[Above (from left): Sherlene Chatterji,19, Chang Ze Xun,20, Ng Chew Lip,26, Desmond Thiam Wei, 20,Chng Luey Chun,19 and Goh Jia Hui,17 at SEAMEO Regional Language Centre.]
IT WAS his mother's dying wish that he work hard and make something of himself.
Now, Institute of Technical Education College West mechanical- engineering graduate Chang Ze Xun, 20, has done his mother proud by making the cut to enrol in Singapore Polytechnic.
Yesterday, Mr Chang was presented with the inaugural Lee Hsien Loong Award for Outstanding All-Round Achievement (LHL-OAA) - on top of two other special awards - at a ceremony honouring 122 students like him.
Held at the the South-east Asian Ministers of Education Organisation's Regional Language Centre in Orange Grove Road, nine categories of awards were presented.
Besides the LHL-OAA, another new award, the Lee Hsien Loong Outstanding Bicultural Students (LHL-OBS) award, was also presented to the top two students from the Bicultural Special Programme (Chinese).
The programme is a four-year A-level course offered to secondary three students in four schools.
Said Mr Chang, the only triple- award winner in this year's batch: "I told my mother the good news about the awards I won before she died (from breast cancer) in June. She was very happy and proud of me."
He was one of four recipients of the LHL-OAA award - funded by an endowment donated by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong last year - to recognise the outstanding academic and non-academic achievements of post-secondary school students.
The Special Awards Presentation Ceremony was attended by Mrs Lim Hwee Hua, Minister in the Prime Minister's Office and Second Minister for Transport and Finance, who was also the guest of honour at the ceremony.
Also present were teachers and family members of the award recipients.
Prizes for the Lee Kuan Yew Award for Mathematics and Science, and The Prime Minister's Book Prize, were in the form of vouchers, while the other awards were cash awards.
Mrs Lim said that the awards recognised the many achievements of the recipients and affirmed their abilities. This certainly rings true for 20-year-old student Desmond Thiam.
Mr Thiam was the first Singapore Polytechnic student to get into the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine at the National University of Singapore. He received the LHL-OAA, and the LKY maths and science award yesterday.
He said: "We must all know what we are fighting for in life. For me, I knew what it was. I aimed for it and achieved it."
schang@sph.com.sg
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