May Tay
Since the Student Activities Fair on Aug. 18, the past two weeks have seen campus life abuzz with Welcome Teas, friendly sports games and first club sessions organised by various student groups.
The welcome teas ranged from cosy informal gatherings to larger scale general meetings, usually accompanied by food. One example was the Singers’ Guild’s welcome tea, which was attended by 40 students from both, the freshmen and sophomore classes. Sau Tsoi’17 , Head of Funding, said, “A couple of us started singing The Confrontation from Les Miserables, which sparked off an impromptu Les Miserables jam, which eventually led to us singing along to Beatles’ hits with Dr. Rosenberg on the piano. This was exactly what we’d hoped for – spontaneous bursts of song, just as if we were in a musical.”
Another interesting tea was the Gourmet Club’s welcome gathering, where those present got to sample a variety of local delicacies bought from famous stalls around Singapore, such as char kuay teow, black carrot cake, goreng pisang and nasi lemak. The club seeks to build a community centered around food through food-related social events for members.
Fatima Ezzahra Daif’18 enjoyed her time at the welcome session for The G Spot, a student diversity group concerned with issues of feminism, gender and sexuality. “We casually talked about what the club is, versus what some people think it is (which I found pretty funny!),” she said.
The Class of 2018 was also heartily welcomed by the sports teams on campus. Subhas Nair’17 shared, “Their arrival was much anticipated, especially by the sports teams in YNC. Now we have healthy competition for places on teams and many more sports ambassadors for the college.”
In addition, many in the Class of 2018 are excited to create new student organisations. The Yale-NUS College Students Facebook page reveals many ideas in the pipeline, from an astronomy club to a scuba diving club.
At the same time, however, Dean’s Fellow Ng Yin Ling thinks extra-curricular commitments should be balanced with enough rest and personal time. To this end, she said, “Be like when you go window shopping—try out as many things as you want, but when it comes to committing your time and resources, choose wisely. ‘Wise’ means what really piques your interest and fires your energy.”