Suen Wai Kit, SP Undergraduate Scholar

Suen Wai Kit
Diploma in Media, Arts and Design (Story & Content)
Class of 2021

Recipient of:SP Undergraduate Scholar
Mediacorp Course Silver Medallist Award
Media, Arts and Design School Director’s Honour Roll (AY 2022/2023, AY 2023/2024)
Mediacorp “Best FYP pitch” Award
Mediacorp FYP Brilliance Award

My journey with SP spanned an unusual seven years - simply calling it transformative would be underselling it. For me, it was a character-defining experience. If my life were a multi-season Netflix show, my journey with SP would be a whole season - one full of challenges, discovery, and growth.

When I first stepped into Singapore Polytechnic in 2017, I wasn’t the same person I am today. My journey had its ups and downs, starting with a rocky beginning in Mechanical Engineering - a course I had chosen to enrol in without true passion. Even with the help of kind lecturers, I struggled and eventually left with what I now humorously call a "bottle drink GPA". Dropping out prematurely left me with profound uncertainty about my life's direction. I was left adrift and apprehensive, lacking clear guidance and a straightforward educational path. I had singlehandedly compromised my future - it now looked bleak and hopeless. Yet, this setback became the much-needed catalyst for my eventual return to SP. Through reflection and self-discovery during my National Service (NS) as a media lead, I rediscovered my passion and the power of content creation - to inform, educate, and inspire.

After NS, I decided to resume my studies and discovered that SP Media, Arts and Design School (MAD) offers a diploma with multiple specialisations. I enrolled in the Media, Arts, and Design School, specialising in Story and Content Creation. I immersed myself in projects and opportunities provided by the school - including extra-curricular ones - to hone my storytelling skills. One of the most memorable experiences was a short documentary film I produced with a team for the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF), where we followed a family’s life-changing journey as they moved from a 1-room rental flat to their very own 4-room HDB flat. Projects like these remind me of the power of media to tell inspiring stories and the possibility of uplifting lives through the lens.

What made my SP experience incredible was the community - a network of remarkably supportive lecturers, peers, and alumni who returned periodically to share their experiences in the media industry. To a student, prima facie, the media industry looks ironically opaque. However, with the support of this community, navigating it transformed from a daunting challenge into a far more manageable journey. The most unforgettable chapter of my SP journey, however, came in the form of a 6-month internship with CNA Digital, as a desk and visual journalist. As a desk journalist, I had the opportunity to cover and write about events like the DBS data centre outage and the Presidential Elections, among others. Meanwhile, as a visual journalist, I documented a wide range of stories, such as ex-transport Minister S Iswaran’s State Court appearance, Coldplay’s ‘Music of The Spheres’ concert, and even the Bukit Batok murder. This role was extraordinarily challenging, but also extremely fulfilling. As I transferred my classroom learnings to the role and picked up new skills on the job, I saw that it translated into impact in real-time, on a national and regional level.

I am now an SP Undergraduate Scholar pursuing a major in Politics, Law and Economics at SMU, building upon the storytelling skills I picked up in MAD and CNA Digital. As the SP Undergraduate Scholarship is bond-free, it lends freedom to explore and consider diverse opportunities and chart my career paths more flexibly in the future, especially since the media industry is ever-evolving. Without worrying about finances, I can participate more actively on campus and go on overseas exchange programmes to experience the world and diverse cultures firsthand, thus broadening my perspectives - essential for an aspiring journalist.

To me, SP is not just a regular place, a tertiary educational institution, or a school that shaped my future aspirations. It is a mould that has fundamentally improved me as a person, one that provided me invaluable opportunities to grow for close to a decade.

Advice for Juniors:

“It is always daunting to learn something new, to challenge yourself in new environments with freshly acquired skills - this is evermore true for a risk-averse me. But trial by fire is always the fastest and surest way to learn.”

“Don’t see failure as the flip side of a coin to success - see it as a stepping stone to it instead, and failure becomes much easier to bear.”