Ex-Gang Member Graduates From NUS, Believes His Challenging Journey Will Help Him In Future

Ex-Gang Member From Broken Family Graduates From NUS With Highest Distinction

Graduating from university is a joyous time that marks the end of our academic journey and our first steps into adulthood.

But for 31-year-old Gary Lau, the occasion is especially worth celebrating.

Having grown up in a troubled home environment that led him to join a gang at just 13, he never thought he would find himself attending his own university graduation ceremony.

Against all odds, Mr Lau recently graduated from the National University of Singapore (NUS) with an Honours degree in social work with the highest distinction.

Now, he looks forward to working in the social work sector, believing that his personal trials and training will benefit his future clients.

Sent to Boys’ Home at 15

Mr Lau grew up in a tumultuous family environment. According to Nanyang Polytechnic (NYP), his parents divorced when he was just three years old.

While his two elder sisters stayed with his dad, he stayed with his mum, who worked two jobs to make ends meet.

As a young boy, Mr Lau also dealt with abuse from his mother’s then-boyfriend, who terrorised both of them. Unsurprisingly, Mr Lau said that these experiences were “very traumatic” for him.

Eventually, his mother sought sanctuary at a friend’s home, but Mr Lau’s education had suffered.

He was nearly expelled from primary school and had to retake his Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE). Mr Lau was also often bullied and had no friends, he told The Straits Times (ST).

Unfortunately, things took a turn for the worse in secondary school when he fell in with the wrong company.

At the tender age of 13, he picked up smoking and joined a gang. A year later, he got his first tattoos and dropped out of school shortly after.

Feeling at her wits’ end, his mother filed a Beyond Parental Control order against him when he was 15.

He was sent to live at Boys’ Town, a charity that serves youths from disadvantaged families who have faced hardships.

Mr Lau later described it as hitting rock bottom when he was later sent to the Singapore Boys’ Home, a juvenile rehabilitation centre for youths in conflict with the law.

Ex-gang member turns life around

It was also then that his life began to slowly turn his life around.

After his release, Mr Lau worked at restaurant chain Eighteen Chefs for over a year and cut contact with his gang.

He sat for his N-Level exams during his National Service and progressed to the Institute of Technical Education (ITE).

There, he obtained a perfect GPA and received 12 academic awards. He then made it into NYP where he studied social work.

According to ST, as part of his final year project, Mr Lau started Happy Children Happy Future (HCHF), a non-profit organisation providing free tuition to disadvantaged children.

He hoped to help children so they would not have to go through what he did, getting involved in criminal activities. In 2018, HCHF had 90 volunteers and helped 60 kids.

Mr Lau later graduated from NYP as one of the top performers in his cohort.

From there, he made it into the NUS Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS).

Graduated from NUS with highest distinction

On Thursday (7 Jul), Mr Lau graduated with an Honours degree in social work.

Not only that — he did it with a Cumulative Average Point (CAP) of 4.72, obtaining the highest distinction.

In a Facebook post by NUS, Mr Lau shared that attending university was not easy for him because of his background.

“It is unbelievable when I think about how far I’ve come”, he said, elaborating that his PSLE and N-Level results were poor.

He went on to say,

It means a lot to me that I’ve made my mum and aunt proud.

Both his mum and aunt were in attendance at his commencement ceremony that day, beaming with pride.

Now, Mr Lau looks forward to having a career in the social work sector. He is confident that his personal experiences and training at NUS will benefit all his future clients.

Wish him all the best in his future endeavours

Graduating from university in itself is an incredible feat. But for Mr Lau to do so in spite of his rollercoaster childhood and tumultuous education journey – and with such exceptional results – is truly remarkable.

We hope that he will continue to inspire and empower many others as he enters the workforce.

Here’s a big congrats to Mr Lau, and we wish him all the best in all his future endeavours.

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Featured images adapted from National University of Singapore on Facebook.