Once the only female in her platoon, now the first woman to receive top police scholarship

SINGAPORE — Ms Shermaine Ang remembers how once, when she was in the Officer Cadet School (OCS), she felt like quitting midway through a gruelling exercise.

“We were supposed to trek through the night carrying different things. I was tasked to carry a spare barrel and it was kind of heavy. It was very dark and I was very tired,” she recalled.

“Many of the guys were falling out, too. At that point, I was very tempted to fall out because everyone was giving up anyway.”

She carried on, despite being the only female in her platoon.

On Monday (Aug 5), her persistence paid off. The 19-year-old became the first woman to receive The Singapore Police Force (SPF) Scholarship, one of the most prestigious scholarships awarded by the Public Service Commission.

Ms Ang, who was a student at Hwa Chong Institution, will be pursuing a degree in history at the University of Oxford.

She said that she was inspired to try out for the scholarship after speaking with a female police officer at a school event.

“I learned how SPF is helping communities and helping Singaporeans in different ways from all backgrounds, so that was something that really drew me,” she said.

The Home Team scholarships are awarded every year to students who have excelled in their studies and co-curricular activities, displayed outstanding leadership qualities and have a keen interest to pursue a career with the Home Team.

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) awarded a total of 23 scholarships this year under five different Home Team scholarships. Apart from the SPF scholarship, the other four are the Singapore Government Scholarship, Singapore Merit Scholarship, Local Merit Scholarship and Home Team Local Study Award.

SPF scholarship recipients are selected based on their academic results, leadership qualities, interest in the SPF and performance in the OCS.

TRAINING TO BECOME LEADERS

Recalling that day in the OCS when she almost gave up, Ms Ang said: “I think what kept me going was seeing those people who had more responsibilities than me.

“Some of the guys were carrying stuff and being the leader. We were all training to become leaders so you had to stay focused and calm during tough situations.”

Another recipient of the SPF scholarship is Mr Yiik Chia, who finished his studies at Hwa Chong Institution and is set to pursue a degree in psychology with biological sciences at the Nanyang Technological University.

He was a member of the National Police Cadet Corps (NPCC) in secondary school.

“I got interested in the police force from a very young age,” the 20-year-old said. “I watched plenty of Crimewatch videos and Clif (a series on SPF).”

He said that he was inspired to join the police after taking part in a two-day attachment with the force in 2017.

“We saw what the police did, we got insight into different operations and we saw how the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) did raids in Geylang. I thought those were very interesting things for a 17-year-old student and they showed me that the police are doing many things behind the scenes.”

Both Ms Ang and Mr Yiik will be undergoing training at the SPF Training Command after completing their studies in university.