Valedictorian diaries: Class of 2025

July 03, 2025

Congratulations to our valedictorians!

Graduation is a proud moment but it’s the journey that truly defines it. The long nights, the failed experiments, the group projects, the questions that led to more questions, the friendships built and lessons learned along the way – these are the experiences which ultimately shape our graduates into who they become.

Catch our stories celebrating the hard-won success of our valedictorians!

Ryan Lee Ray Yen
Double Majors in Pharmaceutical Science and Life Sciences

For Pharmaceutical Science valedictorian Ryan Lee, the concept of interdisciplinary learning was not new; indeed, it was an emphasis he noted since his days in secondary school.

However, CHS is where he got to truly experience this form of learning. 

The impact of interdisciplinary science is nowhere more evident than in the changing pharmaceutical landscape – shaped by new technologies, global health challenges and innovation in therapeutics. And it is in the ability to connect the science of drug development with its real-world impact on human lives that Ryan found his calling.

He says, “The combined use of biology and chemistry for real-world applications has always been an area of interest for me.” His primary major in Pharmaceutical Science deepens his understanding of the drug discovery pipeline process, from discovery to commercialisation, while his second major in Life Sciences prepares him to better understand the mechanisms behind the maladies of today.

“I felt that it was important to be exposed to different fields of research to build competencies in each,” Ryan says. He therefore decided to embark on multiple research attachments under the Undergraduate Professional Internship Programme (UPIP) and Undergraduate Research Opportunities Programme in Science (UROPS) at NUS and the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR). Collectively, these experiences led to insights on different research topics as well as different best practices.

In the process, Ryan gained exposure to the fields of chemical biology, disease research, molecular biology and medicinal chemistry. His undergraduate research journey culminated in his Final Year Project (FYP) on RNA biology at Cancer Science Institute of Singapore – where he independently designed and executed the project, applying what he had gained from earlier experiences, making this an extremely fruitful milestone of growth for him.

Ryan plans to pursue PhD studies in the future. Eventually, he hopes to join the pharmaceutical and medical technology industry where he aspires to translate the “work in this field of research into innovative healthcare products and become an industry leader in technology translation, bringing discoveries from bench to bedside”.

O’Rianna Yew Jing Qing
Inaugural cohort of Data Science and Economics Cross-Disciplinary Programme

When O’Rianna first stepped into the College of Humanities and Sciences (CHS), she wasn’t chasing titles or top grades – she only knew that she was curious about how the world works.

She describes herself as a “risk taker”- at the start, she did not know exactly what to expect from the brand-new Cross Disciplinary Programme in Data Science and Economics but this did not stop her from taking a leap of faith as “something about the combination of rigorous data analysis and economic thinking resonated with me,” she says.

Her journey was by no means defined by ease or linear progress but it was certainly purposeful.

She says, “I saw internships as essential for connecting classroom learning with the real world. They gave me the chance to apply theory in practical settings, and that’s where I felt I grew the fastest.” Being drawn to combining ideas across disciplines, O’Rianna also co-developed multiple dashboards that required integrating different fields during her internships and academic projects.

Bridging two complex fields to complete this demanding programme is no small feat but the results were truly worth the while. O’Rianna’s exposure to different fields helped to narrow down her interests while giving her the tools to work in adjacent areas like policy, technology and business strategy.

“Learning both coding and economic reasoning side by side helped me develop a dual lens. One for understanding problems through theory and another for solving them through data,” she says. 

O’Rianna will begin her MSc in Finance and Private Equity at the London School of Economics and Political Science, where she plans to deepen her understanding of global markets and alternative investments. Thereafter, she hopes to join a global private equity or investment firm where she can apply her interdisciplinary insights to real-world capital allocation and portfolio strategy, with the long-term goal of supporting economic development initiatives in Singapore and across Asia.

Catch our full story on O’Rianna coming soon!