My writing practice spans across three forms:

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Political Theory: the things we value dearly and how we can realize them

Commentary: making sense of and navigating our highly-uncertain world

Poetry: sharing each other’s stories about why we value what we value

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At the core, writing and community organizing are two sides of the same coin.

 

Writing provides an opportunity to tell stories about the things we cherish that mean a lot to us, to share them with the people we love, to read other people's works and watch them perform their works in person - that way we all bring the words on the page to life complete with the very real and valid human emotions behind them.

 

Every one of us comes to NUS with our own stories to share, and leaves with new chapters added to our stories. Our community is built upon making space for each other's stories to be heard, and to bring our hopes in each of our stories to life through collective action – community organizing – to make them a reality.

Youth Labour Movement

Founder and Secretary-General                          May 2017 – Mar 2018

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1 of 5 students to receive FASS Student Leadership Award (AY2017/2018) for contributions.

 

Founded Singapore’s first labour movement simulation conference, where students take on roles as delegates representing different trade unions from the respective sectors and Government ministries or statutory boards, to raise public awareness on functioning of trade unions.

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For us students, especially with many of us saddled with tuition fee loan obligations upon graduation, fair access to decent employment and development opportunities is a top concern. The GSS is well-positioned to represent us graduate students in making more equitable and accessible work arrangements available to all while delivering developmental opportunities that meet the aspirations and reassure the anxieties of our student communities, especially those of us on the margins who face structural barriers to accessing basic necessities.

Legislative experience

Legislative Assistant to NMP Anthea Ong                    Apr 2020 – May 2020

Policy Research with NCMP Leon Perera                     Jun 2017 – Jan 2018

Meet-the-People Sessions for MP Chen Show Mao    Jan 2017 – Jan 2018

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Attended to residents’ requests for assistance and drafted case outlines for MP to forward to relevant agencies. Did comparative research for Workplace Safety and Health (Amendment) Act 2017 and drafting speech and Parliamentary Questions for Parliamentary Elections (COVID-19 Special Arrangements) Bill.

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My time volunteering with various legislators taught me key lessons that would come to anchor my leadership philosophy: I learned the importance of holding space, reaching out, and appreciating the need to account for precarity in policy design and implementation – policies cannot only cater to the “majority” if they come at the expense of those amongst us on the margins whose lived realities are precarious by definition. Graduate school can be confusing enough to navigate, what more in a pandemic – let’s not make it even worse for anyone.

Chua Thian Poh Community Leadership Centre

Fellow, Community Development & Leadership             Oct 2017 – present

 

College of Alice & Peter Tan

Residency, University Town College Programme         Jul 2017 – May 2020

1 of 10 students to receive CAPT Honour Roll (AY2018/2019).

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CAPT focuses on community engagement, and CTPCLC focuses on community development. At CAPT, I served as Academic Co-Director for our biennial Student Symposium, headed the Advocacy Wing of our mental health committee, revived a creative writing interest group, and co-spearheaded a collaborative project for trauma-informed group writing therapy with two other community partners. At CTPCLC, I am working on a practicum with the NUS Victim Care Unit aimed at understanding the experiences of transgender students in NUS.

 

I found opportunities to apply what I learned: to hold space and reach out to communities around us, to appreciate the importance of a vibrant student life centering communities that care and grow together, and to go beyond engagement to explore community development: how our communities can take collective action rooted in social research to create opportunities for all and ensure necessities are available for all.

transNUS

Advisor to 1st Executive Committee                              Jun 2019 – present

Co-Founder                                                                       Aug 2018 – present

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Brought together a group of trans students on campus to form a collective to represent the interests of the community in engagements with the University administration. After NUS proposed various security enhancements which place trans students directly in physical danger instead, convened a series of focus group discussions to produce a 30-page report on lived experiences of the community and met with members of the Senior Management to raise the community’s concerns. Serving as advisor to the group on basis of involvement in the 40th NUS Students’ Union Executive Committee (AY2018/2019), which has provided significant wealth of insight for the group to navigate the NUS offices.

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The lessons I learned about how our communities can take collective action to solve our shared problems were quickly put to the test when my own community faced problems as a result of policy responses that omitted our experiences because we were not represented at the table.

I wanted my community to have the capacity to navigate the institutional landscape and all its complexities to ensure our well-being.

40th NUS Students’ Union Executive Committee

Assistant Secretary                                                       Feb 2020 – Sep 2019

Human Resource Officer                                               Oct 2018 – Feb 2019

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Co-opted into, and served as, Human Resource Officer (2018-2019) and Assistant Secretary (2019) in the 40th NUSSU EXCO. Additionally served as Facilitator for the NUSSU Student Leaders’ Camp (2019), and contested (unsuccessfully) as a candidate for the 41st NUSSU EXCO for the position of Student Welfare Secretary on a broad platform of student-centric reforms focusing on academics, finances, student support, campus life, accessibility, and inclusion, informed by lived experiences, both my own and of my peers in the communities around me.

