This year, over 5,500 students graduated from SP this year between May 4 and May 8. Among them was Ms Sophia Lai, who graduated on May 4, and received the Tan Kay Yong Gold Medal. This accolade is awarded to a graduate who ranks within the top 5 per cent of the cohort from a design or creative course, showcasing an outstanding portfolio of work.<\/p>\n
Ms Lai\u2019s academic achievements mask the burnout she experienced earlier in life. Throughout secondary school, she struggled with burnout caused by stress and described feeling a sense of \u201cemptiness\u201d.<\/p>\n
She said: \u201cIt felt like a void. I found myself longing for the days when I could genuinely feel emotions.\u201d<\/p>\n
She was also getting single-digit scores in her exams.<\/p>\n
After finishing secondary school, Ms Lai, who has a strong interest in art, turned to drawing visual representations of her emotions and journaling as a way to heal from the hollowness she felt.<\/p>\n
In 2023, she enrolled in SP to pursue a diploma in media, arts and design (creative community engagement with psychology).<\/p>\n
But once she began her diploma studies, she noticed troubling shifts in her lifestyle, including difficulties falling asleep at night and increasingly frequent mood swings. Recognising the need for support, she decided to seek counselling services which are easily booked via the SP website.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Though Ms Lai\u2019s healing journey is ongoing, her counsellor in SP helped her in reshaping her perspective.<\/p>\n Sophia Lai (seated) with friends at Singapore Polytechnic’s graduation ceremony on May 4, 2026.<\/p>\n PHOTO: COURTESY OF SOPHIA LAI<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n She said her counsellor used a simple illustration \u2013 a drawing of a circle inside of a square \u2013 to help her reframe her thinking.<\/p>\n She recalled the counsellor explaining: \u201cThe circle represents all the things you are able to do, and the square represents all the things you want to do. If the circle grows bigger, the square will too. No matter how much you want to, there will always be new corners that you cannot fill.\u201d<\/p>\n As she learnt to deal with her emotions while studying, she combined her interests in art and community service.<\/p>\n During her time in SP, she participated in various local and overseas community engagement projects. For instance, during a trip to Cambodia with Singapore International Foundation, she used art to spark discussions about mental health among Cambodian secondary school students.<\/p>\n \u201cWe asked students to imagine life as a river, and got them to draw what helps their river flow or prevents their river from running smoothly,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Her final-year project was a three-day public exhibition at Tampines Bus Interchange showcasing interactive displays aimed at educating the public on how to interact with individuals with autism while using public transport.<\/p>\n She felt a sense of fulfillment from the conversations she had with the public. \u201cA person with autism said our exhibition made him realise that something he thought should be masked was, in fact, something worth advocating for,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n So spurred by her desire to continue using art to engage the community, she plans to pursue a degree in social work at the National University of Singapore (NUS).<\/p>\n Another SP graduate, Ms Victoria Ann Gore Tay, 23, attributes her career path to the influence of her family.<\/p>\n She completed her diploma in human resource management with psychology and received the Tay Eng Soon Gold Medal on May 4, awarded to the most outstanding graduate formerly from an Institute of Technical Education.<\/p>\n Ms Tay\u2019s mother raised her and her brother single-handedly, which taught her the importance of financial stability.<\/p>\n This led her to take on part-time work at Luckin Coffee while studying at SP. She worked all three years of her course, going from five-hour shifts to classes and vice versa.<\/p>\n \u201cGrowing up, my mum always handled everything herself, so I wanted to ease her burden by not taking pocket money,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Though her mother did not pressure her to do well in school, Ms Tay still strived to do her best.<\/p>\n She would reduce the number of shifts she took on to prepare for tests or deadlines, explaining that she had established a clear boundary since her primary focus was school.<\/p>\n Her efforts earned her a place on the Director\u2019s Honour Roll for two consecutive years, awarded to students in the top 10 per cent of their cohort.<\/p>\n SP graduate Victoria Ann Gore Tay, 23, receives her diploma at Singapore Polytechnic’s graduation ceremony on May 4.<\/p>\n PHOTO: SINGAPORE POLYTECHNIC<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n During her in-house internship at SP, she sought out opportunities to try other areas such as marketing to broaden her experience.\u00a0<\/p>\n Eventually, Ms Tay realised her interests lie in finance and plans to major in Finance at either NUS or Singapore Management University.<\/p>\n This interest is rooted in wanting to take care of her family, she said. \u201cI want to be able to support my family. Everything I do career and school- wise is mostly for them.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n This year, over 5,500 students graduated from SP this year between May 4 and May 8. Among them was Ms Sophia Lai, who graduated on…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":55873,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2611],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-55872","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buzz-headlines","wpcat-2611-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55872","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=55872"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55872\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/55873"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=55872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=55872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=55872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/picture><\/div>
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