Igniting a passion for social services
15 Jul 2019
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Dawn Wee
Senior Speech Therapist
SPD
Entered the social service sector as a mid-career entrant
Dawn Wee, 38, had been away from Singapore for 11 years, having settled in the United States, and then Australia, with her husband and daughter. While she knew that she would return home one day, she just wasn’t sure when that would be. An encounter with veteran social sector leaders from Opportunities@Singapore, a career fair for Singaporeans studying and working abroad, changed that.
"The conversations I had with them about the challenges, opportunities and dreams for the social service sector ignited a fire within me,” explained Dawn. “I could practise speech therapy anywhere in the world, but I want to give back to Singapore, my home country, in my own small way.”
As a Senior Speech Therapist at SPD, Dawn maintains a clinical caseload and does training for schools. She finds her time at SPD very fulfilling and purposeful. Her greatest motivation comes in seeing how her job has allowed her to improve the lives of the children she serves. She is currently working towards attaining full registration with the Allied Health Professions Council, which would enable her to take on a supervisory role.
Outside the office, Dawn is an avid yoga learner. During her yoga sessions, she learns to focus on things that make her feel good, for example, a smile or a good stretch, instead of the factors that may cause discomfort – extreme heat. These skills not only help her to relax, but have also proven useful to her work.
Going forward, Dawn plans to continue doing clinical work and improve her craft but also develop herself further for other roles beyond clinical work. “I believe that the Sun Ray scheme will support me in this aspiration,” she added.
To find out more about the Sun Ray scheme, visit
ncss.gov.sg/SunRay today.
To apply, you can submit your CV to us at
Sun_Ray@ncss.gov.sg.
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