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Alesa is a national team chess player and a violinist who has performed at Carnegie Hall. She's also a full-time student in Singapore. Before she joined Crimson Global Academy, fitting all three into one life wasn't really possible. Something always had to give.
Why Chess And Violin Kept Losing To The School Timetable
At her previous school, RGPS, the pace was set for the whole class, not for one student. “Everything was fairly rigid and everything had to follow a certain pace or a certain tempo,” says her father, Alvin. He understands why a teacher managing thirty pupils can’t build a timetable around one child’s chess ranking. But it meant Alesa was the one absorbing the cost.
The clearest example came last year, during her PSLE prelims. Alesa shared, “I had to pause my violin and chess, and I didn’t like the fact that I had to prioritise my studies and completely shut off my chess and violin.” For a student already playing at a national level, a pause isn’t neutral. It’s lost ground.
What Changed Once The Pace Became Hers To Set
CGA's model doesn't ask a fast learner to wait for the rest of the class, and it doesn't ask a slower one to be rushed. If a student has already mastered a level, they move on. "We don't have to wait till the rest of the class gets to that level," Alvin recalls a teacher telling him. "If she's faster and she already has those traits and has that performance matrix, we can speed her up and put her into the next grade."
That single shift freed up the hours chess and violin used to lose. Alesa now trains at national level and rehearses for solo performances without treating them as competing with schoolwork for the same block of time.
Her violin mentor has noticed the difference from the other side of the music stand. Jun Hong, a concert violinist and soloist, says her practice has become more consistent since she changed schools, and that her progress in lessons has improved quite a lot.
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A Look At Alesa's Actual Week
Tuesdays and Thursdays start early, with Spanish at 7 AM before the rest of her subjects. Some days lean toward commerce and business, which she describes as genuinely fun, giving her a first real look at how business strategy works. Fridays bring law club, something she looks forward to and something that doesn't exist in a standard traditional school. At CGA, if a club she wants doesn't exist yet, she can start it herself.
None of this replaces academic rigour. It sits alongside it, on a schedule built around what she's actually doing that week, not a fixed daily template every student shares.
A Genuinely Global Friend Group
Alesa expected the international mix of a global school to make friendships harder, not easier. It went the other way. Her closest friend is in Japan, and during the longer lunch break CGA gives students, she calls her, sometimes joined by classmates in New Zealand and Australia. "Even though we are from different countries, we are still learning at the same time," she says.
Her father has watched this shape how she thinks, not just who she talks to. He says she's become more curious, asking more questions about the world, about different cultures, about why a classmate might see something differently than she does. "That's what education should really be about," he says. Not just subjects she may never use again, but a better sense of how everything actually works.
What Her Chess Mentor Says About The Trade-Off She No Longer Has To Make
Kevin, CEO of the Singapore Chess Federation, puts the underlying skill plainly: "The key to becoming successful in anything you do is to know how to manage your time and to not find excuses. Everybody has a schedule, so the question is, how much are you willing to put chess at the top alongside your academics?"
For Alesa, CGA is what made that question answerable without sacrificing one pursuit to protect another.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Crimson Global Academy (CGA)? CGA is a global online school where students in Singapore and elsewhere study a full academic programme on a self-paced timetable, rather than one fixed to a single class schedule.
How does CGA's flexible pacing actually work? Students move through material at the speed they're ready for. A student who has mastered a level can move to the next one without waiting for a full class to catch up, and a student who needs more time on something isn't rushed past it.
Can CGA students take part in activities outside academics, like competitive chess or music? Yes. CGA's schedule is built to leave room for outside commitments such as national-level chess or performance music, rather than treating them as competing with schoolwork.
Does CGA have clubs, like a school in Singapore would? Yes, including clubs not typically found in a traditional school, such as a law club. Students can also start their own club if one they want doesn't already exist.
Is CGA suitable for a student with an intense schedule outside school, such as national-level sport or music? Based on Alesa's experience, CGA's self-paced structure was specifically what let her keep training and performing at a national level while remaining a full-time student, something her previous, fixed-pace school couldn't accommodate.