17-year-old S'porean meets Boon Keng residents, hears complaints & gets things fixed because he can

At 17, many people have big dreams about what they want to do in the future, but few have the means to go about it.

Jovan Tang wants to represent his community, help solve their problems, and improve their environment- a daunting task for anyone, let alone a 17-year-old studying for his diploma.

But Jovan has found a way to do this by… just going ahead and doing it.

Uneven pathways

Jovan was the central focus of a recent 10-minute segment on Mediacorp Series Gen Z Crash Course, where he showed host Gao Mei Gui around his Boon Keng area.

There, he gave examples of issues that local residents had flagged to him, including uneven walking paths and road crossings with inadequate speed control.

Jovan told Gao about two instances of uneven ground, one where the town council was still looking into it, and another where an improvement had been made by simply painting a bright yellow stripe on the edge of the stairs, so that the drop was more obvious.

In both cases, he had reached out to the town council on his own initiative, alerting them to where changes needed to be made.

In another circumstance, near the Boon Keng MRT station, Jovan pointed out a pedestrian crossing under a covered walkway.

He said that residents in the area had told him their concerns about how the crossing was felt to be unsafe, particularly for the elderly and young children, as cars were passing through at a relatively high speed.

A few weeks after raising the issue with the town council, additional speed bumps were installed in the area, lowering the speed of traffic and making it safer for those using the crossing.

Name recognition

Gao spoke to several residents, with about half recognising him.

A pair of teenagers noted that they recognised him from his social media accounts, praising Jovan for his “wholesome” content, and posing for a picture with him.

Others who were featured and didn’t recognise him still praised him for his efforts, while one aunty still encouraged him to continue with his studies.

But not all comments he’s encountered were so encouraging, with some online accusing him of cosplaying as a Member of Parliament.

While he acknowledged that such comments did sting, Jovan said he continued to do his best to clarify his work.

He sometimes even bumped up against sceptical residents, who even told him that what he was doing wasn’t allowed.

But he refuses to let such comments dissuade him, insisting that he was “here to serve you (the residents)”, and that his self-belief kept him going.

He told Gao that he believed that there was a path for him to go on “this community journey”, to help and support residents, regardless of the naysayers.

Here to help

His Instagram account pays testament to his commitment, with a constant stream of posts showing his activities and events that he attends to stay up to date with what’s going on in his community.

There seems to be no limit to his enthusiasm, whether it's urban mobility or international entrepreneurship.

So if you live in the Boon Keng to Ang Mo Kio area and you see a young man wandering around (you can’t miss him; he even sometimes wears all-white regalia), consider letting him know if there’s a local issue you feel needs to be addressed.

After all, he’s there to help.