SINGAPORE \u2013 As a secondary school student, there were several times when Jade Ow arrived at an empty classroom after recess, thinking she was the first one back.<\/p>\n
But when no one else entered after 10 minutes, she would rush around the school searching for her classmates and teacher, who would actually be in another venue, like the science laboratories.<\/p>\n
\u201cProbably there was an instruction telling everybody to go down to Lab 2, but I didn\u2019t hear it… That happened a lot in secondary school,\u201d said Jade, adding that incidents like these often led to misunderstandings.<\/p>\n
Diagnosed with hearing loss at just five months old during a milestone check-up, Jade, now 24, said this was one of several challenges she faced in school as a student with a disability.<\/p>\n
Once a \u201clone figure\u201d in school, as described by her father, she slowly grew in confidence as she found her place and voice in a creative career.<\/p>\n
The theatre studies graduate from the National University of Singapore (NUS) will be heading to Britain\u2019s Oxford University in September to pursue her master\u2019s under a prestigious scholarship.<\/p>\n
In recognition of her leadership and dedication to inclusivity in the arts, Jade was chosen from among nine finalists in Singapore to become the nation\u2019s 31st Rhodes scholar. The postgraduate scholarship is given to exceptional students from around the world to study at Oxford.<\/p>\n
Without hearing aids, she picks up about 30 per cent to 40 per cent of regular speech at a normal speaking volume, and even then only with some effort.<\/p>\n
However, despite wearing hearing aids from the age of six months, she always found them uncomfortable and eventually stopped using them after graduating from Eunoia Junior College in 2020.<\/p>\n
Jade said the devices amplified background noise, making it harder to hear and focus on what people said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThroughout school, I also found that wearing hearing aids became a marker of difference,\u201d she said, adding that she struggled with social interactions and making friends in primary and secondary schools.<\/p>\n
After her diagnosis of moderate to severe hearing loss, her parents supported her with speech therapy and phonetics classes and by reading to her extensively at home.<\/p>\n
She eventually became an adept lip-reader, but that meant she had to look directly at a person to understand what they were saying.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I am not looking directly at the person, or if I was trying to work on something else like typing a document at the same time, the entire conversation may fly over my head,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Her father, Ow Weng Keong, 57, told The Straits Times that he knew Jade was a \u201clone figure in school\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlmost every day when she came back (from school), she would have lots of stories to tell about the garden… So that was how I gathered that she would spend all the recess periods alone,\u201d said Ow, a vice-principal.<\/p>\n Jade with her father, Ow Weng Keong, a vice-principal, and her mother, Ong Chui Hoon, a teacher.<\/p>\n ST PHOTO: NG SOR LUAN<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n While she struggled to fit in larger groups, Jade found solace in a few friends.<\/p>\n In primary school, her best friend was a girl named Snigdha Sri, who also struggled to fit in.<\/p>\n \u201cWe bonded over our challenges… and though we didn\u2019t go to the same secondary school, we are still very close now,\u201d Jade said, adding that Sri is currently in London practising law.<\/p>\n Jade with her primary school friend Snigdha Sri.<\/p>\n PHOTO: COURTESY OF JADE OW<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n In CHIJ St Nicholas Girls\u2019 School (Secondary), Jade said, it was hard to blend in, and not being able to hear well often led to misunderstandings and people perceiving her as rude.<\/p>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t understand at that age that there was no way I could blend in… Now I tell people upfront that I\u2019m a lip-reader and ask for their understanding, and generally they do,\u201d said Jade.<\/p>\n Looking back on the struggles she faced in her early school years, Jade said she did not know how to self-advocate. For example, when she was placed at the back of the classroom, where it was hard to lip-read the teacher, she would not ask to be moved and struggled to understand what was taught during lessons.<\/p>\n During the Covid-19 pandemic, when everyone had to mask up, making it impossible to lip-read, she did not voice out that her hearing aids were not sufficient for her to understand what others were saying.<\/p>\n However, stumbling across the arts in secondary school and its possibilities for expression slowly built her confidence and helped her find her voice.<\/p>\n<\/picture><\/div>
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