Nanyang Technological University

Stepping into the world of volunteering did not start off as a deliberate choice for me - it was an accidental encounter which I had when I accompanied a group of good friends to do community service. The first few sessions at an elderly home in Boon Keng allowed me to witness the smiles on the faces of the beneficiaries' and amazed me - What wonders a few hours spent with the elderlies can do to uplift their emotions!

Lions' Befrienders at Boon Keng
Both the Boon Keng and Potong Pasir districts have a significant proportion of elderlies living in one-room rental flats and I wanted to better understand the families staying in these residential units and how my team and I could contribute to the betterment of their well-being. As the Director for Community Service and together with my group of volunteer friends, we organised the weekly programmes at the activity centre, designed to strengthen their physical and mental health. We interacted and listened to their stories over tea breaks and celebrated festivals such as Chinese New Year, Hari Raya and Deepavali together.

Redhill Student Homework Group (SHG) at CDAC
Redhill has a proportionate number of low-income households. After graduating from Junior College in 2010, I started volunteering at Redhill SHG where I mentor students in upper primary school levels from less-privileged families. Besides academic guidance, we took on the responsibility of inculcating important life values in students that includes integrity, teamwork and honesty.

In 2013, I took over as the coordinator of the program where I took on additional responsibilities of looking after the welfare of all students, volunteers and budget issues. What kept me going was the unwavering support from my volunteers and the optimism I see in the children I serve. Also, it is the fact that some students who have graduated from this program have gone on to become successful leaders - one of them is currently leading his student council in his secondary school as President. I am currently in my 7th year at CDAC.

My friends and I initiated project Project Intriva, a collaboration between CDAC and NTU, with the objective to boost the self-confidence in the students I mentored, who lacked confidence in communication and academically. Project Intriva started after my trip to the University Scholars Leadership Symposium (USLS) 2015 in Hong Kong. With the support from Professor Geraldine Chen, we developed a programme where students had the opportunity to volunteer at elderly homes. In addition, there was a sit-down session with Ms Oh Siew May, diagnosed with cerebral palsy at a young age, who shared her life story with our students and volunteers. She told her life story, describing her tenacity in overcoming life challenges in a book, “Scaling Walls”, which received many positive responses and we planned to continue this program the following year.

NTU Welfare Services Club (WSC) Camp-Outreach
At the NTU WSC, I had the privilege of getting to know the deaf community and embarked on an Overseas Community Involvement Project (OCIP) in Nepal with them. My role was to be a bridge between the people who could and could not hear, requiring me to pick up sign language. Through this, I learnt more about the deaf community. They are a wonderful group of people who are extremely expressive and optimistic. Together, we completed two projects - the construction of a wall around a school compound for protection against wild animals and the plastering of a classroom.

I am grateful for all these enriching experiences and I count my blessings. The chance of a university education is more than just a personal achievement; it is an investment and a trust which society has bestowed on us to make a difference to others, especially the less advantaged. I am committed to continue to seek opportunities to make use of my skills, experiences and time to give back to and benefit the community.

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I began my first serious efforts at giving back when I was 15 years old. Back then, I was a peer tutor for Primary 5 students from Da Qiao Primary School. I enjoyed coaching and bonding with these kids, and I was happy that I could channel their energy into something that would benefit them in the long run. This then led me to mentor other primary school students to run their own eco-initiatives. It was indeed fulfilling to work with these kids, to see them change and create something they're proud of. It was, however, a pity that I was only able to create one-off impact, for only a few people at a time.

My notion of volunteering completely changed when I was exposed to Conjunct Consulting at the start of my second year in university. Conjunct Consulting is a social change consultancy that provides consulting services for social sector organisations. It was the first time I came across the idea of “skills-based volunteering”, as opposed to the “effort-based volunteering” which I had been doing for the past few years of my life. I signed up on the spot.

Since then, I have been regularly volunteering for approximately 2+ years, and have had the chance to work on four 14-week projects for various social sector organisations involved. These projects involved providing help in areas like strategic planning, business development, and impact assessments.

It has been an extremely rewarding journey so far. I have learnt a lot from my teams, my clients, and their beneficiaries. I am deeply moved by my clients' sincerity and the passion they have for the work they do. In turn, I reciprocate by doing all I can to ensure that I can make it easier for them to touch more lives.

I usually followed up 6-12 months after the end of the project to see how my recommendations impacted their work. This helped me to apply what I've learnt to other projects, and also to see how the organization fared. It was always heartening to know how the projects had worked out. Seeing the impact that I helped to create could be a very humbling experience, and sometimes there would be a tinge of regret when things did not work out as expected. Nevertheless, I am still happy to have helped make society a better place.

