HCAP Singapore Leg

In this photo: Aseem K Thakur, Vikram Parsani, Ankit Sachdev, Giselle Cheung, Israel Figueroa, Stephanie Kwong Set Ying Ting, Mike Nguyen , Rares Pamfil , Chen Li

Short essay written on this event:

HCAP Singapore was a refreshing experience for me because it gave me the chance to interact with students from Harvard University. To me, they are special not only because they come with a different perspective from the other side of the world but also because they represent the best the American universities can offer. In particular, having conversations with them about their background was a joy because every one of them is so different. Consisting of Puerto Rican, Romanians, Asian American and much more, the Harvard group can be seen as a melting pot of diverse cultures, a fitting tribute to the exchange conference’s theme, multiculturalism. I have found the friendships forged during the conference invaluable because of the shared interests that we had. We had spontaneous discussions on many issues sparked off by unrelated things that we saw along the trip. For instance, I had a serious discussion with Mike Nguyen on how Asians and Americans differ in perceiving China’s emergence when we saw foreign workers from China and an interesting and personal conversation on how modern consumerism is undermining masculinity when we were at VivoCity. During the bus trip to Sentosa, Rares and I tried and failed to do a “racial profiling” of everyone in bus and eventually concluded that dividing people by race is a futile effort. At Siloso beach, I defended the CMIO racial classification in Singapore in a debate with Michael Lin…… and more. As a slight introvert who rarely talks unless the conversation concerns something of importance, I really treasure those experiences of having meaningful conversations with people. It is certainly an experience that is hard to forget.