Professor Dr. Steven H. Mellema is not a stranger in Malaysia when he accompanied a group of 12 exchange students from Gustavus Adolphus College (GAC), Minnesota, United States, participating in the first multidisciplinary one-semester programme by Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM).

It is because Steven came to Malaysia for the first time as a Peace Corps volunteer in 1972 and had made many trips here over the years, including taking a Malaysian wife as well.

“I was a teacher in Kelantan, teaching physics and chemistry at Sekolah Menengah Kamil in Pasir Putih,” he said. “Those were the days when the education system was switching over from English to Bahasa Malaysia and I taught only in Bahasa.”

After spending two years there, Steven continued on at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia with four others to teach kursus matrikulasi (matriculation course) which was then at an experimental stage.

“Instead of being a teacher I was given the job of a curriculum development officer,” he said, explaining that they became a liaison between the faculty and the teachers in secondary schools.

He was yearning to go back to the classrooms and the students. Upon completion, he requested an extension for the fourth year so that he could return to Sekolah Menengah Kamil. The Education Ministry approved and thus he was back in Kelantan in 1975 for a year.

When his stint with Sekolah Menengah Kamil was over, he continued working for the Peace Corps, staying on for another two years as a teacher trainer, teaching Malay medium science teachers on technical education training.

Finally, in either late 1977 or early 1978, Steven returned to the United States where he pursued post graduate studies and was conferred his PhD in Physics by the Ohio University. He became a post-doctoral at the University of Wisconsin for two years. His current posting is as a professor at the Gustavus Adolphus College (GAC) where he served for 29 years.

His story with Malaysia continued with him married to a Malaysian and they came back whenever they could as they were busy raising the kids. It was then he reflected on what he could contribute to Malaysia. He remembered attending a teacher’s workshop in 1975 at Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) when he was working for a short period of time in the United Kingdom (UK).

“I know that USM has a big School of Physics and I decided to drop by to see if I can meet anyone,” he said, adding that he went by a taxi to the School of Physics and met the Dean and his deputy, Prof Dr. Ahmad Shukri Mustapa Kamal at the Dean’s office. Dato’ Prof. Dr. Ahmad Shukri is now the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic and International Affairs) of USM.

In the ensuing discussion, they invited Steven to teach in USM during his sabbatical leave which happened to be in two years’ time. Thus he seized the chance to be a visiting lecturer from 1995 to 1996.

“We get our sabbatical once every seven years and I took the opportunity to apply again, this time to the Fulbright Foundation where I was given a Fulbright Fellowship to return to Malaysia,” he said.

He yearned to spend half the time teaching and the other half on research and conducting workshop on physics education. It was because he knew that the old way of teaching physics is not the most effective way for a student to learn.

Again, he was in Penang for a semester – six months – at USM where he taught only one class and conducted workshops in Penang and other places including Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris at Tanjung Malim.

Steven said that he had brought a group of students from GAC on each of the three separate occasions.

“Our curriculum is very unusual as we have a Fall Semester and a Spring Semester but we have a January term,” he explained. “During the one-month term, students only take one class at a time, but having a very intense five-day week.”

Thus, he felt that this is the time to take them abroad and expose them to a country’s sociocultural environment. In 1990, the first group of 17 students came for a month; a group of 15 in 1991; 25 in 2004. Those visits were successful, yet he felt that the element of their immersion in the local culture was lacking because the groups were large and the students tend to interact with one another rather than with the locals.

“It is my belief that Malaysia’s multi-ethnic and multi-cultural society is a laboratory for the learning of many things,” said Steven, adding that he managed to convince the GAC Centre for International Culture Education (CICE) director to visit Malaysia in 2012 together with four other colleagues comprising a biologist, a historian, and professors of nursing and religions.

“There were many e-mails shuttling back and forth and Ajindar Kaur (Deputy Registrar of the Academic and International Affairs Division) coordinated with the School of Languages, Literacies and Translation, School of Humanities, School of Biological Sciences, and School of Social Sciences.  

There were worries if the students ever want to come to Malaysia because they are more familiar with England, Sweden and China. When the team of faculty members returned from their trip impressed, they tried to recruit students from the biology, history, religion and nursing courses.

Nineteen applied but they were screened to ensure that they are academically apt and are highly adaptable to the new climate and environment. Eventually, a dozen of the students were picked.

This group is the pioneer for the “A Semester in Malaysia” programme held at USM for the first time from 12 February to 30 May 2014 as a result of the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) signed between USM and GAC in February 2013.

Among the activities, the students had the opportunity to conduct studies at the mangrove swamp, visited Kuala Kangsar and its Royal Museum, and gave free tuition at Haji Romli Abu Bakar (a USM Deputy Registrar for Students Affairs and Development Division who retired 19 years ago) tuition centre.

There was much excitement among fellow course mates of the students who came here when they followed the activities posted on the social media such as Facebook and blogs back in the States.

Steven hoped that the success of “A Semester in Malaysia” will spawn more of these programmes in the coming years, perhaps on a yearly basis.

Text/Photos: Yong Check Yoon