Director’s Desk – SUSSCRIBE | An SUSS Alumni Newsletter

Closing the year with 3 Ps

Cliché as it may be, time flies… The end of the year is often a time to wind down, reflect on what had happened in the past months on many levels and how these events have impacted the world and also our lives personally. Year end is not only about reflecting on past successes and trials, being proud of our achievements or heaving a sign of relief that we have managed to overcome challenges, big or small. It is also about being grateful and counting our blessings. Most of us would also give some thought of the future. How will we want to live out 2025? What goals will we set, will we be disciplined enough to pursue these goals or abandon them as we get caught up in the daily grind when the year unfolds? Let’s see if we can persevere on at least a couple of our key goals and bring them to fruition when we end 2025 😊.

As we wrap up 2024 and look ahead to 2025, I would like to suggest that we strive for to pursue the three Ps, Potential, Purpose and Plans. What do I mean?

Potential

All of us want to shine. By that, I do not mean the usual recognition, receiving accolades and rewards but more importantly whether we have grown and realised our potential. I would like to term this our “inner shine”. Imagine being able to become a better version of yourself with each passing year, acquiring skills and knowledge to help us not just survive but thrive in a world that is volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA). Here’s where we need to advocate lifelong learning and learning for life! At SUSS, this is imbued in our vision and mission. We want to support all our stakeholders, including our students and alumni in the quest. These include courses (whether certificated or customised courses for skills acquisition), industry top-ups and conferences to keep on trend and networking for sharing of contacts, ideas and best practices. To reap these benefits, we hope that you will look out for our programme offerings, attend conferences and workshops curated for you and also be actively engaged and join our alumni networks on SUSSConnect, our new alumni community engagement platform. If you have not activated your account, you can do so here.

Purpose

Often what drives us and helps put a spring in our step is a sense of purpose. If we are passionate about what we do and believe in the cause, we will find that energy to carry out our projects and activities and keep at it even when we encounter challenges along the way. In 2024, Alumni Relations refreshed our alumni engagement framework to better align with our Vision and Mission. We have been more mindful to embark on projects that impact lives (not only our own and our loved ones but also the community). In the Sep issue of SUSScribe I shared about our Age Well Alumni Network (AWAN) and how this group can help spread and enable active ageing in the community. The group, though small for a start, had derived so much joy in our drumming practices and outreach to seniors (including a cultural exchange trip to Tainan, Taiwan in Nov 2024 where we saw the tremendous good work that they have done to promote active ageing in the community). We are recruiting members for the next programme. So do check it out and sign up here – can we insert a link? can work with Jesslyn). We are sure that you will not be disappointed. Our Alumni Engagement Committee – AEC- (a group of passionate alumni who have volunteered their time to work alongside alumni relations to enhance alumni engagement and experience) have also been very active in championing various programmes to benefit students and alumni. These include a mentoring initiative by senior alumni, offered to students to give them insights into the working world, how to improve their chances with a strong resume and what the relevant industry sectors are like. Another purposeful initiative is community engagement. The group had organised 2 events in the second half of 2024, a beach clean-up at East Coast Park and a Christmas festive distribution of goodies to rental flats households in the Kreta Ayer area. Those who signed up for the events have found these meaningful and rewarding. This is indeed a promising start. And we already have many new and exciting initiatives up our sleeves, which brings me the last P in this wrap-up article.

Plans

With 2025 just around the corner, both our AR team, AEC and AWAN Committee are already hard at work (yes, in Dec when many are winding down) planning our programmes for 2025. We offer you a peek into what you can expect in 2025:

Recruitment of AWAN members for engagement with 60 Active Ageing Centres in 2025 and potential of cultural exchange trip to Japan (a blue zone country with ageing population)
Programmes in support of the Digital and Green economies
Expanded alumni mentoring programme for students
New networks on alumni groups with common interests
Alumni advocacy via social and digital media

These are just highlights. There are many exciting happenings lined up for 2025. And your call to action is to… be informed of developments, be an active participant, be an advocate to bring the university and your degree to greater heights! We look forward to partnering and seeing more of you in 2025!

Seasons Greetings and Happy holidays!

2024 was a busy but fruitful year for SUSS as we continue to entrench our presence in the education landscape with our strong focus on making a positive social impact in all our endeavours.

For 2025 we are energised to do even more. A new year, new beginnings and new goals to achieve. For a start, Prime Minister, Lawrence Wong announced during the recent Budget speech in February, the long awaited news that SUSS has finally been given the go ahead to have our very own campus. For those of you who have missed this announcement, the icing is that our new campus is going to be in the heart of the city!

This decision is indeed a significant one in land scarce Singapore. It signals the importance placed on lifelong learning where every effort will be made to make learning convenient and accessible to the working population. We will need to top up our knowledge and skills several times in the course of our career. By the time you read this, MOE would probably have announced more details at the Committee of Supply session on education. And you will agree that we have indeed gotten a prime location! Kudos to the hard work put in by the Board and management to work with multiple parties to achieve this milestone. The next few years will see a flurry of activities as we gear up to build our campus of the future.

As our alumni, your inputs are invaluable. You are also a part of our community of lifelong learners. The advantage is that your roots as an SUSS alumni will give you the chance to share what you hope to see in the new campus, be it for work or play. We will be reaching out to our stakeholders to gather feedback, so do take advantage of this opportunity when it comes.

But a campus is not just about the physical structure and fittings. At the heart of everything, it is the people and the range of activities we are involved in that will determine the life and soul of the institution. Let’s continue to keep abreast of developments, be engaged and involved in alumni activities to bring SUSS to greater heights even as we work towards building a home to call our own!

We seek your continued engagement, support and participation. You can start by:

Activating your SUSSConnect account to access the new community platform, if you have not done so. You will have access to the latest university developments, news, lifelong learning opportunities, lifestyle events, networks, alumni benefits and more.

Joining our Age Well Alumni Network (AWAN) as we work towards supporting active ageing in Singapore with programmes introduced to engage seniors at the Active Ageing Centres (AACs). For SG 60, we are targeting to reach 60 AACs to introduce a Drums-Up for Active Ageing programme for seniors to promote fun fitness drumming.

Starting or joining other purposeful networks such as green movement, social engagement and digitalisation, as these come on stream.

Mentoring your juniors or help open doors to give them a leg-up in their career

Offering work attachments, internships to students

The possibilities are plentiful. It is with your support that we will succeed. Alumni Relations intends to work with our alumni community to ACE 2025, focusing on these areas:

A – Advocacy (working with different alumni groups to share their experiences at SUSS and encourage others to pursue lifelong learning)

C– Community Engagement (building an engaged community where alumni come together to participate in various projects that impacts lives)

E – Empowerment (introducing more efficient and user-friendly self- access features for alumni services, expanding networks to build connections and promoting of lifelong learning)

Every effort, big or small matters to us. We believe that we can ACE it togethAR!

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