I was offered scholarships from NUS and NTU but chose NUS because of the e-commerce major, which is offered jointly by computing and business.

One of the main attractions was the NUS Overseas Colleges programme, where students get to work as interns in start-up companies in various entrepreneurship hubs around the world, as well as take classes at prestigious universities such as Stanford, UPenn, Fudan, Tsinghua and the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH).

The bond-free scholarship was another key factor as I had the feeling that I wanted to take an entrepreneurial route.

NUS allows you to challenge the unknown, gives you the freedom to explore and offers the opportunity to create your own success story.

Furthermore, NUS has given me a competitive advantage, as it is a global university centred in Asia. For instance, I was able to cope with the demanding curriculum of Peking University International Summer School 2012.

USP has provided me with an interdisciplinary experience and I am able to bounce off ideas with students from various faculties. The USP curriculum encourages creative thinking and innovation − for example, in one module we’ve been conducting business generation workshops for our fellow classmates. The USP professors are also very open to ideas and flexible with the module criteria. Outside the curriculum, you can form any interest group you want in Cinnamon College (USP). In addition, my suitemates and I casually discuss various topics over a late-night supper, enjoy evening runs and celebrate friends’ birthdays.

Staying in UTown has prepared me beyond my classroom learning for overseas programmes, as I get to mingle with exchange students and diverse groups of people. I believe that going on overseas programmes will offer great learning opportunities and cross-cultural interaction. In 2013, I will be attending the NOC Silicon Valley programme, spending a year at a start-up working as a Growth Hacker, as well as taking entrepreneurship courses at Stanford University. After which, I will be spending another semester in Connecticut under the USP’s Student Exchange Programme.

My ambitions are to start two businesses – one on Life & Executive Coaching and the other largely has to do with e-commerce, digital and new media marketing as well as search engine optimization.

Recently, I have been providing coaching services to my peers/clients from both Hong Kong and Singapore. On the technology forefront, I am creating websites for two Hong Kong clients and strategizing social media campaigns as well as digitizing products for a Singapore healthy lifestyle company.

My aims are to formalise my business plans while I’m on the NOC Silicon Valley programme. I see myself moving towards either more of an entrepreneurial career or management consulting.