My name is Shawn Low and I received my NYAA Gold Award in 2004. At present, I am a third-year student at Harvard College majoring in Molecular and Cellular Biology. I am concurrently pursuing a teaching certification in science through the Harvard Graduate School of Education (GSE) as part of a joint program between the college and the GSE.
My college experience in the United States has been as colorful as it has been exciting. But, rather than bore you with a laundry list of my activities, I wish to share on one aspect of my time here that I have found particularly meaningful - community service.
In my spare time, I am a volunteer with the Horace Mann School for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing in Allston - a short 10 min bus ride away from campus. Horace Mann is the oldest public day school in the United States for Deaf students. The school traces its founding to nearly a century and a half ago, and was associated with historical figures such as Helen Keller and Alexander Graham Bell.
At the school, I am involved in an innovative project in vocational training called Scanworks. Modeled as a ‘business within the classroom’, Scanworks aims to equip Deaf students with digital imaging skills while allowing them to make some pocket money through the profits generated. Students are taught on-the-job and previous clients have included institutions like the Boston Teachers Union and the Allston-Brighton Museum. My role in this project has been two-fold, first as a mentor to these students, and then to advise the students on the operational aspects of the business.
Communication was (and in some sense still is) an issue I had to grapple with right from the start. Coming from Singapore, I am not fluent in American Sign Language (ASL). My knowledge of ASL is limited to those signs shared between the sign language system in Singapore and ASL. Unsurprisingly, when I first started, I felt like much like a duck out of water. I had all these ideas that I wanted to implement with the students, but being new and not knowing the language well were two large impediments.
The new is at once both a challenge and a promise. One thing that I have learnt through the NYAA programme and through my own experience with GAHA is that teething issues are extremely common whenever something new is put in place. It could be a new relationship between people, a new way of doing things, or even a new project altogether. However, this does not imply that one should give up. It just means that more time needs to be devoted to analyze these issues carefully. What I find keeps me going in tough times like that is the promise that an idea holds or what I want to see happen. I find great excitement in this sense of possibility.
Over time, I made an effort to pick up ASL signs relevant to the business. I tried to make use of more non-verbal cues to interact with the students. Instead of shrinking away from them, I forced myself to confront the language barrier. Sure, there were times when it became awkward and we needed to call an interpreter in. However, even as there were difficulties in communicating our ideas, the mutual sense of trust and sincerity was never once questioned. Both sides were willing to make this work. And sure enough, things did progress much faster after those initial weeks.
I have been with Scanworks for nearly one and a half years now and I am happy to say that the business now has a systematic workflow for all incoming and outgoing jobs. I helped to develop a system of accounting for all new jobs to ensure a high level of quality control. In fact, the students themselves saw the value of having a proper system in place to organize work especially when the work orders started to pile up. Personally, if they were able to recognize the value of systems in organizing work, at least half of the class objectives would have already been achieved - for they would then bring that same mindset and apply it in whatever field they may endeavor.
Volunteering with Scanworks has been a meaningful way for me to spend part of my mornings each week. I think it is an interesting model of education that is quite unlike anything that I have seen in Singapore. Nonetheless, regardless of how novel or revolutionary this concept may be, I still find in it the same ingredients that make any successful project - hard work, ingenuity and resilience.
This year, the Switzerland- Singapore Bi-lateral Youth Exchange Programme has successfully came back to Singapore again! 11 Switzerland Youth delegates, led by a group of NYAA Gold Award holders, were involved in a full 12day programme from 9to 20 October 2009with the theme,”Around Singapore and Cultural Exchange Experiences.”
‘A picture is worth a thousand words’, how about a video? Uploaded in the Singapore - Switzerland Exchange Programme 2009Facebook account is a video that describes the journey that all of us have been through together. Our friendship further strengthened and at the end of each day, we all lamented that it meant another day less for us to interact. Every moment was treasured; interacting and exchanging individual cultural knowledge to let our Swiss friends learn more about Singapore by touring and experiencing activities related to a Singaporean lifestyle.
The Swiss youth visited various interesting places in Singapore, For instance, they did a home visit which helped them understand our ‘pigeon hole’ HDB living. They also visited different heritage centres to learn more about our local history and how Singapore was developed. They have also been to Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve to understand our local flora and fauna.They had the chance to attend a Meet-the-People Session with a Member of Parliament and they were also able to visit different religious buildings and experience many other exciting adventures.
Enriching, engaging, educational and memorable are the few words to end off this Switzerland- Singapore Bi-lateral Youth Exchange Programme 2009. Three cheers! Many thanks to the organizing team; sponsoring and supporting companies and institutes; and last but not least; the delegates (Switzerland and Singapore) involved in this exchange programme. Friends parted with a Beautiful Big Smile! Hip Hip Hurray!!!
