An alumni from the class of 2018, Jin Wen is an HDB scholar who will be pursuing his undergraduate studies in Urban Planning, Design and Management at University College London. Back in NJC, Jin Wen was an active contributor both within and outside of the college, taking on roles such as the President of the Junior Council, and the Leader of Project Elderly Fitness (ELF) under YouthCorps Singapore (YCS). In addition, he was also selected to represent Singapore at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) in 2018. For his outstanding achievements, he was awarded the Lim Kim Woon Award in 2019. In this article, Jin Wen shares about his experiences back in NJC, as well as his motivations for his choice of course and scholarship.
What got you interested to pursue Urban Planning, Design and Management as part of your undergraduate studies at University College London?
I think a big part of my interest in urban planning started in Secondary 3 when I first entered the NUS National Geography Challenge, where I learned about this idea called “sustainability”. For the challenge, I had to carry out research on public opinion of the environmental quality in Singapore. I became aware of concepts of green space planning, pedestrianisation, car-lite policy and initiatives.
I vividly remember one study I read while preparing for this competition on different city grid plans and layouts. This allowed planners to alter flow of traffic and encourage citizens to use public transport. Initiatives such as integrated transport applications were also researched to allow citizens to reduce their carbon footprint while traveling from one place to another. After the competition, I started to realize how city planning can alter our behaviour to pursue a greener option.
Beyond school, I also happen to witness planners coming down to an aging neighbourhood, engaging the elderly in brainstorming for the location and amenities of the new communal hall. Seeing how urban planners act as a bridge between the bottom up feedback and top down planning convinced me that urban planning is more than just structural planning, but a way to empathise with the people and amplify their voices. This resonated deeply with me from my experience in student council to help improve the school, and from my volunteering activities where I seek to meet the needs of the community.
After graduation, in my National Service, I was fortunately given the chance to explore the use of geomapping software for army applications such as Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR). By analysing aerial photographs of roads, targeted disaster zones and open areas, rescue routes and places of evacuation can be planned for and suggested. Being placed in this unique military vocation has renewed my passion in urban planning as I can see the similarities of the skillset employed in urban planning processes. In both situations, there are no predetermined solutions and substantial justification has to be given for the suggested urban design or rescue route, based on contextual information of the area outlined. The experiences I had from school and my military vocation has and will continue to amaze me how urban planning is able to drive societies forward and build communities.
All these instances in my life have made me believe that urban planning is a job that is demanding in both the technical skillset and designing solutions to meet people’s needs. Therefore, during my National Service, I applied for the Urban Planning, Design and Management programme in University College London, where I intend to study to become an urban planner for Singapore.
What inspired you to take on the HDB Overseas Scholarship?
I once read an opinion that said “Shelter, water and food are three basic needs for any human. Yet, it is so difficult to ensure everyone has equal access to these three basic needs.” As I learnt about the topics of water and housing issues under the H2 Geography syllabus, it became apparent that societies around the world have trouble allocating resources and making sure everyone is able to meet these basic needs.
Failure to provide for affordable housing has caused people their quality of living, and in certain cases - death due to lack of sanitation. Slums and settlements such as Favelas in Brazil are a result of exorbitant prices of housing coupled with poor planning, hence communities are often better off building their own houses in the outskirts of cities. On the other hand, overcrowding and substandard housing in India are main reasons for outbreaks of diseases such as cholera.
Even in developed countries such as the United States, housing remains a problem for the poor as they are unable to pay for utilities or rent, whereas middle income families are increasingly spending a larger proportion of their income on housing. Contrasting these examples with Singapore’s housing development have allowed me appreciate the extensive and meticulous planning of our towns and policies, and increased my curiosity towards the community building ability of HDB.
Towns are planned for with rich details and purpose. Maintaining public housing is not an easy task, it requires a lot of thinking, planning, cross ministry and statutory board collaboration in order to meet the needs of the people. Even in Singapore, the public housing programme and town planning is not perfect. The most recent development of the Tengah Forest Town, HDB’s first “Car-lite Town”, only retains 10% of its original forest, with many critics protesting about the loss of wildlife habitats to create an eco-corridor.
For urban planners, the continual struggle between development and preservation will always be an important point of discussion as Singapore develops. How will Singapore move forward as more people become conscious of global warming and their carbon footprint? Although this problem has no silver bullet, I wish to be part of this effort that ultimately settles on a comfortable balance between the two ideals.
