MESSAGE FROM THE CANDIDATE

Hello everyone! I'm Carissa (she/her/hers), and today I am announcing my candidacy for Vice-President (External) of the 35th NUS Graduate Students' Society.

Welcome to my official campaign page where you can learn more about what I hope to do if given the opportunity to walk with you through this journey forward, and perhaps this can be a great starting point for open, candid, and vulnerable conversations hopefully leading to more concrete collective action by our communities.

I won't pretend I have all the answers, or if there are even answers at all, to the problems we face today. And perhaps that is okay. What's important is that we come together to figure out how we're going to bring each of us through this period and care for one another more attentively. Like all of us, I, too, am still learning, and I hope to learn, live, and lead with and alongside all of us.

If my direction, vision, or thoughts speak to you, join me in this journey, let's reach out to one another, hold space for each others' aspirations and anxieties, build power to envision and work towards a future we get to live in, and together let's make this a reality.

As the NUS GSS elections may not involve the attendance of the wider student body at large, I do not presume to have already earned your trust and confidence even if I am elected to serve. I am under no illusions at all that a singular election, or even multiple elections, can on their own lead to the kind of "change" and action that is so frequently thrown around like a cliche during electoral campaigns. Elections merely put candidates in office: it's what they do with the office they've been elected to, and whether it will carry on after they leave, that matters.

This process has got to be an ongoing journey that does not start with or end with the elections, or even with a single term of office. This is a process that requires our communities to come together on an equal footing to think about how we want to move forward, and what we need to do in order to get there. And it is in this spirit and context that I have chosen to launch my vice-presidential campaign publicly. Even more reason I want to share this journey with you - our lives and futures and well-being must be bigger than a single election. It's got to take all of us. And that's what I hope to do in the year ahead - to get to know you better as individuals and as communities so that we can make it to the other side alive and thriving.

And when we do, perhaps we can then say that we'll #CariOn.

WHO AM I, AND WHY AM I DOING THIS?

Q: Tell me a little about yourself?

A: I’m Carissa Cheow (she/her/hers), and I’m a first-year Master in Public Policy student at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy.

I read political science and philosophy for my undergrad years over at the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, where I’m part of the 5-year Concurrent Degree Programme.

Photo credit: filming for Progress Singapore Party’s 2019 National Day video where I was invited to share about students’ concerns regarding educational and employment anxieties and the need for greater inclusivity and representation.

Q: Wow – you’re in your first year as a grad school student? How did you find out about GSS?

A: I served in NUSSU EXCO in my undergrad years, and around that time I discovered GSS as pretty much the #gradsku counterpart to NUSSU? But it was when I was getting ready to enrol as a masters’ student (that process was honestly really terrifying) – that I really started to appreciate the importance of having a GSS to care for us students.

Grad school can be disorienting and scary – like losing your way in a deserted forest at midnight. If we chart our paths out together, we can all make it through together. What do these paths look like for us graduate students? How can we bring everyone along with us?

I admit I have no idea what to expect next.

And perhaps that’s okay – we’ll find a way together.

Q: So why GSS? And more to the point: why GSS Vice-President (External) specifically?

A: Today, more than ever, we students are faced with a crisis of extraordinary proportions. And let’s be honest: none of this has been easy for any of us. I know this a little too well – I almost had to drop out because of it.

Our graduate student community in NUS is incredibly diverse, and this also means that situations like these are going to affect each of us from our respective backgrounds in so many different ways that our existing policies and systems haven’t accounted for.

There’s something that does make all of this a little more bearable and less isolating to walk through - our communities. When we are able to hold space for, and reach out to, one another, care for each other in ways our institutions may struggle to, and walk with one another. From a safe distance, we need more than ever to find new ways to ensure our communities can be there with us.

The GSS plays a critically important role in supporting our respective communities and our graduate student cohorts. This starts with GSS itself functioning not just as any other committee, but as a community of our own. That’s why I’m running for GSS Vice-President (External): to support our communities so that we can carry on (“cari on”) – all of us, no exceptions.