Tanay Bharadwaja

Throughout my education journey, I was struggling to find a purpose as to what I should do in my future. First introduced to the concept of the PSC scholarship in junior college, my teachers recommended I apply as I could be a good fit for the Public Service. Reading more about the scholarship and what it would mean for my future, I felt the pieces start to connect. As a second-generation immigrant, I came to the realisation that this was a great way to give back to the country which I’ve called home for all my life. In addition to that, given the provision of the PSC Scholarship (Engineering), this was a great opportunity to fulfil that purpose through my technical skills and knowledge, something that greatly excited me for the future. 

Being from a neighbourhood JC, however, I was met with uncertainty by the people around me. The perception of the scholarship was not in my favour, but I decided to press on under the support of my friends and teachers. I decided to press on through the tests but drove myself to put a sense of authenticity throughout my application. This meant no long line of essay drafts and consultations, and expressing myself on the page and tests, barring a couple of sanity checks from close friends and family. Interestingly, I wrote most of my scholarship essay on my phone while travelling on vacation in South Africa and submitted it on the same trip!  

Given all these factors, I was flattered to receive a scholarship offer, and was humbled to accept and commit myself to a purpose. 

Being a PSC Scholarship holder has made a great impact in my academic journey, opening doors to opportunities otherwise unavailable and allowing me to make the most of my learning experiences both in Singapore and abroad. In Singapore, the PSC provided me with various learning opportunities to take on internships in the public sector and the private sector, while also providing the freedom for me to chart my own path as well. The PSC also offered key support for my overseas programmes, such as my exchange to University College London, which proved to be very useful to aid my learning experience without being bothered by any issues. 

Being a PSC scholarship holder who studied locally comes with its’ fair share of comments from friends and family and dealing with these comments requires you to be very clear in your aims and purpose in life. This reasoning becomes clearer as you go further down your PSC journey, so not to worry 😊! 

During my time in university, I took it upon myself to expose myself to as wide a variety of working disciplines as possible. Starting with the public sector, I undertook internships in two public sector agencies, LTA and URA, to understand not just how the public sector worked, but how different agencies work and collaborate with each other. I then went on to pursue the opposite end of the spectrum in the private sector, undertaking a long-term internship with a start-up company to further develop my experiences in the private sector. Experience in both settings allowed me to learn a great deal about independent learning and how to work efficiently. Contrasting the two experiences allowed me to better gain from my university education, by choosing learning experiences that would aid me in my future career. Being a PSC scholarship holder allowed me the flexibility of choosing opportunities that brought the most learning to me without the constraint of building a coherent resume for employers.  

My non-academic life in NTU was a whirlwind of activities, but I spent almost all my years in NTU involved in the Students’ Union to get a real sense of how policy was created and implemented over the long term. This was something I would not have been able to experience from my public sector internship given the relatively shorter duration. During my time in the Union I took up portfolios in Ministerial Events and Transport Policy. These portfolios brought me to understand a lot more about soft skills – stakeholder engagement and team dynamics –that I believe will prove to be highly useful in my public sector journey. In addition to the Union, I also took some time to pursue an interest of mine – singing in a choir! I joined the university Choir and had some wonderful opportunities to explore different vocal techniques and a wonderful time singing with my friends. These experiences are some of the ones that I will cherish throughout my life, and they are experiences that you can only obtain in university. 

Being a PSC Scholarship (Engineering) holder, one of the key criticisms that I hear about tech-based government scholarships would be that the public sector is not the place for tech graduates or is more of a ‘retirement plan’. However, my experiences in the public sector show the opposite, where I met many people who shared the same passion and dedication to do something that was bigger than the sum of their actions. The people that were part of these wonderful teams came from all walks of life, and the diverse range of people working on these solutions was heart-warming to see. 

Dedicated. The people that I have met in the Public Service through my various internships and interactions are all highly dedicated, and I was heartened by the amount of effort they pour into their jobs. I was moved by their sense of purpose to the work that they do for the betterment of Singapore. 

Take the support and opportunities that the PSC gives you to enjoy your university life and expand your view on your field, or your career goals. Specifically for engineering scholars, this would mean taking the time to explore sections of the field that would have relation to policy.