Back in NJC, you took on a multitude of leadership responsibilities, including those as the President of the Junior Council, Programme-In-Charge for the 2017 National Day Celebrations Organising Committee, as well as Leader of Project Elderly Fitness (ELF) under YouthCorps Singapore (YCS). How would you describe your leadership style?
I don’t think that I have a particular leadership “style”, but I do have some values and philosophy that I follow while leading. One of the most important values that I try to uphold is for everyone to have a voice in a group.
I enjoy listening to other people’s opinions, especially during the brainstorming phase, because I like to hear about ideas and perspectives that are vastly different from mine. The clashing of ideas and opinions, when carefully moderated, can produce high quality ideas and framework which all members can agree to.
Out of all of my event/project planning experience, I always remembered the long hours sitting down, going through each item one by one and making sure each segment of the programme is deliberated with all members. Through these sessions, everyone is able to possess the big picture of the programme, which ensures that each decision in the project is supported by a strong rationale, agreed upon by everyone. This makes delegation of work a lot easier when members are clear on which part of the project to work on.
What do you think are some of your key takeaways from these experiences?
I think one of my main takeaways is that you have to really believe in your project/ purpose of your project in order to succeed. Throughout my six years in NJC, I had the privilege to work with so many passionate and skilled individuals. What struck me the most is when all these individuals truly believe in the project they work on, they will do whatever it takes to make sure that their work delivers.
These individuals do not settle with mere completion of their tasks and duties - they possess a certain level of professionalism in their work quality that is consistent throughout the whole project. You will see them taking the extra step to check with other members to ensure everything is on track, or refining their work continually to better align their work to the overall purpose of the project.
They taught me to not only do my own part, but go beyond my own role and ask myself if I am satisfied with my own work.
For your contributions to Project Elderly Fitness (ELF) under YouthCorps Singapore, you were selected to represent Singapore in the International Association for Volunteer Effort (IAVE) Regional Volunteer Conference.
Could you share with us about your journey from founding Project ELF to passing it onto your juniors at YouthCorp? What motivated you to start the project, were there any struggles you faced along the way, and how did you ensure that your project was sustainable?
Motivation
When I started my journey under the Youth Corps Leaders Programme, I was assigned to TOUCH community services, who issued my team one challenge – to try and introduce the concept of exercising to an aging neighbourhood that was not in reach from their service centre.
The area we chose was this area which is separated from the central activity area of TOUCH Homecare service, due to a steep staircase, a road and long walking distance which discouraged the elderly from attending any of the activities organized by the community service.
When we surveyed the neighborhood, we heard that some of the elderly are unwilling to leave their house because there were no errands to run; they also think that they are unable to move around freely outside. Instead, they just stayed at home, listening to their radio or watching the television.
From this ground-sensing session, we realized that we needed to address key perceptions of the elderly. Thus, our group decided to initiate an exercise programme for the elderly which was the most direct and effective method in promoting a healthy lifestyle. Our team also wanted to improve the flexibility of elderly – which is critical as it can lower the risk of falling for the elderly. In fact, in Singapore, 20% of the elderly above 50 experience falling at least once. We were also looking into the prevention of sarcopenia – a loss of muscle mass as people age. After much discussion and consultation from healthcare professionals, our team decided that resistance band exercises would be most suitable as it provides the opportunity for strength and flexibility exercises for the elderly.
Problem of Sustainability
Like all volunteer programmes, our team faced a similar problem of sustainability. What happens after the programme ends? In our team, we have members who are going to university, and certainly will not be able to commit to run the exercise programme. The idea of sustainability seems implausible, but our team had planned the handover of the project to a group of regular volunteers.
Our team realized that logistics can be obtained easily, but human resources are crucial for the programme. The volunteers are a catalyst for new friendships to be formed between the elderly, and help guide the elderly in the exercises.
Hence, our team ensured that proper orientation for the volunteers was properly done before the start of the exercise programme. The orientation includes the demonstration of the exercises by the planning members of the exercise programme – to ensure that the volunteers are equipped with the correct knowledge of each exercise. Our team also introduced the landscape and environment to the volunteers – and explained the constraints the elderly face and the lack of exercise habits among the elderly.
All these preparation was meticulously planned and carried out because our team believed that the volunteers will make a difference in the success of the project. Our team believed that to empower volunteers to take ownership of the project, it was important for them to understand the beneficiaries they are serving and do more than just helping out at an exercise programme.
