Please enable JavaScript.

Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.

Tembusu Interview, Good pointers Tembusu provides an environment…

- - - - Topics related to research/Personal Interest of College Fellow
      - "Emotions in Modern Society"
        
        taking a broad look at human feelings & emotions in relation to personal development, social structure, technologies like generative AI & social media.
        
        As a pharmacy graduate, most of what we learn about emotions, are that negative emotions must be treated. These emotions are depression, anxiety. We learn how to identify depression symptoms, the pharmacology of antidepressants, and how to dispense them. As such, i have always thought that one with depression must and should start on antidepressants to suppress their suicidal thoughts, based on the scientific knowledge i have.
        
        However, at that time, I have a friend who was suffering depression and has started on antidepressants. She expressed to me that she hates taking these medications, and doesn't really work the way she wanted to for her. Immediately, I jumped straight into explaining the mechanisms of antidepressants in hopes of convincing her to comply with her medications. I realised later on that this wasn't her point.
        
        She shared her experiences with me about the medication, which numbs her feeling and she agrees that she rarely had suicidal ideations when on medications. However, she felt really empty, including not being able to feel happiness. Before she started on antidepressants, she had both suicidal ideation, but still holds some element of surprise, happiness. She misses those moments, like birthday celebrations and feeling appreciated. She detest taking medications as she doesn't want to be diagnosed with depression, which seemed embarrassing and reduces her self worth, in terms of the negative view of society on patients with depression. " Her experience got me thinking if medications are always the way to go? Is sacrificing happiness to feel less suicidal worth it? how does one value their own emotions? and what will be of their priority? What do we want to feel? less suicidal, but happy, or nothing at all.
        
        Got me thinking that even though I may be competent in my technical skills in dispensing, am i really a good healthcare personnel If I couldn't connect with patients through a social, historical, and emotional way instead of being scientific?
        
        1 more item...
    - - Time & Life
        
        One module that genuinely caught my attention is Time & Life — not just because of the title, but because of what it actually asks. The idea that time isn't just a neutral background to life, but something socially constructed — that clocks, apps, and fertility timelines actively shape how people experience their lives — is a question I hadn't thought to ask before, and I find it genuinely compelling.
        
        What makes it particularly interesting from my perspective as a Pharmacy student is that time is already embedded in my field in very concrete ways — dosing intervals, pharmacokinetic windows, circadian rhythms affecting how drugs are metabolised. But those are technical uses of time. What the module seems to be asking is something deeper — how do people subjectively experience time, and what does that mean for how they make decisions? That question sits directly behind one of Pharmacy's biggest unsolved challenges: medication adherence. Patients know when they should take their medication — but the felt sense of being time poor, of competing demands, gets in the way. Science tells me what the drug needs. This module might help me understand what the person needs.
        
        The Singapore context makes it even richer. We're a city that runs on efficiency — and that culture shapes health behaviours in ways a Pharmacy curriculum rarely examines. I also noticed the module ends with an exhibition rather than a written exam — which is completely outside my academic experience and slightly terrifies me. That's usually a sign I should do it.
        
        There are other modules I find interesting, but Time & Life sits at the intersection of philosophy, sociology, and something genuinely practical in my own field. It's the kind of course I think will change how I see things, not just add to what I already know."
    - - Human Behaviours: How do "I" fit in this social world
        
        Human behaviours are complex. Individuals’ intrapersonal and interpersonal social skills could affect how well they function in a society. This course will allow students to examine psychosocial and sociocognitive theories that explain intrapersonal and interpersonal social skills which are defined as 21st-century competencies. Students will evaluate the appropriateness/effectiveness of intrapersonal skills such as the self-concept/image, self-regulated learning and maintaining intellectual openness, and interpersonal skills such as team cooperation/collaboration, conflict management, and leadership in educational, political and business settings. By the end of this module, students should be able to critically analyse and develop awareness of essential social behaviours and skills.
- - - - Q: Why was it limited to science/How did you feel that limitation
        
        "The restriction wasn't dramatic — it wasn't like I was forbidden from exploring other ideas. It was subtler than that, and honestly more insidious because of it.
        
