Claudia Selvakumar

Background

About Claudia Selvakumar

Passion is the bridge that takes you from pain to change."- Frida Kahlo If you had told 16-year-old me that I’d one day be studying at the National University of Singapore, I wouldn’t have believed you. My entire life, I struggled with school. My report cards were filled with Cs, Ds, and Fs. I constantly wondered what was wrong with me—why I couldn’t understand things the way my classmates did. For over ten years, I felt like I was failing in a system that wasn’t built for how I learn. Things only started to make sense when I stepped into ITE. It grounded me, challenged me, and woke me up to the world beyond myself. I witnessed my peers grappling with real, raw challenges—financial burdens, broken family systems, mental health battles. Many of them gave up, not because they weren’t capable, but because no one ever told them they could succeed. That pain lit a fire in me. Later, I fulfilled my long-held dream of entering Ngee Ann Polytechnic. I found my voice. I got involved in causes bigger than myself. I saw the power of community—and I knew I wanted to spend my life building it. For the first time, I felt like I was finally growing into who I was meant to be. University was never in the picture. I thought I wasn’t “that kind of student.” But life had other plans for me, and I found myself at NUS (Who would've thought?) Sometimes I still wish I had someone to show me what was possible. And that’s why I co-founded Pathfinders, to be that someone for youths like us. Our stories—the messy, painful, beautiful parts—can serve as a survival guide for others. Because the truth is, there are so many of us who just need one person to say,"I see you. You matter. You can do this." NUS isn’t the finish line. It’s a beginning. A platform for me to keep paying it forward, building communities where young people are seen, supported, and given space to shine. And if you're reading this, maybe our paths crossed for a reason :)