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To Enrich the Learning Journey
Upholding our mission to contribute to society, community service is increasingly being incorporated into our formal classroom learning.

In November 2011, we launched the Chua Thian Poh Community Leadership Programme. Funded generously by the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Ho Bee Investment Limited Mr Chua Thian Poh, the Programme aims to develop Singapore's next generation of community leaders. Participants take part in learning modules, research projects, attachments with social service organisations, talks and workshops relating to social issues and community leadership. The Programme has initiated 12 student-led projects and attachments and has established partnerships with over 15 organisations.

The NUS Enablers, a project group for an NUS Management and Organisation module, took their academic project on physically challenged students beyond the classroom and made it real. In line with their aim to create an inclusive NUS campus experience for all, they embarked on the "Free Wheelie" project. This project serves to enhance the mobility of our special needs students around campus by mapping wheelchair-friendly routes and providing video tutorial guidance.

The NUS Enablers also engaged the University administration and other stakeholders on landscape or infrastructural changes. Their commendable efforts helped them clinch the NUS Student Achievement Awards under Community Projects (Merit) Group category in February 2012.
 
To Extend a Helping Hand
During the period under review, our students raised about S$516,000 through various fund-raising events. In August 2011, the NUS Students' Union's (NUSSU) annual Flag Day raised over S$482,000 for 21 beneficiaries. The Rag Day parade featured 15 artistically created floats, all built painstakingly from recycled materials in keeping with NUS' commitment to sustainability.

Every year, the NUS Medical Society brings basic medical services and informative health education to the general public through the Public Health Screening programme.

Student volunteers from the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine also go door-to-door at public rental flats to offer free health screenings to the elderly and low-income families under the Neighbourhood Health Screening (NHS). Since its 2008 launch, NHS has reached over 1,200 residents. In 2011, the project was expanded to include Macpherson and Bukit Merah View. The health screenings took place in residents' homes for their convenience, and focused on common diseases such as diabetes and hypertension.

Through the NHS, treatment rate for patients with known hypertension rose from 63 per cent to 93 per cent after one year of participation. Blood pressure control for those on treatment also saw considerable improvement from 42 per cent to 79 per cent.

The NUS medical fraternity also helped out at Tan Tock Seng Hospital's Stepping Out Into Active Life programme, which empowers senior citizens with a healthy and active lifestyle. The programme includes screening the elderly for geriatric problems and teaching them exercises to improve their gait and strength so as to prevent falls.

Our students are committed to going the extra mile to help their peers. The annual Commencement Class Giving campaign, which celebrates our students' spirit of solidarity to make a gift in support of their junior cohorts, is a prime example. The Campaign supports bursaries, scholarships and student development programmes at the various Faculties.

For the sixth year, the graduating class came together and employed various innovative and exciting ways to lend a helping hand to raise funds for their juniors. The Faculty of Engineering volunteers set up "Giving" booths, while the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS) organised iGraduAID, which featured an attention-grabbing flash mob at The Deck food court.

Another fund-raising project, "Faculty that cares", is the brainchild of the FASS Arts Club. Proceeds from the campaign went to the FASS Student Advancement Bursary Fund.

Over at the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, medical students launched the NUS Medical Society – Christine Chong Hui Xian Bursary in memory of the third-year student who lost her battle with cancer in 2009. The Bursary has already raised a collection of S$300,000 since June 2011 and gifts are still being received.

In addition, there are other student groups that organise and conduct activities to serve the community using their skills and expertise. Among them is the Project Paint-A-Home, an annual project launched by the NUSSU Community Service Club (CSC) in 2000. In June 2012, CSC members took up their brushes and painted the Thong Teck Home for Senior Citizens, enhancing and brightening the residents' living environment.

Another group, Eusoff Voluntary Corps, which operates under Eusoff Hall, extends a helping hand to various groups including the elderly, the Salvation Army, and the Movement for the Intellectually Disabled of Singapore. Apart from offering food, companionship and household services, they also help out with health checks and individualised tutoring.

The University also actively encourages our students to render help to those in need abroad. We have several overseas community service projects encompassing educational programmes and construction work to help build better facilities in the villages.

In December 2011, CSC's youth expedition, Love Export IV, had student volunteers build a kindergarten for the children of Prey Kla Village, Cambodia. In the same month, 34 students from the Faculty of Engineering travelled to Chiangmai, Thailand under Operation Orion. They collaborated with the Thai Youth Foundation Community to build a Learning Centre which showcases new agricultural techniques to local hill tribes.

Kent Ridge Hall student volunteers undertook Project KReach@India in May 2012 where they worked with local officials to teach basic sewing skills and design a systematic workflow for the sewing industry. The project helped to empower an economically marginalised rural community to secure jobs for a living.

Following a Master's event featuring Captain Budi Soehardi, founder of the Yayasan Kasih Roslin orphanage in West Timor and one of the Top 10 CNN Heroes of 2009, Tembusu College initiated a long-term collaboration with the orphanage on Projek tKampung to help its young residents. In May 2012, 15 Tembusu students visited the orphanage to lend a helping hand and explore the feasibility of supporting the orphanage in their work to benefit the wider West Timor community.

Together with Singapore-based organisation Solutions To End Poverty and the Pour un Sourire d'Enfant (PSE) in Cambodia, 11 NUS architecture students and their programme leader Dr Tan Beng Kiang embarked on a five-week programme in June 2012 to help design and build housing for 400 families relocated from a dump site, a pre-school and livelihood centre. The team went to Phnom Penh and Siem Reap to visit PSE facilities and social enterprises, attend lectures by local architects, and participate in a hands-on construction project with Habitat for Humanity Cambodia.
 
To Enhance Campus Sustainability
As a community, NUS seeks to enhance the environmental sustainability of our campus. Each year, we roll out various initiatives which incorporate the concept of sustainable development, ultimately reducing our carbon footprint.

As testimony to our efforts, we have received various certifications and awards. NUS is the first educational institution to bag the prestigious Building and Construction Authority Green Mark Champion Award. The honour, conferred in May 2012, recognises the University's strong commitment to and efforts in environmental sustainability. To date, NUS has 13 projects rated Gold and above.

The TechnoEdge canteen at the Faculty of Engineering became the second NUS canteen to receive the Eco-Food Court certification from the Singapore Environmental Council in December 2011. The first was The Deck at the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences in January 2011.

In February 2012, NUS set up an interdepartmental Energy Taskforce to develop and coordinate the campus energy programmes to reduce the University's electricity consumption and minimise our carbon footprint. The Taskforce oversees various initiatives including monitoring and analysing energy use through the online metering and energy monitoring system.

Our eco passion is shared by our students, who are ardent green advocates. The NUSSU Students Against Violation of the Earth (SAVE) actively promotes environmental awareness and action on campus.

In AY2011/2012, SAVE launched Climate Action Day on 6 September 2011 to drive home the message that environmental sustainability is every individual's responsibility. The team removed litter bins from campus for a day and raised awareness on how much waste was being produced and how much could be recycled or reduced. The novel campaign won first prize in the inaugural National Climate Change Competition 2011.