When 'O' Level 10-pointer Tan Wei Jian decided to pursue the Diploma in Chemical Engineering at TP, he made a promise to his father that he would make sure his parents would not regret supporting his decision. The Temasek Secondary School student also had to convince some of his secondary 4 teachers that he was making the right decision.

Three years on, Wei Jian has lots to smile about. He has topped his course bagging a whopping 23 distinctions and achieving a Grade Point Average of 3.97. Also, both NUS and NTU have accepted his application to do degrees in Chemical Engineering and Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, respectively.

The younger of two sons of his taxi driver father and travel coordinator mother, Wei Jian truly lived life to the fullest at TP. In his first year, he was involved as an event coordinator for the Student's Union annual dinner and dance. He was also a member of a team which won third prize in a nation-wide environment competition for a project involving turning a photocopier machine into a ping-pong ball picker. Wei Jian also became the popular choice for a presenter in subsequent environment-related competitions as he was a confident speaker and passionate about environment issues. He also excelled in a research project on membrane applications under the Temasek Applied Science School's Differential Research Programme.

Apart from school commitments, Wei Jian also held a part-time job which took up anything from 16 to 20 hours a week. A school day which started at 9 am would usually end at 2.30 am when he went to bed. To add to this, Wei Jian, who played the oboe when he was in his secondary school band, regularly returned to the school to coach and guide the band members. As if this wasn't taxing enough, Wei Jian took up line dancing on Friday, Saturday and Sunday evenings. Fiercely self-reliant, Wei Jian also displayed excellent time-management skills.

A fast-thinker and fast-learner, Wei Jian describes himself as outgoing, bubbly and quite analytical. He dreams of helping to solve the world's environment problems. Global warming, the lack of water in Singapore and the desire to turn Singapore into a beautiful garden city are some of this bold environmentalist's concerns.

In addition to getting a degree after his NS stint, this bottomless pit of energy is also planning to do a business course. Kudos to you, Wei Jian!