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My experience with cofounding transNUS, coupled with a desire to better understand how each of the NUS Offices operated and their working considerations to bring back to my community for the betterment of our well-being, prompted me to join the Union Executive Committee to learn how everything fits together. I came out of it with a deeper appreciation for the bigger picture context the Union was operating in, and a renewed vision of what students’ representative bodies (NUSSU and GSS) could do with a clarity of purpose and a robust platform.

Freedom of Information Singapore Working Group

Vice-Chairperson, Inaugural Committee                         Jul 2019 - present

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Freedom of Information Singapore (FOISG) is a non-partisan, student-led movement dedicated to promoting transparency and the right of access to information, and seeks to promote greater access to government-held data for academic research and education amongst other public interest goals. Prepared a policy memo and conducted research on freedom of information practices with a team of six other students for submission to the Ministry of Communications and Information.

 

Many of us students – especially though not limited to those who fall through the cracks of various eligibility criteria for means-tested assistance – struggle with university policies that create much unnecessary distress due to their general opacity. With insufficient necessary information on policies that might disadvantage us and what our options are, it is all the more crucial that the GSS is in a position to lead the way towards greater information access for students, and act on the information we collect from research to craft and pitch policy reforms.

Students for a Safer NUS

Co-President  1st Executive Committee                       Jul 2020 – present

President  1st Executive Committee                            Jan 2020 – Jun 2020

Co-Founder                                                                      Oct 2019 – present

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In the absence of a student organization focused on addressing sexual violence on campus, co-founded a new student-led community organization with three other co-founders, and led the restructuring process from what was originally an informal and ad-hoc grouping to a 40 member community, and currently focused on setting direction and strategy for the organization while guiding and growing its leaders. Eventual objective to expand to a Students for Safer Campuses network to include similar counterpart groups in other institutions.

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Some time during my earlier stint with NUSSU, the University held a Town Hall on Sexual Misconduct in response to a high-profile case. The handling of the subsequent follow-up prompted me to explore and carry through with a run for the 41st NUSSU EXCO. I didn’t get elected, and the newfound time on my hands made me realize just how crucial it was to have sustained action and strategy from our communities to ensure our students’ safety and support remain on the agenda. I joined three other deeply-committed cofounders to jointly assemble such a community organization from scratch, building a movement and bringing people together to make sure it can carry on long after us. As my first time leading an organization as Co-President, my term has shaped my outlook on leadership and advocating for student interests. I hope to bring that to my vice-presidency of the next GSS team if I am elected.

QueerNUS

Executive Director                                                        Feb 2020 – present

Head, Research and Education                                   Apr 2019 – Jan 2020

 

Initially recruited as Head of Research and Education, and subsequently appointed as Executive Director in view of role in restructuring the organization to meet its objectives more effectively. Currently leading a team of 15 to provide better support to the community beyond those

living in residential colleges with support groups.

 

Here at NUS, our graduate students come from a wide variety of backgrounds with an equally-diverse set of aspirations. How do we hold space and curate accessible, mutually-affirming, and enjoyable opportunities to bring us together in occasions and social settings with enough space for each of us to feel at home – especially amidst constraints? My time at QueerNUS has given me the chance to learn so much about what it takes in concrete terms to support diverse and intersectionally-inclusive communities all across campus, and how to amplify and lift more voices up, and I am deeply grateful to have the chance to apply these on a wider scale in my vice-presidency of the next GSS team if I am elected.

Speaking engagements

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Invited to speak at multiple panels and festivals, such as with Activism in Crisis (Aug 2020), New Naratif (Jul 2020), Project Insight and Ateneo Debate Society (Jun 2020), CAPE SG and Singapore Policy Journal (Jun 2020), Coconuts Colloquiums (Jul 2019), and at the Progress Singapore Party’s National Day video (filmed Jun 2019). Interviewed by TODAYonline (Dec 2019) and HYPE AND STUFF (Jan 2020).

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At every sharing session I participate in, there is so much to learn from all the wonderful people doing great work with their respective movements and communities and the lessons to take away from the sum total of our experiences brought to the table. This is not limited only to the panelists – members of the audience each bring their own experiences, lived realities, and unique perspectives that remind us of whose experiences our work should never fail to centre. Solidarity across communities is so important – and along with this, we must always ensure our experiences don’t end with us, and that our communities benefit from learning from one another, listening to communities, and reflecting.