Joelle and I are ecstatic to have two interns to torture in this special year of SG50! Thanks to NUS’ Provost Office who egged us on, we now have two young firebrands to amplify the nature and environment education potential of our undergraduates and extend the number of opportunities for the public to discover their natural heritage. They are, in essence, going to unravel the bottleneck caused by our teaching, research and administrative roles.
At our first meeting, we had Lynn and Sankar warmed up immediately by getting the first Kent Ridge Walk off the ground, had recruitment initiated for a workshop for new guides and then they dived into supporting the Himalayan Mutt Project through a talk in NUS and sales of merchandise in collaboration with NUS PEACE.
In the midst of the flurry of learning the tricks of the trade, they were made to pen their introductions which we are happy to feature here. This also serves notice to the the world at large that if they come knocking at your door (or email), realise that Toddycats have a much more efficient mechanism this year – fuelled by the NUS Toddycats’ #sg50interns!
Wish them happiness!
SG 50 Intern – Lynn Ng
About yourself
Hello! I am Lynn, a recent graduate with a firm interest in animal welfare, I was a in NUS PEACE for two years and have frequently helped plan and organize road shows, fundraising events, and symposiums. A large part of my undergraduate life was actually spent away from campus, and you may have instead found me with a foot stuck in mud in Costa Rica, netting damselflies in Munich, marking Lyssa zampa in parts of Singapore, or just scurrying around hugging unwilling dogs and cats.
What you are looking forward to
One thing I am definitely looking forward to is working with a great bunch of enthusiastic individuals all eager to make a difference in Singapore. Apart from gaining new knowledge and perspectives, I also look forward to the exciting challenges of planning and organizing outreach activities in order to pique interest in more people! More importantly, I look forward to Singapore having a great environmental outreach scene this year, and to finally seeing those dinosaur fossils for myself!
What you can see happening in the next few months.
I can also definitely see myself becoming really busy planning for a flurry of events in the months to come. But more importantly, apart from an impending backache and headache, I also see the next few months to be so full of activities that it will be a great year for nature enthusiasts to come together in this significant 2015. The revival of the Kent Ridge Heritage Walks, opening of LKCNHM and the Biodiversity Symposium are just some of the key events due to happen this year, with many more to come!
SG 50 Intern – A Sankar
About me
Hi! My name is Sankar and I’m one of the new Toddycats interns! If you see a tall, skinny, Indian guy hunched over a computer this semester, it’s probably me… I just finished my NS and I’ll be matriculating into Faculty of Science this August. I’m really looking forward to it! Anyway, I love being in nature and I spend a large portion of my time walking around nature trails with my friends looking for snakes. I hope to be a herpetologist some day and work with these horribly misunderstood (and amazingly cool) animals.
What I’m looking forward to
I’m really looking forward to meeting people who are passionate about nature and conservation. I’m also trying to expand my horizons. As I’m more accustomed to fieldwork, doing administrative work provides a refreshing insight into what goes on behind the scenes of every single walk and event that we hold. I’m honestly very glad to finally be able to do something meaningful with my time (after 2 years of NS).
The next three months
The next three months are going to be busy, frankly. It’s SG50, NUS110 and the Museum is finally opening its doors again. So there will be no shortage of things to do. I’m very excited for the Kent Ridge Heritage Trail, which is being revived after quite some time. We are also in the midst of organizing the next Toddycats HOWL, which will be a great opportunity for us to meet up and find out what’s going on. Of course, the perennial Love Macritchie Walks are always something to look forward to. And last but most certainly not least, the opening of the Museum! I can’t wait to see those fossils…
NUS Toddycats! 