Science, art and everything between

Some people move through life along a single path. Others are drawn instinctively towards many worlds at once.

For Syakirah Binti Jamaludin, who majors in Life Sciences and minors in Entrepreneurship, life has never been neatly divided into categories. Science and art, business and creativity, logic and aesthetics – they have always coexisted naturally, feeding into one another in ways that shape not only what she studies, but who she is.

One day, she might be immersed in scientific inquiry in the laboratory. The next, she is making art for customers in Singapore and beyond. To Syakirah, these pursuits are never contradictions. They are simply different expressions of the same restless curiosity.

Creating beauty through craft

This curiosity has followed her for as long as she can remember.

Long before entrepreneurship became an academic interest, Syakirah was already building ventures of her own. In primary school, she handsewed felt pencil cases embroidered with custom names and designs for classmates, finding joy not just in making things, but in watching people light up when they received something personal and thoughtfully crafted. “It was addictive in the best possible way,” she says.

Around the same time, she was also running a small Bath and Body Works hand sanitiser business, circulating a self-made catalogue among her peers and instinctively adjusting prices according to demand and rarity. Moving on to secondary school, she was the top seller on Carousell for personalised embossed watercolour notebooks and even took on some corporate and bridal orders.

“Looking back, I was praticising economics even without realising it,” she says, “And it never really stopped.” The medium changed as she grew older, but the sense of fulfilment behind it stayed the same. “Every piece I put out carries a little bit of me. When a customer connects with it, there is quiet joy in knowing that something I made now lives in someone else’s world.”

Today, that instinct for creation has evolved into a multifaceted creative venture spanning crochet, digital illustration, resin flower jewellery and freelance graphic design. Her works are sold locally and internationally through platforms like Etsy, while regular appearances at maker markets allow her to remain deeply connected to Singapore’s creative community.

Each medium she works with tells a different story. Crochet, first taught to her by her mother during primary school, became an avenue for creating wearable art – practical pieces that people use in their daily lives. Digital prints appealed to the “efficient” side of her creativity: a single artwork could be reproduced and shared widely, making art more accessible without sacrificing originality. Resin flower jewellery emerged from a fascination with preserving beauty itself – embedding dried and faux flowers into wearable keepsakes inspired by the ocean, shells and botanical whimsy.

Together, these pursuits are rooted not merely in aesthetics, but in emotional connection. “At its heart, it has always been about bringing a little more beauty and joy into someone’s day,” she says.

Choosing breadth over boundaries

That same refusal to confine herself to a single identity has shaped her academic journey as well. The interdisciplinary structure of the College of Humanities and Sciences (CHS), alongside life in NUS College, offers precisely the intellectual breadth she was searching for, a space where scientific rigour and creative exploration could coexist without compromise.

“Choosing this pathway was a deeply personal decision that honours the full complexity of who I am,” Syakirah says.

This philosophy of embracing complexity has carried into the way she approaches learning. Every semester is an opportunity to explore what she calls a new “side quest” – a random skill, project or area of curiosity pursued simply for the joy of discovery. Outside the classroom, she immerses herself in YouTube documentaries, new crafts and creative experiments, always looking for the next exciting new thing to try, believing firmly that a life enriched by varied interests is ultimately a richer one.

While her science major grounds her in precision, analytical thinking, patience and methodical planning, it also complements her creative instincts in unexpected ways. The discipline of scientific inquiry has sharpened the way she approaches problem-solving, experimentation and even artistic practice, teaching her to pair creativity with careful execution.

Her entrepreneurship minor, meanwhile, gives structure to instincts she has cultivated intuitively since childhood. Joining the programme at the School of Business, without prior economics or accounting experience was initially intimidating, but the challenge became part of the growth.

Courses such as finance and accounting introduced her to financial literacy and book-keeping, practical skills she now directly applies to managing her own creative business. Marketing reshaped how she understands audience engagement and consumer psychology, lessons she later channelled into publicity strategies for NUS Makers’ Alley. Negotiation and conflict management proved equally transformative, equipping her with frameworks for navigating disagreement and collaboration across every aspect of life.

Building NUS Makers’ Alley

Nowhere is that synthesis of creativity and entrepreneurship more visible than in her work with NUS Makers’ Alley, a student-led creative community she helped build from the ground up. She has been serving as the Vice-President of the club for the past two years, leading publicity, branding and marketing.

Part maker, part strategist, Syakirah played a key role in pioneering the club’s publicity strategy, transforming its social media presence through content focused not simply on posting frequently, but on capturing and sustaining audience attention meaningfully. She also introduced a two-pronged framework distinguishing direct promotional content from consumer engagement content, helping the club communicate with greater clarity and purpose. 

The impact was tangible. Stronger outreach translated into larger audiences and greater footfall for makers at booths and events, allowing student artists to connect with wider communities who appreciate handcrafted work.

For Syakirah, however, the significance of Makers’ Alley extends beyond metrics or marketing strategy. It represents something more human: the preservation of creative spaces in an increasingly automated world.

“I believe art is a fundamental part of human nature,” she says. “Handmade work carries something deeply personal that mass-produced goods can never fully replicate.

A test of resilience

Running her own business, however, also revealed the less glamorous realities behind entrepreneurship. Beyond being an artist, she wears every hat there is: accountant, logistics coordinator, marketer, salesperson, operations manager, handyman. Booth days means standing for hours, reading customer behaviour in real time and adjusting promotions instinctively.

“Passion alone is not enough,” she says. “It takes discipline, patience and discipline to keep something going.”

She adds, “What keeps me going is seeing people light up when they find something they love. I have always managed to earn a decent profit while keeping my prices accessible, and that balance between sustaining the business and making art is something I take real pride in.”

That resilience is being tested now as she recovers from a neck injury that has temporarily slowed many of her creative plans. Yet even in pause, she continues to look forward – she hopes to eventually venture into product manufacturing, drawing from her experience in merchandise production through her university leadership roles.

More broadly, she envisions a future where both her identities – the scientist and creative – no longer need to exist separately at all. Whether through science communication, healthcare branding, entrepreneurship or ventures yet unimagined, Syakirah is building a life expansive enough to contain all of her interests – and staying true to herself.

And in doing so, she represents a growing generation of youth redefining success not through specialisation or depth of knowledge alone, but as one with the courage to remain fully, unapologetically multidimensional.

“Beyond my professional ambitions, I plan to continue growing as a maker and artist, sustaining my craft business and remaining an active participant in Singapore’s creative community.”