Once in a while, when feeling nostalgic, I reflect on my life and wonder how different it would be if I hadn’t participated in the NYAA. I would not have participated in an ASEAN Youth Forum, and certainly would not have trekked through the Jordanian desert. Never could I imagine that I would shake hands with our President, or with British Royalty. However, it’s less these events themselves, but more the impact they’ve had on me, that is worth telling others about.
The NYAA allowed me, early in my life, exposure to other cultures, opportunity to interact with people from different backgrounds. “Seek to understand before seeking to be understood” is considered a smart way of developing good relationships (business and person); this is an important lesson I learned early by participating in and hosting NYAA exchange programs. Mr. James Soh and Ms. Aileen Yap of the NYAA Council were kind to me when I made naïve errors, and taught me very personal lessons that everyone deserved a second, third, and fourth chance. Here in the Silicon Valley, I am privileged to be surrounded by smart and ambitious people, but am not impressed by that alone. When colleagues or friends talk about how smart and capable someone is, I always ask if that person is a good person. Are they kind to their friends and family? Are they considerate to strangers? Do they care about others, or just about themselves? People with intellect and drive impress me, but not nearly as much as people who use their intellect and drive to better the lives of others – there so many examples of such goodness in the NYAA and GAHA. Award Participants and Holders who seek to positively impact people around them are inspirations for me.
In my current job, I apply the scientific training I’ve received over 6.5 years in grad school, but even more than that, I apply the people skills that I started to develop 17 years ago when I joined the NYAA. On a daily basis, I interact with Vice-Presidents, Staff Scientists with PhDs, business managers, lawyers. I also manage several technicians, and in the short time that I’ve been at the company have evolved into the role of mentor for young engineers, and technicians. My friends and colleagues and bosses tell me that I am independent, confident, responsible, capable, adaptable, persistent, resilient and reliable. Would those qualities be so central to my character if not for the NYAA? I’d rather not find out, because, and please forgive my self-indulgence, I’m quite happy with the way things turned out.
From the bottom of my heart, I can say that participating in the NYAA program is one of the best things I’ve done. With all sincerity, I hope that you have, or will develop, similarly positive feelings about the impact of the NYAA in your life.
First of all, a warm welcome to Vintage 2008 of the GAHA Family! We hope all of you had a wonderful time at the Orientation on 27 Sep 08 and the Ceremony on 3 Oct 08. Also a big thank you once again to the members who volunteered their time to help out at the Orientation and Ceremony.
There is no shortage of activities, which await those of you who are ready to Serve Beyond Gold. Some examples are listed below, together with the contact information of the GAHA Exco you can write to if you would like to find out more or to help out.
So if you’re interested, feel free to drop any of us an email to find out more. In your emails, it would be useful also if you stated your background and any specific areas you feel you would be able to contribute in (e.g. if you are a physiotherapist and would like to do sessions for the elderly; if you have access to dragonboating facilities and you think it would be good for a social activity, etc.)
Please cc info[ at ] nyaagaha.org (if not already in the main email) in any emails to us so that we can better keep track of your correspondences.
As some of the activities may be a few months or more than a year away, please bear with us if we do not respond immediately with the details. Nevertheless, you can expect a friendly email acknowledging receipt from us.
NYAA GAHA Singapore, represented by Oliver Goh and Ailson Lee, and led by Dr Ken Ong, were invited to participate in an International Youth Exchange Program held in Russia, Republic of Karelia, Petrozavodsk, from 3 to 13 August 2008.
The Singapore delegates arrived at the Moscow airport on 2nd August, and were joined by the South Africans and Sri Lankan for a 16-hours, 1000km railway journey to the Republic of Karelia. While waiting for the midnight train, the Singapore delegation together with their newly make South African friends had a 2 hours Moscow city adventure. From plotting the way to the red square, maneuvered through the maze of the Russian metro, bought very own tickets, reached there and had the time of their lives just standing in the majesty of everything, getting lost on the way back to one of the 3 long distance train stations, all the while, unable to speak a single word of Russian and without a Russian guide.
During the 10 days interacting with the Russian, the Singapore delegation learns lots about the Russia Language, culture, political situation as well as their thinking. Through smiles, thumbs up gestures and repeated utterances of the word “spasibo” which is thank you in the Russian language, the delegation managed to somewhat communicate with the Russian and share each other culture.
The objective of the camp was to build trust among the Award family internationally, hence the theme “Trust the world”. Ms Elena ANTOSHKO, first deputy minister of national policy and relations with religious organizations of the Republic of Karelia, president of IYPM “Award Association”, and camp director shared the important of learning tolerance, love and understanding of unavoidable differences between people. More importantly, learn of hope, the possibility of peace and the need to trust. The program and activities carried out at the camp were hence designed to promote and develop trust among the youth.
