The Yale-NUS Study Award enables students to engage with different opportunities

At Yale-NUS College, financial aid has always been about flattening access to knowledge and enabling students to participate in the diverse educational experiences at the College. Philanthropy is one important avenue through which financial assistance can be provided to those in need. Supported by the generosity of the Kuok Group of Companies Singapore (Kuok Group), financial aid through study awards has empowered Elle Cheng Li Ling (Class of 2023) to seek new opportunities at the College. The Kuok Group is also a founding benefactor of Yale-NUS.

Currently in her second year, Elle recalled the moment when she was awarded the Yale-NUS Study Award. “I was so relieved and thankful! College fees always weigh heavily on the back of my mind as well as my mum’s, and the Study Award helps to ease a lot of that burden.”

For Elle, the financial support from the Study Award enabled her to focus on her college life without worries. “The immense financial support enables me to be fully present and involved in the work I do in school without having to worry about school fees or pressurising myself to find a part-time job.”

At Yale-NUS where its liberal arts curriculum allows students to engage in the natural sciences, social sciences and humanities, Elle has found unique intersections of her various interests.

Since her first semester in the College, Elle has been facilitating a bi-weekly theatre workshop and building relationships with peers across different art disciplines to strengthen the performing arts culture on campus.

For Elle, the community of artists she has found at Yale-NUS constitutes a very big part of her campus life. Elle recalled how the creative power of the community was demonstrated in events such as the 24-hour art session organised by the College’s Visual Arts society.

Elle (extreme left) and her suitemates at the “Start of Semester Dinner” during her first year in 2019.

From community to academics to extracurricular, Yale-NUS has allowed Elle to not only further engage with the creative world, but also challenged her to reimagine herself and her approach to life.

“[Yale-NUS] is filled with people from different backgrounds with differing opinions, who are always ready to question and challenge me. They ask me difficult questions and I thirst to be able to answer them.”

“Through this process I have learnt that it is insufficient to settle for a one-size-fits-all answer because each new circumstance or perspective is unique. So I am driven to continually analyse them and reflect on myself and my position towards them.”

For Elle, receiving the Yale-NUS Study Award has been instrumental in her college experience — a fact that she was acutely aware of and grateful for.

“I want to thank the Kuok Group for seeing something worth believing in when I was not even sure I deserved it. I will always recognise how incredibly lucky I am to have access to existing opportunities, and to have met wonderful friends and faculty. I am very grateful for the help that I have received. I hope to be able to pay it forward in the near future.”

This story was first published on the Yale-NUS College Website and was updated on 11 October 2021.

Click here for more Yale-NUS giving stories.