SINGAPORE – 13 August 2010 – ‘Great ambition and conquest without contribution is without significance.’ This line from the film, The Emperor’s Club, has been a guiding principle for Chow Yi Ling, one of the recipients of the President’s Scholarship this year who recently graduated from Victoria Junior College.

For having demonstrated excellence in academic ability and co-curricular activities, a willingness to serve and the capacity to lead, Yi Ling, the daughter of a deliveryman and a sales executive, was awarded the President’s Scholarship concurrently with the Overseas Merit Scholarship from the Public Service Commission to read Philosophy, Politics and Economics at the University of Warwick in the United Kingdom. The first ever female student from Victoria Junior College and the first graduate from the Victoria Integrated Programme to receive the most prestigious award conferred by the Public Service Commission, Yi Ling studied at Cedar Girls’ Secondary School in Secondary 1 and 2 and was then admitted in 2006 into the Victoria Integrated Programme, a four-year course leading to the A levels.

Yi Ling has always had the interests of others at heart. During her time at VJC, she served the student population as the head of the Feedback Committee in the Students’ Council, which solicited input from the student body on ways to improve life on campus. Yi Ling’s devoted mentoring of other students in the Victoria Integrated Programme was recognised when she was voted the Best Peer Support Leader in 2007.

While working on a refurbishment project at an orphanage in Phnom Penh during her school holidays, Yi Ling noticed how the locals spent many hours travelling long distances on foot each day. Together with some of her friends in Singapore, she conceived and initiated a project called ‘Cambodia on Wheels’ to ship used bicycles donated by their owners from Singapore to Cambodia.

Yi Ling has been also a member of the Residents’ Committee of Hougang constituency since 2009 and was invited to join the Youth Executive Committee at the Hougang Community Club. Having attended a Financial Literacy course at VJC, Yi Ling helped to organise a similar course for the residents to learn how to better manage their finances, which will be held next month.

While serving others in all these programmes, Yi Ling was still able to participate in other activities as a member of the debating team, the Global Affairs Society and the Medical Society of the college, and lead her peers as the vice-chairman of the Culinary Club. For all her many achievements and outstanding contributions to the college and to the community, Yi Ling was named VJC’s Student of the Year in 2010.