Temasek Polytechnic honours 11 graduating students for academic excellence and societal contributions

While the graduating final year students of Temasek Polytechnic (TP) bid farewell to their lecturers and prepare for their next challenge, 11 graduates were given a special send-off with an award presentation in recognition of their hard work and achievements through the years.

Youthopia attended the ceremony on Tuesday (Apr 26) at the Temasek Polytechnic campus and spoke to some of the graduates.

Among them is 20 year-old Krystal Lim, who will graduate from TP’s Diploma in Financial Business Informatics not only with a perfect GPA of 4.0, but also as a Lee Kuan Yew Award recipient.

In line with her desire to empower girls, women and youths in Singapore, Krystal played a crucial role in forming and leading a new student interest group known as Girls in Tech which involves 700 female students across all five polytechnics in Singapore.

Krystal said: “I think when people talk about numbers and equality, it should not just be about meeting a certain quota. It should instead be whether we can achieve greater and more genuine representation.

“With Girls in Tech, I really hope to nurture girls to be passionate about tech itself and see more women in the tech industry with genuine interest and passion.”

Krystal also serves as the secretary of the East Coast GRC Digital Blueprint Plan, which operates with three main pillars: providing digital access to those with lower income, teaching digital literacy to the elderly and helping Singapore’s heartlands and hawkers go digital.

Moving forward, Krystal hopes to pursue a career which will allow her to leverage on technology to solve societal concerns, optimise operations and propel Singapore as a recognised tech leader on the world stage.

Another graduating TP student who stands alongside Krystal is Matthew Ng, 21, who was awarded the Ngee Ann Kongsi Most Outstanding Overcomer Award.

Graduating from the Diploma in Information Technology (IT), Matthew was diagnosed with cerebral palsy at just nine months old. However, despite his unsteady gait and slurred speech, Matthew stands proudly with what he’s achieved during his time as a TP student, including a GPA of 3.69.

Matthew’s interest to study IT sparked from his desire to bridge the gap between impairment and quality of life. 

Matthew said: “Impairment and good quality of life are like exact opposites. With impairment you are always struggling to complete certain tasks, whereas with a good quality of life you can do many things with more ease.

“That is where technology comes in to bridge the gap and bring better quality of living closer to those with impairments to help make their daily routines easier.” 

Matthew’s polytechnic journey was not completely smooth sailing as he faced challenges with the more mundane things, such as getting around campus, which proved to be difficult given his condition. 

While it may have been a struggle and even discouraging at times, Matthew continued to push through, which taught him a valuable lesson about perseverance.

He said: “Always try and find the good in things. Even when it seems like there is nothing good, there is always something good that will come sooner or later.

“Keep persevering and chasing for the particular goal until you achieve it!” 

Along with his aspirations to build many websites, become a social media content creator and even open a fitness centre one day for the “differently-abled”, Matthew also hopes to pursue a degree in computer science and gain more working experience to propel him closer to his goals.

Three of this year’s graduates were also awarded the Lee Kong Chian Award, and among them is Valliammai Lakshmanan and Lukas Lee.

After her passion for accounting sparked during her time as a Higher NITEC student, Valliammai represented TP as a member of the Student Council of the Citi Foundation-SMU Financial Literacy Programme, where she was involved in planning SMU Financial Literacy courses for polytechnic and ITE students.

As a firm believer that financial literacy will help improve lives and bring prosperity, Valliammai also contributed to the promotion of national events such as Fin Lit Hackathon 2021 and MyMoney@Campus.

Aside from achieving her goal of reaching out and educating more people about financial literacy through workshops, Valliammai also hopes to work in the banking sector in the future, and is currently looking to pursue Business Management at the Singapore Management University (SMU).

As for Lukas, while most of his peers headed to Junior College (JC),  the former Victoria School student decided to follow his deep rooted passion for design and enrolled into TP’s Diploma in Product and Industrial Design through the Early Admission Exercise (EAE).

Fuelled by his desire to create original and creative solutions for the world’s problems, Lukas wanted to create something that would be useful for the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic for his final year project. 

This eventually led him to create Aegis – a self-sanitising material that would change its colour after being contaminated by touch that he plans to use in common areas of public transport.

Lukas’ Aegis was met with many positive responses and feedback at this year’s recent TP Design Show, where Lukas and other design students showcased their final year projects.

Lukas’s dream of one day becoming a well-known designer is now slowly turning into reality, having already secured a place in Nanyang Technological University’s (NTU) School of Art, Design and Media.

With a stellar academic and holistic record and an already impressive portfolio, Lukas has no regrets of going on the polytechnic path, and to those who wish to do the same, he advised:“If you know what you want to do, and you have the passion and the drive, then go for it. Just make sure you have a plan and proceed with the end in mind.”

The third and final recipient of the Lee Kong Chian Award is another former Victoria School student, Ian Goh who is graduating from the Diploma in Interior Architecture and Design.

There are also three other Lee Kuan Yew Award winners apart from Krystal, including Shaun Lai from the Diploma in Chemical Engineering, Lim Ryan Ryutaro from the Diploma in Electronics and Muhammad Zaki bin Zulkhairi from the Diploma in Computer Engineering.

There are also two recipients of the CapitaLand Award for All Round Excellence, which are Dylan Suresh Mulchand from the Diploma in Law and Management and Alvin Teo from the Diploma in Biomedical Engineering.

Chase Lim from the Diploma in Hospitality and Tourism Management was also awarded the Tay Eng Soon Gold Medal.