Impact by Youthopia: Recent Episodes
Impact by Youthopia
When each of us makes an impact, we help uplift people, situations, communities in ways we could never have imagined. We are here to shed light on the inspiring achievements and experiences of Singapore’s youth in hopes of uncovering more stories along the way.
This is exactly what Impact by Youthopia is all about.
All of us can make an impact and your story can inspire another person to take action. Sharing these stories to the best of our ability is also our way of making an impact, what’s yours?
For more stories of outstanding youth, visit Youthopia.sg/impact
Beverly and Jia Sheng are the founders of Circus of Altrades (pronounced al-trad-ees) and Circus Academy of Singapore. Circus of Altrades is Singapore’s first acrobatic circus troupe with a mission to provide job opportunities for local professional circus artists. Circus Academy of Singapore is a school that aims to make the circus more accessible to the public and help aspiring circus artists pursue and grow their passion.
Ling Hsieh is the co-founder of Project Green Ribbon, a purpose-driven mental health initiative founded for the community. They are dedicated to providing support to those who are struggling with their mental health and to create awareness for mental health causes in Singapore and the world.
Jonathan Ng is the founder of SinFooTech, a Singapore Food Technology company that turns food waste into innovative food ingredients and products. As food processing by-products are a large source of waste for the food manufacturing industry, SinFooTech aims to promote the concept of a resource-efficient, circular economy in the food manufacturing industry.
To find out more about SinFooTech and the work they do, visit sinfootech.com.
Check out Sachi, their wine brand at Sachi.sg and drinksachi.com.
Firdaus Sani, 32, is the founder of Orang Laut SG. He created it to share more about the indigenous people in Singapore. Through the food he sells, he retells stories from Orang Laut families, the indigenous people of Singapore, who live on Pulau Semakau – which is more commonly known today as a landfill.
Vivian, 30, is the co-founder of Women in Asia and a curator of TedxSingapore. She was also one of the 200 leaders selected on a year-long program under The Obama Foundation Leaders, an accolade which identifies the top 200 emerging leaders in the Asia-Pacific who are driving change and impact in the region.
Jarod and Joses Ng are the founders of luxury watch retailer, Watch Capital. They first started off on Carousell, but quickly transitioned to a showroom in 111 Somerset, located at the heart of Orchard Road. Since starting out on Carousell, the duo has managed to increase their monthly revenue by approximately 625 times.
Farah Sanwari, started FiTree an Islamic environmental group that motivates the muslim community in Singapore to care for the earth. Driven by her love for the environment, Farah has also partnered with the co-founder of Sustainable Living Lab to start Repair Kopitiam, a community repair programme addressing waste in Singapore.
Shanison Lin is the founder of Investing Note, an integrated website and mobile application designed for discussing stocks and personal finance, as well asForex data, news, insights and tips through social networking. Currently, Investing Note is the largest and most interactive investing community in Singapore.
Mandy Chan is the co-founder of The Bold Company. She founded the company when she was only 19. Seeing a gap in the market, she created her very own multi-functional backpack that could be used for work and exercise. Today, The Bold Company is a $2.5 million athleisure brand, however the road towards achieving the success it has today was definitely not an easy one.
Leanna runs a yoga class called Unapologetic Yoga. Her classes emphasise on the inclusive nature of yoga and the purpose of it to be liberating, the way it should be. She has noticed that modern day yoga has evolved to become exclusive to certain body types and fitness levels. However, Leanna wants to challenge such stereotypes of the fitness world through making her yoga classes accessible to all.
Kristian is a strong advocate for gender equality and believes that men should be included in the conversation. With a great passion on the topic, he strives to lead the next generation towards the understanding and reduction of toxic masculinity in Singapore. Do drop him a message if you would like to reach out to him about this topic (@kristianmarc).
Unlike many students, Joshua Tay decided to spend his gap years working as a supervision staff at the Singapore Boys’ Hostel. Having spent a significant amount of time with the youths there, he was troubled to see a huge disparity between the ample support the youths received while in the hostel and the lack thereof once they had left. So, together with a group of friends, Tay set up the organisation in 2017, which he calls Impart, in response to the gaps in the system that he noticed.
Johann is the Assistant Director of Planning at Yayasan MENDAKI. Mendaki is Singapore’s first self-help group focused on uplifting the Malay/Muslim community through education. He is passionate about promoting youth empowerment and mentoring, and was also involved in the launch of the MENDAKI Youth Mentoring Office that aims to enhance the mentoring culture in the community.
Ri is from UCU World, a collective for creatives to come together to share and build on each other’s skill sets. Through its time, UCU World has helped create a community of support for artists.
Carissa Cheow is one of the founders of Students for a Safer NUS (safeNUS). She started safeNUS after realising that NUS was not equipped with a plan and list of actions to be taken when a report of sexual harassment is made despite there being recurring cases. Through this, she hopes to tackle the way society handles sexual misconduct because it is not just a simple “managerial mistake”.
