Crafting Relevance For A Digital Age
Bynd Artisan
In the heart of Singapore at Raffles City Shopping Centre, among the scent of leather and the hum of soft jazz, a group of SMU students gathered in Bynd Artisan’s atelier. It was a space that whispered of craft. Shelves lined with notebooks, walls adorned with brass tools, and the quiet dignity of artisans at work. This was more than a field trip. It marked the beginning of a digital experiment that aimed to merge time-honoured craftsmanship with the pulse of a younger, digitally native audience.
Sparks of Inclusion
DBS Foundation
It begins in a flat in Chinatown. The kind with peeling paint, grilled gates, and a hush that lingers even in the middle of the day. A clipboard in hand. An uncertain knock. A doorway opening into a different world. Inside: the warmth of cooking, the presence of cats, the weight of sorrow, and the unassuming rise of strength.
A Different Kind of Paradise
Earth Company, Bali, Indonesia
Somewhere on the outskirts of Ubud, between jungle rustles and the occasional cockcrow, a roof begins to leak. A downpour has swept across Bali. The students, without a fuss, relocate to the kitchen. Someone laughs. Someone else pulls out a laptop. It isn’t the luxurious overseas experience they might have imagined. But it’s exactly the one they needed.
Where Data Blossoms
Far East Flora Market
Tucked behind bouquets and bustling aisles, a steady rhythm pulsed. It was a rhythm of data, decisions, and daily rituals. In back rooms lined with ledgers and lived-in routines, SMU-X students listened, decoded, and discovered. With every chart drawn and script written, they helped a family business see its own story anew and chart a path forward with clarity and heart.
Where Compassion Meets Capability
MINDS
Morning light filters through tall windows in a workshop tucked within a MINDS centre, where the rhythm of routine is steady and sure. Here, individuals with intellectual disabilities fold towels, sort materials, and pack goods with practiced care. At one table, SMU students sit in attention, listening as a MINDS social worker shares stories of resilience – of small steps, steady progress, and lives shaped by both support and self-determination. From digital dashboards to sensory-friendly kitchen designs, ideas emerge through presence, through watching, asking, and understanding. In these shared spaces of dignity and dialogue, compassion finds form and capability grows.
The Nation We Will Become
Nexus
In a hushed seminar room tucked within Singapore’s bustling civic district, a circle of students leans forward, pens poised and thoughts in motion. Beyond the glass, the skyline rises in steel and light; but within these four walls, another kind of scaffolding takes shape. Conversations spark about resilience, identity, and the invisible threads that bind a nation together. Here, citizenship lives through questions, open debate, and the courage to dream aloud. This is where a new generation begins to imagine the Singapore they hope to inherit and shape.
Gig Work, Real Impact
National Trades Union Congress
A rider pauses at the curb, helmet still on, fingers scrolling for the next drop-off. Behind him, the city blurs with traffic, chatter, and the sharp light of another ordinary afternoon. He is one of thousands, moving with urgency through Singapore’s streets. Beneath the motion lies a deeper story, one of workers navigating shifting rules and invisible lines without handbooks. And somewhere at SMU, a group of students leans forward, ready to listen and reimagine what fairness, dignity, and opportunity could look like in the gig economy.
A Footing In Innovation
National University Hospital
In a clinic room, patients waited their turn. Many were elderly, living with diabetes, and had come for a routine foot screening. The process often took up to thirty minutes – a timeconsuming but crucial step in preventing complications. Left untreated, even a small ulcer could lead to serious medical consequences. Yet for many, these screenings happened just once a year.
Breaking the Silence, Together
Samaritans of Singapore
Two students stand outside a flat, clipboard in hand. The corridor is still. A knock, and the door opens. Inside, a conversation begins. A gentle exchange unfolds, one that in Singapore has often remained unspoken. The topic is difficult, but the moment is honest.
Where Journeys Grow Greener
Sarawak Trade and Tourism Office Singapore
A map of Borneo unfurls across the table. Fingers trace rivers and highlands, whispering of orangutans, longhouses, and morning mists rising over rainforest canopies. Sarawak, vivid and wild, calls out as more than a destination. It becomes an invitation. To reimagine what travel can be. To chart new paths where tourism heals rather than harms, and where journeys leave places, and people, better than before.
