Interviewing Joshua Sim Renhe, second runner-up of the recently concluded Microsoft Imagine Cup, was a great way for me to learn and grow from his experiences.
I have a habit of comparing myself to others. Perhaps it’s because I grew up in a competitive environment both at school and at home. In my secondary school, I constantly strove to be the best I could. At home, being the eldest I was constantly compared to my siblings and cousins. It shook my self-confidence.
But when I sat down with Joshua, it changed my mindset. His life story is an inspiration to me. Most importantly, he rekindled that little flame called faith and gave me hope, something I lost long ago.
Joshua served his National Service (NS) before he completed his Higher NITEC. He then decided to serve NS first because he didn’t perform well for his 'O'-levels. At that time, he thought that education wasn't important. He almost gave up on himself.
However, this all changed while he served his NS. After some reflection, he realized that he didn't like the direction he was going in life. He vowed to better himself and he started off by completing his education. After he completed his NS, he enrolled in ITE College West's Higher NITEC in Network Security and attained a perfect score of 4.0.
With his excellent results and a new found passion for information technology, he wanted to enter Nanyang Polytechnic's (NYP) School of Information Technology. He was accepted into NYP’s Diploma in Information Security and hasn't looked back since.
When he enrolled into NYP, he continued to strive for excellence - something that was quickly noticed by his lecturers. During his first year, his lecturer asked him to join the Cisco NetRiders IT Skills Challenge 2011. His team made NYP proud by clinching first place. With his undeniable skill, drive and talent, he was approached once again in Year 2 to enter the Microsoft Imagine Cup.
When asked about his next step after the competition, he answered that he is going to continue work hard and enter even more competitions in order to improve himself. He hopes to become a researcher in the future. Currently, he is a nominee of A*Star Science Award (Polytechnic), a scholarship which gears recipients towards a professoriate.
To end off, I would really like to thank Joshua. You showed me that with sheer determination, faith and a dash of hope, one can achieve anything. From now on, I would view 'impossible' as ‘I aM POSSIBLE’! Now I realized that to be the best, you need to work hard and continuously push yourself towards excellence.
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 | Hello everybody! *Waves frantically~.* My name is Dzulhilmi B. Dzulkifli. Known by my friends as ‘Zool’ or ‘Zoomiee’. I am a Year 1 student taking Business Informatics from the School of Information Technology (SIT). Even though I have been blogging for half my life now, never have I ever felt that blogging is a burden. I find blogging as a way to express myself and let others have a little taste of my experiences. I have taken up NYP Ultimate Frisbee as a CCA and auditioned for NYP Foreign Bodies Hip Hop Dance Group. |
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