Trailblazing Change in Arts Education as a Youth Leader

21-year-old Dakshita is a youth leader with the National Youth Council (NYC).

Dakshita Sardana thrives on action. When the 21-year-old is not attending classes for her Applied and Medical Physics degree at Nanyang Technological University (NTU), she dedicates her spare moments to causes and activities that make a difference.

In June this year, she was chosen to be part of the Singapore Young Leaders Programme (SYLP). Under the programme, she participated in the National Youth Council (NYC) Leaders Course 2025. There, she got the opportunity to rub shoulders with other like-minded student leaders from institutes of higher learning.

Over the course of the 3-day NYC Leaders Course, she pondered what it meant to lead Singapore at the Semangat yang Baru Scenario Experience by Founders’ Memorial and explored Enabling Village, where accessible design sparked conversations about inclusion and social enterprise, among various activities.

SYLP set the stage for Dakshita to volunteer at youth forums and events and delve into the world of profit-with-purpose businesses. More importantly, it brought her closer to her lifelong aspiration of elevating art education into Singapore’s mainstream curriculum.

From Leadership Camp To Real World Opportunities

Dakshita presenting her learnings at the end of the 3-day NYC Leaders Course

Most recently, Dakshita volunteered at NYC's PurpoSE in Action: ChangeMakers for Social Good and facilitated discussions with other young people. Together, they discussed the challenges youths face when running social enterprises and how they could be connected to the right resources.

It was through the programme that she encountered Stick 'Em. Through making science models out of chopsticks, the founder hoped to make STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) more accessible and interesting to students.

The simple but powerful idea made her imagine: how could an arts education be made accessible and relevant to every student in Singapore? What opportunities could she seek out to integrate the arts into the mainstream syllabus?

A large part of Dakshita’s interest in advocating for an arts education for all stemmed from her experience in primary school. Her teachers had encouraged her and her classmates to try different co-curricular activities to find out what they enjoyed.

Dakshita enjoys illustrating in her free time and even had the opportunity to showcase her work at the NTU Arts Festival in 2024.

Dakshita realised she liked doodling and creating drawings to capture life’s moments. The hobby gradually morphed into creating posters for school events and internships, and a fully realised passion for illustration and design. Even now, she continues to hone her graphic design skills for posters and merchandise.

Pursuing her artistic interests in her formative years made a deep impact and it seeded her dream of making arts education an essential part of every student’s education journey in Singapore.

Her Journey from Campus to Community

Dakshita (first from the right, bottom row), alongside the outgoing and incoming CAC committee members for 2025.

Upon entering NTU, Dakshita’s love for the arts saw her join the university’s Cultural Activities Club (CAC) to stay connected with her artistic side. CAC oversees 24 member clubs (ranging from lindy hop to symphonic orchestra), five support committees, and four special projects. Over 1000 students join every year.

Dakshita eventually became the club’s Vice-President. In the role, it was her job to lead and organise inclusive, meaningful performing arts and cultural initiatives. The aim was to ensure each art form was fairly represented and supported.

From planning a family-friendly charity carnival to coordinating an inter-club concert, being part of the management committee of the CAC taught her that leadership is as much about running events as it is about creating vision and rallying others around a shared mission.

She carried these lessons into SYLP and other opportunities, like the Inter-University Network’s University Leader Dialogue, where she and other student leaders represented their cohorts to ensure undergraduate voices were considered in policies and programmes.

Envisioning Arts Education at the Heart of Singapore’s Schools

Dakshita holding up the t-shirt she designed for NTU CAC.

Every step from her campus leadership stint to NYC opportunities has inched Dakshita closer to her goal. Her next step in weaving her love for the arts and hopes of integrating arts education into schools together is to pursue her PhD. She hopes to focus on the science of learning, pedagogy and curriculum development before eventually working it into the system.

In the meantime, she’s working with the Ministry of Education (MOE) on potentially running an arts-focused module in secondary schools. She hopes students will recognise the value of the arts, even if they don’t pursue it professionally.

“Art teaches you creativity, adaptability, and inventiveness. Soft skills are essential, no matter what field you go into. Many students still have the perception that you have to either be extremely good at art to pursue it, or it wouldn't help you if that's not the career path that you want to take. I just want to change that perception one day.”

SG60 has been an opportunity for young Singaporeans to share their aspirations and take action in shaping their country and home. Make your voices heard, support youth-led initiatives, and raise issues close to your hearts by participating in the SG Youth Plan. Find out more about how you can do so at https://youthplan.gov.sg.