Nanyang Technological University

Aanchal has been an active volunteer since the age of 7. Her passion for social causes ignited during her childhood, when she used to accompany her grandfather to feed the poor children in her neighbourhood in India. Since then, she has been involved in community service projects in India, Oman and Singapore, and is extremely passionate about the causes of literacy and environmental sustainability.

During her undergraduate studies at NTU, Aanchal has played a proactive role in raising funds and awareness for social causes by being a part of Red Cross Youth- NTU Chapter, Earthlink NTU and NTUSU Students’ Fund. She has pursued her passion for social work even during her Summer Internships at Standard Chartered Bank and General Electric, where she volunteered for mangrove salvaging at Sungei Buloh Nature Reserve Park and the GE Volunteers- Junior Achievement program respectively.

Aanchal is currently working unpaid with Google, Singapore as a part of their Women Entrepreneurs on the Web (WeOW) program, which aims at enabling women-led start-ups establish a sustainable online presence. She is also currently developing a social enterprise to empower urban slum dwellers and has submitted her business plan to compete in the online finals of the ‘Hult Prize 2013.’ Aanchal is First Aid certified and a vegetarian by choice.

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Tong Hern has been an active volunteer since 2007, performing regular service at various charitable organisations, such as Singapore Cancer Society, Singapore Cheshire Home and MINDS Youth Group.

As the Assistant Treasurer of Punggol CC Youth Executive Committee, Tong Hern actively pioneers grassroots initiatives, ranging from educational trails to sporting activities such as paintball session, to foster community bonding. The activities established a platform for outreach and created a strong awareness of youth volunteerism.

The desire to gain exposure led Tong Hern to become a consultant at Conjunct Consulting, an organisation which provides pro bono consulting services to non-profit organisations (NPOs). He has played a pivotal role in helping several NPOs maximise their social impact through identifying strategic issues and providing practical recommendations.

Recently, Tong Hern has also taken up the role of General Secretary in the Singapore Police Force APEX Committee, a committee formed to improve the welfare and experience of all Police National Servicemen. He has coordinated major events such as organising a dialogue session on enriching National Service experience with Mr. Masagos Zulkifli (Senior Minister of State, Ministry of Home Affairs and Ministry of Foreign Affairs). In addition, Tong Hern is also part of the steering committee which plans APEX’s upcoming projects and activities for the next financial year.

Besides contributing to the local community, Tong Hern is also involved in Overseas Community Service Projects (OCSPs). In 2006, he was involved in the Tinggi Bridge Project (Johor). Currently, he is planning for an OCSP (Sichuan) in May 2013.

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Jianing has been an active volunteer in the community for many years.

Holding an executive committee position in the Frontier Community Club Youth Executive Committee since 2008, Jianing monitors the financial status of the committee and represents the committee in meetings with other grassroots organizations. With the group of passionate volunteers, the committee has organised various events to provide opportunities for interaction and foster communal awareness among residents. Jianing was the organising chairperson for Storytelling Competition 2011, a flagship event organised by the committee, and also the educational tour to the Botanic Gardens. These events received positive feedback from the residents. The committee was awarded with the Meritorious Youth Club Award at the 2010 and 2012 PAYM Awards, in recognition of its effort to promote youth development and outreach programmes.

Jianing also volunteers at the Meet-the-People session in her constituency. She volunteers mainly at the financial helpdesk, helping the residents to appeal for financial support.

Besides, Jianing was the Liaison Office for the Singapore International Water Week 2012, hosting ministerial representatives from the Netherlands.

Jianing’s contributions to voluntary work have led her to receive the EAGLES award and the Gold Award for National Youth Achievement Award.

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Yu Meng has been a volunteer enthusiast since Junior College, spending his free time contributing back to the society. He was one of the volunteers under the Volunteer Lounge Management Committee and helped out in many events such as Family Bonding Camp and Project CARE.

In NTU, his passion in volunteerism grew and he was heavily involved in the volunteering work in various organizations. As one of the Project Director of Gourmet Guru under Enactus NTU, he has contributed significantly to the empowerment of low income homemakers and built alternative income streams for these beneficiaries. This project has evolved into a social enterprise that continues helping low income homemakers and Yu Meng has voluntarily contributed his time and resources for the expansion and coordination of this project. He is also involved in the Jalan Besar Youth Executive Committee, events organized include the monthly Elderly Luncheons, Baby Shows and National Day Dinner. In addition, he has volunteered in W.A.D! Club which aims to provide a platform for youths to bond through sports and to gain a sense of belonging — his contribution includes administration and budgeting of some of their events.

