Three new student organisations for the Yale-NUS community
Three new student organisations were founded this semester for those interested in food, skating or poker
Yale-NUS Food For Thought hosting a dumpling session in collaboration with Global China Connect. Image provided by Au Hei Kiu.
Each new semester brings in a fresh student cohort with unique passions and experiences, and this is reflected in the buzzing and vibrant range of student organisations on campus. Besides engaging with the existing pool of organisations, Yale-NUS students are also empowered to establish and lead new ones. This semester, three new organisations are providing fresh spaces for students to develop their diverse interests.
Yale-NUS Food For Thought was established with the aim of exploring how we perceive and understand food. Every day, we consume our three meals without paying much attention to the mundane action of eating. However, woven into the dishes that we eat are also facets of human history, culture, and values. Yale-NUS Food For Thought hopes to surface more intentional discussions about these aspects of food over communal meals and outings.
Founder and Co-president Au Hei Kiu (Class of 2024) was inspired by her gap year experience in Paris. Said Hei Kiu, “Being in a culture that puts so much emphasis on food and going to local markets where I could buy seasonal produce made me appreciate food a lot more. You could literally smell apples from a mile away, and I never thought they could taste so good!”
Hei Kiu also travelled around France to try its regional cuisines: stopping by Saint-Émilion for their terroir in local vineyards, biking to Marseille to try the famous Bouillabaisse, and visiting Arcachon for the oyster farms, just to name a few.
Hei Kiu realised that food was a common language between people of different cultures, and wanted to tap into the rich cultural diversity of Yale-NUS College students. Upon her return to Singapore, she started inviting different friends to take turns cooking and introducing each other to food from their culture. This eventually expanded and became Yale-NUS Food For Thought.
Yale-NUS Food For Thought at Legendary Hong Kong during the Hong Kong Afternoon Tea Outing. Image provided by Au Hei Kiu.
Continuing the trend of exploring different ethnic and cultural foods, some of their recent activities included a Hong Kong Afternoon Tea Outing, where Hei Kiu introduced the group to the cultural and political history of afternoon teas in Hong Kong. Other past events included a dumpling making session with Global China Connect, as well as a dinner with sustainable open-concept kitchen and restaurant Open Farm Community, where they discussed the environmental sustainability of modern day consumption habits .
Members of the student organisation encourage their meal participants to take discussions back into their own circles, and hope that these initiatives can draw the diverse Yale-NUS community even closer. Yale-NUS Food For Thought also adopts a “community-led proposals” model, and if you are a part of the Yale-NUS community (including alumni) do consider reaching out to the group to initiate and organise fun food-related activities!
Another group whose formation was inspired by experiences abroad is Yale-NUS On Ice, co-founded by Silvia Suseno (Class of 2024) and Ericka Wu (Class of 2024).
“Yale-NUS College has taught us to be courageous and try something new – so in our semester abroad at Yale University, we picked up figure skating. It was definitely something new for us, and we had to pluck up the courage that it takes to get out on the ice and face the fear of falling, as well as the ability to laugh at yourself when you eventually do fall again and again,” shared Silvia.
When they returned from their semester abroad, Silvia and Ericka wanted to continue practicing the sport in a tight-knit, bonded community of peers. Hence, Yale-NUS On Ice was created, and the co-founders are in the midst of fostering a culture where members teach and learn skating with each other.
Yale-NUS On Ice also hopes to make skating more accessible to all. This is especially of concern, because ice skating and figure skating are uncommon sports which are typically expensive to practise in Singapore. In addition, there are only a handful of skating rinks on the island.
“We’re still getting started, and are facing some struggles in the face of The Rink at JCube closing down,” Silvia shared. “But we’re hoping to hold an open skating session for potential members to give skating a shot first.”
The student organisation plans to hold regular training sessions after the casual open session.
Yale-NUS College Poker Club members and participants of the tournament over recess week. Image provided by Zane Siak.
Besides food and sports, there has always been a sizeable group of students interested in card games. Noticing this, Zane Siak (Class of 2025) wanted to spread the joy of poker to more people in the College, so he started the Yale-NUS Poker Club. “We want to show that poker is definitely a deep game of strategy, akin to games like bridge, and [is] not just [a game of] luck as many might view it,” said Zane.
Over the recess week, Yale-NUS Poker Club hosted a tournament open to Yale-NUS students. They saw the event as an encouraging milestone, and in the future, they hope to organise larger tournaments with participants from the Yale-NUS community and hopefully students from other NUS Residential Colleges.
These new student organisations are a testament to the unique experiences and interests of our vibrant community. We look forward to more flourishing student experiences on campus as these organisations come up with new events in the academic year.
