Address by Deeksha Kapoor, Valedictorian, at the SINDA Excellence Awards 2026 on 26 September 2026

Guest of Honour, Minister, Prime Minister’s Office,

Second Minister for Finance and National Development and

President, SINDA, Ms Indranee Rajah; 

Members of the SINDA Board of Trustees & Executive Committee;

CEO, SINDA, Mr Anbarasu Rajendran;

Guests, Award Recipients & Family Members;

Ladies and Gentlemen.

Introduction

1. A very good morning, my name is Deeksha Kapoor and it is an honour to stand before you today as Valedictorian at the 2026 SINDA Excellence Awards. Heartiest congratulations to all my fellow award recipients!

2. This morning, I would like to share some of the lessons that have shaped my journey — lessons that I hope will encourage all of us to remain curious, embrace the possibilities ahead, and make our own journeys meaningful.

3. The quote by Socrates, “The unexamined life is not worth living,” has been one of my guiding principles.
4. It inspires me to stay curious, reflect deeply and never stop learning, it is grounded in the belief that there is always more to discover about the world, about each other, and about who we have the potential to become.

5. I graduated this year from NUS College in the National University of Singapore with a Bachelor of Business Administration Honours. And looking back, what I value the most goes beyond any grades, the medals or the titles. It is the experiences, the people and the perspectives that have shaped who I am today.

6. For much of my life, I viewed excellence as something to be attained. But over time, I have come to realise that there is actually more to it. Excellence is a practice, not a possession. Excellence is the willingness to learn, to listen, to challenge what we know, and use the opportunities we have to make a difference.

7. One experience that particularly shaped this perspective of mine was my NUS College Impact Experience Project in a water village in Sabah, Malaysia.

8. My team and I set out to deliver solar-powered electricity to the undocumented communities there.

9. We arrived with a plan that was shaped by extensive research and we felt confident in the direction that we were headed towards. But during our time on the ground, speaking and engaging directly with the communities, we realised that the families most in need of safe and stable electricity were not the ones our research had pointed us towards. And so, our plan had to change entirely.

10. At that time, it felt like a demoralising setback. But in hindsight, it taught me an important lesson. It taught me that we rely solely on preconceived notions of data gleaned from the internet. It is not entirely reliable. And it reinforced the importance of making real-time meaningful connections.

11. Curiosity, then I learnt, is not the asking of a question. It is the willingness to go on listening long after we believe we have the answer in hand. And curiousity is the courage to be changed by we hear around us.

12. The same curiosity has continued to guide me — from exchanging perspectives with students and thought leaders at the NUS Asian Undergraduate Symposium, to experiencing new ways of thinking and seeing at the NUS College Global Experience Programme in New York City and stepping into professional spaces where I had still so much to learn.

13. For instance, during my internships last year at the Bank of New York and Johnson Controls, I was often the least experienced person in the room. And I learnt that curiosity asks something of us in that moment: it is the courage to speak, to ask the obvious questions. And sometimes it is not a comfortable place to be in. But it is one of the most useful places a person can be, because it is where growth and learning live.

14. These experiences have shown me that growth begins when we embrace the unknown and keep learning. As we all begin the next chapter of our journeys, I hope we carry these lessons forward by continuing to evolve, while using and leveraging the opportunities we have been given to uplift others and contribute meaningfully to the communities and people around us.

15. Which brings me to what I think curiosity ultimately teaches us. If we step back and examine our lives closely enough, honestly enough, we arrive, sooner or later, at a rather beautiful discovery: almost nothing we have is self-made. We are, each of us, the accumulated consequence of other people’s generosity and kindness.

16. There is this thought experiment I keep returning to: it is called the Ship of Theseus. It goes, if every plank of a ship is replaced over time, is it still the same ship? I think that what preserves the ship is not the wood or the planks at all. It is the people who go on choosing, year after year, to replace the planks and maintain it.

17. Every community we have benefitted from exists because others chose to give. And we are here because of them, and someone else may one day be here because of us. Excellence, then, is not only what we achieve, but it is what we choose to do next — how we continue to grow, to learn from others and use that growth to make a difference.

18. So let us stay curious. Let us keep listening, especially to those whose lives look nothing like ours. And let us ensure that someday, someone stands precisely where we are standing and sitting this morning, because we choose to give back.

19. To SINDA – this award is an honour and privilege. To our families, teachers and everyone who has supported us along our journey, thank you for believing in us, for challenging us and empowering us through the opportunities to grow.

20. You remind us that very little of what we achieve is ours alone. This recognition belongs just as much to those who have walked alongside us as it does to us.

21. To my fellow award recipients today, enjoy the journey always. And keep the ship sailing. And the journey of learning, growing, and becoming continues — for all of us.

22. Thank you, and congratulations to all my fellow award recipients! Thank you so much.