I have had an uncountable number of wonderful personal and leadership learning and growth experiences from this programme, and I would like to start first by relaying my experiences with my fellow TF Scholars. It was a great experience being able to meet and closely befriend so many talented and knowledgeable ASEAN and Asian student at one time. We all came from different cultural and racial backgrounds but we all were able to connect under the programme sharing the same goals and ideas for a better Asia. We were moreover able to share opinions and discuss ideas for this. But most important of all we were able to share our cultural and historical heritage that neither of us knew of the other's countries. We learnt about the practices and customs of each other’s respective countries and with that, we were able to understand differences and clear commonly held misconceptions of each other. Hence fostering a stronger region in the future. 

TF LEaRN Scholars 2013

This was greatly helped by all most all of us TF Scholars living in one residence. We get to interact with each other almost every day when we meet for meals. We also organized special events ourselves like hangout gatherings/outings together to just chat or watch certain countries movies on their recommendation. We all got to learn more about each other every cultures and customs. We even held on our first week a get together to indroduce ourselves and have fun singing songs/playing.

Get To Know Each Other Gathering 

Next, I would like to write regarding the 2-day workshop that we attended. It was a highly enriching experience and one of the main highlights of the programme. It taught us so many things about leadership, how to improve our characters and about life in general.

In the beginning, we were made to answer some quiz about ourselves which would show our characteristic elemental trait. This is important as it affects our decision-making abilities and also our leadership approaches. We then discussed in our elemental character groups about what makes us our element and were made to present our findings on our character element.

There was also a town hall conference during the workshop which consisted of presentations and a panel discussion by TF LEaRN Scholars on Youth empowerment of which I was one of the speakers. It was an interesting learning experience as we were able to learn and discuss our respective countries problems and also about our experience in the topic in which we presented. And discuss our solutions for solving them. It was a highly valuable interactive discussion forum for us all.

My Team “The Incredibles”

It was also an even more enriching leadership programme for me because I was made to be a leader for a group. I was taught how to be a more efficient and effective leader. It was all learnt in the form of competition between the groups. I am proud to say that my group came out on topmost of the competitions. It taught us all the value of teamwork. It was fascinating how we were made to take part in a number of competitions between groups on the first day and each of the competitions taught us a lesson in life, teamwork and leadership.

The first competition we took part was one in which both groups had to have members blindfolded and were not able to give instructions in any known language. Hence ie. Each group had to within 10mins form a new language. And using this language each member of the teams had to be blindfolded and sent into an area filled with different coloured plastic balls and were to pick up coloured balls allocated to us without touching the other coloured balls. This completion taught us the value of good communication and trust in teamwork and leadership.

The next competition that we had to take part in was one where we were supposed to tap number cards in ascending order that was placed in a circle made of rope with the fastest time. But each member could only tap one and only one team member may be physically inside in the boundary of rope at a time or the team would be penalized timely. There were 3 times we had to do this. And each time the arrangement was different. The first there the number of cards were in a clear order but the second time it was random numbers that skipped. The third one was very important as there appeared to be no boundary of rope which was made to be untied. And hence it was concluded by our team that we could all move in to tap the cards saving time. This was a risk as it was explained later but it was the correct risk that was taken as compared to our rival team some of them still waited behind the rope as they still believed the boundary to have existed and so took a much longer time to complete the task. Also, this competition taught us how we should learn to adapt to our surroundings and circumstances and how to make quick risky leadership decisions.

The final competition between the groups on the first day was one which actually consisted of a number of team tasks that have to be completed within the time limit of 30 mins. It was to see which of the teams could complete the most/all of the tasks during that short time. Also, it was required by each team to the first plan and organize their approaches to the tasks before the start of the competition and to estimate the time they expect to be able to finish one task and try to finish it within that estimated time. Hence it was a test of good time management and teamwork. Needless to say none of the teams was able to finish all their tasks in 30 mins however my team was almost able to just short of one. It was an exhilarating competition that put each and every team to the limit.

Day two of the workshop was dedicated to the training of the teams in the form of founding community causes. A way for us to organize our self to create project causes to give back to our society. The teams were given at the end of day one to choose by bidding from various types of journeys which were to give us ideas and educate us on how to carry out our interesting project. Hence we choose the type of journey that would be most related to the project cause that we had in mind. The journey we choose comprised of actually two journeys in one. We first met two youths who had founded a revolution through online media to showcase the social grace of the Singaporean people following a study finding Singapore to be deemed the most uncaring nation in South-East Asia. Their aim was to dispel this misconception of the Singaporean people and also promote more Singaporeans to improve on their social grace. We discussed on how they made their cause a success using social media etc,. and how they implemented it effectively.  Their cause called “The hidden good” which started out as a number of hidden cameras of actors in need of help, asking local Singaporeans for assistance. To test/show how many Singaporeans would be willing to get out of their way to give assistance and this reaction- good/bad was to be shown to the global public. Needless to say, the videos went viral and the cause became media frenzy. Our group also carried out a hidden camera test on the general public to see at first hand the social grace of the locals. 

