Undergraduate Michela Vieri found her wings at NUS, where she is empowered to let her imagination take flight with a winning design for the 2022 Commencement Class Giving campaign.

Undergraduate Michela Vieri (Class of 2023) found her wings at the National University of Singapore (NUS), where she is empowered to let her imagination take flight. Unleashing her creativity, the designer is now giving wings to her fellow students.

Michela’s design is one of the winning entries at CREATION 2021, an annual digital design competition organised by the NUS Students’ Union Committee for Information Technology (NUSSU CommIT), where NUS students are invited to create artworks based on real-world problem statements. The NUS Development Office (DVO) contributed the statement that she responded to, where she was challenged to devise the key visual for the 2022 Commencement Class Giving (CCG) campaign, led by the Annual Giving team at DVO.

Her winning concept will be adapted and featured on social media platforms, displayed at commencement ceremonies and on banners across campus throughout the campaign – serving as a call to action to graduating students to continue the tradition of giving, by making a gift of S$20.22 in support of fellow students in need.

“NUS has truly helped me to find my wings through a transformative education, and the amazing people I have met along the way. I hope more individuals are inspired by this cause, and will help others to find their wings too," said Michela, a third-year Computing Information Systems student at the NUS School of Computing.

Every S$20 gift counts. Since 2007, over 23,000 students have raised close to S$1.7million by giving to the CCG campaign. Their contributions will support the financial needs of students and activities that enrich campus life.

A compelling marketing message is needed to get the word out about this meaningful initiative. That is where Michela’s design concept comes in.

Michela thought long and hard about the central character of her design. She finally settled on the perfect representation of NUS graduands: birds.

The thoughtful design features an older bird carrying a bag of educational materials in its beak. The bird is bringing nourishment to the younger birds; in this case, nutrition for development.

“Birds are hardworking, smart, and take very good care of their young. The older bird represents the graduands in the Class of 2022, who aspire to help their juniors through the NUS CCG campaign,” she explained.

“The younger birds represent the juniors, individuals who are hungry for education but are not yet ready to take off into the world. The older bird (representing seniors) takes care of her juniors by giving them education supplies,” Michela elaborated on her concept and design rationale.

When it is time for Michela to take flight into the world, she too will be giving to the cause.

“Giving S$20 as an individual may not have significant impact. But collectively, we can change someone’s life. We can all join hands and make each S$20 contribution meaningful by helping to uplift others in our NUS community. When I graduate in 2023, I would definitely give back to the University for helping me to find my wings,” Michela concluded.