My name is Esther Kee Mei Ting. I am from Sarawak and currently studying in Bachelor of Electronic – Mechatronic Engineering at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM). I am privileged to be selected as one of PFF 2019 scholars.

Why is PFF important to me? My parents were never given a shot at having an education beyond tertiary education. They were never given an opportunity to show their full potential and make a difference in the world. At a young age, watching my loved one’s struggle and not being able to do anything about it was difficult for me. That is why this scholarship is important to me. This scholarship has helped my family reduce the financial burden of paying for my university expenses.

The PFF scholarship is not only a recognition of my hard work but also acts as an encouragement for me to always give my best in everything that I do and never give up on my goals.

I believe I deserve this scholarship as it helps me to achieve my long-term goals. By furthering my education in Mechatronics Engineering, I can work towards my career goal in the engineering field. I aim to contribute for technological innovations that can make a difference in my community, and this scholarship has certainly helped me by affording my education.

I am honoured and thankful to be selected as one of the PFF scholars. It is indeed a privilege to be chosen as one of the PFF scholars, and I am more than happy to share my experiences here.

As a PFF scholar, I get to join conferences via online due to the current state of COVID situation that is prevailing in our nation. One of the webinar sessions that I joined was titled “Onwards & Upwards: Explore New Careers”. The webinar gave students a chance to get close with Penang’s Industry Leaders from ViTrox, Intel and so on. This webinar has given me insights on ways I can advance my career in Penang. The leaders also shared their experiences in the industry in regards to their obstacles and how they managed to overcome it.

To constantly challenge and improve myself, I participated in the UTM ROBOCON Team that was established by the university in my first and second year. In my first year, UTM Robocon team won the first runner-up and best engineering award in the 2019 Malaysia competition. In my second year, I have made additional improvements taking the role of being a secretary for the UTM ROBOCON team.

Besides joining UTM Robocon team, I also participated other robotic competitions. The most memorable one would be the Johor Impact Challenge that was organized by CREST during the year 2019. My team and I successfully won the C\championship in that competition and proceed to next phase, which was The Great Lab Grand Design Challenge, University Level 2019 in USM, Penang.

As of now I have yet to have an opportunity to experience working in Penang that promotes ‘My Penang, My Workplace”. However, currently I am applying for an internship position to work in Penang. I look forward to working in Penang and believe that Penang will have a lot of great opportunities for students and fresh graduate to grow.

Technology has positively affected human life from antiquity until now by solving problems associated with everyday life and making it easier for different tasks to be completed.  After I complete my studies, I hope to be able to contribute to the society through technological innovations that can elevate the quality of life.

My advice to those who want to apply for PFF 2021 is to go for your goal, believe in yourself that you can do it and make sure that you are always prepared to give your best.

Watch the video to know more Patrick’s journey as a PFF Scholar and his experience working with Penang’s industry!

https://fb.watch/683cZUCwUC/

Penang Future Foundation (PFF) is a scholarship program awarded by the Penang State Government to Malaysians who are pursuing their undergraduate studies in Malaysia. I am one of the lucky students that have been selected to receive this illustrious scholarship. I am delighted to be given such an opportunity as it will ease my family’s financial burden while I pursue my undergraduate degree in UTM’s Bachelor of Electrical Engineering.

This scholarship means a lot to me as it allows me to have a better focus on my academic and achieving my goal of being financially independent. In addition, all the countless hours and efforts that I have invested to improve myself everyday has made this scholarship even sweeter. On top of that, this scholarship allows me a greater chance to be involved in Penang’s renowned industrial hub. I trust that by receiving this scholarship, it will spur me with the motivation and a sense of higher responsibility to continue achieving greater things in life.

I went through an uphill of challenges growing up and that has shaped me to what I am today. It is my earnest hope that I will be able contribute in developments of products that will benefit the society in their everyday life. It is important to play our part as citizens in accelerating the nation’s development and to improve the standard of living in our country. Personally, I encourage students to apply for this scholarship as I believe there is endless possibilities for us to develop and achieve our personal goals. Patience is always the key to success and good things come to those who wait. I stand by the quote that “There is always a rainbow after the rain falls”, and one should never be afraid in making mistakes or in facing failures as lessons learnt from the mistakes or failures will make us a better person.

I would like to express my gratitude towards the Penang State Government for its Penang Future Foundation (PFF). It has been an honour to receive the scholarship award from PFF that is assisting me financially in my academic pursuit. This is especially meaningful as I am the first person in the family to pursue tertiary education.

The scholarship is important to me in many ways. Coming from a single- parent family with financial difficulties, pursuing studies in private university requires a lot of financial assistance, including loan and tuition fee waiver. However, these measures did not provide sufficient monetary aid to cover the remaining tuition fees as my mother, my pillar of strength has reached her retirement in the private sector with no pension received for her sunset years. Living off savings, PFF scholarship has provided me the opportunity to continue my degree study without financial worries by paying off the remaining tuition fees. Furthermore, the scholarship that comes with living allowance has enabled me to take a step back from part-time jobs and fully concentrate on my studies. Moreover, one of the criteria of the scholarship is to maintain good academic results. Therefore, this has become part of my motivation and has significantly made me realize the importance of maintaining strong academic grades.