Meeting up with the two youth Founders Of “Hidden Good”

The other part of the journey was one which involved a close and personal discussion session with local celebrity chef Benny who’s famous for being the first Singaporean to have worked with the famous foreign celebrity chef Jamie Oliver. It was this that propelled him to be a success in the culinary industry. During our meeting, we had a short discussion about his career and life story. He told us his touching story of how he used to be involved in gangs and drug abuse. And being jailed many times he found it difficult to find jobs and many times had to return to a life of crime but his chance to work with James Oliver helped change all that. it was inspiration from the success of his cooking career that he wished to bring the same opportunity to others that are involved in criminal activities and those that are trying to find a way out of life. Hence his cause and the theme of his restaurant the “18 Chefs” was born. The number 18 is synonymous with gangs. And the majority of the employees in the restaurant being former convicts and gang members still involved in gangs but trying to get out. His belief of how such an opportunity was given to him he must give to his fellow. We discussed how he has implemented it and how it was feasible. This close interview with  Chef Benny Inspired me to also start such an ingenious method of rehabilitation in our own home countries. Of which I have had experiences rehabilitating convicts by visiting them in prisons under certain projects.

With Celebrity Chef Benny at his 18 Chefs Restaurant

The lessons that we learnt from the the learning journey was invaluable in planning our project cause for the final group competition and also for any future cause that we may wish to plan to do in our respective countries in the future.

Following that, we headed to Scape at Orchard and we began our work on our group’s cause project. We spent time making a signboard and planned how we were planning on publishing/gathering support for the cause. As well as preparing a presentation of ou cause for later that night. We decided that the cause that we would choose would be one in the lines of “The Hidden Good” A cause which is to promote/ showcase social grace among the locals. Hence we decided to call our cause “Ai ( love) Pass It On”  and which involves 2 parts. The first part is a large montage of post-it notes which can be filled by the public sharing their experience in which a local helped them. This montage was to be updated and then to be placed in a public domain. And the second part was for the proposed. cause to hand out goody bags filled with pairs of items which are meant to be handed to people and then passed on to others. This was in the case for the need to promote the sharing and caring spirit of the locals. We then spent time promoting the cause and collecting feedback/responses for our cause, to be used for the final presentation.

Our Signboard for the Ai (I/love) Pass It On Project

We then had to present/ the pitch that night regarding our cause about the feasibility in funding and what made our cause unique and the creativity of our cause and depending on that we were supposed to convince people from the workshop to gain funding from them and in the end, the funding was tallied to see which cause was the most successful.

This was educating experience as it thought us how to plan our own community causes which knowledge could then be used to plan our own cause back home in our home country. Furthermore, the experience gained from pitching/presenting a cause and trying to convince people to support a cause is an invaluable skill to have.


The next event that had organized by the Temasek Foundation was the  "Temasek learning journey" where we first visited the office of Temasek Foundation for a gathering where we TF scholars both from NUS and NTU introduced ourselves followed by Temasek Foundation and Temasek holdings presenting to us TF Scholars about their organizations and followed up with a Q and A session. Then we were made to share our experience from the programme and show it through using a map. This again they divided us into a number of small groups.                                                                                                                    

We also had a tour of the companies operations and services that they offered. It was remarkable to see that a telecommunications companies offer far more than just the standard telephoning capability but many also other services such as camera open network feeds. They also work in the field of education in the making of voice recognizable translators and teachers.
We were all astounded by the technological capabilities that such corporation have and also slightly intrigued in terms of privacy.


The last and final event that was organized by TF for us TF Scholars was the ASEAN Learning Journey in the first part of which we held a  pre-event called the "Colors of ASEAN Exhibition" with exhibition booth of our ASEAN countries to showcase our countries rich cultures, heritage and tourism areas.


After having lunch we then started the second part of our ALJ event the main event itself. Here we had a number of opening performances such as fashion show performances by our TF scholars and a dance performance by Vietnamese cultural club. We then had speeches given by our guest speakers from the Ministry of education and IBM. We also had a panel discussion with our guest and TF Scholars regarding Youth Empowerment. Followed by the handing of certificates for our participation in the TF LEaRN Programme. And a few presentations by TF Scholars of their learning experiences and a closing remark by the CEO of Temasek Foundation.




The academic experience that I had while NUS under the programme was numerous. I would like to say that I am highly grateful for having had a unique educational experience firstly being part of the Universal Scholars Programme and staying at an academic residential college that even housed Professors was an experience that was something different.  The residential college and programme also hosted a number of unique lectures, events and famous guests that was exclusive to those in the programme.

In addition to NUS being highly ranked in the world, I also had a great opportunity being admitted to the Law School at NUS. Which is ranked as one of the top 10 law schools in the world. And during my studies there I was lectured by highly trained and educated professors. And a notable lecturer and class that I had was a module on “International Police Enforcement Cooperation” which was a course that was remarkably lectured by the Secretary-General of INTERPOL Mr Ronald Noble. This was a unique experience to meet interact and get close and personal and learn from someone that is at the top. With the firsthand experience on the subject. Furthermore, the  module was co-lectured by another UN official, Mr Martha is another expert in the field and has written many books regarding the subject. This was an incredible learning experience to have. It was at first hard coping with the different approach to learning with NUS being a research-based learning university. With the tons of research and assignment papers to be submitted. And The bell curve approach to grading which despite one fairing really well on an exam for a high grade it still depends on ones cohort's performance to finally decide our final grade- if they do better they get a higher grade and your graded lower despite you qualify for a high grading. 

Finally, I would like to thank the Temasek Foundation in my report for organizing such an enriching programme as this. The programme did as its name implied enrich us in Leadership skills, regional networking and more. It brought many talented students from all parts of ASEAN and some parts of Asia to be groomed to be future leaders while at the same time fostering friendships and networks that would last a lifetime. I am highly grateful to have been part of such a prestigious worthwhile programme.

Bonus: TF Scholars 2013 Harlem Shake.