Post #6: Keldren's Biodata

My name is Loy Xing Zheng Keldren and I was born in Singapore. I am currently an undergraduate in Faculty of Engineering, majoring in Mechanical Engineering.

Prior to NUS, I attended Catholic High School (primary & secondary) and Tampines Junior College. Since my primary school days I was given the opportunities to develop my leadership skills.

In my primary and secondary school days I was chosen as the treasurer and subject representatives (Chinese, Social Studies)for my class. I bore responsibilities such as managing the class fund and ensuring that all instructions from the teachers were followed and carried out dutifully by the class.

Likewise, I was also given the chance to display my leadership skills during my junior college days. I was chosen as the subject representative(economics) of my class and the quarter master of my CCA Wushu. As a quarter master, I had to organize and make sure that all equipments were kept in order for the club.From these opportunities , I have not only developed my leadership skills but also developed the skills of good organization and interpersonal communication skills.

During my junior college days, I was also given the opportunity to develop my research skills. I was chosen to represent my school in a challenge named the DSO-DSTA challenge where we were supposed to develop a new product that would be beneficial to mankind. We had to plan and research(literature review,experiments interviews, etc.) to find a suitable area where our product can focus on. The challenge taught me the skills such as writing of proposal and laboratory research, but most importantly it taught me the importance of working as a team and how to work as a team.

After junior college, I was enlisted to serve National Service(NS). During NS, I managed to lose 40kgs and attained the rank of corporal, marksmanship and silver for IPPT. All these were possible only through sheer will, fighting spirit and determination that I have developed within myself during NS.

After NS I took up a few part-time administrative jobs. These jobs honed my skills in not only documentation using Microsoft Office, but also liasing with people or companies, publicity and event planning. Moreover, through the part-time jobs I have also developed the skills of organization and proper time management.

Having been in the university for about 2 years, I have not only enhanced my laboratory research skills also but also developed an analytical mind to solve problems- developed through laboratory experiments and research projects. Additionally, through group works and research projects, I have also learnt how to work better as a team. I understood that different people have different beliefs and values, hence in order to work properly as a team properly, I have to understand and make compromises for these differences. In university, I have also learned how to use Solidworks, which is a graphic design application for engineers and I got an A for it. My interest for Solidworks has since grown.

Recently, I have developed strong interests in finance, material sciences and astrophysics. Therefore, I plan to specialize in material science in the later half of my university days.And upon graduation, I hope to find a career which will allow me to embark on the road of researches and explorations with an engineering firm, as I believe it will not only help broaden my horizon but also give me the opportunity to help others with some of my researches. In addition, I also hope to pursue my other interests either through further studies or self-exploration in the future.

Lastly, I hope that the skills I have nurtured, my preferred career path/objectives and interests which I plan to pursue in the future, will help not only in my quest to be a better person, but also people around me.

P.S: Edited after feedbacks from friends =D

Post #5: Hitler - one of the greatest communicator of the 20th century

Adolf Hitler, is most often remembered for his atrocities such as the antagonist responsible for starting the second World War and the massacre of 6 million Jews during the war.

However, not everyone realize that he was actually one of the best practitioner of effective communication in the 20th century. Utilizing his charm and effective communication, Hitler managed to unite the whole of Germany to embark down the road to War.

Here is one of his greatest speeches: Triumph of Will


Look at the way he delivered this speech. He delivered this speech with lots of emotion and passion, as can be seen from his facial expression. In addition, he also effectively made use of body language to help convey his message across.

It is my guess that from the way he delivered his speech, people saw confidence in Hitler. Through Hitler's speech people of Germany found hope and they believed that Hitler was the one to lead Germany to glory.

To date, there are not many people that is able to communicate as effectively as him. The closest we have to date is Barrack Obama. The video below is his inauguration address.


As we can see, there are many similarities between Obama and Hitler, effective use of emotions and body language to bring messages across. Both of them made use of effective communication to make people believe in them, to make people place their hopes on them.

I do hope that through years of practice, I will be able to be as good an effective communicator as them.