PENNING THE UNSEEN
DON’T BE AFRAID OF FAILURE, FOR SUCCESS WON’T COME OVERNIGHT. ABOVE ALL, BE OBSERVANT AND ATTUNED TO PEOPLE AROUND YOU, SO YOU CAN PICK UP ON DAY-TO-DAY ISSUES THAT TEND TO GO UNNOTICED. Ms Faith Ng
FAITH NG PLAYWRIGHT
16
N
ormal, a local play produced in 2015, illuminates the struggles of two secondary school students — both internally and on a societal level — with being in the Normal (Academic) stream. Written by Ms Faith Ng (Arts and Social Sciences ’12), 29, it is based on her personal experiences as a Normal stream student and dealing with the concomitant burden of having seemingly fallen through the cracks. “It’s naïve to think theatre can change lives overnight,” she says. “But what it can do is initiate conversations on unseen, ‘hidden’ issues that are left out of the news. Theatre lets you delve into complex issues that cannot be adequately covered in a short newspaper article.” Ms Ng’s writing stems from a desire to champion the ordinary lives of Singaporeans, to provide a counterpoint to the majority of local productions that are either adaptations of Western plays or staged from a Western perspective. “I want the audience to see that the lives they lead, with their Singlish accents, are as special or noteworthy as Shakespeare’s characters.” She began writing at the age of 21, when she took the Introduction to Playwriting module in her first year at NUS. “I love capturing the muscularity or rhythm to the way people talk, whether through dialogue or awkward silences,” she says. The live aspect of theatre lends extra appeal. “In today’s technology-driven, depersonalised world, live theatre holds greater importance as a way
STREET SMARTS ONE THING STANDS OUT FROM READING THE STORIES of the five
to establish human connections. Performers lay everything bare on stage in an effort to connect with their audience.” It was midway through her Bachelor of Arts (Honours) degree, with complementary majors in Theatre Studies and English Literature, that Ms Ng got her big break. wo(men), a play about three generations of women in a Singaporean Hokkien family and their relationships, was showcased at the NUS Arts Festival 2010 and drew critical acclaim. At the Life! Theatre Awards the following year, the production clinched Best Supporting Actress and received three other nominations, including Best Original Script for Ms Ng. Since graduating from NUS, she has served as an Associate Artist at Checkpoint Theatre. The job has given her real-world experience on how to handle administrative and PR tasks, and get over negative reviews or failed projects. Two years ago, she started passing on these lessons to budding playwrights as a part-time lecturer at her alma mater. “Lecturing at NUS is like coming home,” says the studentturned-lecturer. “It was here that I became aware of who I am as a person and as a writer.” She currently teaches Introduction to Playwriting and Advanced Playwriting, and was a Writerin-Residence for NUS’ Singapore Creative Writing Residency in 2014. As Ms Ng regularly reminds students, it is important to be honest and authentic in one’s writing; being technically competent is not enough. “Don’t be afraid of failure, for success won’t come overnight,” she adds. “Above all, be observant and attuned to people around you, so you can pick up on day-to-day issues that tend to go unnoticed.”
individuals: to do well in the real world, you have to be more than book-smart. This is a crucial point NUS’ Centre for Future-ready Graduates (CFG) tries to get across to students and young alumni. “NUS strives to provide a holistic education, which goes beyond being intellectually disciplined or well-versed in hard skills,” says CFG Director Ms Crystal Lim Leahy. “At CFG, we ‘complete the loop’ for whole-brain learning by giving students soft skills to stand them in good stead.”
Why are soft skills particularly important in this day and age?
We now live in a rapidly-changing VUCA world — one that is Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous. Due to technological disruptions, technical or domain knowledge in areas like computing and finance is swiftly becoming obsolete. In this context, CFG supports students by giving them an essential, timeless ‘basket’ of personal and interpersonal skills. In January 2016, CFG launched a new life-skills module called ROOTS & WINGS. Can you tell us more about it?
Photos courtesy of Centre for Future-Ready Graduate
F U TUR E- R EA DY GR A D UAT ES
Based on the latest psychology, neuroscience and leadership research, we developed Roots & Wings to equip students with core, foundational life skills. The Roots portion focuses on the self; students are made aware of their own strengths and weaknesses so they can make better choices. The Wings portion focuses on the wider world. It poses this question to students: “Now that I know myself, how can I collaborate effectively with others and engage in empathic communication to establish an emotional connection with them?”
faculties, Roots & Wings will help them to be better prepared for the real world. Hopefully, such cross-disciplinary interaction will also build the University’s supraidentity, which is still quite weak in comparison to the respective faculty identities. Many freshmen are unsure about what career they wish to pursue. How can this group of students benefit from taking ROOTS & WINGS?
What advice do you have for newly-minted and young alumni as they look ahead to the future?
Be curious. Don’t let fear of failure hold you back. Contractionary or reactive decisions, those which are made from a place of fear, are not likely to be good ones. Instead, make expansive decisions that harness your curiosity.
First off, being unsure about one’s future is normal. Our aim is to help students feel confident and empowered to find out what their interests and passions are, rather than be gripped by the fear of uncertainty. We try to develop their emotional resilience, so they can overcome their selfimposed limitations and cultivate a healthy curiosity. More than 2,000 students have taken part in ROOTS & WINGS so far. What feedback have they given?
In a survey completed by pilotgroup participants, student satisfaction scores were sky-high at over 90 per cent. We also ran pre- and post-tests to measure their competencies in various Emotional Quotient components, and student competency scores were found to have improved. So students not only liked the course but also got something out of it.
A RANGE OF SERVICES FOR ALUMNI
Access to graduate jobs
offered by corporate partners through its online job portal, NUS TalentConnect
Professional guidance from experienced Career Advisors Opportunities to mould juniors into future leaders through its Alumni Mentoring Programme Centre for Future-Ready Graduates nus.edu.sg/cfg/
MS CRYSTAL LIM LEAHY CFG DIRECTOR
This programme is mandatory for all first-year students. What do you hope to achieve through such large-scale implementation?
In today’s working environment, operating in silos is no longer possible; you need to collaborate with other people. By bringing together students across different JUL– SEP 2016
17