11 awarded President’s Challenge fellowships

SINGAPORE – Preschool teacher Nor Natasha Samian, 27, not only teaches the children in her classroom their ABCs but makes sure they also feel safe and loved, after her own experience with abuse in her early years.

At six, she was sexually abused but an adult family member she spoke to did not take her seriously. At 12, she developed a skin condition that made her a target of cruel remarks from other children.

She attempted suicide at 15 and was placed in a children’s home. After a second attempt, she was referred to HCSA Dayspring, a residential treatment centre for girls who have survived abuse.

The centre’s staff helped turn her life around, said Natasha, who has been a teaching preschool for the last five years.

She draws on her childhood experiences to better understand children who exhibit challenging behaviour in her classroom.

Natasha is one of 11 recipients of the 2026 President’s Challenge Fellowship, which supports people overcoming adversity, social sector professionals and Institute of Technical Education (ITE) graduates who are doing their part for the community.

All were awarded their fellowships during the President’s Challenge Night fundraiser on Oct 25.

In her preschool class, Natasha tries to understand what is troubling the children, instead of simply correcting them because challenges outside school can affect how children behave in class, she said.

“Instead of focusing on correcting their behaviour, I try to understand what they are feeling and what they’re trying to tell me,” she added.

Now in the first year of a part-time early childhood education degree at the Singapore University of Social Sciences (SUSS), Natasha hopes to deepen her knowledge of special needs education and trauma-informed care, supported by the fellowship. She will also receive mentorship to guide her personal and professional development.

Speaking to reporters before the fund-raiser on Oct 25, President Tharman Shanmugaratnam said while people’s circumstances often shape their opportunities in life, it is important to remove the hurdles they face and give everyone a chance to succeed.

“Everyone, with the right support, and the right people around them, can uplift themselves, and in fact surprise both themselves and others with how far they can leap, how far they can go in life, and how much they can contribute to those around them,” he added.

This year, 11 people were selected for the President’s Challenge Fellowship, under the Civic Action, Springboard and ITE Inspire tracks. All in, 23 people have been awarded the fellowship since it began in 2025.

Apart from Natasha, the other Springboard Fellows are ITE College East student Nurul Ashikin Seman, SUSS part-time research assistant Quek Hwee Kimberly, and Yellow Ribbon Cares social worker Rizwan Habib.

Five ITE graduates were selected as ITE Inspire Fellows to mentor students and help them explore career opportunities.

One of them is preschool teacher Muhamad Shahril Samri, 38, who entered the profession almost by chance.

After seven years studying engineering at ITE and polytechnic, he got into the early childhood education sector when a friend helped him land a temporary part-time job at a preschool.

He was later asked to teach children about traditional Malay music and instruments at PCF Sparkletots in Pioneer. The principal saw him at work and encouraged him to become a teacher.

He had his doubts because male preschool teachers were rare at the time, he said. But he took the plunge and will mark 10 years as a teacher in February 2027.

Shahril said he hopes to prepare ITE early childhood education students for the realities of the classroom during his fellowship. He also wants to help them understand that the job goes beyond changing diapers.

He added that he plans to organise poetry and public speaking workshops to encourage students to use their mother tongues, by roping in groups like the Poetry Festival of Singapore.

The other four ITE Inspire Fellows are Wang Junyong, managing director of I.S.E. Education; Tan Teck Lee, deputy principal at the Singapore Institute of Power and Gas; Derrick Lee Ming Yang, co-founder and chief technology officer at tech firm Accredify; and Sheila Manokaran, co-founder of River Valley Irregulars.

Two social sector professionals received the Civic Action Fellowship, which allows them to take one- to two-year sabbaticals to develop new ways of tackling social issues.

One is Lovelynne Chong, 42, founder of social enterprise FyreFlyz, who plans to help open doors for disadvantaged youth.

She became a single mother at 21 and struggled to get by with little support. She was also ineligible for public housing, subsidies and tax rebates.

Her daughter is now 21, but Chong believes many young people from disadvantaged backgrounds still face similar hurdles, compounded by a lack of connections and opportunities.

Drawing on 17 years of experience in the social sector, she hopes to develop a model that connects underserved youth with working professionals and community leaders who can offer mentorship, career guidance and access to networks they might otherwise lack.

The aim, she said, is to help young people build social capital – the relationships and connections that can open doors – and narrow the gaps in opportunity between those from different backgrounds.

Chong will spend her one-year fellowship at SUSS, developing and testing the model in the hope that it can be adopted more widely in the social service sector.

She described being named a fellow as “unreal”, saying the recognition affirmed years of work by her and her team.

The other Civic Action Fellow is social service professional Ng Shou Jin.

Partners including ITE, SUSS, the Singapore Business Federation Foundation, Temasek and Temasek Foundation will provide the fellows with expertise, networks and development opportunities.

Established in 2000, the President’s Challenge was refreshed in 2025 to provide multi-year funding for social programmes, instead of one-off grants.

It is supporting 62 new programmes in 2026, bringing the total to 121.