FASS won the Top Achievement Award and Leap Award in this year’s Inter-faculty competition for the annual Commencement Class Giving campaign. The awards give recognition to the Faculty for the overall participation rate and the biggest improvement in participation rate of our undergraduate and postgraduate students respectively. This is the first time since the competition started in 2011 that FASS has won the Top Achievement Award for attaining the highest participation rate among faculties with over 1,200 graduating students.

The annual giving campaign is an initiative by NUS Development Office (DVO) that runs across the campus in a spirit of friendly competition to inspire commencing students to support bursaries or student programmes for their juniors. It is a collaborative effort with the External Relations and Student Life Division (ERSL) at the faculty.

The Leap Award is one of the two new categories that was added to the competition this year. The other new category is the Outstanding Achiever Award, which gives recognition to the top five fundraisers among more than 100 class champions campus-wide. We are proud to share that our Class Champions, Sin Xin Yi (Psychology) and Navin V. Wadhwani (Geography) came in 1st and 4th respectively for the Outstanding Achiever Award. On his experience as Class Champion, Xin Yi said: “After getting over the initial awkwardness of asking my friends and batch mates for their donations, I became more comfortable striking conversations with people I did not know, and telling them about the Campaign and how meaningful it would be to contribute to the Bursaries to support their juniors in financial aid.”

As a Class Champion, Navin was grateful for the opportunity to reaffirm old friendships with his fellow majors and make new ones with fellow Class Champions from FASS and other faculties. He said: “At the end of the day the Champions are just the final link in the chain, the heart of the Giving campaign are the donors and graduates themselves. Their contributions, no matter large or small, add up to something much bigger and meaningful in the long run.”

It is heartening to see an increasing number of Class Champions over the past few years. The Champions has made great and worthwhile effort to encourage their cohort to raise funds for the FASS Student Advancement Bursary in the midst of their own honours theses and assignments. These Class Champions will assume the role of Class Ambassadors after their graduation, and we look forward to continue working with them to enhance the connectivity among the alumni as well as with FASS.

We would like to thank the following Class Champions for their commendable efforts:

1. Lim Bee Leng (Chinese Studies)
2. Hsu Chen (Chinese Studies)
3. Dominic Pang Jing Ping (Japanese Studies)
4. Karen Ang Yunn Harn (Japanese Studies)
5. Nurain Bte Mohammed Zulkepli (Malay Studies)
6. Saraln Udomkichdecha (Southeast Asian Studies)
7. Alicia Chua Mei Yin (English Language)
8. Elliot Marcell Tan Yen Yun (English Literature)
9. Chan Mun Keet Walter (Theatre Studies)
10. Wang Shu Qin Sandy (History)
11. Siti Rasyidah Bte Shiek A H (History)
12. Adeline Chang See Mun (European Studies)
13. Leong Jie Xiang (Philosophy)
14. Esther Phua Ying Li (Philosophy)
15. Toh Di Di Andy (Communications and New Media)
16. Lee Sian Kang Philip (Communications and New Media)
17. Teh Tien Li Cheryl (Communications and New Media)
18. Kee Hwee Leng Amanda (Communications and New Media)
19. Tey Shou Heng Jason (Economics)
20. Swee Cheng Wei (Economics)
21. Lui Yong Sheng (Economics)
22. Jeslyn Tan Yi Ting (Economics)
23. Sin Yueh Taur Anita (Geography)
24. Navin Vijay Wadhwani (Geography)
25. Zheng Zhangxin (Environmental Studies)
26. Shaun Tay Yue Ming (Political Science)
27. Law Yong Xiang Clement (Political Science)
28. Kenrick Chin Jin Rui (Political Science)
29. Christopher Chia Sheng Hui (Political Science)
30. Muhammad Khairul Bin Abdul Rahim (Global Studies)
31. Sin Xin Yi (Psychology)
32. Soh Chang Yuan (Psychology)
33. David Seah Teck Wai (Social Work)
34. Chan Jianhong (Social Work)
35. Damien Wong Li Jian (Sociology)
36. Chang Siong Wei Angelique (Sociology)