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Shu Min possesses the passion of volunteering and was actively involved in various volunteer efforts since she was in Secondary School, such as taking part in free buddy reading sessions and conducting special first-aid courses for the Visually Handicapped. Feeling the need to continue this passion of helping the less fortunate, she joined the NTU Welfare Services Club (WSC) in her first year in NBS, with the main motive of serving the community.

During her three years in Volunteer Management (VM), a special project in WSC, she has had many opportunities to work with different kind of beneficiaries and better understand their needs (e.g. underprivileged children, elderly, visually handicapped beneficiaries, dyslexic children and psoriasis patients). She also had the chance to organise various events that help involve a greater number of NTU students to share their time and efforts in a meaningful way.

During December 2012, she led a team of 35 to organise an annual event, Kids’ World. Kids’ World 2012 was a 2D/1N camp for 80 underprivileged children from four different family service centre. Through Kids’ World 2012, they have generated the awareness of volunteerism to 90 NTU students with little or no experience in volunteering. It was also the first and unique sleepover experience organised for the children at the Underwater World Singapore.

In addition, as the Chairperson of VM 2012/2013, she has initiated a new series of volunteer program with Dyslexia Association of Singapore with the hope to bring in more volunteering platform for NTU students.

During her three years in VM, her contribution was not limited to just that but was involved in many events held by other WSC portfolio, such as the Christmas Celebration at Jurong Bird Park with the visually handicapped beneficiaries, elderly home visit at AWWA, and the most recent Eye Am Aware. Volunteering is definitely one thing that she will continue even after her graduation.

Aspired to Inspire!

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Since his first year, Adrian joined the school's Welfare Services Club (WSC) with the intent of helping those in need.

As a regular member of WSC, Regular Service Project for the Hearing Impaired (RSPHI), Adrian provides weekly tuition to hearing-impaired students to help improve their academic results. He also organized "Inner Voices", an event that gives the Hearing Impaired an opportunity to volunteer for a cause, and developed fun-filled and meaningful activities that fostered interactions between the hearing-impaired volunteers and the Intellectually Disabled. In addition, he was a Group Leader at both "SPARKZ", a camp organised to improve the bonding between volunteers and students of the centres, and "Hi! Singapore", an event organised to raise awareness of the hearing-impaired community to junior college and secondary school students. He further raised awareness of the Hearing Impaired through various Song Signing performances for the public.

In his second year, Adrian took up the role of Chairperson of RSPHI. He managed a total of 4 tuition centres and 1 enrichment centre, with a total of 120 volunteers. He continued to ensure that the tuition and enrichment programme was effective in meeting the needs of the hearing-impaired beneficiaries.
Adrian also participated actively in other portfolios of WSC. He joined Camp Outreach as a facilitator, and brought the hearing-impaired beneficiaries overseas to experience challenging activities that sought to boost their confidence. He also joined Ignite Change as a Group Leader and helped inspire volunteer spirit in the freshmen through fist-hand experience with different groups of beneficiaries that WSC collaborates with.

In his final year of study, Adrian continues to be involved in RSPHI's activities and constantly provides guidance to his juniors. He also joined NTU Enactus and put his business skills to good use by helping a social enterprise that hires employees with disabilities to develop its business and marketing plans.

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Zhi Zhong has been an active volunteer throughout his three years in the university. He joined the Rotaract Club in the first year and was part of the international division on the trip to Cambodia. During his 15 days stay in Cambodia, he has conducted lessons for the children in a rural village, assisted in the refurbishment and extension of the school.

In the same year, Zhi Zhong also signed up as a volunteer for a 3D2N event organised by NTU Welfare Services Club (WSC) Volunteer Management: Kids World. The event aimed to bring joy and fun to a group of disadvantaged children.

In his second year, Zhi Zhong joined a special project "Challenge Ur Limits (Curl)" to create opportunities for beneficiaries and student volunteers to interact in exciting activities that will challenge both their mental and physical limits. As a publicity officer, his main job was to come up with various publicity materials for the project. CurL 2012 was a great success which saw more than 70 intellectually disabled beneficiaries benefited from the 1-day event.

Zhi Zhong’s commitment to reach out to the community and build a more integrated society saw him taking up the position of Vice-Chairperson of CurL in his final year in NTU. CurL 2013 will be organising a dragon boating event aimed to look beyond the physical and mental limitations of the beneficiaries (Intellectually Disabled, Visually Handicapped and Hearing Impaired) and allows the participants to achieve something that they never dreamt before of doing.

Throughout the three years in his University, Zhi Zhong has benefited various groups of beneficiaries. Through this, he hopes to encourage the community at large to look beyond the physical disabilities of the less fortunate, and instead to focus on their spirit, determination and passion for life.

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