In Wei Jian’s Journey As A Leader, RC4 Provided The Opportunities To Shape His Craft

By Benedict Chang

Founding member of RC4’s squash team. Publicity Head of the College Students’ Committee (CSC). Project Director of RC4’s Arts Night. Owner of his own cafe. From leading diverse communities in Residential College 4 to brewing his own community in Covet Coffee, Wei Jian’s journey embodies the spirit of a people-oriented leader.

A Linguistics and Political Science student, Wei Jian joined RC4 in 2015. Throwing himself into new opportunities each year, he is curiously modest about his experiences. Taking on the role of CSC Publicity Head was “just a flash of inspiration”, he meekly describes, while becoming Project Director of Arts Night was simply his way “to do something in my final year”. Underlying these motivations, however, were concrete perspectives on passion and leadership that he brought to the table at each opportunity. “My experience with student leadership is to just have fun”, Wei Jian says as he reflected on his time as Publicity Head. “They [Wei Jian’s committee members] just go because they know I will support. If they don't think it's worth their time, then it's not worth their time.” Such perspectives drove his team as they organised off-the-wall events like a clicker competition, where each house was challenged to find a clicker hidden in the college to win various prizes. As Arts Night Project Director, his team had to come to terms with the shutdown of the event as the COVID pandemic began to take hold. Even so, “the fun part was working with the people”, Wei Jian reflects, and he describes the fond memories that he managed to offer to his team despite the unfortunate outcome.

Covet Café, a café tucked in the heartlands of Bishan focusing on specialty coffees, it was set up by Wei Jian in 2021 and run with two other alumni, Hafiz and Anisha - an RC4 community beyond the university. Now taking charge of his very own business, Wei Jian spoke to us of the challenges inherently involved in getting things off the ground, and the trial and error that went into realising his vision for the cafe. “We were groping in the dark a little bit”, he shared, “and it took us some time to find a footing and find our rhythm as a team as well”, with a need to build name recognition and digital presence without incurring excessive costs.

Wei Jian’s experiences, both within and beyond his time in RC4, reflects a continued drive towards bold leadership and initiative, passion in every commitment, and, fundamentally, an investment in a loyal, caring team. “I think we all, to some extent enjoy the things that we do, but I think if it wasn't for the people, a lot of us wouldn’t have joined the IGs [interest groups] that we joined”, Wei Jian tellingly shares. Indeed, in the brief time RC4 residents get to enjoy life in the college, it’s perhaps the moments we share with those around us that we keep with us in the years beyond.

(We’ve learnt that Covet Coffee has just closed. We wish Wei Jian all the best in whatever else he will be doing moving forward.)