Welcome Address By SUSS Provost Professor Robbie Goh at the Scholarship Award Ceremony 2026

Professor Tan Tai Yong, President, SUSS,

Our Distinguished Donors and Partners,

SUSS Colleagues, Students and Guests,

It is my pleasure to welcome all of you to the SUSS Scholarship Award Ceremony 2026. This is truly one of the most meaningful occasions in our University calendar.

We have amongst us some of the most outstanding students of SUSS, the students who embody the spirit of excellence that SUSS espouses. We celebrate their achievements with them and with their loved ones.  We also have our valued donors and partners, whose generosity and commitment affirm the SUSS mission and provide crucial recognition for our students.

At SUSS, our scholarships and study awards are not conferred lightly. In addition to academic excellence, our recipients have to demonstrate intellectual curiosity, resilience, and discipline. They also have to demonstrate the agility and commitment to be able to function in real-industry contexts, in the form of practicums, internships and work attachments. 

Furthermore, in recognition of SUSS’ whole-of-university mission for social good, we also look for character, wholistic development, and the ethos of service to others. An SUSS scholarship therefore recognises excellence in its fullest sense.

This year’s ceremony marks a number of firsts: it is the first time that we are holding it outside of our campus, here at the Andaz.

It is also the first time that we are presenting the new Dr Lillyn Teh Endeavour Scholarship. The scholarship is SUSS’ most prestigious and the first of its kind at the University to recognise exceptional incoming full-time undergraduates. We are delighted to recognise the inaugural recipients today. The three recipients are:

• Shasmeen Banu Binte Ayoob Marican from our Bachelor of Science in Business Analytics programme
• And from our Bachelor of Social Work programme, Christy Ann Heng Wei En and Nyx Wong Mun Teng 
  

I am also delighted to introduce the UOB Special Mention Award this year, which recognises resilience and determination in the educational journey. The inaugural recipient is Nur Asherah Asteroth Binte Azlie, a part-time student from our Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Engineering programme.

In addition to these new awards, our existing awards, as always, acknowledge excellence in many forms. Among the recipients today are students who have distinguished themselves through leadership, service and an unwavering commitment to improving the lives of others. This social leadership dimension is one of the unique features of SUSS.  Allow me to highlight just a few examples.

One awardee is Geethaaanjali d/o Shankar, a recipient of the SUSS Spirit Award. Through her sustained commitment to youth mentoring, development and leadership initiatives, Geetha has focused on helping young people recognise their potential and grow into confident contributors to society. In investing in the growth and potential of youths, while helping to build more inclusive communities, she exemplifies the spirit of service and people-centred leadership that the SUSS Spirit Award seeks to recognise.

Another recipient of the Spirit Award is Joshua Tan Jyn Keet. Through disability advocacy, community outreach and student leadership, Joshua has worked to create greater understanding of, and more opportunities for, persons with disabilities. What makes his journey especially noteworthy is that he has sustained these efforts while managing caregiving responsibilities of his own. Joshua’s advocacy began with seeing the barriers experienced by others, but it became meaningful and impactful through his persistence in acting to alleviate and remove those barriers.

Today, we also recognise the recipient of the Provost 3H Fund – Community Impact Award, which celebrates student-led initiatives that create meaningful and sustainable impact through collaboration with community partners. This year’s award goes to H Project, a community initiative founded in 2022 by Roger Tan Choon Yi, who is from our SUSS Psychology programme. The project supports the reintegration of ex-inmates by giving them opportunities for them to serve in and connect with different communities, including seniors from Lee Ah Mooi Old Age Home and children with chronic illnesses from Club Rainbow. H Project thus allows the desistor participants to show that they have much to offer, and contribute to a more positive view of desistors on the part of society.

Students like Geetha, Joshua and Roger remind us that excellence is measured not only by individual achievement, but also by how we use our abilities to uplift others and contribute to the common good. Social impact may not be as visible or easily measured compared to academic grades, but I am sure we can all agree that it is a crucial part of our humanity and community, something that we must continue to nurture and foster.

Supporting students to realise their potential remains central to the mission of SUSS. In AY2025, over 400 students received support through our scholarships and awards in this period. While we are encouraged by this, we know there is always more that we can do.

In addition to the Dr Lillyn Teh Endeavour Scholarship and UOB Special Mention Award presented for the first time today, we do in fact have other new additions to our scholarships and awards this year. These include new scholarships for our full-time and part-time undergraduates, law students, and graduate students. These new awards reflect SUSS’s continued efforts to work with like-minded donors and partners, to strengthen the support and recognition that are so important to the educational journey of our students.

To all our donors and partners, including those who have established new scholarships with us this year, thank you for your trust and generosity. Your support is greatly appreciated.

To all parents and families, thank you so much for being the inspiration for our award winners, the impetus for what they do.

Finally, to all our award recipients, let me leave you with three closing thoughts:

Firstly, take pride in what you have achieved today. You have met demanding standards and earned your place among a distinguished group of students.

Secondly, I encourage you to persist in your efforts. Continue to learn, continue to grow, and continue to look for ways to use your talents in service of others. In doing so, you will embody the “RAISE” values that define SUSS – Respect, Adaptability, Integrity, Service and Empathy.

Thirdly, please know that you can make a difference in your lives, not just with the people that you immediately impact, but those around you who need examples of integrity, compassion, service and leadership, and who may be looking out for people like you to inspire and mentor them.

Congratulations once again to all our award winners – I wish you the very best in your continuing educational and leadership journeys.

Thank you.