DECC

People

Co-chairman

Tee Sui Seng
Sui Seng has just graduated from Christ’s College, Cambridge with a degree in Natural Science. He has foolishly decided to go back in October for a PhD, in the field of molecular imaging in cancer. Having naively stated that he would like to find a cure for cancer and/or AIDS in his university applications, it seems that there is no turning back now. When he is not being occupied with delusions of grandeur, he finds much joy in watching things grow.

John Lee
John Lee is a first-year student at Dartmouth College in the United States. He was a program associate at Just Networks Sdn Bhd and publishes his own political and economic commentary on his website, infernalramblings.com. He is also a fortnightly columnist at Bolehland.com. In 2007, he represented his university at the Discover US Education fair, and was a participant in the inaugural Malaysian Student Leaders Summit. Previously, he completed his A-Levels at KDU College, where he was active in debate and mooting, organising a pre-university debate tournament and representing the pre-university department at the college debating competition, where his team reached the semifinals. His A-Level mooting team came runner-up in the college’s 2007 mooting competition. In his free time, John looks forward to reading, listening to music, and long walks in the evening with his dog. (No girl would take him.) Born in Japan and afterwards spending his toddlerhood in Singapore, he nevertheless considers himself a PJ boy, having spent most of his life there and frittered away a significant amount of his time in 1 Utama.

Web development manager

Jonathan Ng
Jonathan is currently employed at DHL ITS Asia-Pacific. His expertise is in EDI and B2B integration where he works with cool technologies that allow inter-company businesses to exchange commerce information seamlessly. Initially supposed to further his studies at the University of Sydney, he made an about turn decision to gain professional work experience instead. However, he still harbours intentions to return to academia, in which he hopes to do so within the next few years.

Publicity manager

Aaron Lo

Educational co-ordinators

Anand Pillai is a hyperactive Kuala-Lumpur raised voyager. After being convinced that his destiny was to study in the Americas, he packed off in 2001 to eventually become an Industrial Engineer at Northwestern University. Upon graduating, he spent some time briefly at a non profit (America Second Harvest) in Chicago, before moving to Philadelphia to work in the management consulting field. As of mid 2006, Anand has left his former employer and currently works part-time as a manager at a large pharmaceutical company while pursuing his entrepreneurial interests in socially oriented business by working at B-Lab (www.bcorporation.net). He feels that his education in the States has opened up his mind to the world, and has made him realize how much there is left to learn - and he’d love to help others start that journey for themselves

Gabrielle Chong Yong Wei, 18, looks like a rebel with her spiky, dyed hair but is in reality a geek whose favourite hangout is the bookstore. She enjoys debating, drawing comics, trance-techno music and new perspectives. She firmly believes in the “Not One Less” policy when it comes to education, that everyone from the CEO’s daughter to the karipap seller’s son should have equal access to quality education, and the opportunity to maximise their potential. She hopes that her services at DECC will help bring this closer to reality. An ex-Ave Marian, Gabrielle is currently pursuing ‘A’ Levels at Taylor’s University College, Subang Jaya.

Adriene Leong is a graduate student at Sophia University, Tokyo and the United Nations University, Tokyo. Her research interests are human security, civil society and economic development.

Chia Huei is a biomedical engineering Master’s student and lab rat at ETH Zurich, Switzerland. An aficionado of dark chocolate, cobbled streets and the great outdoors, she likes it a lot in der Schweiz and has decided to make it her home (for now). Through the DECC, she hopes to encourage fellow Malaysian students to explore destinations outside the traditional choices, as well as help provide ideas on where to begin. Her previous study locations include Belfast, Bath and Beijing.

Kam Weng Yuen hails from Kuala Lumpur, but currently plying his sweat and blood for furthering the understanding on possible retrofit/mitigation techniques and strategies for under-designed reinforced concrete structures under seismic events, at the University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand. While he has completed both his degrees in Civil Engineering and Economics at Canterbury, Kam had had the experience of studying in local tertiary education institutions - spending one semester and one year at the UTP and UNITEN respectively. Under UNITEN ATU (American Top Universities) programme, Kam also had exposure to the “American system” university entrance of personal statements, TOEFL, SATs and AP courses. His “biggest” achievements then were getting accepted into Northwestern University. He was a recipient of Nugent-Walsh scholarship whilst at Victoria Institution and PETRONAS scholarship whilst studying for his undergraduate degrees. Kam is currently fully-funded by the New Zealand Foundation for Research Science and Technology (FRST) for his doctoral dissertation. His dream is to see to the idea of free and liberal education for all Malaysians, and his PhD is a step towards making that dream a reality for his beloved country.

Lenard Yangli Lim is currently a student at the UWC Costa Rica who is toiling to beat the deadlines of IB jargons - WL, EE, TOK, IA, etc. Despite the slavery, he makes it a point to go to the beach once a month, and attempts to read a book a week. Pleasure sins include discussions over wine and bruschetta; Rumi and Neruda; Nietzsche and Wittgenstein, etc… all while attempting to apply for college this year.

Hwa Yang Jerng - If the average Malaysian student has problems applying to elite universities due to feelings of inadequacy, then Yang Jerng has the opposite problem - he doesn’t find institutional education to be are necessary, helpful, or optimal for the steepness of his learning curve. Whenever he’s not crafting models of human cognition and industrial organisation, he prefers to take on duties of administration and technical support.

Tim or Tim Nam is aiming to do his PhD elsewhere. A Monash University graduate, he is working as a part time tutor and a lab demonstrator with the aim of torturing first year students. He is obsessed with the world of molecular biology to encounter DNA and RNA in the hope of becoming one of the top CSIs’ or top researchers in the country.
During his spare time, he will be looking the world with his camera lens while accompanied by his beloved Ipod.