) or https:// as an added precaution.Mr Ravinder Singh, Chairman of Nanyang Polytechnic's Board of Governors,
Mr Russell Chan, Principal & CEO of Nanyang Polytechnic,
Distinguished Guests,
Colleagues,
Graduands, your loved ones and your families,
1. Good morning. It brings me great joy to be here today to celebrate this significant milestone with you.
2. Today's graduation comes at an exciting juncture in your lives. You stand at the crossroads of your future, you are weighing possibilities, you are exploring pathways, and you are thinking about how to make the most of the opportunities ahead.
3. You are part of the inaugural batch of learners from the School of Design & Media who are graduating from your diplomas taught under NYP's Professional Competency Model, or PCM in short.
Staying Adaptable
4. The PCM is distinctive for the way it brings learning and industry closer together. It does this through authentic projects, interdisciplinary collaboration, and direct engagement with industry professionals as mentors, as partners, and as co-creators.
5. The value of this approach can be clearly seen in the projects that you've worked on in your time here.
6. From designing healthcare solutions and creating sustainability campaigns, to reimagining architectural spaces like Raffles City and shophouses on Peck Seah Street, these projects demonstrate how learning is most powerful when it addresses real world challenges and opportunities.
7. As you now step into life after NYP, you are entering a time of rapid change. You are facing challenges like sustainability, digital transformation, and evolving social needs. You have built a strong foundation of hard and soft skills during your time in NYP. I encourage you to continue building on these skills as you move on to your next journey. Embrace lifelong learning and continue to learn and relearn throughout your career.
8. This adaptability will be your greatest strength because designers and media creators don't just belong in one sector. Your skills are needed across the full spectrum of industries. Your adaptability and versatility are the keys to opening doors across industries and communities. It could be healthcare, sustainability, technology, hospitality, banking, and many others. Many organisations are looking for people who can communicate clearly and create good user experiences. People just like you.
Empathy in Design
9. In my earlier discussions, I have heard some wonderful stories of achievements made during your time here. Some of which you have seen in that wonderful video, but let me illustrate a few of them.
10. At the National Day Parade (NDP) in 2025, you showed that creativity becomes most powerful when it connects technical excellence with meaningful purpose and community spirit.
11. You designed a 3D anamorphic animation that brought August the mascot for NDP to life, turning the public space at The Heeren @ Orchard into a vibrant showcase for SG60.
12. More than visuals, you created shared moments of pride, showing how design, your design – can connect people, can spark joy, and can make national stories feel personal.
13. Your cohort has also demonstrated the power of empathy in design.
14. You did a project with IHH Healthcare, where you applied design thinking where it matters most: improving the human experience.
15. By digitalising health declaration forms, you helped patients avoid delays, and alleviated their stress and reduce their uncertainty at the point of admission.
16. You transformed an overwhelming process into one that supports patients' wellbeing and peace of mind.
17. The graduate speaker for the School of Design & Media this year, Olivia Lim, was the leader for this project.
18. This human-centred approach defines a lot of Olivia's work. In the capstone project with the Youth Corps Singapore, she and her teammates designed hands-on activities that explored sensory perception, accessibility and what it means to be inclusive, to help fellow students understand the lived experiences of those with visual impairments.
19. Another group of you from the Diploma in Animation, Games & Visual Effects created Virtual Reality (VR) simulations for National Cancer Centre Singapore to help ease pre-treatment anxiety for young cancer patients and their caregivers. The team of Sheena Tan, Alyssa Tan, Mabelle Ng, Caleb Lim and Hidalqo Dziqry empathised with the fear and worry experienced by these young cancer patients and their loved ones prior to the radiotherapy, and used VR to help these patients familiarise themselves with what to expect and help them feel more at ease for the upcoming treatment.
20. This VR suite is being used for pre-treatment briefings with young patients today. A school project, part of your studies working with industry, more importantly working with the real lived experience of people out there that you have gone to learn about, is now making a real difference in the world.
21. These examples showcase the breadth of talent and dedication in your graduating class, qualities that shine through in both collaborative work and individual achievement. The paths that you have taken have showed us that success is built in the unseen hours: the drafts that you rewrite and iterate, the feedback that you have taken in, the commitment to your craft that may have felt challenging at times, and the courage to keep going anyway.
Embracing Opportunities and Building Connections
22. Two graduands sitting among you today exemplify how this strength and perseverance can take you places.
23. Sheryl Ong from the Diploma in Experiential Product & Interior Design and Athena Tong from the Diploma in Communication & Motion Design both clinched Gold medals at WorldSkills Singapore 2025. Congratulations to the both of them.
24. What we do not see is the journey behind their success. They spent long hours in training, having to unlearn and relearn new skills. They have had to overcome obstacles, repeating skills again and again to master their craft. There were no shortcuts– only perseverance and dedication.
25. Both of them earned the honour of representing Singapore at WorldSkills 2026 in Shanghai later this year and I wish them all the very best.
26. Well done to Sheryl and Athena, and congratulations!
27. These are just two of your cohort, but they represent all of you. I hope all of you will carry this spirit with you. And with that in mind, I want to share two pieces of advice for your careers ahead.
28. First, explore a wide range of opportunities with an open mind. Do not limit yourself to roles that seem like an obvious fit – your skills are very transferable, and more transferable than you might think. Consider positions in different industries, different types of companies, companies of different sizes, and even roles that might push you beyond your comfort zone. Every job will teach you something new. Every experience and every job will develop your abilities, and position you better for future opportunities.
29. My second piece of advice is to build your own network actively. The people you meet, whether in a classroom, in your workplace, or at industry events, can be your friends, your allies, your collaborators and your mentors in your career. Your next opportunity might come from a conversation with an old classmate, a connection made at an industry talk, or a friend that you have made during your internship.
30. Today marks the start of the next phase of your life. You have much to be proud of, and much to be grateful for.
31. Do keep in touch with your lecturers and the friends that you have made here at NYP. They will be your pillars of support as you embark on your next adventure.
32. I also encourage you to return to NYP from time to time, to give back to the NYP family that has nurtured you and created all of these opportunities for you, and, in time to come, come back to NYP to upskill as an adult learner.
33. Congratulations, Class of 2026! I look forward to seeing how your future stories will unfold.
34. Thank you very much for inviting me to join you here this morning.