Meet the Rector. What is a Rector?

Ask around, and there is a chance you will get blank stares or vague answers.

By convention, the most prominent job of the Rector of Cinnamon College (USP) is to facilitate initiatives and eminent visitors to the College. S/he works with the College Master (who is also Director of USP) to foster a sense of community amongst College residents and residential Fellows.

In this edition of Highlights, we sit in and listen to Ms Euleen Goh, the incoming (and only the second) Rector of Cinnamon College (USP), on why it is so important to be daring and different.

With perhaps a nod to USP’s multi- and inter-disciplinary ethos, Ms Goh comes with credentials markedly distinct from those of our previous Rector, the distinguished East Asia historian Professor Wang Gungwu, who has served as the College’s inaugural Rector since 2010.

With a whole slew of accolades, achievements and appointments (past and present) to her name, Ms Goh’s “brief biography” on the NUS webpage reads like an extensive who’s who of the corporate world, having served as a non-executive board member of companies as diverse and as famous as Royal Dutch Shell plc, CapitaLand Limited, SATS Limited, DBS Group Holdings Ltds, to name but a few.

“Standing Room Only!”

Ms Goh’s inaugural dialogue on Tuesday 25 August 2015 with members of the USP community saw a packed Master’s Commons full of curious and engaged alumni and current students. “I’ve never spoken to a room where there’s standing room only!” Ms Goh remarked to the crowded room.

Against all personal expectations, I found myself drawn to Ms Goh’s measured and confident tone that evening, as she spoke and pondered aloud about topics such as directions in life, Finding Your Purpose, and the USP Identity.

The stories and adventures Ms Goh tells; the steady conviction she spoke with; the genuine interest and curiosity with which she listened to questions and disagreements raised, cannot help but leave this writer excited and optimistic for the year ahead.

“It’s the journey that matters”

“That’s the Atacama Desert in Chile,” Ms Goh begins with a reference to the picture of herself which had been used for the session’s publicity poster.

“For me, it’s the journey that matters. ‘Journey’ means a lot of different things to me — it’s about the journey of my life, about the journeys I like to go on. I like to travel!”

And in one and a half hours on a Tuesday evening, our new Rector herself takes us on an exhilarating journey into her past — one woven with failure and disappointment, but also filled with self-discovery. However, Ms Goh does not offer complicated explanations or sagely advice. The words and questions she advances are elegant and stark, but resonated powerfully.

Ms Goh outlined a neat, structured ABC formula as guiding principles to her talk, her life, and her journeys.

“How many of you would think of doing things differently? Take initiative and just be different? How do you stand out? Part of the reason I did stand out was because I was adventurous; I saw the world in a different light. And so I think it’s important to be adventurous too. That would be the ‘A’ in my ABC.”

But daring and audacity are not enough. One needs to be true to oneself, and to the people around.

“I guess I cheated a little…but my B here is be genuine. Why am I different and necessary? I think that… Someone who is authentic, genuine can gain the trust of the shareholders and the customers. You have to really think about what kind of persona you want to have.”

Finally – and perhaps inevitably, any description of a personal journey must turn inexorably to what goes on inside oneself. Ms Goh offers the metaphor of the Compass — but an internal one she built for herself over the years.

“C is for Compass. You have to follow your internal compass. You need to be passionate about what you want to do. For me, it’s also about the people. People I have reached and touched. Not about the number. It’s about everyone I have been with, that I can touch, that matters. And all these are related to my strengths. These are some of my compass-points.”

But Ms Goh hastened to add that such sensitive and powerful equipment as internal compasses could not be built instantaneously.

“Well…you know it doesn’t happen overnight, so the building of my compass and purpose takes time. But you’ve got to try! So that you know better what you’re good at and what you really don’t like to do. What is it I want to do? You have to keep pondering this question. Ultimately, I think it’s about loving your journey and not about your destinations. You need to love your journey as you go along.”

“How can you be an Outlier?”

In the same vein, Ms Goh also went on to address the perennial question about the USP identity — or, as some would bemoan - the lack of a distinct, formalised one.

“Can we find common values? Would we be able to agree?” Ms Goh wondered aloud. “What is it about a USP graduate? How do USP graduates have a persona that people can recognise?”

And perhaps, like the internal compass, it may not be having a solid set of characteristics that define this decade-old Programme, and its attendant community.

“It may be about finding your values along the way…maybe being in USP is that you come out (of USP) well able to speak to your principles and values…you could be very diverse, but common in the sense that you have your own values” Ms Goh suggested in response to the question posed.

Pointing to the vibrant and variegated demographic that has always been the mainstay of the USP, Ms Goh returned to her ABCs in her closing comments to the USP student community that evening.

“Maybe that’s the challenge: Finding some way in which you are different and impactful, and what that means to you personally. How can you be a positive changemaker, an outlier? A sense of adventure is important. Be different! Think of what you can do, to be different, for this world!”

On a Tuesday evening, we met our new Rector of Cinnamon College. She told stories of beautiful deserts, change and self-discovery. But she also spoke of the future; of exciting voyages and illuminating exchanges. Under The Rector’s Programme (TRP), there will be plenty of these dialogues in the coming weeks, with a whole series of forums and conversations already lined up. Once again, the USP community looks set to embark upon (yet another) journey of critical, engaged and sincere inquiry.

The Rector’s Programme is ongoing, even as you read this! Curious readers, alumni, faculty and undergraduates can head to the TRP blog (http://blog.nus.edu.sg/usprectorsprogramme/) to learn more, and to take part in the continuing conversations.