Page 61 - NYAA Annual Report 2020

NYAA Honorary Gold Award Recipient 2020,
Darren Tan Tho Eng
On 15 December 2020, 80 youths received their
NYAA Gold Award from President Halimah Yacob at
Tanah Merah Prison. One of the 80 recipients was Mr
Darren Tan, who was jailed for ten years and received
19 strokes of the cane for gang activities and drugs
offences. Darren is a Bronze and Silver Award holder,
and he could not complete his Gold Award after his
release from prison. However, that did not deter him
from serving the community actively after his release
from prison, and he graduated with a law degree
from NUS.

The NYAA has been following Darren’s progress
and is very encouraged that he actively serve the Mr Darren Tan received the Honorary NYAA Gold Award from
community. Accordingly, the NYAA Council proposed President Halimah Yacob.
to grant him an Honorary Gold Award for his service
and contribution to society. In addition, the year
2020 marks a key milestone of the NYAA Programme
in prison as we celebrated the 20th Anniversary
of the NYAA Programme in prison. The ceremony
was attended physically by Assoc Prof Muhammad
Faishal Ibrahim, Minister of State for Home Affairs
and National Development; Mr John Ting, Chairman,
NYAA Council; Mr James Soh, Executive Director;
and Ms Aileen Yap, Deputy Executive Director, NYAA
Council.
In another two separate locations, Ambassador Teng “The values that I gained from the NYAA
Theng Dar, Singapore’s Ambassador to the Sultanate programme almost two decades ago continue
of Oman and Chairman, Visionedge Technologies to serve me well even today - the spirit of
Pte Ltd and Mr Chim Hou Yan, Managing Director, excellence, resilence, and most of all, to be
Hilborne Law LLP, presented the Bronze and Silver of service to others. These are values that
Awards to the young offenders. will no doubt be passed on to each suceeding
generation of youths through the NYAA
programme.”
Darren Tan Tho Eng

IntellIlex Stacks
Many NYAA Gold Award holders are contributing to
society in different ways. In September 2020, the
Straits Times, Lianhe Zaobao and MediaCorp featured
six NYAA Gold Award holders for their achievements
and contributions to society. What NYAA invested
in these young people has produced very positive
results.

Mr Chang Zi Qian, an NYAA Gold Award holder(2006
Cohort) and co-founder of Intellilex Stacks, developed
an envisioned AI application to help lawyers sort
documents within minutes in preparation for the
court. The company he co-founded is an AI-driven
knowledge management platform for professionals
to maximise their collective knowledge intelligently.
His invention has benefited many law firms, big and
small, in Singapore.
Mr Chang Zi Qian, Co-founder of Intellilex Stacks.

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