyond e-newsletter and sent to members and partners of PETA via email.


PETA SEA Group