PRIME Students Meet Prime Minister
UCSD Undergraduates Visit Rural School and Encourage Children to Go to College
Cindy Tran | August 18, 2008
Cindy Tran and two fellow PRIME students pose with children in the village of Campo Belau.
The international scientific community has never before now come together to prevent a pandemic before the virus is even capable of spreading worldwide. I am currently conducting research on the Avian Flu H5N1 virus in Malaysia as part of UCSD’s Pacific Rim Experiences for Undergraduates program, also known as PRIME. It is exciting to be essentially competing with evolution!
When not doing research in the lab, we visit poor villages in rural areas on the weekends. We got up early one Saturday morning to go to Campo Belau, one of the villages on the mainland. Driving through a narrow, bumpy dirt road, we could see curious children poking their heads outside to see who we were. We found out that everybody knows one another within all the neighboring villages and we cheerfully greeted them in return by honking our horn.
What I experienced that day in the jungle was life-changing and has greatly altered my perception on the world, humanity and life. I once read that out of the 2.2 billion children in the world, one billion live in poverty. But to actually see it firsthand has been an unparalleled experience. It was heartbreaking to see so many innocent children living in poor conditions.
Tran (far right) and fellow PRIME students are welcome by the Malaysian prime minister (far left).
At only 4 to 8 years old, it truly amazes me that they are all so eager to learn that they will walk to school on a Saturday, rain or shine! Their school consists of just a couple of tables and chairs in the middle of a tropical jungle. In the US, many children at this age eagerly await snack time or recess and take for granted the opportunities they have.
These kids have so much potential and Vicky, Ranmali and I (the three PRIME students here in Malaysia) are trying to encourage them to pursue higher education. They were all very excited to learn that we were from the University of California San Diego. They asked us, "How did you get to go to UCSD?" Our answer was hard work, determination, and perseverance.
We hope to keep visiting the village on weekends so we can help spark an interest in learning and inspire them to pursue their dreams. I hope to convey to them that having a passion is the greatest motivating factor that exists and is all you need to achieve success in life. And that is really the beauty of America: the fact that you can have absolutely nothing, yet the opportunity to achieve absolutely everything.
Tran and fellow PRIME students pose with Malaysian co-wokers at the Durian Waterfall on Langkawi Island.
Unexpectedly, later that same day I had the opportunity of a lifetime. We attended a scholarship ceremony at another university with our host mentor, Dr. Habibah Wahab. To my amazement, we afterwards met Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi! I shook his hand and he even stopped to talk to us for a few minutes. He welcomed us to Malaysia and I also shook hands with Malaysian First Lady Jeanne Abdulla. I was later informed that we are, in fact, incredibly lucky because few native Malays have had this next-to-impossible opportunity and we did. I honestly do not think anything can top this unbelievable experience but who knows what the next four weeks will bring!
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Cindy Tran does research in Penang, one of Malaysia's states . |
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