I have never stopped myself from continuously pursuing goals to achieve my career path. Even though living in financially harsh environment, I have been managing my time and spirit well to work while studying and have achieved great results. Results aside, PFF encourages scholars to contribute their talents and expertise in Penang. I enthusiastically support this objective as Penang is well-known for its expanding industrial zones and home for multiple international companies.

As one of the selected PFF scholars, I feel honoured and proud of receiving this opportunity. Beside the mentioned financial assistance given by PFF, my experience as a PFF scholar so far has been greatly rewarding. I want to give a special shout-out to the PFF secretariat members who are always ready to assist in any matter relating to the scholarship.

Separately, one of the personal achievements that made me proud is my academic achievement in my final year project. Thanks to implementing new technical knowledge that was not academically taught in my course, my supervisor saw the potential of the project and has proposed for me to participate in the Innovate Malaysia 2021 competition. I am currently participating in the competition in a group formed by the lecturer, allowing me to be more exposed and experienced in competitions relating to my technical field. I am also proud in developing my know-hows as a part-time programmer. As the co- founder of the company’s mobile app and involved in the start-up and maintenance of an application that is currently up in Google Play Store, this episode has provided me with opportunities to learn, grow, and gain experience from the projects.

Working in Penang has always been my first and only choice. As a Penangite myself, I look forward to play my part in contributing my knowledge, technical skills, and labour to make Penang better than it already is. For interested students, grab this opportunity and apply for the PFF scholarship! Your future is Penang’s future.

PFF scholarship has given me immense benefits in all the ways it could present itself. To me, being a PFF scholar is extremely crucial as it mainly helped me to reduce my mother’s burden in providing financial assistance for my education. As a single parent and a mother of three, helping her by attaining this scholarship has reduced our financial worries in so many ways. Growing up, I have always dedicated my time and passion towards education. When I was in high school, I came across the famous saying by Nelson Mandela that states “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world”. That impactful saying inspired me to pursue education in the means of making a change for the betterment of the world. With that in mind, I focused in giving my best to ensure that I gain the knowledge taught with the utmost respect and understanding towards it.

As I progressed, my beloved teacher introduced this scholarship to me while I was pursuing my undergraduate studies. With my situation and potential in mind, she encouraged me to apply for this scholarship. As applying for scholarships also means that you have to be prepared for the rejections, I gave it a go by reminding myself that trying is always better than being hesitant about it despite the results. To my disbelief, I received a callback for the interview and that day was definitely a turning point in my life. Up till now, my education journey has always included the experience of leading and mentoring which taught me that inspiration given in the form of education to the people around you that needs it, is an extreme blessing. This scholarship has reinforced my purpose in ensuring that my potential and talent are used for the betterment of my state, Penang. Keeping that goal in mind, that I am here to serve a purpose, has made my journey so far thrilling and fun.

Being selected as one of the PFF scholars made me feel extremely blessed and grateful. I always remind myself that this award that is honored to me has to be put to good use by ensuring that my expertise is used to assist my state in strengthening the economy down the road. My experience as a PFF Scholar has been amazing so far as I was able to attend the events organized by Penang Future Foundation such as the Press Conference for the presentation of the PFF Scholarship Award and the webinar titled “Onwards & Upwards: Explore New Careers #1”. Interesting subjects were discussed such as the discovery of new job opportunities and advancements of careers in Penang. Such insights definitely gave a bigger picture on how the industries in Penang work.

Besides this award, I’m proud of being the recipient of “Tokoh Murid” award in primary school, representing Malaysia in the Youth Environment Forum held in Singapore, being a two time gold award winner in the Malaysian Young Inventors Olympiad, receiving the Pride of School award for the achievements gained in the field of music, business and innovation that was organized at international, national and state levels, emerging as champion in a videography competition organized by the Federal Government of Austria, and also recently championing the Avant Garde Competition organized by my university. I’m also currently chosen as Microsoft Learn Student Ambassador that aims to network and connect with a global community including students and Microsoft employees around the world to gain experience working with the team to equip us with leadership skills and share knowledge and expertise with the community around us.

My intention right after completing my studies is to return to Penang to work in one of the prominent industries that aims to maximize the potential of data that will identify new opportunities to increase profit which will create a more efficient environment in return. I aspire to use my knowledge in Data Analytics to help the society solve some of the most crucial issues that could help to fulfill the goals for sustainable development. My advice to all the aspiring students who could possibly be future scholars of PFF is to never hesitate to apply and stay positive throughout the journey! As Jonas Salk once said, “The reward for work well done is the opportunity to do more.” Grab this chance to work towards a better future!