By Pan Haotian (24A01A), Syaura Nashwa (24S03R), Isaac Tay (25S06L), Teo Hui Sian (25S06C)
Meet the two Rafflesians who bring truth to the aphorism that there is more to school than just academics. Beyond their stellar results, they have walked the tightrope of academics and service to give back to the community. They have found their calling and answered it: to make society a better place.
Umar Abdillah Shah
Beginnings
For Umar Abdillah Shah (23YSO6I), volunteering has never been regarded as something he does in his free time. Rather, Umar views service as an unwavering constant in his life—a commitment to which has persisted through the years where our social and academic lives often take precedence.
His dedication to service is founded on the simple principle that ‘small efforts can have lasting impacts’. Umar recalls how his passion for volunteering began at a very early age, when he and his parents would participate in annual donation drives.
This first exposure to volunteering was a perfect illustration of how seemingly insignificant actions, such as donating a few dollars or simply being present, could have an incredibly tangible impact on others.
“(Volunteering) is really to see the impact and see how exactly our actions can materialise into something that can have a lasting impact on people around us.”
RI & Interact Club
Naturally, Umar’s passion for service would follow him into JC, where he joined Raffles Interact Club. Quoting his former teacher in RI, Umar explains: “Whenever you want to serve the community or do something, try to put yourself in the best possible position to do that.”. Inspired by his teacher’s words, Umar eventually decided to run for Chairperson of Interact.
As Chairperson, Umar, alongside his fellow EXCO members, directly engaged organisations and worked on actualising their vision for Interact—one that prioritised making a sustained impact on the community.
Despite numerous bureaucratic hurdles as a result of the pandemic during his year-long term, Umar would spearhead Interact’s mentorship programme at Cedar Primary School. They rolled out thematic lessons with an emphasis on both teaching and mentorship while ensuring continuity between volunteering sessions.
MudaSG
Outside of RI, Umar is also one of the founding members of MudaSG, a non-profit organisation which aims to uplift the Malay-Muslim community in Singapore. What initially began as donation drives for preloved traditional attire for those in need during Ramadan expanded to a broader youth volunteerism effort that included a variety of activities such as care pack distributions, Mosque cleanings and house refurbishments.
The journey between where MudaSG stands today and its inception was laden with obstacles. Having to navigate through a myriad of red tape during the pandemic—at the young age of 15, no less— it was easy to feel intimidated by the sheer amount of work. Umar credits the guidance of another of MudaSG’s founding members, Sherlita Almeyra Binte Sherhan (23S05A), for laying the groundwork for the organisation’s growth.
By dividing the members into two distinct groups, human resources and publicity, starting a non-profit from the ground up became much more manageable. As Head of Human Resources, Umar liaised directly with organisations and managed volunteer opportunities.
Reflecting on MudaSG’s initiatives in the past and its aspirations for the future, Umar acknowledges its impact on both the Malay-Muslim community and the volunteers involved. At the heart of this entire journey lies a particular closeness to MudaSG’s cause. As a Malay-Muslim himself, Umar shares a strong personal connection with the community MudaSG aims to help. As a whole, he hopes that MudaSG can alleviate the conditions of the beneficiaries and stand as a physical representation of the availability of options and assistance for those in need.
“It is impossible (for us) to help everyone, but (we) can do it one person as a time.”
On the other hand, MudaSG’s impact is also embedded within its name. ‘Muda’ means ‘Youth’ in Malay, representing those who stand to become the leaders of tomorrow. In this light, the significance of volunteering transcends its impact on beneficiaries alone; it is also an effort towards one’s personal growth as a human being, fostering cultural and social awareness to become a more compassionate individual in society.
Personal Growth
Umar’s voice undulates with a palpable passion as he describes his own growth from volunteering. We often speak about personal growth in vague and abstract terms, whilst referring to the benefits of volunteering using buzzwords like “perspective” and “introspection”.
Umar’s personal experiences need no such euphemism to speak for themselves. He explains how volunteering with wheelchair-bound individuals made him realise what he takes for granted: a typically imperceptible pothole, for instance, may be nothing more than a minor hindrance to us, but a wheelchair-bound individual would have to take a completely different route. These are experiences we would otherwise miss out on if we live in relatively insular environments and interact with a less diverse group of people.
Furthermore, his explanation also sheds light on how volunteering can effect a material change on each and every one of us, from simply expanding our interactions with others, to fundamentally altering our understanding of mundane events.
Umar encourages Rafflesians to seek out new volunteering opportunities beyond the four walls of the classroom, and highlights the difference between learning and experiencing. Volunteering gives us unique perspectives, grounded in real life stories of hardship and triumph.
To Umar, volunteering is more than just an extracurricular activity or a feel-good hobby. It’s an indispensable part of his life.
Academic Life & Volunteering
Of course, Umar’s volunteering journey came with its own ups and downs. At times, it was inevitably difficult to balance volunteering and academics, especially because of the exacting demands of JC life. However, RI has given him a conducive and supportive environment, where numerous selfless peers have helped him along the way. Academics-wise, he formed study groups with his friends to help each other; volunteering-wise, the company of his friends provided a tangible sense of moral support.
Beyond that, though, he also has a handy toolbox of personal strategies to cope with stress. His foremost coping strategy? “I like to eat.” Admittedly, it is difficult to worry with a full stomach (and an even fuller camera roll).
Next, he shares that when he has many things on his plate, he writes them all down to see it on paper, so he can visualise his tasks and strike them through when he’s done. Breaking down tasks into smaller components makes them seem more manageable thus easier to embark on.
