IT was a dream come true for Kingston Lew Yen Wei when he was accepted into the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the United States this year.
Yen Wei, 18, a former student of Chung Ling Private, will pursue a Bachelor of Science in computer science, economy, data science and business analytics in August. He obtained almost a full scholarship from MIT.
Further good news for him was that as a form of incentive for his achievement, the state government presented him RM3,000 through Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow in Komtar today.
“This is a huge achievement for me. I have been working really hard over the past four years to get into a school like MIT,” said Yen Wei.
“I was involved in many extracurricular activities in Malaysia and the US as well. I was really very happy and relieved when I got the news that I was accepted into MIT. I had applied early last year but it got deferred. And I was scared that I might not get in.
“For honouring this achievement, I am very grateful for all the support Penang and Malaysia have given to me over the last few years, as well as the support from my parents and my mentor.
“I applied to MIT, hoping to major in pure science and business analytics. These subjects interest me because I love mathematics.
“I am really excited to go to MIT because this is a place where very notable people around the world have graduated.
“I am really happy to enter a class with a lot of amazing young people to learn and to gain experience. And I am really excited to be a part of the community of learners and scholars to bring honour to this country and to contribute to society after I graduate.”
In April, Chow also presented an RM3,000 cheque each to three other Penang students – Ishant Shah Atul Kumar and Herman Leong Xin Yang for being accepted into the prestigious Harvard University and Teoh Li Yen for being accepted into Princeton University in the United States.
Chow said the state is proud of Yen Wei’s achievements, including obtaining 9As in the International General Certificate of Secondary Education Cambridge (IGCSE).
“This is just an incentive for him to continue to do well in his studies and achieve future success. We hope when he finishes his studies, he will come back to serve Penang and Malaysia,” Chow said.
MIT, which was established in 1861, has been ranked as the No. 1 university in the world by QS World University Rankings for 11 straight years.
Over the past 161 years, it has produced numerous prominent personalities such as Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin, former United Nations secretary-general Kofi Annan, former Federal Reserve Bank chairman Ben Bernanke and Economics Nobel laureate Paul Krugman.
In addition, 41 astronauts have been affiliated with MIT.
As of December 2021, 98 Nobel laureates, 26 Turing Award winners, and eight Fields Medallists have been associated with MIT as alumni, faculty members or researchers.
This is not the first time Yen Wei will be going to study in the US.
He said when he went to the United World College (UWC) in New Mexico to take up the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme under a two-year scholarship from the Davis Foundation, he experienced culture shock initially.
“It was definitely a culture shock. The school there was much less strict than the schools in Malaysia. They have fewer rules for students and have more flexible schedules. The teachers are friendly. We don’t have a school uniform and that was one of the first things I noticed about the place.
“And in my school, there were a lot of people from different parts of the world. That was new and interesting to me. I got to meet people from different countries who come from different backgrounds and cultures.
“Overall, I adapted pretty quickly. It was not as hard as I expected because I already know the language.”
At UWC, besides being active in speech and debate competitions, he was involved with the students’ council, taking up a leadership role as a residential adviser.
Forest fires are also not uncommon in New Mexico.
“My school is in a rural area and we were evacuated twice this year. Actually, we wrote our final exam in the evacuation centre. I struggled and was stressed. I went to a boarding school and we did not know whether we could be allowed to go back. But I am really proud of myself for persevering and overcoming that struggle,” Yen Wei recalled.
Yen Wei has an elder sister, Devon, who is studying history at the University of Warwick in England.
Also present at the cheque presentation ceremony were Deputy Chief Minister II Prof Dr P. Ramasamy, state executive councillor Yeoh Soon Hin, Yen Wei’s parents, Danny Lew Park Leong and Chong Yueh Chin, and his debate and speech mentor Dr Rebecca Ow Phui San.
“In that area where he studied, there are a lot of forest fires every year. We were worried about his safety and how he would cope with his studies all on his own.
“We are proud, happy and relieved that he finally got through. In Malaysia, he received a number of scholarships but he chose UWC because he wanted to take the risk and challenge by studying there,” said Chong, who helps her husband Danny run a hair salon in Lorong Birch.
For Yen Wei’s mentor, Ow, she said she would encourage him to keep on learning.
“Apart from his academic achievement, he is also very stellar in his extra curriculum. He has two dozen of medals. He is a very accomplished debater, and very competitive in public speaking.
“I believe it is the soft skills and the ability to express his thoughts well that also helped him get an MIT scholarship apart from his academic excellence.
“As a teacher or mentor, I always believe that continuous learning or life learning is a very important journey.
“For the next phase in his life, be open-minded, explore, and don’t limit yourself in MIT as America is a land of opportunities and land of possibilities.
“So, my advice to him is to explore everything that you can on the campus. That is where you can get a foresight of what you will be or can be in the future. Whether for the community, for the country or for his career,” said Ow, a programme consultant with Penang Science Cluster.
Story by K.H. Ong
Pix by Law Suun Ting
Video by Ahmad Adil Muhamad