Yale-NUS students utilise their strengths for community impact outside of school
Students participate in and create their own community impact projects in their personal time
The semester is often hectic for students in Yale-NUS College: on top of the academic workload and on-campus extracurriculars, many spend their time and energy on off-campus projects that meaningfully utilise their strengths for community impact. Luke Seow (Class of 2024) and Karthikasan S/O Natarajan (Class of 2025) are two such examples.
3am, Tuesday morning: it is easy to mistake the hawker centre as empty, but Luke Seow (Class of 2024) knows it is not. Uncle Low from the soya bean milk stall has been painstakingly preparing the soybeans by hand since 10pm. At Tiong Bahru Hawker Centre, Luke waits beside the soya bean milk stall with nothing on him but his camera. This is a peek into just one day of his four years of documentation leading up to his photobook, Last Order.
For Luke, a Singaporean who largely grew up in Hong Kong, the unique hawker culture of this island has always hit close to home. Whenever he came back to visit Singapore, his grandfather would bring him to various hawker centres around the island. What began as a personal documentation grew into an ode dedicated to a culture of the people he belongs to.
As a foodie himself, Luke identifies with hawker centres as sites not only of delectable delights, but also of deep personal sentiment and belonging. “We all have memories with our favourite foods, stalls or hawker centres, and I wanted to celebrate that diversity,” he said. Last Order is his hardcover, 108-page photobook seeking to document both the familiar and unnoticed aspects of hawker culture, featuring patrons at various times of the day, hawkers working behind-the-scenes and more.
Hawker culture in Singapore obtained the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage title in December 2020, inscribing its significance as part of the nation’s identity. “I started taking photos at hawker centres in Singapore because no matter who you are, I think that if you’ve spent any amount of time in Singapore, hawker culture probably means something to you”, Luke said.
His photography book also hopes to highlight the importance of preserving this crucial part of Singaporean identity. “It focuses our gaze on this element of Singapore that we assume will be ever-present,” he said. “It reminds us of what we stand to lose.” With the publication of his book, he hopes to start conversations and spark thoughts about the role of the regular Singaporean in protecting the country’s past and heritage.
You can find out more about The Last Order on Luke’s website: https://www.lukeseowphotography.com/lastorder.
While Luke uses his art to strengthen discourse and national identity, Karthikasan S/O Natarajan (Class of 2025) contributes his service to the wider community through volunteering and community work. A senior volunteer with the Singapore Indian Development Association (SINDA), Karthikasan is involved with youth empowerment programmes and works to increase the volunteer engagement of the organisation.
The programmes Karthikasan is engaged in include being a mentor in the Guidance and Mentorship Programme (GAME), a group-based mentoring engagement that nurtures the development of Indian youths aged between 13 and 17. The programme brings youth together to develop their chosen talents and interests as a community, including songwriting, water sports, speech and drama, and filmmaking.
On top of youth development, he gets in touch with people on the ground by participating in the Door Knocking Exercise (DKE), which engages Indian residents at their doorstep to better understand the needs of the Indian community and how SINDA can continue to support them. “Engaging in volunteering offers an ideal chance to connect more deeply with my local community, and expands my perspectives of societal needs,” he shared. To Karthikasan, simply learning about issues in class cannot compare to being in personal contact with individuals and families in need.
Building the volunteering culture in Yale-NUS College and beyond is important to Karthikasan. As the President of ComPact for AY22/23, his team served as the platform to share volunteering opportunities in Singapore. ComPact is an official student organisation in the school dedicated to increasing student engagement in off-campus community service. They did so by forming sustainable partnerships with social impact organisations to enable students to better understand the community service landscape in Singapore, and how they can get involved.
With his deep involvement in community service, Karthikasan has high hopes for fellow Kingfishers to give back in whatever capacity they can. “It has been inspiring witnessing the numerous community service events organised by Yale-NUS student organisations,” he said. To him, they demonstrate the dedication and motivation within the Yale-NUS community to give back. “I am confident that the Yale-NUS community’s commitment to community service will remain steadfast and enduring.”
