PENANG, November 2015 – Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) has been the main choice for the family of the Chancellor’s Gold Medal recipient in the recent USM 52^nd Convocation, Yiauw Diing Sheng, 23, for higher tertiary education.

The Bachelors degree graduate in Mechanical Engineering said, his success in receiving the award was the result of his perseverance while being at USM, which is also as a reward for his parents, both whom are USM alumni members.

"Other than my father and mother, my younger brother too is studying here, and we hope that he would continue the legacy of success achieved so far," he said, while sharing about being an engineer as his childhood ambition.

He has held on to the principle of ‘study smart not hard’ and at the same time, ensuring that each new item taught by his lecturers would be clearly understood, and not just to memorise the lecture notes.

“Undoubtedly, a student has many responsibilities to shoulder, however there is the need for proper time management between the involvement in co-curricular activities and academics so as not to be left behind,” he said.

His father, Yiauw Jia Wey, 51, who is a USM alumni member in 1989 who did his studies in Physics, expressed his happiness in coming back to USM to witness his son’s success.

“USM is so special to me and my wife as this was where it all started, the place where we met and USM too was where we both studied and we earned our degrees,” said the manager of a factory in Johor Bharu.

He added, when their children were little, they were taken to visit USM as an encouragement for them to continue their studies at USM.

“We believe that USM is a university that is in a league of its own, other than it has a standing in being a university with the APEX status,” said the father of three.

Meanwhile, his mother, Foo Hui Wah, 52, considers Yiauw Diing Sheng’s success in receiving the Chancellor’s Gold Medal as a source of pride for the whole family.

“Ever since the children were little, they had never attended any extra classes; it was only the teachers at the primary and secondary schools whom we relied on for our children’s success, in addition to doing revisions at home and monitored by both of us,” she said, currently serving as an educator.

She also hopes that Diing Sheng would be the best example for his younger siblings to follow in his footsteps.

Text: Syuhada Abd Aziz