For subscribers
From sleeping in void decks to enrolling at Oxford
Scholarship holder who suffered many hardships now aims to help those in need
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
Mr Zulhaqem Zulkifli will start his master's degree in Buddhist studies at Oxford in September.
Cara Wong
Follow topic:
Mr Zulhaqem Zulkifli, 27, used to spend Sundays with his father, rummaging through dumpsters for scrap metal and cardboard boxes to sell.
It was hard work under the hot sun. "People thought I was in some sports CCA (co-curricular activity) because I was so tanned. I told them 'yeah, I do sports - at the dumpsters'," the philosophy student at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) said in jest.
