2020_ECEF Scholar
2020 ELENA COOKE EDUCATION FUND SCHOLAR
This year, due to the Covid-19 pandemic and Movement Control Order that restricted movements by members of the public, the Elena Cooke Education Fund received significantly less applications for scholarships. This translated into very few applicants being qualified to be shortlisted. Ultimately, only one student has been awarded an ECEF scholarship for 2020. She is Tay Tze Yi, who lives in Penang with her uncle and his family.
Tze Yi achieved excellent results in her SPM in 2017 (scoring a total of 9 A/A-/A+) and 4 B+ in her STPM in 2019. In her Personal Statement, Tze Yi wrote: “In the past one and a half years, I worked hard and tried my best in my academics. I always believe that nothing is impossible, thus I keep trying. I tripped and fell, but I never give up. I didn’t go for tuition class except for biology, but in the end I managed to get B+ for all the subjects.”
She has been accepted into Monash University Malaysia to pursue a degree in Medical Bioscience, something which she feels passionate about. She told us: “My greatest interest is in Biology and Chemistry. But I realized that not only the doctor or pharmacist can help to cure people. I can also help in another way which is doing research jobs regarding diseases in the lab to invent new medicine or vaccine to cure diseases.”
Fortunately for Tze Yi, she has also secured a Star Education Fund scholarship that will pay all her university tuition fees. With the ECEF scholarship that will give her allowances for her other necessary expenses, she is now very relieved that she will not further burden her uncle who took her in after her own father passed away in 2015. She emailed ECEF: “Thank you for giving me this scholarship! I appreciate it a lot as with this allowance, you have lightened the financial burden of me and my family which allows me to focus more on my academic. I hope one day after I graduated I will be able to help others and give back to the community just like how you have helped me!”
Here is a photo of Tze Yi (circled in blue) and her relatives, taken at the Penang State Government’s City Walk 2020 on January 1, 2020. Her uncle with whom she lives is the one at the back with his arms spread out, in front of him is his wife; the lady and gentleman in the front row are Tze Yi’s father’s sister and her husband.
