| By Alessa Pang & Rachel Au-Yong |
WHILE her peers fret about which university to choose or which orientation camps to go for, Miss Tiffany Liew, 18, is thinking about writing up menus and picking out pots and pans.
Having scored 3 As in last year's A-level exams, the former Raffles Junior College student will put off her pursuit of a degree to start her own food and beverage stall and gain some work experience.
'I know it's not the conventional route, but it'll be good exposure especially since I'm going down the business route,' said the business-major hopeful.
She is negotiating for the operational rights of a local delicacy stall, and hopes to set up shop in VivoCity or Ion Orchard. She has taken a loan of $100,000 from her businessman father. 'I know it's a lot of money, but with his guidance and some luck, I hope and intend to repay him with interest,' she said.
Miss Liew is one of a small but growing number of youth who are taking a gap year before university - a practice slow to catch on among Singaporeans, who are known to prize the pursuit of education.
For some among this small group - particularly those whose parents are able to support them financially - a gap year is a way to have a break, gain some work experience, or do volunteer work.
No one keeps track of how many youth take a gap year here, but the National University of Singapore (NUS) said about 250 students are granted leave of absence for academic or personal reasons each year, excluding those who have to complete their national service. NUS has an average annual intake of about 6,250.
At the Nanyang Technological University, 'less than a handful' of its annual cohort of about 5,050 request a gap year.
The Singapore Management University does not keep track of such students because potential students who wish to take a gap year are advised to apply in the year they are ready to start.
The United World College campus here has a gap-year programme for its graduating students which links them to volunteering stints in neighbouring countries that usually last several months.
Singaporean students, though, have to chart the road less travelled themselves.
Miss Natalya Twohill, 22, decided to take a gap year after her studies at Ngee Ann Polytechnic. After getting a diploma in mass communications in 2006, she did not rush off her university applications.
Instead, she set up the Singapore branch of the United Nations Youth Association - which has now grown to 450 members and volunteers. The group discusses world issues, much like the ones world leaders do in the UN headquarters.
Miss Twohill was selected to attend the Global Leaders' Youth Summit in New York, where she visited the UN. She also visited a refugee camp in Chiang Mai, Thailand. The NUS political science major said: 'It wasn't always easy, but my gap year gave me the assurance I needed that serving the community was really my passion in life.'
But more often than not, students take a year off simply to give themselves a break from the education system.
Miss Claire Oei, 20, said: 'I was tired of studying so hard continuously for the last 12 years. I wanted to be able to do things I want to do at my own pace.'
She spent a year working at an events management company and travelling around Asia and Australia while doing volunteer work. Miss Oei paid for most of her trips, with her parents chipping in.
Then there are those who do not want to be bogged down by the hassle of applying to an overseas university while studying for exams.
Miss Sarah Tang, 19, finished her International Baccalaureate last year but is going to apply for a place in the Wharton Business School only this year. 'I didn't want to have to deal with my examination and applications at the same time.' said the former Anglo-Chinese School (Independent) student. Meanwhile, she took up a sales job in clothes retailer Hermes and started her own stock portfolio.
Miss Grace Teng, 20, also decided to take a year off after completing her studies in 2007. The aspiring film-maker spent a year buffing up her portfolio for her application to the famed New York University's Tisch School of the Arts for film and television studies.
Armed with a strong portfolio, she got a place in her dream school. 'There was no way I would have got in if I had applied in 2007 because my portfolio would not have been strong enough,' she said.
Taking a gap year is no easy decision.
Most, like Miss Connie Tan, 19, are worried about losing a year. 'I'm afraid I would end up wasting time. It may also be even more competitive if I were to apply for admission next year.'
Miss Lim Hui Meen, 19, decided it was too 'risky' and did not want to 'sap any more of my parents' retirement funds'.
Others said they did not want to be 'separated' from their friends from junior college or secondary school.
