Calista

The Player; The Sports Lover

Calista has been staying in Jurong West since young. She loves sports and has tried many other sports growing up. She continues to swim today. While her love for sports remained, she is a very different individual from who she was younger. Growing up, she faced many challenges -- she candidly shared her self-esteem struggles and her rebellious acts in her teenage years. 

Her turning point was when she was confronted with the realities of adulthood, upon dropping out of her polytechnic course in her third and final year. Calista decided then that she wanted to enter early childhood education. This meant a daily commute from Jurong West to her full-time childcare job in the North of Singapore, before heading to Bras Basah in the evening for her part-time early childhood education course, and back to the wild west at night. It was extremely tiring but she eventually became an early childhood educator -- which she was for the past 7 years, before she switched to her current job a few months back. Nonetheless, her current job at Young NTUC allows her to work with young people -- another social group that she is passionate about. 

Perhaps, her passion for working with children and youths was partly to be the mentor that she wanted to have when she was younger. When asked if there’s something she would want to see in the community, she recounted an idea she had previously -- she once considered preparing games and opening her house for youths to simply chill. I am certain she would hit off with many youths especially if they play video games (she plays Call of Duty!). Calista also had many other ideas including having book exchanges within the neighbourhood.