USM Edu Community

AN engineering undergraduate who received an IJM scholarship for RM10,000 this year said that the award was timely and a blessing to him.

Wong Hon Sern, whose mother was diagnosed with cancer recently, said the scholarship would lessen his parents’ financial burden, as they need not worry about setting aside a sum for his education and could instead use their savings for his mother’s medical treatment.

In his speech, Wong who is pursuing mechanical engineering in Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (Utar), reiterated that the RM10,000 award was a wonderful gift. The amount will be given to him annually until he completed his four-year course.

Dr S. Subramaniam presenting the scholarship to Wong. Looking on are Wan Abdul Rahman (left) and Tan.

The scholarship award covers fields of study such as Civil, Mechanical, Chemical and Electrical Engineering, Accounting, Housing, Building & Planning, Quantity Surveying, Applied Sciences, Economics, Business Administration, Material Science and Geology

Each recipient will not only get RM10,000 per annum but will also be privileged to start his career with IJM Corporation and its subsidiaries, with a senior IJM staff as a mentor.

In handing out the awards, Human Resources Minister Datuk Dr S. Subramaniam urged the recipients to achieve even greater academic excellence.

He said the government had always placed emphasis on developing the education and training system and had earmarked RM44.6bil under the Ninth Malaysia Plan for this.

Subramaniam said: “The scholarship awards are a good example of the private sector heeding the government’s call to contribute towards nation building through their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programmes,” he said.

“IJM’s CSR efforts in the areas of education, social welfare and sports development and its continuous efforts to nurture an educated and skilled workforce are to be lauded.”

Subramaniam also lauded the corporation for making efforts to bridge the gap between the academic and the corporate worlds by providing undergraduates the opportunity to undergo industrial training at its premises during the semester breaks.

“Besides providing practical working experience, this exposure will no doubt give you a head start upon your graduation as well as help you assimilate into the company quickly and comfortably,” he said.

IJM Corporation chief executive officer and managing director Datuk Krishnan Tan, in his speech, said the awarding of these scholarships was very much in line with its objective of developing and nurturing bright and young Malaysian talents into capable leaders for the future.

He said IJM had been offering scholarships to deserving students for the last 14 years and many of the past recipients currently hold important positions such as project managers, contract managers, accountants and senior engineers in IJM.

The other recipients were R. Devendran (USM), Goh Siong Por (Multimedia), Mohd Azizan A. Bakar (UIA), and Wong Khai Joe (UM) in accounting, Ang Guo Ming (USM), Chia Yaw Kwan (UPM) and Raja Adeliza Raja Ismail Mokhtar (UM) in Chemical Engineering, Karyati Hazirah Kamaruddin (UTM), Lim Suegin (Universiti Tenaga Malaysia), Mohd Azrani Che Him (UTM), Muhammad Ashraff Ismail and Muhammad Nazree Zulkiflee (Universiti Teknology Mara) and Vun Siew Fui (Universiti Malaya Sabah) in Civil Engineering, Alexander J. Chung Tshun Loong (UPM), Mohd Adnan Omar and Syukor Taufiq Md Yasin, (Universiti Teknologi Mara), P. Rajan (USM), and Wong Hon Sern (UTAR) in mechanical engineering, Keira Cheong Kai Pei (USM) and Tan Choon Boon (UTM) in quantity surveying.