Media Room

SCL lecturer, Vanaja Manivasager and her daughter Tharaanie make effort to meet up for regular lunches in NYP.

Tharaanie Tammilmani, a third year Diploma in Accountancy & Finance student in Nanyang Polytechnic, has an unusual privilege: She gets in regular lunch dates with her mum – because mother, Vanaja Manivasager, is a lecturer at NYP’s School of Chemical & Life Sciences.

Rather than it being awkward or restrictive, having mum around is actually full of perks. She travels to school with mum, for instance. (They try to head home together when their schedules permit.)

Tharaanie developed a keen interest in accountancy during her time in secondary school. She said, “I turned to my mum for advice when I was at my educational crossroads after completing my O Levels. Before I joined NYP, I already had a good understanding of a polytechnic education, so NYP’s Diploma in Accountancy & Finance course was naturally my first choice. And of course, another benefit of my mother being an NYP staff was that I got familiarised with the campus in the shortest possible time.”

Her NYP experience has also brought her one step closer to her career aspirations. Tharaanie has completed her internship at one of the Big Four auditor firms, KPMG, where she applied what she has learnt in NYP in a real-world environment. She’s now certain that she wants to pursue auditing as her profession.

C&O designer Koh Cher Yap, and Davy Koh, visit MakerSpace@NYP to seek inspiration for their design work.

Davy Koh Yuan Zheng, a second year student from the Diploma in Industrial Design also agrees that there are more pros than cons with a parent working at his school. His father, Koh Cher Yap, is a designer for NYP’s Communication & Outreach Department and has been with NYP for 18 years.

Cher Yap shares: “My department is involved in the development of marketing collaterals for prospects. It adds meaning to my work when I see how these collaterals are being produced and distributed to the secondary school students, and that has helped my son Davy make an informed decision two years ago.”

He adds: “Davy and I have even more common topics to talk about these days as we share our ups and downs at work and in school. 2017 is also an exciting year for NYP as the Polytechnic celebrates our 25th anniversary. I have shared with Davy about our NYP’s 25th Anniversary mobile app. This allows us to better understand the history and current happenings of NYP with a myriad of activities happening throughout the year.