Lastly, he found that when facing difficulties, opening up to friends can be a significant source of catharsis, but it’s simultaneously important to take responsibility for your own work.
At the end of the day, all of us have our own interpretation of what constitutes meaningful service, and your perspective may not align with Umar’s. However, amidst these differences lies a common denominator—the fervour to serve and better the community around us. Umar’s story exemplifies one lesson, the importance of taking action. His advice for anyone who wants to pursue a similar path is simple: If you want to do something, just go for it.
Mirdhini Shri Rajaram
You might be in a situation where you’re choosing from so many activities to fill up your JC life. From…the options are endless, and it’s so hard to find one that’s just right for you.
This was the situation Mirdhini (23S06I) found herself in at the start of Year 5. Like many of us, she was faced with many opportunities offered by the school and had to decide which ones to pursue. This is her journey, participating in the Young Defence Scientists Programme (YDSP) in Years 5 and 6, the process she took in the development of her team project, and finally, the insights she received about herself and science programmes like YDSP.
Mirdhini for the school’s photoshoot
Mirdhini first found herself bombarded with a plethora of activities, programmes and initiatives, a sentiment felt by most Year 5 students when they first step into RI. If you think that Mirdhini had zeroed in on joining YDSP from the get-go, you would be mistaken. Instead, she applied for as many programmes as possible “and see what sticks”, which is what she would advise juniors to do likewise. (Of course, she notes that it is equally important to manage your commitments properly as well.) After all, she points out that applying for multiple programmes gives one more flexibility to choose what to accept.
This was how she ended up with an offer to participate in YDSP, where she was grouped with Yu Xi (23S02B), whom she would eventually grow close with through this programme. They were also assigned a mentor who gave them a list of projects to work on. The both of them chose to do an AI speaker-specific speech generator in the end.
Off they went with their project, but theirinitial ideadid not work out in the end. They had other ideas to make their project more relevant and applicable to real-world contexts. Hence, a second idea was formed: Sign2Speak, an AI model which captures sign language and converts them to speech. It came in two parts: first, a camera would capture the signer’s actions and the AI would produce text, and second, the AI model would generate speech based on the text produced.
The peak of their research was during their full-time internship in November, where Mirdhini and Yu Xi started developing models and their own data sets to train the model on. Mirdhini recounts the steep learning curve she needed to climb during that period of time, and she struggled with understanding what was going on. To fix this issue, she learnt to experiment with different data sets to explore how different parts of the system worked. She also managed to take failure in her stride, recognizing that this period of repetitive failure was what eventually helped her reach success.
During the last push in December, the program finally started working in the group’s favour. However, with a tight report deadline at December 31st 2359, Mirdhini soon found herself working non-stop to submit her report on time. She recounted how her New Year’s Eve was spent facing three laptops side-by-side, all running code, while she scrambled through the report for the Singapore Science and Engineering Fair (SSEF). Her efforts finally paid off when she submitted her report just a few minutes shy of the deadline, and she then celebrated her victory, and the new year, with friends who had also stayed up to submit their reports.
The second year of Mirdhini’s research journey took a different turn from the first. Y5 was mostly about programming the model and getting it to work. Now that the code was complete, however, it was time to focus on presenting this project well to judges at science competitions and fairs.
Her team participated in the Raffles Science Symposium, where Mirdhini found the teachers and judges to be very supportive of their work. The highlight of the project was in SSEF, however, where the team wowed the judges with the project and also had the opportunity to network with other teams from different schools.
Mirdhini and her supportive friend, Yu Xi
At the conclusion of the event, Mirdhini and Yu Xi ended up being shortlisted to represent Singapore in the International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF). Mirdhini suggests that the result is pure luck and should not have been chosen, given that there were other projects she felt were better than hers. However, it is also good to acknowledge the hard work and effort the duo had to put in to achieve this result.
Filled with gratitude, the team headed over to Texas with other Singapore representatives during the June holidays.
“And if you think you have impostor syndrome here in RI, it’s worse in Texas,” Mirdhini jokes, as she recounts her experience in ISEF being surrounded by very accomplished students from all over the globe.
She did manage to enjoy herself in the end, noting that it was entertaining for her to experience the different cultures and backgrounds, like during the moment the Brazilian team danced together in the hall. She also had the chance to meet five other teams whose projects were related to sign language, and she enjoyed the passion the other teams had when sharing about their projects.
She notes how Singaporeans tend to be more ‘polite’ and reserved, but what she experienced during ISEF were students walking up to other people and enthusiastically inviting them to their booths. Reflecting on the experience, she concludes that putting yourself out there and being shameless about the projects you have done is what will reward you.
The ISEF trip also gave her a shift in her self-perception. Prior to her entire research journey, she used to be interested in computer science, but this experience made her realise that it was not something she wanted to specialise in. Instead, she learnt to broaden her career options and is now willing to consider engineering and medicine as well.
It is evident that this research journey enriched Mirdhini’s JC life and made it more fruitful. She is proud of Sign2Speak, and although she notes that the project is not perfect, it has still taken her far. She hopes that her work will someday benefit signers, and to all the readers she leaves a few words of advice.
“Always try new things and become interdisciplinary. Don’t go into research thinking that you must reach a certain goal or achieve an award, because the outcome is out of your hands. Explore your field of research and see if it is something you’re interested in. Have translational value for your projects, and consider how it plays in the real-world context.”
Conclusion
The journeys of Umar and Mirdhini highlight the transformative power of dedication, service, and scientific exploration among graduating seniors. Their stories serve to be a reminder to us all that one of life’s greatest gifts is to give.