Interview With Saranya Ramalingam – Student-Turned-Staff

Apart from those high school reunion-esque get-togethers, it really is a challenge to see your former schoolmates on a regular basis. You could do the occasional stalk on Facebook, but that isn’t quite the same. So lucky for us, we have managed to catch up with LSBF’s very own student-turned-staff, Saranya Ramalingam!

What’s new with Saranya?

Saranya Ramalingam, age 26, formerly an ACCA student who previously held the prestigious accolade as president of the student council, has joined LSBF, making the transition from student to staff as our new Student Services Executive.

Why choose to stay at LSBF as Student Services Executive?

Drawing back from her tenure in the student council, Saranya credited her decision to apply for her role at LSBF to her when she was introduced to the corporate culture of LSBF.

“I was the president of student council during my studying term, and eventually I enjoyed the work ethics and the environment of LSBF which made me want to apply for this job.” said Saranya.

Having once held the reins as a student at LSBF, her experience equips her with immeasurable relatability to future cohorts of students, to which she aims to provide with the best student experience.

She adds that as her designation states, she will strive “to be at the service of students, to meet up with the departmental objectives, as well as be a satisfactory element for the students.”

Why study at LSBF in the first place?

Hearing of its founding in 2011, Saranya was recommended by a friend to apply to LSBF after learning about its notable faculty.

Having previously been an ACCA student of another institution, Saranya switched schools, becoming an ACCA student at LSBF instead.

“The main reason for me to choose LSBF was because of the ACCA lecturers.” said Saranya. “The LSBF Singapore’ lecturers were known to be prominent in its fields and I decided to join LSBF to increase my chance to pass the tedious subjects”.

Transitioning from student to staff

While treading in familiar waters does bring some ease for Saranya as she transitions to staff, it is not without its challenges. For Saranya, she enters our family with an optimistic spirit.

“As a student, it’s easy to make demands but now I realised how difficult it can be for a school to cater to students, not just one student but thousands of students.” shared Saranya who welcomed the challenge of her new role adding that “at the end of the day, I love challenges as much as it can be pressurising.

Despite the dissimilarities of her ACCA background and her duties as Student Services Executive, Saranya states her belief in the correlation between work and happiness.

“Even though this job has nothing to do with what I had studied for, I believe I should find a job in which I must be happy to work at.”

Saranya also highlighted that her department head was one of her motivating factors in her role.

“Zuleha motivates me to be better. I believe we can come up with great results.”

The future

Citing her most unique LSBF experience as turning from student to staff, Saranya looks ahead to continually improve herself and delve deeper into furthering her career goals.

Sharing a few words of wisdom with future graduates of LSBF, Saranya says “No matter how difficult or demanding the course can be, never demean yourself and hit the finishing line despite how many times you fall.”