20
August
2018
|
19:30
Asia/Singapore

Passion for learning, desire to serve

Recent NUS Medicine graduate Hargaven was honoured with the Lee Hsien Loong Award for Outstanding All-Round Achievement  

Recent NUS graduate from the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine (NUS Medicine) Hargaven Singh Gill received the Lee Hsien Loong Award for Outstanding All-Round Achievement (LHL-OAA) from Senior Minister of State for Communications and Information, and Culture, Community and Youth Sim Ann at a Special Awards Presentation Ceremony on 14 August. The prestigious award is presented to only one fresh graduate annually in each of four categories — Junior Colleges/Millennia Institute, Institutes of Technical Education, Polytechnics, and Autonomous Universities — and recognises the exemplary achievements of post-secondary school students who have made outstanding contributions to the community and demonstrated the spirit of innovation and enterprise. 

In addition to his notable academic accomplishments, Hargaven participated in numerous community service projects throughout his undergraduate years, such as the Longitudinal Patient Experience, in which he befriended a patient with chronic illness, and the Rotaract Club’s Children Cancer Foundation, where he planned educational and social activities for children with cancer. He was also actively involved in the Public Health Service, which provides free health screenings to Singaporeans, and the Tri-Generational Homecare Project, which aims to deliver long-term holistic care to the elderly through collaboration with healthcare professionals and secondary school students. He also took part in community outreach efforts in Nepal for three years as part of Project Khoj Ma. So dedicated was he to the region that he returned a fourth time after the devastating Nepal earthquake in 2015 to assist with crisis relief efforts.

Hargaven served as Vice-President of the Medical Society in Academic Year 2016/17 and co-director of the School’s Senior-Junior Mentorship Programme, and was part of the organising committee for the Medical Grand Challenge, a year-long competition designed to develop innovative solutions to existing healthcare problems.

I am fortunate to have been nurtured by great mentors; humbled to now be able to represent their aspirations and dreams. I serve the community to reciprocate where I once received, because it took a village to raise this child.

An avid fan of rugby, Hargaven even scored well on the pitch, winning gold for NUS at the Singapore University Games for three consecutive years and helping his team clinch the championship title at the Inter-Varsity-Polytechnic Games. He also used his position as Vice-Captain of the NUS Rugby Executive Committee to engage the community, organising a rugby clinic for children from charity organisation TOUCH Young Arrows that aimed to help youth realise their potential.

Hargaven credited those before him for his latest accolade. “I am fortunate to have been nurtured by great mentors; humbled to now be able to represent their aspirations and dreams. I serve the community to reciprocate where I once received, because it took a village to raise this child,” he said graciously.

The LHL-OAA is funded by an endowment donated by Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. The first Award was presented in 2010 and seven of the past eight university recipients are NUS alumni.