Can you tell us a little about what you do at work and how COVID-19 has changed your typical day?
I run a consultancy that helps other companies develop more sustainable products and services. We also initiate our own projects/programmes to promote sustainability within the community. My typical day at work comprises mainly communication, reading and writing. COVID-19 probably has had the biggest impact on the way I communicate with my team and my clients. Travel and in-person meetings have fully converted to online meetings. As my consultancy also maintains offices in India and Indonesia, we have been working through a remote arrangement even before this crisis.
How has COVID-19 transformed your business? What plans are in the pipeline moving forward?
At the start of this year, we had laid plans to launch a community innovation programme called Futures+, putting together university students with a technical background together with Community Organisations. This innovation programme has transformed into a completely online one which we had not done before. We also recognise that COVID-19 is likely to widen the digital divide, and are tackling the issue through a series of projects that involve helping youths develop AI skills.
What positive things have you noticed emerging out of this global crisis?
I think there is definitely more attention being given to long-standing social issues than before - inequality, racism, digital divide, migrant worker issues, deforestation, etc...
Do you have any thoughts on how the tertiary education landscape in general, or NUS/USP specifically, will/should change moving forward?
What I like about USP (as I remember it) is that it is a multi-disciplinary smorgasbord of people, modules, ideas, lessons and concepts. The onus lies on each student to build the connections, draw their own conclusions and chart their response. How perfectly apt for these times.
What advice would you like to give to our USP community and the Class of 2020 graduates?
This is my first "global" crisis since graduating from USP, notwithstanding the self-created ones, so I'm hardly in a position to advise the USP Community/Class of 2020. I'd like to leave them with the thought that self-worth is a mental and not a social construct.