Author(s): Kayden Lee and Aaron Low (20th Corporate Communications Vice President and Director)
2019 marks the 20th anniversary of the NTU Investment Interactive Club. The club that was originally founded by Mr Yap Boon Leong and his friends as a small interest club has now grown into a fully-fledged club with thousands of members. As the Vice President and Director of Corporate Communications, we set out to host an Alumni Dinner for our club. It has been a decade since the alumni of NTU-IIC had met each other and we wanted to make this a memorable night for everyone.
After many months of preparation, the big day was finally here. On the evening of 2 March 2019, with the help of a few of our trusty sub-committee members, we managed to set up the well-furnished space at HERE@Farrer Park perfectly for the event. The first alumni member who showed up was none other than our beloved founder Mr Yap, who looked as youthful as ever. It was heartening to see his unwavering support for the club. Even after 20 years, IIC still meant as much to him as it did in 1999.
As the event commenced, alumni from the past 19 batches started streaming into the venue and it was highly exciting to meet our seniors who once stood in our places. Besides Mr Yap, two of the original founding members came as well. Our supportive club advisors – Assoc Prof Angie Low and Mr Sarjit Singh also graced our event. In fact, Prof Low is one of our alumni as well – she had been our club’s Vice President back in 2000 when she studied in Nanyang Business School.
During the night, we spoke to Mr Yap and a few other alumni, who have all gone on to embark on highly successful careers. They were eager to share their stories from the past when they were students like ourselves, and how things were during their times. They were pleasantly surprised when we told them how much the club has grown, with our five flagship events and the various networking opportunities. One can only imagine how things will change 20 years from now.
We had prepared a sumptuous buffet dinner, a minibar for cocktails and drinks, as well as a photobooth to capture this unforgettable night on film. The alumni also immersed themselves with various on-site entertainment such as a pool table, arcade basketball, foosball and darts. It was highly enjoyable networking and reminiscing over a glass of wine and a game of pool.
As the night progressed, the alumni started leaving one after another. They were no longer carefree students like us – they had families and careers to take care of. As we thanked them for coming, we could not help but feel curious as to what the future would unveil for us students.
It’s hard to know for sure when the next NTU-IIC Alumni gathering will be, or which future batch is going to host it. But one thing is for sure, many of our alumni will still be there, and so will we.