IN PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS: A POSITIVE MINDSET AND HELPFUL LECTURERS ALLOWED HIM TO EXCEL IN HIS STUDENT LIFE

Undergraduate Kevin Ow is thriving in his studies through an active student life, great learning experiences and the variety of people he met in Curtin Singapore

By Rachael Boon

Feb 24, 2022

Curtin Singapore student Kevin Ow is thriving in his studies through an active student life, great learning experiences, and the variety of people he has met.

The best memories of Mr Ow’s tertiary education involve his student club activities, the lecturers and fellow classmates.

Since starting school in November 2020 at the Singapore campus of Australian institution Curtin University, Mr Ow, 22, has set out to live his student life to the fullest by joining clubs, taking on leadership roles and meeting new people.

And he does all these while juggling his studies for his Bachelor of Commerce degree, with a double major in Management and Human Resource (HR) Management.

“Since young, I loved to converse with people and learn from their experiences as there are a lot of things we can learn from each other,” says Mr Ow.

That got him thinking about studying psychology and “how the human mind works” after his A levels. During national service (NS), he also discovered that HR management could be the right fit for him, after interacting with different groups of people. He wanted to better understand how to manage people in the army and help them get a better sense of their role and importance as they served in NS.

Upon the completion of his NS, Mr Ow was attracted to Curtin’s two-year bachelor’s programme, which also offered a fast-track course that allows students to take a single or double major.

Mr Ow’s favourite module is the introductory module to HR Management, because of its hands-on approach, as it includes a role-playing presentation assignment.

Finding that assignment among the most memorable, he explains: “We had to act out a HR scenario presenting some issues that we have learnt in class, such as how a HR Manager would settle a dispute with employees regarding issues such as pay, unfair dismissal and how to manage the expectations of both the higher management and employees.

“It was actually quite fun rehearsing and drafting the script,” he recounts.

Such experiences are helping him develop skills for the workplace, to be “more aware of the challenges that we are facing and what we can do to conquer these challenges”.

He adds: “I am still gathering knowledge on how I can help to improve the HR aspect in the organisation”.

Enjoying his studies, along with helpful lecturers, also allowed Mr Ow to excel.

He has earned three Letters of Commendation – an award from the Curtin Singapore Pro Vice-Chancellor for students with a course weighted average of 75 per cent and above – for three out of four trimesters of university.