Ms Soh Swee Ping, CEO, Council for Third Age
Soh Swee Ping, CEO of the Council for Third Age (C3A), an organisation that promotes active ageing in Singapore, attended the Executive Program for Nonprofit Leaders (EPN) at Stanford University in 2014. Swee Ping found out about the Tote Board Overseas Scholarship programme when she attended the inaugural Non-Profit Management Porgramme for the 21st Century at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, also funded by Tote Board.
"I wanted to have the opportunity to interact with, hear and learn from other colleagues in the social sector, who were residing and operating in a different country, in a different economic and political climate. I was very curious and wanted to understand the issues they were facing, how they operate in their countries, their policies, and the community efforts to service or handle the needs in this sector," she said.
Swee Ping found the discussions during the programme with her classmates and lecturers extremely useful. She explained, "Particularly because my views are from the Asian perspective, while my classmates were mainly from the US, we learnt a lot from one another and it opened my mind to other alternative views which I may not have thought of in the context of Singapore."
"I'm satisfied with the experience of attending the scholarship programme. For those thinking of applying, I would say go for it! But, be prepared to do lots of reading, and to be able to read very fast!"