After a history of delinquency in secondary school, Mr Tan Wee Kiat buckled down and emerged as one of Singapore Polytechnic's (SP) top eight graduates of the year.

The 22-year-old graduated with a diploma in visual communication and media design, and was presented the Tay Eng Soon Gold Medal and the IMDA Gold Medal by the Minister for Social and Family Development Desmond Lee at SP's 59th Graduation Ceremony yesterday.

Mr Tan is one of 5,621 SP graduates getting their diplomas, advanced diplomas, specialist diplomas and certificates.

Academic success was not on his horizon growing up.

Bad behaviour in school led to poor results in PSLE, which saw him entering the Normal (Technical) stream in secondary school. There, he was frequently involved in fights and was on the brink of expulsion after he was given four strokes of the cane over a particular incident.

The turning point came in Secondary 3 when his maths teacher became a mentor.

Mr Tan began excelling in his worst subject, mathematics. Competitive by nature, he challenged himself to excel in all of his other subjects and scored four points for his GCE N-level exam.

He said: "I was truly inspired by my maths teacher. If he was able to give me hope, then I would also like to give hope to other kids who have not realised their potential."

Mr Tan plans to pursue a degree in visual communication before returning to SP to mentor aspiring designers.

Fellow Institutional Medallist and another SP top graduate Callista Anne Yin Kai Ren, 20 holds a diploma in applied drama and psychology .

She is a recipient of the Tan Kay Yong Gold Medal and Sheng Hong Gold Medal.

Miss Yin credits her younger sister, who has dyslexia and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, for her passion to pursue social issues.

Her experience with mental health issues took place during Sec 4 when she suffered from anxiety attacks and isolation and she broke down often.

It was at that same time that she took up dancing as a way to ground and express herself.

Miss Yin said: "Dancing didn't make the anxiety go away, but it created a space for me where I could express myself and where I could let all of my emotions and frustrations out."

She led a team to produce an interactive theatre programme for the Institute of Mental Health to raise mental health awareness. The programme later received funding from the National Youth Council for an additional run at *Scape Singapore.

She did not expect to be awarded for her efforts, but was heartened that SP recognised the triumphs of those who have struggled with mental health.