On 5 April 2013, SMU officially launched the Mrs Wong Kwok Leong Student Wellness Centre. Strategically located at the Concourse of the Li Ka Shing Library, the new facility was unveiled by Speaker of Parliament and Advisor to the National Council of Social Services, Mdm Halimah Yacob. Some 150 guests, including friends and supporters of Mrs Wong Kwok Leong, partner organisations of WKLSWC, past and current SMU peer helpers, representatives of education institutions as well as SMU management and staff, attended the event in high spirits.
Helmed by Mr Timothy Hsi, the student wellness centre has been named after Mrs Wong as a gesture of appreciation by SMU. The affable, humble and respected 74-year-old philanthropist had earlier pledged S$1.6 million in endowed donation as her second gift to SMU.
Guest-of-Honour, Mdm Halimah Yacob said, “Our younger generation is living in an interesting era and is facing an entirely new set of challenges arising from unprecedented developments and changes in the global economy. While it is important for us to constantly enrich the minds of our youths with new information and knowledge, we also need to equip them with critical life skills and strategies to help them tackle life’s challenges.”
Previously known as the Centre for Counselling and Guidance, WKLSWC is dedicated to providing SMU students with top quality mental health support. It provides safe spaces for students to explore and manage their personal lives through sessions with professional counsellors or to simply have a mental repose from the rigours of their academic pursuits. Comprising two sections – Counselling Place and Cosy Haven, the facility offers an array of developmental, preventive, and therapeutic services such as individual and group counselling, workshops, seminars and programmes that promote the intellectual, emotional and social well-being of SMU students.
Besides clinical work, WKLSWC also seeks to produce relevant research and publications which address the mental health and emotional well-being of young adults like students in the SMU community.
SMU President, Professor Arnoud De Meyer said, “While SMU has always focused on offering an outstanding education to our students, we also hope to nurture them as caring and responsible individuals.”
“We are very grateful to Mrs Wong Kwok Leong for her generosity in pledging a second gift to SMU. This would allow our professional counsellors from the new Student Wellness Centre and the peer helpers to continue with their good work and introduce more programmes to improve the emotional and mental well-being of our students,” he added.
Donor Mrs Wong Kwok Leong said, “I hope this gift will inspire generations of the SMU community to acquire and develop the critical skills to cope with life’s pressures, because their well-being determines the well-being of our society not only for today, but also for tomorrow.”
The unveiling of WKLSWC came close on the heels of a recent launch of a title “A Basic Guide on Peer Helping” by SMU in mid-January 2013. The first of its kind published by an education institution in Singapore, the 181-page book provides comprehensive and useful information for mental health practitioners and professionals in schools and institutions. It represented the collective effort of four SMU counsellors based on their shared experiences and valuable insights gathered from years of running SMU’s highly-successful Peer Helping programme.
[Featured photo: Smiles all around as a beaming Mrs Wong Kwok Leong (front row, 4th from left), Guest-of-Honour Mdm Halimah Yacob (front row, 3rd from left); SMU President Professor Arnoud De Meyer (front row, 2nd from left) and Director of the Mrs Wong Kwok Leong Student Wellness Centre, Mr Timothy Hsi (front row, 1st from left), posed for a photo with SMU peer helpers.]