        In Pharmacy, the timetable is extremely packed from day one. In poly, every semester was dense with modules directly tied to the diploma — pharmacology, anatomy, pharmaceutical calculations, clinical work. There was very little room built in for anything outside the discipline. And when your entire cohort is doing the same thing, the conversations around you naturally stay within the same lane. Nobody's debating philosophy over lunch — everyone's comparing notes on drug mechanisms.
        
        The way I felt it most was in conversations outside my cohort. Whenever I spoke to friends from other courses, I'd notice they were asking questions I didn't have frameworks for. They'd debate something about society or policy and I'd find myself reaching for a scientific explanation that didn't quite fit. That gap between the question and my available tools — that's where I felt the restriction most acutely.
        
        I'll be honest though — part of it was also self-imposed. When you're comfortable in a discipline, it's easy to stay there. The people you know, the language you speak, the problems you recognise — it all creates a gravitational pull toward staying put. I didn't seek out interdisciplinary spaces aggressively enough, partly because I didn't fully understand what I was missing until I started noticing the gap.
        
        The clearest moment was when I encountered a question about healthcare that was fundamentally about trust — why certain communities don't trust pharmaceutical institutions. My instinct was to explain the pharmacology, to prove the drug was safe. But that completely missed the point. The issue wasn't scientific — it was historical and social. And I had no vocabulary for that. That moment made the restriction feel very real.
        
        So coming to Tembusu isn't me escaping Pharmacy — it's me acquiring the tools that Pharmacy itself pointed me toward needing. The restriction taught me what was missing. Now I want to fill that gap deliberately."
    - - Q: You mentioned wanting to offer your pharmaceutical perspective in discussions. Imagine a hallmate dismisses your scientific viewpoint as too narrow or irrelevant to a humanities debate. What would you do?
        
        Take it as useful feedback
        Could mean I framed my point wrongly, such as using jargons or failing to connect science properly
        My failure of communication, not the failure of my prospective itself
        
        Ask them what specifically was disconnected
        Reframe my point that will be more useful
        
        I believe that my scientific viewpoint being challenged doesn't necessarily mean it is useless or wrong
        
        "I think this is exactly what small seminars of 15 are designed to produce — genuine friction between different ways of knowing. If everyone's comfortable, no real learning is happening. I'd rather be challenged and grow than be nodded at and stay the same."
        
        My goal for such discussions isnt to try and push my scientific, pharmaceutical perspective to win, its for it to add something, contribute to the thought process. And to achieve that, It means to face any pushbacks, disagreements to express a sharper and cleaner viewpoint.
    - - Q: You said you want to form genuine friendships through common interests via IGs. But what if you joined an IG and found that the people there weren't people you naturally clicked with — would you stay or leave?
        
        I would still stay
        Not clicking immediately isnt the same as not compatible, the people i ended up closest to in life were rarely people i immediately connected with
        Often, it took shared experiences, like struggling together, having heart to heart talks at 3am, supper runs as a group, putting in the effort to help one another out, before forming a genuine friendship. With this in mind, I believe more time is needed to build the trust and form a connection, and my approach would probably be to interact with someone i find interesting, and work from there to build a community. If i were to leave the room solely because i feel uncomfortable with the others, i dont think ill ever grow beyond the version of myself that exists, the version that will step out of his comfort zone. It will also defeat my purpose of joining Tembusu. Part of the reason why i Chose tembusu is because the community is designed to be diverse, where one would get a chance to live with people who think and live differently from me, where discomfort is often present. Choosing the stay in my comfort zome and not experiencing discomfort will beat the purpose of joining Tembusu.
        Even if, worst comes to worst, that i am unable to click with them, I will still choose not to leave. The purpose of joining an IG wasnt to solely make friends. These IGs that i chose to join, are my passion, my hobby, and those that I have interest in learning. Joining these IGs align with my goal of self growth, curiosity, and development
    - - Q: You mentioned supporting hallmates personally and academically. What would you do if a hallmate came to you for academic help in a subject completely outside your field — say, literary analysis?
        