To prepare them to lead a new team for subsequent sessions, our team began to allow volunteers to job shadow some of our team members’ roles- such as registration and even the demonstration of the exercises. This allowed volunteers to see some of the behind-the-scenes work. Overtime, our team began to assign important roles such as registration in charge or even the main demonstrator to the volunteers. This way, the volunteers can be more accustomed to the different roles.
Surprisingly, some of the volunteers with a background in physiotherapy even suggested some additional exercises in these reflection sessions. Our team listened to these feedbacks seriously, and incorporated them into the exercise programme as well. This allowed volunteers to feel a sense of ownership to the project, as they are able to lead the change in the project themselves.
Thus, after 10 consecutive sessions, our team was glad that out of the pool of 30 volunteers we had, 8 of them stood up and took the lead to take up this project to continue helping the elderly. Their positive experience in the first run of the project built up their confidence, they possess a sense of purpose, a sense of ownership and a sense of belonging during the course of these ten weeks. These propelled them to continue serving the community to help more elderly live a healthier lifestyle.
How did you manage to juggle your academic work and your extra-curricular commitments? Are there any tips that you would like to share with the juniors on how they can manage their time more efficiently?
I think in order to juggle academic work and extracurricular commitments, you need to be very aware of your priorities. You need to have a very good idea of how long you take to complete your tasks so as to plan your time wisely. This includes having a sense of how confident you are in the different subjects you are taking, and how much extra time you need to dedicate in order to master the content/ concept. Knowing yourself well will help you immensely in the long run when you need to allocate time to do different things.
For myself, I always make sure I do not put off my academic workload till a later date; if there is homework given by the teacher, I will try and complete the tutorial questions by the same day so that I can make time for other activities. During lessons, I tend to read ahead of the class and stay attentive during class so that I fully understand the concept. I squeezed in time to revise before assembly, and did my homework during recess and breaks. On my way back home every day, I read my notes and academic journals. I did the more difficult tasks when I reached home, such as having an online meeting with my volunteer group, or writing my H3 project report.
Communicating and seeking understanding with your various commitments will help as well. During exam season, you may need to tone down your commitment in volunteering or CCA. Do not be afraid to raise these concerns to your group. In exchange, please give them a hand when they are busy as well so that projects can run smoothly.
Within the 6 years you spent in NJC, were there any moments where you faced a significant setback? If so, how did you bounce back from them?
A significant setback I experienced was during H3 Research in NJC. To give some context, the H3 Research programme period stretches for one whole year, and the deadline for the final report was at the end of December. Throughout the entire year, none of my experiments worked. There were no results that I could use to prove/disprove my hypothesis. It was increasingly frustrating when I spent the entire year troubleshooting each and every step of my experiments, but still failed to obtain any usable data. I tried changing many things, from apparatus to procedures, but the results were lacking. I was growing anxious as well, because beyond the background information, I had no content to show my examiners.
During this time, my research mentor reassured me, saying that failure was part and parcel of research. He told me to think about the materials I have, the necessary data needed to prove my hypothesis and to weigh out the different options I have before carrying out experiments, as materials were running low. From there, I consulted other researchers for their inputs, and read many different journals to find out the source of the problem. I then chanced upon a small detail of one experimental procedure in an obscure paper which I modified in my own experiment.
Finally, two weeks before the submission of my report, I obtained the first data which I could use in my report. I persisted, stayed in the research lab past dinner time, sometimes almost missing the last train, to maximize the number of experiments I can carry out.
I believe this experience taught me a very important lesson that even though all odds are against you, you should not panic. You should always think rationally and calmly about the next step. Do not be afraid of setbacks, instead embrace them and struggle hard. This way, you will not regret putting your time and effort in anything you do.
What do you miss the most about NJC now that you’ve graduated?
I think I missed the people in school the most. These are the people who made me who I am today, be it the teachers, canteen stall aunties and uncles, CCA mates and friends. Regardless of how small of the interactions we had in NJC, I truly believe that it changed a really small part of myself - to see things from a different perspective, to learn new skills, or to just listening to others. All these interactions combined have made me who I am today.
What is one piece of advice you would give to your juniors back in NJC who are still trying to figure out the direction they want to head in after graduating?
Don’t hesitate and just try everything out! You might never know when a particular competition, lecture, or online class leads you to a university course/job that you might apply for in the future. You may not always enjoy the experience, but at least you discovered what you are not interested in.
If you already develop a slight interest in studying a particular major or choosing a particular career, please do your research and find out all about the course/career you might be interested in. Go to forums, YouTube and ask your seniors about the course/career! (Through NJGradNet hehe)