Gallery: Homecoming 2017
Homecoming 2016
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Homecoming 2016
BY CNYSC PRESS & PUBLICITY PORTFOLIO
Homecoming 2016 took place on 15 January this year. Held in the evening to better accommodate to the working hours of our alumni, it was a time for existing batches of undergraduate scholars to better understand the various routes our seniors have chosen and for our alumni to reunite with their ex-classmates who have undertaken different responsibilities in their careers.
Scholars from different batches at Homecoming 2016
The event began at around six in the evening with an event orientation and overview. Several professors, including Assoc. Professor Tan Choon Hong (Director of the CN Yang Scholars’ Programme), Asst. Professor Shao Fangwei (Chemistry tutor and lecturer) and Asst. Professor Felipe Garcia (Chemistry tutor and lecturer) took their time off to join us in getting reconnected with our alumni. It wasn’t long before we broke out into various sharing sessions at different venues stretching across the Garage and Seminar Rooms.
It was somewhat surreal to see that even though all the alumni members started university together with common Year 1 CNYSP modules, they have since branched out to further their interests and specialities in numerous industries. While many started off in the engineering and chemical sectors (such as Singapore Power and ExxonMobil), there were also some who stepped into the seemingly distant yet equally fascinating path of practising law.
Listening attentively at one of the breakout sessions
All in all, scholars had the opportunity to find out more about Duke-NUS Medical School, Rolls Royce, the Ministry of Education, ExxonMobil, the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS), DSO, Rajah & Tann, as well as Singapore Power. Each session lasted for 20 minutes at individual venues and we were free to sit into any session we were curious about.
At the end of the sharing sessions, we headed back to the Function Room for a handover ceremony. One of our alumni members, Edwin Ang, will be taking over the role of Mohammad Zaidi as President of our Alumni Association (Find out more about Zaidi’s journey through the CN Yang Scholars’ Programme and beyond here). With the vision of reconnecting alumni members of the CN Yang Scholars’ Programme and maintaining close ties with current scholars, we can look forward to numerous collaborations between the Alumni Association and the CN Yang Scholars’ Club.
Mr Edwin Ang (left), current President of the Alumni Association
Homecoming 2016 came to a close with a lavish dinner and networking session. Different batches of scholars mingled around, finding out more about possible paths of career progressions, catching up with those who we’d not seen in a while, and even planning trips for overseas semester exchanges. At about nine in the evening, we said goodbye to one another with the comfort that we would see each other again for Homecoming 2017.
Group shot of our alumni members shortly before Homecoming 2016 came to a close
Gallery: Homecoming 2016
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Welcome home alumni!
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Our executive committee organised a homecoming event this year, inviting our alumni to revisit their alma mater and to reconnect with old friends. There were photo exhibitions, chock full of precious memories: of old orientation camps, dinner and dance events, and group photos of the different years. They were displayed neatly, attracting the attention of many alumni and CN Yang students— So this was what it was like then. As students now, when we look at our alumni, we too feel a sense of achievement and ambition. Will we be as successful, and lead as fulfilling lives as they do? Did they ever feel as confused about life as we do now? And the star question of the day: Just how did they overcome all those tremendous obstacles we know as our CN Yang modules???
Our alumni also prepared mini talks for our students, telling their story of how they came to graduate and pursue their ambitions, be it in pharmaceutical industries, research, banking or even foreign affairs. As it turned out, we were all surprisingly similar, sharing the same love for all things pun, nerdy and all round fun. We were all daunted by the future, about holding jobs, family, and having balance. We saw in common our tenacity in all things challenging and investigative. I guess that is how we roll!
The morning was spent in happy reminiscence and in the company of great food and greater friends. We hope everyone enjoyed themselves and even our first CN Yang baby, whose parents both graduated from the pioneer batch of this CN Yang programme, had a whale of a time, being the centre of attention wherever he went! Even though the purpose of this programme was to take home some memories (and our alumni did, literally, bringing home the photos we had printed for them), we made more memories that day. May the connections we made that day never be lost and we shall you all again soon!