Alumni celebrate Chinese New Year with President

The 2021 Chinese New Year (CNY) is around the corner, however, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, physical activities and mass gathering have been put to a halt. But, this did not affect the spirit of UTAR alumni to celebrate this festive season together with the President. 

With the aim to build the bond between UTAR and its alumni as well as with the existing student reps, this year, the Department of Alumni Relations and Placement (DARP) staged another comeback with its first-ever “Virtual Chinese New Year Alumni Get Together with UTAR President 2021” via ZOOM on 5 February 2021. It was supported by the UTAR Alumni Association of Malaysia.

The event also aimed to disseminate information regarding the University and invite suggestions pertaining to alumni activities.

Nareesh welcoming the participants

Present at the celebration were UTAR President Ir Prof Dr Ewe Hong Tat, Vice President for Student Development and Alumni Relations Prof Dr Choong Chee Keong, UTAR Alumni Association President Koh Fook Huat, Alumni Association Council Members, alumni and staff. The online event was facilitated by DARP Assistant Manager Naaresh Arumugam.

Prof Ewe wishing everyone a Happy Chinese New Year

In his speech, Prof Ewe wished everyone a Happy Chinese New Year. He also took the opportunity to update the alumni on the progress of UTAR during the pandemic period. He said, “Two days before the MCO was announced, UTAR had actually moved completely towards online teaching and learning. It was an overnight decision because we had to ensure the safety of our staff and students. Throughout this period, we have monitored the situation from time to time and announcements were also updated via our Facebook page. We were surprised to find out that the students were actually coping very well during the challenging time. Throughout this pandemic, we have organised over one thousand and five hundred online short courses and webinars. We managed to attract more than seven hundred and fifty thousand participants. So this is one of the efforts by the University to see how we can contribute and share our knowledge with the public, students and alumni. Besides, we also have students who helped to produce and manufacture face shield and we managed to get sponsorship from donors so that we can distribute to the nearby hospitals.”

While introducing and highlighting the development of UTAR Hospital, he said, “Hopefully by this coming September, we will be able to offer Traditional and Complementary Medicine (TCM) services; Chinese Medicine first and also the counselling services at TCM Block. We have actually signed an MoU with the government of India. With their financial support, they are sending Ayurvedic Medicine Professors to UTAR. It is our pleasure to work together with them so that we could work out to offer better services on Ayurvedic Medicine. Moreover, our hospital project will also involve the staff quarter to accommodate those TCM practitioners and also nurses to stay overnight. As for the Western Block, probably by early next year, we estimate that the construction will be ready and hopefully after the middle of next year, we would be able to get everything done and we may start offering the medical services. The UTAR Hospital will also be used as a clinical training for our Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS), Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences (FMHS) as well as the Faculty of Science students.”

He then shared the future development of the hospital and said, “In future, we plan to have specialised cancer treatment such as Stem Cell Treatment in our hospital. On top of that, we also plan to have a teaching hospital. It is not only to better train our medical and health sciences students but also to conduct clinical research, so that we can use our hospital to do clinical trial to advance the knowledge in medical treatment, introduce the latest treatment methods and also provide specialist training.”

Meanwhile, he also expressed his gratitude to the students, staff and alumni for their continuous achievement to contribute to the society and community. Sharing the community project undertaken by UTAR namely, the UTAR CARE (Community And Voluntary Engagement) Programme which is catered to students who volunteer for the community services and to recognise their contribution. A testimony will be given for these volunteers. Other community projects involved Orang Asli villages, estate villages under the IOI Corporation and in future Malay villages as well. “We believed that all the training and exposures given are very important especially to prepare our students to face the challenges in the future and it is also important for their self-development,” said Prof Ewe.

On top of that, he also emphasised on the importance of developing a growth mindset and empathy. He said, “Nowadays, among the big gurus and also the successful entrepreneurs from the digital business, they always emphasise on this growth mindset and also empathy which can be found in the Silicon Valley. They believed a person with a growth mindset instead of treating something as a problem, they treat it as challenges, they are willing to face these challenges, they are willing to learn new things and overcome these challenges.  Moreover, in this era of Fourth Industrial Revolution, although we experience and are exposed to many new things and information in the world every day, the human touch is losing. So that is why successful entrepreneurs and many leaders in the world are urging us to focus on empathy. If we want to continue to prepare ourselves better, this is our time to think about it and believe in ourselves with the growth mindset and empathy to balance our development and make sure that we will continue to develop ourselves in our career and family.”

Koh

Koh, on the other hand, urged everyone to practise the new norm as we are confronting threats and combating the current issue, Covid-19. He reminded that each of us must be disciplined and follow the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) set by the government in order to fight for and break the chain of Covid-19 as it brought up a huge crisis in the world. He said, “This year although we may not be able to celebrate CNY with our family and loved ones, but we believed we may celebrate CNY everyday once we are able to control the spread of Covid-19. So, just be patient this year.”

He took the opportunity to honourably announce that he will step down from the position as the President of UTAR Alumni Association and humbly hand it over to the next leader. He also urged the participants to join the UTAR Alumni Association to contribute back to the alma mater and support the UTAR Hospital fund raising activities as well. He concluded his speeches by sending his auspicious greeting to the participants and wished them Gong Xi Fa Cai!

A short video clip introducing the establishment and development of UTAR Hospital

DARP asking alumni to complete the survey which was sent to the alumni email

To liven up the night, a quiz session was held. There were a total of three questions in the quiz session. In order to boost up the ambience and mood of the participants towards the event, a total of five sets of Chinese New Year “Angpow” Packets, four units of UTAR Alumni Bags and three units of special Chinese New Year T-shirts were given away to the winners who managed to answer the questions correctly.

Nareesh giving away Chinese New Year “Angpow” Packets, UTAR Alumni Bags and special Chinese New Year T-shirts to the winners

The event wrapped up with a group photo session. It was attended by more than 120 participants virtually.

Prof Ewe (second row, second from left) and Koh (second row, third from left) with participants

Group photo of staff and participants

UTAR alumni (clockwise, from top left) Jun Chong, Ang Vern Lynn and Nigell Hoh wishing everyone a Happy Chinese New Year!

For more information and updates on UTAR Hospital, kindly click here.

For contribution to UTAR, kindly click here or scan the bar code below: