By Amelia Tan

REMEMBERING his late father's toothless grin was what inspired a 23-year-old polytechnic student to fight his way into one of the toughest university courses here.

Mr Chua Koon Ting is the first such student to enter the National University of Singapore's (NUS) school of dentistry.

He managed this feat while juggling several jobs to put himself through school and support the family after his father died when he was 12 years old.

He said the memory that kept him going was 'the image of my father...smiling with his dentures taken off'.

'He would always take them off to scare my sister and me. Becoming a dentist is a way of remembering my father and doing my parents proud.'

The biomedical science graduate from Singapore Polytechnic was admitted to NUS through the Exceptional Individual Admissions Scheme. Started in 2007, the scheme allows a small number of students to be admitted based on their personal talents and achievements in both non-academic and academic areas.

The dean of the dentistry faculty, Associate Professor Keson Tan, said Mr Chua stood out with his excellent character qualities. Besides juggling jobs and his studies, he found time to volunteer at orphanages and old folks' homes.

Prof Tan added: 'His steely determination to succeed in life despite financial difficulties and his resolve to improve academically stood out during the interview.'

The road to success has not been a smooth one for Mr Chua. An above average pupil in primary school, he lost interest in his studies when his father died of liver cancer a few months before his Primary School Leaving Examination.

He did badly, scoring 182 points and landing a place in the Normal (Academic) stream at Swiss Cottage Secondary School in Bukit Gombak. But he bucked up when he saw his factory worker mother, Madam Chong Ah Seng, pulling long hours every day to provide for the family. He also has a younger sister who recently graduated from Ngee Ann Polytechnic.

He managed to top his secondary school in both the N and O levels while working as counter staff at McDonald's and as a waiter in hotel restaurants. At polytechnic, Mr Chua tutored secondary school students in subjects such as mathematics and biology and took up other part-time jobs, such as working as a customer service officer at Nokia. He graduated with a diploma with merit, given to the top 5 per cent of each cohort.

This article was first published in The Straits Times.