Good Friends, Wise Choice

(From left) Kiat Han, Royson and Kiang Siang, who've remained good friends since secondary school

One night after the release of the GCE ‘O’ level results, three good friends from Xinmin Secondary sat down at their usual hangout place, a void deck in Sengkang.  There, Kok Kiat Han, Ang Kiang Siang and Royson Lee De Sheng started to seriously talk about which polytechnic they wanted to enter.  The boys, who had attained good GCE ‘O’ level grades, had various options opened to them.

By the end of the evening, the trio – who had been friends since Secondary One – had decided to take up a Diploma in Information Security course at NYP.  Explained Royson, “We heard from our seniors that the School of IT (SIT) at NYP has a good reputation of being strong in IT.  So we naturally picked NYP as our poly of choice.”

Fast forward to three years later in 2012: it looks that the three buddies – who are all CSIT-Nanyang scholars – have certainly made a wise decision as all three have graduated with top honours during their recent graduation ceremony on 24 May.  Kiat Han received the Lee Kuan Yew Medal, which is a prestigious award given to the most outstanding graduates from technology courses in NYP, as well the CSIT Gold Medal. Kiang Siang received the CSIT Bronze Medal while Royson attained a Diploma with Merit. 

Besides doing well academically, the boys also did NYP proud in numerous IT-related competitions. For example, Royson and Kiat Han won Code::XtremeApps:2011 Open Category (first position), Singapore Cyber Conquest (first position) and SyScan Capture-the-Flag (first position), while all three of them took part in SyScan Secure Coding 2012 (bronze).  Royson and Kiat Han also won gold and bronze medals for the IT Network Systems Administration category of WorldSkills Singapore in 2010. 

Besides taking part in competitions, the boys also led a busy but meaningful campus life by taking part in various activities.  Kiat Han was Captain of the Water Sports Club (Life Saving) and Royson joined tennis.  Kiang Siang is the Vice-President of the Association of Information Security Professionals (AISP)-NYP, Student Chapter. 

Looking back, the trio are glad that they have made NYP their polytechnic of choice.  As Royson puts it, “NYP has provided us with many opportunities that develop our potential.  We’re glad to be a part of NYP.”

At the end of their NYP journey, the trio are now going separate ways. Kiat Han plans to further his studies under a SMU-CMU (Singapore Management University-Carnegie Mellon University) fast track programme. Royson will be taking up a Computer Science degree at National University of Singapore (NUS) while Kiang Siang is considering an offer to do the NUS-Computer Science with Business Administration (Accountancy) double degree.

However, they remain best friends, and would often travel around Singapore in search of good food.  Said Kiang Siang, “We have supper at places like Tampines, Hougang, Buangkok, Sengkang and Punggol Park.  Once, we even went to Sentosa at 2 am.”

Kiat Han, Kiang Siang and Royson would like to say a big THANK YOU to all their SIT lecturers for their dedication throughout their poly years!