The Renaissance Engineering Programme (REP) shaped me in more ways than I expected. It’s been a major contributor not only to my professional success, but also to how I approach challenges in life. 

As part of the programme, I lived and studied abroad for a year at the University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley). This guaranteed overseas experience offered the kind of global perspective and academic variety that I knew would help me grow beyond a single, narrowly defined track.

While in the US, I interned with an aviation startup that taught me what real resourcefulness looks like. Once, the team needed aircraft parts and we cold-called small airports until one offered a wing for free.

After picking it up in a truck with the startup co-founder, I had to figure out how to store the wing in a cramped coworking lab, eventually leveraging overhead rafters to mount it vertically.

That experience taught me that you don’t always have to follow a predefined path; you can chart your own trajectory with initiative and creativity.

Looking back, REP didn’t just prepare me for a career. It gave me the confidence to navigate global workplaces, build meaningful relationships with talented people across cultures, and take ownership of the direction of my life and career.

 

Back in UC Berkeley, I learnt to explore subjects beyond what was prescribed. I was in an environment where engineering was truly celebrated, and this broadened my intellectual curiosity.

When I found out the university didn’t have an undergraduate aerospace programme at the time, I asked to join a graduate course on air transportation in the civil engineering department instead. 

That exposure sparked my interest in aviation beyond engineering, motivating me to pursue a recreational pilot license in Australia.

Having experienced California’s multicultural environment also made it far easier for me to integrate into a multinational corporation and, later on, to build a life in Sydney – a city I had never visited before moving there for work.

These global experiences complemented my time in NTU, as part of the Renaissance Engineering Club and the wider REP community.

Connecting and collaborating with ambitious peers while in REP mirrors what I’m doing now, seven years later, in the workplace as an executive director. My work also involves managing bonding across teams and geographical offices.

Looking back, REP didn’t just prepare me for a career. It gave me the confidence to navigate global workplaces, build meaningful relationships with talented people across cultures, and take ownership of the direction of my life and career.

Photo: UC Berkeley

Nath (first row, left) at the International House in UC Berkeley, where he studied for a year under NTU’s Renaissance Engineering Programme. 

Photo: Nath Sudswong

Nath (right) with his Goldman Sachs colleagues preparing food for homeless people in Darlinghurst, Sydney, through the organisation's corporate volunteering programme. 

Apply now