American Degree Transfer Program Celebrates Thanksgiving

Sunway University’s Centre for American Education (CAE) in its annual Thanksgiving and Awards Ceremony hosted guests from the U.S. Embassy in Kuala Lumpur, the Industrial Advisory Board and American Degree Transfer Program (ADTP) alumni. Present at the ceremony was YAM Tunku Zain Al-‘Abidin ibni Tuanku Muhriz, trustee of the Jeffrey Cheah Foundation who was recently appointed as Adjunct Teaching Fellow at CAE.

Long standing partners Sunway and WMU strengthen ties

Sunway University was proud to welcome the President of Western Michigan University (WMU), Dr. John M. Dunn at a jointly organized WMU alumni dinner, recently as part of the Sunway Education Group’s 25th Anniversary celebrations this year. This was Dr Dunn’s first visit to Sunway University.

Sunway University and Western Michigan have been partners for 25 years and Western Michigan University was Sunway’s first transnational twinning partner in 1987. Five Resident Directors from WMU served at Sunway in the past, for a total of 16 years. Sunway was the only Malaysian institution at one time to have a Resident Director from an American University.

Dr Dunn with some of the alumni who attended the dinner

11 Sunway ADTP students receive WMU scholarship

11 Sunway University American Degree Transfer (ADTP) students walked away with scholarships from Western Michigan University (WMU) totalling up to USD 108,000 recently. Ling Jin Yew received a scholarship worth USD 16,000 to pursue Aviation Flight Science in WMU while Arafat Bin Mahabub received a scholarship worth USD 14,000 to pursue his studies in Industrial and Entrepreneurial Engineering. The other recipients are Rachel Zhi En Choe, Tan Sze Yan and Abdullah Faisal Al-Gefry who each received a scholarship worth USD 14,000 while Priya Ramakrishnan, Nguyen Phoung Hai Quynh and Blessing Itayi Chindomu received a scholarship worth USD 8,000 each. A scholarship worth USD 4,000 was awarded to Low Jia Sheng, Leong Wei Teng and Tan Sim Yee. 24 Sunway ADTP students were also accepted in to WMU for the fall 2012 semester.

Sunway ADTP scholars with Western Michigan University President, Dr John M Dunn after the scholarship ceremony.

57 Sunway ADTP students for Dean’s List

57 outstanding students from the Sunway University American Degree Transfer Programme (ADTP) made the Dean’s list recently. The August to December 2011 semester students produced 15 Summa Cum Laude achievers, 14 of whom scored 4.0 in their GPA with one who scored 3.97 GPA. The Summa Cum Laude which means “with highest honours” is a Latin phrase often used to recognise academic excellence at an undergraduate level.

Additionally, 24 students achieved the “Magna Cum Laude” (high honours) which is for 3.70 to 3.89 GPA along with 18 other students who qualified for Cum Laude (with honour) for being in the 3.50 to 3.69 range.

The Dean’s List Recipients with their certificates.

Sunway ADTP Student’s Mini-Production First Attempt but Huge Success

The Sunway American Degree Transfer Programme (ADTP) students may be from different areas of study but when they put their heart and soul to performing, they deliver as a team. The Introduction to Theatre students, an elective offered by the ADTP came up with a mini-production consisting of three plays from an array of genres and gave their audience a brilliant production recently.

The 200 spectators that witnessed the play saw three mini-productions including a classic by Harold Pinter called ‘The Room’, a re-enactment of ‘Fatal Beatings’ by Rowan Atkinson and an original called ‘Stairway to Heaven’ by David Chia, a Sunway ADTP student.

Koh Weng Hong playing Mr Kidd in “The Room” directed by Choy Chuu Khai.

A brighter future for 48 Sunway ADTP Students

48 outstanding achievers from Sunway American Degree Transfer Programme (ADTP) made the Dean’s list recently. The August to December semester students produced 10 Summa Cum Laude achievers, 9 of which scored 4.0 in their GPA and 1 who scored 3.91 in his GPA. The Summa Cum Laude which means “with highest honours” when translated is a Latin phrase often used to recognize academic excellence at an undergraduate level.

Chin Kah Men, a Summa Cum Laude achiever receiving her certificate.

Dexter Shee Zhen Rong, a Summa Cum Laude achiever receiving his certificate.

Sunway Thrills the Night Away

The students of Sunway University College’s American Degree Transfer Program (ADTP) unleashed their creativity and artistic talents as they crept into Halloween reigning terror on all present during the Halloween Night. The students gave their all as they put together a Halloween night that emphasized fun and games while maintaining a good heart. Themed the Paranormal Halloween Night with tickets priced at RM 90 each, all proceeds went to Vivekananda Home in Rembau, Negeri Sembilan.

As students made their way through the venue at a hotel in Subang Jaya, they were greeted with a handful of emotions as a world of mystique unfolded around them. As fog illuminated the atmosphere, Sunway students got into their characters with their stunning costumes and thrilled the night away.

Sunway ADTP students dressed to kill during the Halloween Night, photographed by Joseph Low, a Sunway Biomedical/Chemistry student.

RM11,000 raised by Chinese and China students of Sunway for Sichuan quake victims

The devastating earthquake that tore Sichuan, China on May 12, measuring more than 8 on the Richter scale resulted in a death toll in the tens of thousands while those who survived are struggling to rebuild what’s left of their lives.

This grim scenario prompted the Chinese Cultural Society (local Chinese students) and the China Students Association (students from China) of Sunway University College to organise a donation drive for the Sichuan quake victims from 20 – 23 May at the cafeteria. A student in the American Degree Transfer Programme in Sunway, Darren Wang from China, did his part by selling his awe-inspiring Chinese brush paintings. Wang a graduate of the Guangsi Fine Arts Institute and Qinghua University is an accomplished artist who is a master in the art of Chinese brush painting. He made a brisk sale of his masterpieces and donated all proceeds to the Sichuan victims.

