http://www.news.gov.sg/public/sgpc/en/media_releases/agencies/micacsd/speech/S-20100527-1

10 Today, I am pleased to announce that the Foundation will be launching two new leadership awards. The first, which is targeted at schools, is the NextGen Outstanding Student Leader Award. The Foundation has named the award after me, believing that it may inspire the students to serve the nation in future. The other, which is targeted at volunteers in grassroots organisations, is the NextGen Young Community Leader Award. The details will be announced by the Marine Parade Leadership Foundation, but in a nutshell, what differentiates these two awards from many other awards is our emphasis on leadership and community service. Most awards go to those who excel academically. However, for the NextGen Awards, we give more weight to leadership attributes and active involvement in community service. Of course, good academic results count, but the students need not be the top academic achievers.

11 For the NextGen Outstanding Student Leader Award, we invited secondary schools, junior colleges, and ITE colleges in Marine Parade GRC and MacPherson to each nominate one student who best exemplified the qualities of service leadership and community service to receive the award. Later tonight, I will give out the first of these awards to Sarah Binte Sulaiman, a Secondary 4 student from KC. The other winners will receive their awards from their respective schools.

12 Let me tell you a bit about Sarah. When Sarah first joined KC in 2007, she was not a typical A-lister. She was in the Normal academic stream but she worked hard and was transferred to the Express stream in 2009.

13 Sarah is a Student Councillor and spends much of her time serving her school, fellow schoolmates and the wider community, even though she is sitting for her GCE “O” levels this year. She organises community involvement activities, forms study groups and leads her class in school activities. I was told that Sarah has done more than 200 hours of community service. Last year, during the year-end holidays, she volunteered at the Sunlove Dementia Day Care Centre where she organised various activities, including a Christmas party for the seniors. She also helped out at the Kaki Bukit Senior Activity Centre. Sarah exemplifies the model of a young, compassionate servant leader.

Conclusion

14 Before I end, I want to pay tribute to the Infant Jesus Sisters, the IJ Board of Management, and the principals and staff of CHIJ Katong, both past and present, for their dedicated service to the school. They have shaped the lives of those who passed through their hands. They have done their job well. I congratulate CHIJ Katong once again for its 80 years of achievements and contributions in moulding the daughters of our nation. May you continue to strive for, and achieve, greater heights.

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