Most who have done the gap year said they would not have been able to do it without their parents' support or approval, at least.
Mrs Wendy Yeap, whose daughter Cassandra, 20, took a year off to gain working experience, said: 'I watched Cassandra become much more confident about herself and she is now very clear about what she wants to pursue.'
What I found interesting about this article by our national daily is that, there is not one guy who was interviewed or referenced. I find this detail severely lacking, because I think any critical and analytical person who reads this article can spot that fatal flaw in the article. To have not noticed this before it went to publication is surprising to say the least, you would think a newspaper would try to give the most unbiased account possible.
Maybe they didn't write about guys, because, let me make a few wild guesses, have to do NS, thus taking up 2 years of their lives and hence would be less likely to take gap year as they are already behind their female peers as it is.
To take a gap year is not an easy decision, and there are many reasons why people do so. I just hope our national daily can be more vigilant in their reporting and not leave out an important and crucial perspective when writing an article.
Seeing it for ourselves
I RECENTLY bumped into an old friend who had just completed his degree in the United States.
He was due to return here to serve his scholarship with a local statutory board. However, his time overseas had exposed him to a plethora of alternative career options he never even knew existed. Too good to pass up, he found, was the rare opportunity to work in Tokyo as a computer science researcher.
Hence, he made the bold decision to terminate the scholarship and pay off the bond, heading instead to Tokyo for better pay and prospects.
Having lived in Singapore for most of my life, his cosmopolitan experience was indeed inspiring. His words to me were: 'If you never venture out, you'll never know what you're missing.'
While Singapore strives to be a hub for everything, our lack of natural and spatial resources will inevitably constrain us. Our tiny shores are not enough for some of us to fulfil our greater aspirations, be it in academic life or the arts.
We will never know if the grass is really greener on the other side until we go there and see it for ourselves.
Chew Zhi Wen, 21, has completed his first year in law at NUS.
Home ground is best
WHENEVER I tell friends I have never travelled in a plane, they usually react with disbelief. 'How can that be,' they stutter. 'Surely you must have gone overseas at some point in your life!'
Well, I've only been to Malaysia, but it's not because I'm afraid of flying or I can't afford a ticket; it's just that I've never felt the need to fly overseas for holidays.
Through television and the Internet, I'm fully aware that there's a host of experiences around the world that I've been missing out on.
Yet Singapore - this sparkling city of perfectly spaced trees, with rubbish bins around every corner - exerts a magnetic pull of familiarity that I cannot shrug off.
There is a comforting sense of security here, with a top-notch police force and professional armed forces. Law and order may not seem like a big deal until you find yourself in the middle of a riot.
There is also no compelling need to head overseas for studies: We have world-class universities here, and my primary academic interest is South- east Asian society. Besides, I can always go on short-term exchanges if I am really bitten by the travel bug.
For now, it is fine to stay.
Ow Yeong Wai Kit, 20, has a place to read arts and social sciences at NUS.
Everyone knows one or two of them. You know, the bond breaker. I remember there was this whole campaign back when I was still in secondary school vilifying them, so much so i had write a bao zhang bao dao on them. There were talks of publishing their names in the news to "shame" them. But now it seems that people take it as par for the course. Which is good as well.
Even when I wrote those essays back in sec2 condemning those evil bond breakers who because of the fact they can't honour a contract will end up to be adulterers and fraudsters because of their past record of not keeping their word, i never really bought into that idea. And now that I'm overseas, I don;t really blame people from breaking their bonds once they see how things are different when they go overseas.
The second writer seems a tad too self righteous about him not travelling. But nevertheless, he appreciates my home for what it is, its safety and greenery and etc. I think the world is made up of different people, and everyone has different ways of looking at things. But in this case, I espouse the mantra of the first letter, that you need to go out to appreciate what you left behind. And right now, after spending 2 years in London, I have learnt to appreciate it and it has become my second home of sorts, but one's soul still hankers for home.
