Last Saturday, I got a phone call from the school office. The lady told me that NTU is holding a convocation dinner to end off the year and invited me to join. The main reason was that the Tan Chin Tuan Foundation, who gave me a scholarship for my final year of university, would be gracing the event and the school felt it would be a good chance for them to meet us (myself and the other scholars) and for us to show our appreciation to the foundation...
so anyway, I figured it would be quite a cool networking opportunity and besides I didn't have anything lined up that evening... so I agreed... the lady told me before hanging up that it wasn't too formal and that dress code is similar to the Convocation ceremony itself (meaning collared, long sleeve blouse with slacks or skirt)
Fast forward to Monday evening 6.30pm... I arrive in the auditorium foyer where the dinner was to be held, only to see real extravagent decor in the foyer, a stage set up, plus about 20 tables for formal and served dining.. and guess what.. the stage front said "Guest of Honour: President SR Nathan and Mrs. Nathan"
and in case you are wondering, that happens to the President of Singapore and his wife!!!
as the evening went on and more guests started arriving, it was quite amazing to realise that this is an annual NTU stakeholders dinner, bringing together the deans and vice dean of faculties, management of the various NTU offices, management of various foundations and organisations that have supported, sponsored for funded NTU in any way, the NTU board of trustees and so on... very high level indeed...
and aside from myself and another guy who were Tan Chin Tuan scholars, the only other students were the Lee Kuan Yew scholars, the top students in each faculty of study... they got the privilege of speaking with the President himself..
It's kind of hard to describe how I felt.. but I was glad to gave exchanged a few namecards with some key people that day, to enjoy a 4 course dinner served by hotel catering, to enjoy some really cool performances (aerial display, electric violin and rhythmic gymnastics performance, choir performance, to share a lot about AIESEC, to learn how a Foundation works, to learn how university corporate development works..
amazing how a random opportunity can turn up so much... :)
