Future Plans: A career in social work

Attachment 3 -- CURRICULUM VITAE

Future Plans

For the past three years, I have been both a finance executive and a social worker. I have enjoyed and learnt from both experiences. Now, I see these two merging in my future career. I want to pursue an MBA in management, specializing in nonprofit management to help me achieve my goal of running a non-profit organization (NPO) for the under-privileged (orphans, problem teenagers, drug addicts, people with disabilities, etc.).

University

I graduated in 1992 from the University of Texas, Austin, double majoring in Accounting and Finance. During my 3-year college life, I was actively involved in extra-curricular activities, and worked part time to earn all my living expenses. I worked 20 hours a week in the University Police Department. At the same time, I joined the Accounting Association, the Finance Management Association, and the Malaysian Student Association. I later picked up photography as a serious hobby. I traveled round Texas widely, documenting the artistry of its unique landscape.

In 1991, I was elected the President of the Malaysian Student Association. To promote international understanding and interaction between students from Malaysia and other countries, I successfully organized the first ‘Sea Games’ sporting event that brought together over 300 South-East-Asian students from nearby Universities in Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas. After graduation, I worked in the United States and Brunei before returning to Malaysia.

I speak English, Mandarin, Cantonese and Malay. My working experience with people from various geographical regions and cultural backgrounds has taught me to be respectful and tolerant, values vital to an effective team player. While I was in the States, I sponsored a child in Vietnam through the World Vision program. Through his letters, I came to understand the hardship of being an orphan. This experience started me thinking about the under-privileged in Malaysia. However, it was only when I returned to Malaysia that I volunteered to help at XXX Family – a home to 30 problem and under-privileged ...

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Professional Experience

As a Finance Executive with XXX, I am currently responsible for a RM121-million (US$32 million) budget for a major building project. In 1996, I joined the company to build up the finance team. To date, I have set up new procedures for spending approvals, designed systems to capture inter-company costs, worked closely with project teams to stay on top of project work, and liaised with consultants to establish cost reporting structures.

Overall, this position has constantly challenged my abilities and deepened my knowledge base, as most of the assignments have no prescribed methodology. For example, over the last two years, I have developed a simple spreadsheet system for keeping track of payments into a comprehensive budget monitoring system.

Charitable Work

Besides working full time in Kuala Lumpur, I spend all my weekends at XXX Family. This experience has been most meaningful and philosophically inspiring. Three years ago, I stepped into the home as a volunteer tutor. At first, I was totally shocked to learn of the teenagers’ broken family backgrounds. Then, I gradually came to know them personally and got involved in their activities.

Now, they feel that they can tell me everything, from what happens to them at school, to what they feel about their home. They seem to think highly of my opinion, a fact that makes me even more careful about the advice I give them. ‘Why don’t you just tell me the correct way?’ a kid asked earnestly, after a lengthy discussion, without realizing that life is not a question of right and wrong answers. Seeing his sincerity and concern over his choice of action, I felt deep inside my heart that the time I spent with him was totally worthwhile.

The experience has connected me more deeply to my own humanity. In XXX, the weaknesses of every individual are viewed as normal phenomena of growing up. Now, for the first time, I am living honestly, without the need to hide my insecurities and weaknesses. The experience has lifted me, and challenged me to my limits, and my limits have been extended. I have come to realize that life can never be fulfilled by selfishness, and it is only through making a contribution that one learns to appreciate life in a broader perspective, both socially and spiritually.

As for rehabilitation of those whom society has damaged, it has to come from inside. It starts to happen when the person sees what he or she was not capable of seeing before. To cause this to happen is the greatest challenge, and often requires more than just knowledge.

It takes a life to touch a life.

Why Study in the US?

I want to pursue my MBA in the US because of the US’s profound experience of social work, its flexible and renowned MBA program, and the success of various NPOs.

My Goals

My short-term goal (three years) is to run a home that effectively meets the needs of the underprivileged and empowers them with the capabilities and skills to move back to mainstream society. My mid-term goal (four to ten years) is to promote social work as a positive and valuable way of life. My long-term goal (ten to twenty years) is to be in a position to affect legislation and influence government policies on social issues in Malaysia.

My personal motto has always been to live life to the fullest. I used to define this by achieving as much as possible in the shortest time. Now I realize that the meaning of my life does not depend on how much I earn or how much I pamper myself, but in helping to give new life and hope to the under-privileged, and to appreciate life in its simplicity.