Doing Things Well, Living with Purpose: Chaanan’s NTU Journey

Graduating with both the Lee Kuan Yew Gold Medal and the DSTA Gold Medal, Anand Chaanan Singh is a name that stands out in the Class of 2025. But what defines him isn’t just his academic excellence, it’s the clear, grounded way he approaches life, work, and growth.

“What motivated me was my commitment to the strategy of consistently identifying the most urgent problems that I needed to solve to get my work done,” he shares. It wasn’t about chasing perfection. It is about managing each task with clarity and purpose; a mindset anchored in thoughtful decision-making.

Yet his time at NTU was not without its difficult moments. Chaanan recalls a period where personal missteps and unrealistic beliefs left him feeling stuck. He had clung to the idea that he could do too much, too quickly, while paying less attention to his

relationships and personal well-being. “By the end of that period, it felt like I had spun my wheels hard but instead of even taking a small step forward, I had ended up going many steps backward,” he reflects.

Finding his footing again was a gradual process. Chaanan took time to reflect on what wasn’t working and paid closer attention the lessons in his daily life; from conversations with friends to readings from books, religious texts, and even YouTube videos., Bit by bit, he made changes on how he approached his goals and over time, he began noticing steady improvements, his projects, his relationships, and his mindset.

What anchors him now is not a specific career plan, but a commitment to living with purpose.

“I hope to just continue pursuing what I find meaningful, and I’ll be grateful if my computing skills happen to come to good use in that pursuit,” he says.

Chaanan leaves NTU with no grand declarations, only a quiet conviction that steady effort, lived purposefully, will carry him where he needs to go. If there’s one lesson that will stay with him, it’s this: “Keep your support systems close. And don’t give up.”