Second Yale-NUS alumnus receives Fulbright scholarship

Daryl Yang is the second Yale-NUS alumnus in the Fulbright Singapore Student Program and will be pursuing a Master of Laws degree in the United States 

Yale-NUS College alumnus Daryl Yang Wei Jian (Class of 2019), a graduate of the Double Degree Programme in Law and Liberal Arts (DDP), will be pursuing a Master of Laws degree in the United States under the Fulbright Singapore Student Program. Daryl is the second Yale-NUS alumnus, after Feroz Khan (Class of 2018) to receive the scholarship.

The Fulbright Singapore Student Program is part of the Fulbright Program, the most prestigious international educational exchange programme sponsored by the US Government that operates in more than 160 countries worldwide. To date, 60 Fulbright alumni have been recognised as Nobel Laureates, and 39 are serving or have served as heads of state or government. On average, the award is given to two students from Singapore each year.

Daryl graduated from Yale-NUS College and the National University of Singapore (NUS) in 2019 with a Bachelor of Arts with Honours (with a minor in Anthropology) and a Bachelor of Laws with Honours. He was called to the Singapore Bar in 2020 and has been practising law at Baker & Mckenzie. Wong & Leow where he specialises in employment law, commercial litigation and international arbitration. He has also worked with civil society organisations to submit parallel reports to the United Nations Human Rights Council on Singapore’s human rights record in relation to disabled people and the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) community.

Daryl has received graduate school offers from the law schools of the University of California, Berkeley, Columbia University, Harvard University, and New York University. He has decided to pursue a Master of Laws (LL.M) at Berkeley Law, with a specialisation in public interest and social justice, under the Fulbright Program. Daryl developed his interest in disability while on a summer programme at Yale University and he decided to pursue ethnographic research on the mobilisation of disability rights in Singapore for his final-year thesis. He hopes to use the insights he will gain from his time in the US to advance justice and inclusion of disabled people in Singapore through the law.

“The Fulbright Program offers a unique platform for me to build on my Yale-NUS experiences as an intermediary between Singapore and the US. In my past overseas exchanges, I have gained new ideas and perspectives, and I am excited to continue to promote mutual sharing of ideas and experiences between our countries as a Fulbrighter in our collective pursuit of justice and fairness for marginalised communities,” said Daryl.

While at college, Daryl co-founded two inter-university student organisations to drive positive change in the community, namely Community For Advocacy & Political Education (CAPE) and the Inter-University LGBT Network, Singapore (IULN). At CAPE, he initiated over 20 projects and workshops to increase socio-political literacy and inspire engaged citizenship among young people, while at IULN, he coordinated efforts to promote LGBT inclusion on campus through capacity-building and mentorship programmes.

Reflecting on his time at Yale-NUS, Daryl said, “The Double Degree Programme has given me the best of both worlds as I was able to develop not only my legal skills to advocate for social justice but also an interdisciplinary mindset to approach complex social problem from multiple angles.”

Associate Professor of Social Sciences (Socio-legal Studies; Law & Society) and Head of Studies (Double Degree Programme in Law and Liberal Arts) Lynette Chua said, “I benefitted from the Fulbright Program when I went to Berkeley to study for my PhD. I am delighted that Daryl will not only be a Fulbright Scholar but will also pursue his graduate studies at my alma mater. Berkeley is one of the best places to immerse in innovative, interdisciplinary legal scholarship. I wish Daryl the time of his life.”

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