Ellie Lew is the co-founder of Skills For Good, a one-stop skilled volunteer matching platform that matches skilled volunteers with social organisations that require these skills. The platform was created during the circuit breaker period when many volunteering organisations faced difficulties adapting to the new digitised way of life. The demand for volunteers with niche skill-sets led to the creation of Skills For Good.
Fiona Loh is the founder of popular bakery, Whiskdom. What started as a side hustle turned into a full time business, as she quit her job at a bank as a technology product manager. Now, Whiskdom is also a platform for Fiona to do good and give back to the community.
Adriel Yong is one of the founders of Access, a non-profit organisation that aims to strengthen social mobility among youth by exposing them to work culture. Some disadvantaged students lack quality career exposure and guidance, and Access provides exactly that.
Afiqah and Elfi are the co-founders for T3at3r (Theatre) Muzikal Collective (TMC). At TMC, they organize workshops as well as Malay dance and musical theatre performances for all ages. TMC first began as a collective in 2017 and produced a Malay musical called GLAM, telling the story of Kampung Glam which had 5 sold-out performances. Following that success, the company was officially established in August 2020.
Amanda Ooi and Wong Shi Yin are the project directors of Project iRemember, a local health screening project initiated by NUS Medicine students. Project iRemember focuses on dementia screening, and works to spread awareness of other elderly mental health issues like depression and social isolation.
Joshua Foong, 29, founded social enterprise Bantu, which sought to bring better technological solutions to the social sector. He now works at NVPC’s Company of Good (COG), where their mission is to make “giving” the business of every organisation. Beyond philanthropy and volunteering, they encourage organisations to also take an integrated and sustainable approach to doing good. In his own time, he is part of Youth Advisory Group (YAG), a committee of youths from diverse backgrounds that provide feedback and, if necessary, challenge the government’s policies, programs, and campaigns concerning young people.
Rupa Shree and Rachel Teh are the co-leaders of Bye Bye Plastic Bags SG, an environmental conservation group which first started in Bali, Indonesia. They are concerned about issues regarding climate change and the environment. These include single-use plastics, sustainability, environmental justice and rights, ecosystems, biodiversity, etc. They hope to inspire the public through education and collaboration, ultimately accelerating policy change towards a more environmentally-sustainable country.
Career development can be uncertain, unintuitive, and often-times uncomfortable. That’s why 26-year-old Victor Zhu founded Hatch, a social enterprise with the mission to make career development achievable and accessible for everyone. Hatch offers end-to-end train and place programs in fast-growing job sectors like Digital Marketing and User Interface, User Experience (UI/UX) Design. They strive to make opportunities accessible to everyone and give the best to those who come through our doors.
Yuvan Mohan, 33, is the chief curator at Young ChangeMakers, an initiative by the National Youth Council for youth who wish to self-propose social projects. His work enables youth to pitch projects and receive funding for projects that benefit the community. At Young ChangeMakers, youth also receive coaching and networking opportunities so as to increase their chances of a successful project.
After seeing social innovators struggle to sustain themselves and scale, 29-year-old Kevin Tan founded Tri-Sector, a social enterprise whose mission is to create systems that enable more effective social innovation. The moving parts include: consulting expertise to help align on problem statements and outcomes, financial modelling expertise to value these outcomes, data analysis expertise to understand if the outcomes were in fact achieved, and process expertise in creating these projects based on global best practices.
Emily Teng, 34, has been doing good for over a decade. In 2007 while studying in University and being a DJ at a local radio station, she founded Blessings In A Bag with the aim of redistributing essential supplies across Asia. Their mission is to be a safe and trusted community space where children from Singapore’s most vulnerable areas can be themselves, learn new skills and grow into confident, compassionate and kind young people.
Apart from making music, Isaac, 33 is also the founder of Colours Global, a company that helps companies and organisations do good. He also uses his music, and media appearances as platforms to raise awareness on his causes. Some of the work that Colours Global also has done includes providing monetary assistance to needy causes, working with Singapore’s Girls Home and improving education in the slums of Batam.
Joel Lim, 28, is the founder of youth collective ZYRUP and project manager for SHINE NOW. His work focuses on enlightening the youth on topics that otherwise would not interest them, such as politics and current affairs. His breakthrough during GE2020 helped him gain a significant following among youths.
In this episode, we speak to 29-year-old Nisha, the founder of Mental ACT! which aims to make mental health more accessible to Singaporeans regardless of race, age or religion. She speaks to us about the stigmas surrounding mental health, her work at Mental ACT! and the importance of Singaporeans being more educated about our mental health.
Hai Lin is 31 years old and the executive director of Zero Waste SG, a non-governmental organisation dedicated to shifting Singapore towards a zero waste system and the circular economy. Her expertise and experience led her to be part of the Climate Action SG Alliance. She joins us in giving a fresh perspective on the sustainable acts we unknowingly do, how we can incorporate sustainability in our lives and how it can help Singapore.
You may know Nicole Lim, 25, for her podcast, Something Private, where she fearlessly normalises talking about seemingly taboo topics related to women’s health. Outside of creating a safe space for women online, she's also joined us as host of the Impact podcast series!