The sentiments expressed by Justin Zhuang’s (Everything I-gave was not enough?, October 23) are probably shared by a number of other students at NTU.

As the president of the 17th Students’ Union, and now president of the i-gave Class Gift 2009, I feel that I am able to share my perspectives on this issue from first-hand experience.

When we participate in the i-gave class giving program, we are investing in our shared future. This is because the value of our degree is indelibly tied to our alma mater’s standing.

Many of my fellow schoolmates—especially final-year students who face the prospect of entering the corporate world or pursuing further studies—are starting to reckon with this fact: the reputation of where we graduate from matters.  In fact some of the most common questions employers or graduate school deans will ask when we knock on their doors are: where we graduated from, how was our university experience, what is the standing of our alma mater, etc.

When we invest in i-gave, it is the participation that matters—not the amount. When corporate foundations and philanthropists see NTU students and alumni give passionately towards our alma mater, they too, will be drawn to our culture of giving.

While it is true that most students cannot afford to give large sums, every single donation—whatever the amount—makes a difference. When the contributions of the entire student population is pooled together with the giving from alumni, faculty, staff, corporations, foundations, and community philanthropists, the impact is multiplied.

Sometimes, our generation is accused of being the “me” generation. We preface everything we do with a question: what’s in it for me? But I believe that this is a cynical view. If we’ve only looked hard enough we would realise that for good or worse, NTU has been an important juncture of our life, and that NTU has provided a great deal to all of us without the skeptical view of “what’s in it for me”.

All of us have a collective stake in the university.

Choudhury Anshuman Das
President, i-gave Class Giving 2009
Final-year Chemical & Biomedical Engineering student

• Everything I-gave was not enough?

  —Oct 23rd, 2008, 12.17am

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