It is meaningful for me to use my abilities to help catalyse change. If there's one thing that I have learnt over the years - it is the success of a person is largely dependent on the amount of external help that he/she gets. This principle applies to all social sector beneficiaries as well. And so I will continue to give back to society as I develop and progress in my professional career so that I can spread the help to more people. This cannot be a one-man effort though as I would also hope to expand my network within the social sector and collaborate with like-minded individuals. With the right capability, connections, and compassion, I believe that I will be able to create more significant and purposeful impact in the future.

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I volunteered with the Muscular Dystrophy Association of Singapore in 2011, where I assisted members with their bi-monthly boccia sessions. It was extremely rewarding as the boccia sessions helped the members improve their skills and gave them a goal to work towards to - to compete in the annual Boccia Open. They were not as mobile and did not have the same opportunities I do to play multiple active sports. But they certainly had big hearts. As a volunteer, everyone (including the very supportive families of the beneficiaries) accepted me warmly into their community. While many people may speak of disabled persons with pity, these disabilities do not prevent them from living a fulfilled life with dignity. And, later in 2014, I had the opportunity to participate at a volunteer appreciation event for the beneficiaries' families and a Joint Flag Day.

A turning point for me came in 2012 when I volunteered with Beyond Social Services, when I helped to mentor a primary school child from a low-income family who was usually unsupervised. It was extremely challenging to engage the child and influence his outlooks and decisions. I saw and understood how broader external influences, such as environment and family upbringing, could affect a child's perspective and the choices he would go on to make in life. This motivated me to create positive impacts on the broader societal level and working with larger stakeholders. My involvement in Conjunct Consulting from 2014 to 2017 was a result of this desire.

Conjunct Consulting carries out pro-bono consulting projects with non-profit organisations in Singapore. I joined because I wanted to be able to influence change on a broader level which would translate to greater impact for the beneficiaries. It also presented me the platform to apply the critical thinking skills I learned in school for a social cause and scale the impact I was creating. I completed two projects with non-profit organisations (NPO).

My first project was to work in a team to deliver recommendations to a professional association on how to attract and retain members, without whom they could not serve as a representative body. This NPO helped to advocate interests of a healthcare profession by conducting research, advocacy and education programmes which in turn raised awareness and recognition of the profession, hence empowering more professionals to serve their clients.

In my second project, I led a team to formulate a strategy for the hospitality arm of an NPO to increase revenues to fund their social activities. These social activities included programmes for women, children and families. Projects like these only have their outcomes realised in the longer term because it takes time to implement and execute recommendations, but it was satisfying to hear from the partner the NPO that they felt these recommendations were extremely helpful to them.

I later moved on to other roles in the NTU Conjunct Consulting as Chapter Director and Assistant Director of Projects to help others make a difference and have the same positive Conjunct Consulting experience that I have had earlier. This involved recruiting, deploying and developing fellow passionate NTU students, and helping students to refine the work they deliver to NPO partners. Through this experience, I met several fellow passionate NTU students who wanted to assist NPOs to serve their beneficiaries better. This provided me with an opportunity to scale impact by helping others fulfil their potential to contribute as well as to bring about social benefits to the community.

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A selfless individual who always seek to work for a greater purpose, a worthy cause. Alvin's passion for helping others can be seen from his active involvement both in community work as well as helping his peers since young.

With a desire for greater fulfilments for a meaningful life during his junior college days, Alvin approached a nursing home within his neighbourhood and volunteered his help on a weekly basis. This simple gesture to volunteer with the Sree Narayana Mission Home started a journey of service fortnightly gathering with the seniors in the old folks home and outreach missions to rental housing in woodlands over a span of several months. He was also involved in organising many events during special occasions such as the seventh lunar month festival where all the beneficiaries were invited to celebrate the occasion together.

Although he eventually had to stop his volunteering work due to his studies and A-Divisions commitments, his desire to serve others who need help continues burning strong.

When he started his undergraduate journey in Nanyang Technological University (NTU), he was excited to join the Freshmen Orientation Camp (FOC) -- Ignite Change'14 organised by the NTU Welfare Services Club WSC) to meet like-minded volunteers. Together with this circle of friends, he participated actively in the various volunteering activities and events organised by WSC such as bringing beneficiaries from Muscular Dystrophy Association of Singapore (MDAS) to Henderson waves for a day trip, volunteering with AWWA Elderly Services in Ang Mo Kio and MINDS Special Education School in Woodlands.