        I could help, but to help them think, not give them answers. Literary Analysis is not a subject i am trained in. But, asking good questions, structuring an argument and thinking critically with evidence are skillsets that are transferrable across multiple disciplines. These are what I can offer.
        By sitting with them, getting them to explain everything to me/to someone with no prior knowledge, it helps them to explain what they already understand, and if i probe further with questions, the gaps within their knowledge can potentially be identified. Questions like, how reliable is this evidence, are there any conflicting resources? if so, how can we make use of them? These are some questions one often face in the field of science. These questions work in science just as well as in literary analysis. Not knowing anything related to the topic helps me build naive questions that challenges how they think of things. And thats what is so attractive about tembusu and its community, quite clearly a good example of interdisciplinary learning, taking place in the common lounge of tembusu, at 10pm, an experience non-tembusu members may not go through.
    - - Q: You said small class sizes create opportunities for intimate debate unattainable in large lecture halls. But what if you found yourself in a seminar where you consistently felt your views were the least informed in the room — would that discourage you?
        
        Honestly, I'd prefer to be in this scenario than to be the most informed person in the room. Being the least informed in the room tells me that im In the right place to learn, especially from the other people who knows things that I don't. I believe one has to go through such discomfort for learning to actually take place. I wouldnt think I'd learn much if I was to most informed person in the room, whereby the rest of the people are just agreeing, nodding their heads to my points.
        In this scenario, I'll focus more on asking questions that will help facilitate my learning. Being the least informed person would mean that my questions may come as unexpected or questions that one may not ask as they have assumed of the answer. Like, what would happen if the opposite is true, why would this happen. In hopes that the discussions go deeper than our assertions. Being the least informed is a priviledge, not a failure. Just like the saying "when you hit rock bottom, there is.no way but up". I hope to engrain such mindset and approach situations more positively, a form of motivation to keep challengin and pushing forward. Lastly, if i were to say im discouraged, it would mean that Im here to seek validation, to impress the others about my own set of views and beliefs. This mindset stunts ones' self development and growth.
        
        This is why UTCP is created, a science student shouldnt be feeling like an expert in a discussion about literature, and a literature student shouldnt be excelliing in scientific conversations. This is when interdisciplinary learning steps forwards, for us students of multiple disciplines to work together, solving the puzzle with their own pieces.
    - - No, If anything it makes it more relevant. AI generates the information, while skipping the wholoe process of the discussion between two or more individuals of conflicting views. The friction between a scientist instinct for finding evidence, and a philospher finding the foundation of the evidence, is what produces intellectual growth. A human has to sit for this discussion, and doing so is education.
        
        What UTCP actually trains, isnt to have the ability to access diverse knowledge, which AI can perform much better. Its more so of learning how to interact with others of diverse fields and background. To learn to listen, challenge, defend your point, collaborate and compromise with one another. These are skillsets that AI cant generate nor replace, which is what differentiates a human and AI interdisciplinary perspective.
        
