From Singapore to Paraguay: Siblings share their family experience at Yale-NUS

(Left to right) The Lee brothers, Daniel (Class of 2024) and Desmond (Class of 2025), at the Yale-NUS campus. Image provided by Daniel Lee.

For many of these “Yale-NUS College families”, having one, two or sometimes even three or more siblings attend the College is a very special experience. I say this from personal experience!

My brother, Desmond Lee, (Class of 2025) and I (Class of 2024) were admitted into the College in 2019 and 2018, respectively. Having served our National Service, this made our applications, deferments and subsequent matriculations a long-awaited process.

Neither of us had experienced what the College had to offer, save for one Experience Yale-NUS Weekend, which I had attended, before we made our applications. Yet, a couple years later, here we are.

Though Desmond is still in his first semester, I hope that he gets to have the same experiences I have been privileged to have during the remaining years of the College: academically invigorating conversations over food in the dining hall after class, rushing late-night Common Curriculum submissions with suitemates and one-on-one research proposals with professors during office hours.

In the spirit of shared experiences, it helps that we are in some of the same Student Organisations. Though the College has almost 50 registered clubs and activities, we somehow ended up playing in the same sports teams. Additionally, as an Orientation Group Leader for the Class of 2025’s orientation programme, you could say that we went through the same orientation too. It was fun for our parents to hear about this hallmark experience from both sides of the same coin.

At the same time however, my wish is that he will be able to grow into his own person during his time at the College; he will have ample space to do that far away from me at Saga Residential College (Cendana being the better one, on the other side of our beautiful campus). The Residential Curriculum, that was carefully developed over the last decade, will make our parents happy – both sons will graduate from the College as well-acclimated and confident Kingfishers, ready to take on whatever life throws at us. It was heartening to hear from my brother over dinner the other day, that it seems he has already planted his roots at the College.

Desmond shared that with our parents stationed overseas, “Having a brother on campus is really comforting, since we can look out for each other. Yet, the family I most often find myself with is not related to me by blood. Thus far, my residential college mates have really become a new family to me. We have meals, we have fun, we try new things, and we find comfort in each other”.

“Here, there is a family that accepts me for who I am, and who I might want to become. This motivates me to become better, both intellectually and as a person. That is what I have come to love most about the College,” he further elaborated.

For the Gonzalez sisters, Sol (Class of 2025) and Valeria (Class of 2021) the difference in years between them allowed Valeria to share her Yale-NUS experiences with her younger sister. Prior to Sol’s application and decision to make the trip half-way around the world, she had much to consider. “When Valeria told me about the Common Curriculum, the different majors I could take, the amazing language learning opportunities, and the novelty of living in a residential suite, I wanted those experiences as well,” Sol enthused.

(Left to right) Valeria Gonzalez (Class of 2021) and Sol Gonzalez (Class of 2025) exploring Singapore together. Image provided by Sol Gonzalez.

Besides having to fly for almost two days from Paraguay, doing so in the middle of an on-going pandemic undoubtedly made Sol’s decision to matriculate to Yale-NUS an even tougher one. However, “considering how happy [Valeria] looked whenever we talked, I decided to embark on this journey knowing that while I would be away from home, the experiences and lessons that I would learn along the way would be worthwhile”.

Those moments Sol managed to share with her sister, made coming to the College a very considered decision. “Valeria shared with me a lot about her experiences during her first couple of years at Yale-NUS, and the opportunities that opened up subsequently for her. These conversations brought to life what the College website had promised.”

Valeria, an Environmental Studies major, has since graduated from the College and is currently working in Singapore as an Assistant Product Manager at Shopee. “I love how much she has grown academically, personally, and as a sister,” Sol remarked.

“I think the distance made our relationship stronger, and now we are closer than ever. Yale-NUS made her experience things that otherwise she would not have had the opportunity to do so, and I think in those four years, she grew to be much more independent, reliable, and confident in herself.”