S’pore Polytechnic bags Asean award

23 Oct 2015

The Straits Times, 23 Oct 2015 - SP was named the national winner of the inaugural Asean People’s Award for its efforts at regional community building over the years. The polytechnic beat seven organisations and 15 individuals who were nominated for the award during a public nomination exercise earlier this year. SP’s efforts include organising the annual Youth Model Asean Conference (YMAC) that allowed 300 students from across South-east Asia to take on the roles of diplomas to discuss challenges in their different homelands and how to solve them. Other regional community building efforts include 84 overseas community service projects since 2010 that has benefitted 1,800 students. The projects include building infrastructure works, providing healthcare and teaching English to people in other Asean countries. Under the polytechnic’s Learning Express programme which began in 2013, 900 students also got the opportunity to spend a fortnight staying in another Asean country to brainstorm solutions for the community’s problems. As a result of these three initiatives, SP was picked as the winner by a panel of four judges including former Community Chest chairman Jennie Chua as well as ambassadors-at-large Tommy Koh, Chan Heng Chee and Ong Keng Yong. The award comes with a US$10,000 (S$14,000) cash grant and all 10 recipients will receive the award in a ceremony next month at the 27th Asean Summit in Kuala Lumpur. SP’s Diploma in Business Administration student Laura Lau, who is also this year’s YMAC Secretary-General opined on how YMAC has given her the opportunity to better understand her peers in the region.