Adeline is first to get SEJ scholarship
Student relieved family’s financial burden lifted
PETALING JAYA: Adeline Gooi Su Ping was very delighted when she found out that she was the first recipient of the Soo Ewe Jin Scholarship.
“Dad, I got the scholarship,” she told her father Gooi Boon Khim excitedly after receiving the phone call from a Star Education Fund representative.
The scholarship was set up in April this year under the umbrella of the Star Education Fund and Yayasan Universiti Sains Malaysia in memory of Soo Ewe Jin who passed away due to cancer last November.
Soo’s column “Sunday Starters” in Sunday Star had a large fan base throughout the years, and touched the lives of many with its strong message of compassion, kindness and charity.
Adeline said the scholarship helped lift her family’s financial burden, and “it was an instant relief for me”.
She shared that her youngest brother is autistic, and as such his treatment and education can be costly.
Adeline added that her mother, who had to stay at home to look after her 19-year-old brother, would sell kuih to supplement the family’s income.
The second-year journalism student at Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) will receive RM5,000 per semester until she finishes her four-year course.
Adeline said she chose to pursue journalism as she is passionate about unveiling injustices in the world.
“We are born equal but we are not treated equally” is one of the themes she highlighted in her scholarship essay.
USM deputy vice-chancellor (Student Development and Alumni) Prof Datuk Dr Adnan Hussein said Adeline “really outshone the 10 applicants”.
Soo’s wife Angeline Lim said she, together with the interview committee, were impressed with Adeline’s application and interview.
“It has been so fulfilling for me to see the SEJ Scholarship programme taking off, and the inaugural award being presented to Adeline,” she added.
The scholarship will sponsor one undergraduate every year pursuing a Bachelor in Communication (Journalism) degree at USM, which is renowned for producing top-notch journalists.
Star Media Group managing director and chief executive officer Datuk Seri Wong Chun Wai said: “It is our hope that through this scholarship, deserving scholars will be among the socially conscious individuals, hence infusing a generation of journalists with moral fibre who will speak up against injustices and fight for the disadvantaged in society.”
Wong also thanked the Star Education Fund’s 29 partners-in-education for their unwavering support.
“Let me express my heartfelt gratitude to all our partners for their tremendous support and generous contributions to the Star Education Fund,” he said.
A total of 176 students received their scholarship awards from the fund’s partners during the presentation ceremony yesterday.
See full report in StarEducate this Sunday.