Student Success Stories

Rebecca Lou, who is the 2017 Lee Hsien Loong Award recipient, received seven job offers. She’ll be joining Walt Disney in August 2017.

She always knew that she wanted to become an animator.

Rebecca Lou grew up watching Walt Disney cartoons such as One Hundred and One Dalmatians and Mulan and was very fascinated by the actions and facial expressions of cartoon characters.
 

But the journey hasn’t been all smooth sailing. Rebecca was almost retained in Secondary three due to her poor grades. She admits sheepishly: “I used to enjoy doodling in class, and that affected my academic results during primary and secondary school days. But I realised I gain immense joy animating cartoon characters as I immerse myself in an imaginative environment. Also, I found great interest in the stories of people from different places and backgrounds.” 
 

The 20 year-old recently graduated from NYP’s Diploma in Animation Course in May. She was part of the pioneer batch of Polytechnic Foundation Programme (PFP) students at NYP.
 

This admission route allows N-Level students who do well to skip the O Levels and come straight into Poly for a foundation year.
 

When she qualified for PFP, the former Anderson Secondary School student knew straightaway where she wanted to go because she had heard about the School of Design & Media and its strengths in animation.

The avid storyteller says: “It was very enjoyable to learn new skills to tell old tales through different mediums. One of the most exciting projects was creating an interactive piece in an exhibition at the ArtScience Museum. I felt a great sense of pride and fulfilment to see my works exhibited in public.”

Another interesting component of her NYP journey: Rebecca had the opportunity to do a six month internship at the Walt Disney Company (Southeast Asia). The stint gave her experience in creating digital content: One of her most exciting projects was developing live social media content with the cast from the blockbuster movie 'Captain America'.

She shared: “During my internship, I learnt a whole range of skills and life lessons, from learning how to pitch campaigns and strategies to digital marketing and to creating content for social media platforms. In particular, I liked the film which I did for this Disney movie called 'The BFG'. The original footage was very dark and I added lots of effects to make it more mystical and magical. That project gave me lots of satisfaction and the opportunity to hone my skills.”

So what’s next for Rebecca?

The 2017 Lee Hsien Loong Award recipient, who graduated with a GPA of 3.96, received seven job offers, which included big names like Walt Disney, Infinite Studios, Crave FX and Offset Singapore.

She says: “After evaluating all the job offers, I decided to go for Walt Disney as I had a wonderful internship experience. Also, I feel that Disney gives their employees lots of empowerment and creative freedom. This will be a great opportunity and I would like to learn more from them.”

Rebecca is someone who never rests on her laurels. She quips: “I’m constantly trying to animate anything that I can think of, it could be bubbles floating or an animal hopping. Even if it is a simple object, I would still animate it to the best effort possible. I truly enjoy my passion and hope my creations can make an impact to people who watch them.”  

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