        "The question assumes interdisciplinary learning is about accessing diverse knowledge. It's not — it's about becoming the kind of person who can work productively with people who think differently. That's a human development challenge, not an information retrieval problem. AI doesn't make Tembusu less relevant. It makes what Tembusu offers more rare."
    - - That's a fair reading of the sentence, and I can see why it might suggest that — but no, it's not that Pharmacy became less interesting. It's that I started noticing everything Pharmacy doesn't answer.
      - Science is very good at explaining how things work mechanically. But it's surprisingly quiet on questions like — why does a patient refuse their medication even when they know it helps? Why do some communities distrust certain treatments? How do we decide who gets access to expensive drugs and who doesn't? Those are political, sociological, and ethical questions that sit right at the edge of my field — and my field doesn't have the tools to answer them.
      - My interest in non-scientific discussions didn't grow because Pharmacy got smaller in my mind. It grew because Pharmacy got bigger — I started seeing how many questions it raises that it can't answer by itself. That gap is what made me curious about other disciplines, not dissatisfaction with my own.
      - If anything, understanding sociology and ethics would make me a better pharmacist — someone who doesn't just know what a drug does, but understands the human context around whether and how it gets used. The non-scientific interest feeds back into my field, not away from it.
      - Less interested in Pharmacy? No. More aware of its edges? Definitely — and I think that awareness is what makes someone genuinely good at their field, rather than just technically competent within it."
    - - No — career pathways are really just the most visible outcome, and perhaps the easiest one to point to. But I think the deeper benefit is what happens to how you think. When you regularly engage with people who approach problems completely differently from you, you start to notice the assumptions baked into your own discipline that you'd never questioned before. For me as a Pharmacy student, that might mean realising that a patient's reluctance to take medication isn't a scientific problem — it's a cultural or emotional one. No amount of pharmacology training gives you that insight. Beyond thinking, there's also the dimension of empathy — genuinely understanding how someone from a Humanities background experiences the world makes you a better colleague, a better friend, and honestly a better person. The career pathway is a byproduct of all that growth. It's not the point — it's just the proof that the growth was real."
    - - Yes — but how I spoke up would matter as much as whether I did."Staying silent when I genuinely disagree would be a form of intellectual dishonesty. It would also deprive the room of a perspective that might be worth hearing. But challenging a guest speaker carelessly — in a way that shuts down rather than opens up conversation — would be equally dishonest to what a good discussion should be.I'd frame it as a question rather than a rebuttal — something like: 'I'm curious how you'd respond to the view that...' That invites dialogue rather than confrontation. It also forces me to steelman the disagreement rather than just assert it, which is more intellectually honest anyway.""A speaker who can't handle a respectful challenge probably isn't giving the audience their best thinking. And a community that can't produce respectful challenges isn't really learning — it's just listening."I think this is part of what Master's Tea sessions are designed for — not passive absorption of expert opinion, but active engagement with it. The intimacy of the setting exists precisely so that disagreement is possible in a way it isn't in a lecture theatre.Speaking up respectfully in the face of disagreement is a form of respect — for the speaker, for the room, and for the truth. Silence in those moments isn't politeness. It's avoidance."
    - - Hi, I am Zi Yi. I studied pharmaceutical science in poly and will remain in the science field in nus under Life Sciences.
        
        So I've spent the last few years, including the years in NS where I was a medic in the pharmacy department, memorising hundreds of drugs that I swear, shares the same name as a pokemon. Still, its a field I genuinely enjoy.
        
        Throughout the years, I really thought that my course was as simple as spitting out what I memorized about the drugs to the patients, in hopes that they comply and get better. It wasn't this easy. I've seen patients come back weaker for refusing treatment. So why did the patient refuse to take its medication? Whether they can afford it? Or if they actually believe in medications in the first place. These are questions I couldn't just find answers to through science and more likely that It links back to possibly a social, ethical, economical explanation instead. Knowing the answer to these questions will definitely make me a better healthcare personnel, and-
        
        And thats why I applied to tembusu, knowing what Tembusu can offer, such as interdisciplinary learning, and carving an opportunity for me to gain new perspectives from students of diverse majors, where my questions can be answered, and allowing for even more unexpected questions to appear, helping one grasp a better understanding of other fields, and especially their own. I will also be able to learn how to interact with others, collaborate, learn, challenge, defend my points. A life skill that help help us individuals develop and grow as a person.
        
        Outside of that, I've heard great things about the tembusu community. How connected the students are, how they help one another out, strong supports, physically and emotionally. A plethora of IGs to choose from, I like to join badminton (my hobby), an activity that I want to try, baking. I want to contribute and be apart of that.
- - - - "this isn't just an energy story — it's a food security story, a pharmaceutical supply story, and a reminder that Singapore's prosperity is deeply tied to the stability of waterways it has no control over."
        
        impacts Singapore who relies heavily on global shipping
        
        affects pharmaceutical supplies, lack of raw materials, raw material cost increase -> impact medications available for patients
      - large proportion of world Oil, fuel, fertiliser trade