Becoming the Best IT Whiz with NYP
Amabel Yeo (right) is thankful for her lecturer and mentor Leow Zhen Zhen for her guidance during her NYP journey.
Amabel Yeo got hooked on software development when she took part in her secondary school’s IT competition. Then, to satisfy her burgeoning curiosity, she took up free online tutorials.
Eventually, having to choose between a junior college and a polytechnic education, Amabel decided that the latter would equip her with deeper IT skills and knowledge. Nanyang Polytechnic (NYP) stood out for its reputation in the IT field, and its students, she gathered from online discussions, scored significant achievements.
So, despite her parents’ initial hesitation about her joining the IT industry and studying at a polytechnic, she eventually convinced them to let her join NYP’s Diploma in Information Technology. Today, she says it was her best decision ever.
At NYP, Amabel not only learned coding and programming. She was also moulded into a confident individual who is able to take on projects single-handedly and deliver results. Her internship with ST Electronics exposed her to large-scale IT projects and gave her a clearer direction of her future in this industry. Amabel also clinched an NYP scholarship and her IT skills improved year on year, as evidenced by her wins in competitions like WorldSkills Singapore and the Microsoft Imagine Cup.
She counts the many late nights that she spent in NYP as her most memorable moments. Whether she stayed to organise the School of Information Technology’s (SIT) freshmen orientation activities or preparing for competitions, the additional hours spent in campus made her feel closer to her course mates.
Inspiring and caring NYP lecturers, Amabel feels, played a critical factor in her doing well academically. She singles out Ms Leow Zhen Zhen, as her favourite lecturer. Ms Leow, reveals Amabel, was the one who convinced her to take part in competitions to further hone her IT skills.
In fact, she missed the deadline to sign up for a competition but Ms Leow signed her up anyway because she saw the potential in Amabel. “Training for competitions took up so much time that at times, I felt like giving up. But Ms Leow would always push us to our limit. She even sacrificed her off-days for our sake. I’m really grateful to her for all that she has done,” says Amabel.
Amabel today has three offers from the local universities and plans to pursue either a degree in computer science or information systems. She is extremely interested in open source development work and hopes to one day invent an IT solution that will give users an Eureka moment!
She credits NYP for nurturing her passion, and helping her to become her best. She says: “If I could turn back time, NYP would still be my first choice!”
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