By Shaun Loh (21A01A), Noelle Leow (21A01B), and Samyak Jain (21S03A)
Photos courtesy of Michael Chow 

The President’s Scholarship is awarded to students who have ‘gone beyond excellence in academic pursuits and co-curricular activities to distinguish themselves’, and who have a ‘strong ethos in public service’. We conducted an interview with this year’s sole President’s Scholar, Alyssa Marie Loo, batch of 2019. Alyssa is now studying linguistics at Brown University. We also interviewed her Linguistics teacher, Ms Janissa Soh. 

By Arielle Yeo (21S07B) and Matthew Ethan Ramli (21S03F) 

In the global fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, the vaccine is the elixir to life as we know it. Joining Singapore’s efforts to develop it are RJC alums, Dr. Jenny Low (‘92) and Dr. Shirin Kalimuddin (‘99). As clinician-scientists at the Singapore General Hospital (SGH), they are responsible for conducting the clinical trials for the COVID-19 vaccine. Co-developed by Duke-NUS and US-based company, Arcturus Therapeutics, the vaccine has to be tested in an adaptive phase 1/2 clinical trial to ensure both its safety and efficacy.