search
2025-10-17
Three fresh graduates from the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, (from left to right) Ashlee Tan, Sophie Xie and Ang Jing Xuan, share how perseverance, purpose and a passion for healing shaped their journeys through medical school at NUS.
Commencement celebrations for more than 17,000 graduates from the NUS Class of 2025 have begun, with 35 ceremonies taking place at the University Cultural Centre from 10 to 21 July 2025.
In tribute to the University’s beginnings as a small medical school founded in 1905 to serve the community, the season’s first ceremonies honoured graduates of the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine (NUS Medicine).
As the University and NUS Medicine celebrate their 120th anniversaries, these founding ideals and dedication to service have continued through the decades. Addressing graduates at the inaugural ceremony, NUS President Professor Tan Eng Chye underscored this enduring ethos of scholarship and service. “While we have grown and evolved, we remain steadfast in our mission to serve the needs of our country and society. As you move forward with purpose, passion, and confidence, you join a legacy of dreamers, changemakers, and trailblazers to shape a better future for all.”
Now embarking on their next chapter, three NUS Medicine graduates share the challenges and milestones that marked their path through university.
Sophie’s time at NUS Medicine saw her balancing the rigours of her studies with diverse pursuits such as dancing and filmmaking. Sophie received her Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery degree from NUS on 10 July 2025.
Sophie Xie: When presence is a present
For Sophie Xie Jia Lin, medicine is as much about human connection as it is about clinical knowledge.
Back in junior college, she was drawn to pursuing medicine as a career for its blend of academic rigour and deep human connection. Now undergoing supervised clinical practice in Internal Medicine at the National University Hospital, the Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) graduate recalls a recent encounter that affirmed her career choice.
“One of the patients whom I discharged came to give me a hug. She told me, ‘You are a good doctor and I love you because you made me feel cared for.’ I hadn’t thought much about what I’d done for her, but that was when I realised that being present can be as powerful as any procedure,” she said. “Moments like these really make my job a lot more meaningful.”
Her journey at NUS Medicine also took her beyond the wards and lecture halls. She participated in projects like NUS Medicine’s Receiving and Giving (RAG) and Flag performance in her first year, even when the COVID-19 pandemic meant recording choreography over Zoom.
In her second year, she co-led the production as part of the organising committee, drawing on her years of training in Chinese dance and her interest in choreography and film to direct the project. “These creative outlets have been essential in helping me stay grounded and reconnect with myself outside of medicine. I see a parallel between my journey in medicine and in the arts – just as I continue to grow in clinical knowledge, I also seek new ways to grow in my pursuits. I think the beauty of NUS Medicine lies in the fact that I had the freedom and opportunities to continue exploring and growing even outside of class,” said the former resident of King Edward VII Hall (KEVII), home to many students from NUS Medicine.
Sophie also teamed up with fellow medical student Joseph Lim, from the same graduating class of 2025, to produce two short films. “Filmmaking was a really interesting opportunity for me to see how different art mediums can convey a message and give the audience this very visceral feeling,” she said.
When she felt isolated during the COVID-19 pandemic, she leaned on her KEVII family. “There was a strong sense of camaraderie all across NUS Medicine. From clinical rotations to preparing for exams, we had each other’s backs,” she said.
Looking ahead, Sophie aims to pursue a career in Internal Medicine, where she hopes to provide continuity of care and spend meaningful time with patients, in line with her belief that medicine is, at its core, about human connection. “Medicine stimulated me intellectually. But more than that, it has given me the space to form deep human bonds,” she noted. “[Medicine] is a very humbling journey, with many things to learn. There’s an analogy that I try to practise: life is like hiking a mountain. When we look forward, it feels endless and tough, but when we take a pause and look back, we realise we have actually come such a long way.”
The demands of medical school did not deter Ashlee from pursuing competitive diving at the national level. She received her Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery degree from NUS on 10 July 2025.
Ashlee Tan: Diving deep into medicine and sport
When her best friend said she wanted to be a paediatrician when she grew up, a young Ashlee Tan Yi Xuan adopted the same dream.
This fun childhood wish turned into a firm ambition as she grew older. One striking moment was a project in primary school, where she learnt about less fortunate children in impoverished parts of the world with no access to proper healthcare.
