Giving back to the community: Our Dhanabalan scholarship winners

Meet our latest Dhanabalan Scholarship award winners, Hattie Ren Minglin and Sherrie Han Su Li from NUS MBA Class of 2024, as they share about their proudest achievements, their passion for giving back to the community, and what they most look forward to on the programme.

The prestigious Dhanabalan Scholarship awards full-time Singaporean or Singapore Permanent Resident MBA students who have displayed stellar academic and professional achievements, and demonstrated real impact to the community.

What were you doing before joining The NUS MBA?

Hattie Ren: I was managing a team of recruitment consultants in a UK listed recruitment consulting company. Over the past 6 years, I have worked with clients across industries and levels, from Financial Services, FMCG, Consulting, to Tech and AI; from start-ups, new market entries, to MNCs. Born and raised in China, and educated in Singapore and Belgium, I have been living and breathing different cultures since I was 19 for the past 10 years. With a passion in people and a global mindset, my dream is to build and manage a successful business that brings positive impacts.

Sherrie Han: I am a lawyer at a local law firm. I oversee all the civil and criminal litigation matters in the firm and also assist in some transactional matters. You can read more about some of the work I used to do here. I’ll still be continuing my role in the firm while I undertake my MBA, but on a flexible work arrangement. I have 3 young children, which occupies most of my personal time. I have a wide range of interests including mechanical watches and sourdough bread-baking which grew into side-businesses – Eliana Timekeeper, and Sourdough Supplies – during the pandemic.

Share with us some of your proudest achievements.

Sherrie Han: The highlight of my professional career was the opportunity to represent my clients in Court at trial, to get to know them and be entrusted to represent and guide them through the legal process.

I’m proud of my children who surprise me all the time with their talents and antics. They give me much joy.

I feel grateful that my watch start-up was launched despite the many initial challenges. Starting the production of the watches was a crash course in global supply chains: I worked with a CGI artist in Ukraine, imported materials from USA and Japan to have them assembled in China and did quality-control checks in Singapore. There were some sleepless nights but today, the watches retail in-store at the National Gallery and Suntec City.

I also find running my other sourdough supplies distribution business fulfilling, I feel as though I am undertaking my own “consulting project” as I am challenged to grow revenue etc. We now retail at Hipvan and other departmental stores in Singapore, on top of selling directly to our retail customers.

Hattie Ren: Work wise, one unique experience I had was that I pioneered a new discipline – China Desk, Tech. It was a great intrapreneurship experience where I had to create businesses with global Chinese high-tech companies; the role required a combination of entrepreneurial, bilingual, tech, and multi-channel business development skillsets to succeed. Despite many challenges and market volatility, I persevered through and turned this completely new desk into a profitable and sustainable discipline within 1.5 years and hired multiple consultants into this desk.

I am also proud to share that I was the top performer of brand for 3 consecutive years and was elected to join our company’s APAC emerging talent leadership program.

What motivates you to give back to the community?

Hattie Ren: I believe that everyone deserves to live a fulfilling life, however, it is evident that the basic resources needed for one to develop are not available to all. Having grown up in a world with many resources available but also having seen how kids in rural areas struggle to survive and get education has made me realize that nothing should be taken granted for. I feel grateful every single day of the privilege I have in leading an enriching life. Therefore, I am determined to contribute to the course of social good and bring positive impact in whatever business I do while putting people at the heart of everything. Right now, I am supporting 4 kids in Africa and the Philippines financially; besides that, I am looking into the aspects of social entrepreneurship.

Sherrie Han: My background is rather humble; my parents who worked blue-collar jobs and I came from neighbourhood schools. I am passionate about giving back as a way to express my gratitude for the opportunities that were given to me. I am thankful that my parents always worked hard for the family and believed in us. I have been doing pro bono legal work since my undergraduate days as President of the NUS Pro Bono Group ’12 and I continue to give pro bono legal advice to my constituency today.

What are you most looking forward to on The NUS MBA?

Sherrie Han: The two things I most look forward to is to first, get to know my MBA classmates. I genuinely enjoy relationships with people and my conversations with my classmates so far have been fun and enriching and I look forward to getting to know them better. Second, I look forward to the intellectual rigour of studying an area I have always dreaded – finance and numbers. The irony is that I decided to study law so that I could get away from numbers but when I started my own businesses, I realised that I could not get away from numbers and so here I am coming back to study.

Hattie Ren: The NUS MBA is known for its transformative nature and cross-industry opportunities available for its students. I look froward to an honest and fulfilling self-discovery journey so that I can fully align my actions with my motivations, ambitions, as well as strengths.

What do you see yourself doing after you graduate?

Hattie Ren: Personally, I am interested in Entrepreneurship and keen to start my own venture after I graduate or during school time if time and resources allow. I hope to combine commercial business with social impact and establish a sustainable revenue + impact model for my venture. I know that the NUS MBA offers supporting resources for aspiring Entrepreneurs, and I plan to involve myself in the relevant projects to take things forward during course terms. I trust that with every step I take, there will be valuable learnings and takeaways and I am excited to undergo this journey of “becoming”.

Sherrie Han: I would now like to transition fully from law into business, as running my business on the side for these past few years has proved exciting and have whetted my appetite to establish myself in the business world. In the short term, my goal is to venture into management consulting while scaling my start-ups on the side. While my long-term career aspirations are more uncertain, I intend to continue contributing to businesses that create value through providing goods and services that meet the needs of society.