Page 19 - Scholarship Guide Feb 2020

GOH JIA YI 17

"My advice is to stay curious, be

confi dent and to trust yourself.

You may be the hidden gem

waiting to be discovered."

Smart Nation Scholarship
What was your fi rst In your opinion, what is your Goh Jia Yi
experience in the fi eld of tech key strength that helped you Age
and what attracted you to the land the scholarship? 21
fi eld? I feel that my passion for technology as well Attained
I believe my interest in tech can be attributed as confi dence shone through during the Diploma in Financial Informatics
to my early exposure to coding and computer interview process. Being able to convey my
games. I decided to pursue my interest in strong interest in technology and express my Now
tech after chancing upon the then newly- thoughts clearly allowed the interviewers to Second Year at National University of Singapore
launched Smart Nation Initiative after my O know me better, and assess that I possessed majoring in Business Analytics
levels. the qualities that they were looking out for.
From
During that time, data from government What do you hope to achieve Singapore Polytechnic
sources became more accessible to the public in your career in the public
through platforms such as data.gov.sg and
SingStat. Out of curiosity, I downloaded service in contributing to Jia Yi will be joining Government
some available datasets and attempted to Singapore’s progress towards Technology Agency (GovTech) upon
build visualisations with basic chart features a Smart Nation? completion of her studies.
available on Excel. That experience allowed
me to witness the power of analytics There are many meaningful ongoing projects
fi rst-hand. With analytics, we are able to in GovTech, and I hope to be part of this
generate insights to identify existing market process by applying my analytical skills in
gaps and to innovate products that may creating and improving products that can
transform Singaporeans’ day-to-day life. help to enhance Singaporeans’ lives.
With that in mind, I was motivated to pursue
data analytics with a Diploma in Financial Particularly for an aging population, I hope
Informatics at Singapore Polytechnic. to be able to create a fully-enabled IoT
home for individuals with mobility problems.
How did you hear about the More elderlies will require around-the-clock
assistance from caregivers to move around at
Smart Nation Scholarship, and home, and technology can help to ease the
what attracted you to apply? workload on caregivers and allow elderlies to
I came across the Smart Nation Scholarship have more freedom in their daily lives.
website while searching for scholarships
online. As someone with a strong interest Any advice for your peers who
in technology and passionate about creating are looking to apply for the
something to bring convenience to others, I
knew that this scholarship was the one for scholarship?
me. My advice is to stay curious, be confi dent and
to trust yourself. You may be the hidden gem
Furthermore, with the support of GovTech waiting to be discovered.
bringing networking and mentorship
opportunities within my reach, I know that
I will have a defi ning university experience.
These factors have attracted me to apply for
the scholarship.