By Seng En Quan Joash
My Dear USP Juniors,
INTRODUCTION
4 years of our lives is a twinkle of an eye. It seems like just yesterday, I was a 21-year-old, not knowing where to plant myself in a sea of brilliant (USP) minds. Before I break into a grandfather story, I hope you realise that you have been placed amidst a peculiar community when you signed up and were accepted into the programme. While the younger Joash would have roared: “you signed yourself into a commitment to be a forerunner, at the frontier of the NTU multidisciplinary learning community”, the Joash today would like to articulate: “you are terribly blessed—be as adventurous as you can be”.
You see, in the name of egalitarianism, society often tries to adjust starting blocks so that the disadvantaged can have an advantageous start. Interestingly in the USP (where its students are considered the cream of the crop), the starting blocks have been placed at an advantageous position to send the runners soaring.
MY APYO EXPERIENCE
What are these “starting blocks” that I speak of? Through my stint in setting up the Singapore chapter of the Asia Pacific Youth Organisation (APYO),[1] I started to have a better appreciation and articulation of these “starting blocks” that I could feel, but not yet see.
Opportunities
In the aftermath of a policy programme which I managed to attend (with the complete funding of the USP), I developed a greater appreciation of the need to rouse interest among young adults about regional policy developments, especially since Singapore’s viability was heavily dependent on these. As a member of the USP community, I felt a desire to cultivate a culture of deliberation, dialogue and debate about policy trends in our immediate South-east Asian region. It was an idea that tied in so well with our multi-disciplinary banner-waving activity, but also served to enrich and sharpen the cognitive faculties of each participating USPian. As grandiose as the idea was, the execution was daunting: the idea seemed like theoretical fantasy, and a practical nightmare.
Despite all my reservations, timidity and laziness, the USP club was going through a state of dormancy and I felt that there was no harm trying. At best, it would excite a few young souls. At worst, it would build friendships among the USPians who would participate in this endeavour (fingers crossed). With zero funding and experience but a zeroed-on target, I set to work on crafting a viable proposal that will receive a buy-in from the management. Articulating how the missions and vision of APYO tied in with that of USPs was more difficult than I thought, but as I studied the structure of our programme, I appreciated it, and, like a social engineer, tried to propagate the vision of the programme through this vehicle—APYO.
Proposal after proposal was ripped and shredded and I constantly had to return to the drawing board to recalibrate our pitch. The idea gradually kicked off and over the 3 years, with the kind support of the USP office finance, advisory and networking (thank you Prof Schubert, Prof May, Sandra and Angela), we were able to send 4 USP students and 3 HASS students overseas for the annual Lead Asia Programme to interact with officials in the regional conferences on the basis of their policy papers that addressed pressing policy issues of interest.
And this was the first starting block which gave me a lift—an understanding and supportive group of programme mentors who are willing to invest their time, resources and connections on initiatives (if they made sense and were beneficiary to the USP and/or wider community). At the end of if all, it felt like an 8 AU pass/fail module on business matching and organisation building, just that I was allowed to fail and learn from the experience and not be condemned.
Community
“Show me the men and I will know the leader, show me the leader, and I will know the men,” was a favourite army quote of mine. While I would wish that I was that inspirational leader who was able to lift my team members to greater heights, I was in actual fact the one to be inspired by them: Max, Mabel, Cui Min, Faris, Lin Dee and Yingzhe were part of the pioneers who helped me to experience the joy of working in an interdisciplinary team.
It soon occurred to me that leading a team of high-calibre USPians was both difficult and rewarding. Gathering the brightest minds for a common cause was not as easy than it sounds as these self-motivated individuals came to the discussion table already having pre-conceived ideas and their own value judgements; their time is also valuable as many activities vie for their attention. Despite all the challenges, a team of USPians was like a soup of chemical particles waiting to react and create new products.
The “success” and “strength” of APYO Singapore chapter was as good as its members and that was the second starting block, a vibrant community of like-minded individuals who are as keen about learning and making an impact as you.
Curriculum[2]
The last starting block might an obscure supporter for my journey in APYO. While I can try to connect the dots between ethics and writing & reasoning with my ability to draft proposals, one module which actually did help me with was Making Sense of Politics. Around the add-drop period of year 3 Semester 2, APYO headquarters mooted the idea of a mini policy discussion session to be held in the same semester. I had never organised an event of such a scale and was desperate to get in touch with as many resources as possible for the policy event.
Aside from providing me with the additional networks and speaker contacts, the module allowed me to glean new insights into processes like deliberation and the nature of policy entrepreneurship and controversies. Eventually, we based our mini event on the concept of a deliberation process. It was definitely one of the modules which I did not regret using up 3 AUs for.
What if you have an idea to open a café in the lounge area? Perhaps you can even use tools like Linear Programming from QR and business concepts from Enterprise, Innovation and Leadership to materialise the project. With the new Incubation Hub initiative, it is now even easier for USPians to test their ideas in reality.
CONCLUSION
I hope you have realised by now that in the USP, you are in the midst of some extraordinary company. Many of us don’t grow where we are planted, because we yearn for greener pastures. But what I have realised is that if we are conscientious enough, all the nutrients, tilling of soil, and fertilisers are available at our disposal—if only we think big (have a vision!), start small (ask for help!) and build deep (gather others!).
[1] If you are curious about the lead asia policy programme or the Asia Pacific Youth Organisation, you can ask me if you happen to see me, or attend our annual event happening on 2 March 2015!
[2] PS: I actually got the opportunity, community and curriculum notion from http://www.ntu.edu.sg/usp/Pages/The-USP-Experience.aspx
