The girls are giving the boys a run for their money in this year's crop of President's Scholars.

Three of the four recipients of the prestigious award - Kaan Hung Leng, Liu Chen and Stephanie Ko, are female - a rare occurence considering that in all, seven out of 10 President's Scholars are male.

Since 1990, there have been at the most two girls chosen and sometimes none at all, like in 1999 and 2004.

Sergius Wat, 19, from Raffles Junior College (RJC) is the sole 'thorn' among the 'roses' - Kaan Hung Leng, 18, and Liu Chen, 21, both hailing from RJC, and Stephanie Ko, 18, from Hwa Chong Institute.

The four were recognised at an awards ceremony held at the Istana yesterday evening. President S R Nathan, who presented the scholars with their awards, said that "strong public service leadership is the key to good governance" - and stressed the importance of identifying and grooming the best talent for the job.

President's Scholars should exhibit strong leadership potential, a sense of duty to the nation, and a firm character, he said.

Sergius Wat, who will study government at Harvard University, is one of the top A-level students this year. The lad says he has benefited greatly from community work - in particular, as vice-president of the Interact Club at RJC, he once led about 1,200 Year 1 students to deliver food to elderly residents of one-room flats.

Liu Chen, a native of Shandong China, moved to Singapore with her parents in 1997 and overcame great language barriers to excel in school. She could not understand a single word from her Primary Three school teacher, but resolved to memorise 50 English words a day to improve her language proficiency.

She was crowned a national brown-belt champion in Taekwando two years ago, and will read economics at the University of Chicago.

Hung Leng, who will study medicine at the National University of Singapore, helped young people come up with charity projects as a panellist in the National Youth Council's Young ChangeMakers scheme, and is one of the top A-level students this year.

Stephanie Ko, who will study medicine at Cambridge University, represented Hwa Chong in track and field and helped organise the Hwa Chong Asian Young Leaders Summit last year.

Top photo: (From left) Stephanie Ko, Sergius Wat, Liu Chen and Kaan Hung Leng [Photo by Ng Sor Luan]

For the full report, read The Straits Times today.

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