True grit and determination
Partially blind student wins USM Gold Medal Award
GEORGE TOWN: Being partially blind is no hindrance to Felicia Pui in her academic pursuits.
The 24-year-old scored a CGPA of 3.76 for her degree in English and won the Gold Medal Award as the best disabled final year student at Universiti Sains Malaysia.
“I am grateful for being chosen as the recipient this year.
“There are definitely challenges for someone with disabilities, but I put in a lot of effort, be it in life or my studies.
“I am not completely blind and can see light and colours.
“I have been this way since birth but I never looked at it as something that would bring me down.
“I have overcome this unavoidable circumstance,” she said at a press conference held to announce this year’s special awardees at the university yesterday.
With Felicia was her younger sister Andrea, 23, who is also partially blind.
“Andrea’s vision is slightly better than mine but we both use the same method to study.
“We did the same course but minored in different subjects.
“We studied using soft copies, where we downloaded an app that read out the notes for us,” she said, adding that the family moved to Penang from Sarawak in 2011.
Felicia, who majored in translation, said she would like to pursue a master’s degree in the same field.
Andrea, on the other hand, would like to further her studies in music or the French language.
Mechanical engineering student Alexander Tan, 24, received the Royal Education Award in the non-bumiputra category.
He thanked his mother for single-handedly raising him since he was four years old.
“My mother has just recovered from a stroke four years ago. It affected the left side of her body.
“When she first had the stroke, it was a struggle for both of us.
“She worked hard on her rehabilitation and made it easier for me to go to university.
“I’m really happy to have graduated and to receive the award,” said Tan, who used to work as a relief teacher during his holidays to make ends meet.
Tan’s mother Ng Kim Looi, 57, said she was proud of her son’s achievement.
“He has always worked hard and still found time to care for me.”
USM vice-chancellor Prof Datuk Dr Asma Ismail said 6,338 USM graduates will be getting their scrolls during the 57th convocation ceremony this year.
“In conjunction with our 50th anniversary, we will be holding a commemorative convocation, where we will confer the Chancellor’s Sustainability Award to Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
“We will also confer an honorary doctorate of Sports Science to Datuk Nicol David and an honorary doctorate of Science to Nobel prize winner Dr Shuji Nakamura, among others,” she said.