I was born in Penang with wonderful childhood surrounded with different species of pets. I was the one who was rejected to enter nursery and kindergarten due to pre-matured status. I was one of the students who entered primary school without pre-primary education. Yes, I couldn’t count even at the age of four. It might be hard to believe but that was me. I am Wong Yee Hua. I am one of the fully sponsored scholars from the School of Pharmacy, International Medical University. Here is my story. Personally, I hold strongly to a Chinese proverb: 水滴石穿, which means with perseverance, goals will be achieved. So, with persistence, hard work and practice, I managed to become a full-fledged all A’s student in my primary, secondary and pre-university studies. I have been living away from my family since I was 12 as I had my secondary education in MRSM Transkrian. When I was studying my Pre-University studies in Kuala Lumpur, I started finding the best School of Pharmacy until I came across IMU. IMU is the one of the largest private medical school, which greatly appealed to me as I could even have medical field people as friends even before graduation. Hence, I decided to enrol here. I even turn down my existing scholarship to take an IMU scholarship in order to start my journey here. Of course, I am lucky and happy that I was awarded this scholarship. It was not easy for me. I took a bus all the way from Penang and took the LRT to IMU without my parents’ knowledge for the scholarship interview. At that time, IMU was very new to me and I had never been here before. From that experience onwards, I told myself that I created this opportunity by own efforts and would seize it and make the very best out of it. I started my Tertiary Education in International Medical University (IMU) in Bachelor of Pharmacy on September 2017. I am in my third year now. Why pharmacy, you may ask? I used to live with my grandmother when I was young. Seeing my grandmother take her pills every morning, I started to wonder: Will these make my grandma live longer? Why cannot just mix everything together and take just one pill? I had thousands of questions about the pills that were not being answered. I even crushed the pills and mixed all the creams together, which got me into big trouble. After reaching out to the community,I realised that that self-medication is very common. Even my own family members were lacking the awareness about medication. All of these were my starting point to enrol in the Pharmacy programme. 
Studying at IMU is hectic. It is the same for each course, not just Pharmacy. Nothing is easy, but I strongly believe that hard work will be paid off in the results that you reap, and thus I put my all into it. I learnt a lot during my journey as an IMU Scholar. When I first entered IMU, I started out by attempting to be a volunteer in various events. I learnt from the very basics on how things worked in IMU. Slowly, I stepped up to take main leadership positions in clubs and societies. From there, I experienced how to be an Event Organizer, Project Leader, as well as Vice President. Some of the events that I have organised are IMU Concert, TEDx IMU, Research Forum, IMU Ball, Educators Appreciation Week, IMU LIVE and much more. Whereas as project leader, I have led the Music for Children Project and Giving Vision. Both projects are community-based. I learnt a lot in terms of leadership, collaboration, event planning and some strategies in terms of publicising the event and some marketing skills. In event management, it was challenging because sometimes hard work did not pay off due to some complications not necessarily within my control, which went against the way I expected the world to work and I had to adjust accordingly. I also had the experience of being one of the student speakers in FIS Forum 2019 and School of Pharmacy Outreach November 2019. Organising and participating in events also allowed me the opportunity to apply some of my Pharmacy-based knowledge during the community-based projects. It made me eager to learn more in order to give back more.
| My Journey as a Student Representative |
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| After 2 years in IMU, I was approached to be part of the Student Representative Council (SRC). Seeing that this would be an excellent way to share my knowledge and guide the students, I tried my best in the election. Being the Secretary of Student Council, my very first role was to be the bridge between staff and students. Although most of my role involved mostly paperwork and a great deal of back end work, I always played my role well in relaying between and supporting the students and staff. I emphasize students’ feedback and try my very best to work a way out to help them together with my council team. Since SRC is the closest student leader organization to the management, we always try our best in listening to the students and attempt to request to the management based on students’ requests. A lot of people may think that being a student, getting good grades are more than enough. But for me, I involve myself in all these because I believe all these skill sets and knowledge are important for me in the future. |
From all these, I learnt that time management is the most crucial skill that I needed to have in order to balance between activities and academics. Yes, I burn midnight oil before exam alongside all my cohort mates. And my SRC duties can a handful sometimes. Altogether, I do have difficult times, but I utterly enjoy what I am doing now.
There are plenty of memorable moments that I spent with my friends of same cohort and people around me. I also have a student mentor who holds the title of Student Ambassador of the Year 2017/18 who has taught me all he knows about events and management. I strongly believe that one can be different by putting in more effort. About the planning of my future, I would first like to further my studies at the postgraduate level and after completing my studies, I would be more than happy to join the pharmaceutical industry. There is still a long journey to go and I am doing my very best in preparation for it. It was a pleasure to share my thoughts and story here. Related articles: First of its Kind: IMU Concert & Food Carnival 2019 IMU School of Pharmacy Students Invented New Ocular Drug Delivery System
