Graduating with distinction

More than 8,600 graduates received their degrees over 18 Convocation ceremonies this year

By Toh Ting Wei

CENTRE STAGE: It has proved to be a bountiful two months for national floorballer Glendon Phua. After stepping onto the podium as part of national floorball team which secured a SEA Games gold in June, he built on his success by representing his SBS cohort as their valedictorian.
PHOTO: MIKE YIP

He stepped onto the podium to receive a SEA Games floorball gold medal in June, and less than two months later, Glendon Phua took centre stage again — this time as the valedictorian for the graduating batch of the School of Biological Sciences.

The 25-year-old was among the 8,639 NTU graduates who received their bachelor’s and higher degrees over the last two weeks over 18 Convocation Ceremonies, and the opportunity to deliver the speech capped what Phua described as a “perfect four years in NTU”.

He said: “I am very lucky to have two great opportunities this year, to represent my country and to represent my cohort.

“My only target in university was to achieve a first class honours, and I am very happy to have achieved it.”

The teacher-in-training will be moving on to the National Institute of Education for his Postgraduate Diploma in Education studies under a Ministry of Education teaching award, and is hoping to return to his alma mater Meridian Junior College to teach biology in the future.

Phua, who will be starting on his second year as the captain of the university’s Institute-Varsity-Polytechnic Games, credits his success to hard work and support of his family, friends and girlfriend. However, he is not resting on his laurels yet, and is instead hoping that these achievements will be a sign of things come.

“They are milestones, but they are not achievements that define what I will be. Hopefully, I will see greater successes down the road. I expect things to get better.”

For his batchmates who are embarking on their careers, their prospects also appear to be more promising this year. In a preliminary survey conducted by NTU last month of more than 5,000 graduands, almost seven in 10 fresh graduates said they secured jobs before graduation. This represents a slight improvement from the Class of 2014, where two in three secured jobs before graduation.

LOOKING UP: Frank Quek, who runs an e-commerce business with three staff, is looking to grow his business further now that he can focus on it without having to juggle academic commitments.
PHOTO: LI HAOLUN

Among this group of graduates are students such as Frank Quek, 25, who have gone down the route of entrepreneurship.

Quek, who graduated with a double degree in Business and Computer Science, started his own e-commerce platform in his second year at NTU. While he admits that entrepreneurship is a riskier path to take as compared to finding a job, he hopes to push ahead with his business now that academic commitments are out of the way.

“Starting my own business was  something that I contemplated for very longb , because the success rate is very low for entrepreneurs.

“I have friends who secured starting pays of more than $4,500, but I wanted to do something on my own,” he said.

He added that he had initiated his own computer hardware business in secondary school, but was encouraged by his father to concentrate on his studies then. While he has fulfilled his long-running goal of embarking on his own business venture, Quek is keeping his expectations in check.

He said: “I will give myself three to five years to try to succeed with my business, and if not, I will find a job outside.

“If I do not try now, it will only get harder in the future, and I do not want to have any regrets.”