Seeing medicine as a way to contribute to society, Ashlee, who is also a national diver, applied to study MBBS at NUS Medicine. However, at her admission interview in 2019, someone advised her to pick between her first love — diving, which she had picked up at the age of 11 — and her medical studies.
But she took the plunge anyway. “I didn’t think it was possible to thrive at NUS Medicine while continuing to pursue competitive diving,” she said. “Everyone said medicine was too intense. As it turns out, if you really want it, you’ll find a way.”
And so she did, even taking a gap year in 2023 to train full-time. The decision came after the 2021 SEA Games in Hanoi, held right after her final exams in Year 3.
“It was brutal — studying and training simultaneously. I could not even fly to Hanoi together with the rest of my team because I still had practical exams,” she recalled. “We missed out on silver, but that reignited the fire in me and I realised that I was not ready to hang up my swimming suit.”
The gap year culminated in the 2024 World Aquatics Championships in Doha, where she narrowly missed out on qualifying for the Olympics. “It wasn’t the result I wanted, but it reminded me I could compete at that level. It gave me more confidence to tackle not just diving but medical school too,” she recounted.
Training 30 hours a week during her gap year and maintaining a lighter but consistent schedule after returning to school helped to hone her time management skills. Her strategies for managing her time well included doing up colour-coded physical timetables and task lists. Although she focused on full-time training, she still spent at least two hours studying every day, which helped make her final year more manageable.
“I’m very visual. Planning helped me stop panicking. And nothing beats the satisfaction of striking a task off my to-do list,” she explained.
Ashlee is still putting in the hours at the pool as she eyes the 2028 Olympics. Now undergoing clinical training at the internal medicine division of Ng Teng Fong General Hospital, she shared, “I’ve learned to make quality count more than quantity. It’s about pacing myself and training smart.”
One piece of advice she would give her younger self? “Go all in, even from the first year. Don’t assume anything is impossible,” she laughed.
The intersection of nursing and sociology – Jing Xuan leveraged his experiences in both to augment patient care and carve his own path. Jing Xuan received his Bachelor of Science (Nursing) degree from NUS on 10 July 2025.
Ang Jing Xuan: Seeing the person behind the patient
Caring is at the heart of nursing. For Ang Jing Xuan, that meant understanding the person and not just the condition.
This inspired him to take on a second major in Sociology while pursuing a Bachelor of Science in Nursing at the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine’s Alice Lee Centre for Nursing Studies. One early clinical placement confirmed that he was on the right path.
“I was caring for an elderly patient who kept coming back for the same condition,” he recalled. “Medically, everything was right. But she told me, ‘It’s hard when you’re doing this alone.’ That hit me. It wasn’t just a physical problem, it was a social one too.”
Sociology gave him the vocabulary to articulate what he was observing — and the tools to respond. “Nursing taught me to notice the details of a patient’s condition, but Sociology taught me to notice the bigger picture,” he explained.
He applied this approach beyond the hospital wards, including during a 2024 summer internship at DBS, where he helped gamify a customer service initiative. “After watching how the bank managed change with empathy, patiently teaching their staff how to use new technology, I thought I could bring this human-centred perspective back to nursing,” he said.
Juggling a second major was challenging. “I’d overload my semesters just to feel productive,” he confessed. “But during exam season, panic would hit. My friends and I turned it into a late-night mission: staying up till 3am, quizzing each other and trying every trick to cram those slides into our heads. We were all over-caffeinated, half-delirious, but we got through it together.”
Now on the cusp of his nursing career, Jing Xuan is drawn to the adrenaline rush of the emergency wards and intensive care units. But he also hopes to use his training in Sociology to improve systems and support patients more holistically.
“I don’t just see a diagnosis anymore,” he said. “I see the person behind it — and all the structures that they’re navigating. That perspective has made me more thoughtful, more curious, and more committed to finding ways we can support people in their everyday lives. I also want to make a small but real change in nursing, perhaps by finding ways to streamline patient care or support staff during their most hectic shifts.”
This story is part of NUS News’ coverage of Commencement 2025, which celebrates the achievements of our graduates from the Class of 2025. For more on Commencement, read our stories and graduate profiles, check out the official Commencement website, or look up and tag #NUS2025 on our social media channels!