Earlier this year, we caught up with our beneficiary Louis Lam, who continues to work part-time at Patisserie Millefeuille with our friends and supports Lionel Bodros and Polly Tang. Pursuing a career in interior design remains his biggest goal, and he’s now one step closer to realising that dream after having completed a three-month internship at the interior design and architectural firm Stylus Studio through r é n.

The opportunity was referred to r é n and our founder Jo Soo Tang by our partners over at Clifford Chance, and soon an interview with Louis was set up. He was ultimately accepted into the internship and began working four days a week at the firm. The hard worker that he is, he also continued working at Patisserie Millefeuille on Saturdays.

“I had a really good time at Stylus, and all the colleagues were very nice to me,” Louis says of the internship. “I managed to learn a lot from them, especially when compared to what I studied in school. Working in an actual firm was a very different experience than just studying interior design as a subject, and it gave me a much better understanding of how the industry works. It was very practical.”

During his time there, Louis helped with everything he could, including liaising with suppliers, and even assisting with sketches and blueprints. The internship gave him a wide variety of tasks that gave him a realistic look at what being an interior designer is actually like. He also received a lot of career advice from his colleagues at Stylus, which he’ll take into the future.

“They advised me to join a large firm if I could, where I can hone my skills in one particular area,” Louis explains. “From there, I can move into smaller firms, where each person handles a greater variety of tasks, and so I can learn to master more facets of the job.”

Looking ahead, Louis remains determined to become an interior designer and hopes to return to the Vocational Training Council and complete a diploma on interior design that’ll pave the way for a long-term career in the field. He’s now working hard at Patisserie Millefeuille to save money so he can fully focus on his studies come next September in 2026.