Amplify SMU in Southeast Asia with a new Exchange Award
More of Southeast Asia needs to know about SMU, and SMU alumni are the ones to make it happen.
That’s according to alumnus Tee Yock Siong (BBM and BSc (Econ), 2006), who has just established an endowed gift, the SMU Southeast Asia Exchange Award, which will provide one award annually – in perpetuity – to full-time undergraduates from Southeast Asian universities to come to SMU on an exchange programme to learn more about our University.
“My time at SMU was enriching, compelling, and unforgettable. It really had an impact on how I approached life.”
Sharing this experience with young people from Southeast Asia, he feels, will improve SMU’s standing and reputation in the region.
“I’ve found that – compared with other older universities in Singapore – not enough people in Southeast Asia know about SMU. This needs to change. I’m confident that visiting students who spend their semester at SMU will have a full experience; we provide them with an Award that will defray their costs so they can focus on their experience and make friends, and then hopefully they’ll become positive ambassadors for SMU when they return to their home countries.”
‘Go out there and get it’
As one of the pioneering batches of SMU graduates, Yock Siong admits, “I wasn’t the best student. But as SMU was a new University at the time; we had to learn to be very independent and take the initiative, whether we wanted funding for our clubs, or to present our case for resources.”
“We had to go out there and get it.”
If more young people knew about Singapore and SMU beyond their own countries, he reckons, this is a good thing. Yock Siong spent an exchange semester at the University of Virginia in the US, an experience he says ‘opened his eyes’ to the world beyond Singapore.
He wants to encourage fellow alumni to join him in this effort, and has made an endowed contribution of S$50,000 to start the ball rolling.
“It’s about us – SMU alumni – working together to achieve the goal of improving SMU’s standing and reputation in Southeast Asia. The more we contribute to the Southeast Asia Exchange Award, the more students we can bring to SMU on exchange, and the more we make an impact on the region as a result.”
Join Yock Siong in amplifying SMU in the region.
The SMU Southeast Asia Exchange Award is targeted at full-time undergraduates from Southeast Asian universities seeking a semester-long exchange programme to SMU. By defraying the costs of the student's stay in Singapore, the Award aims to enable Southeast Asian undergraduates to fully experience an SMU quality of education for that semester, so that they can share more positively about SMU when they return home.
“It’s about us – SMU alumni – working together to achieve the goal of improving SMU’s standing and reputation in Southeast Asia. Join me - Support the SMU Exchange Award today!”
Tee Yock Siong (BBM and BSc (Econ), 2006)
