What happens when policy theory encounters real-world experiences far from home? As part of the impact stories from students involved in the Teaching Enhancement Grant - Learning Community (LC) project titled "Design Principles for Impact-Driven Policy Education," a group of students from Residential College 4, led by Grace Ng (Year 2, Computing), shared how their Southeast Asia Friendship Initiative (SFI) trips inspired them to explore new themes and contexts. They explained how they have integrated lessons from their course into their personal academic journeys.

Chloe (Year 2, Life Sciences) selected the water governance course led by Dr. Navarun, driven by her curiosity to learn about an entirely new field. "I was personally interested in gaining firsthand experience by observing issues during an overseas field trip," she shared. Jia Xin (Year 3, Environmental Engineering and Economics), on the other hand, was eager to understand the concept of wicked problems through a systems thinking approach. "The course aligns with my career aspiration of working in public service, where policy-related roles require an understanding of systems thinking." The trip to Indonesia provided Jia Xin with the opportunity to observe firsthand the environmental and policy issues she had studied in class. She highlighted her visit to a village where she learned about their successful grassroots waste management system. "It made me reflect on why their system was so successful and why Singapore struggles to significantly improve recycling rates despite having grassroots efforts."

The SFI trips have allowed students like Chloe, Jia Xin, and Grace to engage with complex policy issues through fieldwork-based learning, apply systems thinking to make sense of information and their experiences, and reflect deeply on theories like “policy transfer.” They have also been able to apply their knowledge from the seminar courses to different areas of interest. Chloe and Grace took leadership roles in different SFI field trips, connected the dots across Asian urban contexts—such as Yogyakarta in Indonesia and Chiang Mai in Thailand—and explored important 21st-century Asian issues like informal settlements and planned migration in another research-oriented course in RC4. Meanwhile, Jia Xin applied the concept of “archetypes” learned in the seminars of the SFI course, along with her observations of flood alert systems and neighborhood awareness campaigns regarding waste management during her field trip in Indonesia, to examine heat stress in Singapore. She secured first place with her project "Heat Stress, No More" in the 2024 Singapore Undergraduate Policy Competition

Lawrence (Year 2, Business Administration) shared another unique experience from the SFI course on water governance, discussing the interconnection of culture and environment through his interest in coffee. "One of my greatest highlights was being in Yogyakarta to experience something called Kopi Joss," he said. The trip led him to think deeply about water consumption for irrigation and plantations. He also explained how his observations of community-led flood management initiatives in the Depok area of the midstream Ciliwung River in Jakarta helped him consider the challenges and opportunities for transferring such initiatives to his internship in the Lake Victoria region of Uganda. Chloe concluded the discussion by expressing gratitude: "Thank you to the professors and staff for allowing us to go on this SFI trip and for giving us the opportunity to learn things we normally wouldn't have learned in a regular NUS course."

It is noteworthy that Xavier Heng (Year 3, Mechanical Engineering), who was also part of the same SFI cohort and recorded and edited the discussion, is returning to the Indonesia field trip as a student assistant. Xavier, Lawrence, and Jia Xin have played significant roles in maintaining relationships with SFI collaborators, including faculty and administration staff from the Department of Policy and Management at Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM) in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Additionally, these students have helped RC4 host and engage with the ALTITUDE (Academic Leadership Training on Innovative Transformation for University Development and Empowerment) team from Indonesia, led by collaborators from UGM.