A concert by the students on 23 May added some soothing entertainment as they and their lecturer advisors took to the stage with a mixture of Cantonese, Mandarin and English songs. A total of RM11,115.00 was collected and the students arranged to channel the much-needed funds to the quake victims through World Vision in Malaysia and the Chinese Embassy in Malaysia equally. Ms Elizabeth Lee, Executive Director presented the cash to the two organisations after the concert.

A committee member of the Chinese Cultural Society, Adrian Tok said “I felt proud to help out. We heard so much about the suffering of the quake victims and the situation was becoming worse and worse and I am very happy to be a part of this effort to help the Sichuan quake victims”.

The lecturer advisors to the students were Ms Mandy Wong, Mr Chong Chin Yoon and Mr Michael Moey. Sunway University College has attracted international students from over sixty countries. Students from China are one of the highest international groups at Sunway.

The International Students Office at Sunway which looks after all international students assisted another group of students to collect RM3,000.00, 3 big boxes of baked beans and a large bundle of clothes which were sent to Mercy Malaysia through The Star Publications to help the Myanmar Cyclone victims earlier.

Sharpening their wits for a “classy” debate

The students in the Pacific Rim Asian Studies class in the American Degree Transfer Program (ADTP) at Sunway were given a unique assignment: to prepare for a Grand Debate, by pitting all they had learnt in class into a war of words. The marks for this went towards their final year end mark.

The 24 students of the class came from Malaysia, Indonesia, Nigeria, Bangladesh, USA, Kenya and Korea and were divided into debating teams of 6 students per team. There were three frontline debaters and three “backup” researchers. The debate was in the British parliamentary style and there were two rounds. The top two best teams of the preliminary round went on to the final round which was held recently at Sunway. The debate motion in the final round was “This House believes that the 21st century will be the Pacific Asian century”

 

The two groups drew lots 24 hours before the debate to decide on their positions, if they were the proposition or the opposition. This stretched the teams to sharpen their arguments in a short time which made the debate edgy. The audience was made up of Sunway students and staff who came eagerly to watch the verbal banter delivered by the students.

All the proposition team debaters were from Malaysia and the opposition was made up of two Indonesians and a Kenyan. There was a rose among them, the only female debater, Nurfizny Ramdhani, who was from Indonesia. The chairperson was Nigerian student Nwankwo Alexander Chiedozie who awed the audience with a crisp delivery of his thoughts on the debate. Fellow classmate Diana Udodirim Nwakanma, also from Nigeria was a lively Mistress of Ceremonies.

It was a debate which allowed the unique style of each debater to show through. This was followed by a 40 minute Q&A session between the audience and the debaters. The Chief Judge was Datuk Professor Dr Khoo Kay Kim, Professor Emeritus of the Department of History, Universiti Malaya. Professor Khoo shared “I was impressed with the standard of the debate and also the multinational flavor of the ADTP which made the faculty vibrant and lively” He added “The Pacific Rim Asian Studies course here is a good starting point for an Asian Studies Centre. We need to understand Asia from the perspective of Asians and not necessarily from a westerner’s viewpoint”

The winning team was the opposition team and the best debater was Mark Nathaniel Barki from Indonesia. The winning team was unanimously decided hands down by the team of three judges.

Dr Anindita Dasgupta, the senior lecturer of the Pacific Rim Asian Studies said “This testing of the students’ knowledge in front of a live audience encouraged analytical thinking and boosted confidence. More importantly, the students learnt to defend their arguments which will come in useful as they will be expected to do so in real life”.

A Glimpse Of Students' Lifestyle In America @ Sunway University College

In conjunction with Sunway University College’s two decade long partnership with Western Michigan University (WMU), Sunway held ‘The American Week’ to offer students a taste of life as a student in the United States of America.

Dr. Timothy Greene, Dean of College of Engineering and Applied Sciences and Mr Bill Woods, Associate Dean, Diether H. Hanicke, Institute for Global Education, both from WMU came specially to launch the event. The launch saw a WMU alumnus, Brian John Yim performing a song and a dance performance by the students of Western Michigan University.

Professor Jarlath Ronayne, Vice Chancellor of Sunway University College shared his thoughts on Sunway University College and Western Michigan University partnership.

“The partnership between Sunway University College and Western Michigan University has been an enduring one as together we’ve surpassed many challenges and milestones in the last 20 years. We are very proud and honoured to be a partner of WMU” shared Professor Jarlath.

Mr. Bill Woods reciprocated Sunway University College’s appreciation of the partnership and said “WMU has always welcomed and looked forward to receiving Sunway students as they have usually been great students and were regularly on the Dean’s List. Sunway has prepared their students well for WMU”.

The much anticipated American Week will see a host of programmes held between 22nd – 27th October providing students the opportunity to learn more about an American students’ lifestyle.

Among the programmes organized are 3 on 3 basketball tournaments, American book display, Halloween Costume Night, Theatre Performance, Exhibition by Lincoln Center, an Academic Forums, talks by established individuals from Western Michigan University, General Electric Aviation Services and the American Embassy.

At the launch, American Degree Transfer Program alumni shared their experiences with the students. Testimonies of a students’ life in the United States of America was much appreciated by the students as it helped them manage their expectations and assisted them in preparing for studying and living in America.

Students who are enrolled in the American Degree Transfer Program are also allowed to apply to other universities in the US other than Western Michigan University.