Recognising that the effort to help others from one singular individual is limited, he felt that it is important to ensure a sustainable supply of volunteers would be needed for WSC to carry its mission and goals. He then decided to join the Ignite Change'15 committee to plan and organise the freshmen orientation camp to bond the freshmen and encourage them to participate actively in WSC. He did his best to ensure that Ignite Change'15 was well planned and executed to achieve its aims and derived tremendous gratification from it.

Besides the community work that he volunteered, Alvin also devoted much of his time in helping his juniors from various clubs to succeed. An example of this was Business Solutions, a case club, and he mentored a group of juniors; he came back to school every Saturday to coach them on case methodologies. He also devoted his time in helping the NBS FOC: Camp Zenith committees; fine-tuning their proposals and came back during camp period to help with the logistics. He voluntarily took on such responsibilities without official recognitions as he genuinely wanted to help others succeed. During the NTU Open house 2015 and 2017 and the NTU Alumni Homecoming 2014, Alvin helped out as the student ambassador. He willingly took on such responsibilities to share his love for his school, NBS and also to help potential undergraduates make an informed decision which could potentially change their lives.

With a firm belief to serve and make a difference, Alvin is drawn to join the Public Service in his career choice rather than the attractive, high paying and prestigious offers from the financial services industry.

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Felix Sim

NBS Henderson Inter-Faith Goodwill Store
Felix Sim was the Founder and President of the Nanyang Business School - Henderson Inter-Faith Goodwill Store project, the first student-run food distribution centre in Singapore that sources, stores and distributes food donations for low-income families residing in the rental flats in Henderson Heights.

In May 2015, Felix led a group of 16 students from Nanyang Business School (NBS) in setting up and managing the supply chain operations of the store. As the President, Felix worked closely with the Henderson Community Centre (CC) and the grassroots organizations in Henderson-Dawson Constituency in sustaining the monthly distributions to more than 200 needy families.

The store was officially launched by Ms Indranee Rajah, MP for the constituency, on 16 August 2015. Felix oversaw three teams of NBS student volunteers (Collection, Distribution and Corporate Relations) that have been increasing in strength over the months.

Felix also played a vital role in forging strong relationships between the School, Henderson CC, various inter-faith organisations and the residents of the Henderson Constituency.

NTU Welfare Services Club (Regular Service Project for the Deaf Community)
Under this portfolio, Felix went through the Basic Sign Language Course (Signing Exact English) conducted by the Singapore Association for the Deaf (SADeaf) for one semester, where he picked up sign language and tutored a deaf student weekly for one year.

Felix also took part in the planning of activities that raise Deaf Awareness in Singapore. One such event was the Hearing Impaired Singapore (HISG) 2015. He was involved as the Programmer and Group Leader. He led team bonding activities for the deafies and the public participants. Felix was also involved in SPARKZ 2015, an annual event organised for the student beneficiaries under the portfolio.

Felix also took part in the annual Christmas Song Signing event, where he participated in song sign performances showcased to the public for 2 consecutive years

NTU Welfare Services Club (Regular Service Project for the Elders)
Under this portfolio, Felix befriended elderly patients on a weekly basis at Renci Community Hospital (Novena) for one year. He chatted with the elderly patients to make them feel less lonely and more loved. He also took part in the planning of events for the elderly patients such as Christmas and New Year celebrations.

Batam Medical Outreach (Saint Andrew's Cathedral Medical Fellowship)
This is a medical outreach trip to Batam (Indonesia) every 2 months to provide basic necessity and free primary healthcare as well as dental education to the rural villages. The teams, on each mission, treat up to 1500 villagers. Felix's primary role there is to be the translator and help with dispensing the medicines to the villagers.

NTU Tax Advisory Club
During his term in NTU Tax Advisory Club, Felix was involved in bringing student beneficiaries from the children's home to NTU and engaging them with interactive activities, such as a mock flea market where the students learn how to bargain and buy goods with paper money.

Cambodia Overseas Community Involvement Programme
Felix went to Kadamha Primary School in Cambodia to teach the less fortunate students English, simple art and basic hygiene practices. He also helped in building a wall for the school to improve the teaching environment for the students.

Boys' Brigade Share-a-Gift Project
Felix was part of the Boys' Brigade (74th Company) for 3 years. He was actively involved in the Boys' Brigade Share-a-Gift Project, a high profile national community service project that promotes the spirit of caring and sharing among Singaporeans during Christmas season. For the project, Felix went to collect gift donations from the public and pack them into hampers in the Boys' Brigade Headquarters before giving them to the beneficiaries. 

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