REMA 2021 Recipients – Seah Jit Sheng and Sasha Ng
19 November 2021
One of the things that has always kept me going at Ryde are the efforts and sacrifices of our Driver-Partners. We know that the work is never easy and that’s why our Driver-Partners are always highly valued at Ryde. This ethos shines through in everything we do.
At Ryde, our aim has always been to create a better community for our users. This includes fairly compensating our Driver-Partners, who have taken the time to travel to your pick-up location and/or to wait patiently below your block. For this, we have rolled out our new Cancellation and Waiting Time policy on 20 October 2021.
The Ryde Education Merit Award
For instance, at the height of the pandemic last year, Ryde launched the Ryde Education Merit Awards (REMA), a merit-based incentive for the high-performing and talented children of our Driver-Partners.
We recognized the difficulties our Driver-Partners and their families were going through
amidst the various disruptions caused by the pandemic and so we felt that REMA could help
support their families with their education by giving cash prizes and technological support for
students who have shown impressive academic and extracurricular standing.
I am pleased that REMA is not a one-off initiative but a long-term commitment we have to
our Driver-Partners who are on this journey with us. With that, we recently finalized our 2021
REMA recipients, and I am beyond proud to have Seah Jit Sheng and Sasha Ng in our
growing roster of REMA awardees.
Introducing our winners – Jit Sheng and Sasha
Jit Sheng is a 24-year-old student at the National University of Singapore taking Business
Analytics. During the interview for the award, Jit Sheng mentioned that he applied for REMA
because of his interest to know more about the company his dad works with. He was deeply
interested in how we operate and wanted to know more about the ride-sharing economy.
Also, with the community at the heart of what we do, the panel admired Jit Sheng for the
outpouring of love he had for his family as he aspires to bring them to different places
around the world. Someday, we hope Jit Sheng can lend his talents to Ryde as we continue
to help him fulfil his aspirations.
Sasha, on the other hand, is a 14-year-old high school student at Dunman High School.
Sasha impressed the panel for her immense passion for humanities, history, and literature. She exudes enthusiasm about the things she learns about and wants to explore and despite her young age, she was clear about the things she was passionate about and plans to
pursue an education with Oxford University in the future. Sasha also shared that she applied
for the REMA award as she had wanted to be a part of a meaningful activity that celebrates the efforts and success of her father.
We admire such clarity and humility and want to enable her to achieve her passion. We trust that the REMA award will allow her to scale even greater heights.
What impressed me was that both Jit Sheng and Sasha demonstrated talent, skills, and
character that goes beyond the usual academic measures. They both possessed great
personalities, intellect, humility, and most importantly, compassion for people. If there’s a
common trait with our two awardees, is that they both not only thought of themselves but
also dedicated their awards to their families.
As part of the award, they both received an Apple Bundle, including one 10.9-inch iPad Air,
an Apple Pencil (Gen 2), an Apple AirPods Pro, S$200.00 worth of RydeCoins and
S$700.00 and S$1,200.00 in cash, respectively. When asked about how they will use their
winnings, they both intend to save it to use for their educational expenses.
Looking back and growing together
Jit Sheng and Sasha now join our last year’s winner Vanessa who keeps on delivering
success and pride to her family and the Ryde community. Vanessa is currently part of her
school’s student council and currently serves as the school choir’s president. Vanessa said
that beyond the awards, the process of REMA helped her to develop her self-confidence and
public speaking skills.
There is something that Vanessa shared that still resonates with me – “never look down on
yourself because you never know what you’re capable of.” As Ryde continues to strive to
deliver seamless and sustainable rides, we will also continue to recognize and give
importance to the whole Ryde community, most especially our Driver-Partners and their
families.
Warmest,
Terence Zou
Ryde Founder & CEO
More images of our winners, their parents and Terence can be found below.
