A Student Enterprise Less Ordinary

A speech by Mervin Chai about NUS Entrepreneurship Society as a student enterprise.

Contributed by Mervin Chai, Chairman of NUS Entrepreneurship Society

The article is based on a speech transcript by Mr Mervin Chai during the recent 7th Start-Up@Singapore Grand Launch event. The talk stresses on the importance of student enterprise in Singapore and how NUS Entrepreneurship Society has risen to the occasion, with its present achievements. Mervin Chai is the Chairman of NUS Entrepreneurship Society 2005/06. He was the co-lead organizer of 6th Start-Up@Singapore and president of NUS Entrepreneurship Society. He was invited as a panellist to speak in Global Startup Workshop and also in Kenya.

Author’s note: We thank Mervin for his contribution to Sgentrepreneurs.

Beginning of Speech Transcript

NUS Council Chairman, Mr Wong Ngit Liong
NUS President, Professor Shih Choon Foong
NEC Director, Professor Wong Poh Kam
Ladies and Gentlemen

A Happy New Year to all.

To be frank, I never thought I would be giving a speech after Mr. Wong and Prof Shih. Given their success and experience, there’s almost nothing for me to say. Since I was asked by the organizing team to say a few words today, let me share with you my journey with the team in NUS Entrepreneurship Society over the past 3 years.

As Prof Shih has mentioned earlier, NUS recognizes the importance of entrepreneurship and utilized its resources to develop its vision and structure towards a global knowledge enterprise. These efforts have placed NUS among the top ranking universities in the world. Likewise, NES strives to become one of the top student entrepreneurship organizations in the world.

We believe that a great university is not merely defined by the amount of resources it has. It is about the people; staff, students and the alumni. The most important element that differentiates a good university from a great one is the kind of students it produces: Enterprising student leaders.

We are fortunate to be in this part of the world with a diverse community from all over Asia and the rest of the world. This diversity is prominent in NUS as a cosmopolitan university with students from diverse backgrounds and cultures.

The creation of a community that can harness the expertise of different faculties and sieve out good cultural values from both local and international students would be an asset in surviving the competitive world ahead of us.

A student enterprise, whether it is a student organization focusing on grooming leaders or a student startup aiming to create value in society, its modest contribution in the area of entrepreneurship is still relevant in moving towards the vision of a global knowledge enterprise.

We believe that NES as a student enterprise can provide a platform to nurture enterprising student leaders. Running Start-Up@Singapore as its flagship event has seen the value added growth of its members.