This semester, Singapore Management University (SMU) students are again engaging meaningfully with the community as they embark on the third edition of Remember.For.Me. with the guidance of Principal Lecturer of Statistics Rosie Ching. A national dementia awareness survey, Remember.For.Me. was first launched in 2019 to give students the opportunity to apply statistics in real-world, socially meaningful contexts. Concurrently, the survey served as a data-driven approach towards understanding the awareness and perceptions of Singaporeans towards persons living with dementia.
Remember.For.Me. returned for a second run in 2023 and is now in full swing for its third. Conducted in partnership with Dementia Singapore, Remember.For.Me. brings together students, faculty, and community partners in large-scale, on-the-ground fieldwork, from dementia daycare centre visits to surveys and interviews and supported by rigorous statistical analysis.
“Among the projects I’ve worked on, this dementia study is one of the most impactful. It hits close to home,” says Ms Rosie Ching. “Statistics, when wielded with heart and mission, take on a life of purpose. They can serve, illuminate, and ultimately make lives better for people living these experiences every day. For my students, it powerfully connects what they learn in the classroom to the world around them.”
Through thousands of responses collected over the years, the project has surfaced the lived realities of dementia in Singapore, translating deeply personal stories into evidence-based insights. For Ms Ching and her students, statistics become more than numbers: they are a means of making visible the challenges, stigma and care journeys faced daily by individuals and families navigating dementia.
All students involved in Ms Ching's statistics course, past and present, are trained in research ethics before engaging directly with persons living with dementia and their care partners. This hands-on approach allows students to experience first-hand how statistics can ground human stories, transforming the anecdotal into objective findings rooted in compassion and social purpose.
This year, the third edition of Remember.For.Me. extends beyond surveys and interviews. At the request of Dementia Singapore, the project will be including a non-commercial screening of A Singapore Dementia Story on campus. Open to all students and staff, the screening aims to spark reflection and conversation around dementia stigma, ageing, memory and care — timely issues as Singapore continues its transition into a super-aged society. The results of the survey conducted by Ms Ching and her students will be published in the second quarter of 2026.
Remember.For.Me. stands as a reflection of SMU’s commitment to applied learning with social impact, where faculty members lead students into real-world engagement with complex social issues, guided by care, ethics and responsibility. Through its third edition, the project continues to demonstrate how education, research and empathy can come together to shape a more inclusive and understanding society.