Friday Fries Night - September

It's Human Library time!!! 🔥

🗓 26 September 2025

🕖 7 - 9PM

📍 284 River Valley Road

🍕 Dinner provided

What is Human Library @ Friday Fries Night?

Friday Fries Night is a bimonthly gathering hosted by RVI - a safe space for youth to unwind, build community and network.

September's session is a Human Library, where we invite Irregulars to share about their life stories and career experiences as a Human Book to be “read” by small groups. Learn from their setbacks and successes, ask them questions and gain insight into a whole new world of possibilities!

Meet our Human Books!

Ain

Although Ain (she/her) holds a doctorate in Biomedical Engineering, she discovered her true calling in 2021 when she began volunteering with Tasek (then known as Tasek Jurong). She strongly resonated with Tasek’s mentorship model—offering meaningful, in-depth support to youth from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Since then, Ain has helped build a sustainable volunteer management system with the Volunteer Centre team and co-conceptualised the integration of casework into mentoring for children and youth with higher needs. Her ongoing learning and adaptation from on-the-ground experiences continue to shape the mentorship model to meet the evolving and diverse needs of Tasek’s children and youth.

Clarice

Having a passion for arts and craft since childhood, I had the privilege to pursue art and design as a career path, and have been working in the creative field for almost 9 years. I’ve worked as a designer for in-house projects, as well as commercial projects for a few big name clients. My works involve illustration, storyboarding, designing and animation. During this time, my work experience has provided me with a colourful portfolio, and gave me the chance to meet and learn from many wonderful, crazy-talented and like-minded folks within the field. However, I have also come to recognize the harsher realities of working in a hyper-commercialized industry, one that I wish could treat its workers and creative professionals more kindly than they are given credit for.

I’ve since moved on from the commercial world to give a go at working in a school environment. And while I’m still pretty new at it and have a long way to go, it has sparked a new interest and drive, most likely stemming from my time training younger interns in my former role. My new role as a coordinator and educator for a school innovation workshop involves assigning digital or hands-on creative projects to kids, thus encouraging them to become self-directed learners and empathetic innovators. Whether it's with paint, glue, tape, or cardboard, it is my belief that every child should have access to the materials and space to explore their creativity, no matter how messy it gets.

During my free time, I volunteer for a non-governmental organization focused on nature education, and occasionally can be found wandering around artists’ booth events or a local metal/hardcore band concert.

Dash

Life has been an interesting journey for me. I was never the top student in school and didn’t excel in Singapore’s education system. I entered ITE at a time when it was often looked down upon, but ITE grounded me and gave me the confidence to discover what I do best. From there, I pushed forward—graduating as valedictorian at Nanyang Polytechnic and later completing my degree in Human Resources, driven by my passion for people. Professionally, I’ve thrived in the corporate world as a Talent and Organisational Development Specialist in a multinational company, focusing on leadership development.

Alongside my career, my journey with SINDA began during my polytechnic days as a youth volunteer. Over the years, I grew into roles as mentor, team lead, and today, Chairperson of the SINDA Youth Club. Through this work, I’ve seen firsthand the impact that youths can make when empowered to lead.

I believe that grades or the education system do not define an individual—our talents, values, and grit do. That belief shapes the way I guide and create opportunities for others, especially the next generation of leaders. My efforts have been recognised through multiple awards, including a nomination as a Youth Awardee for the Singapore Silent Heroes Awards. Today, I also serve as a Board Member of the Civilians Association Singapore, continuing my commitment to youth and community development.

Gloria

Gloria (she/her) has led UX design teams across startups, big tech, and government. Over the past decade, she’s bounced between the Bay Area, New York, and Singapore, searching for belonging and purpose. Now back in Singapore, she’s exploring how to help the next generation thrive and flourish in the AI age, not just by teaching tech, but by deepening what it means to be human. She currently leads a design team in MOE, building tools that free educators to focus on students, while also growing Kindling Commons, a series of learning experiences for children 7–12 to build agency, voice, intuition, connection, and care.

Beyond that, she’s usually uncovering food and wine gems, or playing improv and tennis: things that bring her immeasurable joy.

Karisa

Karisa Poedjirahardjo (she/they/he) has lived many lives — from library clerk to carpenter — before landing on a career path as an arts manager. They began organising programmes in the literary arts sector and are excited to transition into theatre spaces. She has enjoyed working on community-oriented initiatives and supporting self-organised arts groups access funding and resources. He is interested in how arts workers navigate conditional financial support within the ecosystem, and how this informs the works that are produced.

Lately, they have been getting more involved in civil society and movement-building. This began with an interest in abolition, and has recently expanded to include questions around forming arts labour coalitions to build people power and demand changes that better serve our work and one another. This is a question in progress, and she’s keen to connect with others who are also interested in organising around arts labour.

Outside of work, Karisa is a serial hobbyist — rotating between board games, pottery, Dungeons & Dragons, knitting, and anything else that keeps his hands busy while enjoying good company.

Ryann

I grew up in Ipoh, Malaysia. In my childhood, I had basically no access to the Internet, so my days were spent reading, playing with my siblings/pets, and writing fantastical stories in 555 notebooks (these were peddled to my classmates for 10 sen apiece). Coming to study in Singapore was a difficult adjustment period for me -- while the place and people around me felt familiar, I just couldn't fit in. I have always been eclectic in my interests, which probably added to my otherness in a place where many people expected me to have a 'thing', a vocation which can be used to define me. Luckily, I found supportive friends and mentors who I still rely on to this day. They helped me realize that being myself was not an irregularity, and this gave me the confidence to be unabashedly myself.

In my time here, I've gotten into trouble with the C-suite at an internship, nearly died in a bike accident and landed in the hospital after overworking myself during my PhD. Fun times. Through it all, I was struck by how the people around me were so kind and giving, even though they had their own problems to deal with. I try my best to be like them, and to learn from everyone that I cross paths with. These days, I do research in the intersection of game theory, optimization and computer science. I like it because I get to ask questions about the nature of human interactions, and observe all the chaotic behaviors that arise.

I still stumble from interest to interest -- currently, I am singing in a choir, writing a musical, playing several tabletop games and trying to learn Arabic and Russian. I also try to go back to Malaysia every now and then to take part in efforts to conserve wildlife.

Accessibility Needs

As our community continues to grow, we are committed to learning how to welcome and support one another as best as we can!

If you have questions about access or would like to request accommodations (e.g. wheelchair accessibility) please contact hello@rivervalleyirregulars.com!